Swordsman's Legacy

“Evidence she wished to be rid of, for some might have placed her to having an affair with Mazarin.”

“And what better way to do that than give them away. This sword was a gift for heroic deeds such as defeating the Spanish at Lille while the king marched his troops to help, or heading the vanguard at La Rochelle, while the king dallied at Fontenay.”

“Yes!” Ascher’s excitement vibrated between them, bouncing against Annja’s chest and throat. “Let’s have a look.”

“We can’t yet,” she said, poking the map with the tip of the tweezers. It was rolled so tightly, that she could not think to unroll it and risk it crumbling to flakes. “We’ll need…”

“Humidity. We can relax the parchment by steaming it. I’ll boil some water.”

“We should wait,” Annja said.

A panicky look deflated Ascher’s joy. “Why?”

“We need a good six to eight hours for the humidification process.”

“I know—I’ve done it before. Ah, you are tired? You can rest while I begin.”

She ran a hand over her scalp, wishing for a good solid eight hours of sleep. Heck, she’d take four. The sun had yet to rise. She should be sleeping. Normal people were sleeping right now. Couldn’t she manage one day as one of them?

But to be truthful, normal wasn’t interesting to Annja.

Ascher possessed unbounded energy. But she did not trust him with the process on his own. There were many things that could go wrong if he did not have the proper equipment. One could not simply boil water and steam the roll open. A humidity chamber had to be created and the parchment had to be protected from droplets with a sheet of Gore-Tex.

“Maybe if I had some coffee,” she muttered.

“I can do that. Be right back.”

T HE PHONE RANG in the kitchen and Ascher picked it up on the first tone. He barely said, “Hello,” when the voice on the other end began to berate.

“You know the new kidney is not completely developed. You risk your very life by refusing to hand over the sword today.”

“You got the sword, I just—”

“I know my swords, Vallois. This is sixteenth century,” Lambert said.

“Perhaps the queen gifted her musketeer with a family heirloom?”