Or if he was lucky, Julian Corvus was just trying to bring down the Old Lady too.
Purdue didn't give Julian a chance to get his bearings or stretch his legs. While they were still close enough to force Julian back into the display case, he tested whether or not he would stay true to his word by asking him more.
“Now that you're out,” Purdue said, “you need to tell us everything you know about the Old Lady. Everything. If you don't, this field trip ends right now, and you're back in there.”
Julian stared at him with those icy eyes, but slowly, his head bobbed up and down in acceptance. He was accepting the terms. They didn't need to like each other, no, but Purdue hoped that they would be able to work together.
“Yes, the Old Lady,” Julian said. “The ghost that haunted the Order of the Black Sun. The woman that always seemed to be watching but very few people even knew she was there. From what I heard, she had run-ins with the Black Sun in the past, but it never ended well, much like the fights you used to have with the Order. Sounds familiar. And she did even better against them than you. From all of the stories I heard, that old bat is always five steps ahead. Always. She and her people know everything about the past and seem to be able to predict the future too. It doesn't matter what you do. They already know how this ends. You can't beat them. It doesn't matter if you have the Order of the Black Sun backing you. Frankly, it doesn't matter if everyone else on the planet is backing you too. The Old Lady will plan ahead and will figure out what you're going to do. You and your friends will lose no matter what path you try to take.”
“How?” Purdue asked. “How does she do it?”
“I was not exactly someone she shared her secrets with. I'm fairly certain she tried to have me poisoned a couple of times. Charming woman. I tried figuring out her secret; it was on my to-do list once I became the new leader of the Order. I had a number of things that needed to get done. First and foremost was getting rid of you, Mr. Purdue. You were my biggest threat. Once you were gone, I could turn my focus on the Old Lady. When I thought you were dead, we did just that. I set a team of Black Sun operatives to figure out how her strategies were always so well played. I never got much as far as concrete answers. But they did manage to figure out one word while spying. It wasn't a complete failure of an operation.”
“What was the word?”
Julian smiled. “Nostradamus.”
Purdue shook his head, trying to shake that word out. He definitely knew it.
“Michel de Nostradame,” Nina said, also familiar with the name. “The astrologer and supposed seer.”
Purdue had some recollection of that, but Sam looked lost. Nina saw that neither of them was quite up to speed with her, and slowed down to elaborate.
“Sixteenth century. He made hundreds of predictions about the future. He wrote Les Propheties, which had all kinds of poems that supposedly foretold things that were going to happen in the future.”
“Impressive as ever, Dr. Gould,” Julian said. “It's a real pity that you and I couldn't have been friends. Yes, Nostradamus wrote Les Propheties, and that book had a grand total of...bare with me...nine hundred and forty-two predictions of the world that had not yet come to pass. The book has been published all over the world for centuries.”
“So you think the Old Lady got the book and is using its prophecies to stay ahead of you?” Purdue asked. “That seems like a bit of a stretch. Especially given the circumstances.”
“I don't think that she's using the book, no. I think she's using the prophecies he didn't share with the world. You think that some dusty old book would have everything that seer was able to see? I somehow doubt it. There have always been rumors that Nostradamus saw much more and that those writings were never published, just hidden scrolls that could show more of the future of the world.”
“So that's how the Old Lady knows so much,” Sam pieced together. “Some old prophet wrote some predictions, and she's just following them.”
“I have heard theories like this,” Nina said. “But I find it hard to believe that she has all of his unused writing.”
“Perceptive as always, Dr. Gould,” Julian said. “I also doubt that she has found the entirety of his unpublished works, but even a small portion might give her enough information about the future to use to her advantage. It is going to make it very difficult to bring her down...but if we found some of Nostradamus's pages for ourselves or even just stopped her from getting the rest...well, then we might stand a chance of toppling one of the most dangerous women this world has ever seen. The only question that I pose to you all is this...if a miracle happens and we do take out the Old Lady, what then? What becomes of me then?”
Purdue knew the answer to that. “You're going to go right back into that display case.”
“Am I?”
“Aye, this is temporary. We're just giving you a chance to stretch your legs and be helpful. After that, we're not just going to let you walk away.”
“You don't trust me very much, do you?”
“I don't trust you at all.”
Julian smiled, and his cold eyes flickered. “Good. You have gotten smarter, Mr. Purdue.”
Julian stared at the glass case—the box that he had been kept in for so long. He would be a prisoner again, a trophy that would last forever. Eternity waited for him inside of that container, and it would be a very long eternity in there.
“You really want me to get back in there?”
They walked out of the deep vault with their greatest enemy beside them. It wasn't something Purdue ever expected to happen, but here they were. It was one thing to let Julian Corvus out of the display case since there was still this highly secured vault that he would be trapped in. But once they let him through those thick doors, he would be out in the world again. There would be no easy way to contain him anymore. From that point on, anything could happen. Nina and Sam still looked so unsure, and Purdue felt a tinge of guilt and the pressure of making sure that this didn't blow up in their faces. All of this was riding on the decision that he made, a decision that they heavily disagreed with. Purdue pushed open the deep vault doors, and Julian stepped into the Order of the Black Sun's home, a place that used to serve as his palace.
Julian smiled. “Glad to see that you have left the compound relatively untouched, Mr. Purdue. I was worried my home had been turned to ruin in my absence. Truth be told, I thought you would have stained it with your horribly self-gratifying tastes...hung portraits of yourself all over the walls. So tell me, how have you enjoyed the position that you stole from me?”
So far, leading the Order of the Black Sun was more than a little bit stressful, but he wasn't going to give Julian the satisfaction of hearing that. No, it was going to sound like a simple task that he had complete control over.
“It's been easy,” Purdue lied. “Aye, very easy.”
“You are a terrible liar, Mr. Purdue.”
“Or, more likely, you were just a terrible leader.”
“I was a fantastic leader. Ask anyone...oh, that's right. You kicked out most of the old members of the Order that were around when I was in charge. A clean house, is that it? No one left to judge how poor of a job you were doing in comparison to people like me.”
“That's not entirely true.” Luckily, they were passing by August Williams. “August, you were an enforcer during Julian's time leading the Order, isn't that right?”
August nodded, and then his eyes grew enormous at the sight of Julian also standing in front of him. He looked horrified to see his former boss roaming the hallways.
“I did...” August said with some unease, still staring at Julian. “What's he…?”
Purdue decided to let August settle the debate. “Would you say that Julian here was a good leader? Was he someone that inspired you? Motivated you? Made you feel secure?”
“No,” August said bluntly. “No, I wouldn't exactly say that, no. He just scared everyone. That's not leadership.”
“That's not true,”
Julian said. “Leadership is being able to dictate the actions of others. You don't have to be nice about it. You just need to be able to lead enough to get people working toward the same goal. You need to be able to accomplish things with the help of others, sometimes even when they have no desire to help you. Sometimes fear is a necessary tool to inspire others to take action. That's leadership. I'm surprised that you joined Purdue's new Order.” Julian glanced at Purdue. “I only brought August in so he could rough any of my enemies up. It's always good to have muscle.”
“August is a lot more than that,” Purdue said defensively. “And he's proven that multiple times now.”
August looked like he was about to blush, but that pride was washed away by Julian. Julian scoffed and then looked around the hallways.
“So how many of the others stayed with you once you locked me away?” Julian said. “How many were quick to jump ship and join ranks with the people that entrapped me?”
“Not many,” Purdue said. “Most of the ones you liked, I threw out. They were too big of risks to keep around, not to mention that many of them were terrible people that I wanted nothing to do with and who weren't able to adapt to the new group.”
Julian's eyes widened as he looked at more of the people. “You threw all of my recruits out? You started from scratch?”
“Just about,” Purdue said. “It was the best choice, honestly. There were too many grudges and too much corruption with the people that you put in place. They were all...kind of the worst...a lot like you actually, which was part of the problem. I didn't need anyone stabbing me in the back. There were very few holdovers from when you were making the decisions. August was one of the few exceptions.”
“And here I was hoping that you hadn't changed much,” Julian said. “It turns out that you have broken down so much of what I spent time building. Everything is already so different, and I haven't even been gone for long.”
“It had to be done,” Purdue said. “I had to scrub out the stench that you left behind.”
Julian continued to adjust to the new Order of the Black Sun and continued to seem very unimpressed. As Purdue and Nina got to work figuring out more things about Nostradamus, Sam found himself left alone with Julian. There other Black Sun members close by in case he tried anything, but Julian remained the complete opposite of hostile. Instead, he was nothing but personable and friendly, to a somewhat obnoxious degree. All he did was talk to Sam, and their conversation very quickly became about deeply rooted issues between Julian Corvus and David Purdue.
“David Purdue and I have been at odds from the moment he became an enemy of the Order of the Black Sun. From that point forward, our collision was inevitable. We were destined to be on opposing sides. Dr. Gould shoved a magic spear in my gut and tried to kill me. She would have, too, if it had been any other weapon besides the Spear of Destiny. You and I, Mr. Cleave...we don't have so much reason to be enemies, do we? Out of the three of you...you're the one that I've had the least problem with.”
“You sent some of your Black Sun minions to try to murder me, remember?”
“Oh, yes,” Julian said with a little laugh, clearly having forgotten. “I suppose I did do that. Still...it wasn't personal. You were just wasting all of your time with the wrong people and got caught up in something that didn't concern you. You would have just been collateral damage, Mr. Cleave.”
“You know how to make a girl feel special, Julian,” Sam said. “I might not have been as important in your mind as Purdue or Nina and am probably still not, but believe me, I'm not someone that should be underestimated. Especially now. I've been through all kinds of things lately...things that most people haven't...things that change you forever.”
“Fascinatingly cryptic,” Julian said. “Should I stand up and applaud such a stirring performance?”
Sam shook his head. “It's just funny. You used to scare me...but not anymore. I thought maybe it was just because you were stuck behind reinforced glass, but now, here you are, free to do whatever you want, and I’m not even a little afraid of what you're going to do. I've faced much worse than you. Recently, I even pissed off a god. Like not a proverbial one but a real one. You're not much by comparison.”
“That's fine,” Julian said but did look a bit put out. “I'm not trying to make you afraid of me, Mr. Cleave. I don't want any of you to be afraid of me anymore. No, if we're going to be afraid, we need to fear the one that deserves our concern. The Old Lady. We should all be scared of her.”
Nina approached, looking like she wanted to back Sam up and not have him spend too much time alone listening to Julian. Julian was pleased to see her, as always, since he loved reminding her of their complicated past and the role she had in his transformation into an immortal man.
“Everything alright?” Nina asked, ignoring Julian's presence.
“I'm fine,” Sam said. “Nothing I can't handle.”
Julian leaned in to Nina's presence. “Do you hate me, Dr. Gould?”
She couldn't ignore him now. “Do I hate you? Interesting question. Let's see...you tried to kill me. You held me as a prisoner in a dungeon for months. You nearly destroyed my life and my friends' lives. What do you think, Julian?”
“I think given how much we have been through together, how much we've affected each other's lives for better or worse, we could be great friends if we just let ourselves. Perhaps, we could even become passionate, fierce lovers of the star-crossed variety...former bitter enemies that lower their weapons and fall into each other's arms. That would be the stuff of Shakespearean legend, no?”
“You are disgusting.”
“I tried to kill you. You tried to kill me—actually, you technically succeeded on that one. I imprisoned you. You imprisoned me. As far as I can tell, you and I are even, are we not? If anything, you might still owe me.”
“Not even close to even.”
“Still...our bond is undeniably strong, whether it's love or hate.”
“Definitely hate.”
“Life is too short to hold grudges...well, I guess it's not too short for me anymore, thanks to you giving me immortality. I could hold a grudge far longer than you...yet here I am...willing to put aside our differences and work together toward a common goal. Are you not willing to try doing the same when we're in such a desperate situation?”
Nina balked. “The whole world could be destroyed by a nuclear war, and I still wouldn't have forgiven you. We could be the last two people on the planet, and that still wouldn't make a difference in my opinions about you. And let me just make one thing very clear...since Purdue's not here right now to play mediator. If you try anything, Julian, anything at all...I will make sure that you rot in a much worse place than that cozy display case in there. I don't know what you hope to get out of all of this, but I really wouldn't recommend trying to pull some fast one on us. Purdue might have forgotten just how bad you are, but I haven't. Not after what you did.”
“That's fair,” Julian said. “If I try anything, you are welcome to try and stop me. I'm sure that will end very well for you. Now, just admit that you don't hate me, and we can move on to focusing on Nostradamus.”
Nina rolled her eyes and walked away.
“You will forgive me someday, Dr. Gould,” Julian called. “I'm certain of it.”
5
THE PUBLISHED WORKS OF NOSTRADAMUS
Purdue got to work learning everything and anything he could about Nostradamus and his prophetic writings. Besides all of his prophecies and foresight, Nostradamus was also an accomplished astrologer and physician in his life. He contributed more than just some guesses about the future. Though, centuries after his death, he remained most famous for his writings about the future and what was going to happen to the world. His book Les Propheties was pretty famous and had hardly ever been out of print since being published in the mid-1500s. That was sort of impressive and was impressive enough for Purdue to want to see and read with his own eyes, just to get a better understanding of what kinds
of things he could expect from Nostradamus's work.
The Order of the Black Sun had a copy of Les Propheties in the deep vault. The order's curator, Elijah Dane, looked perplexed when Purdue asked to see it. Most people looking to see something in the Black Sun collection were looking for priceless relics or long lost items, not a book that could still be bought in stores or online, easily accessible to the public at large. Sure, the deep vault contained a very early edition of Nostradamus's published work, but it wasn't remotely as valuable as almost anything else in the vault.
“Looking to know the future? I'm not sure how helpful this old book will be, honestly. I never bought into his clairvoyance. From what I've read, it's just a book of bad poetry with just the occasional right prediction. Sheer dumb luck. As it turns out, if you predict one thing right, people will ignore the plethora of all of the things that you were wrong about.”
“Aye, people are funny that way,” Purdue said. “Selective memory and all that. No, this isn't to read about my future. This is just for research purposes. We have reason to believe that Nostradamus wrote down many more of his predictions, ones that were never published.”
“Really?” Elijah said with actual surprise, pushing his glasses up the rim of his nose like he always did. “I suppose that's interesting, isn't it? Though even if that's the case, there's no way to know how accurate the writing would be. I hope you know that.”
“Of course I do, but if there's even a small chance that it's true, we can't let it fall into enemy hands.”
An awkward silence fell over them, and Elijah adjusted his glasses like he was starting to see things more clearly.
“What enemy are you talking about exactly? I keep hearing rumors that there's someone out there trying to hurt us, trying to hurt the Black Sun. It's not Julian, given that he's still in a glass box right over there.” Elijah pointed at the curtains draped over a display case across the room, where Julian Corvus was contained. “So who is it exactly?”
The Nostradamus Scrolls Page 4
