Indiana Jones and the Scrolls of the Prophet (prologue)

Posted by Deirdre from 208.169.143.3 on July 18, 1999 at 00:50:38:

In Reply to: Indiana Jones and the Scrolls of the Prophet (The Forum Novel So Far) Chapters 1-4 posted by The Man with the Hat on July 17, 1999 at 19:30:55:

Uhm, I thought that every great novel ought to have a PROLOGUE like in the IJ books... Perhaps the forum authors in the future could add subtitles to each story's chapter so that the readers might have an insight to the chapter, or just to arouse their curiousity.

Deirdre

1566 France

He had been staring out into the starry midnight sky for hours. Waiting. Now as he sat there on the bench which he used for climbing into bed, we wondered whether anyone in the future would ever believe him. Him and his prophecies...

Outside an owl hooted and a wiff of fresh air breezed through his room. He walked over to the window to close it, when he heard steps coming up the spiral staircase. Was this it?

The sound of the steps stopped dead before his door. Silence, then a soft knock.

"Come in," Michel de Notredame called out, amazed at how calm his voice sounded.
The door opened with a crack and a lone figure, garbed in a black cloak entered. He held his breath. Catherine de Medici, threw back her hood, exposing her dark curls and stepped towards him. Surprisingly she was alone.

He bowed low. "My Highness. What--"
"Hush! I have come in secret and no one is aware of this visit,"she was whispering in exited tones. "It is with great sorrow that I have discovered this impending doom!"
He didn't respond and looked at her thoughtfully.
She beckoned him to sit. "In a few hours, you shall be killed--"
"I know."
The Queen of France looked at him in astonishment. "Then, you are not afraid?"
"No, my highness. 'Tis meant to be. One can not change fate. One can only accept it."
"Then you do not want me to save you? I have a plan--"
"No, you have save me once," his eyes bore into hers," but I can't keep running all my life. I have accepted my fate... You must go now."
He guided her to the door. "But ere you go, I want you to take this." he pulled out a thick scroll, bound together by a simple scarlet ribbon.

Catherine de Medici, stared at him totally flabberghasted. "What is this?" she took the scroll and weighed it in her hands. It was quite heavy for a document.
"Something of great importance. I entrust this unto you, knowing your Highness will make use of it wisely, and not let it fall into hands that deem unworthy."
She nodded not having yet understood entirely what he meant, yet she knew that he trusted her... more than anyone else, and she felt that she would never breach this trust either. I must do what I must.

She will do what she must. Sadly he watched her in the flickering candlelight, she would never know how much he had admired her over all these years and ironically it was through her, that his death would occur.

Catherine stepped towards the door, hooding herself again. "If that will be the last thing I could do for a good friend..."

"Fare ye well, my Queen."
"Fare ye well, Nostradamus."

*author's note:
In 1556 Catherine de Medici, Queen of France, summoned Nostrodamus to explain his prophecy seemingly predicting the death of her husband Henry II. Nostradamus so impressed her that, when in 1559 the king died, his eye pierced by a lance as foreseen... Catherine’s protection (she was not so kind to others) spared him the Inquisition’s attentions. When he died in 1566 at the age of 63 he was as he predicted, Found stone dead on the bench he used to climb into bed.
Nostradamus’s prophecies predicted the death of Charles I, the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon, Franco, Hitler and Mussolini, and the destruction of Hiroshima. He also predicted for the end of the 20th century (July 1999) the rise of the Antichrist, a terrible twenty-seven-year war, then a New Age.

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