Chapter 29
CHAPTER 29
M adrid - 1660
In a dimly lit room in Madrid came the hushed voices of three men. The men argued, talking over one another in Spanish, watching as a nobleman lay dying of a mortal wound sustained in a duel. Duelling was not yet outlawed, and sometimes there were so many in one night that the streets of Madrid might be littered with corpses by the dawn.
The door opened, and a physician, garbed from head to toe in black, with rings on every finger, and an enormous red stone hanging from his neck entered with his servant and the men sent to fetch him. Whispers made their way through the room, and only two words were understood from the rest. San German.
The men watched doubtfully as the healer and his servant began to treat the dying nobleman with rare herbs and strange techniques, blending science with mysticism. When they completed their work, the nobleman’s pallor had returned to normal, and his wound had been expertly bandaged. Still, the other men in the room doubted that he would last the night. The physician had given a good show of competence, then disappeared with his fee, but the men were all certain that the nobleman would be dead by morning.
Several hours later, the men returned to find their friend sitting up in his bed, drinking wine and partaking heartily of his breakfast, his bandage discarded, and the wound which it had covered completely healed, without even the trace of a scar.
A week later, the man known in Madrid as San German looked out his window as the inquisitors invaded the neighbourhood. Two score men converged upon his home, ready to arrest, torture, interrogate, and kill him for having used medical science to heal the wounded nobleman. It had been too much to expect the nobleman and his friends to remain silent about the wonder they had witnessed.
Shouts were heard as the men pounded up the stairs. The door burst open to reveal a completely empty room. The man known as San German had disappeared entirely.