The ship was sighted at dawn. Fishermen mending their nets in front of the Sea Wall saw it emerge from the mist, carried by the tide. When the bow ran aground on the shore and the hull listed to port, the fishermen clambered aboard. A strong stench emanated from the bowels of the ship. The hold was flooded and a dozen sarcophagi floated among the debris. Edmond de Luna, the labyrinth maker and sole survivor of the voyage, was found tied to the helm and sunburned. At first they thought him dead, but on examination they could see that his wrists were still bleeding under the bonds and that his lips were exhaling a cold breath. He carried a leather notebook on his belt, but none of the fishermen were able to get hold of it, because by then a group of soldiers had arrived at the port. Their captain, following orders from the Episcopal Palace, which had been alerted of the ship’s arrival, ordered the dying man to be taken to the nearby hospital of Santa Marta and stationed his men to guard the remains of the shipwreck until the officers of the Holy Office could arrive to inspect the ship and elucidate from a Christian perspective what had happened. Edmond de Luna’s notebook was handed over to the Grand Inquisitor Jorge de León, a brilliant and ambitious champion of the Church who trusted that his efforts to purify the world would soon earn him the status of blessed, saint and living light of the faith. After a cursory inspection, Jorge de León determined that the notebook had been composed in a language foreign to Christianity and ordered his men to go find a printer named Raimundo de Sempere who had a modest workshop next to the portal of Santa Ana and who, having traveled in his youth, knew more languages than were advisable for a decent Christian. Under threat of torture, the printer Sempere was forced to swear that he would keep secret whatever was revealed to him. Only then was he allowed to inspect the notebook in a room guarded by sentinels high up in the library of the archdeacon’s house, next to the cathedral. The inquisitor Jorge de León watched with attention and greed. “I believe the text is composed in Persian, Your Holiness,” murmured a Sempere.
Feeling frightened, the inquisitor remarked, “I’m not a saint just yet. But everything will fall into place. Continue…” Thus, throughout the night, the book printer Sempere read and translated for the Grand Inquisitor the secret diary of Edmond de Luna, an adventurer and the bearer of the curse destined to unleash the beast upon Barcelona.
