6
Standing outside the Hôtel de la Cité, straight ahead is the Basilica Saint-Nazaire et Saint-Celse – ‘Sant Nasari’ as it was in Alaïs’ times. This is where Bertrand Pelletier hid the Book of Numbers, behind an unremarkable tomb. Of the 11th and 12th century church Alaïs and her father Bertrand knew, only the Romanesque nave remains. The rest was rebuilt in the gothic style on the orders of the French king Saint-Louis once the Trencavel lands had been finally subdued by the Crusaders. Today, there is even a memorial to a sermon preached by the founder of the Inquisition, St Dominic.
‘Kneeling down, Alaïs reached around behind the altar as Bertrand had shown her. She paddled her fingers over the surface of the wall. There was a soft click. Alaïs slowly, carefully, eased out the stone and slid it to one side, then stretched her hand into the dusty recess behind. She found the long, thin key, the metal dull with age and disuse, and put it into the lock of the wooden latticed door.’
