The Rose Demon

terrible numbness spreading from his stomach.

    ‘I am dying!’ he gasped. He held his hand out. ‘Not alone, please!’

    ‘Oh, Creatura!’ Canabo was sobbing. He grasped Matthias’ hand. ‘Go, Creatura!’ he whispered. ‘Run like the wind. No objection will be made at your passing.’

    But Matthias couldn’t hear him. The gourd slipped from his fingers; his hands had lost their feeling. He felt a stiffness in his body, a difficulty in breathing and he was oh so tired. He closed his eyes, head falling forward. He was lying on the grass near the old Roman wall. Rosamund was bending over, shaking him, kissing his face. Matthias sighed, one last gasp and his soul went out to meet hers.

    Later that day the great cacique Canabo sat on a promontory overlooking the sea and watched the water turn a bloody red in the rays of the setting sun. Behind him, in the shattered fortress of Natividad and in the trees beyond, his warriors feasted on the flesh of their enemies. Now and again they would look at their leader sitting so alone, and talk in wonderment about his new powers and his love for the white man who had drunk the poisoned wine and been allowed to die so quickly. The corpse of that young white man had not been desecrated. Canabo had placed it in a canoe, lit a funeral pyre and his warriors had pushed it out into the open sea. Canabo had watched the fire burn until the charred canoe, and all within it, sank quietly beneath the ocean. All the time Canabo wept. He cried for Matthias, for himself, for what might have been, and for the lost golden rose gardens of Heaven.

AUTHOR’S NOTE
    The historical events, as described in this novel, are based on fact: the battle of Tewkesbury, the quarrel between the Lancastrian commanders. In the abbey today you can still see signs of the desperate struggle put up by the Lancastrians who fled for sanctuary there. The Prior of the Hospitallers was one of those who faced summary execution in Tewkesbury market place, for the Yorkists were determined on the destruction of the Lancastrian House, both root and branch. In 1485 the only remaining champion of the House of Lancaster, Henry Tudor, made his successful bid at Bosworth though, within two years, he had to face Lambert Simnel’s conspiracy, which culminated in the bloody battle of East Stoke.

    James III of Scotland was as described, a weak man who dabbled in sorcery and black magic. An ineffectual king and a poor soldier, he died mysteriously at Sauchieburn, stabbed to death by a man he thought was a priest.
    The fall of Granada, in January 1492, brought Spain to the rank of a premier power in Europe. It also unleashed the terrors of Torquemada, who was determined ‘to cleanse the new Spanish kingdom of any impurity’.
    Columbus’ voyage to the New World is based on an edition of his own journal. Columbus did report seeing a strange light, like that of a candle being lifted and raised, the night the ship first sighted land. His voyage round the islands of San Salvador, Cuba and Haiti was a desperate search to vindicate his own arguments that a voyage across the great Western Ocean would bring him to Cathay and Cipango. The ‘Caniba’ were held in great awe and terror, a fierce warlike people who were eventually wiped out by the Spanish colonists. When Columbus returned, in 1493, Natividad was no longer, undoubtedly the work of these Caniba.
    The symbolism of the rose is a major theme in medieval art, literature and architecture. The flower itself has always held a mystical significance. The idea of possession by a demon also played a major part in medieval thought and the Rosifer, or Rose Demon, is simply a development of such an idea.