SHORT STORY WEDNESDAY: THE COMPENDIUM OF SREM

 "The Compendium of Srem" by F. Paul Wilson  (2014; a Bibliomystery e-Book published by MysteriousPress.com with Open Road Integrated Media)

Seville, Spain, during the time of the Inquisition.  Tomas de Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor is now eighty years old.  Brother Adelard, a Bendictine half his age, has disturbed his evening rest, bringing with him a strange book.  The book has an odd cover made of an unknown metal and is bound with a type of interlacing hinges never before seen; the pages were extraordinarily thin and opaque, and even though the words were hand-written, each letter was completely uniform , much like with the new Bible that Herr Gutenberg had recently produced.  Torquemada could barely make out the strange etching on the book's metal cover:  Compendio and Srem.  Adelard said then when he looked at the book's cover, the word was Compendium -- in Adelard's native French, and not Torqenada's Spanish.  Adelard said that he had picked up the book from a street vendor, intending to give the volume to Brother Ramiro, the keeper of the monastery's library, simply because the book looked interesting.  That day, as the simple-monded Brother Amaury was sweeping Adelard's cell, he saw the book. pointed to it and said "Berber.  Berber,"  and when looking at the printing within, he repeated "Berber."  Amaury did not have the intelligence to read, but he was able to recognize his native language.  The book presented itself in the native language of whoever was reading it.

That was not all.  The metal cover of the book also had strange images that appear to move; the images varied depending on who was looking at the book.  And the book had 100 pages exactly, but when the hundredth page was turned, there was another, and when that was turned, another; but the book remained at 100 pages because whenever a new page appeared at the end, a page at the beginning would vanish.  When the book was closed, then reopened, the earlier pages would reappear and the book would have its original 100 pages.

The book itself contained a series of short articles, telling of an impossible land of advanced and miraculous science, presumably in a world before the Deluge.  Nowhere in its pages was the mention of God or of the True Faith, nor indeed of any faith.  It told instead of two "entities," one malevolent and one apathetic, and the people of this land worshipping neither, instead just trying to survive the influences of these two entities.

Clearly, the book was evil, sorcerous, heretical.  Torquemada and Adelard, with the aid of Brother Ramiro, tried to destroy the book.  It would not burn, and was not even warm when removed form the ashes of the fire.  An executioner's axe made not a mark on the book, no matter how powerful the blows were given.  Holy water had no effect, nor had the most powerful acids.  A thought was given to bury the book in the deepest portion of the sea, but the book would not sink.

And it was imperative to discover the origin of the book, so that the heretic who had produced the book be consigned to flames.  The vendor who had sold the book to Adelard had purchased the book from a Moorish thief, whom, it turned out, had stolen the book from Asher ben Samuel, a rich converso -- that is, a Jew who had converted to Christianity in order to remain in the city and avoid persecution; ben Samuel had long been suspected of being a converso in name only, while still practicing his original faith, but the Inquisition had not been able to prove this...and ben Samuel was an influential and prominent man in the city.   Asher ben Samuel said that he had purchased the book from an itinerant carpenter, buying the book only because it had been written in Hebrew.  Adelard and Ramiro went to confront the carpenter, but upon seeing them, the carpenter plunged a knife into his own heart.  The carpenter had neither the tools nor the knowledge to produce such a book, thus the trail to the book's origin ended there.

Brother Adelard, who had been a scholar and a historian before the Inquisition, pretended that he was finally able to dissolve the book by using a compbination of powerful acids.  He then hid the book, hoping to preserve its historical value.  His duplicity was discovered and he was jailed, only to die from poisoning, supposedly self-administered.

And what to do with this blasthemous and impossible book?  The grounds of the monastery were divided into three parts -- one part the monastery, one part a convent, and the third part for a lavish residence for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who had financed the entire complex.  The king and queen were due to arrive at the royal cloister in a few weeks to spend the summer.  The queen had requested that a patio be built on the north side of the complex that would be shaded in the afternoon.  Torquemada decided that the heretical book be buried deep under the patio, where it would remain for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years, if not forever.  A deep pit was dug by some relapsos, who had been condemed to burn the next day, and the book was buried, then covered with large paving stones to make the patio.  Ramirez and Torquemada were the only ones left alive who knew of the book and its terrible heresy, and the aged Torquemada would soon die.  The book was now lost to the ages.  Or was it?  Was the book actually buried or had it somehow managed to escape?

Much of best-selling author F. Paul Wilson's work involves The Secret History of the World, which began with the first book in his Adversary Cycle, The Keep (1981).  The second book in  that series,  The Tomb (1984), featured a character called Repairman Jack.  Jack proved to be so popular that he went on to a series that totalled sixteen  novels and numerous short stories and novellas, ending with a heavily revised version of the sixth and final book in the Adversary Cycle, Nightworld (original edition 1992; revised edition 2012).  Wilson then produced a trilogy of Young Jack novels, taking place when the character was a boy just beginning to encounter the supernatural forces that followed him through the series; this was followed by the Early Jack trilogy, tracing Jack's origins as a young man in New York City.  Also part of the Sectret History was a historical novel about twentieth century Japan, Black Wind, and the recent ICE trilogy of thrillers.  Recent additions to the Secret History include the novel Signalz, the novella The Last Christmas, the short novel Wardencliffe (which introduces experiments by Nicola Tesla), and Scar-Lip Redux, a Repairman Jack graphic novel.  Clearly F. Paul Wilson is not done with his Secret History -- something that will make his many fans happy.