Monday, 8 June 2015
The Martyr's Curse by Scott Mariani
Series: Ben Hope #11
Release Date: 4th June 2015
Publisher: Avon
Publisher: Avon
Genres: Thriller / action adventure
The Martyr’s Curse
Sales of gripping ‘Ben Hope’ conspiracy thriller series top 1.1 Million Copies with over 1,500 5* reviews now on Amazon
Can
Ben Hope find peace at last in a remote medieval monastery in the
French Alps? His wanderings through Europe might have led him to this
refuge but salvation is to be short lived for wherever
he goes, trouble is never far behind.
When
a team of merciless killers invade his new found sanctuary and slaughter
the innocent monks, Ben’s revenge quest quickly draws him into a
bewildering mystery of stolen treasure, deception
and murder.
What
is the truth behind the cache of gold bullion apparently hidden for
centuries under the monastery? What is the significance of an ancient
curse dating back to a cruel heretic burning
in medieval times? What are the real ambitions of the enigmatic leader
of an organisation of doomsday ‘preppers’ calling themselves Exercitus
Paratorum: the Army of the Prepared?
As
he works to unravel the mystery, Ben is confronted with a terrifying
reality that threatens to devastate the world and reshape the whole of
our future. The race is on to prevent the ultimate
disaster and there’s only one man who save us. His name is Hope, Ben
Hope.
EXCERPT
Death by burning was the only way.
Bit by bit, the sluggish flames gained on the pyre, helped
by a chill wind from the mountain that picked up and cleared the smoke.
Salvator screamed in agony as the fire began to dance around his feet, then up
his legs. Part of his robe burned away, exposing blackened and blistered skin.
‘I curse you!’ he screamed through the heat mist at the
church envoy on his high seat, and at the lesser authorities and the soldiers
gathered nearby to watch.
‘And you!’ Salvator bellowed at the crowd. ‘Damn your souls,
for what you have done today to an innocent man!’
The people shrank away, terrified in their belief that it
was the voice of the tormented demon inside him that they were hearing.
Children buried their faces in their mothers’ robes; hands were pressed over
their ears to protect them from evil.
The flames leaped higher around Salvator, and still he
wouldn’t succumb but kept on roaring at them.
‘God sees the shameful sin that has united you all. May His
eternal curse be on you all, and your children, and your children’s children
after them! May a thousand years of pestilence rot this unholy place and
everyone in it!’
One of the soldiers glanced nervously at the bishop’s envoy,
ready to raise his bow and fire an arrow into the heart of the flames in order
to silence the voice that was rattling the nerves of even the most hardened man
present.
But the envoy shook his head. For purification to be effective,
no mercy could be allowed. The heretic must burn to death.
And burn to death Salvator did, though it took an unbearably
long time. To the villagers, it seemed as if the flaming human torch went on
railing at them even as the sizzling flesh peeled from its bones. Then,
finally, his cries diminished and he hung limply, no longer resisting, from the
blackened chains that held him to the stake. The remnants of his robe burst
alight. Then his tonsured hair. By now he could barely be seen for the flames.
His one rolling eyeball seemed to peer balefully at them from the scorched ruin
of his face.
Long after the carbonised skeleton had fallen into the
cinders leaving the chains hanging empty, Salvator’s voice went on ringing
inside the heads of the villagers. They would never forget the promise of
everlasting pestilence that had been heaped on them and their line.
Within months, Salvator’s words would come true.
The martyr’s curse had begun.
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