The Gathering Storm (Crown of Stars 5)

“The abbess also saw this apparition?”

“Indeed she did. She recognized her.” “Recognized her?”

“She called her ‘Bernard’ before realizing her mistake, that it was no man who stood before her but rather a creature with a woman’s form.”

“Bernard,” he mused. “But of course there was a striking resemblance between father and daughter. Yet if that is true, then how—?”

“You are puzzled by something, Brother Hugh.”

He started as might a child who looks up to find himself discovered in the midst of secret mischief. “Nay, Sister. I am only wondering whether I seek a mule or a hinny.”

She chuckled. “You are speaking of Liath. Do you suspect that she is not in truth Anne’s child?”

Turning, he looked away as though to hide his face and what it might reveal, but when he turned back his expression remained bland, veiled. Only a certain tightening of the skin about his eyes betrayed his intense interest. “It is difficult to know what to think.”

“The world is full of mysteries,” she agreed, watching him closely. “I trust that Anne will reward her supporters with that which they desire most, whatever my own feelings. Or at least, were I in her position, it is what I would do.”

“Would you?”

“Oh, I would. God reward us all in the end with that we desire most. It is the fate of most people not to understand their desire until they have been swept into the Abyss—but upon reflection they can see that their entire lives were simply one long dialogue with the evil inclination. Yet there are a few who remain clear-sighted and who serve God and receive what they deserve in the end.”

“We must all hope to ascend to the Chamber of Light,” he said with a pious nod, “else we will suffer eternity with God’s face turned away from us.”

“Is that what you wish, Father Hugh?”

He trembled. The movement was slight but noticeable to a woman so long immured in the pit that she had come to rely on hearing, touch, and breath to capture any nuance of life and being around her.

“Or would you risk everything only to possess her?”

He could not answer.

She smiled and rested a comforting hand on his fists where they were clenched in his lap. With his gaze lowered humbly, he displayed his profile to advantage; even in the shade his hair shone as though the sunlight were caught in it. It was difficult to imagine how any young woman could resist him.

“Anne will never give her to you. But I will.”

He flushed, but he did not look up at her. “That is a bold promise. How do you capture a woman who is only half humankind? How do you intend to defy Anne?”

“Anne need not know that I still live. If she believes that I died here, then she has no reason to guard herself against me. I mean no harm to Anne. She has set herself a great and worthy task. There is no one else who can accomplish it except her—”

“And those who aid her, the Seven Sleepers. Of whom you are, or were, once a part.”

“It is true I learned much during my time among the Seven Sleepers. I also learned that when they weave a powerful spell, the weakest among them dies. The spell exacts its price for the power they draw down.”

That she had startled him was obvious from the way he looked at her, leaned forward with hands pressing on the rock. Evidently he had never considered this striking and unfortunate possibility. “Is this true? The cauda draconis is struck dead?”

o;A solution may yet be offered to those who are both patient and pure of heart, Father Hugh.”

He laughed again, sweetly this time. “I fear I am not pure of heart, Sister Venia. I struggle with temptation as does every human soul.”

No need to remind him of her own virtue; it usually irritated people, none of whom liked to be reminded of the select few upon whom God had showered Their favor.

He hesitated before speaking again, this time with an odd tremor in his voice. “Tell me what else you recall of this fiery daimone borne up on wings of flame. How is it she banished the galla? By what signs were you sure it was a woman?”

She had not forgotten what drove him. A man’s weaknesses were the harness under which he could be put to work.

“I saw her only through what senses are granted to the galla, who come from another plane of existence. She was bright and powerful, most certainly a woman. You must not doubt me.”

“I do not. Yet did she speak?”