“It is summer, my lady,” agreed Brother Breschius, “or so it seems.”
Their party had not set up camp, but the men had taken advantage of the slope and breadth of the valley to graze, water, and rest the horses. Sorgatani’s wagon rested in the middle of a sward of new grass; her cohort of Kerayit warriors ranged around like a fence, although obviously the marchlanders had been warned to stay clear.
Liath’s Jinna servants, Gnat and Mosquito, knelt a stone’s toss from her, trembling like dogs straining against a leash; it was only after she nodded at them that they settled back on their heels to wait with more patience. Sorgatani’s young servingwoman crouched in the shade of the next apple tree, watching Liath. Heat rippled through the mountain air, or was that an aery daimone? She had never been able to see them before, but now she detected flickers of movement.
“We arrived at dawn,” said Bertha, “and you slept all morning.”
“We’ll have to wait for nightfall,” Liath said. “I’ll try to speak to Hathui with Eagle’s Sight, and after that I’ll measure the stars. We must decide whether we march, or attempt the crowns again.”
“If I recall the lay of the land correctly” mused Bertha, “we can scarcely come much closer to Aosta than this and still tread quietly.”
“Nay.” She shook her head, disappointed with herself. “Had I more experience weaving the crowns, we would not have landed here. I have seen the Crown of Stars laid out across the land. South and east of here, near the shore of the Middle Sea, lies the central jewel of that crown. That is where we must go, because Anne will go there as well. If we are not too late—if this is only a few months after we set out from the east—then there is time, a full year or more.”
Breschius licked the sticky remains of the apple off his fingers. “We could march through Aosta and along the eastern shore of the sea to seek this crown.”
“So we could. And fight every step of the way, first through Aosta and then into Dalmiaka, which is ruled by the Arethousans. Should we survive, we’ll have lost the element of surprise. That is all that gives us an advantage. I’ll observe the stars tonight while the army rests and prepares. Tomorrow night we cross again.”
“I pray you, my lady,” said Breschius softly, “teach me how to calculate the date by means of the stars. I know that when the Dragon rises at dusk it is spring-tide and that the Child rises to the zenith at midnight during autumn. Mok rides around the Houses of the Night every twelve years, and the Evening Star and the Morning Star are the same and rise and set according to a regular pattern. Can you teach me?”
She smiled at the frater. His answering smile gave his face a liveliness that revealed his strong heart, his courage, and an affectionate warmth that brought a touch of red to her own cheeks, Seeing that he was a comely man, if rather old—certainly past forty.
“Yes, Brother. I will need my own schola of mathematici if I am to combat Anne.”
“A schola!” muttered Bertha in tones of disgust. Then she laughed. “We have only one cleric. Is that enough for a schola?”
“It makes no matter to me whether a discipla is a cleric or a woodcutter’s child, Lady Bertha. I will teach any woman or man who brings patience, a good memory, and a willingness to learn.”
By the lift of her head Liath could see she had startled the noblewoman. “Any woman or man?”
“Any, no matter their station in life or what they are now, as long as they will work, for it is a difficult and dreary labor and few will have the taste for it. At dusk, assemble those who wish to watch and listen.”
“What will you do?” Breschius asked.
“I know what day we left the steppes because you and Heribert kept a close record of the days during your journey. It is possible we have skipped months or years by traveling through the crowns.”
“How can that happen?”
“I walked in the land of the Aoi for only a few days while years went by here on Earth. When we cross through the crowns, we touch the aether, where time passes differently than it does in the world below. I suppose there must be a way to calculate how much time any crossing would take. We know how long ago the Aoi land was cast into the aether. If we knew Eldest Uncle’s exact age, we could discover how long a day in the aether expands into a day or month here on Earth. Then, if we knew how far we wished to travel between two crowns, we might predict how long we would spend within the crowns as we cross that distance. Unless there is some other factor that alters the measure of days. What if the time doesn’t remain as a constant, if a day measured within the aether doesn’t always equal a month on Earth but fluctuates—”
“Ai, God!” said Bertha, laughing. “You’ve lost me! What if we’ve walked right past the cataclysm? What if it’s already happened?”
“We would know if the cataclysm had rocked us while we crossed between circles. We would have felt its impact because of the thread that connects the exiled land and Earth. We still have time. I must see which of the wandering planets appear in the heavens, and where they walk. Then I can calculate backward to the places they stood when we first entered the crown in the east. That will give me a rough date.”
“The lore of the mathematici be no secret if any woman or man is allowed to learn it,” said Bertha abruptly.
“What is hoarded among a few loses its power when more share it. Only think of what might happen if more than Eagles learn the trick of gazing through fire. If merchants can hire sorcerers to weave the crowns and allow them to cross over these mountains safe from avalanches and bandits. Only think of Anne’s power, which she has guarded well. If there were more to combat her, she would not be skopos now, with the king dangling from a chain of her devising. Amulets protect us from her gaze, but they also cripple us because we cannot use my Eagle’s Sight, lest it expose us. We can risk the sight once a day at most, as I arranged with Sanglant. If we did not fear, we would not be so weak. As I know myself, for I was fearful and weak once, too.”
“You would even teach the common-born folk?” Bertha demanded.
“Those who can learn. Why not? Da and I lived among highborn and lowborn alike. I saw no great difference between those born to a high station and those from the most humble. Some chose wickedness and some good. Some chose an honest path, and some chose a road paved with lies. Some were clever, and some had no more wits than a sheep. Any Eagle could tell you as much, for they are all of them born of low station yet they walk along paths frequented by princes.”
Bertha was looking at her strangely. “You are born out of a noble line.”
“Am I? I am not Anne’s daughter. I am not Taillefer’s great grandchild. Da was born to a noble line, it is true, but I suppose they might have been free farmers digging a foothold into untamed land in the time of my great grandmothers. Why should I be prouder than Hathui? Why should I hold myself above her? With the gold she claimed from the Quman she’ll dower her nieces and nephews and who is to say that, if they prosper, their children’s children might not marry a noble lady’s sons and daughters? Or that a lord fallen on hard times might not send his youngest son into service as a soldier in another lord’s army, and if that boy ever marries and if his fortunes fall further, his children’s children might be no better off than that of a servingman who obeys the will of a count.”
When she stopped, having run out of breath, she saw they were staring at her as though she had been raving, a lunatic run wild right before their eyes.
o;A schola!” muttered Bertha in tones of disgust. Then she laughed. “We have only one cleric. Is that enough for a schola?”