In the Ruins

Page 31

She drew the Circle at her chest and turned to bow to Sanglant.
“How does this affect the tale?” he asked.
“Heresy must affect us all,” retorted Sister Elsebet. “Right belief is what sustains us! It would be a greater tempest even than the one we suffered in Aosta should these heretical beliefs take hold and drown the foundation on which all our lives rest! On what we and the church mothers know to be true! Perhaps this tempest is not merely the playing out of an ancient sorcery but a warning sent to us by God!”
He looked at Liath.
She lifted her chin, squared her shoulders, made herself visible again, the center of attention. Yet this was not the charisma that allows a commander to lead men to their death in battle. This was, purely, control over the unnatural fire that burned within her.
“It may be, Sister Elsebet,” she agreed without any evidence of insincerity. “Yet I know this. The land of the Ashioi returned to Earth because those who wove the sorcery in ancient days did not understand fully the consequence of what they did. The land returned because it could not do otherwise. It was bound as if in a great circle, necessarily returning to the place it started.”
“Indeed,” agreed the cleric stoutly. “For this same reason the church mothers have always disapproved of sorcery.”
“Yes, so it was. Sorcery was restricted by the church in two separate rulings. Certain of the magical arts were allowed to be taught under the supervision of the church, but others were condemned, specifically those that related to foreseeing the future and controlling the weather as well as knowledge of the mathematical properties of the stars and planets. In truth, although this was unknown to the church councils that condemned them, these were the very arts used in ancient days to weave the spell that cast the Ashioi into exile.”
Elsebet nodded, as if her point was now proven. She did not step aside. Liath kept talking.
“‘Between the Bwr invasion and the troubled church, the creaking edifice of the old empire at last collapsed.”’
“So wrote Taillefer’s chronicler, Albert the Wise.”
“Indeed he did, which is where I got the phrase. The last of those who believed in the Redemptio, in the east beyond Arethousa, vanished when the Jinna Empire conquered those lands in the name of their god.”
“Fire worshipers!” muttered the wit.
“I hear they worship naked,” said Wichman suddenly. “I’d like to see those Jinna women dancing around the flames!”
“Enough!” snapped Sanglant. “I pray you, go on.”
“I pray you,” Liath said, surveying the assembly, “I am nearly done.”
“Which is what she said before,” added the wit, and there was a smattering of chuckles.
She smiled and waited for quiet before she went on. “These Jinna conquered the southern shore of the Middle Sea as well. The lands around the old imperial capital fell into chaos for many decades, but at length various princedoms and duchies and counties arose. These folk called themselves Aosta. They called their capital Darre, and it was in Darre—once the capital of the Dariyan Empire—that one regnant or another pretended to rule Aosta.”
This slighting comment was appreciated. A few distant soldiers cheered.
She acknowledge them with a lift of a hand. “Only in the northwestern kingdom of Salia did a ruler consolidate enough power to extend his reach. The Salian king, Taille, renamed himself the Emperor Taillefer and crowned himself with a seven-pointed crown that he called his ‘crown of stars.’ As part of his imperial policy, Taillefer sent missionaries for the Daisanite Church into the lands east of Salia. Heathen tribes embraced the Circle of Unity. Chieftains sent their own sons and daughters out into the more distant wilderness to convert yet more peoples. So came the Wendish into the Circle.”
“This history of empire any good scholar knows,” said Sister Elsebet. “That good woman, Sister Rosvita, was writing her history of the Deeds of the Great Princes. Yet she—she, too—” She faltered. She wept.
“A woman firm in her scholarship,” said Liath. “I believe she would understand that it is necessary to see the tapestry as a whole in order to understand the consequence of the spell. If you will, I will go on.
“Taillefer’s empire disintegrated after the emperor’s death. At that time, King Arnulf the Elder of Wendar annexed lands formerly allied to Salia by marrying the heirs of Varre to his own children. When these heirs died without issue, he named himself king of Wendar and Varre. In time, the regnancy passed to Arnulf the Younger, and then to his son, Henry, the second of that name. So might we learn from Sister Rosvita, were she here to teach us!