the two of them met privately later that day. ‘The Church is fragmented in
Daresia. They don’t accept the authority of Chyrellos, so I can’t order
them to assist you.’
Dolmant’s face was careworn, ‘and his white cassock made his complexion
look sallow. in a very real sense, Dolmant ruled an empire that stretched
from Thalesia to Cammoria, and the burdens of his office bore down on him
heavily. The change they had all noticed in their friend in the past
several years derived more likely from that than from any kind of inflated
notion of his exalted station. ‘you’ll get more co-operation in Astel than
either Edam or Daconia,’ he continued. ‘The doctrine of the church of Astel
is very close to ours – close enough that we even recognise Astellian
ecclesiastical rank. Edam and Daconia broke away from the Astellian Church
thousands of years ago and went their own ‘ way.’ The Archprelate smiled
ruefully. ‘The sermons in ‘ those two kingdoms are generally little more
than hysterical denunciations of the Church of Chyrellos ‘and of me
personally. They’re anti-hierarchical, much like the Renders. If you’
should happen to go into thOSe tWo kingdoms, you can expect the Church
there to oppose you. The fact that you’re a Church knight will be held
against you rather than the reverse. The children there are all taught that
the Knights of the Church have horns and tails. They’ll expect you to burn
churches, murder clergymen and enslave the people.’
‘I’ll do what I can to stay away from those places, Sarathi,’ Sparhawk
assured him. ‘Who’s in charge in Astel?’ The Archimandrite of Darsas is
nominally the head of the Astellian Church. It’s an obscure rank
approximately the equivalent of our ‘patriarch. The Church of Astel’s
organised along monastic lines. They don’t have a secular clergy there.’
‘Are there any other significant differences I should know about?’
‘Some of the customs are different – liturgical variations primarily. I
doubt that you’ll be asked to conduct any services, so that shouldn’t cause
any problems. It’s probably just as well. I heard you deliver a sermon
once. ‘ Sparhawk smiled. ‘We serve in different ways, Sarathi. Our Holy
Mother didn’t hire me to preach to people. How do I address the
Archimandrite of Darsas – in case I meet him?’
‘Call him ‘your Grace’, the same as you would a patriarch. He’s an
imposing man with a huge beard, and there’s nothing in Astel that he
doesn’t know about. His priests are everywhere. The people trust them
implicitly, and they all submit weekly reports to the Archimandrite. The
Church has enormous power there.’
‘What a novel idea.’
‘Don’t mistreat me, Sparhawk. Things haven’t
been going very well for me lately.’
‘Would you be willing to listen to an assessment, Dolmant?’
‘Of me personally? probably not.’
‘I wasn’t talking about that. You’re too old to change, I expect. I’m
talking about your policies in Render. Your basic idea was good enough, but
you went at it the wrong way.’
‘Be careful, Sparhawk. I’ve sent men to monasteries
permanently’ for less than that.’
‘Your policy of reconciliation with the Renders was very sound. I spent
ten years down there, and I know
how they think. The ordinary people in Render would really like to be
reconciled with the Church – if for no other reason than to get rid of all
the howling fanatics out in the desert. Your policy is good, but you sent
the wrong people there to carry it out.’
‘The priests I sent are all experts in doctrine, Sparhawk.’
‘That’s the problem. You sent doctrinaire fanatics down there. All they
want to do is punish the Renders for their heresy.’
‘Heresy is a sort of problem, Sparhawk.’
‘The heresy of the Renders isn’t theological, Dolmant. They worship the
same God we do, and their body of religous belief is identical to ours. The
disagreements between us are entirely in the field of Church government.
The’ Church was corrupt when the Renders broke away from us. The members of
the Hierocracy were sending relatives to fill Church positions in Render,
and those relatives were parasitic opportunists who were far more
interested in lining their own purses than caring for the souls of the
people. When you get right down to it, that’s why the Renders started
murdering primates and priests – and they’re doing it for exactly the same
reason now. You’ll never reconcile the Renders to the Church if you try to
punish them. They don’t care who’s gOVernIng our Holy Mother. They’ll never
see you personally, my friend, but they will see their local priest
probably every day. If he spends all his time calling them heretics and
tearing the veils off their women, they’ll kill him. It’s as simple as
that.’ Dolmants face was troubled. ‘Perhaps I have blundered,’ he admitted.
‘Of course if you tell anybody I said that, I’ll deny it.’
‘naturally.’
‘All right, what should I do about it?’ Sparhawk remembered something
then. ‘There’s a VICar in a poor church in Borrata,’ he said. ‘He’s
probably the closest thing to a saint I’ve ever seen, and I didn’t even get
his name. Berit knows what it is though. Disguise some investigators as
beggars and send them down to Cammoria to observe him. He’s exactly the
kind of man you need.’
‘Why not just send for him?’
‘He’d be too tongue-tied to speak to you, Sarathi. He’s what they had in
mind when they coined the word ‘humble’. Besides, he’d never leave his
flock. If you order him to Chyrellos and then send him to Render, he’ll
probably die within six months. He’s that kind of man.’ Dolmant’s eyes
suddenly filled with tears. ‘You trouble me, Sparhawk,’ he said. ‘You
trouble me. That’s the ideal we all had when we took holy orders.’ He
sighed. ‘How did we all get so far away from it?’
‘You got too much involved in the world, Dolmant,’ Sparhawk told him
gently. ‘The church has to live in the world, but the world corrupts her
much faster than she can redeem’ it.’
‘What’s the answer to that problem, Sparhawk?’
‘I honestly don’t know, Sarathi. Maybe there isn’t any.’
‘Sparhawk.’ It was his daughter’s voice, and it was somehow inside his
head. He was passing through the nave of the Basilica, and he quickly knelt
as if in prayer to cover what he was really doing. ‘What is it, Aphrael?’
he asked silently. ‘You don’t have to genuflect to me, Sparhawk.’ Her voice
was amused. ‘i’m not. If they catch me walking through the corridors
holding long conversations with somebody who isn’t there, they’ll lock me
up in an asylum.’
‘You look very reverential in that position, though, I’m touched.’
‘Was there something significant, or are you just amusing yourself?’
‘Sephrenia wants to talk with you again.’
‘All right. I’m in the nave right now. Come down and meet me here. We’ll
go up to the cupola again.’
‘I’ll meet you up there.’
‘There’s only one stairway leading up there, Aphrael. We have to climb it.’
‘You might have to, but I don’t. I don’t like going into the nave,
Sparhawk. I always have to stop and talk with your God, and He’s so tedious
most of the time.’ Sparhawk’s mind shuddered back ‘from the implications of
that. The dried-out wooden stairs circling up to the top of the dome still
shrieked their protest as Sparhawk mounted. It was a long climb, and he was
winded when he reached the top. ‘What took you so long?’ Danae asked him.
She wore a simple white smock. It was a little-girl sort of dress, so no
one seemed to even notice that its cut was definitely Styric.
‘you enJoy saying things like that to me, don’t you?’ Sparhawk accused.
‘i’m only teasing, father,’ she laughed. I hope no one saw you coming up
here. I don’t think the world’s ready for a flying princess just yet.’
‘no one saw me, Sparhawk. I’ve done ‘ this before, you know. Trust me.’
_do I have any choice? Let’s get to work. I’ve still got a lot left to do
today if we’re going to leave tomorrow morning.’ She nodded and sat
cross-legged near one of the huge ,beLs. She lifted her face again and
raised that flute-like trill. Then her voice drifted off, and her face went
blank. ‘where have you been?’ Sephrenia asked, opening , Danae’s eyes to
stare at her pupil.’ He .sighed. ‘if you two don’t stop that, I’m going to
go into another line of work.’
‘Has Aphrael been teasing you again?’ she asked. ‘Of course she has. Did
you know that she can fly?’
‘i’ve never seen her do it, but I’d assumed she could.’
‘What did you want to see me about?’
‘i’ve been hearing disturbing rumours. The northern Atans have been seeing
some very large, shaggy creatures in the forests near their north coast.’
‘So that’s where they went.’
‘Don’t be cryptic, dear one.’