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When he woke the next morning, the embers had gone cold. The floor was still
hard. He got to his feet and stretched, feeling elderly. The way his joints
and tendons crackled when he did made him feel no younger.
It was time for morning devotions, but Tribonianos was still snoring. Back in
Skopentzana, Rhavas would have booted the other priest out of bed to join in
them. Here, he hesitated. He still outranked the local, but this was
Tribonianos' temple. Rhavas decided to let him sleep.
He went through the devotions himself. The prayers and hymns felt strange in
his mouth almost wrong.
Even as he praised Phos, he wondered if the lord with the great and good mind
had had anything to do with his curses. None of his prayers had been answered,
but the curses . . . The curses had brought down Toxaras, had flattened
Skopentzana, had slain the barbarians who were about to attack Ingegerd and
him.
What did that mean? It surely meant something; things didn't happen for no
reason. But what?
Tribonianos came up to the altar as Rhavas was finishing his prayers. "Do you
aim to shame me?" he asked sourly.
"No," Rhavas answered, meaning yes.
The local priest did what ritual required of him. He did it by rote, with no
spirit behind it. Had things been otherwise, Rhavas would have had a good deal
to say to him about that. But things were as they were, and the prelate, his
own thoughts confused, his heart heavy, let the priest get by with what was
technically correct and otherwise meaningless. When Tribonianos finished, he
eyed Rhavas with what couldn't have been far from hatred. "You're not going to
stay here, are you?" he demanded.
"By the good god, no!" Rhavas knew leaving meant putting his life, and
Ingegerd's, in danger. But he also realized that Tzamandos, even if the people
inside kept breathing, was already dead if the place had ever been alive.
His vehemence won the first approving glance he'd had from Tribonianos. The
local didn't want him here any more than he wanted to be here. "I'll fix us
breakfast," Tribonianos said. "Afterward, you can go up on the wall. If you
don't see any of the barbarians up there, why then, you're off." Oh, yes.
Tribonianos
wanted him gone.
Well, I want myself gone
, the prelate thought. Breakfast was more of the porridge with bits of salt
pork in it. Again, Rhavas ate as if he expected food to be outlawed tomorrow.
By Tribonianos' expression, that was just one of the reasons to be glad when
he left. Rhavas drank a cup of wine with the meal.
Tribonianos drank several. Did he do that all the time? Rhavas wouldn't have
been surprised.
After breakfast, Rhavas did go up on Tzamandos' wall and look out. The wall
itself was laughable next to that of Videssos the city or even Skopentzana.
Besiegers who knew what they were doing would have breached it in short order.
But it sufficed to keep the plainsmen out.
Rhavas saw snow and trees and occasional bits of bare ground where the snow
had blown away. He saw no Khamorth, and hoped he never did again. When he went
back to the temple, he found Ingegerd waiting for him there and Tribonianos
staring at her in what looked like a torment of hopeless lust. Rhavas felt an
odd mix of sympathy and disgust.
It's not as if I don't know how he feels
, the prelate thought unhappily.
Ingegerd ignored the hunger on Tribonianos' face.
Why not? She ignores mine, too
, Rhavas told himself. The Haloga woman said, "A dozen or so now at the inn
purpose leaving for points south, and would have us join them. Most are men.
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Some have weapons, and mayhap a notion of what to do with them. What think
you, very holy sir? Are we safer in company or by ourselves?"
"My guess would be in company," Rhavas replied, even if he would rather have
been alone with her. "If you think I am wrong, I will listen."
"No." She shook her head. "I think you are right. They plan on leaving later
this morning. In the meanwhile, I will buy us what food I can."
"Everything will be repaid you when we come to a richer temple than . . .
this," Rhavas promised, not quite able to hide his distaste.
"That is well said, and surely well meant, and all the more surely needless to
fret over," Ingegerd said.
"We are comrades, you and I, and do what we do as comrades do for each other.
I will see you at the inn before long." She dropped a curtsy and left.
"Comrades." Tribonianos spat it.
"That is the truth. Any other words, and any of your wicked thoughts, would be
a lie." Rhavas waited to see if Tribonianos would challenge him. The priest
didn't, which left Rhavas some little while to contemplate his own wicked
thoughts.
* * *
Out through Tzamandos' southern gate went the men and women seeking better
refuge from the barbarians. Some were Skopentzanans, others Tzamandans who
feared their town would not hold. "A
good thing we have you with us, very holy sir," said a Skopentzanan who
recognized Rhavas. "With the good god listening to your prayers, we'll have
nothing to fear from the barbarians."
Rhavas and Ingegerd looked at each other. The prelate knew they were thinking
different things. She believed his holiness and his piety were what had let
him curse the Khamorth. He wished he could believe that, too. To the
expectantly waiting Skopentzanan, he said only, "May it be so."
"Good luck," a militiaman called as they left Tzamandos. "And here's hoping
you won't need it."
May that be so
, Rhavas thought. The gates of Tzamandos closed behind them with an echoing
thud. All at once, out there in the open, Rhavas felt like an ant scurrying
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| Cytat |
Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
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