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He reuivre held captive by Lady Sabella, tor men and, in the end, used by her as ruthlessly as she used the rest of her allies He could not regret saving one after having killed another

Sighing, he turned away from the forest and walked back to the dor, at his side It would be hard for Iso to keep silent about the guivre, but ould believe hihed softly Maybe disbelief could be a form of freedom For the first time since he stumbled out of the stone circle with the htness in his heart, a breath of healing

As they passed the stables, they alod, who had labored here for more years than Alain had been alive Like Iso, lie was a cripple with a withered arht When he lost his farmstead to his sister’s son, he retired to thefro to pee "Have ye heard?" he asked in his western accent "There co to the abbot, and a couple of king’s soldiers They say they’ve seen sleepers under the hill with the look of old Villa the stones a few years back Terrible strong ic, they say And a revelation, too, to share with us brothers"

His words made Alain nervous; they pricked like pins and needles in a foot that’s fallen asleep As he and Iso walked up past the stables, he saw h they would normally be in their cots by now A dozen of theforward, and at one corner of the porch huddled six pale-robed novices who had escaped from the novices’ compound where they were supposed to live and sleep in isolation until the day they took their final vows

"‘His heart was cut out of him! Where his heart’s blood fell and touched the soil, there bloomed roses’"

"Th-that’s a woathered on the doruivre’s eye could not have struck such sluggish fear into Alain as did her voice He knew that voice

"‘But by his suffering, by his sacrifice, he redeeh that redeain So did God in Her wisdom redeem him, for was he not Her only Son?’"

"Heresy,"at Alain’s elbow

"This one comes from the east, from the Arethousans"

"All liars, the Arethousans," whispered his companion "Still, I want to hear her"

"Do not let others frighten you Do not let them tell you that the words I speak are heresy It is the church that has concealed the truth from us--"

"To what purpose?" An older monk stepped forward "Were the ancient mothers dupes and fools, to be taken in by a lie? Do you mean to say they were sche’ the truth of the blessed Daisan’s true nature and his final days on earth? You haven’t convinced h the crowd until he was able to see the speaker It was Hathumod Somehow she had escaped the battle in the east and reached Hersford He hung back He didn’t want her to see him

A frown creased her rabbitlike face as she examined the scoffer She appeared the most innocuous of interlocutors No one could look frid will answer you," she replied

Four young men stood beside her: the handsome blond and the redhead whom Alain had seen at services, as well as a stout felloho reseh apparently sound in all his limbs The two Lions, Dedi and Gerulf, stood behind theilance As Dedi glanced his way, Alain ducked down behind the shoulder of one of his fellow laborers, and when he glanced up, the slight young man had climbed up on a bench to address the crowd He was dressed in a tattered monk’s robe, but despite his disreputable appearance, he responded in a voice both rich and sweet

"Truly, Brother, I dare not set her than the Holy Mothers out of whose words flowered our n and holy church Yet you and I both kno of their writings have coht the ancient mothers say to us noere they here and able to speak freely? What fragments have we been left to read, despite the best efforts of our brethren, brothers and sisters who copied and recopied the most holy texts? Has it always been the most holy who have worked in the scriptoria? In whose interest has it been to conceal this truth?"