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"Yes, but I cannot delay"

"Well, we&039;ll take you, for five pieces of the King&039;s gold," the old man said "A fair price, Father"

"Indeed it is, but I&039;ve not the gold to pay, I fear," Jojonah replied "Nor the ti balked

"Two daysyour pardon, Father," came another voice, from the ship next in line, a wide and sturdy caravel "We shall be sailing north this very day"

Master Jojonah waved to the two on the daet a better view of the newest speaker The man was tall and lean and dark-skinned - not froiven his coion of southern Behren, far south of the Belt-and-Buckle

"I aold to pay," Jojonah replied

The dark man flashed a pearly sold?"

"I&039;ll work for e, then," Jojonah offered

"All on ood prayer, Father," the Behrenese man replied "More, I fear, after our little stop here Co you We were not to leave until late in the day, but I&039;ve only one man out and he can be retrieved easily If you are in a hurry, then we are in a hurry!"

"Very generous, good sir - "

"Al&039;u&039;ood shipSaudi Jacintha"

Jojonah cocked his head at that curious name

"It means Jewel of the Desert," Al&039;u&039;met explained "A bit of a joke on my father, ished me to ride the dunes, not the waves"

"As my own father wanted h He was more than a bit surprised to find a dark-skinned Behrenese in co ship, and even more surprised to see the man pay so much respect to one of the Abellican Order Jojonah&039;s Church was not prodohtered for trying to impose their vision of divinity on the often intolerant priests - yatolsin the Behren tongue - of the deserts

Captain Al&039;u&039;-plank, then dispatched two of his crews to bring aboard?" he asked Jojonah

"Only what I carry," the ?"

"Palmaris," Jojonah replied "Or across the river, actually; I can ride the ferry I aentpast All Saints Bay," Captain Al&039;u&039; by sea"

"Then Pal," Captain Al&039;u&039; still, he pointed to the cabin door leading under the poop deck "I have two rooms," he explained "Surely I can share one with you for a day or two"

"You are Abellican?"

Al&039;u&039;rin widened "For three years," he explained "I found your God at St Gwendolyn of the Sea, and as fine a catch as Al&039;u&039;met has ever known"

"But another disappointment for your father," Jojonah reasoned

Al&039;u&039;er to pursed lips "He does not need to know such things, Father," he said slyly "Out on the Mirianic, when the storht of a tall man above the forward rail, I choose my own God Besides," he added with a wink, "they are not so different, you know, the God of your land and the one of e in robes would make a priest ayatol"

"So your conversion was one of convenience," Jojonah teased

Al&039;u&039;ed "I choose my own God"

Jojonah nodded and returned the wide smile, then made his sloay toward the captain&039;s cabins

"My boy will show you your quarters," Al&039;u&039;met called after him

The cabin boy was just within the shelter of the roo bones, when Master Jojonah opened the door The lad, nohis dice and looking very guilty - he had been caught derelict from his chores, the monk knew

"Set our friend up, Matthew," Captain Al&039;u&039;met called "See to his needs"

Jojonah and Matthew stood staring at each other, sizing each other up for a long time Matthew&039;s clothes were threadbare, as was the lot for anybody working aboard a ship But they were a fine cut, better than the attire of most crewmen the monk had met And the boy was cleaner than most cabin boys, his sun-bleached hair neatly triolden tanned There was one notable bleh, a black patch on the boy&039;s forearined the pain the boy must have felt The patch had been caused by the second of the three " ships The rum was used to kill the worms that inevitably found their way into foodstuffs, to kill the aftereffects of bad food, and si, e, clothes and hair, and as disgusting as that thought was, it paled in comparison to the liquid tar This was used to patch torn skin The boy, Matthew, had obviously gashed his arm, and so the sailors had applied tar to the wound to seal it

"May I?" Jojonah quietly asked, reaching for the arm

Matthew hesitated, but dared not disobey, cautiously holding the arm up for inspection

A fine job, the monk noted The tar had been sanded flat with the skin, a perfect patch of black "Does it hurt?" Jojonah asked

Matthew shook his head emphatically

"He does not speak," ca ht behind the distractedthe arm

"Not mine, but Cody Bellaway&039;s," Al&039;u&039;met answered "He serves as healer e are far from port"

Master Jojonah nodded and let the issue drop - openly, at least, for in his e of Matthew&039;s blackened arm would not so quickly fade How many hematites were locked away in St-Mere-Abelle? Five hundred? A thousand? The nuer monk, he had done an inventory of just that stone, easily the most common stone returned from Pimaninicuit over the years Most of these soul stones were of far less power than the one the caravan to the Barbacan had taken along, but still, Jojonah had to wonder how iven to the sailing ships with one or twopowers Matthew&039;s wound had been considerable, no doubt, but Jojonah could have easily sealed it withcould have been avoided

That line of thinking rander scale Why weren&039;t all the coion of the kingdoiven a hematite, with their chosen healers trained in its use?

He had never discussed such a thing with Avelyn, of course, but somehow Master Jojonah understood that Avelyn Desbris, if the choice had been his, would without hesitation have distributed the seneral populace, would have opened up St-Mere-Abelle&039;s horde of ic for the betterment of all, or at least distributed the most minor hematites, stones too weak to be used for diabolical purposes such as possession, stones too weak to be used in any real malevolent way

Yes, Jojonah knew, Avelyn would have done it if given the chance, but of course Father Abbot Markould never have given him the chance!

Jojonah patted the mop of Matthew&039;s blond hair and motioned for the lad to show hi for his hands to ready the ship for departure

Saudi Jacinthaslipped out of Bristole soon after, her sails fast filling ind, pushing her against the considerable current They would ood time, Al&039;u&039;met came and assured the n of storm, and as the Masur Delaval widened, the pull of the water was not so strong

The ath-ering the strength he kneould need He did get up for a short while, and with a friendly nod convinced Matthew to play dice with hi him the captain wouldn&039;t mind if he took a short break from his chores

Jojonah wished that the boy could talk, or even laugh, in the hour they spent throwing dice He wanted to knohere the lad had coe

Likely his parents, poverty-stricken, had sold hiht That was how h Jojonah hoped that Al&039;u&039;met had not been the one to purchase hiious ht rain ca that iress This creell-trained and knew every turn in the great river, and on the ship plowed, her prow spray foaht It was at that forward rail, in that saht after the rain had stopped, that Master Jojonah fully ac-cepted the truths that were for in his heart Alone in the dark-ness with the splash of the prow, the croaking of the animals on the bank, the flutter of the wind in the sails, Master Jojonah found his course co about hi him of the three vows - not just the e behind theuided the Abel-lican Order

He stayed up all through the night and went to bed again right before the dawn, after coaxing a sleepy-eyed Matthew to go and fetch hi beside Captain Al&039;u&039;oal early the next ain," the captain said with a s, and will not travel far, I will guess, if you are asleep"

Still, later on that evening, Captain Al&039;u&039; into the darkness, looking into his own heart

"You are a thinkingthe s si out here alone?" Jojonah replied "Iat all"

"Not at the forward rail," Captain Al&039;u&039; monk "I, too, know the inspiration of this place"

"Where did you get Matthew?" Jojonah asked abruptly, blurting out the words before he could even consider thelance, surprised by the question He looked back to the prow spray and smiled "You do not wish to think that I, a man of your Church, purchased him from his par-ents," the perceptivestraighter and looking directly at the monk

Master Jojonah did not return the stare

"They were paupers, living near St Gwendolyn, surviving on the scraps your Abellican brothers bothered to toss out for the so the man severely "Yet this is the Church you chose to join," he stated

"That does not ree with all of those who now ad-minister the doctrine of the Church," Al&039;u&039;met calmly replied "As to Matthew, I purchased him, and at a handsome price, because I came to think of him as my own son He was always at the docks, you see - or at least, he was there at those times when he could es-cape his wrathful father The h little Matthew had not seen his seventh birthday at the time So I purchased him, took him aboard to teach him an honest trade"

"A difficult life," Jojonah reone froreed "A life some love and others loathe Mattheill h to better understand If he comes to love the sea, as I do, then he will have no choice but to stay aboard ship - and hopefully he will choose to stay with ood to have Matthew to carry on my work"

Al&039;u&039; until Jojonah looked at him directly "And if he does not love the so," the ood start wherever he chooses to live I give you my word on this, Master Jojonah of St-Mere-Abelle"

Jojonah believed hih sailors of the day, Captain Al&039;u&039;met surely stood tall

They both looked back to the water and stood in silence for so prow and the wind

"I knew Abbot Dobrinion," Captain Al&039;u&039;ood man"

Jojonah looked at hion driver, spread word of the tragedy in Bristole while you were seeking passage," the captain explained

"Dobrinion was indeed a good reat loss it is for reat loss for all the world," Al&039;u&039;reed

"How did you know hiiven my mobile pro-fession, I spendthem"

"Have you ever been to St-Mere-Abelle?" Jojonah asked, though he didn&039;t think Al&039;u&039;met had, for he believed that he would remember this man

"We put in once," the Captain replied "But the weather was turn-ing, and we had far to go, so I did not get off the docks St Gwen-dolyn was not so far away, after all"

Jojonah sh," the Captain went on "Only once It was 819, or perhaps 820; the years do seem to blend as they pass Father Abbot Markwart had put out a call for open-seas sailing ships I ae last year - powrie barrelboat, for the wretched dwarves see out of port this spring"

"You answered the Father Abbot&039;s call," Jojonah prompted

"Yes, but my ship was not chosen," Al&039;u&039; to do with the color of my skin I do not believe that your Father Abbot trusted a Behrenese sailor, especially one as not, at that time, an anointed reement; there was no way that Markould have accepted a ion for the journey to Pihable even, given the carefully planned e

"Captain Adjonas and hisWindrunner were the better choice," Al&039;u&039; the open Mirianic before I ever learned to work an oar"

"You know of Adjonas, then?" Jojonah asked "And of the end of theWindrunner?"

"Every seaman on the Broken Coast knows of the loss," Captain Al&039;u&039;met replied "Happened just outside of All Saints Bay, so they say A rough bit of water, to be sure, though I aht too near the shoal"

Jojonah only nodded; he could not bring himself to reveal the awful truth, to tell this htered in the sheltered waters of All Saints Bay by the holy ion Al&039;u&039; back at that now, Master Jojonah could hardly believe that he had gone along with the plan, the terrible tradition Had it always been that way, as the Church insisted?

"A fine ship and crew," Al&039;u&039;h in truth, he hardly knew any of the sailors, had met only Captain Adjonas and the first hand, Bunkus Set your sleep, Father," Captain Al&039;u&039; ahead of you"

Jojonah, too, thought that to be a good time to break the conver-sation Al&039;u&039;iven him much to think about, had rekindled htThat does not ree with all of those who now administer the doctrine of the Church, Al&039;u&039; as truly pro-phetic to the disillusioned ht, better than he had since he had first arrived in Palmaris, since all the world had spun cohts woke hiath-ered his few possessions and raced onto the deck, thinking to see the long wharves of Palray blanket All the creas abovedecks,intently into the gloo for rocks, or even other ships, Jojonah realized, and a shudder coursed his spine The sight of Captain Al&039;u&039; serenely, as though this situation was nothing out of the ordinary Jojonah hts," the ht have been spotted in this fog"

"We saw," Al&039;u&039; closer by the second"

Jojonah followed the captain&039;s gaze out over the forward rail, to the gloo - he couldn&039;t quite identify it - seeh his internal direction sense was askew He stood quiet for a long while, trying to sort it out, noting the posi-tion of the sun, a lighter splotch of grayness ahead of the ship

"We are traveling east," he said suddenly, turning to Al&039;u&039;ht that I would save you the hours on the crowded ferry," Al&039;u&039;ht not even run the ferry in this gloom"

"Captain, you did not have to - "

"No trouble, my friend," Al&039;u&039;met replied "We would not be al-lowed into Pal rolled back anyway, so rather than set anchor, we turned to Amvoy, a smaller port and one with less rules"

"Land to forward!" ca dock!" another sailor agreed

Jojonah looked to Al&039;u&039;lided easily into position beside the one long dock at A her in place

"I wish you well, Master Jojonah of St-Mere-Abelle," Al&039;u&039;plank "May the loss of good Abbot Dobrinion strengthen us all" He shook Jojonah&039;s hand fire of the plank he stopped, torn, prudence battling conscience

"Captain Al&039;u&039; about He noted several other sailors in the vicinity, all listening to his every word, but didn&039;t let that deter hi months you will hear stories of a man named Avelyn Desbris Brother Avelyn, formerly at St-Mere-Abelle"

"The name is not known to me," Captain Al&039;u&039;met replied

"But it will be," Master Jojonah assured hi him as a thief, a h the very fires of hell"

Captain Al&039;u&039;met made no reply at all as Jojonah paused and sed hard on his words

"I tell you this in all sincerity," thea very delicate line here Again he paused, swal-lowing hard "The stories are not true, or at least, the ainst the actions of Brother Avelyn, as, I assure you, ahis God-inspired conscience at all ti that the words nized the gravity in the monk&039;s voice and understood that this was a pivotal moment for the man Froh to understand that these tales of this ht indeed affect him, and everyone else associated with the Abellican Church He nodded, not s

"Never has the Abellican Church fostered a better man than Avelyn Desbris," Jojonah said firmly, and he turned and left theSaudi Jacintha He understood the chance he had just taken, real-izing that theSaudi Jacintha would likely find its way to St-Mere-Abelle again one day, and that Captain Al&039;u&039; creould speak with men at the abbey, would perhaps speak with Father Abbot Markwart himself But for some reason, Jojonah didn&039;t try to qualify the story, or re-tract it There, he had said it, openly As it should be

Still, thehion, and though the driver was a enerous as Captain Al&039;u&039; three days later, only a few ates of St-Mere-Abelle, Master Jojonah did not recount his tale of Avelyn

It wasn&039;t until he caht of the abbey that the master&039;s doubts vanished From any perspective, St-Mere-Abelle was an i part of the mountainous coastline Whenever he looked upon the abbey fro history of the Church, of traditions that preceded Markwart, and even the last dozen Father Abbots before hiible spirit was about hi deeper into the Order&039;s past, to look for the way things had once been so many centuries before For Master Jo-jonah could hardly believe that the Church as it now existed could have becoion These days, people were drawn to the Church out of heritage; they were "believers" because their parents had been, their grandparents had been, their grand-parents&039; parents had been Feere like Al&039;u&039;met, he understood, recent converts, e

It could not have been like that in the beginning, Jojonah rea-soned St-Mere-Abelle, so vast and impressive, could not have been built with the feould have agreed, in heart, with the teachings of the present-day Church

Bolstered by his insight, Master Jojonah approached the strong gates of St-Mere-Abelle, the place he had called home for more than two-thirds of his life, the place that now seemed to him a fa-cade He did not yet understand the truth of the abbey, but, with Avelyn&039;s spirit guiding nun, he meant to find it out