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Of all the duties for the young monks at St-Mere-Abelle, Brother Dellman found this one the ainst spokes on a giant wheel crank, bending their backs to turn the thing, grunting and groaning, digging in their heels, but slipping often against the treht

Down below, far, far below, supported by heavy chains - which thereat block of stone Good stone, solid, taken froround quarry just inside the southernmost courtyard of St-Mere-Abelle The wide expanse of that quarry was reached through the lower tunnels of the original abbey - in fact, Master Jojonah, huddled in the lower libraries, could so of the stones - but the best way to bring stones needed for the upper walls of the abbey was by use of this crank

The pain and the struggle were good for the young monks, in the eyes of the masters and the Father Abbot

Another day, Brother Dellood for the soul But not today, not so soon after his return fro ht-foot-square chamber and curl up on his cot

"Push on, Brother Dellman," scolded Master De&039;Unnero in his sharp voice "Would you force brothers Callan and Seumo to do all the work?"

"No, Master De&039;Unnero," Brother Dellainst the spoke and driving on, theHe closed his eyes and issued a long and low groan

But then the weight see back Dellman&039;s eyes popped open wide

"Hold it fast, brother!" Dellround, then noted Seu it!" Master De&039;Unnero shouted,back into the crank

Poor Dellth, pressed as hard as he could against the wheel But his feet were inevitably beginning to slide Why wasn&039;t Callan back at the wheel? he wondered And ouldn&039;t Seuht to let go and spring out of harm&039;s way, but knew that to be i the wheel, the spin would be too fast, too sudden, and he would be sain, but everyone see now, Dell point

Then he was o the wrong way He heard the sudden snap, like a whip, as one of his legs exploded in pain, and then he was rolled over backward One of his ar wheel took hi hih, shattering its side, and his shoulder

He lay there, barely conscious, drenched and covered with mud and blood

"Carry him to my private chaht

Then thetruly concerned "Fear not, young Brother Dellh it appeared he was trying to be coe "God is with me, and by His power I will help to rew more intense suddenly as Callan and Seu ony rolled over poor Brother Dellnited within every , into a pro-found blackness

The days blended into one, for he did not notice their passing Ti for Master Jojonah now He left the lower li-brary only when the physical needs of his body forced hi useful a the stacks and stacks of tomes and parchments, but kneas close He felt it, in his heart and soul

He glanced often at the shelf of forbidden books, wondering if, perhaps, they had been placed off-li, but because they held a truth that would prove da to the present leaders of the Abellican Order After s, even one point where he rose and took a few steps for the shelf, Master Jojonah laughed aloud at his own paranoia He knew those books, for he had helped to inventory them as one of his requirements before he attained the rank of immaculate There were no hidden truths there; those were the books of evil, of dactyl earth- the powers of the sacred stones for evil purposes, for suue or withering crops - unacceptable practices even in ti, Jojonah knew that one of the books, in fact, described a massive crop destruction the Church leveled on the southern kingdom of Behren in God&039;s Year 67, when Behren and Honce-the-Bear had been eh the Belt-and-Buckle e The famine had turned the tide of battle, but the cost in ter enain

No, those books shelved in the dark corner of the lower library held no measure of justice and truth, unless that was in the lessons to be learned from terrible past mistakes

But Jojonah had to remind himself of that quite often as the days wound on without any dra at the sensibilities of the gentlein hiht of Markwart&039;s prisoners They were paying dearly, perhaps had already paid the supree part of Jojonah&039;s conscience screao and see to those poor people and to the centaur, who, if he had been with Avelyn when the dactyl demon was defeated, was indeed heroic

But Jojonah could not pull himself away, not yet, and so he had to sublimate his worries about the prisoners Perhaps his work here would save them, he told himself, or perhaps it would prevent any such atrocities froinning to ress, at least The library was not as haphazardly laid out as he had first believed It was di-vided into sections, and those, roughly, were set out chronologi-cally, dating from the very earliest days of the Church to the time less than two centuries before, when the newer libraries were con-structed and this place beca area For-tunately for Jojonah, s of the time in which Brother Allabarnet lived, at least those collected from outside St-Mere-Abelle, were stored down here

As soon as he discovered the general layout, Master Jojonah began his search a back before God&039;s Year 1, the Great Epiphany, the Renehich separated the Church, Old Canon and New Canon Jojonah figured that his answers ht lie in the tianized Church, the time of Saint Abelle

He found no answers there; what few pieces reible - were decorous works, songs lory of God Many ritten on parch-ments so brittle that Jojonah did not dare to even handle thes of Saint Abelle were not down here, of course, but were on display in the higher li-brary Jojonah knew the about theeneral mostly, ords about common decency, and open to o and view theht read theht afford him some hint of the true precepts of his Church

What Jojonah most wanted down here was to find the Abbot&039;s Doctrine of that momentous year of the Great Epiphany, but he knew that to be ireat travesties of the Abellican Order that the original Abbot&039;s Doctrine had been lost, centuries before

So the s i the creation of the New Canon Jojonah found nothing Nothing

Atask, but the thought of quitting never entered Jojonah&039;s ical scan, found sos of the early Father Abbots, a turn of a phrase, for instance, that he could never i tome indeed, a s monk, Brother Francis Gouliard in God&039;s Year 130, the year after the first journey to Pi the Great Epiphany

Jojonah&039;s hands trees Brother Francis - and how ironic that name seemed! - had been one of the Preparers on that journey, and he had returned and penned his story!

That alone hit Jojonah profoundly; ed, indeed even prohibited, fro of the place Brother Pelliue, and not coincidentally, he had not survived for long Yet back in Francis Gouliard&039;s ti to the text, to detail their accounts of the journey!

Though it was cool in the dark roo on his forehead, and he took care so that it did not drop on the delicate pages Fingers tree and read on:

to finde thee thy sreye and redde, that theeto all the knoorlde

Master Jojonah sat back and took a deep and steadying breath Now he understood why the abbey held such a huge cache of sray and red! The next passage, in which Brother Francis Gouliard wrote of his fellow voyagers, struck the master even more profoundly:

Thirty-and-three brothers did crewe the Sea Abelle, e o Preparers to Pimaninicuit and back And then did all thirty-and-one (for two had died on the voyage) join in the final cataloguing and preparing

"Brothers," Jojonah mouthed softly "On theSea Abelle They used h breath that would not come A flood of tears streamed down his face as he re-called the fate of theWindrunner and her unfortunate crew, hiredtime to compose himself and read on Brother Francis Gouliard&039;s style was difficult, many of the words too arcane for Jojonah to decipher, and the man tended to pen in a streaically A few pages on and Francis was describing the departure froe

And there it was before Jojonah, an edict from Father Abbot Benuto Concarron in his farewell speech to the good ship and crew, de that the Abellican Order spread the wealth of God, the genity, poverty

The tears came freely; this was the Church that Jojonah could believe in, the Church that had coaxed in a man as pure of heart as Avelyn Desbris But what had happened to so alter this apparent course? Why were thestones of greye and redde still within St-Mere-Abelle? Where went the charity?

"And where is it now?" he asked aloud, thinking again of the poor prisoners Where had the Church of Brother Francis Gouliard and Father Abbot Benuto Concarron gone?

"Damn you, Markwart," Master Jojonah whispered, and he meant every word He tucked the book under his voluht to the privacy of his rooht that he should look in on Brother Braumin, but decided that course could wait, for there was anotherheavily on Jojonah for several days

So he was soon descending once more into the lower levels of St-Mere- Abelle, on the other side of the great abbey, down to the rooeons He was not really surprised when he wasto block his path

"I&039;ll not stand and argue with you, young brother," Jojonah blus-tered, trying to sound i "How many years have passed since you traveled the Gauntlet of Willing Suffering?"

Indeed the for brother! "One year, Master," he said softly "And four months"

"One year?" Jojonah boomed "And yet you dare to block my way? I attained the rank of master before you were born, and yet you stand before o on"

"The Father Abbot - "

Jojonah had heard enough He reached across, bringing his arhard at the youngmonk stuttered over a few protests, but only stamped his foot in impotent frustration as Jojonah continued on down the stairs At the botto monks stood to block Jojonah&039;s way, but he didn&039;t even bother to speak with theain they didn&039;t dare try to physically stop hi every step, while the second ran back the other way - to infor on dangerous ground here, Jojonah knew, per-haps pushing the Father Abbot too far But the book he had found had only bolstered his resolve to stand strong against Markwart&039;s injustices, and he vowed silently that he would not be turned ahatever the punishment, that he would check on the poor pris-oners, just totreated too badly Jojonah was risking a great deal, and could rationally argue that the long-terood called for him to continue to remain quiet and obscure But that course would not do much to help the poor Chilichunks and the heroic centaur; that argument, Jojonah kneas one that odly or cowardly actions

So he didn&039;t even care that he e He pressed on, through one door, by another startled young monk, and down another stair Then he paused, Brother Francis standing before him

"You should not be down here," Francis remarked

"By whose command?"

"Father Abbot Markwart," Francis answered without hesitation "Only he, myself, and Master De&039;Unnero are to be allowed past the lower stairs"

"A worthy crew," Master Jojonah said sarcastically "And why is that, Brother Francis? That you ht torture the poor innocent prisoners in privacy?" He said it loudly, and took so of feet he heard fro behind him

"Innocent?" Francis echoed skeptically

"Are you so ashamed of your actions that theyeyes?" Master Jojonah pressed,forward another step as he spoke "Yes, I have heard the tale of Grady Chilichunk"

"An accident on the road," Francis protested

"Hide thy sins, Brother Francis!" Jojonah replied "Yet they re-main sins all the same!"

Francis snorted derisively "You cannot coe," he protested "You show pity for criainst the Church, against all of Mankind!"

Master Jojonah&039;s answer came in the forht coed to turn so the blow only grazed his face, and as Master Jojonah overbalanced fro hi the man&039;s balance

Master Jojonah squirmed and twisted, but only for a moment, for the blood supply was cut short and his brain, starved, fast drifted into unconsciousness

"Brother Francis!" the youngerto separate the two Francis willingly let go, allowing the heavy Jojonah to sluainst the wood Pacing, pacing, and he fell into the rhyth with it, let it carry hiht seemed harsh to his eyes, which had known so much darkness in the previous days, but as soon as he found his focus, he knew exactly where he was: propped in a chair in the private room of Father Abbot Markwart

Markwart and Brother Francis stood before hi very pleased

"You attacked another an curtly

"An i," Master Jojo-nah replied, rubbing the weariness froood thrashing"