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It was as quiet as if a spell lay over the palace Pausing once at a break in the here she could see out over the city, she h the streets, crossed in four places by bridges A stuporous haze hung over Darre Had even the buildings fallen asleep?
Pray God autu freely, had to dab at her forehead with her sleeve They crossed into the heart of the palace and came to a door set with the skopos’ seal, a private audience chamber Brother Petrus stood aside Rosvita entered alone
Mercifully, the Tile Chamber was dark and cool, surrounded by thick earthen walls and decorated with pale tiles, set out in geometric patterns said to represent the path of the soul as it ascends through the seven spheres toward the Chaht The skopos sat in a sih back carved in a pattern of linked circles Her ferocious black hound lay at her feet, growling softly as Rosvita approached but not raising its head The chair, elevated on a low dais, presided over a set of benches, five deep, set in a se the dais A table stood between the foremost benches and the dais step
Only five people inhabited the chawoman dressed simply in a pale shift belted with rope, and two elderly people wearing the garb of clerics One lay on a couch in the shadows, half hidden, silent Hugh and the otheropen a scroll A lit lamp stood at either end of the ht did s on the scroll
"Pray approach, Sister Rosvita," said the skopos in her cool voice, extending her right hand
Rosvita cae hound so close that it could rip off her hand with one bite, but it did not react beyond another soft growl as she knelt on the steps to kiss Anne’s ring, the seal of her office "Holy Mother, you honor me with your summons"
Not a flicker of a sht have been carved in stone It was hard to ih Henry had been wise to grant her the skopos’ throne That way, she could never challenge him for the earthly throne "If you will, Sister, exahhat appeared a genuine smile as she took her place beside him The other man, older, with a severe face lined with old resently
"It’s papyrus," she said, "and so likely ancient These symbols in I would say they are heathen and probably ods or perhaps the seven heavenly bodies It is aabout its s made a bell chime in her mind "Here are mountains, a river, a forest, and the sea" She pointed at each as she spoke the word "It seems the map represents the placement of seven sites, towns perhaps, or teh the land equidistant froed by mountains Each site is represented by seven n: six in a ring around a central seventh"
"What is it a map of, Sister Rosvita?" asked Anne
The elder h took a step away from the table
Rosvita had learned in a hard school not to betray surprise, and she did not do so now, as an inkling of what she was looking at lit in her mind "Perhaps the continent of Novaria, Holy Mother This sea could be the north sea, and here ht be the middle sea, and these the Alfar Mountains It is a crude representation, if so, but I have seen sailors’ maps that show a similar outline of the coast I have myself crossed the Alfar Mountains three times and know that they stand in about this place"
"What do you know about the co cataclysm, Sister?" asked the Holy Mother "About the attack of the Lost Ones, ish to regain their e lant spoke of a cataclys’s progress last spring But they both left when it appeared to the to heed their words"
"Did you heed them?"
"I would need more evidence, Holy Mother I confess it is a difficult story to believe I have read ood souls have cried out to warn the regnant of a co disaster only to discover that they wereof the stars, or the omens, or the Holy Verses themselves God’s will is a difficult book for mortals to read"