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"Why indeed?" Rosvita glanced away to see Severus exah listened with obvious interest "Yet I have not forgotten the Eagle sent by Princess Theophanu, who spoke of troubles at work in the land, including Quhtened, her features displayed as impassive a mask as ever "Be assured that I have looked, Sister Rosvita I have seen no Quht be raising an arht the barbarians?"
"I do not know the ued by uises A wise n of the cataclys the dreadful fate that awaits it when the Lost Ones work their terrible ic to force their return"
"It is difficult to argue against you, Holy Mother, considering the extent and depth of your knowledge"
"So it is," agreed Anne She lifted a hand At once several servants, previously unseen, hurried out of the shadows The cleric reclining on the couch was lying, it now transpired, on a litter, which made it easy for the four servants to carry her out of the chalimpse of that person, only that she was se that she should observe the whole and yet never speak or be spoken to Yet it was too late to discover who she was now
Brother Severus retreated, as did Hugh, with a swoman went out and shut the door behind her The black hound yawned, displaying fearsome teeth
"Now you will tellRosvita, "why you persist in not trusting iven offense? Have you heard aught ofevil?"
For an instant Rosvita felt the thrill of panic, but she kne to think fast "Only this, Holy Mother Hugh of Austra was sent south to face charges that he had soiled his hands with black sorcery Now he stands as an intimate in the queen’s counsel and you have allowed hie of presbyters"
"Most of which he had already earned by his own efforts during the last days of my predecessor, Cleh that you do not trust?"
It was hard to judge Anne’s age She e, as Rosvita was, or ten years older Time had not ; the weight of time, wisdom, and rank cloaked her She had power, bone-deep and solid, and if she chose to support Henry, then truly there was nothing he could not accoive much, if it were true that Anne meant to support Henry rather than merely use him for her own purpose, to thwart the return of the Lost Ones
Rosvita knew better than to voice such doubts aloud There were, after all, so many other questions that could be answered, now that she had the opportunity to ask theood abbess at Korvei, where I received my education, said I would be both saved and damned by my curiosity I confess freely that I have read the chronicles, and I do not entirely understand your genealogy I beg pardon if what I say appears rude Pray trust that it is only the sin of curiosity that leads me to ask"
"You doubt that I am the descendant of Eer, or of arowled rather louder than before Its whipcord tail thu it
"I have in undis, as you know, Holy Mother" It wasn’t easy to keep her voice even, not with that huge hound glowering at her
"I have seen it" How coolly she spoke those words, considering that the Vita had been written by her own father, a man she had never met "When you have finished the copies your clerics are ladly take such a blessed work into the library here, Sister"
Rosvita kne to s regret, although it hurt "That would be h I was blessed by God as the vessel through whose hands the Vita would pass on its way to you, I ae That he was hidden in the cloister and raised as a monk, I can understand That he succumbed in his autumn years to temptation, I can understand and in truth I pity hie and wisdoht of the woretted to the end of his life any harht have co speech, and a convoluted argument She had to choose her words carefully "But I have never fully understood the identity of your mother, or what happened to her after Hoere you then raised, and in what secrecy, hat education, to find you awake to your ancestry, so learned and so wise, and yet unknown to those of us who have studied the chronicles for all of our lives?"