The Burning Stone

As soon as Rosvita finished, Theophanu leaned forward to gather tray, cup, and bowl from Rosvita’s lap and set it on the floor. The movement covered her whisper, as quiet as that of the Aoi in Rosvita’s dreams. “Perhaps I should give myself up to Ironhead in exchange for letting Adelheid go.”



“Is our situation so desperate?”



In the dim light it was hard to see Theophanu’s expression clearly. Was that anger or anguish that flashed across her cool Arethousan features? “It is desperate enough. The good abbess has been generous with her stores. But we are seventy-five people and fifty horses in a convent that houses nine. There cannot be more than a week’s worth of food and fodder left. We have taken everything that the nuns have, and won no advantage against our enemy. If I give myself up to Ironhead, then we would not leave the nuns destitute.”



“A noble gesture, Your Highness. But we know what kind of man he is. He would make a poor husband.”



“He would make a husband. I have been patient, Sister. I despair of my father ever agreeing to marry me to any man, or even to the church. Ironhead is ambitious and ruthless. Am I any better in my heart? I would rather have a husband like Ironhead than wait for my father to marry again and displace me with younger children who please him more.”



“It is your words I heard in my dream! I thought it was another voice—”



Was that color in her cheeks? “I beg your pardon, Sister. I should not have spoken so rashly. The Enemy troubles my thoughts.”



“Be patient, Your Highness. Surely in this harsh land Ironhead is having trouble maintaining an army of three hundred men.”



“So we have hoped. But Ironhead is not stupid. I have other news.” Some tone in Theophanu’s cool voice made Rosvita dread what would come next. “You must come with me, Sister. You must see. I am not sure I can trust my own eyes.”



Such a statement could not help but kindle Rosvita’s curiosity, always a flammable thing. She rose and was pleased to find her legs steadier today than they had been yesterday. Theophanu called her attendant in from the hall to help Rosvita dress. Then they made their way down a tunnel carved out of stone that led to the refectory. Light poured in through seven windows carved into the rock high up in the wall, revealing a single trestle table, enough for the nine women who made their home here, and the tall loom at which Sister Diocletia knelt, having just thrown newly-measured warp threads over the crossbar. She acknowledged them with a nod, then grabbed a handful of loose threads and deftly began tying them to a loom weight.



Beyond the refectory a terrace opened out. Rosvita heard the sounds of Ironhead’s camp: mallets and hammers pounding in a ragged rhythm, captains calling out orders, men grunting and cursing. Their cries carried easily, echoing off the monumental rock face of the huge outcropping into which the convent was carved. The terrace was a commodious slab of south-facing rock high up on the cliffside. The sun spread such a pleasant light over the terrace that it was hard to believe it was winter, two days after Candlemass. At a shallow basin hollowed out of the rock, Teuda, the stout lay sister, hunched over, grinding grain into meal. Pots of grain soaking in limestone water sat beside her, next to a basket for the freshly-ground barley. A spacious garden filled the rest of the terrace, cut into quarters by walkways raised above the soil and handsome interlaced screens that served as windbreaks. No doubt the dirt had been drawn up basket by basket from below. Sister Sindula was weeding mint; she was quite deaf, and intent on her task, and did not notice them. But the other lay sister, young Paloma, knelt a few strides away, watering herbs. She set down her ceramic beaker, stood, brushed the dirt on her robe back into the plot, and crossed to them. No older than Theophanu, she already had a withering look to her like that of her elderly companions, as if the wind sucked them dry on this isolated height.



“Come.” She led them to the railing from which they could look down.



Off to the right on a lower terrace, a dozen of Fulk’s soldiers stood guard over the winches. The smaller winch had been damaged in the last attack, one of the support legs smashed by a rock from a catapult. The larger winch held the big basket in which she had been hoisted up on that day six weeks ago, although she recalled it now no more clearly than she would a dream. According to Theophanu, Captain Fulk and his soldiers had devised a broad strap to replace the basket so that they could winch up the horses rather than lose them to Ironhead. She traced with her eye a series of drops and shallower ledges, the ladder path; all the ladders had been drawn up and taken inside. There were also several steep staircases lower down, and an abandoned winch, burned in the first assault. Cliffs loomed above them broken into giant stair-steps that ended in a small tabletop plateau marked by a stone crown: from this angle she couldn’t count the great stone slabs set upright at the flat height, nor could she imagine how anyone could possibly have carried them up this massive outcropping that was almost too steep to climb.