Kate Elliott - Crown Of Stars 03 by The Burning Stone

Author:The Burning Stone [Stone, The Burning]
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2010-01-07T07:25:51+00:00

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"Heribert? Nay, I speak of Prince Sanglant."

"Ah, yes. He is much attached to the flesh, I believe."

Zoe shuddered.

"None of us can escape the flesh." Brother Severus emerged from .the tower, lantern in hand. "Not

while we still walk on this earth, at any rate. He's a bad influence on the girl. As long as he is around,

there is no hope she can learn with a focused mind. Pregnant!" He said the word with distaste. "She is not

what we were led to expect."

Zoe shuddered again. "It's disgusting. I can hardly stand to look at her, with that swelling belly. It's a

deformity of the clean flesh she might have, had she kept herself a pure vessel."

"Who among us has been given leave to cast the first stone?" asked Antonia mildly. "Not one of the

women in this valley is unstained, even Anne, who gave birth to the girl, after all. For the men, of course,

I cannot speak." But she often wondered about Severus, the old prune. He had the kind of self-important

arrogance that in her experience might cover a multitude of sins, now since conveniently forgotten.

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He only raised an eyebrow. "That is of no matter. We expected a pure vessel, but now we receive

one that is broken. It is not just this carnal marriage that has made her so, but her entire association with

that creature. The prince is a danger to everything we've worked for. See how the servants cluster

around him when they ought to be engaged in tasks for us."

"Better under our eye than where he can work mischief hidden from us," retorted Antonia.

"An argument Sister Anne has used. It may even be true. But it seems to me that we could simply

rid ourselves of him once and for all time, and that would be the end of it."

"He is not so easily killed," said Sister Anne, emerging from the tower with Sister Meriam walking

slowly behind her, "although I am in agreement that his influence on Liathano works counter to our

purposes."

Meriam had become increasingly frail over the past several months, and her voice was scarcely

more than a whisper, thin and dry, but her mind had not lost any of its penetrating strength. "We were all

young once, and the young are most susceptible to temptation. I sometimes think that only our absent

Brother Lupus may have remained faithful to his vows."

"A commoner!" Severus looked toward the hall, now lit by wands of light that glowed as softly as

will-o'-the-wisps. "Hardly the creature such as we ought to measure ourselves against, Sister Meriam."

"We had a saying in my country, Brother: that a rich man might as easily become a slave as a poor

man might, if God so wills it. Fortune is fickle, and a poor man might become rich, or a slave become a

general, by God's design."

"The sayings of infidels can be of little interest to us," retorted Severus coolly.

"Let us go in to supper," said Zoe, standing hastily. "Then perhaps we may eat our fill before the

dog returns. I hate having to watch him eat.

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