Mage Quest by C Dale Brittain

Author:C Dale Brittain
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, 9780671721695
ISBN: 0671721690

PART SIX

C\t\\ Atib Emir's

I

"Hie Church of the Sepulchre is the most holy spot in Christendom," read Joachim

from his guidebook. "Every year on Good Friday all the lamps and candles here and, indeed, in all the Christian churches of the Holy City are extinguished.

On

Easter morning fire from heaven kindles the lamps. Then all the bells in the churches of the city are rung, and the holy flame is used to relight the lamps

in all those churches."

I looked around, impressed in spite of myself. Normally I would have doubted a

story of fire from heaven as a tale for the credulous or else the work of an unacknowledged wizard. But in this small circular church, whose porter had waited to let our group in until the previous group of pilgrims had gone, it was

impossible to doubt. Between the columns that ringed the church were mosaic depictions of the crucifixion and resurrection; written all the way around at the top of the wall, in the old imperial language, was the message, "GRAVE, WHERE IS THY VICTORY? DEATH, WHERE IS THY STING? FOR AS IN ADAM ALL SHALL

DIE,

EVEN SO IN CHRIST SHALL ALL BE MADE ALIVE."

The church with its mosaics, altars dedicated by the various eastern and western

groups of Christians, and silken hangings was not the rough cave I had expected.

In the center there was no roof, only a wide, circular opening through which the

chaplain told us the fire

Mage Quest

205

from heaven descended. The hot air from the opening made the flames of the silver lamps sway, their light dancing on the precious stones of the altars.

'This way," said Joachim quietly. He led us out not the way we had come but to a

door on the opposite side which opened onto a dark, cramped stairway cut into the rock. Dominic and Ascelin kept their heads well down as we eased ourselves

around the spiral. We emerged into the cave I had expected to find in the church

above, the Sepulchre itself.

Candles burned at either end of a stone slab, two feet across and as long as a

man. The slab, of course, was empty. It struck us, or at least me, even more powerfully than the decorations and the lamps of the church above. We did not speak but knelt by the slab until another porter came over and told Joachim in a

low voice that the next group of pilgrims was waiting to enter.

We left by a narrow door at the far end, not quite looking at each other. But I,

at any rate, and I thought the rest, felt that we had truly reached the goal of

our pilgrimage.

The duchess and I should try to be here at Easter," said Ascelin a little louder

than necessary as we came up a flight of steps into bright daylight.

"We haven't been to the Mount of Olives yet," said Joachim, his solemnity falling away in the sunshine. For the last week or more he had been as eager and

enthusiastic as a boy, as all the towns we passed began to be places mentioned

in the Bible.

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