The Knight of the Sacred Lake by Rosalind Miles

Author:Rosalind Miles
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307422125
Publisher: Crown/Archetype
Published: 2007-12-17T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 32

The two hooded figures trod carefully down the hill. The first snow of winter had clothed the island in white, and a mantle of ice had all but locked up the frozen waters of its inland sea. Brother Boniface raised his head and savored the biting air. Ahead of them the sky was showing he first late signs of dawn, as the days ran down to the very depths of the year.

“Christmas on Avalon,” he breathed ecstatically. “And this year for the first time we may celebrate in full. Could there be any greater blessing on our faith?”

“Perhaps.” The voice of his brother monk was dubious. To Giorgio, there was only one city in the world where Christ’s day could properly be kept. Rome! The very thought was a stabbing pain. When would he see the City of God again?

“But we do good work here, brother, do we not?” Boniface asked anxiously, watching his companion’s sallow face. “We have done as we were ordered, won the Lady’s favor and gained permission for Christian worship on the Sacred Isle. With each month we have made some small advance. Surely we fulfill God’s will?”

“Perhaps,” Giorgio said again indifferently. The warm olive bloom he had when he arrived had left him, and his handsome face looked lifeless and gray. From October onward, his hands and bare sandaled feet had been inflamed with chilblains, now cracked and bleeding painfully into the snow.

Onward, thought Boniface, onward in the name of the Lord. Aloud he said, “The first Christmas on Avalon is a cause for joy in heaven. How many centuries has this been a pagan shrine? And now we can celebrate the birth of our Lord in this place.”

He lifted his head and threw back his hood, careless of the cold gnawing at his ears.

“By next Christmas, brother,” he said jovially, “we shall have a true congregation here, I do not doubt. A small one, to be sure, and mainly composed of women, for we can only work with what we have to hand. But Saint Paul himself did not disdain to work with females, even though they are God’s lesser kind. He used them widely in the founding of the Church. So may we use these benighted women, and help them redeem the lower nature that God ordained for them. God’s purpose will prevail.”

He looked around him with an expansive sigh. On all sides, a million tiny glimmers of the rising dawn had set the snow on fire. In the apple groves of the hillside below the frost had made a delicate tracery on every branch, and the trees held up silvery fingers to the sky. Yet even now the faint scent of blossom lingered on the hill, and the white doves called from the shelter of the pines. This was a place of magic, Boniface acknowledged humbly, his soul aglow. And he and Giorgio were bringing it to the Lord.

Giorgio watched moodily out of the corner of his eye. Living in close

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