When the Saints

CHAPTER 26

The solar was an untidy mess, littered with empty wine bottles and remains of snacks, but Justina had long since learned to ignore surroundings. Settled in the most comfortable chair, she was happy enough, keeping one eye on what Wulf was doing with the Darina slut and Zdenek with the count and baron. Once in a while she would spare a glance for Umbral and Sixtus IV, but more than two conversations were hard to follow.

Suddenly Wulf was there, peering around in the candlelight and looking almost asleep on his feet. “What happened to Joan of Arc?”

She did not even blink at this curious query. “She was condemned to death for heresy by a panel of French bishops and the English burned her. Sit down.”

“No,” he said. “How? Why could she save France and not herself? How could she defeat armies and not escape from a jail?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Make it short!” he roared. “I haven’t got time for more of your stupid games. Tell me!” Menace normally meant nothing to Speakers, but he was a killer and as powerful as any.

Justina folded her hands calmly. He was wearing the Magnus dagger, so she addressed her remarks to that, not wanting to strain her neck. Otto must have bestowed it on him. Well earned, of course.

“Speakers must be controlled. Even Speakers agree on that. Our talent is too dangerous otherwise, as you have demonstrated. You have a hair-trigger temper and kill men on impulse. So we submit to jessing. Each of us has sworn an oath to a workaday, our cadger, never to use our talent without our cadger’s permission. That’s all, quite simple. I am jessed by Lady Umbral, head of our order. That Darina slut was jessed by a man in Italy, who has contracted out her services to Cardinal Zdenek. Both she and her cadger belong to the Saints.”

Wulf scowled and blinked some more. “What’s to keep you from breaking such an oath?”

“Don’t you remember how I warned you to be careful of curses or blessings or oaths? I bound myself with my own talent, so I cannot break my oath without my cadger’s prior approval. My cadger can transfer my loyalty to another, but only with my approval.”

“Then it’s voluntary slavery?”

“No, it’s a partnership. Your cadger cannot give you orders, only permission. You can refuse. Two heads are better than one, you see.”

Wulf nodded, looking either stupid or stupefied.

“Iiem" do wish you would sit down, nephew. I will be seeing Lady Umbral in another hour or so. She will be happy to admit you to the Saints and even jess you herself, which is a great honor. There are several hundred of us, scattered all over Europe, plus maybe a few score cadgers and some dozen branchers in training. We can teach you what you still need to learn. I hope we can also defend you from the Church’s wrath.”

The way the Sixtus interview was going, that hope was becoming fainter by the minute.

Wulf abruptly sat down and leaned his arms on his knees to shout at her. “What happened to Joan of Arc?”

Justina sighed. “She was a haggard, like you; a Speaker without training. She went to see the dauphin. He had a panel of clerics examine her…”

“I know all that! Later, why couldn’t she escape from the English jail? How could they burn her when she could defeat their armies?”

“Because she didn’t have her cadger’s permission to escape.”

Wulf sighed as if a shutter had just opened in a darkened room. “The dauphin!”

She nodded. “She swore fealty to the dauphin, but neither he nor Joan knew about Speaking. The clerics of his court did, and they made sure that her oath of loyalty was so worded that it jessed her-they did not want a juvenile female Speaker manipulating the future king of France and ruling over their heads. So they deliberately did not instruct the dauphin in the proper precautions. He told Joan to go and lead his armies to victory, nothing more.”

“You mean she was not allowed to save herself when she was in danger?” Wulf’s face twisted in revulsion. “Swine!”

Justina said, “Quite. But the Saints know how it is done, and we protect our own. The Church does not burn us.”

Then honesty compelled her to add, “Or very rarely. I know of a couple of cases where falcons and their cadgers became extremely corrupt and we turned them over to the Church for justice. They deserved it, believe me. The system isn’t perfect, but it is the best we have. Even popes have been known to use Speakers for dark purposes.”

“Next question, then. Why wouldn’t you answer my questions this morning?”

“I am answering them now,” she said. “I had to find out how well you had your talent under control, where you rated on the manhood scale, and a few other things.”

“And you concluded?”

“You have nerves of steel and balls to match. In the five generations I have seen, the family has produced no finer Magnus. I am proud to be related to you.”

He blinked. “Then tell me all the other things you held back.”

Justina sighed. “If I told you the moon was blue, would you believe me?”

“No.”

“If you saw it blue, would you believe?”

“Yes.”

She almost smiled at that, which would have been a mistake. Most people would hesitate, suspecting a trap, or waffle about asking for another opinion. Wulf never had doubts.

“You had no handler. Comfort and counsel are what handlers are for. Talent grows in of its own accord and at its own pace, like adult teeth or body hair. We can do little more than advise and reassure. You were taught that the strange powers you were starting to develop were the work of the devil, and you dared not tell people about them. You suppressed them. You invented those Voices.”

“I heard them, I tell you! St. Helen and St. Victorinus.”

She shook her head. “You imagined them. Did they ever tell you anything you didn’t pretty much know already, or could guess? Or that your talent wouldn’t reveal to you? Like the pain you felt when you started experimenting in earnest. That came from guilt and fear of hellfire. Once you gained confidence, the pain disappeared.”

Wulf pouted disbelievingly and straightened up as if his body weighed tons. “What are the words of the jessing oath?”

“Lady Umbral and I will lead you through them.”

He shook his head in exasperation. “Then answer me the most important question of all-where do our powers come from? From God or Satan?”

“You are not ready to know that yet.”

Wulf stood up and stepped back into nothingness.

He had vanished, gone nowhere, stayed in limbo. Queen of Heaven, why hadn’t she warned him about limbo?