Nancy - The Islands of the Blessed

The stench from the chapel hit him before he saw it. The sick must have fled here, he thought. It made sense, because none of them expected to survive, and what better place to die, for Christians, than at the heart of the church? Straw, now filthy and crawling with vermin, covered the floor. In the midst of this desolation, three emaciated monks and two nuns crouched around a body. Is that all who’ve survived? Jack thought. Seven out of a hundred?

The body was laid out more carefully than he would have expected, given the weakness of the survivors. She was lying on a deep bed of straw covered by a sheepskin, and she wore a crown of flowers on her head. The Bard’s forget-me-nots. They had not withered in all this time.

Beside Ethne, the great cat Pangur Ban stretched out with one paw on her breast.

“Oh, Ethne,” whispered Jack, shocked to his very core. He saw the door of her cell beyond, chopped open. Someone had used an axe to get inside. Unable to speak, Jack automatically felt the heads of the monks and nuns for fever, and they gazed at him from somewhere far away, as though they couldn’t believe he was real. None of them had a fever. They were going to recover. Next, he touched Ethne and recoiled. Her skin was hot!

“She’s alive,” he cried. Pangur Ban lifted his head and keened his sorrow.

“She is dying,” one of the nuns said.

Thorgil came in, dragging the pot. She went back for the cups and passed them around to the survivors. She squatted next to Ethne and moistened her lips with sweetened cider.

Ethne’s eyes opened. They were a beautiful blue, the blue of Elfland, and her face had the perfection of a white rose. Only the spots of red on her cheeks showed the fever that was raging within.

“I see you managed to comb your hair,” the shield maiden said. “It’s a definite improvement.” Ethne wiped the cider from her lips with one delicate hand. “What’s the matter with you?” Thorgil demanded.

“She has chosen to fast,” the nun said. She paused from wolfing down stew.

“That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard,” said Thorgil. “I come all this way to save her, and she can’t be bothered to eat?”

“She is giving her life for us,” said the first monk, who had managed to totter from the lych-gate. “It’s how Lady Ethne plans to gain a soul.”

So it’s “Lady Ethne” now, Jack thought. No one at the monastery had been fooled into thinking she was a real nun. He felt angrier than he could ever remember. Father Severus’ foolishness had talked her into this mess, while the Bard had wanted her to go out into the world. Embracing life was the best way to gain a soul, the old man had said.

Now he was dead and his last wish had been for them to rescue his daughter. Well, Jack would do it—by all the gods, he would!—even if he had to cram stew down Ethne’s ungrateful throat. St. Columba’s staff thrummed and the earth trembled. The monks and nuns grabbed one another. “It’s an earthquake!” one of them cried. Pangur Ban rose to his feet, came over to Jack, and sat down in front of him. The cat’s wise blue eyes observed him, and the boy suddenly felt ashamed.

Never use anger to reach the life force, Jack heard in his mind, clear as clear. It always turns on you when you least expect it. And he remembered that Pangur Ban had been at the School of Bards, even though he’d failed the final exam.

Jack sat down on the vermin-infested straw. All the survivors were eating as rapidly as they could, something that might actually kill them. He found he didn’t much care. “Please explain to me why Ethne has to die,” he said.

The monk who’d opened the door was called Brother Sylvus—one of the good ones, according to Sister Wulfhilda. The nun who had said Ethne was dying was Sister Brecca. Between them, they unfolded the tale of what had happened after Sister Wulfhilda had been locked out.

When the ex-felons realized that they were trapped, Brother Sylvus said, they mutinied. They armed themselves with knives and raided the treasure room. Then they took hostages and threatened to kill them if Father Severus didn’t give them the keys.

“They underestimated him,” said Brother Sylvus. “Our abbot was like Samson, who brought down the temple upon the Philistines. He gathered the rest of us together and said that God would welcome us into Heaven if we died. Then he armed us and we fell upon the rebels. Our hearts were as strong as an army splendid with banners. Our blows were as the hooves of warhorses trampling a field. We slew them one and all.” Brother Sylvus’ face was filled with joy.

“I saw angels fighting on either side of Father Severus,” added Sister Brecca, “and when he slew one of the enemy, a tiny imp came out of the man’s mouth.” The other monks and the nun nodded agreement.

“What happened to the hostages?” asked Thorgil.

“The evildoers cut their throats,” said Brother Sylvus. “Father Severus said that was unfortunate, but you have to remember that all who live are doomed to die. Holy martyrs are assured a place in Heaven. He said you could argue that the hostages were actually lucky.”

Jack rubbed his eyes. A sense of unreality crept over him. He could almost be listening to a group of Northmen explaining why it was good to die in battle and go to Valhalla.

“We had a grand funeral,” said Sister Brecca. “The martyrs were buried in consecrated ground, and the evildoers were buried next to the privies.”

“I suppose they’ll go to Hel,” said Thorgil.

“You can count on it,” Sister Brecca said with shining eyes.

But unfortunately, things began to go downhill after the victory. The flying venom spread, and soon the dead outnumbered the living. Father Severus worked to the last, hearing the confessions of the dying and forgiving their sins. Then he, too, became a victim.

“He chose to fall ill so he could show us the proper way to die,” insisted Sister Brecca. “He was always thoughtful. Always. That dear, kindhearted, saintly man.”

Kindhearted except when he made Sister Wulfhilda carry a glowing piece of iron, Jack thought.

“I saw his soul pulled up to Heaven with golden cords,” said the nun.

Brother Sylvus took up the tale. “He gave me the keys, all except the one for Lady Ethne’s cell. He said that was not my concern.”

So he meant her to die, thought Jack, with a return of his former rage.

“Father Severus ordered me to protect the sanctity of the monastery. Gradually, a few of us began to recover. This was not due to any goodness on our part, of course, but to teach us humility. We were not yet worthy of glory.”

And, of course, they were very, very hungry. They had water from a well, but no food—unless you counted the rats. Rats they had aplenty, great, swaggering, confident beasts that came within reach of your hand. “But we never considered such unclean food,” Brother Sylvus said hastily.

“Why didn’t you just make a quick trip to the storehouse?” Jack asked wearily.

Oh, no. Never. They would never do that. Father Severus had told them with his dying breath that they were not to go outside until spring. Fortunately, Ethne came to their rescue. She called to them from her cell. She had food enough for all. Brother Sylvus didn’t have the key, but he still managed to open her door.

Jack looked at the door, hacked and chopped in a perfect frenzy.

All the packets of dried meat, cheeses, and Pega’s special scones that Thorgil had smuggled in had gone to feed this lot.

And when these were gone, the monks and nuns had begun to starve again. Ethne had never touched a morsel. She had continued to live on the watery, gray gruel handed through her window, though toward the end she ate nothing at all.