"Do you want me to stay?" Floccus asked Athanasius, clearly desperate to be shunned.
"No, no. Go by all means," the other replied. Floccus turned to Gentle and made a little bow. "It was an honor, sir," he said, then beat a hasty retreat.
When Gentle looked back towards Athanasius, the man had wandered to the far end of the mortuary and was staring down at one of the shrouded bodies. He had dressed for this somber place, the loose bright garb he'd been wearing earlier discarded in favor of robes so deep a blue they were practically black.
"So, Maestro," he said. "I was looking for a Judas in our midst and I missed you. That was careless, eh?"
His tone was conversational, which made a statement Gentle already found confusing doubly so.
"What do you mean?" he said.
"I mean you tricked your way into our tents, and now you expect to depart without paying a price for your desecration."
"There was no trick," Gentle said. "The mystif was sick, and I thought it could be healed here. If I failed to observe the formalities out there, you'll excuse me. I didn't have time to take a theology lesson."
"The mystif was never sick. Or if it was you sickened it yourself, so you could worm your way in here. Don't even bother to protest. I saw what you did out there. What's the mystif going to do, make some report on us to the Unbeheld?"
"What are you accusing me of exactly?"
"Do you even come from the Fifth, I find myself wondering, or is that also part of the plot?"
"There is no plot."
"Only I've heard that revolution and theology are bad bedfellows there, which of course seems strange to us. How can one ever be separated from the other? If you want to change even a little part of your condition, you must expect the consequences to reach the ears of divinities sooner or later, and then you must have your reasons ready."
Gentle listened to all of this, wondering if it might not be simplest to quit the room and leave Athanasius to ramble. Clearly none of this really made any sense. But he owed the man a little patience, perhaps, if only for the words of wisdom he'd bestowed at the wedding.
"You think I'm involved in some conspiracy," Gentle said. "Is that it?"
"I think you're a murderer, a liar, and an agent of the Autarch," Athanasius said,
"You call me a liar? Who's the one who seduced all these poor fuckers into thinking they could be healed here, you or me? Look at them!" He pointed along the rows. "You call this healing? I don't. And if they had the breath—"
He reached down and snatched the shroud off the corpse closest to him. The face beneath was that of a pretty woman. Her open eyes were glazed. So was her face: painted and glazed. Carved, painted, and glazed. He tugged the sheet farther back, hearing Athanasius' hard, humorless laugh as he did so. The woman had a painted child perched in the crook of her arm. There was a gilded halo around its head, and its tiny hand was raised in benediction.
"She may lie very still," Athanasius said. "But don't be deceived. She's not dead,"
Gentle went to another of the bodies and drew back its covering. Beneath lay a second Madonna, this one more baroque than the first, its eyes turned up in a beatific swoon. He let the shroud drop from between his fingers.
"Feeling weak, Maestro?" Athanasius said. "You conceal your fear very well, but you don't deceive me."
Gentle looked around the room again. There were at least thirty bodies laid out here. "Are all of them Madonnas?" he said.
Reading Gentle's bewilderment as anxiety, Athanasius said, "Now I begin to see the fear. This ground is sacred to the Goddess." "Why?"
"Because tradition says a great crime was committed against Her sex near this spot. A woman from the Fifth Dominion was raped hereabouts, and the spirit of the Holy Mother calls sacred any ground thus marked." He went down on his haunches and uncovered another of the statues, touching it reverentially. "She's with us here," he said. "In every statue. In every stone. In every gust of wind. She blesses us, because we dare to come so close to Her enemy's Dominion."
"What enemy?"
"Are you not allowed to utter his name without dropping to your knees?" Athanasius said. "Hapexamendios. Your Lord, the Unbeheld. You can confess it. Why not? You know my secret now, and I know yours. We're transparent to each other. I do have one question, however, before you leave." "What's that?"
"How did you find out we worship the Goddess? Was it Floccus who told you or Nikaetomaas?"
"Nobody. I didn't know and I don't much care." He started to walk towards the man. "I'm not afraid of your Virgins, Athanasius."
He chose one nearby and unveiled her, from starry crown to cloud-treading toe. Her hands were clasped in prayer. Stooping, just as Athanasius had, Gentle put his hand over the statue's knitted fingers.
"For what it's worth," he said, "I think they're beautiful. I was an artist once myself."
"You're strong. Maestro, I'll say that for you. I expected you to be brought to your knees by Our Lady."
"First I'm supposed to kneel for Hapexamendios; now for the Virgin."
"One in fealty, one in fear."
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but my legs are my own. I'll kneel when I choose to. If I choose to."
Athanasius looked puzzled. "I think you half believe that," he said.
"Damn right I do. I don't know what kind of conspiracy you think I'm guilty of, but I swear there's none."
"Maybe you're more His instrument than I thought," Athanasius said. "Maybe you're ignorant of His purpose."
"Oh, no," Gentle said. "I know what work I'm meant to do, and I see no reason to be ashamed of it. If I can reconcile the Fifth I will. I want the Imajica whole, and I'd have thought you would too. You can visit the Vatican. You'll find it's full of Madonnas."
As though inspired to fury by his words, the wind beat at the walls with fresh venom, a gust finding its way into the chamber, raising several of the lighter shrouds into the air and extinguishing one of the lamps.
"He won't save you," Athanasius said, clearly believing this wind had come to carry Gentle away. "Nor will your ignorance, if that's what's kept you from harm."
He looked back towards the bodies he'd been studying as Floccus departed.
"Lady, forgive us," he said, "for doing this in your sight."
The words were a signal, it seemed. Four of the figures moved as he spoke, sitting up and pulling the shrouds from their heads. No Madonnas these. They were men and women of the Dearth, carrying blades like crescent moons. Athanasius looked back at Gentle.
"Will you accept the blessing of Our Lady before you die?" he said.
Somebody had already begun a prayer behind him, Gentle heard, and he glanced around to see that there were another three assassins there, two of them armed in the same lunatic fashion, the third—a girl no more than Huzzah's age, bare—breasted, doe-faced-darting between the rows uncovering statues as she went. No two were alike. There were Virgins of stone, Virgins of wood, Virgins of plaster. There were Virgins so crudely carved they were barely recognizable, and others so finely hewn and finished they looked ready to draw breath. Though minutes before, Gentle had laid his hand on one of this number without harm, the spectacle faintly sickened him. Did Athanasius know something about the condition of Maestros that he, Gentle, didn't? Might he somehow be subjugated by this image, the way in an earlier life he'd been enthralled by the sight of a woman naked, or promising nakedness?