He awoke when the cart stopped. The moon illuminated the torn edges of the clouds. Crosses raced through the clouds, cleaving them into pieces. As Arseny looked at the dark, massive cupolas, he thought he had never seen such a tall building. They looked more significant and mysterious in the night darkness than during the day. This was a House of God. It glowed inside with the light of hundreds of candles.
The new arrivals began by bowing to Saint Kirilclass="underline" a total of twenty-eight years had passed since the day of his death. And eight years since the day of his Glorification. After placing candles at the venerable man’s reliquary, Christofer and Arseny stepped back into the semidarkness. From there, they listened to the end of the all-night vigil. From there they saw Elder Nikandr come into the center of the church and begin preparing those who had arrived for Confession.
After the elder had pronounced the prayer, he took a small—only an octavo—notebook titled Sins of Medium Gravity Characteristic of Laypersons and Clericals. Minor sins were not included in the notebook because they were not considered worthy of being pronounced aloud. (Repent of them on your own, he taught his flock, don’t pester me with them. Nonsense like this could mean you don’t make it to what’s important!) To avoid immortalizing serious sins, the elder did not write them down. He asked that they be conveyed directly into his ear, and he then entombed them in that ear for the ages.
The list of sins of medium gravity included tardiness in arriving at a church service, or its opposite, leaving the service prematurely. Or—during the aforementioned service—wandering around the church, and having extraneous thoughts. Improper observation of a fast, laughing to the point of tears, coarse language, idle talk, winking, dancing with devilish minstrels, using false measurements and false weights with a customer, stealing hay, spitting in someone’s face, striking with a scabbard, starting rumors, condemning a monk, gluttony, drunkenness, and spying on bathers. Elder Nikandr’s list was only beginning when Arseny sensed his eyes closing again.
When, toward morning, they moved on to personal Confession, Arseny and Christofer had almost nothing to add. It turned out that there were surprisingly few life situations Elder Nikandr had not foreseen. Christofer hesitated as he was confessing, and looked the elder in the eye.
What do you want to read in my eyes? asked the elder.
You knowest that yourself, O father.
I will tell you only that the reckoning does not go on for years. And not even for months. Accept that information calmly, without sniveling, as befits a true Christian.
Christofer nodded. He saw the weary Arseny crouched by a pillar at the other end of the church. The wind tore in through doors that continually opened and closed, and a chandelier swayed over the boy’s head. The candles’ flames flickered and stretched but did not go out. From the dampness in the wind, Christofer understood that the weather had warmed toward the end of the night. He heard the calls of distant roosters but beyond the church walls it was darkness that still gaped, cut into tidy rhombuses by the grated window.
Christofer inspected the house carefully after they returned from the monastery. Two days later, the logs and boards he had ordered were brought from the quarter. Christofer and Arseny propped up the roof frame with a beam then changed the upper courses of logs, which had rotted from rain and warm condensation. Christofer tested the joints between the logs’ framework and plugged the many cracks with flax and moss. He then replaced holey floorboards with new ones. An aroma of freshly planed wood spread through the house along with the smell of herbs. Arseny sensed haste in Christofer’s work but he helped his grandfather without asking anything.
When dusk settled in, Christofer would test Arseny’s knowledge on the subject of herbs. He corrected or supplemented Arseny’s answers as necessary, but he rarely needed to: Arseny remembered superbly everything Christofer had ever told him.
On other evenings, Christofer looked through his books and manuscripts. He glanced through some quickly, stopping at certain pages and reading them, as if in thought. He moved his lips. Sometimes he would tear himself away from a page and look at the splinter lamp for a long time. This behavior surprised Arseny because in their home everything was usually read out loud.
What readest thou, O Christofer?
Books of Abraham not from the Holy Scriptures.
Go on, reade it out loud, I shall listen.
And so Christofer read. He moved the manuscript away from his eyes like an old man and read about how the Lord sent Archangel Michael to Abraham.
The Lord sayde:
Say unto Abraham that the time has come for him to go forth from this life.
Archangel Michael set off to see Abraham and returned again:
It is not so simple, he said, to announce a death to Abraham, a friend of God.
And then everything was revealed in a dream to Isaac, son of Abraham. And Isaac arose during the night and began to knock at his father’s room, saying:
Open the door for me, father, because I want to see that you are still here.
When Abraham opened the door, Isaac threw himself upon his neck, weeping and osculating him. And Archangel Michael, who was spending the night in Abraham’s home, saw them weeping and wept with them, and his tears were as stones. And Christofer wept, too. Arseny wept seeing how the ink on the sheet grew vivid from Christofer’s teardrops.
And the Lord ordered Archangel Michael to adorn Death—who was coming to Abraham—with great beauty. And Abraham saw that Death was approaching him and he was very afrayde and said to Death:
I implore thee, tell me, who may this be? And I ask you to get away from me, for my soul became confused when first I saw you. I cannot abide your glory and I see your beauty is not of this world.
While the boy slept during the nights, Christofer wrote on birch bark about those properties of herbs that he had not previously revealed in full to his grandson because of his youthfulness. He wrote about herbs that bestowed oblivion and about herbs that promoted bedroom thoughts. About dill, with which to sprinkle hemorrhoids, about the herb chernobyl, known as wormwood and used against wizardry, about ground onion to treat a cat bite. About the plant scarem that grows in low lands (do carry it on your person ther, wher thou wish to ask for some money or bread; yf you ask a man, place it on the right side under your shirt, on the left yf you ask a woman; yf there are minstrels playing, toss that herb under their feet and they will fight). To fend off temptation and wanton daydreaming, drink a tisane of lavender. To verify virginity, drink water in which an agate has lain for three days: after drinking the agate water, a woman who has lost virginity will not be able to hold the water within. Carrying turquoise on one’s person protects from murder because that stone has never been seen on a murdered person. A stone from a rooster’s stomach returns states taken by an enemy. He who wears a magnet is pleasing to women. Golde rubbed and taken internally cures those who speake unto themselves and ask questions of themselves and answere themselves and become downhearted. Dry, grind, and dissolve wild-boar lung in water. He who drinks this water will not become drunk at a feast. That is all.