Blacktooth murmured politely in reply, but finally turned his back toward the tipsy smuggler, and faced the five warriors who watched him expectantly with those dark eyes with uncreased lids. He was ashamed of his failure to befriend an alien in a strange land for no better reason than that he was not Wooshin.
“Brother Weh-Geh was killed while defending his master,” he told them—rather loudly to silence Önmu. “I heard it happen, but I did not see it. There were three shots. There were four men holding guns pointed at him when I looked through the door, and he was already down. He had taken a gun he took from one of our guards. If he fired it, he must have missed. I am very sorry. Whether it was a mistake or not, he was living out his duty. He was a better monk than I.”
“Was it a mistake?” asked Jing-U-Wan, the Foreman.
“Who were those four men?” Gai-See wanted to know.
“Did he have last rites?” asked Woosoh-Loh. “A proper funeral?”
“Dare we ask Abbot Olshuen to say a Mass for him?”
Nimmy tried to answer some of their questions and apologize for his inability to answer others. He finished his talk with them by promising to see Olshuen about a Mass for the repose of souls on behalf of Weh-Geh, and he went at once to the abbot’s office. The door was open, and Brownpony was sitting at the abbot’s desk and talking while Olshuen sat on a stool.
“It’s a shame the Hannegan has a monopoly on the telegraph,” the cardinal complained as he finished writing a letter which Nimmy was certain was addressed to the Valanan Curia. He turned sideways at the desk to look at the abbot who owned the desk and he saw Nimmy in the doorway, beckoned him in, and continued. “The Church has the money to hire Filpeo’s technicians. We could build aline from here to Valana, and perhaps from Valana to the Oregonians.”
The abbot said, “Money enough, yes. But what about the copper? I heard Hannegan had to confiscate coinage, pots, and Church bells. Buy it, you might. But who has it to sell?”
“I’m told silver conducts electrical essence even better than copper. And I’m not sure it’s practical, but we have a source of silver.”
“Oh? Where is that?”
Brownpony changed the subject. He handed Olshuen a letter and asked, “What do you think of this? Come in, Nimmy, come in.”
The abbot took it and studied for a bit, holding it so that Blacktooth might read it as well if he wanted to:
To Sorely Cardinal Nauwhat, Secretary of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Concerns.
From Elia Cardinal Brownpony, Vicar Apostolic to the Hordes.
Non accepto!
You know it is not possible to hold a conclave without notification of every cardinal on the continent. The Curia must have recommended to His Holiness that he clarify the law on both resignations and conclaves, and I cannot believe that he made legal a conclave such as the one the Curia has apparently conducted. You know it, and I know it. You must have been a minority in an angry Sacred College.
My imprisonment by the Hannegan forced His Holiness to offer his resignation. But I am free now, and I pray that he reconsider. He is not bound by anything he did under pressure of blackmail; let him renounce his resignation saying that it was forced. If he will not do that, then you must summon every cardinal (including me here at the abbey) to Valana to choose another successor of Saint Peter, complying in every way with existing legislation.
Although I appreciate the irony of electing a Pope that Hannegan just released from jail in a trade-off of this kind, I have to say again, non accepto, as you, Sorely, knew I would.
I await instructions from my sovereign Pontiff, Pope Amen, and when they come, it would please me greatly if you can spare Wooshin to bring them here.
“You ask me what I think? How should I know?” Olshuen said while shaking his head. “In the name of God, m’Lord, I am only a monk of Leibowitz. I am not Abbot Jarad. My only vocation is here, my God is here, and although I am a servant of Holy Mother Church…”
“Oh, bother. Stop, stop, please! I’m sorry I showed it to you. Jarad should have refused the red hat, but the seventh Linus insisted. I know that, and you probably do too.”
“I’m trying to remember if an abbot here ever refused a Pope’s request, m’Lord.”
“Maybe not, but if Amen Specklebird made you a cardinal, what would you say?”
Olshuen hesitated before he said, “No, not even from him.” It was plain that even those who knew him only by hearsay adored the old priest-hermit-magician Pope. But among lovers of power, only Brownpony seemed to feel a deep affection for him.
Nimmy presented his petition on behalf of Jing-U-Wan’s men and their deceased brother, and Olshuen promised a Mass. The next morning Brownpony sent Blacktooth to Sanly Bowitts with the message and gold enough to hire a courier with two horses to carry it quickly to Valana. The messenger promised to ride from dawn to dusk, and by night when the moon permitted, and to wait in Valana for a reply, unless Wooshin replaced him.
While he was returning to the abbey, he met Gai-See riding toward the village. They exchanged greetings and paused for a moment. Nimmy asked why he was going to town, and Gai-See said, “After you left, the cardinal decided to send another message. I have it with me.”
“Another letter to Valana?”
“No. New Jerusalem.” He frowned at himself. “You have a right to ask that?”
“Probably not. I’ll try to forget it.”
They went their opposite directions. Nimmy knew well what the cardinal had to say to Mayor Dion. Somehow a small weapon from their west-coast arsenal had found its way into the hand of Filpeo Harq. Both master and servant had seen it. There seemed to be no other possibility than that New Jerusalem had been infiltrated by the Hannegan’s agent. But he would not ask Brownpony about it, lest he make trouble for Gai-See, who told him the letter’s destination.
While Nimmy in October had found unfriendly attitudes in the atmosphere at the monastery, he now found them downright hostile in early March. He was being shunned again by the professed. On the other hand, some novices seemed to find him much more interesting than before. He tried to find out what had happened since, but “unexpected visitors” was the only mumbled answer he could get to his questions.
The three novices who were in the abbot’s waiting room overheard a shouting match between the abbot and Cardinal Brownpony—or “Pope Brownpony,” as one of them called him—and mentioned it to Nimmy. Very little of the shouting was understandable, but that it was about Blacktooth, they were certain.
Blacktooth decided to confront the cardinal, but upon finding him kneeling before the lady altar praying to the Virgin, he merely knelt beside him and waited. Brownpony stirred, and Nimmy sensed his discomfort. The Red Deacon crossed himself and arose. The monk waited a few seconds and did the same. Brownpony was pacing toward the door. Nimmy shuffled behind him. Hearing the shuffle, the Red Deacon turned.
“Do you want something, Brother St. George?”