Rudi grinned at him through the drifting mist of steam. The men of the party were all seated on the pine-board benches that made a half circle around the hearth; occasionally a little door would open, and the attendant would stretch in tongs to drop a new heated rock, clack on the pile. The hot wet scent of the wood was an aromatic blessing in his lungs; he could feel the sweat carrying all impurity out of his body, and the memory of the ice floes? white grinding death with it. ?I?ve noticed, my lord Gervais, that you complain and complain.. . but sure, you keep going just the same!?
Odard cocked one black brow without opening his eyes, leaning back with his arms along the front of the bench above. The wintertide journey had thinned him down to muscle and gristle and bone, as it had all of them, and he hadn?t had much spare flesh to start with. ?And what else can I do, your Majesty?? he said.? Stop? Around here? If I ever get back, wild horses hitched to triple reduction gearing won?t get me out of Barony Gervais.? ?You?d be bored silly in six months,? Rudi said.
Odard?s voice grew dreamy:?Bored? I?ll spend my time lying in a hammock under blossoming peach trees or a pergola of roses, looking out over the vineyards, and giving my loyal peasants an encouraging twiddle of my fingers now and then. And eating pineapple pyonnade and composing poetry about my heroic deeds. Pretty girls will fan me in the summer heat and drop peeled grapes in my mouth and sing for me. When winter comes, I?ll go on a fearless quest-as far as the castle solar, where I will read stories about other people?s adventures and sip real coffee with good brandy in it, as a fire crackles in the hearth and the radiator gurgles.?
Ingolf took up the bundle of birch twigs, dipped it into the bucket and flicked water onto the stones. Steam billowed up with a sharp hsssssss, and someone on the upper tier groaned in pleasure-Rudi thought it was Father Ignatius, and nobody could say he wasn?t a hardy man. He?d certainly done a full share of the work, and more than his share of scouting on the long rearguard. ?We?ve got saunas like this in Richland, too,? Ingolf said. With a grin at Odard:?After you boil for a while and feel just like a ham, you run out and roll in the snow, or jump into a hole cut in the ice over the river.?
The baron of Gervais shuddered theatrically.?Saints have mercy! Even the Bearkillers don?t do that.? ?No, really, it feels good,? Ingolf said.?You just don?t stay out long enough for your body to lose the heat that?s soaked in.? ?That?s what you do, perhaps,? Odard said.? I do not. I?m saving up the heat to hoard like a Corvallis moneylender?s gold in a vault.?
Fred Thurston had been sitting silent, like a statue of old bronze sheen ing with a thin film of oil. Now he stirred: ?These people are Asatruar, aren?t they?? he said
Mary and Ritva could tell him what they?d learned in their mother?s household, and they?d been able to find him a few books along the way, but he was anxious for the reality of the tales that spoke to his heart. You couldn?t learn much of a faith until you saw how it shaped the souls of those who followed it. ?Yes,? Rudi said.
Someone sighed; definitely Father Ignatius this time. Since Fred had been a nominal Methodist originally, the Mackenzie didn?t think the priest had much ground for complaint, and went on: ?So I?d judge from what we?ve seen and heard. Probably it spread here the way the Old Religion did from Dun Juniper, because the ones who brought them through the Change followed it.?
Which to be sure is also why nearly everyone around Mt. Angel is a Christian of the Roman rite, he thought. Or why most are in the lands the Association rules. Sigh as you will, Father, but turn about is fair play. Aloud he went on: ?And hospitality is sacred to them as well, of which I?m glad. I was worried to death about Epona, that I was. She?s a little old for travel like this, which would be hard on a horse of half her years. But they?re treating our beasts right royally, as they are us; nice tight barn, blankets, warm mash, clean water and straw, fodder of the best.?
Fred nodded agreement.?They seem like… solid people,? he said.?Indeed, the which is what I?d expect. What those Gods they follow value in a man is courage and loyalty, and above all the hardihood of soul to stand and endure and strive, never flinching. Nor would they have come so well through such years-and in a hard place like this-unless they had those things in truth.?
Odard shuddered.?Oh, the ancestral virtues! Next you?ll say they venerate clean living and hard work.? ?As a matter of fact…? Rudi replied.
Fred snorted, and said:?How long do you think we?ll stay? I?d like to… learn a bit.? ?A week or two at least. We have to learn the lay of the land here, and the road to the coast, and where we can hope to find a vessel, one willing to carry us in this bleak season. And to tell the truth I?d like to leave our horses and a couple of our wounded here, if we can arrange that. Then a dash to the sea, a dash to Nantucket, and back. Though how by the brazen gates of Anwyn we?re to return through that mess we left behind us…? ?These folk keep the twelve days of Yule, don?t they?? Edain said. ?Twelve days of feasting… after the trip we?ve had, that would be just about what I could use, so! And we?d not lose much time. We were slowing that last week or so because we were worn, ourselves and our beasts both.? ?It?s lucky we ran into someplace that could put us all up in midwinter,? Ingolf said thoughtfully.?As well as being well disposed, I mean. We?ve had to move quick a lot to keep from eating people bare. Of course, we?re supposed to be moving quickly.?
They all laughed; quickly was for short trips. When you had a three-thousand-mile journey one way and the prospect of three thousand miles back, haste lost all meaning. Even for a small picked band a journey of that distance could only be made at walking speed, fifteen miles a day averaged out over the whole, and you?d count yourself lucky to maintain that. They had been lucky, since their stay at the Valley of the Sun had been the only time they?d been stuck in one spot for many months by illness, wounds or weather.
Rudi shook his head and poured a dipperful of water over it, enjoying the cool shock. ?Not just luck; it?s little we?ve found on this journey of either good or bad that?s mere chance in the way most use the term. And we?re moving as quickly as we can while doing what we?re supposed to be doing, of which collecting the Sword is an essential part, but only a part. What did Tsewang Dorje say to me, back at Chenrezi Monastery.. .?
He thought, and the wise wrinkled face appeared in his mind?s eye, amid the pleasant austerity of his chamber: ?Can light exist without shadow?? he quoted.?So, I tell you that when you seek to do the will of the gods, and help men rise through the cycles, your very inmost thoughts awaken hosts of enemies that otherwise had slept. As sound awakens echoes, so the pursuit of Wisdom awakens the devil?s guard.? ?I would not put it in just those words, my son, yet the good Abbot is a very wise man, in his way,? Ignatius said thoughtfully. ?But I would guess that he told you more.? ?That he did. This: But I do say that if you are in league with Gods to learn life and to live it you shall not only find enemies. You shall find help unexpectedly, from strangers who, it may be, know not why.? ?A very wise man indeed,? Ignatius said, swinging his feet down and sitting upright on the bench, his whipcord body dim in the gloom. ?And a holy man, I think. I learned things of great value in the Valley of the Sun; we all did.? ?Even though his is the Way of the Buddha?? Rudi said, his voice slightly teasing.
The priest spoke with a chuckle in his voice, his narrow dark eyes ironic and a finger tapping the air in mild reproof: ?You know the answer to that, my son; you rolled in enough logic at Mt. Angel for some to rub off. When men differ from the magisterium of Holy Mother Church, they are in error. But when they agree with it
… why, that simply shows that all truth proceeds from God. We of the Church have it in fullness by revelation in Scripture and from the holy Saints and the Fathers, as well as by reason and moral intuition. But all men can discover some of it, if they truly seek virtue and wisdom, wherever they start the journey. How not? These things come from only one source and it speaks to every heart that listens. So yes, the Rimpoche is a holy man, and so, in my view, was the Buddha-or Plato, for that matter. But how much better would they have been, if only they had the fullness of the Divine Logos to guide them!? ?Well, now, there?s a circular argument, if I ever heard one!?