bishop

Medieval 6: Giovanni 12 Lost and Found, part 2 of 2

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The circus people got up early Monday morning. They normally got up just before dawn. It came from living in camps where they became attuned to the natural rhythm of the sun. People who normally lived inside spent much more time in torchlight and tended to wake for breakfast, but not before. The two Venetians thought they were being extra early and would not be seen as they arrived at the circus site when the sun still touched the horizon. They were seen by plenty of workers in the growing light, not the least being the roustabouts who were preparing to set up the big tent with Mombo’s wonderful help.

The Venetians scooted carefully through the shadows, from tent to tent, trying to hide though they were seen all the way. By the time they reached the tent where Leonora went in to do her face for the day, Giovanni got the word and he ran. The two Venetians slipped into the tent there, though Giovanni saw them from a distance. He had no doubt who they were and found himself trading places with Kirstie as he, or rather she ran. Kirstie found a sword in her hand.

Leonora screamed as the big one grabbed her. The short one placed the gold crown of Germany on the table before the mirror. “The watch will find the crown in the circus, accuse them of being the thieves, and shut everything down. It should be easy then to see the Kairos condemned.”

“No,” Leonora started to scream, but the big one clamped his hand over her mouth so she could hardly breathe.

“Stop playing with your tart. Let’s go before we are found with the goods.”

“Why does this one look familiar?” The big one asked.

The short one stared for a second before his eyes got wide. “Lady Leonora,” he gasped. “Bring her.” The man turned to the tent door and found a scimitar slice across his throat, nearly taking his head off.

Kirstie said, “Three,” and added the man’s name. “Lind… and Gruden,” she said, looking at the big man. That man tightened his grip around Leonora. Kirstie found her scimitar gone so she pulled her battleax and shield. Gruden had his sword out, but he was not about to let go of Leonora who he used as his own shield. Leonora, however, was not one to be so easily used. When she came to herself, she stomped on Gruden’s toe, wiggled out from his grip, and rolled away from the man.

Gruden tried to rush out from the tent, but Kirstie caught him with her axe in his shoulder. He howled as the axe fell out. He waved his sword generally at the people coming in response to Leonora’s scream, and he ran off in the only way open to him, his arm hanging limp by his side.

Kirstie did not give chase. Instead, she traded places with Giovanni and he hugged Leonora. They were kissing when the others arrived, but quickly Leonora began to cry and pushed Giovanni away. “It’s too late,” she said. “If Gubio gets back to the palace, they will know.”

“They will know?” Rosa asked as she pushed forward to take Leonora’s hand.

“Luigi and Gubio recognized me. They will tell the emperor and they will come looking for me.”

“Lind and Gruden,” Giovanni said, pointing to the man at his feet who was almost decapitated. “Luigi and Gubio? I thought it was Luigi and Mario.” He smiled at himself, but this was no smiling matter.

“I’m serious,” Leonora yelled and slapped him softly in his upper arm.

“Quite right,” Giovanni agreed. “The only thing we can do is take the crown back to Otto and explain how they were trying to plant the stolen goods in order to accuse us of the crime, but we caught them in the act.”

“I’m going.” Oberon said, and many voices echoed that, but Giovanni shook his head to the crowd. “Constantine, Madigan, Oberon and myself…”

“I’m going,” Rosa insisted and Leonora hung on to Rosa’s hand.

“And Rosa. That is enough people to be thrown in jail in one day.”

“Optimism,” Constantine teased. “That is what I like about the circus.”

Sibelius had to come. With Madigan and Constantine they carried the stretcher with Luigi’s body on it. Giovanni wanted to hold on to Leonora’s hand, but Leonora would not let go of Rosa’s hand and Rosa walked between them. When they arrived at the palace, the guards appeared to be waiting for them, and one suggested guards were sent to the circus to fetch them. They got escorted to a big room, an audience chamber, where Otto, some king, possibly from Poland, and the Venetians waited. It turned out Leonora’s father, Lord Stephano headed the Venetian delegation.

“Father…”

“Leonora…”

“Quiet! Quiet for a minute,” Giovanni interrupted and held out the crown to Otto who was grinning before he saw and looked quickly around the room at all his advisors and such. “I believe this is yours. We caught Luigi and Gubio in the act of trying to plant this at the circus in order to blame us for the theft. The question is who hates the circus enough to want to blame us for the crime?” He looked hard at Lord Stephano.

Leonora’s father pleaded innocence. “No secret that I don’t like you, and all the more now that I see you held my daughter prisoner, but I would never do such a thing. You are guilty in my book of too many things to mention. And now that you have despoiled my innocent child…”

“I despoiled no one,” Giovanni objected. “Leonora is in the same virgin state she was when she came to us. I haven’t touched her.”

“I’ll say you haven’t touched me,” Leonora harumphed and turned on her father. She pointed to the young girl that stood to the side. “What were you thinking bringing my little sister Honoria on the road? The road can be dangerous.” They all noticed Rosa who slid over to the girl closer to her age and they were whispering.

“Untouched?” both Otto and Lord Stephano wondered about that one.

“I have reformed,” Giovanni said with his hand up like he was taking a sacred pledge.

Otto frowned but kept to the subject. He asked, “Well, If Lord Stephano did not set you up, who did?”

A woman’s voice came from the back of the room. “It was the bishop. He heard lies about the circus and lies about Don Giovanni and he believed them.” She stepped forward and pointed at the man, much to Giovanni’s surprise because he did not know Madam Figiori came with them.

The bishop proved to have no spine whatsoever, even less than spineless Umberto the saboteur. He did not even imagine denial. He immediately fell to his knees and wept. “Lord, forgive me. I heard the circus was a pagan shrine full of witches and demons trying to entice people away from the faith. Forgive me.”

“So you had the crown stolen, planned to plant it to accuse innocent people of the crime and then planned to lie about it,” Giovanni said quickly. “I think tears are not enough for lying, stealing, and cheating. I think some penance is in order. What do you think?”

“Penance,” Otto agreed. “But I will leave that up to the church if you don’t mind.”

“One thing I like about my friend. You are not only smart you are also wise.” He grinned for his friend and turned to the weeping bishop. “You should come and see the show for yourself. We have some tricks up our sleeves, but it is all human. No witchery. No evil things allowed, and Leonora drags me to church every chance she gets. Anyway, come see for yourself. You don’t want to miss the Don Giovanni Circus…

…The Greatest Show on Earth.” Otto and Leonora joined him on the tag line.

“So, people. We have to get back and get ready for the show,” Giovanni said before the repentant bishop began to confess all the evil things he heard.

“I can’t go back,” Leonora said, and when Giovanni gave her his questioning look she explained. “Now that I am caught, I’m afraid there is no going back for me.”

“What do you mean?” Giovanni asked. “Where else will you go?”

Leonora shrugged. “Back to my father’s house where I will be miserable for the rest of my life.” she shrugged again. “Maybe I’ll marry your best friend, Otto, so we can both be miserable together.”

Otto did not like that idea. “Can’t,” he said. “I am re-engaged to a girl from the Eastern Romans, Zoe something.”

“Porphyrogentia.” The voice came from the back of the room. “Her name is Zoe Porphyrogentia.”

“You see?” Otto said. “Zoe something-or-other.”

‘So, I guess it is home for me,” Leonora said sadly. “Maybe I can make everyone around me miserable too.” She gave her father that mean look. “As I always say, share the misery.”

“But, you always say share the happiness,” Constantine found his voice.

“Makes me want to cry already,” Madigan whispered.

“But what about the circus? What about your family?” Giovanni prodded her.

“Father and Honoria are my family,” Leonora said with a big sigh.

Giovanni reached out for her hand and suggested that he would drag her back if necessary. She got loud as she extracted her hand from his. “Forget the circus. I quit your circus.”

“You can’t quit your family.”

“I don’t care. I quit. Do you hear me? I quit.”

Giovanni growled at her. “Is that your final answer?”

“Yes,” she shouted.

“In that case, will you marry me?” he shouted back.

“Yes,” she growled and threw her arms around his neck and they kissed like they intended to be there still kissing when the sun went down.

Everyone smiled except Leonora’s sister and Rosa who gushed at true love, and Leonora’s father who frowned and put his face in his hand before he seemed to shrug like his daughter. That caused the foreign king who did not quite follow everything to let out a good belly laugh.

“Well, you are not getting my other daughter,” Lord Stephano groused.

Otto got the man’s attention. “Both Giovanni and I have agreed to support your nephew as the new Doge at whatever time your brother passes away. Be content that he is not against you.”

“Father,” Honoria spoke into the silence that followed. “Can I go with my friend Rosa. She has promised to show me the elephant.”

“What a wonderful idea,” Otto said. “Let’s all go see the elephant.” They trooped out of the room. As Otto went by he taped Giovanni on the shoulder and said, “Take a breath.”

Lord Stephano’s comment was more pointed. “Just wait until you have a daughter.”

Giovanni pulled his head back an inch though his eyes and Leonora’s eyes never left each other. He said, “I’m looking forward to it.”

She whispered, “So am I,” and turned red thinking about it before they went right back for kissing round two. That got another belly laugh.

END

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Beginning Monday

If you have read the Avalon stories that have appeared regularly on this blog, seasons one to nine, you might recall that much of the trouble the travelers faced was the result of a demon-goddess who once invaded Avalon and used the Heart of Time to try and change history. The Golden Door is that story.

The Kairos is deathly ill. Avalon is slowly falling apart. History and time itself is threatened, and the four children of the Kairos, Beth, Christopher, David, and James are the only hope of overcoming the demonized goddess and saving the Heart of Time. Don’t miss it.

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Medieval 6: Giovanni 12 Lost and Found, part 1 of 2

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After Heidelberg, they stuck with the river and went through Mannheim, Worms, Mainz, and all the way up to Cologne. From Cologne, they crossed the river and made for Aachen where they arrived on Sunday, July ninth. They were taken to a field where they could set up, but they did nothing except go to church and rest on that day.

Leonora got nervous in Cologne. From there it took five days on good roads to reach Aachen and every step of the way she became more nervous and got grumpy and cranky about everything. She spent that Sunday, the day of rest, hiding in Giovanni’s wagon. She locked herself in at one point and Giovanni had to get Mankin to turn insubstantial, the way goblins can and come up through the floorboards to the inside of the cabin to unlock the door from the inside.

Leonora did not scream or make any indication that she was scared in any way. She just huffed and called Giovanni a cheater. “Cheat,” she said. “Cheater.” Giovanni and Mankin got the papers and ledger they needed and left her alone.

Gabriella could not entice her out with food. Titania and Baklovani could not get her to come out and play a game with them. They were going to play a card game with Madam Figiori’s fortune telling cards. Rosa said that she and the boys were going to practice and they needed her to help and critique their work, but she would not budge.

Finally, Giovanni, Oberon, and Edwina, the knife thrower’s wife with the sheers to trim Harley’s hair came to the door and more or less forced their way in.

“I’m afraid,” she confessed. “I have this awful premonition that after all this time I am going to be found out. It feels like what Madam Figiori must go through all the time. It feels terrible, but I can feel it. People are sneaking around. Your friend Otto is going to find out and I am going to be trapped and forced into a marriage I don’t want.”

“Do you even know what you want?” Edwina asked while she snipped. “I thought I wanted Vader. He seemed so handsome and dashing. Now, he throws daggers at me every night.” She sighed without explaining anymore.

“Yes,” Leonora said. “I know exactly what I want, but someone is too stupid and stubborn for words.” She gave Giovanni her meanest stare.

Oberon looked at Giovanni, who looked distressed. Oberon said, “She must have heard you use the phrase stupid and stubborn, though they do go together like bacon and eggs. Okay, now I’m hungry.”

“There is nothing more stubborn than a man who is wrong but thinks he is right,” Edwina said while she brushed away the cut hair.

“Not just men,” Giovanni said. “It means ignorant people think they know everything whereas intelligent people understand how little they know.”

“No,” Leonora grumped and again gave Giovanni her meanest stare. “It is just men.”

“You know the rule,” he raised his voice a little and gave her mean stare right back at her.

“It’s a stupid rule,” she shouted at him.

“I’m not going there,” he shouted.

Her face turned red with anger. She looked ready to explode, but at the last second it all poured out of her and in a small voice she said, “Maybe you really don’t want to go there.”

“That is not true. You know exactly what I want.” Giovanni growled and stomped out of the wagon.

Sibelius sat on the wagon steps whittling something. Rosa tumbled into the wagon as soon as the door opened. She arrived in time to see Leonora’s tears and hear Leonora say, “Maybe I should go to the palace and turn myself in.”

“No,” Rosa spouted. “You can’t do that.” And Rosa, Edwina, and Oberon spent the next half hour talking Leonora out of that idea.

On that Sunday of rest, they found out that Otto was out of town, but he would be coming in that evening, so that was good. A delegation from Venice was also in town to finalize and sign some trade agreements. Giovanni hoped the Venetians had seen the circus and might encourage the people to go and see for themselves. They also heard that some bishop from the east was visiting the bishop in Aachen and he presumably heard all about the circus. Of course, what he heard was distorted in his mind.

The bishop imagined the circus was full of magic, that is, witches, demons, and pagan practices that would lead people away from the true faith. The circus and circus master had already enticed Otto, and that was a danger to all the people. From the Venetians, he heard all about the immoral adulterer that ran the circus, this Don Giovanni.

The bishop went to the Venetian delegation since he heard the circus was from Venice. He found two Venetians in particular who agreed with him and supported all of his misconceptions. He thought they should know since they came from the same place.

The two Venetians talked about people they called Flesh Eaters. They sounded like cannibals, or demons that consumed the souls of the faithful. They talked about a whole village of witches. The bishop could only imagine witches cursing the ground, making slaves of the people, or worse, making the dead rise up to serve them like the Witch of Endor.

They told how the circus master fit right in there. He was a man who despoiled poor innocent virgins everywhere he went. He made the evil ones, the cannibals and witches, work together for some unknown foul reason and purpose. He used his black arts to travel halfway around the world and brought back a monster, eight feet tall at the shoulder, eighteen feet long and measured in the tons. And the beast obeys him to destroy his enemies.

They also talked about Wolvs in the Black Forest. He heard about the big bad wolves that hid in the darkness of the woods. This circus master bent the Wolvs to his will, so the Wolvs attacked a town on the Rhine and ate many of the people before they were sent back into the woods to wait. Wait for what?

They say this circus master is thousands of years old. He can change his appearance, clothes, and everything so he can hide in a crowd. He can speak every language and is responsible for the rising up and tearing down of all the great civilizations. His power is great to the ends of the Earth, and the numberless spirits of the air, fire, water, and earth worship him and do his bidding.

The bishop spoke to his priests and to the two Venetians. “And now he is here to do who knows what wicked mischief and maybe even sway the emperor against the faith.”

The bishop decided he needed to find a way to shut down the circus before this circus master, this Don Giovanni could begin whatever malicious plan he had in mind for Aachen and maybe for the whole empire. The problem was the circus people had yet to do anything he could honestly accuse them of. He liked to think of himself as a true to godly, upright, and righteous man. He never wanted to be accused of undue prejudice. He wanted real evidence. It was one of the Venetians that came up with the plan, and he endorsed it even if it involved lying and stealing. He figured he could repent later.

Medieval 6: Giovanni 11 And the Wolv, part 1 of 2

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They filled the big tent twice in Ulm and might have stayed for a third show, but Giovanni made them move on. It was the first place they said they would try and come again. It was also the first place where the local bishop showed some hostility. Fortunately, they did nothing to accuse them of, and his spies actually enjoyed the show, so he did nothing to prevent them moving on. Most of the circus did not know this. They left happy and optimistic about the journey. Leonora asked if maybe Nameless or Junior did something on their behalf to fill the tent. Giovanni said absolutely not.

“My other lives are not allowed to interfere in that way. This is my life to live it well or screw it up all on my own. There are strict rules on how any life in the past or future might interfere with the present, but even stricter rules as far as the gods are concerned.”

“We have an elephant,” she said, and neither of them could think of any good reason why Junior would do that.

‘I guess when I was a kid I promised Otto I would show him an elephant. I think Junior did it mostly for me because I should know better than to make those kinds of promises.”

“What kind of promises?” she asked, sounding as innocent as possible.

“The kind where I have to depend on others to deliver.”

“Oh…” She tried not to sound disappointed, but she nodded that she understood. Then she had another thought. “I can’t believe you are friends with the Holy Roman Emperor.”

“Worse than that,” he said. “I may be his only real friend and everyone needs at least one real friend.”

“You are my one real friend. I don’t have any others.”

Giovanni laughed. “You have no friends in the circus?”

“Like friends,” she said. “More like family, like you told me. Oh, honestly, I love them all, well just about, and that is certainly like family, but it is different. You know what I mean…”

He hugged her and laughed again.

Giovanni and Leonora were soft and tender with each other in those days. They often touched and sometimes even kissed. When they got to Breisach on the Rhine, Giovanni said he had a surprise for her. He took her into the village. It was not what Leonora expected and hardly what she hoped for. Giovanni traded places with Genevieve who took Leonora all around the town, pointing out many things that had changed since her day, but many things that were the same. She talked to Leonora as woman to woman. Genevieve liked to talk and, after getting over her initial shock, Leonora got to where she opened up in a way she would never open up to a man.

In the end, it came down to one thing. “I want to be with him and no one else for the rest of my life. Why won’t he marry me? I dream about our children.” Leonora cried a little because he was not there to see her cry.

Genevieve thought about it before she answered, a habit she only picked up later in life, though she appeared to be around eighteen, maybe Leonora’s age. “One of his oldest and most sacred rules is he will never be with one of his little ones in that way, or even half and half’s down to the tenth generation. No matter how tempting that might be, he never will and I never did. I never even thought about that. You see, more than four thousand years ago, he, or rather she became a fairy for a period of time for reasons I won’t go into. She accomplished what she wanted, but during that time she fell in love with a fairy prince and they had a son. When she returned to herself, she spent the next four thousand years kicking herself because, while her son was ninety-nine percent fairy, he had just enough of the goddess in him to be immortal. And I don’t think he ever grew out of being a teenager, if you can imagine four thousand years of that.”

“Goddess?”

“No need to go into that. The point is, he made a rule and he has kept to it. The rule about circus people is like a reflection of that rule, I think. Others may violate the rule. That has to be judged on a case to case basis, but he will not violate his own rule. You are circus now and so he just won’t go there.”

She cried some more and Genevieve just had to say something. “You know, whatever you share with me he will also hear and see. This is his time and place. I’m just a guest. I was born in the year of our Lord 755. Want to know when I died?”

“What?”

“It is funny that I remember it now. I think it is because it happened in the past. It was around 820 because that is when I was born in Wessex as Elgar the Saxon. Would you like to meet Elgar? Wait, I know.” Genevieve vanished at that point and another woman took her place. She still had blond hair, like Giovanni had blond hair, but Giovanni’s hazel eyes that turned medium brown in Genevieve now turned striking blue. This woman’s blond hair was also much lighter, almost like a platinum blond. She said. “My name is Kirstie. I was born after Elgar and I’m not going to talk your ear off like Genevieve. Let me just say Giovanni’s a fool if he loses you, and that is all I am going to say.”

Leonora hugged her and they walked slowly back to the circus. After a while, Leonora did have a question.

“What makes you think he might lose me?”

Kirstie always thought before she spoke, or almost always. “Girls talk about forever all the time, but that is not realistic. Maybe he will get killed. The Kairos is not guaranteed to live a long life. I died young. Maybe your father will find you out. Maybe you will find someone else who will give you those children, not on purpose, but it happens.”

“No, never happen,” she said, and Kirstie was not going to argue with her.

Kirstie stopped their forward progress before they got back into the crowd. Leonora had another question. “Where are you from?” She heard all about how Genevieve was the Countess of Breisach before she married and became the Margravine of Provence. Kirstie said nothing so Leonora asked.

“Norway,” Kirstie said. “I’m one of those terrible Norsemen you heard about.” She smiled and vanished as Giovanni came home and added, “A real Viking who sadly died young.” he held his arm out for her to take. “Lind and Gruden were the assassins. Lind was a short one and Gruden a great big man with a sword. I killed them twice now.”

“Twice?”

“Kirstie killed them, though it cost her life to do it. Actually, she had a busted side and many broken bones and still managed. Then Yasmina after Kirstie killed them again when they were trying to mess up history.”

Leonora nodded. “You said keeping history on track was the main thing. but how could they have been in both places?”

“The Masters, whoever they are, have learned how to give their servants another life. Through them they can really mess things up if I am not careful.”

“The Masters?”

“Demons from the pit of Hell is what I think.”

“And they want to change history?”

“Well, let’s just say they certainly don’t want a good outcome. Don’t worry about it. Look, it is after noon. We have a performance to get to.”

“Oh!” Leonora jumped. “I have to get in costume. I have to get my face on.” She ran off.

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Monday

The circus heads to the capital of the Hoy Roman Empire and Leonora fears she will be caught. Until Monday, Happy Reading

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Medieval 5: Elgar 5 The Parrett River, part 2 of 2

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Eanwulf and Osric had no more questions, but the Bishop of Sherborne had one. “Why don’t we just put all our men in the line and crush them?”

“We tried that twice,” Elgar responded. “It doesn’t work.”

In the morning, fourteen hundred Danes lined up against fifteen hundred Saxon and British troops. Lodbrok kept four hundred men in the earthen works. He planned to have a hundred hold the works for a fallback position while he used the other three hundred in reserve to throw into the line as needed. Eanwulf and Osric kept back their two hundred, but the men looked antsy. When the fighting started, it would take some real effort to keep them from running forward to join the melee.

Elgar took his hundred and twenty horsemen to the ridge where they could look down on the fight. They picked up twenty men who came with Osric and Eanwulf and wanted in on the action. The Bishop also came with a few men on horseback, but they were mostly monks and priests and looked ready to run away if things went badly. Elgar found Pinoak and thirty fairies on the rise. They kindly appeared full sized, dressed in hunter green, and they studied the Danes as they came out to line up for the battle.

“The line is four thick with spears in the second and third rows. They appear to be very good at making a shield wall. Our side will find it difficult to penetrate that wall, but I don’t think the Danes will have as much trouble with ours. Our soldiers are not as practiced, and any openings they leave will be exploited by the Danes. Also, see? We are forming a line five men thick, so our line is not as long as theirs. They may be able to curl around our line on both ends and push in from our flank.

Elgar understood and answered for all the men who were listening. “We need to strike where they curl and push them toward the river.”

While his men got in position to attack, the lines met. Eanwulf and Osric had the numbers, but they did not line up in a way that took advantage of that. In fact, it became clear to Elgar why the Saxons lost twice at Carhampton.

It took Lodbrok a few minutes after the lines met before he threw in his three hundred where they could take advantage of what he saw. One hundred went to reinforce the center of the Danish line, but he divided his other two hundred and sent them to take advantage of the curl. He also knew about the battles at Carhampton and did not think much of the Saxon foot soldiers.

When the Danish three hundred arrived, the Saxon line held, but barely. Elgar had Pinoak message Pinewood and Deerrunner to send the two hundred reserve Saxons to attack the end of the line by the river while he got his horsemen to attack the near end. Even Eanwulf and Osric understood once it was pointed out to them.

Meanwhile, Elgar noted what was happening in the Danish earth works. Marsham and his elves and mostly the men from Combwich came out behind the works and used their hunting arrows to great effect. The Danes had nothing to hide behind as the makeshift mud and stone wall stood at their backs. Then Elgar could not worry about that as his cavalry charged down the slight rise, spears pointed toward the backs of the Danes.

The Danes at the back of the line tried to turn their shields against the horsemen, but being on horseback allowed the Saxons and British to ride around the sloppy shield wall and still hit the unprotected Danes in the rear. It did not take long before the Danes on that end began to pull back. The impact of the Saxon reserves on the other end was not as dramatic, but the two hundred men stopped the one hundred Danes from pushing in on that flank, and in fact began to push in on the Danish end where the Danish shield wall petered out.

Where the horsemen struck, the Danes began to pull back from the fighting. It took a little longer, but on the other side one bright Danish commander recognized that they were out maneuvered. They also began to pull back. Lodbrok recognized that these Saxons were smarter than the ones at Carhampton. He tried to push the center forward with the hope of splitting the Saxon line in two, but all he got was killed for his effort. Once Lodbrok was dead, the Danes abandoned the line. Even there, they showed discipline and order which was not a Saxon trait. Some stayed and sacrificed themselves to hold the Saxons back while most escaped. They quickly recognized their earth works had been abandoned by the men who were left to hold it, so they had nowhere to go but back to their ships.

When the ships began to sail, Elgar slipped from the horsemen and headed toward the Danish earthworks. He picked up Marsham who grabbed a horse and Pinoak who appeared full sized and on a horse, though it was only a glamour. They rode carefully up the hill and through the trees to where the Flesh Eater shuttle parked. They did not expect what they found.

Pieces of Flesh Eaters were scattered all around the area. A hag-beast was on its hairy knees, a sign of worship, in front of a young man with a black goatee, slick black hair, and pitch black eyes. Elgar shouted the young man’s name, and it was not kindly spoken.

“Abraxas! What did you do? Dealing with space aliens is not your job. You do not belong here.”

Abraxas shouted back. “This is the only place I have left to me.” He calmed himself. “I am shaping my place to my liking. It does not serve my purposes to have Flesh Eaters in my front yard.”

Elgar also calmed his voice. “I don’t want them here either. But you need to let me decide how best to get them gone.” He repeated. “This is not your job.”

“My job is to decide and rule,” Abraxas responded, and Elgar saw the stubbornness in the god’s eyes. He felt it prudent to trade places with Danna, the mother goddess, and let her look into those eyes.

“Fire the hag,” Danna said. “I will toss it into the sea.”

Before Marsham and Pinoak could call up their magic, Abraxas vanished, and he took his hag with him. Danna groused and waved her hand. The shuttle weapons were disabled, and the weapons and Flesh Eater equipment on the ground disappeared, to reappear on the appropriate island in the archipelago of Avalon. She waved again, and a twenty-foot deep hole appeared. All the flesh-eater pieces went in the hole and the hole got covered with one big rock and plenty of dirt, the top layer of which instantly grew grass, flowers, and a bush so it was indistinguishable from the rest of the clearing. She left the shuttle there, knowing the Flesh Eater mother ship would eventually be along to retrieve it.

Elgar came back and groused a bit. He turned his horse and carefully rode back down through the trees. As he rode toward Combwich, he heard his dwarfs doing some grousing of their own. Copperhand the dwarf chief complained. “Only three Danes braved the water of the ford. Three! That was hardly worth coming out from the Polden Hills.”

“Maybe next time,” Elgar answered. “We had no way of knowing. You might have faced a hundred or more and been overwhelmed. Thank you for taking care of the three.”

Copperhand mumbled some unrepeatable words and took his people back to the hills.

Marsham, Pinoak, Pinewood, and Deerrunner all vanished back into the wilderness when Eanwulf, Osric, and the bishop rode into Combwich to watch the last of the Danish sails slip into the bay and the Bristol Channel. The three men congratulated each other. Elgar, not in a good mood, put a damper on the celebration.

“We have wounded to tend and dead men to bury.”

Avalon 7.9 The Inns and Outs, part 1 of 6

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After 293 A.D. Nicaea

Kairos 94: Bishop Veritas

Recording …

“Over here,” the man said.  “Follow me.”

Lockhart looked at the man who dressed in a simple brown robe with only a rope for a belt.  The man wore sandals that appeared to be falling apart, and the travelers would have ignored him as one of the uncountable number of poor and destitute people they had seen through their journey, except for two things.   For one, he wore a leather necklace, which held a hand-sized iron cross, and which bounced off his ample belly as he walked.  Rather than a Greek or Thracian from the Roman Empire, it made him look more like a medieval monk—at least the Hollywood version.  For two, and more to the point, when they saw him, he first said to them, “Welcome, friends from the future.”  The man waited while Lockhart considered what to do.  The man spoke again after a moment.

“I know an inn where you, your horses, and equipment can all be safe in the night.  And I know a Ship Captain that will sail all of us to Asia for a reasonable price,” the man said, and he went back to waiting.

“I sense no evil intent in him,” Katie tried to whisper as she held her horse steady.

“I think he is one of the good guys,” Boston spoke up from the rear, making herself heard and directing her voice to Lockhart’s ears only.

Lincoln pushed his horse forward to speak to the man.  “We are looking for Bishop Veritas.  Do you know him?”

“I do, indeed,” the man said, and smiled.  “He is the one who told me about you and asked me to keep watch for you while I worked here in Byzantium.  He said, after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, when the emperor had a vision and the cross appeared on the hill in Constantine’s face—and you did not come then—this is probably the worst time for you to arrive.  He said to expect you any day, and here you are.”

“And where is the bishop?” Alexis asked.  She had followed Lincoln to the front where their four horses presently blocked most of the street.

“He is in Nicaea, where all the bishops argue day and night in front of the Emperor, Constantine.  They gave me a headache, so his grace kindly sent me to Byzantium to see to the construction of the church of God’s Peace.”  The man shook his head.  “It will be ten years in the building, but it will be worth it.  Constantine has brought peace on the whole empire, and in God’s name, it is only right to celebrate that.”

“I see,” Katie said.

“And do you have a name?” Lockhart asked.

“I am Father Flavius of Apollonia.  My companion, whom you will meet, is Galarius, Deacon of Barke.”

Before anyone could introduce the travelers, they got interrupted by a group of soldiers.  “Hey.  Move on.  You can’t park here.  You are blocking traffic.”

“Follow me,” Father Flavius said, and with one more glance at his fellow travelers, Lockhart, with Katie, followed, and the rest of the group trailed behind.

###

When the horses were well stabled, the wagon put up for the night, and the travelers settled into the inn beside the port, Father Flavius, Deacon Galarius, Captain Ardocles and his mate, a skinny fellow named Pinto, that Decker called Beans, ate their fill.  They all enjoyed a fish supper that the priest, his deacon, and the sailors gladly did not have to pay for.  Lincoln had become treasurer for the group, and he had plenty of gold and silver, a gift from Odaenathus and Zenobia.  The coins held the likeness of the Emperor Gallienus, so they were fifty years out of date, but gold and silver held their value no matter whose likeness they had.

“You can’t park here,” Boston repeated the phrase, and giggled.  It was what the Kairos Sophia said to a group of aliens several years earlier, near the beginning of their journey.  Katie and Lockhart both grinned at the memory.  Tony had not been there.  He ate his supper.  Those four sat across the table from the four locals.  The other travelers sat at the other table.

“Sophia,” Deacon Galarius responded in the Latin they all spoke.  “It means wisdom in the Greek.  Was your Sophia a wise woman?”

Those who remembered looked embarrassed.  Sophia had been a whore, but Boston spoke up and said, “Yes.  Very wise,” and that was certainly true enough, so no one argued.

“Yes,” Father Flavius spoke up.  “I argued for Hagia Sophia, the Church of God’s Wisdom.  Galarius, here, argued for Hagia Dynamis, the Church of God’s Power.  But the bishop overruled us.”

“Dynamis?” Lockhart asked.

“Think dynamic, dynamo, or maybe dynamite,” Katie whispered.

“Maybe those other churches will be built one day,” Tony said, and looked carefully at the others, especially Katie, in the hope that he did not speak out of turn.

“But maybe one at a time,” Katie said.  “Hagia Eirene, the Church of God’s Peace seems a good place to start.”

“That is exactly what Bishop Veritas said,” Deacon Galerius exclaimed.  “One at a time.”

Father Flavius nodded, knowingly.  “I don’t know what future you are from, but clearly you know some things we can only guess.  I got that impression that his Grace is connected to the future, too, somehow.  He can quote the holy books word for word, even the Hebrew scriptures.”

“He says the Storyteller reads it to him,” Deacon Galarius interrupted.  “He says he has the hard part translating it all back into Latin and Greek.  Don’t know what language he hears it in.  He has never said who the Storyteller is.”  The man shrugged.

“How did he become a bishop, anyway?” Lockhart asked, with a glance at Lincoln.  That is the sort of question Lincoln usually looked up in the database.  “He usually does not insert himself into local positions like that.”

Lincoln took that moment to put a few coins in his pocket and dump his bag of coins back into his saddlebag, with considerable clinking sounds, and an “Ugh,” as he lifted the heavy saddle bags from the bench to the floor.  Everyone looked.  No one paid attention except Captain Ardocles, who glanced at his mate.  Pinto stayed stone faced.

Lincoln did not notice the others.  He stayed too busy keeping up a lively conversation with Alexis.  They sat across from Decker and Nanette, who sat next to each other, but looked at their plates and scrupulously did not touch each other, or say much of anything beyond yes, no, and I don’t know.  Sukki sat next to Lincoln, across from Elder Stow who ate little and mumbled as he worked on his screen device.  After three days, he did not appear any closer to fixing the device than he was when the wraith busted it.

“So, at the battle of Adrianople,” Father Flavius said.  “Constantine marched under the Labarum, the banner of Christ, and Licinius fought with the pagans, and even hired some pagan goths.  Licinius thought to counter Constantine’s Labarum by putting known Christians in the front of his lines, including a couple of bishops.”

“My old pagan bowing, statue worshiping bishop of Cyrene was there,” Deacon Galarius said, with some disgust in his voice.  “He said paying homage to the gods and making sacrifice to the emperor was the only way he could keep his position and property during the persecutions, but honestly, no telling what he actually believed.”

“Now,” Father Flavius took the conversation back.  “Veritas was a soldier, a young centurion who served in Constantine’s inner circle.  They say he killed the old pagan bishop with his own hand.  The emperor had an idea—always a dangerous thing.  He decided to make Veritas the new bishop of Cyrene.  Veritas swore he was a soldier, and what did he know about being a leader in the church?  Constantine countered that he was also a soldier, and what did he know about being emperor?  He said they would learn as they went along.  The bishop responded with the word, “crap,” though later he said it was the word “carp.”  I don’t know what language that was in, but he explained that a carp was a fish particularly hard to catch, and he got caught.”

“Oh, crap,” a grinning Boston could not resist repeating the word.  Lockhart and Katie grinned with her.  Tony looked more stoic, but none explained the meaning of the word, as Captain Ardocles and Pinto interrupted by standing.

“Lovely stories,” Captain Ardocles said.  “But we have high tide before sunrise.  Me and my mate need to get some rest, so we can load your horses, mule, and wagon straight from the dock when the tide is up.  We will stock the ship during the day and be ready to sail when the tide returns in the late afternoon.”

“Mighty fine-looking horses you got,” Pinto said, as they left.

Tony scooted around the table so everyone could have more room.  “Probably uncomfortable with the talk about the bishop.  They are Christians?” he asked in a casual tone.

Father Flavius paused before he answered.  “Yes, of course.”

“No telling these days,” Deacon Galarius said more honestly.  “Since Constantine’s victory last September, it seems everyone claims to be Christian.  Who knows how much of it is real?”

Father Flavius nodded.  “Bishop Veritas says the church will have to teach every day and twice on Sunday, and maybe the great-grandchildren will actually be people of faith.”  He looked again at the door with some uncertainty on his face.

Deacon Galarius added, “Right now, we are just digging up the hard, crumbly soil and planting seeds.  We are gentle persuasion, prayer, and hard work.  God will bring a harvest in his good time.  We can wait and pray for it, but it will probably come after our time.”

Katie nodded.  “It will be centuries before Europe can be called anything like Christendom.”