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."What are those cairns?" asked Pierrette, a half hour into their journey."Women add stones to them," replied Cerdos."They place one for every childthey wish to bear." He shrugged."Perhaps the Magdalen counts them.""Perhaps.the goddess does.""Indeed.It's said the longer they carry them before they place them on acairn, the higher on the trail, the more likely the begetting.The women whobuilt these first cairns must not have cared much.""Perhaps their husbands made them come here," said Ferdiad."Not all womenwant children." He looked toward Pierrette."You haven't picked up anystones.""I won't.I made that decision long ago," she said.Her eyes moistened despiteher plain words.* * ** * *Years before, Guihen had warned her.She had been only a child, trudgingtoward the Eagle's Beak to take service with the mage Anselm the first of manytimes she tried, but Guihen had blocked her path."If you knock on that gate, you won't return to Citharista unchanged," thesprite had said."Would you deny yourself an ordinary life: husband, children,a place to call home?"Pierrette had hesitated."Go back, or be doomed to make your bed in strange places.Go back, lest timeitself bend about you.You won't find what you seek for a hundred hundreds of years! Go home," hecommanded."Enjoy what little you have, for it is sweeter by far than whatawaits you here."On another attempt to reach the cape, someone else had stood in her path."Goback, child," said darkYan Oors.From the brush and stones his two ghostly companions' ursine eyesglowed."Seek happiness,file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Douglas,%20L%20Warren%20-.l%20Of%20Tears%20(chunky%20HTML)/0671319973___6.htm (2 of 12)2-1-2007 14:13:12- Chapter 6for there is no joy in wisdom." She had heeded those admonitions for a while.* * *Pierrette had decided.Now Ferdiad saw her tears."I'm sorry," he said."Don't be.If I and the world I love survive this onslaught, I'll come backhere someday.""Lord, take pity on us," cried out the monk leading a group of pilgrims."O Christ, take pity on us," responded the pilgrims."Lord, take pity on us," repeated the monk, as the furthest pilgrimsdisappeared in the foggy drizzle.Stone monuments were set in the ground at intervals.Pierrette had paid noattention to the first ones.Now she saw that the clusters of pilgrims stopped at each one, and the monkwho guided them led them in an incantation."Holy Trinity which is one God, take pity on us.""Saint Mary, Mother of God, pray for us," responded the laiety."Saint Mary Magdalene, carrying the alabaster vase, full of perfume."When Pierrette approached the stone, she saw that it had been carved,depicting a woman carrying a vessel."The walk the pilgrimage itself isworship, isn't it?""How could it be otherwise?" Ferdiad asked."Isn't every act a celebration,Page 36ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlevery meal a mass? If not if this life is only a prelude to what reallycounts then why not seek an early grave, and get to the meat of it rightaway?""You don't sound very Christian.""My countrymen kept the holy books when the Roman Church lost them," he said."Our Bishop Morgan taught that good and evil alike are men's and women'screations, and that we must not simply endure life, but use it to become likeChrist ourselves.""That sounds like Pelagius."" `Morgan' and `Pelagius' both mean `from the sea.' "file:///K|/eMule/Incoming/Douglas,%20L%20Warren%20-.l%20Of%20Tears%20(chunky%20HTML)/0671319973___6.htm (3 of 12)2-1-2007 14:13:12- Chapter 6"Then if Bishop Morgan is right, never to know a hearth of my own isn't reallya curse, is it?""Your words, not mine," said Ferdiad with a smile.Water trickled between mossy stones, tiny rills with a source high above, inthe rocks.Like the vale ofMa, beech trees grew there, shaded in summer by the high scarp, their roots deepin moist soil sweetened with decayed limestone.They grew thicker in girthbetween one monument and the next [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]