near again. No. Philin said. What I think is that I want my boy to live. What do you offer for him?' Thomas asked.
Your life. Philin said. If you keep my son then we shall bring other men here, many men, and we shall surround you and wait for you. You will both die. If my son dies then you will die in such agony, Englishman, that all the torments of hell will seem a relief afterwards. But let Galdric live and you both live. You and the heretic.
You know who she is?' Thomas was surprised.
We know everything that happens between Berat and the mountains. Philin said.
Thomas glanced back up the mound of rocks, but Genevieve was hidden. He had planned to beckon her down, but instead he stepped away from the boy. You want me to take out the arrow?' he asked Philin.
The monks at Saint Sever's will do that. Philin said. You can go there?'
Abbot Planchard will always take a wounded man.
Even a coredor?'
Philin looked scornful. We are just landless men. Evicted. Accused of crimes we did not do. Well. he smiled suddenly and Thomas almost smiled back,“ some we did not do. What do you think we should have done? Gone to the galleys? Been hanged?” Thomas knelt beside the boy, put his bow down and drew his knife. The boy glared at him, Philin called out in alarm, but then went silent as he saw that Thomas meant the child no harm. Instead Thomas cut the arrow head from the shaft and put the precious scrap of metal into his haversack. Then he stood. Swear on your boy's life. he ordered Philin, that you will keep your word. I swear it,' Philin said.
Thomas gestured towards the high rocks where Genevieve sheltered. She is a draga,“ he said. Break your oath, Philin, and she will make your soul shriek.”
I will not harm you.“ Philin said gravely, and they. he looked at the other coredors, will not harm you either.” Thomas reckoned he had little choice. It was either trust Philin or resign himself to a siege in a high place where there was no water and so he stepped away from the boy. He's yours.“ Thank you,” Philin said gravely. But tell me . . .“ These last three words checked Thomas who had turned to lead the horses back to the rocks. Tell me, Englishman, why you are here? Alone?” I thought you knew everything that happened between Berat and the mountains?'
I know by asking questions,“ Philin said, stooping to his son. I'm a landless man, Philin, a fugitive. Accused of a crime I did commit.”
What crime?'
Giving refuge to a heretic.'
Philin shrugged as if to suggest that crime ranked very low in the hierarchy of evils that had driven the coredors to outlawry. If you are truly a fugitive,“ he said, you should think of joining us. But look after your woman. I did not lie. She is wounded.” He was right. Thomas took the horses back to the rocks and he called Genevieve's name and when she did not answer he climbed up to the gully and found her with a crossbow bolt in her left shoulder. It had pierced the silver mail and shattered a rib just above her left breast, close to the armpit, and she was lying there, surrounded by the ugly black quarrels, breathing shallowly, her face paler than ever and she cried out when Thomas lifted her. I'm dying. she said, but there was no blood in her mouth and Thomas had seen many others live after such wounds. He had seen them die too.
He gave her a lot of pain as he carried her down the rocks, but once at the foot she found some small strength to help herself as Thomas lifted her into the saddle. Blood ran down her mail, trick ling between the rings. She slouched there, eyes dull, and the cor edors came close to stare at her in wonderment. They stared at Thomas too, and made the sign of the cross as they looked at the big bow. They were all thin men, victims of the region's poor harvests and of the difficulty of finding food when they were fugitives, but now that Philin had ordered them to put up their
weapons, they were not threatening. They were, instead, pathetic. Philin spoke to them in the local language and then, with his son mounted on one of the scrawny horses with which the coredors had pursued Thomas and Genevieve, he started down the hill towards Astarac.
Thomas went with him, leading Genevieve's horse. The blood had clotted on the mare's haunch and, though she walked stiffly, she did not seem badly injured and Thomas had left the bolt in her flesh. He would deal with it later. Are you their leader?' he asked Philin.
Only of the men you saw. the big man said, and maybe no longer.'
No longer?'
The coredors like success,“ Philin said, and they don't like burying their dead. No doubt there are others who think they can do better than me.”
What about those other injured men?“ Thomas asked, jerking his head back up the hill. Why aren't they going to the abbey?” One didn't want to, he'd rather go back to his woman, and the others? They'll probably die.“ Philin looked at Thomas's bow. And some of them refuse to go down to the abbey; they think they'll be betrayed and captured. But Planchard will not betray me.” Genevieve was swaying in her saddle so that Thomas had to ride close alongside to give her support. She said nothing. Her eyes were still dull, her skin pale and her breathing almost undetectable, but she gripped the pommel firmly enough and Thomas knew there was still some life in her. The monks may not treat her,' he said to Philin.
Planchard takes everyone,“ Philin said, even heretics.” Planchard is the abbot here, yes?'
He is,“ Philin confirmed, and also a good man. I was one of his monks once.”
You?' Thomas could not hide his surprise.
I was a novice, but I met a girl. We were staking out a new vineyard and she brought the willow slips to tie the vines and . . .“ Philin shrugged as if the rest of the tale was too familiar to bear repetition. I was young. he finished instead, and so was she. Galdric's mother?” Thomas guessed.
Philin nodded. She's dead now. The abbot was kind enough. He told me I had no vocation and let me go. We became the abbey's tenants, just a small farm, but the other villagers didn't like me. Her family had wanted her to marry someone else, they said I was no good for anything and after she died they came to burn me out. I killed one of them with a hoe and they said I had started the fight and branded me a murderer, so here I am. It was either this or be hanged in Berat. He led his son's horse across a small stream that tumbled from the hill, It's the wheel of fortune, isn't it? Round and round, up and down, but I seem to be down more than up. And Destral will blame me.
Destral?'
Our leader. His name means axe, and that's what he kills with.
He's not here?'
He sent me to see what was happening in Astarac,' Philin said. There were men in the old castle, digging. Destral thinks there's treasure there.
The Grail, Thomas thought, the Grail, and he wondered if it had already been found, then dismissed the thought for surely that news would have gone through the countryside like lightning. But we never reached Astarac,' Philin went on. We camped in the woods and were just about to leave when we saw you instead.
And thought you'd become rich?'
We would have got forty coins for you,' Philin said, all of them gold.
Ten more than Judas got. Thomas said lightly, and his were only silver. Philin had the grace to smile.
They reached the monastery just after midday. The wind was cold, gusting from the north and blowing the kitchen smoke above the gateway where two monks accosted them. They nodded to Philin, allowing him to take his son to the infirmary, but then barred Thomas's path. She needs help. Thomas insisted angrily. She is a woman. one of the monks said,“ she cannot enter here.”
There is a place in the back,' the other monk said and, pulling his white hood over his head, he led Thomas around the side of the buildings and through some olive trees to where a cluster of wooden huts was surrounded by a high fence of palings. Brother Clement will receive you. the monk said, then hurried away. Thomas tied the two horses to an olive tree, then carried Genevieve to the gate in the fence. He kicked it with his boot, waited and kicked again, and after the second kick the gate creaked open and a small, white-robed monk with a wrinkled face and a straggling beard smiled up at him.
Brother Clement?'
The monk nodded.
She needs help. Thomas said.
Clement just gestured inside and Thomas carried Genevieve into what he at first took to be a farmyard. It
