England were built with them, rooms or whole chambers underground. After the edict, most filled in their rooms. We, of course, told the commissioners who came two years ago that we had had ours filled in. We showed him the original entrance, from another part of the abbey. The door opened to nothing but a wall of dirt. This entrance, from the prior’s chamber, was constructed in secret.”
The prior began to lead us down a narrow passageway. The floor was dirt.
Brother Edmund asked, “Did the king’s commissioners specifically seek the relics of Athelstan? Did they ask about the crown?”
“Oh, yes. We were pressed to tell them, several times. They have somehow discovered that the crown exists and suspect it has great powers, but they don’t know where it is hidden. The king’s commissioners, Layton and Legh, made visitations, and their men searched every inch of the abbey. And Bishop Gardiner himself has made inquiry.”
“Gardiner was here?” My voice rose in alarm.
A monk stepped in front of us; he had been listening in the darkness. He was the gray, nervous one from the front of the church.
“Why do you ask?” he demanded, pointing straight at me. “What do you know of our sworn enemy, Stephen Gardiner?”
42
A tense silence filled the passageway leading to the dark house.
Prior Roger said, “This is Brother Timothy. He is a brilliant monk of many questions.” The prior’s tone was patient. He turned back to us. “Bishop Gardiner was a friend of the former prior’s. He came to Malmesbury many times. Sometimes it was to seek guidance from God on how to navigate through the difficulty of the king’s divorce. But sometimes it was to ask for details about the relics of Athelstan, and particularly the crown. Neither my predecessor nor myself nor any other man here has ever told the bishop the truth about the crown. We would happily die the full death of a traitor, torn limb from limb before the mob, before we would tell him where to find the crown of Athelstan.”
“Why?” I whispered.
Brother Timothy said, “Because it is a greater risk for Gardiner to have the crown than for anyone else.”
“We don’t know that for certain,” chided the prior.
Brother Timothy took a step closer to me, studying my face. “With all my heart, I feel we should not tell this female anything more,” he said.
“Their coming here, both of them—their quest—was foretold,” the prior said.
“Oh, yes, by Brother Eilmar.” The monk rubbed his hands, agitated. He turned to us. “Four hundred years ago, Eilmar had a series of visions. One was of a man and woman who’d come on the eve of the distribution; he drew them over and over. The design was taken up and made into the stained glass that you saw in our church. But he had other visions, too; oh, yes. Brother Eilmar was convinced he could fly and fashioned himself wings. One day he strapped on his wings and jumped from a tower—and broke both his legs. Our good monk said afterward that his only fault was in not fashioning himself a tail!”
The prior laid his hand on Brother Timothy’s arm. “You know that to be the chosen vessel for great visions can be disturbing as well as transporting.”
Brother Timothy glared at us. “But Prior, they could be spies from Gardiner. They’re Dominicans, and I’ve heard the bishop favors Dominicans for his most devious tasks. The risk is enormous. We could be delivering the most valuable relics in all of England—and knowledge of the crown itself—into the hands of the devil, to the Protestants!”
Prior Roger said sternly, “Bishop Gardiner is no Protestant. You forget yourself.”
I had never before heard that word—“Protestant”—but I could see Brother Edmund had, and he shook his head, vehemently.
Brother Timothy cried, “Their numbers grow stronger every day. And look what evil they do—in the North, the poor starve because the monks have all been killed or driven out of their monasteries after the Pilgrimage of Grace. There is no one to give alms to the destitute and starving; the sick have nowhere to go since the monks’ infirmaries were all torn down. Cromwell says there will be new hospitals and almshouses in places where the monks’ abbeys once served that purpose, but not a single one has been raised. Not one. They destroy, the king’s men, but they do not build!”
It was at that moment Brother Edmund spoke.
“We have not come here because of a vision or a prophecy,” he said. “But we