Abbess Glass’s portrait hung over the door where Wheel’s gaze would rest each time she looked up from her papers. Nona looked up at it as she came through – a good likeness that removed a decade or more but caught with perfection the stare that seemed to be fixed on something distant only she could ever see.
‘I’ve been told to leave you behind,’ Wheel said without preamble. She held up a roll of parchment. ‘In the event that the sisterhood is called to the emperor’s aid it is fitting that the Shield be left to guard the younger novices.’ One bony finger moved to indicate the high priest’s seal. ‘He means “to guard the shipheart”, of course.’
Nona felt as if she’d been punched in the stomach. ‘No! Abbess! I can’t stay here while all my sisters are facing the enemy on the battlefield. I won’t!’
Wheel raised her hand. ‘I must admit it seemed a strange instruction. To single out a particular novice, and even if High Priest Nevis had somehow anticipated your elevation to the sisterhood, to give such a significant duty to such a young nun.’ She rested her gaze on Nona. ‘I haven’t held a high opinion of you, Sister Cage, but you showed a wisdom beyond your years when you chose the Black. Truly, faith may reside in the most unlikely of receptacles …’ She looked at the parchment in her hand. ‘I sense politics at play here. Favours bought and sold. And if there’s one thing I despise almost as much as heresy it’s politics. Unfortunately, there seems to be no choice but to obey.’
Nona’s mind raced. To be left on the Rock of Faith watching over children while her friends fought and died together before the emperor’s walls was not an option. ‘It’s the shipheart the high priest wants guarded. And it’s the shipheart that puts the novices most at risk …’ Nona glanced at the window and the Dome of the Ancestor beyond. ‘We should take it with us!’
‘What?’
‘Take it with us. The shipheart. You know I can bring it up from the vault and put it somewhere safe at the palace. We need it on the front line: all the quantals will fight more effectively, and if we lose there the enemy will get the shipheart whether it’s with us or hidden here.’
Abbess Wheel tilted her head, considering. ‘Do it.’
Nona stood in shock for a moment. Wheel had actually agreed with her! For once she had done what Nona needed her to do. It struck her then that this was at least part of what Abbess Glass had wanted, what she had purchased with the promises she had extracted. How else could Nona Grey have obtained the goodwill and cooperation of Abbess Wheel?
The abbess frowned and tapped a finger to a ledger on the desk before her, the record of novices. ‘The young ones will still need guarding though. Someone capable. Maybe—’
‘Ara could do it! Sister Thorn, I mean!’ The idea struck Nona from nowhere. They didn’t all have to face the Scithrowl. She could save Ara. If the Ark fell Ara would lead the novices away to the west. Even the Durns would be better than the Scithrowl: they had their own gods and weren’t given to burning people over the finer points of Ancestral doctrine. Ara could do it. A weight lifted from Nona’s heart.
Again the abbess tilted her head. ‘She should have followed your example when called to her name, sister. Today of all days it’s faith that’s needed.’ More tapping of a finger on the ledger. ‘I suppose you’re right. Once upon a time I thought she was the Chosen One come to save us all. Let her save the children at least.’
‘Thank you, abbess!’ Nona could have wept. She made for the door as Wheel waved her dismissal.
Nona ran down the steps, weaving past startled sisters. She felt ready to endure the shipheart’s awful power, ready to stand with her sisters against the Scithrowl shock troops, ready for anything. All that scared her now, the only thing she felt unready for, was telling Ara that she had saved her.
18
Three Years Earlier
The Escape
The great white sheet, in which every part of Abeth save the green thread of the Corridor was wrapped, seemed to Nona as terrible a place in its own way as had the chambers and tunnels within the black ice. The very personal malice of the multitude of devils was replaced by the impersonal malice of