any more.’
‘You’re much more than that. Memories weren’t keeping you away. You didn’t want me to discover the truth. Sofia, you need to understand there’s no escaping it. Soon everyone will know.’
‘How could I be—?’ Sofia began, then stopped in embarrassment. ‘I’ve never been with a man.’
‘I believe you.’
‘No one else will.’
‘You accepted the responsibility. Now you must live with it.’
‘Why?’ Sofia felt like a child who finds the rules changed. ‘I thought that when I said yes, there would be a change in the world as well as me. If I’m lucky, people will whisper behind my back. More likely they’ll call me whore to my face. My grandfather made the Scaligeri name famous and Doc died defending it. I had to give up my title – I accept that, and I accept that Rasenna has to change – but why must my name be tarnished? Can’t God change the hearts of men? He can open tracks in the desert, move mountains, stop rivers. If this child is His, shouldn’t everyone know it?’
‘No one can know,’ Isabella hissed, ‘and you know why.’ She pointed to the sword above their heads. ‘Nothing’s changed in two thousand years. The same power that destroyed the Madonna’s child will murder yours if It learns of Him.’
‘But why must I sacrifice my name?’
‘It’s that or your child. Would you choose differently?’
When Sofia said nothing, Isabella asked, ‘What did the Apprentice say? The one in red you and Giovanni fought on the bridge.’
‘Before the river took him he said he was going to tell his Master.’
The beads worked in Isabella’s fingers, a habit she had learned from the Reverend Mother. ‘The Madonna was just a woman like you. Herod and Bernoulli were just men, but this child, this child is more.’
‘What if I’m too weak?’
‘Then Man will sleep on, troubled by the same old nightmares. But if you are strong enough – O, what a wakening!’
Sofia’s voice dropped to a whisper. ‘I’ll give up everything – become a nun; people can whisper all they want.’
‘There’s no safety here.’
‘Where could be safer than Rasenna?’
‘There is refuge only at the World’s centre.’
‘Are you pazzo? Jerusalem is half a world away.’
‘You’d sense the water’s flow if you still practised contemplation.’
Sofia could not deny it. She’d sought to avoid water since the buio’s visitation, but nowhere in Rasenna was far from the Irenicon, and every time she crossed Giovanni’s bridge she felt it: a black storm of hunger blowing towards Rasenna, and the river whispering Run! Run while you can!
She had ignored it. She had been Contessa and bride in Rasenna, prisoner in Concord and cook in the Hawk’s Company; if she must be Handmaid now, very well, but for once it would be on her terms. The ceaseless costume changes were like some desperate farce and she was tired of it. Most of all, she was tired of running.
‘Sofia, war is coming. The longer you tarry, the greater the danger to you, and the worse the destruction visited on Rasenna. Wherever you go now, the Darkness follows. Now that It knows you’re in the world, Its agents hunt for you. Stop and It will consume you. There is no safe tower, no friend who cannot be corrupted, no water that will not be polluted.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
Isabella cupped her hands in the baptismal font and held up her palms. They were covered in blood.
CHAPTER 37
The Gospel According to St Barabbas
22
As Mary grew strong in Galilee, ill tidings came from Jerusalem. When Her father Zacharias had discovered his colleagues were loyal to the tyrant, he railed at them, O worthless priests, corrupt thou art and corrupt is your work. The sacrifices ye offer up to the Lord in this Temple are an abomination.
23
But the priests laughed and turned away, saying, Who is this fool?
24
And Zacharias waxed angry and crept into the tunnels beneath the Temple. He knew the secret sign that would release the demon that Solomon had there imprisoned. No sooner had Zacharias made the mark than a great wind sprang up. In fear he fell back, and when he opened his eyes, a Jinni looked down upon him.
25
Man, it said unto him, I will not kill thee. As you have done me service so I am bound to do thee service. What dost thou wish? Women?
26
No, said Zacharias, I am a priest of the Temple and must preserve my purity.
27
A thousand pardons, the Jinni said. Gold then? Fame?
28
Demon, I told thee I serve the Lord. There is