“Where is Madia?” Iseo tried not to think of the sweet child going to Hell with no help for it, partially by her own doing. Father Avriel was right. The stone needed to be found and destroyed before it could damn another soul to an eternity of flame and ash.
“She is down to the chandler’s house, I believe. His wife was ripe as a fruit last I saw her.”
“Thank you,” Iseo said. “I know the house, Father. We will need the horses to get there quickly.” They mounted and left Luisa’s confused husband in their wake.
*
The chandler’s house was well lit from within. A small gathering of men sat round a fire out front. They startled as three horsemen bore down hard in their direction, and made an abrupt stop just paces from their feet. Iseo threw her hood back first.
“Is Madia within?” she asked. One of the men remembered the young woman as the midwife’s apprentice.
“Sí. She is,” he answered.
Iseo dismounted before Celestino could help her and barged into the house, with the two priests behind her. They walked into the kitchen arranged as the birthing room. Madia turned around to see the uninvited guests. “Iseo! What in the world are you doing here?!” she exclaimed. “And you men! Out!”
“They must be here. I cannot tell you why, Madia. Por favor, where is the sard and jasper?”
“You interrupt my work to ask for my healing stones?!” Madia fumed.
“Por favor, I must have them. All of them.” Iseo stepped toward the laboring woman and the midwife. Madia instinctively hid the stone in her hand behind her back. The chandler’s wife moaned with her labor. Iseo reached for the midwife’s arm. Madia pulled back, so Iseo grabbed her with both hands, prying the hand containing the sard to open.
“Ouch!” Madia screamed, as the stone bounced to the floor. Iseo had drawn a line of sangre across the midwife’s hand. “How dare you malign me in this way!”
Iseo did not even hear Madia’s rant. She was on her knees looking for the sard. She saw it wedged between the wall and a basket. “I have it!” she cried, as she held the stone aloft.
Father Avriel took the stone from her and quickly examined it. “This is not the one we seek.” He looked the midwife directly in the eye. “Where is the stone with the inscription?”
“What do you speak of?” she challenged the priest.
Iseo added her voice to the inquisition. “Where is the one you use? The one with the prayer you secret?”
“Why all the interest in the medicine of a midwifery stone? It is like any herb to ease pain—” Madia insisted.
“No it is not! I must know where it is? Por favor, more than lives are at stake!” Iseo’s vehemence shook Madia. She had not known Iseo capable of such force and persistence.
“Where is it?” Father Avriel asked in a voice baritone enough to shake the room. Madia’s eyes bulged. Iseo looked at the priest in amazement.
“A hooded man came and offered me gold coins for it. I gave it to him. I have plenty of sard and jasper. What is a single piece of polished rock to me?” Madia spewed the truth in her fright.
“Who was it? Father Antony?” asked the priest, his voice smaller than before.
“That fat priest? No. The man was much taller, more like you two. In fact, taller than either of you.”
“What did he look like?” the priest pressed for more information.
She thought for a moment, “That is strange. I never forget a face, yet I cannot recall his at all.”
“We are too late!” Iseo moaned. “Too late.” A frustrated tear escaped down her cheek. “What do we do now?” she asked Father Avriel.
“We keep searching. It is here in Santiago. We will find it, and any others,” he answered. It perplexed him that no one, not even he, could identify the hooded man, or place him anywhere in particular. Who is this man? If he gave Father Antony the Tears of the Fallen and the Soul Casting stones, where did he get them from? Why would someone wish souls to be lost to Hell...Then, it dawned on the priest, only someone who had come from Hell in the first pace. But who? Who would be so brazen as to bring the war between Heaven and Hell to Earth? Who could move among the people and Hell so easily? “Iseo, you and Celestino remain here. Inform the midwife regarding the truth of her stones. Collect names of those she has baptized. Take the list to Father Tomas, so he may begin to save the souls who can be saved.”
“Where are you going?” Iseo asked.
“About my own business,” he said, turning on his heel to leave the room. They heard the sound of horse hooves pounding into the distance.
“I have a birth to attend to,” Madia reminded Iseo. “Ask this mute priest to leave. No men present. This is women’s work...as you well know.”
“Celestino, she is right. You need to go outside with the other men.” Iseo encouraged him in the right direction with a slight nudge. “Go on. I will be fine.”
“Are you going to just stand there, Iseo, or are you going to be useful?” Madia asked.
“Por favor. Wait for me outside. I must tell her about the stones, but not until the child is delivered safely,” Iseo whispered.
“As you wish it, my Iseo.” Celestino nodded his head to his Maker and left the room.
“Bueno. We have work to do, Iseo. My new apprentice is not worth the salt on my fish!”
“What first, Madia?”
*
Frost crystals blossomed over rooftops, nearby fields, and along the edges of the lane leading to the house Celestino stood in front of with two inebriated men. They kept the fire stoked hot enough to keep the wintry chill on their backsides, while their faces shone rosy warm.
“Would you care for wine?” One of the men handed him an uncorked flagon. The spicy bitterness caught in Celestino’s nose before he could answer. “Will you look at that! A priest with no taste for wine?” he laughed.
“I did not refuse. It is the stench of yard fouls that offends my nostrils.” He took the proffered wine and drank deeply. He smiled as he swallowed, because he heard Iseo’s chiding voice inside his head about how men would find it odd if he tasted wine and did not like it.
Just then, a child’s cry disturbed the stillness of the air. The gathering toasted the wailing child and slapped the father on his back.
Celestino looked up at the stars. He always found comfort in the night sky, whether clear or cloudy. Now that the babe was safely delivered, he and Iseo would return to their world at Compostela. His resolve to stay away from her was quickly eroding in the rain of her presence. He needed the safety of God’s bones or his heart would be completely lost to her. Mercifully, his time of stone approached, and he would not be tempted by his heart’s purest desire.
Chapter 21
Adiós Mi Amor
Cold rain sprang from the sky before the sun. Iseo was already in the kitchen, when Father Santos came in to assist with making the first meal of the day. The hearth burned hot, so Iseo left the back door open to catch the wintery breeze. She stood for a moment, listening to the melodic sound of the drops hitting the stone, splashing the threshold.
Since Father Antony’s excommunication, Iseo’s life became very busy. She inherited all the kitchen duties and the added responsibility of training Father Santos in the art of baking bread and smoking fish. She began to understand why Father Antony was so cranky and ill humored.
“Father Tomas requests conversation with you this morning,” Father Santos greeted her as he pinched a bit of raw dough from a loaf and popped it in his mouth.
“You are not allowed to do that to the bread,” Iseo said.
“It is a piece of dough. Certainly there is no harm in the cook testing the food,” he scoffed at her.
“That would be true, if the cook were testing the food. But you are neither the cook, nor testing the food. You are simply being obnoxious,” Iseo half snarled back.
“You are a sour one in the morning,” he goaded.
“I am not. You are...you ar
e...” Iseo stumbled to find the right insult.
“I am what?” Father Santos asked, pinching another piece of dough off the same loaf.
Iseo realized he had done it to her again. Father Santos was an infuriating individual. She narrowed her eyes at him from across the bread table.
“I should mention,” he said, “Father Tomas meant now. Not later.”
“Oh!” Iseo wiped her hands on her apron, before taking it off. “With any luck on your part, the Fathers will not starve.” She gladly walked out, leaving the arrogant bastard to fend for himself.
*
The door the Father Tomas’s chamber was ajar, so she quietly knocked as she opened the door. “You sent for me, Father?”
“Ah! Iseo. Sí. Sí, I did. Por favor, sit down my dear.” He gestured to a familiar chair.
“Is everything all right? Is Celestino all right?” It was his third time of stone, or was it the fourth? She could not really remember. She tried to push him from her mind as much as possible, but she never got him completely out of her heart. On occasion, she saw him in the cathedral, or in passing in the cloisters, or taking a meal. Since Finis Terrae, nothing had been the same between them.
“Celestino will be fine. It is your welfare that concerns me.”
“Me? What cause is there to worry? I cook meals all day. I have not had any visions for other gargoyles. I had expected that I might...be called to birth another gargoyle. Perhaps, it is too soon? I—”
“Iseo, it is time for you to return to the world of men.”
His response caught her off guard. “What? What do you mean?”
“It is time you resume the life you were meant to lead.”
“But I do not wish to leave Compostela.” Any proximity to Celestino was better than never seeing him again. Suddenly, she felt nauseous.
“It is necessary that you do. I have already sent word to your father.”
“When?”
“Before we left for Finis Terrae.”
“What about my life here?”
“You mean with Celestino?”
“No, I meant working the livingstone.”
“You cannot even be honest with me, Iseo. You wish to be near Celestino. He desires to be near you. Even during his own training, his mind is on you. You must go.”
“Por favor, Father. I beg you, let me stay.”
“The matter is out of my hands, Iseo. I received word late last evening that your father’s men will be here by noon.”
“But, Celestino is serving the stone hours. How will I be able to explain this to him?”
“That is the point child. You will not. I must protect you both from yourselves. You leave tomorrow.”
“What will become of me?”
“An offer has been made for your hand.”
“My hand?” Hot tears spilled down her cheek into the corners of her mouth. “You inform me that I am to leave the only place I have felt at home since my mother’s death, and that I am to marry a man, whom I have not even met, with such easy breath?”
Father Tomas shifted his weight uncomfortably in his chair. He cleared his throat not once, but twice.
“Do you know who it is, Father?” Iseo asked.
“He is a powerful man from the south.”
Iseo stiffened slightly. “The south?”
“Sí, child,” the priest nodded his head, “he is a Moor.”
“My father has approved this arrangement?” Iseo’s eyes widened.
“Sí.” Father Tomas found he could not meet her unwavering stare.
“How can he marry me to a Muslim?! I am a Christian. He is the one who sent me to the Church in the first place. After everything I have learned! What I know!” She crossed her arms over her chest, shaking her head against reality. “I will not renounce my God for another. It would damn my soul.”
“I do not have answers for you, Iseo. But you will be safe far from here,” he paused, “and so will Celestino.”
*
Snowflakes fell from the morning sky, clinging to Iseo’s dark hair like wet pearls. Damp tendrils curled up, framing her face. The cold, wintry air stained her cheeks rose. She had never been to the crown of Compostela to see him while he served his seven days watch, and she wondered what Celestino looked like perched on the roof. She knew he would be facing the east, so she walked the length of the rooftop pass until she saw him. Her breath caught in her throat. He was beautiful in stone, as magnificent as any dream she had ever experienced. God must surely have felt similar joy when He created Lucifer. How frightening to create such beauty, only to have it turn to ash and fire before your eyes.
Celestino sat motionless under the wet sky on the rooftop of Compostela, a beautiful, perfect sentinel for the House of God. Iseo walked the gap between them. Her breath hung as a cloud, as she stood before her creation. She traced the angular jaw of the leonine gargoyle with a cold shaking finger. In her mind, she saw the human chin, squared in perfection. She had carved this beast, but the man within the stone had been a complete surprise to her. Where did you come from? She had not dreamt of him, nor had visions of him. The man who spoke to her with warm breath and sweet words. The man who had taken her hand on the dark path of Monte Facho. It was the man’s eyes that haunted her now, that burned her, that burdened her. The gargoyle of her divine inspiration held within him Celestino, the man, whom she loved. Pure. Innocent. Hopeless.
“I do not know if you can hear me where you are,” Iseo whispered into a stone ear, “but I am being sent away, mi amor.” She ran her hand over the mane she had carved. She knew each curving crevice, and traced a stone lock of his mane down to his neck. “I leave on the morrow, Celestino. Our love places danger at our feet. There is no other choice. Neither of us may look back.” She leaned forward until their foreheads touched, flesh to livingstone. “You must fulfill your destiny, mi amor, and I mine.” She pressed her lips on his frosty cheek. She felt the coarseness of the livingstone beneath her lips. “You have ruined me for anyone else,” she whispered. “Adios, mi amor, my Celestino.”
Chapter 22
Broken Bond
Celestino burst open the door to Father Tomas’s chamber. “Where is she?!” he roared.
“Sit down, Celestino,” Father Tomas said without even turning around. Celestino sat.
“Where is Iseo?” Her voice had reached him while he served in stone. Her voice, her tears, but not the words she spoke. He felt her leaving him, and he had been helpless to stop her. Frozen in stone, and unable to speak to her or comfort her.
The priest turned around and looked him in the eye. “Her father retrieved her from our care, as is his right.”
Celestino considered the priest for a moment. “You are not telling me everything you know. Why did her father press for her now?”
“Her father has arranged a marriage for her. It was her duty to go.”
The answer stunned Celestino. His mind raced to their conversations about marriage and mates. His Iseo was being given to another for a lifemate. Another man would feel her soft mouth beneath his. Anger iced through his livingstone and he sprang to his feet. “Why would you let a Maker leave the safety of these grounds?” He paced like a beast trapped in an iron cage.
“I let her leave because it was best for her...and you.”
“How is being away from here best for her?”
“She is meant for other things. For a different life.”
“She is my Maker. You had no right to take her from me!” Celestino argued.
“It is exactly that reaction that made it necessary for her to go.”
“You gave me no warning.”
“Celestino, sit down.” Celestino remained standing. “Go on, sit. You must hear all I have to say.” The gargoyle reluctantly settled into a chair. Father Tomas took the position opposite him. “Ask yourself why you are angry she is gone.”
His heart screamed out that another man would have her, when he could not. Celestino found the truth unspeakable.
“Can you not answer the query?” Father Tomas asked.
“I find the response...private,” Celestino replied.
“Are you upset that she will be married?”
“Sí.” Father Tomas waited for more, but Celestino offered nothing else.
“You are not a man, Celestino. You are more than that. You have a sworn duty to God. Iseo simply complicated that vow. Your love for her is forbidden.”
“We have been only chaste. I have balanced my love with my duty.”
Father Tomas laughed. “That is a very human thing to say. There is no balance in love. It is always tilting in its own favor. She would have succumbed first, being wholly human and a woman…and you would have fallen victim to her guile, because your bond with her is strong. As you have reminded me often enough, she is your Maker.”
“You do not understand the bond between us. Iseo had no guile concerning me. You underestimate the man surging through me. I wanted her. I wanted to possess her.” His truth hung in the air between them. Father Tomas shook his head.
“It is for this reason, you are best parted. Do you not yet see, Celestino? You have no control over love, it controls you. And because you love her, it endangers her all the more.”
“Endangers her more?”
“The Dark powers seek all Makers eventually. To kill them all if they can. And because you love her, you draw the gaze of the Dark powers directly to her. I took great pains to ensure that her reason for being here was simply one of a father looking after his daughter’s best interests after her mother died. No one, save her father and I, knew the real reason she was sent here. Even Iseo had no idea that her father knew the truth.”
“You mean her father knew she was a Maker?” Celestino had never considered this. He knew Iseo never suspected anything other than what she had been told.
“Of course, he knew. He was surprised and none too pleased that I requested he remove her from our care and proceed as if the ruse were indeed the truth. If we are fortunate, she has escaped the eye of the Evil One and his minions.”
“How have you done this?”
“By sending her far from Christianity’s grasp. Behind the veil of the infidels.”
Celestino felt exhausted by the revelation. Their love caused their separation. He knew deep within himself that had Iseo remained, they would have destroyed each other. Father Tomas was right.
“Why not you, Father? Why does Hell not come for you?”