'And if she wins and the Ascendancy and Advocate fall, what then? Think she'll come by here and thank you?
D'Allinnius started. He couldn't gather his thoughts. The smell of his burning flesh was in his nostrils again. The ball of the hammer on his mouth and cheeks so cold and crushing.
‘I
cannot,' he whispered.
'Orin, she is out there now, telling the court that to threaten to burn is a heresy. You are the one man alive who can denounce her for the same actions. Please, Orin. We have to beat her now or we never will.'
But D'Allinnius could only shake his head. Gesteris's words sank into his mind, each one lifting the fear further into his consciousness.
'Orin? You like the Ascendants, remember? These are friends, these are allies. Do you think they'll let any harm come to you if you speak?'
'How... H- h-how can I face her again?' he managed and then he broke and the tears stung his eyes. 'She will hurt me again and I can already feel the pain, Marcus. She only has to look at me and my courage will fail. I am a coward. I cannot stand before her. She will make me look a fraud. Please don't make me face her.'
D'Allinnius's head was pounding. The pain ached through all the old wounds of his face. He felt Gesteris's arm wrap around him and draw him close. D'Allinnius lost himself in the man's strength.
'I'm so sorry, Orin, I had no idea.'
D'Allinnius pulled back and found a little composure. 'You know what it's like to be faced with a memory you prayed was buried. You told me about the blade that took your eye. How it stings every time the thought rises unbidden. The man is long gone who did it to you. But she, she is out there, not a hundred yards from where I sit. I dare not move.'
He clutched at one of the flasks he had moved. 'Your explosive powder.'
'Yes. And she will taste it if she tries to take me.'
Gesteris raised his eyebrows. 'Really? Then bring it with you Orin. Take it everywhere with you. A man must feel secure, after all.'
'No civilian may take a weapon into the basilica,' said Orin.
it won't be in your scabbard, Orin. And it won't be in your boot or up your arm. It will be in full view in your hands. It is, after all, just a bit of powder.'
Gesteris winked.
Chapter Forty
859th cycle of God, 40th day of
Genasrise
'But you did save the boy's life,' said the Chancellor. 'I did,' said Ossacer.
His turn again, and this time they were in a far more difficult position. It was a tricky point of Order law and the verdict of heresy was by no means certain, but Aurelius had let it go too far. Now there was no coming back.
'And you did this without recourse to any accepted medical practice.'
'I do not need accepted medical practices.'
'Really? So what do you need?'
'My hands, the strength of my mind and the grace of God to do my work,' said Ossacer.
'The grace of God? You assume you have that? Such arrogance. Explain to us how, with just your hands and the power of your mind, you managed to save a child who was clearly dying of a disease that has no cure.'
Ossacer sighed. 'We all have energy maps
...
lifelines that are the encapsulation of our being. I can see these energies. All Ascendants can. Where there is damage to that map, the colours are altered. What I do is channel some of my own energy into the altered map to put it back as it should be. That's as simple as I can make it.'
The Chancellor was silent for a time.
'Only God can chose to bring back someone whom He has called to His embrace. We can only ease that passing. A surgeon who uses instruments or medicines, is using the gifts of God and might save someone whom God has not called, someone whom it is possible to save. What you assume is the power of God. That is heresy.'
'No,' said Ossacer. 'What we have are gifts—'
'You will not respond,' said Aurelius. 'That was statement, not question.'
'No,' said the Chancellor. 'Let him speak. He will merely cement his guilt.'
Aurelius shrugged and indicated that Ossacer continue.
'All we use is the gifts God has given us. Nothing more. Like a skilled rider or surgeon, we can do no more than our ability lets us do. That is gift, not assumption.'
The Chancellor nodded. 'Good. Ossacer, sit. Arducius, a final few questions.'
Arducius rose to his feet.
'Arducius. We are old sparring partners, you and I. The length and breadth of the Conquord. I told you that one day we would stand under independent judgement.'
'If that is what you call this,' said Arducius.
'I do. I am sorry you feel the need to question the impartiality of the honoured triumvirate of judges.' She waited for Arducius to respond but he did not. One mistake was enough. 'Tell me. Without recourse to weapon or even touch, you could kill every man and woman in this basilica, couldn't you?'
'That is a difficult question to answer.'
'Just yes or no will do,' said Koroyan.
'It's not as simple as—'
'Yes or no.'
'I'm sorry but—'
'Arducius,' said Aurelius. 'You will answer the question.' Arducius felt flustered and a little hot all of a sudden. He glanced down at Hesther. She gave a minute shrug. 'Technically, yes. But—'
'Thank you, Arducius.' Koroyan delivered that smile again but this time it was to the assembled audience and the judges. 'How is irrelevant. The possibility is shocking and terrifying, I think you will agree.'
Koroyan waved Arducius down and he sat heavily. The explanation, the mitigation, was on his lips. The time to give it was missed. By the time the defence came round, it might already be too late and this angle was not even in their strategy. The Chancellor had not finished.
'The reality is that I could have begun and ended there,' she said. 'But you need to know the depth of the crime that is being committed even by allowing these Ascendants to draw breath and their Academy to continue its research into these God-like powers. Not God-given, God-like.
'Let us make no mistake. God alone can bring death to people through the use of the elements. It is His way of demonstrating wrath or of bringing back to his embrace those who should no longer walk the earth. The scriptures are clear on this. So how can it be that mere mortals assume such powers. Arducius would have told you that it would take time to kill you all but that is not the point. The reality is that he could have done many things. Bring a wind to knock down the basilica. Drive roots so hard through the foundations that the structure collapsed. He could bring lightning from a clear sky to scorch you, or bring rain so hard it washed you into the harbour. He could pick any one of you and snuff out your life by accelerating your ageing.'
She stopped and a look of nausea passed across her face.
'Accelerating your ageing.
Think about it. And these people walk our streets and pretend to dispense health and favour? Who knows what damage they really cause to all they purport to heal. Who knows the damage they do to God's earth by their casual use of His elements, His world.
'By any reasonable measure, whether scientific or religious, this kind of power is evil in the hands of men. Men are arrogant if they believe it will not corrupt them. Gorian Westfallen demonstrates that the Ascendants cannot be trusted to use their assumed power wisely. Only God the Omniscient has the wisdom and the clarity, the purity, to wield such forces. Any man who thinks he can do the same is adopting the role of God.
'That is heresy by example and definition. I—'
The Chancellor broke off her oration. Arducius followed her gaze to the source of the tapping noise that had interrupted her flow. He smiled for the first time. Walking across from the right of the basilica was Marcus Gesteris. With him, leaning heavily on a cane in one hand and holding a flask in the other, was Orin D'Allinnius.
The scientist looked frightened and in pain as he approached. His face was pale and a sheen of sweat clung to it. But his bearing was as proud as he could muster and his eyes did not flinch when they met Koroyan's. Arducius did not miss the look of pure hate that passed across her face. So brief but undeniable.
She looked away quickly and stared hard at her team. The Speaker of Winds shrugged; the Speaker of the Oceans shook his head. The Chancellor spared Gesteris a cold glance before turning to Autelius, speaking over the tap of D'Allinnius's cane.
'The charge of the threat to use fire to burn the faithful is dropped,' she said. The words dragged from her lips. 'The heresy of assumption of God-like powers stands.'
Aurelius nodded. The corners of his mouth twitched very slightly.
'You have more to say, Chancellor Koroyan?'
For the first time in the proceedings, the Chancellor looked nervous, unsure. She didn't reply for a time, choosing to watch every tortuous step D'Allinnius took as if willing him to fall each time he placed a foot. But with Gesteris beside him, a look of triumph on his face, that was not going to happen. The pair of them sat down amidst a flurry of conversation from the benches. Few, if any, knew the significance. But all understood that Koroyan's retraction of a principal allegation was no coincidence.
'Chancellor Koroyan?'
She tore her gaze from D'Allinnius, let it pass meaningfully over someone in the audience Arducius couldn't see, and let it come to rest on Arducius and Ossacer.
'A man may not tinker with the elements, bring life where there should be none or take life on a whim of will. These are the gifts of God, and God alone. The Ascendants are heretics by the fact of birth and I put it to the court that they, and the complicity of the Academy that sit by them or hide in their little town, all be put to death for this most heinous of crimes against the Omniscient.
'My case, my honoured judges, is irrefutable.'
Koroyan sat down. She jutted out her chin and set her stare on the Ascendants opposite her as if daring herself to look back at the scientist who had come so close to undermining her by his very entrance.
Aurelius spoke briefly to his fellow judges, coming to a decision quickly.
'There will be no recess. Facts must be kept in mind and fresh. Mother Naravny, your defence of the charge of heresy.'
Ossacer and Hesther both leaned in over Arducius so that the three of them could speak.
'Which way do we go?' asked Hesther.
'She's proven very little,' said Ossacer. 'And nothing that hasn't been sanctioned by the Advocate. Her central plank is gone because D'Allinnius will counter-charge her. I say we go short and simple. Don't attack her. List benefits, responsibility and reference every murderer when you talk about Gorian.'
'I agree,' said Arducius. 'She's relying on evidence very much in the public domain already. And already accepted by many. This is a pure theological debate in many respects now. Are our abilities gifts of God or taken from God? We can argue that angle.'
'Who should argue it? Me?' Hesther indicated herself.
'Yes,' said Arducius. 'More sympathy for the older woman.'
'Damn cheek.'
'Damn true,' said Ossacer. 'And you know you speak better than us. Less emotion, more reason.'
'Call on us if you need us.' Arducius laid a hand on her arm. 'You can absolutely count on that.'
Hesther Naravny, Mother of the Ascendancy, stood to give the speech that would determine the fate of them all. Arducius felt perversely calm. He sat back and sampled the energies in the basilica. The Chancellor had done a satisfactory job in turning up the emotions of the citizens. There was anxiety out there, based on her assertions of his ability to kill them all from where he sat. Hesther would ease their fears.
'Senator Aurelius, honoured Speakers of Fire and Earth, I will be brief because, as the Chancellor said, this really is a very simple subject. Evil. Heresy. We all think we know what these words mean. But do we? Do we apply them properly? What is evil? The use of abilities granted at birth or the denial of that use that costs a child his life?
'The Chancellor speaks of our Ascendants as heretics because they can save lives, cure disease in animal and field, and bring rain to parched land without use of accepted techniques. Is it just me or is that simply laughable? Let me quote to you from the scriptures of the Omniscient.
'"...
the body is inviolate. Illness and injury to the body are the work of God in his mystery. Disease, should it afflict a man, is part of the Omniscient's plan and he should not fear it but celebrate the fact that he is being tested or that he is to be taken back to the embrace of God. Interference by another is against the will of God and is a heresy.'"