Thomas Gown and his companions have escaped from captivity, but only by fleeing deeper into the unknown, to face new dangers. They are carrying a secret that could save the world, though, and they have a duty to take it to those who can make use of...
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“I work as a cleaner in the mansion,” Clarissa was saying, her eyes still sparkling with joy at Diana’s arrival. “I mop the floors, dust the ornaments, that kind of thing. There are about a dozen of us, but I’m the youngest. I only started a few months ago.”
They were sitting in the girl’s cramped living, dining room, their knees constantly bumping as they sat uncomfortably on the padded wooden furniture. Tabitha, the girl’s mother, bustled around offering her guests tea and cakes, her fears now completely allayed now that she knew who they were. Edward, the girl’s father, was a Hewlak soldier, out on duty at the moment, but Tomsk assured them that he was a man they could trust. Together, he and Tabitha had kept their daughter’s secret for the past six months, ever since she’d first discovered her vocation. Only a handful of others had guessed, Tomsk among them.
“I was given the job of cleaning the chapel," continued Clarissa. "Hardly anyone ever goes in there these days, but they like it kept clean anyway because it’s part of the mansion. There was some talk a little while ago of converting it into a drinking room.” Diana shuddered in horror.
“Then I started having dreams. I dreamed of a beautiful woman who told me the most wonderful things. I thought it was just an ordinary dream at first, but I dreamed about her every night and I began to think there might be something special about it.”
“The first visitation,” replied Diana, smiling as she remembered her own experience. “It’s the same for all of us. She searches the world, sorry, the universe, looking for the right kind of people, and then appears to them in their dreams.”
Clarissa smiled happily. She’d been longing for the chance to talk to someone who’d understand. Really understand. Her parents had listened dutifully and nodded in all the right places, trying their best to encourage and support her when they’d finally realised that it was more than just a child’s fantasy, but it wasn’t the same. “I found myself paying more and more attention to the altar of Caroli without really knowing why. I had some pretty silly ideas in those days. I used to think She lived there.”
“Well, in a sense She does,” replied Diana. “She lives wherever a place has been made sacred in Her name.”
“I used to take Her presents,” continued the girl with a giggle. “I used to make flowers from the corn stalks I found in the kitchen bins. I made flowers like the one on the wall above the altar and left them there, where She’d find them. The others used to laugh at me about it, so I only did it when there was no-one else around. I used to talk to Her as well, even though I thought She was just a figment of my imagination, but sometimes I could almost imagine that She was real and listening. Once I could even have sworn that She was right there in the temple with me. That if I turned my head and looked, She’d have been there, right behind me.”
“Then one day Adrian, that’s my brother, he’s out at the moment. He came down with the red shakes. Nobody was allowed close to him except mother who took him his soup. They wouldn’t even let me in to see him, in case I caught it, but I could hear him crying out and thrashing around and I couldn’t stand it, so I crept in when no-one was looking and begged the Lady, if She was real, to make him better again.”
