The Book of Earth Read Online Free Page B

The Book of Earth
Book: The Book of Earth Read Online Free
Author: Marjorie B. Kellogg
Pages:
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Guillemo!”
    “And no monk, either, I suppose,” the old woman muttered. She scaled the final stairs with a soft groan for each rise, frail but erect, then limped determinedly along the gallery.
    Erde dogged her heels. “But I’m sure, Alla, I’m really sure! Why would he do that? Maybe he’s not even there! Oh, maybe something has happened to him, and they don’t want anyone to know!”
    “Hush, bluejay, before your tongue and your wild imagination race you neck and neck to nowhere!” Alla gripped Erde’s arm and drew her off the tapestry-hung open gallery into the side hall that led to her room. “Now listen: do you want the whole mountain to hear how its liege lord allowed himself to be drawn into Fra Guill’s silly game?”
    “But couldn’t they see?”
    “Perhaps they were not looking. This man bears the imprimatur of Rome itself.”
    “But, Papa . . .”
    “Perhaps he was looking
too
hard.”
    This last remark Erde did not understand, but Alla’s brisk manner made one thing very clear: that this priest came disguised might prove he feared or mistrusted her father, but it also meant that the baron had cause to fear or mistrust the priest.
    “And surely he does fear him,” said Alla later, when they were safely behind closed doors. “This is no parish priest come begging for Christmas alms. We’ve not seen his like for a while hereabout.” She set herself to brewing rose-mint tea at the tiny hearth that was barely enough to heat her draft-ridden room. Erde thought her father should provide his old wet nurse with better rooms, but Alla claimed she never felt the cold because she came from a much colder place far to the east, called the Russias. “Though he’d never show his fear, not my Iron Joe. He’ll be pacing his study now, snapping the ears off our poor Rainer lad for not divining Fra Guill’s trick ahead of time. You know how your father hates surprises.”
    “Why do you call him Fra Guill?” Erde hoped her father wouldn’t yell at Rainer too much. She thought it odd toraise a fine young man like Rainer to a position of responsibility, then bully him all the time. The baroness would not have allowed it.
    “That’s Fra for
fratello
,” Alla explained. “It’s Italian for ‘brother.’ But don’t you be picking that one up, pipsqueak. It’s what they call him in the villages, those that don’t favor his doomsday preaching. Mark my words, this one’s too dangerous for the likes of us to show him anything but the most obvious respect.”
    “Is that why Papa was polite, even when the priest was rude?”
    “All part of the game, chipmunk. Josef’s been looking to turn this visitation to his advantage since he first heard of it. Now he’ll be plotting to return the challenge, or figuring out some way to make Fra Guill beholden to him. I only hope he truly comprehends what kind of swamp he’s playing in.”
    Erde sipped at her tea pensively, inhaling scents of spring leaves and wood smoke. She loved Alla’s room, with its spare furnishings and the wooden drying racks tied with flowers and herbs. She felt safe there, and welcome. She hitched her stool closer to the little fire. “Alla, is it true Fra . . . er, Brother Guillemo prophesies the coming of dragons?”
    “Oh, well, yes, dragons,” Alla agreed darkly. “Among other things. It’s the other things we should be worrying about. The suspicion he encourages, the fires of doubt he fans in the hearts of the villages.”
    “I dreamed about dragons.”
    Alla nodded approvingly. “A good dream, I hope.”
    “I can’t remember. Isn’t it a bad omen to dream about dragons?”
    “Nonsense, moss-nose! A von Alte has every right to dream about dragons.”
    “Does it mean they will come?”
    “Here?” Alla cackled uproariously. “Just think of it! What self-respecting dragon would hang around here, with no livestock in the fields but some starved milch cow to steal for his dinner?”
    Erde grinned at her old nurse

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