"Melanie Rawn - The Sacrifice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rawn Melanie)

call your king. Shall I tell you how you will fail?"
"May I not Confess, your grace, and be Absolved, and hear Mass before I die? I beg it
you, please!"
He started to answer negatively, then considered. "If you do as you have been toldтАФ"
"I will not put on women's garments," she warned, "and I will not lie and say my Voice
are not from God."
Stubborn, he thought. Then: But why not? Eh bien, perhaps 1 should allow her to hea
Mass after all. This blood sacrifice is a pagan thing, and if she is meant to be what I thin
they mean her to be, would not receiving the Body and Blood of Christ make her
unacceptable?
"You have at least the virtue of consistency," he replied at last. "But, come, allow me t
explain your life to youтАФand your death."
Learned as he was, he could not quite fathom his own purpose for telling her of his
deductions and inferences, of his research and his reasoning. Perhaps it was because to spe
of such things finally, and to their subject, would be a relief to his mind. Especially after so
many months of enduring that canaille Cauchon. He did not understand himself in this matte
but he spoke to her anyway.
 "Prophecy has it that you will save France. In my country, our king is England. Thus, to
save France, you must save your king. And to do this you must die. Bloodily."
"Your grace?" Bewilderment again. Bon Dieu, she did it well.
"Silence," he said. "I will come to that in a moment. Nowhere is it written or sungтАФ"
"I'm sorry, your graceтАФ'sung?' I don't understтАФ"
"I ask you to be silent, ma fille. The ancient bards have much to teach usтАФand I enjoy
music for more than its pleasing sound. No song or story tells of a woman taking a man's pl
of a woman taking a king's place. Thus you have abandoned women's ways and garb. You
like a man, war like a man, wield a sword like a manтАФ"
"I never killed! Never!"
"Should there be any further interruptions, Joan, I will gag you with my own glove. Wh
wish you to speak, I will ask you a question. Is that understood?"
"Y-yes, your grace."
"To continue. You have scorned all that a woman ought rightly to do, refusing even to
consider marriage when most girls your age are already mothers. What could this impostur
but an attempt to make yourself into a man?
"As for your VoicesтАФlet us examine their identities. St. Michael the warrior Archange
champion of God's peopleтАФsurely he is no fit saint for a woman to revere as her patron."
Sparks of defiance lit her eyes, and for a moment he thought she would protest that she
could not help who had spoken to her. But her lips stayed stubbornly closed. He admired h
self-control.
"Then there is St. Margaret, Virgin and MartyrтАФthey attempted to burn her, yet the flam
left her untouched. A cauldron of boiling water was similarly useless. Finally, she was
beheaded. Do you consider yourself worthy of a saint's death such as hers? And lastly you
claim St. Catherine, also Virgin, also MartyrтАФcondemned to die on the wheel, which at he
touch was miraculously destroyed. My mother's name was Catherine. No virgin, she, and no
martyr. I have something that belonged to her, I carry it always with me."
And from the folds of his scarlet robes he brought out a small leather purse, soft with a
stippled here and there with the remains of gold tooling. From the purse he drew a ring; it h
not belonged to his mother.
"That is mine!" the girl cried. "My parents gave it me!"
"Do you see the Catherine wheels here on this purse, in gold? Is this what you wish, Jo
Anything but the fire?"