Where the Stones Sing (14 page)

Back within the comforting walls of the cathedral, Kai asked Jack about what it had been like to be an orphan.

‘It wasn't so hard, really, once the canons took me in. Before that, I can just about remember Richenda, the woman I was with in Dublin. I was often cold and hungry and dirty, though I remember her giving me a sweetmeat once. But once I was in the priory I felt safe.

‘It was the same with so many of the children here – they were orphans too, and Laurence the Bishop brought them here, boys and girls, and looked after them. He kept them in his house, and then when there were too many he boarded them out in families in the city.'

‘Tell me some more about St Laurence,' said Kai.

‘He was a great bishop, and he tried to make peace between the Normans and the Irish, after Strongbow had invaded Ireland. You know that Strongbow is buried here too, don't you? And St Laurence was the one who brought the Augustinian monks to Christ Church. But the main thing people remember about him was his kindness. And he was really holy. He could hear the voices from the past too; every morning after the first prayers he would go alone to the graveyard and talk to the blessed ones lying there. And he loved music.' 

The bell tolled, filling the cathedral with sound, and Kai jumped. ‘I'd better go now. I'm going to be late for supper.'

Later, as they ate their pickled herring that evening, Brother Albert shivered and complained that his joints were beginning to ache, a sure sign that the winter was going to be a hard one. There was already frost on the ground and the wind was from the north and bitter.

‘But your joints ache every winter,' said Brother Percival.

Brother Albert just laughed and said, ‘You speak the truth, but I tell you that the winter will be hard one, believe me or not as you wish. You are not eating your herring, Kai.'

Kai moved the pieces of the herring around on her trencher in an attempt to make it look smaller.

Tom said, ‘We have had herring every day this week. If I see any more salted fish, I'm going to throw up. And I hate the way herring bones stick in your teeth.'

‘We should be thankful to the Lord. There is many a poor person would be grateful for such a meal.'

Kai made an effort to swallow the fish. ‘It's just that I hate eating anything that looks back at you while you are eating it,' she said, carefully covering the fish's head with a bit of boiled onion.

‘You really are as picky as a girl,' said Roland. ‘I shall begin to call you a girl's name, Margaret or Nan or Kate.'

Kai jumped and felt herself blush. Then she stuck out her tongue at him.
But Tom was quick to defend her. ‘Don't you call Kai
girlish
, he has far more courage than you have. He's the one that will walk the highest walls or go out furthest on the river. Further than you ever would. I think you are still afraid old Jenny Greenteeth will rise out of the water and bite you every time we go near the Liffey.'

‘Jenny Greenteeth got Dame Maria's son Philip, didn't she?' said Roland.

‘Philip just drowned. It happens,' said Tom.

Kai said, ‘I don't care what names you call me. I know who I am and I don't care what your opinion of me is.'

‘When my father is back you had better care, for I know there is something strange going on with you and he will find out what it is!'

Brother Albert started to intervene, but Kai lost her temper. ‘Don't you threaten me, Roland Fitzhugh, or I swear, I swear, I will make you very sorry you did!'

Roland stood up and was shouting, ‘I heard you – you all heard him – he's threatening me! If anything should happen to me, you are the witnesses. If any ill befalls me, it is because he has cursed me!'

After this argument Roland watched Kai even more closely. From the beginning he had suspected that there
was something very suspicious about the newest chorister. He was so very secretive – never washing or dressing with the other boys, going off on his own whenever he got the chance. He had spotted Kai sometimes touching something that hung around his neck under his clothes and Roland wondered if it was some kind of magic amulet. He had also heard that witches and warlocks sometimes had a peculiar mark on their bodies, the mark of the devil – perhaps that was what Kai was trying to hide from his companions!

Kai's recent strange behaviour had only strengthened his suspicions. He thought that Kai might be meeting his father, the trickster who had been driven out of town. Or perhaps his brother, the criminal. Roland had made it his business to find out everything he could about Kai's family. He could hardly wait for his own father to come back to Dublin, so that he could tell him his suspicions. In the meantime, he spoke to Brother Malcolm about them, but Malcolm was in a terrible mood as a result of losing the election as prior. It was only when Roland suggested that perhaps his father, as justiciar, might be able to do something about the result of the election that he became enthusiastic.

‘I am sure that the canons were under some kind of malign influence when they voted,' said Malcolm. ‘If we could show that we could have the election declared illegal and I could be prior.'

Finally, the message came that Roland's father would arrive 
back in Dublin within the week. He had been entrusted with an important message from the king; a parliament was to be called to hear it in the castle of Dublin. Lady Rachel left off her penitential robe and dressed herself in jewels and satin in preparation for his arrival. Roland was given permission to go home for a few days, although he would be needed to sing in the great Mass that was being held in the cathedral for Martinmas. Before that, his father arrived, along with a retinue of servants to take his son home from the priory.

Patrick Fitzhugh was disappointing to look at. He was a small, stout man with a wizened face and cold blue eyes. He came back with the news that he had not been made justiciar at all, but instead had been given the post as the new
escheator
, which was a huge let-down for him. And for Roland.

‘Escheator, cheater,' said Tom mockingly. They had all become very tired of hearing about Roland's father. ‘Your father is just a thief by any other name, and has only got where he is by flattering the rich and powerful and trying to get other people into trouble. You needn't be so proud of him.'

‘And your father? What is he but a jumped-up peasant, a miller? Everyone knows how dishonest millers are. As for Kai – why, his father was run out of town as a beggar and a trickster − a seller of fake potions and medicines, a liar and a rogue. We don't even know where he came from.'

Kai tried to speak, to tell Roland exactly what she thought
of him, but Tom, usually so quiet, had gone very red and his words came out in a rush. He was so furious he would not let Kai get a word in. ‘My father is a good man and an honest one. He has never cheated anyone in his life. Our weights are honest and we don't overcharge like some
millers
, even when the times are hard. He does an honest day's work which is more than can be said about some people.'

‘My father works very hard. He is determined to weed out the evils that have brought plague upon Dublin. He has great knowledge and experience in hunting out the devil, and he will do it here.'

‘Oh pleeease,' said Kai.

Tom pulled Kai to one side. ‘Let's get away from this. Do you want to go down to the river? We could go across to Oxmantown,' he said.

‘Not now. I'm sorry, perhaps tomorrow?'

Kai had not been able to get to the cathedral on her own for three days and she desperately wanted to hear from Jack and her other friends. As a result, she was not quite as careful as she might have been when covering her tracks. Tom saw her sneak into the side door of the cathedral. He was just about to follow her when he was spotted by Brother Albert and dragged off to help carry food to some of the poor in Dublin. But on the way, they passed Roland.

A couple of weeks before, Tom would not have dreamed of giving Roland any information about Kai's whereabouts.
But he was angry at being rebuffed once again. So when Roland asked, ‘Have you seen Kai?', he replied, ‘He's
probably
in the cathedral, that seems to be where he goes to spend all his spare time.'

And so Roland made his way to the cathedral, where he crept in as quietly as he could and found Kai seated on one of the benches, singing.

But as he sat there, Roland realised that there was
something
very strange going on. For very faintly, so faintly that Roland could half convince himself it was no more than the wind crying outside the cathedral walls, it seemed that other voices were joining in with Kai. The voices were young voices and seemed to come out from the stone of the walls of the church.

Roland felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. Demons. The boy was communicating with demons.

When the singing had finished, Kai said quietly, ‘Thank you. Thank you all. It's so good to be able to sing with you. With friends who know everything about me. I don't know how long more I can go on like this, keeping secrets from everybody.'

There was a noise like a whisper of wind through the church, and then Kai said, ‘The worst? The worst is hiding that I'm a girl all the time.'

Roland gasped so hard he almost fell off his seat, and Kai jumped up and looked around her, but Roland had already
run from the cathedral. So that was it. Kai was a girl. A girl. If she was a girl and she was talking to demons, she was a witch. He ran until he reached the calefactory, where Brother
Malcolm
was seated, counting money.

Gasping, Roland stood before him, his brain in a whirl. A female, singing with the holy brothers in Holy Mother church. What sacrilege! And a witch at that, talking to those demons and singing with them. Now it all fell into place: the girlish squeamishness, the black cat, the disease that had arrived with Kai, the fact that he – no she – herself had never been infected by the plague, despite all the time she had spent nursing the sick.

‘What is it, boy? What's the matter?' Brother Malcolm was irritable and impatient. Since he realised that Roland's father was not to be made justiciar, he had much less time for the boy.

‘It's Kai, brother. I found him – her – in the cathedral. Kai is a girl. And she was singing …'

‘What? What nonsense is this? This isn't possible. You were dreaming, boy.'

‘I swear I'm not. And, and there were other voices singing with her, demons and monsters. And she said – she talked to them, and she said she was a girl.'

‘Are you totally sure about this, boy? Start at the
beginning
and tell me everything.'

Roland stuttered out what he had seen and heard. He 
ended by saying, ‘So, we must go and tell the prior, mustn't we, and get her out of the cathedral? She has no right to be on the altar and sing with us. No right to learn Latin and be in the same place as the holy brothers. She must be evil; she must be got out of here. And punished.'

Brother Malcolm looked thoughtful.

‘Hmm… no, wait. I am not sure that telling Stephen of Derby is the right way to go about this. He is so meek and mild he will not take strong action. No, this is a terrible crime, and a great danger. We have a witch child in our midst and we must do something about it immediately. You know the punishment for blasphemy as well as witchcraft is
burning
. There was an Irishman burned for blasphemy on Hoggin Green, not so very long ago.'

Brother Malcolm's brain was working fast. If this story could be made a public scandal, he could make the scandal work in his favour. Imagine, the good brothers of Christ Church harbouring a girl in their midst – a girl who seemed to have magical powers. There would be uproar in Dublin. Perhaps the disgrace would force the prior to resign … And then there would be space for a new prior, someone untainted. It would be a good excuse to get Brother Albert out of the priory too. To send him off somewhere in the west. Or the east. In any case, somewhere far, far, away.

‘I think it best to tell your father. He will do what is
necessary
– arrest the girl and have her tried. Let us go right away.'

‘But will she not need to be tried by the Church?' asked Roland breathlessly as they hurried towards his father's house in Skinner's Row. He knew that that was the usual process for heresy, blasphemy and witchcraft.

‘Not necessarily. In fact, I think we may dispense with the idea of a court altogether. If she has to go to trial, who knows how much time she will have to bewitch and bewilder the populace. A straightforward people's court will do, and a fire built close to the High Cross. For her and her cat. That will rid us of this pestilence quickly and cleanly.'

Witch Hunt

s she was leaving the cathedral, Kai had the strangest sense that there was something wrong. Dinny, who greeted her at the door, felt the same way. She rubbed against her, crying
anxiously
. Kai picked her up and hugged her, wondering what the strange noise was that she had heard in the chapel. The wind? It was windy enough outside, a freezing wind
bringing
a freezing rain that cut into her face as she made her way across the cloister garth.

She was looking for Tom. She was determined to make it up with him. Even if it meant she had to tell him her secret, she would take the risk. She would have no more secrets from him. He was a friend, after all, and with true friends you were honest. And if they were true friends, they would help you out when you were in trouble. But there was no sign of him anywhere; he must still be with Brother Albert. She felt restless, unable to decide what to do. Perhaps she would go to Master Giles’s house and see if Paul had confessed or Joan had any luck convincing her father that Edward had not stolen the statue. She made her way through St Nicholas’s gate and down towards St Kevin’s quarter, where the mason’s house was.

But as she passed the alleyway that led past St Patrick’s towards the Archbishop’s Palace and St Kevin’s Street, her skin began to crawl. She knew that feeling from her years on the road with her father: the feeling of danger. Someone was watching her, with no good will towards her. Was it the choir boys from St Patrick’s lying in wait for her? But she had only time to sense the presence of danger before everything went black.

A sack had gone over her head and shoulders and she was dragged, kicking and screaming, through a doorway and down some foul-smelling narrow stairs. Her hands and feet were tied and then a rope went around her waist and she was attached firmly to a chair. The sack was pulled roughly from her head, and caught the thin chain that held her coral. It broke, and her mother’s charm fell to the ground. Looking around her, Kai realised that she must be in some kind of cellar. It smelled of rat droppings and damp. There in front of her was the escheator, along with Roland and Brother Malcolm. They were seated at a table, and Brother Malcolm had parchment and a pen. There was a lantern hanging beside her so that the light shone into her eyes, but apart from the rushlight beside Brother Malcolm’s writing materials, their faces were 
in shadow. Even in the dimness, though, she could still see that Roland had a wide grin on his face and was twitching with excitement.

‘Well now,’ said Sir Patrick. ‘A coney well trapped. First, we must tell you that we know everything – all about your crimes and your witchcraft. But we need some answers from you before we bring you before the people for trial. It will be best for you to confess all to us and to the Good Lord.’

‘Confess what? I have done nothing wrong!’

Brother Malcolm broke in, spluttering in his rage. ‘
Nothing
wrong? You have defiled God’s altar with your female presence! You have lied to all the holy canons! You have been seen conversing with demons in the very cathedral itself! And who knows what else you have done? Perhaps you are the very cause of the plague that has afflicted us. Perhaps you even swayed the minds of the brothers to vote that feeble cleric, Stephen of Derby, as prior. Nothing wrong indeed!’

The escheator cast a disapproving glance at Brother Malcolm.

‘That is no way to place the charges before the accused, brother. We must do this formally and in a dignified matter. Please, contain yourself.’

He gave a small cough and began, in a voice with a strange, chanting tone. Even his accent changed, as if he were trying to sound more English:

‘These are the charges laid out against you, the varmint
known as Kai Breakwater. Do I take it your Christian name is Katherine?’

Kai nodded. So they knew. She was done for.

‘Katherine Breakwater, you are charged with:

‘Defiling God’s House.

‘Deceiving the brothers of our most noble cathedral, the Holy Trinity, also known as Christ Church.

‘Inflicting the plague on the people of Dublin.

‘Conversing with demons.

‘Possession of a familiar, to wit, the black cat known as Dinny.

‘Foully perverting the minds of the holy brothers in the election of Prior Stephen of Derby as prior to the said house of the Holy Trinity.

‘What say you to these charges?’

Kai swallowed.

‘I am not guilty of any of them. Except perhaps misleading the brothers into thinking I was a boy. But no one ever asked me if I was a girl!’

Brother Malcolm broke in: ‘You see how devious she is, twisting the truth. Another charge against her, dissimulation to her judges! Shall we add it to the list?’

‘Let’s!’ said Roland gleefully.

Brother Malcolm was writing everything down. Kai
wondered
should she just say nothing. Already it seemed that anything she might say could become yet another charge
against her. But she had to defend herself, so she continued, ‘And I don’t believe that my singing has defiled God’s house. I believe that God and his angels love to hear music, whether it comes from the mouth of a boy or a girl. As for the other charges – they are just ridiculous. I don’t know how anyone could believe them. I certainly did not bring the plague or have anything to do with the election of Stephen as prior. Though I’m very glad he
was
elected. So there.’

Here she looked rebelliously at Brother Malcolm.

‘Ah! See! She does not deny that she has a familiar. Or that she speaks to demons.’ Brother Malcolm was smiling almost as widely as Roland.

‘Dinny is a cat. A CAT.’ Kai spelt it out. ‘She is no more magic than I am. As for the voices in the cathedral, perhaps they are magic, but if they are, they are good magic. They are the voices of the children who have sung there through the years. They do no harm, and they comfort me. Jack is there too, and he is happy.’

She looked at Roland as she said this, hoping he at least would understand the importance of Jack still being with them in the cathedral, but he just looked away.

His father said, ‘Blasphemy and sorcery! It is worse than I thought! We cannot let the people listen to her speak, she is too skilful with her lies. We should have guessed with her mountebank father that she would have a tongue like a serpent …’

‘You must realise that we have other witnesses against you. The mason Paul has also borne witness that he has heard the voices of demons in Christ Church. Confess and repent, child.’ Brother Malcolm’s voice had changed, become gentle: ‘If you confess and repent there is the chance of a less painful death than burning. It is quite clear that you have magical powers. You have admitted it yourself with your talk of the spirits in the cathedral. And look how you walked among the plague victims and did not become ill. Look how you saved your friend the miller’s boy.’

‘Brother Albert and Dame Maria went into all the plague houses too, much more often than me. And no one is
accusing
them of witchcraft! And if I had been able to save lives, wouldn’t I have saved Jack too?’

To her fury, Kai found that she was crying. The escheator said sternly.

‘Enough of this. It is evident that the witch is guilty. She is a most stubborn sorceress. Let us spread the word in Dublin that she is to be punished!’

‘But I have not been tried! There has been no court! You have made up your mind already so no matter what I say you are not going to believe me!’

‘We will bring you before the people. We have spread the word and they will gather in the marketplace at first light, to be told of your crimes. They will judge.’

Kai had been too angry with the lies that were being told
about her to have been really afraid up until now. But now she realised that she was in very serious trouble. She had been judged by crowds before. Being part of a crowd sometimes brought out the worst in people, made them become cruel in a way they would never be normally. Nice people, gentle people, had been part of the crowds that had run her father and herself and Edward out of towns, pelting them with stones and shouting at them. Bring a crowd together and you could never tell what might happen, only that they were usually looking for someone to blame for all their problems. And in a town like Dublin, where the plague was present, they would be only too happy to have someone to blame …

Her three judges left. She sat for what seemed like a long time, bound to the chair. Finally, a faint light appeared and Dame Rachel came down the steps to the cellar. She was dressed in a white shift and carried a bowl of soup and some bread. She untied Kai’s hands, but not her legs, and handed her the food.

‘Eat quickly,’ she said. ‘I should not be here.’

The soup was thin and greasy and the bread hard, but Kai was so grateful for something to eat that she ate everything. Dame Rachel tied her hands again, this time in front of her. She placed a small crucifix between her fingers. Then she noticed the coral on the ground.

‘What’s this?’ she asked, picking it up.

Kai felt tears coming on.

‘It was my mother’s,’ she said in a choked voice.

Dame Rachel slipped the coral into her tied hands and covered them with her own.

‘You may be a witch and be going to burn,’ she said. ‘But that does not mean you may not have the comfort of the Lord and of your own mother with you. It may help you when the flames come to meet you.’

There I was thinking her as mad as a brush, thought Kai, and she’s possibly saner and certainly kinder than her
husband
and son.

All the night through she sat, tied to the chair, with only the company of a small furry animal, who crept from the shadows into her lap and licked her hands with her tiny, rough tongue, trying to comfort her mistress, and, in the darkness, doing her very best to keep the rats away from her.

As soon as he could escape from Brother Albert, Tom headed for the cathedral. He was already feeling bad about having told Roland where Kai went when she sneaked away from them. When he saw that there was nobody in the
cathedral
, he felt worse. He spent the next half hour checking all the places in the priory where Kai was usually to be found. Then he left to see if his friend might have gone to Giles the mason’s house. On his way there, he almost tripped over an
urchin, who barrelled into him in too much of a hurry to watch where he was going. He gave Tom a cheeky grin.