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The Inquisitor's Apprentice (Upmarket Historical Fiction WIP) CHAPTER ONE - Introduces antagonist, setting, tone and foreshadows the primary conflict The rider pulled back on the reins and brought the donkey to a halt. He straightened his back and moaned softly, releasing the pain and tension of two days and nights without cease on the back of the plodding beast. Although his stomach growled in protest, the priest would allow neither soft bed nor hard bread to tempt him into delaying his voyage here. His two retainers rode silently behind him, their black robes absorbing the brutal heat of the Cordovan summer. In the distance he saw the long, heavily fortified stone bridge the pagan Romans had built over the Guayaquil River to control traffic in and out of the walled city of Cordova. Beyond the bridge, he could see the giant mosque that had become the Grand Cathedral when King Alfonso ended seven hundred years of darkness under the Moors here. The largest Roman outpost in Iberia, the seat of the Moorish caliphate, now to become the purest Christian city in the realm. He cast his gaze towards the Alcazar palace, the temporary home of the Sovereigns as they oversaw the conquest of Moorish Grenada less than a decade ago. The Sovereigns gave the palace, its magnificent Moorish gardens and strong fortifications to the Inquisition after the Reconquista. The Alcazar was now fortalitium fidei, a fortress of faith, and as the new Inquisitor of Cordova and Grenada he would be its humble guardian. Diego Rodrigo Lucero dismounted and fell to his knees in the dusty road. He beat his chest and thanked God for guiding him from lowly schoolteacher and canon of a small church near Seville to this magnificent place of greater service. He knew that God, through the church and the Sovereigns, were entrusting him with the most sacred mission of all – to bring the flock back to the path through love and faith, to purify the souls of this region of Most Catholic Spain. Cordova had been a peaceful place since the Jews were expelled in 1492. Those that remained, the conversos or New Christians, must have been good Catholics because there were but few prosecutions for Judaizing since the burnings immediately preceding the Expulsion. Or was it because the previous Inquisitor had not allowed the flames to grow hot enough, apparently satisfied to takes bribes from the conversos to leave them to practice their forbidden Jewish rituals in private? The bribery didn’t bother Lucero. Many clergy, even Inquisitors, accepted benefices from the people they served to facilitate, delay or modify judgments. Rather, he feared that any remaining allegiance to the discredited Law of Moses or disparagement of the True Faith, even in secret, could lead to a resurgence in backsliding into the error of Judaism. Maybe not today or tomorrow, perhaps in a generation. Cordova seemed tranquil and obedient, but Lucero knew that demons often lay hidden beneath a placid surface. The new Inquisitor got up slowly, stretched and mounted his donkey. He crossed himself. His coal black eyes stared hard at the city. “Let my holy work here begin.” As he kicked the donkey forward, he heard the sloppy singing of a drunken man at the foot of the bridge. The Inquisitor urged the donkey towards the sound. At the bridge, he dismounted and found the man splayed out on the embankment. He pinched his nose against the sour smell of vomit and old piss that emanated from the drunkard. The man looked up the priest and cried out. “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned! Look how far I have fallen.” He pointed to the bridge shakily. “I mean I have really fallen. Haha. Get it, Father?” The Inquisitor sighed, then spoke to the man gently. “What is your name?” “Mendoza,” came the reply through a sizable belch. “Mendoza,” repeated Lucero. “An honorable Old Christian family name. Are you from Cordova?” “No, Father. I am from Jaen. I don’t know how I got here. Last night I was with an angel. I supposed she flew me here, haha!” The Inquisitor winced at the man’s foolishness and motioned to his retainers. “Come with us, my son. We will give you a safe place to rest, be fed and to restore your body and soul.” As the retainers helped him to his feet and dragged him towards the donkeys, Lucero whispered to the nearest one. “When we get to the fortress, lock him in a cell away from any other prisoners. God has sent him to be an instrument of our good work.” *** Father Pedro turned the key in the ornate lock and opened the door to the large house on Calle Encarnacion. He bowed and swept his hand towards the interior of the house. “Please, Doctor Lucero, your new home.” Lucero entered the house followed by the priest, the scrape of their sandaled feet on the marble floor magnified by the vastness of the empty space. “And do not be concerned by the lack of furnishings,” Father Pedro hastened to add. “They have been sequestered by the Holy Office pending the resolution of charges against your predecessor, Dr. Guimal. We will provide new furniture shortly.” The Inquisitor grunted. “I have no need of fancy furniture nor grand accommodations. I am here to do holy work, not relax in comfort.” Of course, of course,” the priest replied apologetically. “But you will need a bed to sleep in and a desk to write upon. Surely our Good Lord would not deny you those basic comforts.” Lucero smiled. “Of course. Thank you. But nothing more than that.” He glanced back out the door at the sound of girls’ voices singing in Latin. “I am, however, gladdened to hear those angelic voices from the convent across the street. That sound will daily be my comfort.” Afterwards, as they walked down the street towards the fortress, Lucero eyed every person who passed them or sat in a doorway telling tales to their neighbor. “I smell the corruption of the Faith here.” Father Pedro furrowed his brow. “We haven’t had any problems since the expulsion. The New Christians in Cordova are sincere believers. The only public auto de fe, acts of faith, have been for blasphemy and the odd sodomy. I believe there have only been two purifications by fire in nearly a decade. One was the burning of the bones of some long dead Jews, and the other the burning of wax effigies of two heretics who escaped to Portugal.” “According to my sources, that was because Doctor Guimal was more interested in filthy lucre than the purity of the Faith. The reason there were no prosecutions is that he forced the converso community to put up a bond of two million maravedis, and pay him ten percent of that annually to be left alone.” “I cannot comment on the inner working of the Inquisition, of course. Dr. Guimal did seem to have a good eye for business, even if it did come at the expense of the Royal Treasury,” Father Pedro offered hopefully. Lucero balled his fists and replied in a low growl. “There will be no more thievery while I am the Inquisitor here. And no one will be allowed to petition the Lord with silver and gold.” CHAPTER TWO - Introduces protagonists and secondary characters, inciting incident Blanca’s father had never allowed her to go with the crowds to watch the burnings in the Plaza de Corredera and hear the screams of the dying. It didn’t matter. She could still smell the rancid smoke and see the ashes wafting through the air and dusting everything in Cordoba. The last burning was only three days earlier. Even the beautiful orange grove that filled the courtyard of the cathedral was grey and dulled by the pain of the city. Her nightmares would continue long after the incessant summer wind and the infrequent rains spirited the ashes into memory. The thirteen year-old found solace from her fear and loneliness at the cathedral, planted like a horizontal cross in the middle of the vast forest of marble pillars of the Mezquita, the old Moorish mosque of Cordoba. She missed her mother and older brother terribly, but shook away the sadness that clung to her heart every day since they had left Spain for Rome over a year ago. Today was a special day, the baptism of General Gonzalo Fernandez’ new daughter, Elvira. Blanca’s father Alonso was to be given the honor of being godfather to the child, just as the General had been godfather to Blanca in this same place thirteen years earlier. She strolled into the cathedral holding her father’s hand lightly, wearing her beautiful new white dress, and the necklace her Jewish uncle had sent her from the Kingdom of Naples. The soft leather shoes her father had made for her were covered in the ashen remains of the latest victims of the Inquisition. Each step Blanca took on the path that led from the grove into the sanctuary raised a small cloud of souls yearning for liberation. Alonso kissed his daughter gently on her forehead and turned to walk to the baptismal font set below the new altarpiece he had commissioned for the occasion. Blanca took her seat among the dark wooden pews, and let herself be swept away from the horror outside by the sonorous Latin chants of the choir. She stared at the altarpiece, a brooding painting of Saint George slaying the dragon. The saint’s face looked like the General’s. Blanca’s father had taught her that religious paintings usually had many layers of meaning, depending on the artist and the patron’s wishes. Beneath the parable of the saint destroying the pagan world, Blanca guessed this painting commemorated the General’s famous victory over the Moors of Grenada. She would ask her father later. A low, troubled murmur rolled through the parishioners. Blanca saw many of her neighbors looking upwards and followed their gaze. She put her hand to her throat and gasped. All around the cathedral, dirty cotton specters with strange, painted designs of fire, demons and bizarrely torqued bodies loomed menacingly above her. The priests had hung sanbenitos around the giant dome. Every day, she saw citizens convicted of minor crimes wandering the streets of Cordoba in these sacks and the conical pointed hats they were forced to wear as penance for their misdeeds. But none of those had frightening paintings as the ghostly shapes hovering over her head. The shafts of light that flooded the cathedral through windows all around the dome were meant to illustrate God bringing the light of Truth and Redemption to the parishioners below. But now it pierced and illuminated the horrible sanbenitos and made them appear alive. Her neighbor whispered that these sanbenitos were from the twenty-seven poor souls condemned as heretics by the Inquisition, turned over to the city council and so recently burned at the stake. Blanca numbly counted the sanbenitos. Twenty-seven. She shuddered and looked away. *** The General and Alonso stood on one side of the font, across from the General’s second wife Maria Manrique, who held baby Elvira. The General leaned towards Alonso and spoke quietly. “Look at those damned sanbenitos. It seems the Sovereigns have given our new Inquisitor permission to prosecute the entire New Christian population of Cordoba. The arrests grow daily. You must be comforted your wife and son left for Rome before the Inquisitor arrived. I never understood why you stayed, and why you kept our dear little Blanca here.” Alonso sighed. “You know I have my work here. My translations and book bindings are no threat to the Sovereigns, and Blanca is too young to be bothered by the Inquisition. I don’t think we are in any danger.” General Fernandez grunted. “You underestimate your importance to the New Christian community here. Your esteem in the eyes of the nobles and the church gives the New Christians hope that this storm will pass.” He clapped his firm hand on Alonso’s shoulder and shook his head. “You have many friends, Alonso, especially among your customers. But the clergy and the nobles can be quite fickle. They may adore your beautiful leather bindings and precious manuscripts, and appreciate your moral philosophy, but when they see advantage elsewhere, well, you know they will take it. I will always defend you and my goddaughter. I am El Gran Capitan of our armies, but alas, even I can’t stay the hand of the Sovereigns if they are turned against you by the Dark One. It was easier for me to defeat the Moors in Granada and the French in Naples than to overcome the Inquisition.” He looked towards Blanca. “I only hope that my Elvira grows to be as beautiful and intelligent as Blanca. It is a pity she spends so much time alone. The child needs her mother.” The cathedral choir launched a soaring aria as Father Pedro began the ritual. He read the scriptural passages, the intersessions of the saints and the prayers of exorcism. After blessing the baptismal waters, Father Pedro addressed the new parents and godfather. “Do you reject Satan, all his works and empty promises?” They responded in unison, “I do.” Do you believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth?” “I do.” “Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father?” “I do.” “Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sin, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting?” “I do.” Father Pedro raised the baptismal waters. “Is it your will that Elvira should be baptized in the faith of the Church, which we have all professed to you?” “It is.” “What name have you given your child in baptism?” “Aurea,” the parents replied. Father Pedro gazed softly at Alonso. “As godfather, are you prepared to help the parents of this child in their duty as Christians?” Alonso smiled softly at the baby. “I am.” “Elvira, I baptize you Aurea in the name of the Father…” The priest poured the holy water onto the forehead of the baby, eliciting a small squeak. He poured again, “and of the Son…” and a third time, “and of the Holy Spirit.” The ritual was over. The child belonged to the church. *** As the parishioners left the cathedral, Blanca joined her father, the General, Father Pedro and Gomez Solano, the choirmaster. The men complimented the choirmaster and chatted amiably as they walked through the stunning Moorish architecture and out into the sunny orange grove. General Fernandez asked Alonso about his progress on the General’s military manual describing the use of arquebus and new troop formations that the General had pioneered so successfully against the Moors in Grenada. The bookbinder smiled. “I will go to Sevilla tomorrow to pick up the manuscripts from the Cromberger printers. In another week I will have two copies bound in the best Cordovan leather and embellished with rubies to represent the blood of the vanquished.” The General beamed. “Wonderful. One copy for me and one for the King. I will deliver it myself. He will want every one of our officers to study the new methods. We have a world to conquer.” In the middle of the grove, four black-robed, hooded Dominican priests lurked like bad omens, accompanied by several heavily-armed catchpoles and Martin de Leon, the alguacil of Cordoba. The Dominicans faded back as the alguacil shouted, “Arrest him in the name of the Holy Office on the charge of Judaizing!” Alonso gripped Blanca’s hand tightly. The catchpoles rushed towards Blanca’s group and grabbed the choirmaster. They quickly wrestled him towards the arched exit of the compound, followed by the silent Dominicans. Gomez Solano shouted in bewilderment. “I am innocent! I believe in the True Faith! Please, someone help me! Father, give me sanctuary!” “I am sorry, my son, there is no sanctuary for heretics.” The priest looked around at the rough-looking men lounging by the well in the grove. “Alas, it appears only murderers, thieves and rapists have a chance at redemption, not heretics.” The choirmaster’s pleas faded as he was engulfed in a cocoon of black robes and spirited out of the grove. Martin de Leon walked heavily towards the General, his two broad swords clanking against each other under his cloak. The General’s eyes blazed. “What is the meaning of this, Martin? How dare you disturb my daughter’s baptismal day!” The alguacil quaked but quickly regained his composure. “I am sorry, Gran Capitan, but the choirmaster stands accused and must submit to the Inquisition. Inquisitor Lucero himself ordered me to arrest him here today. I must follow his orders as I did yours before the walls of Granada.” He bowed and hurried away. General Fernandez spit and cursed at the fleeing alguacil. “Coward!” He turned red-faced with anger towards the priest. “This is outrageous! Father, were you aware of this?” The priest grimaced and wrung his hands, looking from the General to Alonso and back. “Inquisitor Lucero is rooting the Judaizers out of the Church. I have told him there are no Judaizers here but he will not be stopped. He made an example of the choirmaster to force everyone in the cathedral staff to fall in line. Especially me, because I objected to hanging the sanbenitos in the cathedral. I had no idea he would do this today of all days. I don’t know who he will go after next.” “I must write the sovereigns immediately and bring this before the Cortes,” the General growled. “This man’s excesses and venality must be stopped now!” He turned and stormed out of the grove, hurling blasphemies at anyone in his path. Father Pedro put his hands to his head and sighed deeply. “Poor Gomez. You remember he was the cantor at the old synagogue. His name was Abram Levi then. Jews, even former ones, are especially mystically inclined. As choirmaster, Gomez could continue his spiritual search in safety, or so I thought.” Alonso thought back before the Expulsions, when a younger Abraham Levi would chant on the holy days and manifest the light of the shechina into the synagogue. “He could reach those heights in his music because he had found something. I don’t think we will ever know what it was.” “Nor should we ever speak of it again.” Father Pedro made the sign of the Cross and retreated towards the cathedral. Alonso called after the priest. “Would you have told me if I was the subject of the Inquisitor?” Father Pedro stopped and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. “I would tell you out of love and respect for you and your family.” He exhaled sharply and shrugged. “But I might not tell you out of fear.” As Blanca and her father hurried away from the cathedral, she looked back, fearing the sanbenitos would follow her, but knowing they would surely appear in her dreams.

April 1989 Southport, Maine Someone had told her once that the red house had withstood years of abuse from the gales and never faltered because it had good bones. But the house that fishermen looked to as a landmark in the fog was now a beacon of neglect. Galene stopped at the front door and scraped her fingernails along the siding. Red paint peeled off in shards. At least she’d had the roof replaced last year. She tussled with the finicky lock and cringed as the door creaked open in protest. The air inside smelled like must. Furniture covered in white cloth. Dust motes dancing. A memory tugged at her. She shook it off. The large windows in the parlor stretched across the room, affording views of both Sheepscot Bay and the ocean beyond where a flock of gulls soared on an updraft, monitoring the water below for prey. A few landed on the granite ledge overlooking the bay. They still nest there, she thought. All these years and they still know to come home. There wasn’t time to linger over memories though. She needed to find her journal that she’d stashed years ago. A flight of steps led her to the attic and a flip of the switch bathed the room in a muted yellow glow. She yelped at the sight of the dress mannequin in front of the only window in the room. At first, she thought it was a real person. No. Just a ghost standing watch over the scattered remains of the people who once inhabited this house and didn’t take the time to clean up their mess. The chest was on the floor next to the mannequin. She unlocked it with a key, yanked it open, and the first thing she saw was the silk dress she’d retrofitted when she was seventeen. For him. She pulled the dress out of the tissue paper she’d wrapped it in, examining it in the natural light. Surprisingly, there were no moth holes. Standing up, she draped it over the mannequin where she had first discovered it, falling in love with the fabric’s silky embrace. Oh God, don’t do this to yourself. Move on. Find the damn journal and get the hell out of here. She returned to the chest. On top of a Montgomery Ward box that held her wedding dress was the trilogy of the sea by Rachel Carson. They belonged to her dad, and she read them to him almost every night until they had both read all three books at least twice, memorizing entire passages. Her eyes pooled, and she wiped at them with the back of her sleeve, getting mascara on it. She took the books out, set them aside, and rummaged around the bottom of the trunk until she felt the leather-bound journal. Lifting it out of the chest, she swung around, startled by a sharp bark. A yellow lab bounded up the stairs, its claws scratching the wooded steps, and sprinted directly at her, almost knocking her over. “Sit!” she said, grabbing for the collar as the dog licked the back of her hands and wagged its tail. “Sit, Beebee.” “There you are. Didn’t you hear me calling you?” Sasha stood in the doorway, hands planted on her hips. Arms akimbo. Galene let go of the collar and pulled the journal to her chest. “Jeesh, Sasha. Beebee scared the hell out of me.” Sasha stepped into the light. Her curly black hair now white, her blue eyes just as vivid as they’d always been. “BeeBee, come.” She motioned for her dog. “What are you doing up here?” “How’d you know I was here?” “I was walking BeeBee and saw a car with out-of-state plates and…you know you left the door wide open to the house?” She strode across the room and embraced Galene. “Why didn’t you tell anyone when you were getting in? We could’ve picked you up at the airport.” “I didn’t want to put anyone out, so I rented a car.” Sasha stepped away from her and poked at the journal. “Found your old diary?” Her dark brows slanted. “I remember that thing. You were always writing in it. Look, if there’s anything about me in there that my kids shouldn’t know about I suggest you burn it.” “It’s about me. Not you. And don’t worry. I won’t let it get into the wrong hands. I just want to read it again. I stopped by the house to find it. Thought it might jog my memory about the summer I worked for Rachel Carson. I need to think of what I’m going to say at the memorial.” Sasha rolled her eyes. “I know. That’s all everyone around here is talking about.” There’s not much else to talk about on this island besides other people’s business and the latest catch, Galene thought. But didn’t say out loud. “Where are you staying?” Sasha continued. “I got a room at Newagen.” “Lucky you. I hear they’re booked solid. You’ll be hobnobbing with all the bigwigs. The Governor is staying there as well. You sure you’re ready for this? There’s going to be a huge crowd.” “I lecture to a room of over a hundred students every week. I think I can handle it.” Sasha swiped a piece of hair away from her eyes. Galene recognized the dark red nail polish on her fingernails, chipping off like the paint on the house. “Oh, my God! Is that the dress you wore to the boat club party years ago? You kept it?” Sasha took a handful of the fabric in her hand. “I always loved this dress.” Galene stopped herself from telling Sasha to leave it alone because she didn’t want to come across as unkind in the short time she had here. “I’m only here for a few days,” she said to change the subject. “I’ve got to get back for finals week.” Sasha’s dreamy gaze remained on the dress. A smile formed on her lips, most likely remembering a time when they were both young and determined to makes something of their lives. A passing thought, a disturbing memory perhaps, caused Sasha to chomp down on her lower lip. She turned her attention to Galene. “Why’d you keep it?” “I don’t know,” Galene said as she choked back tears. Damn it, Sasha. Leave it alone. Maybe Sasha noticed the raspiness in Galene’s voice, because she let go and stepped away from the mannequin. Galene headed toward the stairs, Sasha right behind like a collie nipping at her heels. “Come on BeeBee,” Sasha called, and the lab barreled past them, almost knocking Galene over. “Do you know what you’re going to say at the memorial?” “I’ll figure it out.” They ended up in the parlor surrounded by white drop cloths, layers of dust on the mantel, and a fireplace that hadn’t felt the lick of flames in ten years. Maybe coming here was a bad idea. She’d given up on the place. Stopped renting it out because she didn’t feel like hearing renters complain about the lack of water pressure or the broken slats on the deck. She only did the bare minimum for upkeep, as was evident by the peeling exterior. Her brother kept telling her to sell it. The value of coastal property had quadrupled since her father-in-law bought the place in the 1960s. Sasha hugged her unexpectedly, and the warmth of it settled her. “I know it’s difficult for you to make the trip back. But I’ve really missed you.” “I’ve missed you too, Sasha.” “Then why don’t you plan to stay longer?” “I can’t.” “Then come back when the semester ends. Fix this place up. Have you forgotten how nice the summers are here?” “It’s hard not to,” Galene said. “Don’t take it personally. I’m usually tied down by my research.” She failed to mention that her summer stipend hadn’t come through. The funders were rethinking their commitment to her work studying the impacts of global warming on the marine life in the Salish Sea. “I’ve never taken it personally. But for the life of me, I can’t figure out why you made a pit stop to this place to find a twenty-five-year-old diary so you can reminisce.” Galene clutched the leather journal closer and stalked outside to the car. “It’s not reminiscing. It’s research.” She stepped into the car and shut the door. Sasha rested her elbows at the window as Galene put the car into gear. “Sure it is.” *** Her attention drifted to the murmuration over the fir trees dotting the coast. High above the audience on the lawn, the starlings were putting on their own choreographed show. The surf muffled their song, but she knew they were communicating to each other. How else could they accomplish these aerial theatrics?. They alighted en masse onto the branches of a tree, and on cue, pitched back into the air, circling, fanning, creating waves of black smoke along the horizon. From her viewpoint on the deck at the Inn, she imagined they were harassing the hawk waiting restlessly in the tree. He finally gave up and flew away. “…am happy to introduce one of our hometown heroes to the environmental cause, Dr. Galene MacGregor.” The clapping brought her back to the stage, to the event, to the people on the lawn waiting for her to speak. With a nod and a smile she took her place at the podium and focused on the audience. She’d learned long ago to keep her attention on the last row, a trick mastered when she felt seasick on a boat. Keep steady. Not that she felt seasick, but a feeling had crawled up her arms, tingled the back of her head, made her brain buzz. She couldn’t pinpoint it. Clearing her throat, she unfolded her notes and found them unacceptable. All of the lectures in the world hadn’t prepared her for this. The crowd waited expectantly for her to speak. The blood drained from her head, their faces went blurry. Was she about to faint? “Uhm. Do you need a moment?” the last speaker, the mayor of Booth Bay, whispered in her ear. Shaking her head to bring back some energy she said, “I’ll be all right.” Someone handed her a glass of water. She took two gulps, faced the crowd, and spotted her brother, Sam, in the front row next to Sasha. Galene spoke, “The other speakers here have spoken about Rachel Carson’s influence. Her message to us all about the perils of neglecting the natural world. And she’ll always be memorialized for that. But my memory of Miss Carson is of a warm, caring, private friend. She became my mentor when I desperately needed one.” Galene locked eyes with her brother to register his reaction. Noting none, she continued. “My mother died when I was young and the summer I met Rachel my entire world changed. Growing up on a small island, one doesn’t realize the vast opportunities that lay beyond the shore. Cloistered. I recall using that word about my life.” A few people chuckled, and she imagined it was one of her many cousins who were in the audience. “But Rachel made me recognize the potential I had when women like her, especially women scientists, were not taken seriously. Her critics, called her all sorts of names: spinster, hysterical, a mystic instead of a person of science. Through it all, she held her head high and showed true grace. Because she knew. She knew she was dying. And no one could take away her fortitude, her belief that as part of nature, it was up to nature to decide when her time came. As she told her best friend, Dorothy Freeman in one of her letters, reminiscing about a time she and Dorothy sat right here and watched a migration of monarchs over the lawn where you now sit, ‘…we felt no sadness when we spoke of the fact that there would be no return. And rightly—for when any living thing has come to the end of its life cycle, we accept that end as natural.’ “She was a keen observer. Her trilogy of the sea is a poetic account of the life cycle on the variety of species who rely on the ocean. I think she’d like most to be remembered not as the woman who catalyzed the environmental movement. But a biographer of the sea. Because it was here, by the ocean, she was happiest.” The applause died down, she regained her composure to allow a wide smile to break across her face, took another gulp of the water, and sat. The master of ceremonies announced a cocktail hour followed by dinner for those guests that had reserved tickets (tickets had cost three hundred a person and Galene doubted Sam or Sasha had forked out the money for a lobster bake when it was their lobster catch everyone was going to be eating). People came up to the deck and wandered inside when the breeze picked up and a chill descended. As she followed the crowd into the bar, Sam took her by her elbow. “Hey.” He kissed her lightly on the cheek. “We’re not staying.” “I didn’t think you would be.” “Come to dinner before you leave?” “Sure. I’m here until Tuesday.” His hair was still the same tawny brown, flecked with gray at the temples. His expression hopeful as he said, “Call us?” “Yes. I’ll call in the morning.” Sasha came up to say goodbye just as a man strode up and said, “Galene.” She did a double take. Although they were inside, he hadn’t taken off his black-framed wayfarer sunglasses, the type that were popular in the sixties and were making a comeback with celebrities. He lifted them onto his head and her heart caught in her throat. It was him. “James?” It came out as a croak. “James?” Sasha took the familiar stance of hands planted on hips. “Oh. My. God.” Galene widened her eyes at Sasha, communicating without saying, shut the hell up. And go away. “James, you remember my good friend Sasha?” He grinned, the corners of his eyes wrinkling like they always did, making him appear cheerful. “Of course.” His hair, once a deep brown, was now totally gray. His face had turned jowly, one reason she hadn’t recognized him when he took his seat on the lawn. That and his padded middle. No wonder she had felt unsettled before speaking. She’d seen him without recognizing him right away. He’d always been so chiseled. And without the bronze summer tan she remembered from their youth, he appeared—doughy. Galene hoped Sasha recognized her pleading expression after all of these years. “Sasha, so glad you came today. I’ll see you tomorrow? I know you have to go.” “Yes. So right. See you tomorrow. Goodbye, James.” And Sasha parted, leaving Galene to face the guy, now a man, she’d loathed for half of her life. “My company donated a lot of money to the Nature Conservancy for the upkeep of her preserve,” he said to explain his presence. The Rachel Carson Salt Pond Preserve in New Harbor was one of many memorials. “That’s nice,” Galene said, sounding as if her tongue had swelled to twice its size. He coughed into the back of his wrist. “I…uh…would you like a drink?” “Yes. A Chablis please.” She watched him make his way to the bar. As he did, a few people patted his shoulder, spoke into his ear. He threw his head back and laughed at a joke someone told him. Who were these people and how did he know them? Why was he here? He came back, handed her a glass, and as if on cue said, “When I heard you were speaking, I knew I had to come. We spent a lot of time in those tidal pools. You me and Trevor.” His eyes skimmed over the top of his tumbler of bourbon to meet hers. Ice tinkled in the glass as he sipped. “How is Trevor?” His face changed. “Trevor died in Vietnam.” “Oh, I’m so sorry. He was such a good spirited kid.” “Mother was crushed. She never recovered.” “That’s terrible.” It surprised Galene he talked about his mother with no note of bitterness in his voice. Losing Trevor must have been the end of what was left of their miserable family life. He put on a smile. “You look the same. And I hear you’re doing wonderful work out at the University of Washington is it?” “Yes.” “Still tramping around in the seaweed?” “Kelp beds. I study the impact of warming ocean temperatures on the kelp beds.” “Ahh…that global warming stuff. You take that seriously?” She bit her tongue. Took a long draw of her wine. “Well,” he continued, “I always knew you’d do something with yourself.” “Really?” She wanted so desperately to remind him of their last conversation, where he told her she’d move to Boston to be with him. “Did you ever get into Harvard?” She hoped this was a dagger that would ward him off. Send him scurrying. “Haha. That’s a long story. I own a company now. Real estate.” “Good for you.” His eyes grazed over her figure. “Get back home much?” “Rarely, I’m sorry to say.” She wasn’t, but it felt like she was supposed to say this. “Is this your first time back here since…?” She couldn’t bring herself to say what should come next. The awful summer of 1962 that had started out so sweet and ended up so tragic. Though out of tragedy she had love. He shook his head and puckered his lips. “No. But that’s probably going to change.” “There you are.” A young woman, Galene guessed was in her late twenties, came up to them and slid her arm into his. He patted the back of her hand. “Galene, meet my wife, Violet.” “Nice to meet you.” “You as well. You gave a wonderful speech.” Violet smiled politely, looked around as if finding Galene non-threatening, and not worth the effort. “Look at this crowd! Everyone is here.” She sounded like a chirping chickadee. “Hey, I just saw Farrah by the bar. I’ll be right back.” And she took off. “You were saying?” Galene said, trying to keep her expression neutral. Inside, she wanted to scream. He raked his free hand through his thick, wavy hair as his gaze followed his wife sashaying to the bar through a thick crowd of people. After taking the last swig of his drink, he puckered his lips and said, “I’m planning to buy the red house. The one my dad owned way back when we first met.” Galene dropped her glass, and it shattered, wine coating the floor, slithering around her feet. Everyone’s attention turned to them and a hush fell across the room. She felt like she was under a microscope. A server scurried over with a rag, wiping up around her shoes. “I’m so sorry,” Galene stammered. “Are you okay?” He was actually concerned for her. “I’ll be fine. I just need to sit,” she said. He took hold of her by the waist and guided her to a chair in the lounge by the fireplace. People gave her a wide berth as they passed. She inhaled and stared into the flames, afraid to look him in the eyes. “It’s probably jet lag,” he said. “Yes.” “I’ll stay with you until you feel better.” “It’s fine. Don’t worry. I have a room upstairs. I think I’ll go lay down.” “Wonderful. Then I’ll see you again.” “What do you mean?” “We’re staying here too.” Galene Early Spring 1962 Southport, Maine There’s gray, and there’s black and white. Gray times are those when you make concessions to survive. Black and white times are when you won’t. Today is gray. A fox got into the coop last night, chased the hens off their nests and ate the eggs. Dad doesn’t know yet. My brother Sam forgot to close up the coop before he went out, and I don’t want to give our dad another reason to be mad at him. So, I’m off to find gull eggs. The temperature was arctic last night, but as dawn creeps over the horizon, it provides a glimpse of warmer weather. The heat builds with the rising sun, coursing through my limbs, my face, my breath, as I venture out onto the rocky shore, slick with sea spray and small pools of water reflecting the silvery dawn mist. The herring gulls, with their muted gray wings, are less aggressive than the black backed, and smaller, so I start with their nests. I throw a pocket-sized rock to shoo a gull from her nest and snatch an egg before she can pierce my hand with her beak. It’s warm from her incubating and a wave of guilt washes over me briefly before I place it in the wicker basket. We need to eat. The indignant bird has a partner who joins her, circling in the air above my head. I move to another nest. Alert, this pair torpedoes my feet with their bills. I dodge their attacks as best I can, and they peck at my rubber boots like a small hammer. They’re in a frenzy now and my luck will run out soon if I don’t hurry. I’m able to take four more eggs before being chased off by one of them nipping at my hair. Their squawking protests echo as I run away. The things we do. If Sam had closed the coop, I wouldn’t be here wanting to screech back at the birds. “Sorry, you can always lay another one, but we’ve got to eat.” A few pairs of black-backed gulls have nests on the farthest ridge. As I approach, they flap their wings. One lifts its beak, opens wide and screams. I remind myself that their protective instincts aren’t half as bad now as they will be once the chicks hatch. When I was the height of Sam’s knees, he took me out on this ledge to see the chicks, warning me to stay away from the nests. I may have gotten too close, or not have paid attention to his warning. A pair of black-backs rose in the air above us, dropping an enormous plop of white and green slimy mess on my head. Sam laughed while I cried. I approach with caution. A gull pulls out of her nest, runs right at me, her wings unfolding and flapping like a red flag to the flock. There are gray and there are black and white moments. I just washed my hair last night. This is a black and white moment. I back off, turn, and stumble over a small boy. “What’re you doing?” he asks. From his small stature I guess he’s too young to know much of anything. “I’m collecting gull eggs,” I say, pulling the basket to my chest. “Who are you?” “Why?” Searching the sea behind him for answers, pointing at the gulls dipping into the waves. “They eat the fish. The fishermen pay me. To control the population.” “What fish?” “Herring. That’s why they’re called herring gulls.” He’s wearing a pair of un-scuffed Buster Brown shoes, a white button-down shirt, gray flannel pants, and a jacket. And from the sound of his accent I’d say he’s from away. “You’re going to dirty those,” I say. He shrugs and smears the toe of his shoe against a rock. “I don’t care.” “What’s your name?” “Trevor.” “How old are you?” “Nine.” “Where are you from?” “Boston.” It surprises me his accent doesn’t give that away. “What’re you doing here?” He gestures to the red house looming on an outcrop of rock at the end of the island. “My dad just bought that house. We’re staying there for the summer.” The locals call it the red house because of the brilliant red paint job. Though it’s actually owned by the Hemburly family. Or it was. Old lady Hemburly died a few years ago and her nephew inherited it but he lives in Texas and rarely comes back to Maine. Built a century ago when sheep grazed, the land is now flanked by fir and spruce. There’s a ribbon of stone wall embedded in the forest of trees. I haven’t been in the house since I was a little girl and I recall that the inside of the house was run down. So was Mrs. Hemburly. And I remember the views in the main parlor where she sat in an old velvet chair with views of the ocean on one end of the room, and Sheepscot Bay at the other. I set my basket of eggs down and put out my hand. “Well, nice to meet you. My name is Galene.” He puts his small hand in mine. It’s smooth and warm like the eggs. “What kind of name is Galene?” If he weren’t so young, his bluntness would be annoying. However, it’s not the first time someone has asked me that. My father named me after the Greek goddess. “It means calm seas.” “Oh.” He scratches his head and we both hear someone call, “Trevor!” In the distance, a young man stands on a boulder, cupping his mouth to the breeze. “That’s my brother James. I need to go now. Nice to meet you, Galene.” “Nice to meet you too, Trevor.” He pivots, runs toward his brother, and when he reaches him, points back in my direction. I pick up my basket and head back home. When I reach the road, a Cadillac comes out of the driveway of the red house. Trevor and his brother James are in the back seat. James’ dark eyes assess me under the rim of a tweed cap. I trip on a small rock and he turns away just as I find my balance. Trevor puts his face to the back window, flapping his hand. I wave back before James grabs him by the collar and pulls him into his seat. *** It’s a short walk past the red house to mine at the end of the road. Our Labrador, Candy, flops on the ground, languidly guarding the hen coop. “Too late,” I tell her. Her ears prick up, but she doesn’t even bother lifting her head as a fly buzzes around her nose. Green tufts of grass and dandelion greens peek out from under the melting remnants of a late spring snow along the side of the barn. The air smells like warm earth and salt. It’s the kind of day to open the windows. I pick some dandelion greens for breakfast and put them in my basket. My brother Sam comes out of the barn, sits on a bench, sliding his boots on over thick wool socks. “Where’ve you been?” “I had to collect gull eggs. You left the coop open last night.” “I know,” he says. “Candy was barking, so I ran out just in time to stop a coon from carrying off with one of the hens.” “The eggs are gone, or crushed. It was a mess.” Sam grunts but won’t acknowledge his mistake. “Go feed Dad. He’s been asking for you. And then I need you to come with me today. Louis can’t make it.” “Is that why you’re going out so late?” “Don’t be fresh.” He sweeps an oil stained hand through his unruly hair. I was about to ask him why his sternman wasn’t showing up, but he wouldn’t let me. “Go on now. Dad’s waiting.” Dad’s sitting by the wood-burning stove with a blanket draped over his laps. He’s staring out the window, what he sees, I’m not sure. Blue sky? White clouds? Or just watery images? “It’ll rain later,” he says, sensing my presence as I place the basket on our old wooden kitchen table. He can predict the weather. I’d say it was because he’s losing his sight, or maybe the arthritis flaring, seeping into his bones. But there’s more to it. As long as I can remember, even back when I was a little girl and my mother was still alive, my dad spoke about the weather with inevitability. He feels the air and knows which direction the wind will shift; knows to batten the window hatches when a Nor’easter no one else predicted is working its way up the coast. His uncanny sense of weather made him one of the most enduring and prosperous lobstermen in our town. Until he had given it over to my brother. Sam didn’t have Dad’s intuition about where to place the pots for the best catch, how to navigate tricky waters, and his timing was all wrong. I think he’s not up to it. My Dad blames it on the alcohol. Sam goes to the tavern with his friends almost every night and, as Dad says, five dollars spent is five dollars not made. I throw a slab of butter in the iron skillet and it sizzles. “Sam asked me to go out with him today. Will you be all right?” Dad shrugs. “Ayuh.” I crack a gull egg over a bowl, add milk, whisk it into a froth, and add the dandelion greens. There’s enough bread in the box for the two of us. I hope Sam ate already. “Wasn’t planning on going today. Sasha might call,” I say as I slather the toast with the rest of the butter, cook the eggs, and scoop them onto a plate. The smell alerts Dad to get out of his chair. He walks across the floor of the living room with a measured gait, both out of caution and because of his arthritis, and takes a seat at the kitchen table. “Eat more, Galene,” he says, scraping some of his eggs onto my plate, which makes me feel guilty. “A family bought the red house,” I say. “From away?” he asks. His gnarled hands reach for his coffee mug. Arthritic knuckles bulge, years of lobstering written all over them: scars from rope cuts; knife wounds; age spots from the sun. “Boston,” I say. “Figures. The house is in such state I don’t know whether anyone from town could afford to fix it proper.” He wipes his mouth with his napkin. “Gull eggs?” I set my fork down. He knew. Of course, he’d know the difference in taste, while I couldn’t tell. “I stole them from the nesting birds up on the ridge.” What I don’t reveal is that Sam left the coop open. Although I want to. He grunts and scoops a forkful in his mouth. “Only get to taste them in the spring. Always like the taste. Did they get you?” He was the one who taught me how to collect the eggs years ago. “Almost.” His eyes graze past me, a fond memory lurking somewhere. There’s a fire in the stove, and wood close at hand. I telephone the neighbor, Mrs. Peterson and ask her to check in on Dad at lunch. “We should be back by evening,” I say. I leave a plate of pickles and ham in the cupboard. “Louis isn’t good for your brother,” she says. “I have to go now.” I don’t want to listen to Ida Peterson lecture me about my brother’s lobster business. There’s nothing I can do about it, anyway. Dad and Sam had always been a team until Dad’s sight went. He tried to hide it from us, but we noticed small things. The way he’d grasp at the side of chairs as he made his way across a room, fumbling in the cupboards for the tea, his hands wandering over containers of porcelain until they landed on the hard metal tin box. “Here, Dad, let me help you,” I’d say. And he’d brush me off with an impatience that struck me as odd. “He’s losing his sight,” my brother told me one day six years ago after they got back from lobstering. “How do you know for sure?” I said. “Because he almost killed me today.” My brother was not one for melodramatics. “What happened?” “The fog rolled in and we were passing the lighthouse and he didn’t spot Davey’s shoal until we were almost on top of it.” “Is that the whole of it? Maybe it was the vapors? Anyone can lose their sense of direction in the vapors.” Sam shook his head. “No, Galene. Admit it. We’ve known for some time. He almost tripped on the stool walking into the kitchen. He says it’s the malaria. He says it’s the lingering effects.” How could malaria still plague my dad years after he fought in the Pacific? Sam insisted it was too dangerous for Dad to keep lobstering. At sixteen, he quit high school to take over the business. I was too young to help, so he recruited a local boy named Louis. But I’m seventeen now, old enough, and Sam trusts me to bait the traps when Louis was busy or sleeping off a night at the bar. I don’t like it though. It’s hard and my hands end up red and raw from working the lines, even with rubber gloves as protection. The sound of the truck horn startles me. “Come on!” Sam shouts.

Gwen sat on her daughter's twin bed, staring at herself in a mirror they'd attached to the back of the door. It refracted the room's ambient light and gave the illusion of space. It also multiplied the flower decals Sophie had stuck on the walls and the Janice Joplin poster above her bed. Their realtor had called it a one-bedroom, but they all knew that was a lie. It was really a studio with a walk-in closet. But Gwen had been desperate to leave the Victorian townhome she'd shared with Jeremy down in Grammercy Park, and this place was the first thing she found. In hindsight, the signs of infidelity were everywhere--on Jeremy's fragrant coat, in Jeremy's smile--but Gwen was blind to them. For a while, her eye had not been on Jeremy at all but on the country at large. She had reported on the riots in Omaha the previous spring, when violence erupted after George Wallace announced his run for the presidency. By June, the riots had reached Newark, leaving twenty-six dead. And, somewhere in there, she had traveled to New Orleans to cover District Attorney Jim Garrison's investigation of President Kennedy's assassination. Garrison was convinced, along with a growing number of others, that Oswald did not kill Kennedy despite the Warren Commission's claims. Her eye was on these stories, not Jeremy. And she wrote in a blind heat, too, against deadlines that made conventional time irrelevant. At the Associated Press, it was always news-time somewhere. Sophie, her fifteen-year-old daughter, had gone to an anti-war march that morning, and Gwen had let her go. Recently, she had begun missing school and hanging out with the college kids up at Columbia. Gwen thought maybe it was a way to cope with the family's breakup, which Gwen had not yet fully explained, in part because Sophie had not challenged Gwen's lie that they had fought about Gwen's job. And Gwen, also to her surprise, found herself loathe to tell Sophie the truth. Not to protect Jeremy so much as to protect her daughter, which might actually amount to the same thing. Gwen made a cross-eyed face in the mirror, laughed at herself, and finally stood up. She found her sneakers, grabbed her purse, and left the apartment. On the landing, she lit a cigarette and headed down the stairs, because the elevator was impossibly slow. Sophie had been cooking their meals ever since they left Jeremy. Simple things, like Campbells chicken soup and a salad, or burgers on English muffins. Sometimes, they ordered a peperoni pizza or Chinese. But today, Gwen's conscience bit at her, and she planned to have dinner on the table when Sophie returned from the march. The day was sunny but cold. Gwen turned left on 101st Street, wanting to avoid the protesters. She stepped on something that oozed out from beneath her foot. The sanitation worker's strike had ended, but remains were everywhere, spilling out from trash cans: dirty diapers, chewed lamb chops, scattered green peas, cigarette butts. Paper plates skidded down the sidewalks carrying soggy pizza crusts that look like bloated fingers. At 74th Street, Gwen dodged several honking yellow cabs to cross Broadway. A young mother wearing a velvet equestrian hat careened past her pushing a huge blue stroller. An old woman using a grocery cart as a walker passed by, her head a pink cactus of jumbo curlers. A closer look revealed that her fuzzy pink coat was actually a bathrobe. Beneath Fairway's awning, someone who looked like Seiji Ozawa carefully chose apples from an outdoor bin. Suddenly, the famous conductor turned, and his shiny black hair swept across his shoulders as he flashed her a sweet, boyish smile. Gwen caught up with the protestors heading up Broadway half an hour later. College kids held hand-drawn signs that read, "Hell, No, We Won't Go!" and "What For? Stop the War!" Black students protested both the war and oppression: "Give money to the ghettos, not the war machine!" They were loud but not violent. She didn't see Sophie anywhere. By this point, her arms strained under the weight of two heavy grocery bags. Gwen skirted around the edge of the crowd for the final sprint home, took the stairs two at a time, and unlocked the door just as the phone began to ring. She dropped the groceries in the doorway and ran to pick up the phone. "Mom?" she heard her daughter's fretful voice. "Mom, I need you to pick me up." "Why? Where are you?" I just passed the march. I thought you were with them." There was a brief pause. Then Sophie said, "I'm in jail."

• INCITING INCIDENT – Foreshadows primary conflict, introduces secondary characters and setting. New Guinea, 1944 Lush tropical humidity swirled lazily, engulfing the pristine white beach. Frigate birds glided like calm kites, soaring with their great majesty over indigo waters. Flying rainbows of lorikeets flitted through the dense rainforest edge. Coconut palms flap-flapped their giant leaves, their fringy leaflets twisting gently this way and that. Waves broke out on the reef without much force during low tide. The intense beauty and tranquility of the island was the stuff of postcards. Piles of reef fish—samut and jamgunmari—glistened in a hand-hewn outrigger canoe not far from two women fishing in the sea near the mouth of the Song River. Tamika’s distended, pregnant belly jiggled so hard that her mother, Waya, worried the baby might plop out onto the reef right then. She touched her daughter’s belly. Tamika couldn’t contain herself. “Oh Mami! You know my wasakan so well!” They spoke in a local dialect similar to Sepik, one of hundreds of native languages in the island nation. Tamika lowered her kavan fishing spear with peals of laughter, squatting on the reef where she stood, her palm frond skirt swirling in the sea around her like a ballerina’s tutu. Please, bikpela pukpuk, give us time to get back to the village for this child to be born! Waya thought. She chuckled along with Tamika, her black skin shining in the tropical sun, her tight island afro sparkling with sweat and salt. A distant roar could be heard like a wave crashing on cliffs or the mounting of a thunderstorm. The women did not react to it, caught in their playful moment. “When he sees the samut up close he will scream, ‘Aye Mama Tami! My eyes are so big!’” Waya teased, happy tears catching her while she imagined her grandson’s delight. The distant roar came closer. A swarm of wasps perhaps? Something buzzing in the sky, metallic, fast approaching. Waya turned her head toward the noise, eyebrows lifting in panic when she saw a US Curtiss Hellblazer warplane bearing down on them, flying low and deliberate. They had seen such planes and other kinds too, but when they rarely flew over the village, they were much higher and further away, and not as menacing. Tamika saw her mother’s frightened face and without hesitating, dropped her spear and ran. The two women, one elder and one pregnant, raced without careful footing over the sharp reef. The knee-deep water made their escape a desperate comedy of stumbling, regaining footing, and tripping again. Tamika tumbled, sparing her belly but bloodying her knees. Her mother struggled to lift her from the water. Not long after, the real terror began: a full strafing run of the beach. The plane bleated out shots like raining hot hell. The women ran ahead of the bullets pelting the sand, their reef-bloodied feet hurrying as fast as their legs could go. Utterly panicked, they dove for a rough-hewn log and sod pillbox, constructed at the edge of the beach near the forest’s edge. The bullets ripped through the wood, some penetrating into the structure through the slits, some embedding in the thick logs. Their breaths heaved in gasping spurts, gagging on the thick tropical air, tears streaming down their frightened faces. They clutched each other tightly, screaming and crying in the howl of the persistent gunfire. Waya hid her face in her daughter’s neck, praying the unfolding nightmare would stop. The plane continued firing away down the beach, pulling up at the end of its run, flying off into the sky. It was over as fast as it started. Waya lifted her face as the echoing monstrosity melted into thumping background noises of waves rolling onto the reef. But an unfamiliar sound remained: a gurgling, rattling noise. Waya scanned around, realizing with alarm—it was Tamika. Tamika gasped, slumped to the ground, her chest and pregnant belly gushing blood. Waya, flustered, panicky, scooped up sand by the handful pressing it uselessly into the pouring wounds. Her wails and cries shook Tamika but were of no help. Tamika coughed out words through a watery, blood-filled mouth, “Mami, tell mi wontak about my love. Tell mi Bunop I loved catching the samut for him. Oh Mami!” Tamika’s eyes widened. “Huutuutuu. Huuutuuutuuu…” Waya called out with a prayer to their elders. Tamika gasped in a long, rattled rush, the last exhale she would ever make. She spasmed with a final release of blood from her lips and died in her mother’s arms. From her knees, Waya cradled her daughter’s body, shaking it while railing an oath: “May the laleo who has struck down my daughter be he cursed. May the winds and seas and rivers bring him misery. May the day come when his spirit is parted out for the whole!” • OPENING SCENE – Introduces protagonist, other key characters, normal life before main conflict, second complication, tone, setting. The streaked ethereal light of the rainforest interior captivated the senses: the riot of greens, the cascade of shadows, humidity hanging like thick perfume, all enveloping. On an island where the sapphire ocean met the aquamarine sky, and the distant surf crashed on a shallow reef, trimmed in tropical forest—it was glorious, magnificent, and surreal. That is, if you were a tourist in the Bahamas, but this was New Guinea. This was war. Murder Inc. rumbled through the wet, insect-filled, godforsaken jungle. The grinding, metal-on-metal rumble-screech of a tank that had seen too much tropics was an all too familiar symphony for the infantrymen who marched dutifully along, flanking the damn thing as it crunched and flattened the recently patrolled forest ahead of them. Its cheery little American flag luffing off the rear was all the more reason to be pissed off, except duty was duty and stuck on an island was stuck on an island. A handful of men plodded alongside or behind the tank, their US Army uniforms in various states of decay. They scanned the dense vegetation, the palpable tension of the trek drawn in deep lines on their filthy faces. The tank slopped through a wide pool, blocking the patrol path. It veered off into the bush, bumbling along its familiar soggy track. The men took their time navigating the hip-deep, tea-colored, stagnant floodwater. They were a little delicate about it all, since day in and day out wet feet and boots and gear meant mold and jungle stink, and worse if fungus or tropical bacteria found even the tiniest wound. If the invisible germs worked their way into the equation, there was festering, fevers, infections, illness, limb loss, or possibly death to look forward to. Go ahead and scratch an insect bite. Keep at it boy, let it puss up—and it was often a quick way out of your post. Maybe out of your life too, but at least out of this unending green hell. First Sergeant Lou “Alice” Carroll took a step into the glorified puddle. The twenty-five-year-old was tall and jaded, formerly a country lad with all the freshness and small-town wonder beaten out of him. His girlish nickname came with the similarity to the popular author’s moniker he was christened with. Family had started it and the military sealed it. Of all the things he’d been called over the years, ‘Alice’ wasn’t so bad. In fact, he had come to prefer it. Alice grimaced when the water reached his crotch. Unenthusiastically accompanying him into the pool was Corporal Eloy “Boon” Mortenson, an age-mate to Alice. He was another white guy, but with thick black hair and cool gray eyes who was serene and older than his years. Mortenson had become a “boon to mankind” during basic in a particularly mud-encrusted war game, where somehow, he produced enough clean wipes for all of the men to remove the grime from their eyes and mouths. A guy who could get stuff was a blessing indeed. Following them was PFC Maxium “Max” Johnson, a youthful and eager nineteen-year-old Black city kid. They all wore full battle kits in the sweltering New Guinea sun. Alice carried an older fifty-round cylinder Tommy gun, but Boon and Max had M1 Garands. All of the men kept them out of the water over their heads, taking awkward steps in a lurching dance through the slime. Alice scanned the forest from the middle of the pool. Nothing. He stared down, taking a minute to forcefully pull his foot out of the muck—damn near taking his boot off, the mud was so thick here. “Alice!” Boon whispered, surprised. Alice snapped his head up, his bright blue eyes shining. A shadow moved on the other side of the pool. The men sloshed up next to the bank, fanning out. The shadow continued to move slowly, not hiding, not evading—merely going along. The shadow finally stepped into a shaft of light: a wounded Japanese soldier in severely rotten battle fatigues, his helmet covered in a mesh of leaves. He shuffled with a pronounced limp, using his long gun as a crutch, the barrel packed with mud. He glanced at the soldiers, resigned, squaring his shoulders to them. The men drew their weapons. “Hands up, Jap!” Max shouted. The Japanese soldier shifted on his crutch. Max glanced at Alice, standing poised with his weapon. “Hands up like this!” Max raised his hands in surrender, his rifle hanging from a strap on his shoulder above the surface of the water. Slowly, and with great pain, the Japanese soldier lifted a hand. His other steadied himself against his gun-cane. A single shot rang out. The Japanese soldier took a hit to the face, dropping him instantly. Alice’s machine gun smoked. Max slowly lowered his hands, turning around, mouth agape. “He would’ve hated our food.” Alice shouldered his weapon, sloshing through the remaining pool and into the damp forest in the direction of the distant tank. Boon and Max remained frozen in place. Boon shrugged it off almost visibly like a dog shaking off too much water. “Another day in paradise, kid.” Boon hiked out of the water onto the bank, swatting at the undergrowth with the butt of his rifle. Max stood transfixed by the dead Japanese soldier, lingering more than he should have. He tucked his chin, said a silent prayer, and oozed his way out of the pool to follow the guys, conscious of his own pronounced limp. Alice, Boon, and Max fell in line again with Murder Inc., flanking the grumbling tank with less intensity, the fight blown out of them. They trudged for several long minutes through a grassy clearing in the middle of the forest, a former flame-torched section, now with fresh green undergrowth sprouting through the blackness. Max stared at the ground, afraid that if he faced Alice, he would give away his contempt. It was disrespectful to yell at a Sergeant, no matter if he deserved it. War was war after all and shooting the enemy was part of it. But, thought Max, poor Jap obviously had seen enough. He could have been a prisoner of war with no threat to anyone. “I surrenda!” boomed a heavy Australian accent. Max startled out of his reverie. Alice mechanically swung his weapon toward the voice. Boon did the same, a shoulder’s distance away. Jimmy “Crackers” Murray stepped out into the clearing, hands over his head. His crisp white T-shirt, combat boots, and Australian Army-issued fatigues were all annoyingly unspoiled, even by sweat. He wasn’t wearing a weapon or helmet, so his mop of bright red hair lit up the green hell surrounding him. He sported polished dog tags and a half-smoked stogie he was systematically chewing in his shit-eating grin. He exhaled a bolus of blue smoke, “I swears to ya boys! I gives up!” “Steady, men! We have a prisoner,” said Alice, keeping his Tommy trained on Crackers, serious. Max gave his superior a wary glance. “Oh fer crissakes, Alice! I’m just yankin’ you, mates. Ain’t seen a Nip fer months.” “Steady.” Alice slowly squeezed the trigger. Boon stayed trained on the target with him. Oh shit! Max thought. Is he gonna shoot Crackers too? “On my command,” Alice stayed rock solid. Boon didn’t flinch. Max trembled, his weapon bobbing in place, holding it as commanded. Oh God! This can’t be happening! Crackers backed up, his smile fading. He lowered his hands, waving his palms back and forth as if to create a screen to hide behind. “No need to chuck a wobbly here, mate.” Alice raised a hand to his men—and Crackers turned back the way he came, mud flying from his polished boots. Alice fired high, knocking a palm frond onto the retreating Aussie, showering him in ants. “Muthafuckas!” Crackers leapt like a gazelle slapping and swatting at himself as he ran, hollering and cussing all the way. Alice laughed, the tension popping like a balloon. Boon stepped up, slapping Alice on the shoulder. Max was dumbfounded. His first tour in this godforsaken war and he ended up with these assholes. “You better hope he doesn’t poison our hooch.” Alice wiped a tear. “Don’t worry. That crazy dingo’s gotta drink it too,” he laughed turning to Max. “Alright, fall in. Fun’s over.” Boon and Alice continued to chuckle, jogging toward base with Max shaking his head behind them. • ACT I FINAL SCENES, DIALOG DEMO – End of normalcy, deepening key character’s relationships, sets up plot twist. Later that night, the company circled a blazing fire in the camp square. The men sat on logs or stood behind them wearing their Garrison, officer’s, patrol, or utility covers, and even a few helmets for the occasion. They clinked metal cups, bowls, coconut shells—anything that would hold fluid. The audience passed around jars filled with homemade liquid blindness. This was the special hooch from the Aussie camp. It was distilled from nipa stalks, the pre-flowering part of the abundant palm trees the men trudged past in the swamps. The sugary inflorescences were used in many native food preparations and were perfect for fermenting. Add some water, cover with broad fresh leaves to keep the majority of bugs out. After a couple of weeks or longer if the guys could wait, strain it through a mostly clean T-shirt. The finished bush tipple had a dominant flavor of lighter fluid with subtle notes of sweet crude. The fermentation process hadn’t been defined enough to get nuanced flavors. But whatever, man. Did the trick. A palm leaf fan fluttered in front of a face. Bird of Paradise feathers stuck above a fancy hairdo. The fan SNAPPED, revealing Alice in drag: a palm frond skirt hung over his dress pants and boots, charcoal accentuating his eyes, red annatto seed paint on his lips. No shirt, but tied-on coconut halves like a bikini top. Or boobs. Alice exaggerated his strut, hips swinging to the music blaring over the crappy mess hall speakers: BOOM-CHACKA-LACKA-BOOM! The men all roared and catcalled. Several native New Guinea workers huddled at the fringes, smiling. Mekene and Jack giggled standing next to cheering, sloshed GIs. Crackers and Boon were similarly costumed, swaggering out to the music behind Alice. Crackers staggered drunkenly, catching himself. More howls. Alice, Boon, and Crackers danced a clumsy two-step they imagined resembled a tribal stomp. They waved their fans. The audience clapped enthusiastically along. The music dramatically stopped. Max waved to Alice from the record player. He held the tone arm, the record spinning. Alice raised his hands over his head, fan fluttering like a shimmery crown. Greg “Zog” Dunbar, a thirty-something unshaven soldier near the front of the stage area, was one of the “great unwashed” as Alice knew some of his infantrymen to be. Where Alice strove for less filth in his world, it seemed some of the guys were either oblivious to it or attracted it in a manner that stuck to them like armor. Zog’s cigarette dangled from his lips with the ash too long and a cup in his hand sloshing about. “Put ‘em down sweetheart! Daddy will buy you a razor!” he jeered. Alice ignored him, clearing his throat, “We women from Wonga Wonga have come to save you poor savages!” “Who you callin’ sa-vaj, Dame?” slurred Zog. Alice lowered his fan, waving it him. “Yes, we women know you boys have become savages. You no longer wipe your feet to enter the mess hall.” Cookie shook a fist from the audience. “Damn straight!” “You sleep in the mud, you bathe in the mud, and you all got creeping crud!” chanted Alice gesturing around with his fan. “Woot! Woot! Here we go!” called Zog. Everyone laughed. They clinked their motley drinking vessels and took deep draws of the rotgut. Boon stepped up with hands on his hips, not as smooth or unaffected by the jeering men as Alice. His coconuts floated on a mat of thick black fur. “Yessir. You boys ‘er crawlin’ with leeches an’ mosquitoes an’ other bugs an’ shit.” The audience cheered and continued to congratulate themselves. Dan-the-Washer-Man gave Mekene a drunken squeeze around his shoulders. The tribesman was not a fan of the gesture, but he smiled nonetheless trying to be a part of the white man’s folly. Mekene peered off into the forest, startled. Something in the periphery of his vision caught his eye. The other New Guineans in attendance appeared similarly worried and noiselessly slipped away from the fire pit. Jack lingered, non-verbally imploring Mekene. He gently shrugged off Dan’s chummy arm and put a paternal hand on Jack’s shoulder. Jack melted with him into the shadows. “And best of all, you lousy sonsabitches, you got malaria and beri beri. But we pretty lassies,” Crackers keened, listing to one side. Boon steadied him. The crowd roared anew. “We beautiful lasses is goin’ to save your sorry asses!” Cheers. Everyone was on their feet now. Alice paraded with his fan fluttering. “Yep. We have come from afar to take you all home. Back to a place where mud means farmin’ and music ain’t from the East.” Boon and Crackers stumbled in a semblance of a marching dance around Alice. “But first,” Crackers paused, ripping a fart. “A bit more choke and ya woulda started, Drongo!” teased Hugh from across the fire pit. Crackers turned around, pulled down his pants, bent over, and mooned the audience. “But first, you jokers gotta kiss my bum,” he called. The crowd exploded. The hulking Cave Bear lead the pack to get at Crackers first. “Aw, c’mon fellas! We’re having a show here!” Alice crowed, trying to wave them back. He leaped clear of a punch. Boon stepped forward, clobbering the fist-thrower. Alice made for the back of the surge, taking a second unseen punch in the face. He dropped, sprawled out in the mud. Max regarded him, shaking out his hand. “You ain’t in Kansas no more, Sir,” he said the last word a bit too loudly and with a bit of spit before he swayed back into the crowd for more brawling. Behind him, Crackers and Boon duked it out with the masses, their coconuts flying. ¨ ¨ ¨ Dress hats and various articles of clothing were crushed in the mud along with helmets, bootleg jars, and other remnants of the evening encircling the slowly dying fire. Some of the men sat around and drank. Most others had cleared out. Crackers was passed out, slumped over a log ass up, pants down, with a small US flag sticking out of his crack. Alice sat on the ground near the smoldering fire. His coconut breasts were askew, but somehow miraculously attached to his body. His makeup and hairdo were a mess, skirt long gone, and a shiner was starting to form under his left eye. He hummed softly to himself drinking out of a glass jar he had no doubt found discarded. Boon stumbled over, putting a hand on Alice’s head. “You ‘k?” “Sure thing.” “Great night, man.” “’Bess one yet,” Alice smiled, taking a swig, sitting the jar shakily on the ground. Boon chuckled, patting Alice’s head. He staggered off into the dark. Alice reached for a discarded pith helmet, dumping over the glass jar, the remaining hooch pooling on the wet soil. He dragged the hard hat under his head for a pillow. It sat relatively flat with the liner missing. Some fool no doubt had used it for a drinking vessel. He was out instantaneously. Across from him, Crackers passed wind making the flag flutter. ¨ ¨ ¨ Deep in the sweltering darkness, when the forest was full of night song and the animals with many voices ebbed and flowed together as one, a bright moon shone, obliterating the stars. Although the blackness was more complete under the forest canopy, whatever the silvery halo of moonlight touched made it glow with a shimmery, metallic shade. It gleamed off of the damp ground, the tents, and the tops of trees, making the open space of the compound resemble a black-and-white movie. The fire was long out. Alice slept alone on the ground next to the fire pit, head propped by the helmet. Crackers and the others had made their way, if not back to their bunks, then somewhere else to pass out. A slight CRUNCH vibrated nearby. Alice continued to peacefully snore in passed-out comfort. Without warning, hands snatched Alice by the head, body, arms. Another took the helmet. Silent. Swift. Intense mercuric darkness swallowed the scene.

HAMMERED STEEL CRIMSON FIRE – is two stories. One within the other. The true story of Brian Boru’s life from insignificant orphan to the only True and Rightful High King of Ireland, united in peace – book-ended, as you watch over Geoffrey of Monmouth’s shoulder, as he steals Brian’s life – His dreams, deeds, and glory; to fabricate a Hero for King Henry Ist – King Arthur of England. HAMMERED STEEL AND CRIMSON FIRE ~ 6 Book Series The Life of Brian Boru High King of Ireland 951-1014 Based on a true story High Concept, Commercial Fiction History, Biography, Adventure, Romance, Intrigue, Mystery, War (No fantasy) Braveheart of Ireland meets Uhtred of the Last Kingdom, and the Da Vinci Code (Solving the mysteries of the Real, King Arthur, and the nature and location of the original Grail) Concerning ~ A boy who would never be King, A “certain most ancient book” that would never be found, A thief in the night who would never be caught, The most compelling mystery never solved, The most successful and perfidious fraud ever committed, The two most famous, enduring, and beloved, imposters of all time, King Arthur of Britain, and the Holy Grail, And the truth. Fact: - Geoffrey, cleric, of Monmouth Wales, in 1136, penned the first account of 5th century King Arthur of England. Despite what 800 years of historians, nonfiction books, documentaries, and scholars, claim – there is absolutely no mention of 5th century King Arthur, Hero, Defender, Uniter of Britain, before Geoffrey – not one. - Though, for centuries, historians and archeologists have searched England, for any evidence, the real King Arthur lived; or of Camelot, his castle; Avalon, the place of his burial; or Camlann, the site of his great final Battle – though some has been, speculated or fabricated – nothing has ever been found. - To date, experts have declared Geoffrey’s account of King Arthur of Britain, a king who: united his people, defended, won, restored his country, for a period of peace and prosperity, and finally gave his life in a final battle for the homeland he loved – a figment of Geoffrey’s imagination, a literary device, a myth, or compilation of several men. They adamantly claim – there never was a real man behind the larger-than-life legend, nor could there have been. - However, Geoffrey states quite clearly in his introduction, his source for King Arthur of Britain – “a certain most ancient book”, given to him by Walter, Archbishop of Oxford. - Norse, Njal’s and Thorstein’s Sagas, with accounts of the Battle of Clontarf, known as King Brian’s War, reference a book for their recounting, called – Brjans Saga – Brian’s Story. One of the great mysteries of Norse Literature, is what became of it. Although many Sagas of this period survived – Brjans Saga was “lost.” - Scholar, Einar Olafur Sveinsson, and academic Donnchadh O. Corrain, experts on Norse Literature and History, claim there must have been such a book, referenced by Njal’s and Thorstein’s Sagas, based on their accounting of events, from the Irish perspective, leading up to the battle of Clontarf. They hope one day it will be found. - The few Norse and their allies that barely survived the apocalyptic battle for Ireland, King Brian’s War, on Clontarf field, Dublin, Ireland, Good Friday, April 23rd, 1014, and made it to their ships, headed for the closest landfall – the Norse longphort, just across the Irish Sea from Dublin and the battlefield – Anglesey Wales. Book 1 ~ INSTIGATOR OF IRELAND ~ The Twelfth Son ~ And so, it was . . . That all of Killaloe lay smoldering in embers and ashes, And the Shannon ran red with blood of the sons of Cennetig, And blood red, the hills, and meadows of Erin. In years to come, the old ones would say, looking back at the time of dragonships, That was the day the Banshee of Craig Lia, who loved the boy, The last, and least of twelve sons, found him trembling, burned, and broken, And drenched in his mother’s blood, And she drew him to her breast, and wiping his tears away, blessed him with her own, For she could see the days to come – the evil, the horror – the seas of blood rising! And vowed she would be with him – even unto the end. Then Avril, of the high crag – guardian of the crumbling ring fort of Beal Boru, Shee of the ancient ones – riders of the white horse, mound builders, chariot racers, Raisers of stones – and the child of the last Thracian King, Issued forth a keening wail . . . an oath of reckoning . . . a vow, Even as the thinnest veil of moss, covers the ancient bones of Erin, So too, the sprinkling of a priest, binds the Warrior’s heart, All that is needed – a single thorn, borne on the wind . . . Then she placed her mark upon, The heads of his enemies, The soul of a priest, And in the hearts of three women. Then raging in wild and savage fury, Scored their fates, into the face of her cliffs, By thunder, of hammered steel! And lightening, of crimson fire! For the courage in the heart of the boy, Destined – him to be the one . . . The Instigator of freedom for Ireland! Part ~1 The Boy, The Book, and the Thief in the Night ~ The Saga-teller ~ Hill of Tara, Ireland April 23rd, 1137 “Tell us a tale,” the people called out in the night, and drew back like the tides of the Red Sea, “Of myths and monsters . . . of demons and dragons!” The old man, gnarled and weathered as a druid oak, made his way to the top of the windswept hill, drawing near to the fire. Then placed his hand upon the ancient pillar stone, gently as a grandfather caresses the face of a child. “I have no fairy tales,” he said. So, the people turned away, and went down from the hill. And the old man bent his head, so that his tears fell at the base of the Stone. But Eireann was listening . . .. And she summoned the wind and the waves from the edge of the world, over the Western Sea, and flung them into the cliffs, and hurtled her breath up and over the hills and valleys, tumbling in fits and torrents, and blew in their faces, and tore at their clothes, and fanned the flames of the fire, till sparks flew up into the night sky, to dance with the stars. Just then . . . The old man felt a tugging at his gown. A thorn in the wind, he thought, and tugged back. But the pesky thorn would not be denied and yanked harder still. So, he set his jaw, to give it a righteous thrashing – but . . . when he looked down, he saw, not a thorn bush but . . . a boy . . . a small boy, a thin and grimy and raggedy child, hair standing on end, eyes bright with longing. “Have, ye a true tale then, Sir?” the boy asked, “Of a real hero?” But he hesitated then, shivering in his thread bare rags, and looked down at his dirty feet, ashamed for he had no shoes. When he looked up again – ‘twas with eyes bright with tears . . . “Who was once an orphan child, that no one wanted . . . but, because he was brave, became something else, entirely?” The old man looked around the hill, but the child was alone, neglected and forgotten as the old stone. The strings of his heart tightened, even as his eyes stung. Fingertips traced along a scar upon his cheek, as if a touchstone to his memory, “Ah so,” he smiled, “I have a tale, of a boy who was brave. . .” He squinted then, and looked up into the night sky, searching the stars, and hesitating, as if he might have forgotten something – then, remembered. And looking down with a sly wink and a nod, “And a girl.” Then the old man looked out from Tara’s hill, to where moon shadows of clouds, raced in rippling waves over shimmering seas of grass. His rime-frothed hair, and cloak, and gown whipped madly about him, as sparks burst and swirled, blazing, but not as wild and brightly as his deep blue eyes. As though what he saw, belonged not to this night – but to another long ago. “The truest of tales,” he murmured, searching the stars, for just the right one, “The only kind told, by real heroes ‘round campfires in the sky.” But the people had gone down from the hill and turned their backs on the boy, the stone, and the stars. When the old man spoke again, ‘twas a fearsome thing – a rumbling, come from way down deep in the earth, up through the hill and the stone. The growling of a feral beast, to scold, and score, and shake the earth from its slumber, and wind blew over Hill of Tara, hurling his voice like rolling thunder, across the plains, over the mountains, and beyond the seas. “Oh, you foolish children, who seek what is not there, and never was – a reflection in the pool, a shadow upon the meadow, an echo in the hills – has no beating heart! Don’t you know, there can be no courage, nor valor, nor Hero, nor deeds worth remembering, nor story worth telling without truth. All else is chaff in the wind.” And Eireann’s breath whispered all around them, quickening every blade of grass, ruffling the leaves silver, and tumbling the clouds in moon-glow. . . “Listen well!” The old man roared, a mighty stag upon the mount. “For, I will tell you of a myth that is true, and of the monster who fed upon it, Of a boy who became a giant, and of the serpent who dragged him down to Hel, Of a light, a brilliant light, as bright as a blood-ember, glowing, And of a demon in the darkness, black as a tomb in a new moon, And of the shadow he conjured, that grew upon the wall, Twisting and writhing, and slithering through the cracks, Until it spread o’er the land, extinguishing the light, And with it came a pestilence, a poison, a plague, on the children of Eireann, To scorch and shrivel every meadow and flower, and dream and dawning, For every dew drop in Erin, turned to blood! And the most sacred of all fell on this hill, on this stone, on this very night . . . And it all began – the day the dragons came.” So, the people gathered once again around the Lia Fail Stone, the Stone of Destiny, upon the Hill of Tara. The crowning place of the ancient High Kings of Erin. The high hill between the Seas, where more blood and tears, lay shed, and dreams born and shattered, than any other. The old man put his arm around the shivering child and drew him into the folds of his gown. Then, borne up by the rushing wind, and the longing of a boy, he drew himself tall and straight as a yew mast, arms outstretched, cloak beating around him like billowed sails. His hoar-frost hair, a glowing banner of moonlight, whipped about like sea-frothed surf in the fury of a winter storm. Voyagers all – a ship in the offing – bound for the stars . . .. And the old man stirred the dying embers of their cold and empty hearts, searching for a Hero, as all men do. And set them ablaze with forgotten memories, and abandoned dreams, as his voice shattered the night, and shuddered the earth, even as thunder waves pounded the sea-cliffs to sand. . . “O’r the lap of the land, o’r Sea-kings’ road, From sea-eagles’ nest, on cragged mount, To fen of troll, in Hel-fires below, Dwell many thieves, Ring thieves, who steal a man’s silver and gold, Fiend thieves, who ravage homeland and savage loved ones. Demon thieves, who lie in wait to blood-eagle his soul, No matter, These treasures belong to the man and will fade soon enough. But – the most craven of all – are the Liar Thieves! Robbers of treasure that belongs to all men, for all time. Cowards, who claim another man’s glory, His courage, And his dreams, And the deeds that were his life, And call them their own. This I know. I saw. And I tell you now, the truth of it. For I, Sword-Dane, and Spear-Dane, and brother to God’s dastard, Was there in the beginning . . . the middle . . . and the end . . . I knew the boy, the young Rebel and Outlaw, the Warrior and the King, I held the book in my hands, I touched the blood-smeared names . . . And, I saw the Coward, thieving in the night!” Chapter 1 ~ PLAGUE RAVEN 1134 ~ Anglesey, West Coast of Wales ~ 3 years earlier Geoffrey of Monmouth, cleric to Walter, the Archdeacon of Oxford, perched on his stool like a plague raven gargoyle, casting a loathsome eye back and forth between the piles of musty manuscripts, and the trencher of spitted piglet carcass on the table before him. The corners of his right eye and mouth ticked spasmodically, like the twitching of maggots flicked onto red embers. And rightly so, for he drew nearer to a spit-scorching himself, every day. He’d exceeded his deadline for the King. There by, reneged on his contract, betrayed the trust, and spat in the face of the King’s generosity. Ah yes, and how had the First Henry put it? Coyly, with one arm about his shoulder, and his dagger in his other hand, the tip of the blade, darting about his face like a poison-fanged adder, as he walked him to window gesticulating East, over Wales to England. His broad sword and small mace jingling; and compliment of soldiers with all the aforesaid, as well as battle-ax, boar-spear, neck-cuffs, chains, and gaffing hook, helped to make his point. “You, Geoffrey, hold not only the outcome of my war with France – in your right hand – but my very life, and the future of all Britain, as well.” His eyes narrow-slitted, and glinting, “Do you think you can manage?” Geoffrey, his right hand usually occupied with himself, let go to wipe the sweat from his upper lip, and flap at his gown to fan the water running down his legs and moth-eaten stockings, into his scuff-worn sandals. Indeed, Henry 1st, King of England had decked the Tower of London, for Yule – with bowels and bollocks – for far less disappointment, than this. How his entrails would be removed to garland the Great Hall, and his cods to roast with the chestnuts, during the hymn singing, evoked in Geoffrey intolerable pain and a constant sweating, so that he wondered if he might be bleeding from every pore. He quickly crossed himself over the blasphemous thought, turning his gaze away from the waning sun’s rays, palely illuminating the three crucifixes hanging upon the stone chamber wall, above the fireplace before him. A thief on each side, and Christ in the middle, who loved scabby lepers, filthy Samaritans, and poxied prostitutes, diverted His gaze from Geoffrey as well. Glistening like a freshly boiled tripe, bald as a bladder and mottled as mange – pocked as a sea sponge, and as white and dimpled as a leavened loaf, needing to be punched – Geoffrey possessed the sweaty sheen about him of a cooling corpse, and the odor of a rancid sausage casings. His eyes bulged, black and bloodshot as festering buboes. Jowls hung swollen and hairless as milch cow udders. Nose inflamed and purple-veined, as a cankered teat with mastitis, he tended well with copious amounts of Sacramental red wine – the pilfered blood of Christ, meant for the poor. Pouring from a large pewter pitcher, he filled his Rhineland glass goblet, a parting gift from the King to the brim, and gulped greedily. Balm for his tormenting physical incarceration and mental self-flagellation, within the piddling tower chamber. With a pang of self-pity, Geoffrey acknowledged he’d seen horse stalls bigger and more congenial than this, and far less foul smelling. His chamber, a flue for the kitchen below, cow-pen, pigsty and stable just outside and up-wind, possessed stone walls stained with several hundred years of smoke and greasy soot, and infused with the smells of rotting rubbish heap, rancid swine slop, and pungent horse dung. In one corner, the stone floor opened to a steep and winding staircase down, contrived so that one Kingsman, with a sword in his right hand, could defend the tower against an upcoming horde of Saxons. Perhaps left-handed, he’d obviously failed his task, the filthy drunken Saxons having used his chamber for a privy for three hundred years, and the stench remained. In the other corner – a rudely constructed cot, lumpy with infested horse-hair mattress, home to bed lice, and other small vermin, attracting certain barn foul, which in turn deposited defecated remnants of said vermin, all over the contents of the chamber. Next to the bed, a small chest contained everything shabbily made and thread bare, he owned. And beside it, a wicker basket with his only other set of grimy linens, which the Archdeacon’s cat, following the Saxons lead, befouled on a regular basis as well. No, he’d had one thing and one thing only, of any value, his entire life – his mother’s little copper pot, he kept on the windowsill. Geoffrey sniffled. Every meal she had ever made for him, simmered in that pot, from nettle soup to mealy-worm gruel, and frog-broth when he burned with fever. She would cradle him in her arm while she stirred at it, telling him he possessed a poet’s heart and one day, he would be a great man, important to the King. And after she was gone, her cherished copper pot would be his, to remind him of her forever. Up until the day the King’s men burned the hovel down about her. She would not leave her only gift for him behind. And although she managed to fling it out to him, from the window, she succumbed to the flames. He scraped up what was left of her, after, with a scorched wooden spoon, and carried it with him in her pot, always placing her gently upon the windowsill, so she could see the hills of the west-lands, she loved. Geoffrey snorted, then poured liberally, raising his goblet, and toasted the barren sill. Then sloshed down another draught. All in all, his world – up until Henry Rex had trodged up the Saxon stairs, stood perusing his realm, took a piss out the window, and deposited the rancid eel he ate in France, into his mother’s little copper pot, could be summed up in two words – awful and offal. A tear rolled down his cheek, at least he had been blessed with the poet’s heart she longed for. But that was two years ago. And after Henry had trodged back down the stairs, Geoffrey vowed to rid himself of the pot, its contents, and all sentimentality with it. No more copper in his life – shimmering, pale green, Rhineland glass, silver chalices and golden adornments, crimson silk and finely laced-linens hovered on the horizon before him. Even, as odious as the task of extracting a credible history had become, the plethora of manuscripts piled high around him, lay upon a beautifully carved and highly polished table of English oak. The King’s Oak. And everyone in England knew to pluck even a branch of the King’s Oak, meant being skinned alive and boiled in oil. The table, yet another gift from Henry, to grease the skids, he said, of the project, along with a silver ring inlaid with a large sapphire and engraved with the King’s initials, HR – Henry Rex. And no one doubted Henry’s ability at . . . skid-greasing . . .. He’d the reputation of procuring whomever, and whatever he wanted, in the class of human, flora or fauna, Abbess, novitiate, or mutton, in several kingdoms. Lucky Geoffrey, he reminisced, dabbing at his forehead with his sleeve, and pulling on the chaffing neck of his gown, receiving a commission from the racking, and disemboweling King, Henry I, to write a History of the Kings of Britain from the Trojan horse, to time remembered. “A gift to his people, from their beloved Monarch”. Henry gloated, displaying brown teeth, and purulent gums, “A beacon of inspiration for the ages! Something for them to revere me by!” But Henry lied. For his “Historia” was to be a scheming far more insidious than that – and he, Geoffrey – complicit. His innards grumbling, and outards shriveling, he considered what would happen if he failed to deliver the wherewithal for the King’s intrigue . . . "Concerning Geoffrey of Monmouth – Oath-breaker! Procrastinator! Renegar! Of the King’s good grace! Shall be taken to the Tower, forthwith. To be mutilated, drawn, and quartered! Each limb to the four corners of the Realm! Head on a pike, cods on a skewer, what is left, interred in an iron basket, to dangle above the castle gate, until his maggot-ridden flesh should rot, and bones fall to the ground to be eaten by worm-infested dogs, carried away, buried, and pissed on by drunkers and scabied crones, from this day, and henceforth!" Geoffrey poured another goblet full, the translucent pale green, shimmering in the firelight, his eyes stinging, a knot rising in his throat. What else could he do? Thanks to Walter, the Archdeacon, his superior and benefactor – from whom all moldy porridge, runty-piglets, and slatternly necessities in life flowed – The King of flogging England had promised him, upon completion of his task: The Priesthood, an anointing in Westminster Abby to Bishop, consecration to Archdeacon, with a position at Aslaf, and – his pending missive, Historia of the Kings of Britain to be published, to the far reaches of Christendom, ad infinitum. Not to mention, recognition and acceptance in the courts of Kings, with good food, fine robes, a feather bed, no doubt his choice of belly-warmers, and everyone genuflecting before him, and kissing his right hand all the time, bearing the bejeweled ring from the King. He, Geoffrey, lowly cleric from Monmouth, who would otherwise be trapped in the cave-infested, midden-heap of Anglesey, in the farthest foul dregs of west Wales, beyond the outer edge of the Roman Empire and civilization, and the closest landfall to the barbaric Irish. Even mighty Caesar, though he conquered the rest of the world – loathed to go to Ireland. And if he refused? His future loomed bleak. Nothing had ever come from puking Wales, beset with superstitions, ghosts of ghoulish Danes skulking in the mists, and wailings echoing throughout the hills of evil otherworldly demons. The last of the headless Celts, festering in tombs, and bansheeing about in vile winds, forever blowing over from the Irish Sea, with the fetid breath and blustering bowels of the Irish! Geoffrey sloshed himself another glassful, consumed with melancholy, tipped, and guzzled. And why should he alone, bear the burden of the fate of Britain? The fact of the matter – Henry 1st, King of England, Scotland, Wales, and Duke of Normandy – 4th son to bastard, William the Conqueror, and some whispered, father to at least 22 ill-conceived gammy get out of bowlegged sheep on both sides of the Channel. Though over-sexed and nonselective, remained incapable of producing, even one living legitimate son. Geoffrey grunted – that made Henry, 0 for 22 – an astounding feat in any wager hall in all of Christendom. And with a new wife, pronounced, pox-free, womb-worthy, sluice-sanctified, younger, and ever more virginal than her predecessor. And although, with everything considered, and the odds favorable for his success upon his return from war; many of his subjects lined up to accept the wager – against their King. In fact, Geoffrey mused blurrily, jokes aplenty were chortled in the shadows of every castle, ale house, and sacristy. And written on privy walls from Cardiff to Whitehall, inspiring him to wax poetic – a ditty concerning the new odds of the King managing a legitimate son, in his own bed. He sneered sadistically. A hymn of sorts, from the soon to be Archbishop, to his beloved benefactor – Henry Rex. Refilling and swilling, abandoning for a moment his besotted melancholy, and normally dour and petulant demeanor, he raised his goblet to the Crucified, jowls aquiver, and broke into an unholy, hand slapping, foot stomping, slurry of tone-death, song . . . “Whilst Henry was off fighting his wars and tending his wounds, His nobles, guards, and grooms of the stool tended his wombs, So, by the time he returned in the spring, His odds had taken an insufferable swing, His fields – over tilled – and amply slung, Well seeded – and deeply plumbed . . . Possessed a far greater square acreage, Then his entire Kingdom!” “Ha!” Geoffrey smirked wickedly at the poetic irony, tinging the glass goblet with his crusty brown, rat-gnawed, third fingernail. Thus, Henry’s once favorable odds for success – Now, down the privy – floating with Mum!” The fact of the matter – the King of England, brutally successful in all things base or unconscionable, waxed undisciplined in all things kingly or sanctified. Simply put, Henry I, the rutting old whore-hound, lived to run trash – in the hunt, and out. And now out of money for his wars, sporting a raging brothel disease, with only one legitimate daughter, and in dire need of his people accepting his eldest bastard son, Robert 1st Earl of Gloucester, as heir – he expected Geoffrey to rectify the rat's nest, of all his many bastards – in his family tree, buried in the roots, and stinking up the place. And he expected him to accomplish this feat, a fortnight ago, before he returned to England from France. . . any minute now, still steaming from battle, sword bloodied, pissed off, broke again, with a full bladder, itchy crotch, empty bollocks – the apparent curse of his Viking forefather, Ivar the Boneless – and a frustrated yearning to mutilate something! Geoffrey swiped at his tears and sweat, mixed with pigeon dung, dripping down his barren pate with a malodorous sleeve. Then deposited it again with two swipes across both cheeks. All the while, his stomach howling from hunger, and bowels convulsing in terror Hazily drawn back to the moment, sniffling, he remained wretchedly racked by two pressing problems. The first – the didn’t know whether to eat or shite. And the second – Geoffrey concealed a secret of his own . . .. As if on cue, a spasmodic coughing echoed through the tower, from the adjoining chamber, a croaking, huffing, gaging, hurling fit of what he knew to be a greenish slurry, of phlegm, a congealant, looking considerably like moldy bread pudding, spraying the walls, oozing from the pustules of fetid rot in the occupant’s lungs. Hocked up, and spit everywhere, except into the spittle pot. Followed by an intense wheezing and choking as air was sucked in, along with whatever congealed, yet un-hocked. Just when he thought his plight couldn’t get worse – the grunting of a wild boar rooting for truffles, combined with the wheezing of a heevy horse, filtered up the stair-well. Walter, the Archdeacon, with the paunch of a pregnant palfrey, flatulent and stiff with gout, lumbered up the winding stone stairs of the keep, bracing himself against the wall at the top, scarlet faced and puffing like a blacksmith’s bellows. In one corpulent fist he pressed a lace-embellished handkerchief to his copse of sprouting nose-hair, bearing the embroidered emblem of Pope Innocent II. In the other – an item of dubious origin, and malodorous construction, he dangled as far away as possible from his person. Geoffrey sucked his tongue against the back of his teeth, waggling his own itchy ballast against the stool, resentful for the piling on of his other piles – yet another manky missive, from the puffing little pisspot. Needing fortification, he funneled more of the sacramental red wine, first into his goblet, swigged it, and then sloshed it around in his mouth and through his sparse teeth. Puffing out first one cheek, then the other, and finally down his gullet, belching loud and long, with great satisfaction at the perceived quavering Crucifixes. Even by candlelight, and brined in wine, Geoffrey discerned the hideous thing could never have been any sort of a book, as might have been passed down by a family of nobles. Newborn calf-vellum meticulously tied into folio and bound with fine leather, in any reasonable way. Nor a manuscript of venerable worth, scrolled and wrapped in velvet, and embroidered with silver thread, as one would find in the collection of the Holy Church. Nor was it finely rendered in unborn translucent lambskin, illuminated in gold-leaf, embellished with silver trappings, and ensconced in a bejeweled reliquary from the library of the King. To the contrary, it appeared more like the hideous saddle bag collection of used privy papers, belonging to a vile Visigoth in the sacking of Rome. Sneezing convulsively, Walter waddled and wheezed over to the desk, dropping the repugnant midden heap, in front of Geoffrey, in a puff of dust, and other indistinguishable flotsam. Then snorted into his linen and lace handkerchief, blowing like a trumpeter swan, the congealant from each nostril. Inspecting it thoroughly, he continued, “Some foul relic of a waesucks, looking as though he’d been tossed from a godforsaken dragon ship, a century ago, showed up at the door. Had the manner of the churlish Irish about him, mumbling codswallup about a High King . . . as if there’s anything higher than a King! . . . soused old sarder, lying on the front steps like a worm-infested dog. Had him doused with a bucket of cold water . . . then hot piss, and sicked the hounds on him, but he refused to leave until you were given this . . . this . . . sheer bloody evil . . . Heard you’re compiling a record of Kings.” Walter sneezed, spasmodically, beflummoxed by vapors in the air. . . “As if that old boothahler would know anything of Kings! I was afraid he’d die on the doorstep, let loose of his pesty bowels, and spread the plague . . . Anything to get rid of him . . . the filthy, pribbling old stank!” He turned and fled the chamber, groaning and wheezing, his slack rear sally-port flapping like wet laundry, in a stiff March breeze. At the top of the stairs, he called back to Geoffrey, “The crazed old laggard kept mumbling something about . . . the grayest . . . or gravest . . . rubbish like that . . . King that ever lived! . . . Can you imagine that . . . by Satan’s hairy ass! . . . If he’s ever been close to a real King, I’ll drink the piss pot next time . . . the gorbellied old gudgeon.” And with that, the dried-up old chitterlings, puffing and grunting, lumbered his gout-oozing legs, and dying bagpipe effluvium back down the Saxon stairs. Geoffrey sighed heavily, closing his eyes, and bowed his head, sanctimoniously, feigning prayer. Then with a momentary air of abject concentration – heaved a rancid belch, before reluctantly studying the loathsome pile of middlings upon his desk, nose twitching, striving to separate the fetid reek of the bundle, from the fomenting dregs of Walter. His entire face puckered in disgust, ultimately deeming his latest acquisition far worse – reeking as a kilted Celt’s saddle blanket, and rank and worn as the womb, of the brothel-bred, third wife of Claudius. Whatever would he want with a grayest or gravest King? Just what he needed, an account from one half-dead old scrote, to another half-deaf! Requiring further sustenance, he poured another brim full, sucking greedily, until breathless, eyes watering, belching like a bloated toad. Well, he had to admit, it would be original . . . an old and dignified King. If there was one thing, that the piles of manuscripts in front of him, and the piles in his ass, for the last two years, bore witness – in the entire privy-porridge before him – old kings, as well as dignified kings, didn’t exist. And for good reason; they were a miserable, sadistic, gold-grubbing, mank-mongering, brutish bunch. In fact, all Kings, he had found so far, waxed more of the: brutal-torturing, limb-quartering, treacherous-poisoning, eye-gouging, bowel-extracting, tongue-lopping, burning at the stake types. Hated by not only their enemies, and own people, but by kith and kin as well. And deservedly so, all of them tormenting him now with their tediously unremarkable lives. Apparently unworthy of any sort of a mention at all – the boring, abysmally inconsequential bastards! . . . What’s he supposed to do, make the rubbish heap up? He fought to swallow the lump in his throat, a fuzzy moment of melancholia, washing over him. Casting a furtive glance towards the wall, he wondered if he were being condemned to Purgatory by the all-knowing, ever-present, all-powerful Crucified Christ. In all the stacks of manuscripts and books on his desk, and four centuries of dredging up every old geezer: Gildas, the Venerable Bede, Nennius, Welsh Annals, Anglo Saxon Chronicles, and God help him – the fomenter – Ireland’s Patrick! . . . even flogging Beowulf! – Who all claimed to make record of the history of Britain, after the Romans fled; none of them mentioned a King of Britain by name, who rose to defend against the barbarians, won battles, restored peace, and united the Kingdom – not fetching one! Henry’s command: “I need a King! A great Warrior! Defender against invading Saxons, and Franks, Sacker of Ireland, Guardian of Christendom, a Uniter and Protector of his people, and Bestower of Peace and Prosperity! A Hero among men – a shining light upon the hill against the black plague of filthy Barbarians!” Then, affably placing his arm around Geoffrey’s shoulder, he slid it further along, until locking his head in his clenched elbow, just at his throat. He squeezed, teeth grinding, voice growing ever more menacing and thunderous – “What I need now, cleric – succinctly . . . is Precedent . . . to invade Ireland! . . . the ignorant little pissants would rather give their gold and silver to God, then to their King, and stubborn too . . . I’ll have to slaughter them all, to get it. And to butcher fellow Catholics – which I might add, has never been done before – even Irish Catholics – I need a Papal Bull . . . and that I need, that before my doddering, moldering, bribable, English Pope, is supplanted by the German anti Pope. He growled menacingly, “Which means you’ll have to hurry, or we’ll all be gagging on head cheese, and sauerkraut!” Henry Rex, wild-eyed, red in the face and raging, bellowed into his ear. . . “No one seems to understand the stress I am under – the bloody bastards! It costs, to make war on everyone, in this country and out, and on both sides of two seas. Do you see my predicament now – Geoffrey – hopelessly insignificant, smelly little flea-infested cleric of Monmouth?” King Henry the 1st, pressed his cold wet lips, and putrid hot breath against his ear, snarling like a baited bear – “Precedent Geoffrey. He’s in your piles somewhere – find him!” Geoffrey swayed on his stool, his face puckering to fight the tears, and raised his blurry glass, delivering a swaggering toast, to the eminent specter of the King, who would soon appear at top of the stairs. “Well, come on up Harry, you boneless little bastard, and have a good and close looksee at my piles, why don’t you” . . . he garbled, gulping and welling up with melancholy, eyes brimming, throat tightening even as visions of flames engulfed him . . . the sounds of his fat crackling, the smell of his own searing flesh and singeing hair, what was left around his ears – his carcass, and little stunted pink and hairless chestnuts, crackling on a stick over the brassier of some cankered toothless hag, gummed to death, hawked out, and frog-gulped by a filthy mongrel dog, and cast off as a hairy, toothy turd. Gasping for air he slammed the goblet down on the table. It shattered in his hand. A drop of blood oozed from a tiny, imperceptible sliver of glass in his palm. Sniveling, his breath catching, he held his hand up for the three wavering Crucifixes to see, lower lip quivering, “As if any of you give a rat’s ass!” Well, he’d checked his piles. There was no such beloved British King, Defender, Uniter, Protector, Sacker of Ireland, named in all bloody Britain . . . not bloody flogging one! Geoffrey sniveled and wiped again. First his nose, then his eyes on his threadbare crusty-sodden sleeve, smearing pigeon dung anew, from cheek to crevasses of jowl. He could see it now . . . Henry’s ghost clanking up the stone stairs in his bloodied armor, spurs clinking across the wooden floor. He hovered at his shoulder with his steel-studded mace, swinging in a calculated arc, that if moved the width of a ferret’s fanny, would crush his skull . . .. “Well, let the fusty-lugging Henry come.” He drooled. If he was to be carried away to the Tower of Whitehall. any moment upon the Rex’s return, he might as well enjoy himself. He raised the pitcher, in toast, to the three blurry crucifixes – “To imposters and thieves all – and last suppers!” Then swilled his well-deserved draught to the dregs, just to spite them, wine running in rivulets down the corners of his flaccid lips. With soused and reckless abandon, he would deny himself no longer. He cast all thought of deadline and disembowelment out of his mind and pulled the wooden trencher closer. He studied the roasted little corpse before him from every angle. . . the sheen of grease, the curling of the rind around the edges, the shimmer of seeping fat. De-spitting it, his mouth watered at the bloody oozing of juice, from the gash along the belly, as he rubbed his thighs together tingling in anticipation. Tucking the white linen tablecloth into the crusty neck of his frayed woolen gown and pushing up his sleeves; he commenced the only thing that felt good all day – tearing limb from ribs, skin from breast, popping joints, excoriating bones with his teeth and tongue, his cheeks twitching like a toad-stuffed weasel. A teeth-sucking, fingernail-tooth plucking, messy business. When he realized, rather stuporously, bits of flesh, and juice splashing around the trencher upon his own ink-blotched, scratched-through, pigeon-dunged, manuscript. His bowels convulsed again, clenching in spasm, at the reminder of his own work. Two years’ worth of heartburn and bowel-bloat, a hodge-podge of wizards and dragons, Trojan Horse to Vortigern hog-swill. In a drunken quandary, he surveyed the table covered with antiquated lore, on loan from some stogy self-righteous Venerable or another. All of whom he had to bow on his knees and kiss their rings, and pimpled, hairy asses, in return for their sacred manuscripts. Always on the right hand . . . well he knew where their right hand had been, the same place he kept his! A flood of self-pity washed over him – strangely followed by something else . . .. He spied the only missive, whose mutilation wouldn’t mean his own fat, bursting and oozing in runnels of grease, into the fire. Reaching out, he stabbed his greasy knife tip into the pile of grimy rags and gaffed the Visigoth’s privy-papers closer. Upon blurry-eyed inspection, he thought it was quite possibly the most befouled pile of scat he had ever seen. It appeared to be slovenly wrapped in tatters of squalid linen, begrimed with sard knows what, and carelessly leather bound in tough old cow hide. As if a child had fashioned it from a sharp rock, a dull blade, and cured it in reechy curds. Black as pitch from smoke, green with mold, and rodent chewed along the edges; it appeared to be warped from sea water and cured with salt-scum. And for a moment . . . he could almost see . . .not blurry like everything else in the chamber . . . but clearly . . . the image of it . . . the old book washed up on a distant shore, mixed with flotsam of pink foam, and the blood and gore of mutilated bodies . . . the waves tugging and flipping the pages . . . and running the ink . . .transforming the words . . .. He rubbed at his eyes, just as quickly, the image went away. A drunken belligerence followed. He would show Walter, the King, and the old scutters on the steps, just what he thought of his newest acquisition. His brain wallowing in wine, and the room swaying, he roughly sheared the tattered covering away with his grease smeared blade. Then sliding the tip underneath, severed the layers of contracted thin leather thong, wrapped around it, binding the leaves of calfskin together. As he did, the roar of wind from over the Irish Sea throttled through the window, blowing open the shutters, banging them against the stone wall, and careening through the chamber, fanning the flames of the brasier, sparks flying, all around him, whipping loose velums from the Venerables, around the chamber, in a maelstrom, swirling in a vortex of ancient texts. Geoffrey grabbed at them, trying to keep them from igniting, or being sucked out the window. Geoffrey froze . . . He heard something . . . a voice? A wave of dread washed over him, and even – guilt, as if he were somehow – trespassing . . . or worse – violating . . . and even more than that, before the scowling crucifixes – profaning. He quickly crossed himself, sloppily missing each intended mark. Then let the pages loose. Rattled, and wild-eyed, he reached for the pitcher again, raised, tilted, and swilled long and hard, sucking at the empty brim, until slamming it down on the table, swiping at the crimson dribbling down his chin. This time, he would be master of his own destiny, rejecting the prompting to leave the book intact. He stood over it, inspecting it with all the cunning of a drunken butcher and grunting like a lusty bull; he thrust the tip of his knife into the heart of the book. He stabbed, and gouged viciously, piercing deeply, and in increasing rapid succession, as if slaughtering a tough old sow, that wouldn’t fall to her knees. The vellum pages, brown with age and welded together, seemed unwilling to give up their secrets, clinging to the leather covers, as if bound and sealed by some unfathomed covenant. Then standing to gain leverage, he put his full weight into it, prying the lacerated calf skin, open, until he had enough to grip. Flopping his weight upon it, he wrenched the covers down, splintering the spine apart. The sinew binding the leaves together ruptured. Until it lay, like a deboned chicken, filleted and flattened, a broken thing. The vellum, stiff and crusted together with what appeared some sort of mold, muddied, and darkly stained, quivered in shreds, so that various strips of flayed skin lay in mess of disparate layers, indiscernible as pages in form or content. The mutilation left him breathless, heart pounding and exhilarated, for once in his life, he reigned as the only Master and subjugator of his realm. The brutality serving to whet his appetite even more. He slid the eviscerated carcass under his trencher of piglet, so that its insignificance, might further serve his appetite. It felt good to let the bits of torn flesh and ruptured tendon fly, and the juice splatter, and the grease run all over the grimy old pages – the one bit of flotsam in his life, no one would miss. He belched, cheeks puffing, lips flapping, spitting out the bones, once slurped and sucked of marrow, upon the old book. He let the fat drip, and bloody juice ooze off the trencher on to it. The thickest grease, salty and sweet, running down through his fingers, he savored before it could get away, plunging each appendage into his mouth, one after the other. Circumventing each joint, he licked, working his way down to the fist and finally backing out, while sucking it clean. His lips pursed around each one, as pink and puckered as the tail-end of a winking she-goat in heat. Then wiped, first the front and then back of his slimy fingers, off on the pages, smudging charcoal, and soot, and foraged on, until the last, canted beam of setting sunlight withdrew from the arrow-slitted window. There! The goose flesh rising, like a plucked chicken, on his hairless arms, in mid-mastication of the suckling creature’s heart. He strained to see in the dimming light, his mouth slack and gaping, like the wanton lips of the Sheela-na-gig of Rattoo. With a taper, he lit a candle and moved it closer, straining to see in the darkening chamber, struggling to find again, the melding and morphing phrase of words that had caught his eye – now illusive . . . He pushed his trencher and assorted bones, and the worst of the bloody juice off the dismembered pages, carelessly onto the rest of the Venerables’ manuscripts. Then moved the candlestick closer, until the incandescent light, illuminated the scourged and bloody skin before him. With grease-slicked fingers, he tried frantically, to smooth out the mutilated vellum, to make sense of it. Upon closer inspection, he found it to be a muddle of mismatched drawings, words, and images, faces and places, creating a riddle of sorts, in a jumble of bits and ragged pieces. Utterly sloshed, eyes blood-shot and blurry, he thought he had seen a phrase, a run of words that intrigued him. But try as he might, he could not get them back. He licked his corpulent thumb with a thick tongue, again and again, and shoved the tattered, pieces back and forth, smudging the inked words and images, desperate to find the right combination to patch together an entire page . . . Dragon heads with tongues extended . . . mouths dripping with blood . . . flames leaping high, consuming cots of a ringfort . . . shooting out from a round tower windows . . . enfrenzied horses, eyes wild with fear . . . hideous monsters, bearded, with fangs . . . a chariot flying through the air, one wheel landing . . . the face of a beautiful little girl . . . a small boat with oars and mast . . . swords dripping with blood! He flipped down a strip of tattered vellum – not dragons but Dragonships! And the monsters – Northmen in pointed helms and chainmail, with battle-ax, and broad-sword – all rendered in the primitive hand of a child. There . . . from the fractured spine of the book, protruded the tip of a quill, feathered in variegated stripes of white and dark gray, and stained a faded and rusty pink. He tugged at it, and out it came, along with a legion of – wispy milk-weed seedlings – of all things. Hovering around his head, on his face, in his eyes. He swatted at them. To no avail, as they swirled around him, floating on the drafts, luminous in the quavering candlelight of the chamber. The tip of the quill, darkly stained, had been carved into a point. Inspecting it for sharpness, he tapped it against the vellum, a fine dark-rust colored powder fell upon the page, the pungent odor – moldering blood. Distracted, he sucked at the back of a broken tooth, spit on the tip, of the quill, wiped it on the page, then used it to pluck a stubborn bit of bowel sheath out, from between his festering gums and blackened teeth, all the while inspecting the page before him. Then slurped the bit of sheath, off the tip, fondling it with the tip of his tongue, savoring, and swallowed. Strangely, the rust-colored powder had fallen into a pool of grease, upon the aged manuscript before him. There . . . beneath the grease . . . words he could barely make out. He wiped at the pool, smearing it with a large suety thumb. It immediately turned to a bright crimson streak of what appeared to be fresh blood. He swiped again, and beneath the bloody smear – words appeared – still illegible. He reached for the pitcher – empty, save for a few drops, and frantically shook the last of the Sacramental wine upon the letters. It pooled over the stain on the page, stripping away grease and grime, time, and ages until – there they were . . . Again, came the wind, blasting the shutters open, hurting them into the wall, rupturing the hingers, in an explosion of wooden splinters, and whirling around the chamber, sweeping the pages of the Venerable ones up and hurtling them around, the flying sparks igniting them into flames! As they flew up, swirling around the tower, and out the window. But Geoffrey, paid no mind. For upon the flayed calf skin before him, streaked with crimson blood – lay the fragment of words that had eluded him, in all the venerated piles of manuscripts. Words of the pleading old scutters on the doorstep, Words the stone-deaf Walter didn’t hear, Words for which he had been searching desperately, for two years, Words that might just keep his fat from sizzling in Henry’s fire, The very words to seal his future, filled with gold and silver, crimson and lace, and Kings kneeling before him, to kiss his ring . . . Written in blood . . . Bound and sealed in blood . . . And redeemed only – by the blood of Christ . . . “. . . the greatest High King who ever lived . . ..” (Geoffrey continued bookend for end of book I) Geoffrey froze . . . mind racing in reckless abandon . . .. He began to pace back and forth, across the chamber, eyes locked upon the blood-stained, wine-blurred words, his besotted brain, sloshing around inside his skull, with him. Is it possible, he possessed the only book in the world with a record of, “The greatest High King that ever lived!” He savored the words slowly. It was true, that on the West Coast of Wales, rumors were heard in drunken ale halls, and scratched on the walls of privies, and murmured in the cobwebs and shadows of the superstitious Welsh. He’d heard tall tales of an Irish King, that all the people loved, who fought great battles, against Sea-raiders, and Irish traitors, to achieve what all knew to be impossible – peace in a united Ireland. “Ha!” He sneered, “As if anyone would ever believe that!” Only to be betrayed by his very own his wife, and stepson, enticing a huge Viking army to come and sack the Isle, steal the treasure, kill the King, and all for the very hand, of his cuckolding wife of astounding beauty! What was it the Sagas called her . . . the “balm in bed for her many Kings!” Rubbish! But they were just tales, murmurings, gossip, who would believe that an Irish King accomplished what no British King or Roman Emperor had? Ridiculous! Still . . . he could drop the High – sounded too Irish . . . The Greatest King who ever lived?” “Well,” smirked Geoffrey . . ." I’ll give old Henry Rex what he wants . . . a Hero for Britain, who invaded Ireland. and every place else!" Once the British had a Hero of their own, who would give a ferret’s fart, about an extinct Irish Hero? Certainly not England, and France, and the rest of the world! Geofrey giggled -" I'll give Henry his Hero - a bloody Emperor of all Britian! Geoffrey grabbed up the hem of his moth-eaten gown, and diddling a tone death tune, began to dance around, like a princess in anticipation of the ball. He dipped and whirled, toes pointed, lifting his skirts, in a dance for joy. As the shutter’s blew open again, and the wind hurtled in, sparks flying from the nearly dead brazier, igniting the flying pages, and the smoke and ashes and sparks flew out into the night. Geoffrey, giggled, and pranced about, in wild and reckless abandon . . . Twas then the voice came again . . . murmuring . . . “Geoffrey . . . Geoffrey. . . What profit it a man . . . if he gain the world – but lose his soul?” Geoffrey wheezed and grinned coyly. This time he knew the answer . . . and he picked up the pitcher of red-wine and tipped it sucking at the brim . . . but it was dry. And he looked at the words of the page of the old book, where the last of the Sacramental wine, pooled across the words, that would give him all. . .. And he took his knife and spearing the page of vellum, ripped it out of the book, and holding it up so that the Crucifixes might witness, licked the page, the last drop of Sacramental wine, the ink, and the words, until they could barely be seen. Then grinning and drooling at the Crucifixes, eyes glinting black and empty and red as coals, For he knew the answer to the riddle . . . And he queried . . . “What does it profit a man, to gain the world – but loose his soul? . . . . . . “Why 30 pieces of” . . .. and he hesitated then, for he knew the scripture well – 30 pieces of Silver, was the price Judas received, for betraying Christ to the Romans. Then, feigning piety, he stood at attention, and saluted the image of Christ on the wall . . . and the two beside him, thieves, nailed to a cross for stealing a bit of bread, who would, before the end of the day, be with Christ in Heaven. Then sweeping his arm across the table, hurling the Venerable’s manuscripts around the chamber, pages igniting in the brazier, then snatched up by the wind, swirling, in a vortex of smoke and ash, sparks and flames – he reached for the only thing left on the table . . . a strange looking pouch, of indistinguishable material, shabby, and slightly hairy, and warty looking. Yet when Geoffrey shook it, it jingled like the bells, of the Sacrament in Winchester Cathedral. Because he had already chosen – crimson silks, lace, silver and gold, the company of Kings, fame, fortune, glory, and copies of his Epistle read round the world – ad infinitum. Geoffrey grinned, with his darkly, ink stained, slack lipped, lips and drooling, as he held the strange bag up to the Crucifixes . . . eyes lit up, red and glinting, as the handmaiden of Lucifer . . . “Why” . . . he giggled – “It profit me . . . 30 pieces of . . . Gold!” Chapter 2 ~ WOLVES AT THE EDGE OF NIGHT King Brian’s War ~ Clontarf Battlefield ~ Dublin Ireland ~ Good Friday April 23rd, 1014 124 years earlier Young Latean, attendant to the High King, thrust his foot up and down with all his might into the mutilated face of a youth not much older than himself, but the mass of gutted wound-slurry would not let loose of his ankle. A ghastly claw, white and bloodless, tethered him to the battlefield of blood and gore – the specter of death haunting the corpse’s eyes, plotting to drag them both down to hell. He swiped at his eyes with a blood-soaked sleeve, and kicked frantically until his shoe slid off, talon and all, then staggered on up the battlefield, towards the tent at the top of the hill. He bore a message for the Ard Ri, he’d sooner cut out his heart than deliver – but deliver it he would. The gory dead conspired to trip him up, their severed heads and limbs scattered among their own entrails. The dying moaned out to him and tore at his clothes. He slipped and fell, again and again, crawling on his hands and knees, retching, and gasping for air. Blood, warm and cold and clotted as blood pudding, oozed through his fingers. Smoke and ashes seared his lungs. Scarlet spurted from sword slashings and dripped in stringy rivulets down from tree branches overhead, upon his face. The salt from the blood, mixing with the salt in his sweat-soaked tears, ran into his eyes, stinging and blinding him so that he could not see. All around him, the great oaks of Tomar Wood grew black with ravens, as corpses twitched and writhed from hill to sea. He struggled to stand, and clinging to a sapling, looked back down the battlefield, his stomach revolting at the sickening stench of burning flesh and ruptured bowels. The pallor of death had spread over the land, strewn with corpses, gray and bloodless. For it was all on the field – all the blood in the world, oozed and gushed, and seeped onto the mud and trampled flowers of Clontarf meadow. To the West, the last of the sun, blazed like a dying ember in a windblown fire. To the South, black smoke churned, and carcass-flames leapt up from the walls of Dublin Castle into a scarlet sky. To the East on the seashore, Danes, drowning in chainmail thrashed at water’s edge, flickering silver and blue, in scarlet foam, like a bucket of bait-herring. Their dragon ships, born out and away by the high tide and offshore wind, drifted empty and rudderless. All around him, the edges of the earth, burst into flames. And all the while, Erin’s treasure, in a river of crimson, flowed down the battlefield, across the strand, and into the Irish Sea, staining the dark green, like red wine spilled onto a silken gown. For bestowed overall, meadow, man and beast, a blessing – an Irish blessing of blood, borne, on a crimson, rain-soaked wind, up from the frothing sea. Latean wiped at his eyes with a blood-soaked sleeve, looking up to the Heavens, wondering at the hand, that could offer such a benediction over the end of all dreams. At the top of the hill, wound-ravaged warriors encircled the High King’s tent. The last of the original Dal Cassians, Brian’s boys from the beginning, now gray with age, scarred, and battle battered. They listed back and forth against the gusting wind, leaning upon gore-slurried spears – splintered shields locked together, dulled swords encrusted in blood-clotted scabbards. Still, they stood bravely at the ready, loyal to their Chief until the end, their silhouettes, etched in torrents of red rain, lashed sideways upon the outside walls of the tent. Ghosts, and blood of ghosts born over the battlefield, on banshee winds hurled up from the wild Irish Sea. In front of the tent, a terrible pain stabbed at his heart – a scene more sorrowful than bearing. “Amergin,” he whispered. Three battle weary warriors struggled at the ends of ropes, around the neck of an enfrenzied gray war-horse – the King’s stallion – his valiant battle companion for more than thirty years of warring. The beast, crazed with pain, thrashed between them, dragging, and tossing them like wet rags, desperate to be free. Oblivious to his war wounds, he skittered and reared, trying to bolt. Broken shafts of spears pierced his shoulders and flanks. Deep slashes laced his powerful chest. Arrows pierced his heaving belly as streams of blood trailed down over his legs, strafed with sword cuts. The aging stallion screamed, fierce and blood-curdling, charging towards the tent. The whites of his eyes shot with blood, as he tossed his proud head. His thick muscular neck, flexing and twisting, snake like. His massive rump bunched and coiled to bolt, rearing, and pawing the air. A profuse white mane and tail, blood-drenched and muddied, churned about him like the fury of tempest-tossed waves, spraying spirals of blood over his restrainers. Even as scarlet foam blew from his nostrils – barbed arrow tips twisting in his lungs. Still his great heart would not give in, he too, fighting to get to his beloved master.

Logline: One young princess stood at the crossroads of the founding of three nations: France, England, and Belgium. Her story, and the story of the knight she loved, has never been told – until now. The true story of a rebellious princess and a brave knight who defy the king and overcome treachery, murder, and Vikings, to build a life--and a new country--together. Opening Scene - This scene introduces the male protagonist, Baldwin, and sets him on his journey to serve the king - the father of the protagonist princess, Judith. This first scene also provides historical background necessary to understand the political climate in the ninth-century Carolingian Kingdom of Francia - all motivating factors in the antagonists' schemes. If this were a movie, this scene would take place during the opening credits. MARCH 856 - Kingdom of Francia CHAPTER 1 – BALDWIN ”IRON ARM” After the icy darkness of dreary winter, all nature echoed Baldwin's native restlessness and passion for new challenges. The swelling of buds on the trees and pushing forth of shoots emerging from the still frosty ground, whispered of endless possibilities. As he lifted his saddle pack onto the back of his palfrey, Baldwin’s heart beat faster - like the resurging sap in the long-dormant oak in the courtyard outside his window. A new life . . . his new life . . . one full of adventure called. He was ready to embrace it. Through long winter nights before the enormous stone hearth in their great hall, Baldwin’s plans had taken shape as he and his widowed mother spoke of cherished, and often humorous, memories of Baldwin’s childhood exploits. Never content with losing, Baldwin had challenged himself to master horsemanship, the lance, the halberd, the staff, and the sword. Tall and broad shouldered, by age fourteen Baldwin’s feats of strength and daring earned him the nickname “Iron Arm.” Now, at age sixteen he was ready to pledge loyalty to King Charles of Francia. His mother came into the yard to see him on his way. “You will do well, Baldwin. Learn all you can from the royal household,” she advised. “Be loyal to the king, for that is the essence of nobility. But be kind to all both high and low born, for that is the essence of goodness.” “I will, Mother,” Baldwin kissed her cheek, climbed into his saddle, and nodded at Marius who was already mounted and waiting. Marius had served his family for as long as Baldwin could remember. Belying his calm manner, Marius was a fierce fighter when necessary – essential on this journey to King Charles’ palace at Senlis. Wearing the chainmail he had inherited from his father, Baldwin appeared every inch the knight. However, thieves and rogues were well versed in the convenience of the Roman road. Two strong, well-armed men on horseback were not as tempting a target as Baldwin would have been travelling alone. Baldwin and Marius guided their palfreys through the forest north of Baldwin’s manor house toward the road they would join several miles further on at the tiny, largely abandoned trading settlement of Bruges. Following the Roman road was longer than heading directly south across country, but it had advantages. Roman engineers had designed their roads to follow the natural curve of the rivers, providing for the needs of their massive armies. Now those roads served the very people they had once conquered and offered shelter for the wayfarer by way of well-spaced monasteries or inns. Most of the Belgae, Baldwin’s people, supported King Charles over his half-brothers, Lothar I and Louis the German. The three royal brothers had been at odds with each other when the death of their father, Louis the Pious, permanently fractured the kingdom into three parts. Kings Lothar and Louis the German did not succeed in taking over Charles’ territory. Yet, with the recent death of King Lothar, Louis the German still remained a threat to King Charles’ kingdom. Increasing attacks from the north added to King Charles’ woes. Vicious raiders from Denmark made use of Francia’s extensive riverways, drawn by unprotected gold and silver furnishing Francia’s churches and monasteries. Fighting the Danes provided a perfect opportunity for a young knight to prove himself. At mid-day Baldwin and Marius gleaned bits of news and gossip from a group of knights resting by the side of the road. “Francia is quiet for now, but that will not last,” the leader of the group assured Baldwin. “Between Brittany, Louis the German, the Danes, and the rebel lords of Aquitaine, you and the other young nobles wishing to serve the king will see plenty of action before long.” “Then, we are at peace,” Baldwin concluded. “Only for now.” Laughing, the leader mounted his horse. “This kingdom has too many ambitious leaders for peace to last.” Baldwin and Marius pushed ahead, finding accommodations before nightfall in a poorly kept inn. They knew they might have to share their room, tiny as it was, with other guests, but Baldwin and Marius were glad of rest for their horses, shelter for themselves and hot stew to warm their bellies. Two other travelers joined them late in the evening. Only floor space remained, Baldwin and Marius having claimed the lone, dusty straw mattress. However, as soon as the new guests curled up - each in his own corner of the room - they began to snore. The cacophony of snort, gasp and wheeze and the sour smell of unwashed bodies, made Baldwin lie awake longer than usual. All part of the adventure, he reminded himself wryly as he too nodded off. (End of First Scene)