In a room barely enough size for the rough-hewn wooden table, Father Gerson sat in the middle with the two boys from earlier on each side. At the opposite corner was a young girl with an odd look to her. Her head was too small for her body, her face was unusually flat and round, and her eyes were narrow. She might have been older than six, but she was probably stunted.
Anyanna bid me sit next to the girl, across from the fat friar, and sat down to my left. She'd changed into a long, loose black dress that came down to her ankles, simple wooden sandals, and a gray shawl of knitted wool. Her hair had a refined, silky texture and hinted of lavender whereas before it had been frazzled and unkempt.
Six spun-wooden plates with spoons and rough-ceramic cups surrounded a large iron pot that leaked the strong scent of cooked garlic. Next to that was a glass pitcher full of something orange that had a layer of foam on top, a carving board with a steaming loaf of bread, and a small ramekin of oil.
At the very center of the table stood a thin, clay vase dented by the fingers that crafted it and painted in bright reds and yellows. This was home to a single, long stem of a small yellow flower that tilted its head to one side and was missing a few petals.
The friar had a large, wooden mug as well.
"Let us bow our heads," Father Gerson spoke in Herali, rolling his Rs and holding his vowels too long. "Father in heaven, ve thank you for bringing Caleb to us today. His help fixing up your house has been a blessing beyond anything ve could have asked for. Ve hope this simple meal should restore his strength, and ve ask that you keep him safe on his journey. Ve thank you for helping Trunlia to find this beautiful flower for the table..."
I peeked to my right. The little girl beamed with joy.
"... Ve ask that you guide Roederek to find the strength and courage to deal vith the boys in the neighborhood so that he may find respect vorthy of the great man I know he vill become. Ve ask that you help Valren to find the vords to speak to you through his heart. I know that you hear him even as he does not speak. And ve ask that you help Anyanna find her answers so that she vill know peace vithin her heart. Ve thank you that you have graced us vith provision for this meal and humbly ask that you show us how you plan to provide for us in the coming vinter. Forgive us our sins as ve forgive those who have sinned against us. Lead us not into temptation. All honor and glory be in your name, Amen."
In the pot was a glistening brown stew dotted with morsels. Walren tore off a chunk of bread and passed it to Trunlia.
"Hand me your plate, Caleb." Father reached in with a large spoon and dug up a generous, semi-solid mass with chunks of potatoes, carrots, bright green peas, and scraps of meat. It wanted salt, and there was a hint of something sweet laced throughout along with a chorus of herbs led by lavender, a large sprig of which stuck out on my plate. Anyanna poured some of the drink into my cup when Father stood.
"Please excuse my manners!" he said. "Caleb, vould you like some ale?"
Not after what happened in the bath. "I'm good, thank you. I still have to make it back to Falcon Plaza this evening."
"Hmm," he grunted and sat back down. "That's far. Let me ask you…"
"Why do you have to go to Falcon Plaza?" Anyanna tore off a chunk of bread. She still didn't meet my eyes with her own.
"A friend took a fall and got hurt real bad. I want to make sure she's OK."
"She?"
I nodded. "Yeah."
"Oh."
"She's the reason I came here to pray. I don't think she's going to make it."
Father Gerson studied me, but it was the little girl who spoke. She had an unusual slur to her words, as though she didn't engage her tongue to form them. "What happened?"
"She and her two friends came here from Saen. They just wanted to see the place. Along the way, she fell and got a nasty wound in her arm. Now it's taken the foul."
Father raised an eyebrow. "Three Saeni girls came here only yesterday, same situation. I told her there vas nothing I could do but cut off her arm. She refused, and they left."
"That's her."
Little Trunlia piped up. "We prayed for her!"
"Well," I shrugged. "I put maggots in the wound and gave her something to help, but she's already very, very far gone. I did what I could, but at this point it's going to take a miracle."
Father Gerson swallowed a morsel of food. "If you can manage the coin, you should give her gebui."
As I faced him, Anyanna looked at me. But when I turned to her, she looked at her food. It took me a minute to make the connection between the word he spoke and the name the apothecary had given me for the miracle herb. "Gebu-E?"
The friar smiled and chuckled lightly. "You've heard of it."
"I did give her some. What do you know about it?"
He took in a deep breath and looked around the table while rubbing his hand over the smooth dome of his head.
"How long have you known this girl?" Anyanna gazed at a scrap of bread crust on her plate.
"I only met her this morning."
"You must find her very pretty."
I laughed that off. "That has nothing to do with anything! She needed help; I thought I could help her. Isn't that what Scripture says to do?"
Father Gerson studied me closely. "Caleb, vhat business brings you to Ulum?"
"I'm just passing through. I was called to arms; I have to go fight a war in some place called Carthia."
At that he leaned back and rubbed his plump chin. "That's a dangerous place."
I tried to shrug that off. "Wars tend to make places dangerous."
"It vas dangerous before the var."
"Why? Why is it dangerous? How is it so bad? No one will tell me anything!"
He took a deep breath and stared at the ceiling. Then after a moment, he came back and spoke. "I haven't been there. I've heard tales, things I'd assumed God had cleansed the vorld of long ago. For ten years now men have come through here to feed that var. Few, very few return—I can name only vun of them. I spoke to him. I asked him vhat he saw."
"What did he say?"
"Nothing. He shook his head and left. But there are merchants who go there. Salt traders going over the mountain have come back vith more money than they could make in a year. Tell me something, Caleb," he let out a low burp and put his cup down. "Do you read Scripture much?"
"Daily."
"Vhat's your favorite verse?"
"I wouldn't say verse so much as a passage. Do you know The Called Man?"
"Teach us." He leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands over his rotund belly. "Pretend I've never heard of it."
I looked around the table. Trunlia gazed at me directly, as did the boys, Walren and Roederek. Anyanna tilted her head and looked at my chin, still refusing to meet my eyes.
"OK… so there was a man named Syrus. The Kulun had been conquered and ruled by the Daijji, who were oppressive and mean…" I turned to Walren and put emphasis on my words.
Trunlia spoke to me. "What did they do?"
"Well, for starters, they would track mud all throughout the house and blame it on the children!"
I checked the three of them, each in turn to make sure they believed me before I continued. "Then they forbade them minicakes; if you ate one, that would be ten lashes. Then, they took away their lessons and made them do double chores!"
The friar let out a light chuckle and smiled, "that's vun's probably true!"
"Made them work, all day and all night. All sorts of mean things they did. So this Syrus was there, and an angel from God appeared saying, Syrus, you've been chosen to lead a rebellion against the evil Daijji and liberate the Kulun from oppression."
Trunlia looked up at me, "and give the children back their minicakes?"
"Yes. I believe the angel specifically said to give the children back their minicakes. Maybe. It might say that, I'd have to check… or perhaps you could read it and find out for yourself."
Anyanna spoke up. "I would think it's implied… that the children would get their minicakes back."
I tried smiling at her, but she would not look at my eyes. "Something like that, maybe. So anyway, this Syrus looks up and says, I hear you Lord, but I need proof that it's you who's chosen me. I just love that."
"Why?" Roederek asked.
"Because I hear stuff all the time—don't question the Lord, don't challenge His authority. When God says to do this, you don't hesitate, you don't ask questions, that sort of thing. And that's wrong. This verse, this passage, tells me that it's OK to ask for proof. It's OK to not understand, to get confirmation. If something is true, then it should hold up to scrutiny. If someone is afraid of being held up to scrutiny, that almost proves they're lying. But if I pray and ask God, show me you, I need proof that you're here with me, I need to see you, I need to feel your presence in my life, it is absolutely OK to do that."
"Hmm." The friar nodded.
Anyanna's soft voice filled the silence. "Why does God allow suffering in this w—"
"I have another question, I'm sorry." He bowed to her, and she lowered her eyes. "Caleb. Vhat does… let me think, here. Tell me about a time vhen you vitnessed the power of grace?"
"Grace?"
The father nodded, urging an answer. I had to think.
Walren watched me with his mouth full. Roederek stared without taking a bite, and to my right, little Trunlia fixed her narrow-set eyes on me. Anyanna watched the table around my plate.
"Well, uh… OK. So there's a girl in Gath, her name is Teryn. Last spring, she was upset over her lessons and ran off. Two days we were all looking for her. I finally found her hiding under a bridge about a mile outside the village. Poor thing was cold, tired, and hungry, and terrified that she didn't know how to get out of where she'd hidden herself. On top of that, she was terrified of what was going to happen to her once we got home."
Anyanna's leg bumped into mine beneath the table.
I continued. "I suppose I could have said actions have consequences, that she'd got herself into that situation. I just took her home and convinced Father Yewan she'd suffered enough and didn't need a punishment. And, you know what? She never ran off like that again."
"What if that doesn't work?" Roederek moved his food about his plate with his spoon. "What if you go easy on 'em and they keep on doing bad things to you?"
"You know…" I paused, "... I don't know! I do understand what you mean, though—I went through a bit of that myself. Scripture says that if someone strikes you on one cheek, you turn to them the other cheek, that if your brother sins against you a hundred times, you forgive them a hundred times, but how can you live when someone won't let you have a little peace? Like they're bent on hurting you for no reason?"
Father Gerson watched me closely. Studied me as I spoke.
"I remember when I was about your age, there was this kid, Davod, who used to push me around, and I hated him. He was my height, and I've always been tall, but he was much bigger. His dad was a smith, so he had these arms like you wouldn't believe, and I was afraid of him.
"He would say nasty things out of nowhere. Geraln, he was this other kid, his dad was teaching us all how to cook diamond-tree stones. He said sometimes when we see something working, the temptation is to put more of it on. He called it the more-on principle. Davod shouts out, 'that's what Caleb uses.' Then, I'd be walking by minding my own business and he pegs me with a clod of dirt. It felt like everything came out of nowhere.
"My heart used to shoot off like crazy whenever I was about to see him, because I knew he was going to have something nasty going on. Then, one day, I punched him in the face. I reeled back so hard, and I got him right in the nose. In my mind I'd had it all planned; he was supposed to fall down, cry, I dunno, back off. Nope. He launched himself right at me, and we messed each other up real bad."
Young Walren stopped eating and watched me.
"First I spoke to Father Yewan. He was mad. All this stuff he'd taught me about blessed are the peacemakers, walk away, and I go and do that."
I turned to face little Walren directly. "I was grounded! For two weeks he forbade me to leave the church. Then I spoke to Mother Searnie, and you know what she said to me?"
He shook his head. Trunlia's eyes were glued to me, as were Roedrek's. Anyanna's eyes seemed transfixed on Roederek's shirt, and Father Gerson took a sip from his mug.
"First, she said that there is a season, a time for every purpose under the sun. A time to cheer, a time to weep, a time to kill, a time to heal, a time to give, and a time to steal. To everything a time, and to everything a purpose. Then, she said let Scripture be my map, and prayer be my guide. That is how I will discern whether it's time to turn the other cheek, or punch him in the face."
The children were silent. Father Gerson let out a "hmm" and set down his mug. I thought he was going to say something, but if so he took his sweet time.
"You want to know what happened next?"
"Yes," Trunlia answered me. Roederek gazed at me without a word.
"Davod changed. Overnight. Next time I saw him, he showed me around his home and asked me what it was like growing up in the church. We played together, explored the mountains together. There was this girl, Runya, who used to do all sorts of mean things to him—she put poison ivy in his shoes once. I made him sit down with her, and the three of us figured out that the reason she did all that was because she was afraid everyone would know she had a crush on him. Next thing you know they're together."
Roederek nodded and smiled a little, then took a bite from his plate. I felt Anyanna's leg once again bump into mine beneath the table.
I sifted through the attempted halvystra—it's supposed to be solid—and found a piece of salted meat. Make that very salted meat.
Little Walren lifted himself to bring his mouth to the Friar's ear. The friar spoke to me. "Valren vould like to know how long you plan on staying vith us?"
I laughed. "I wasn't planning on staying for dinner! I have to get back and look in on Dune."
Outside, dusk was fading fast. Father Gerson turned to the children. "Valren, Roederek, Trunlia, vould you mind clearing the table, please? Anyanna, vould you mind making up a room for Caleb?"
"I really can't stay." I stood.
"You von't make it to Falcon Plaza at this hour, the neighborhoods you'd have to valk through, no. You'll have to check on Dune in the morning. Please sit down."
I held my breath and tried to find a thought to answer that with.
"Caleb, vith those riots, someone who… looks… like you, I don't think you should go out there at this hour. Please sit down."
That broke my heart. I felt like I'd betrayed Dune, but I had to trust his judgment. I sat.
"Please," he said. "Have a beer vith me."
I wanted to. I really wanted to, but remembering what Anyanna had done to me in the bath, not knowing what else she may or may not have had in mind considering I was to stay the night, one drop of alcohol was probably too much. "I really can't, I'm sorry."
He smiled and leaned in close. "Anyanna seems awfully fond of you. She's a lovely girl, isn't she?"
I hesitated to speak on that, afraid of where those words might lead.
"I've never seen her open up like that. Not vith anyone."
"That was her… opening up?"
He laughed. "Guests come and go; many stay for days vithout speaking to her once. Some don't even notice she's here. I have never seen her like that, not vith anyone."
"I see."
"It's Trunlia who breaks my heart the most, though."
I hesitated. "Why is she…" She reached for my cup, but I was still sipping at it, so she smiled and bowed her head low. After she walked off I leaned in to whisper. "Why does she look like that?"
"Some children are born that vay. I've seen it before, and they never survive to adulthood. I know it's coming for her, too. It may come tomorrow, it may come next year—it usually comes vhen her body begins to change. She vill grow veaker and veaker, until after some months, she vill die. And I have to vatch it, knowing vhat's about to happen."
He wiped a tear from his cheek and cleared his throat. "That… geboo-ee. It's um… they say it cures everything. I don't know about that, but I've seen it bring people back from the brink, people vith nothing left in them but to vait for death to call their names. They're given the geboo-ee, and… I couldn't believe it. I saw it vith my own eyes."
I shrugged. "I suppose we'll see."
"Men go to Carthia to die, Caleb. Men the Empire deems expendable. It's sad. Really, very sad."
I shrugged. "All according to His plan, right?"
At that he smiled. He sipped from his cup and waited in silence, watching the children finish gathering up all the plates and bowls. Then, after they'd all gone off, I sat with Father Gerson alone. "I'm going to write to the Archbishop in Golago to have your military summons canceled."
"What?"
"You need to take up the cloth."
"I…" I shook my head in disbelief. "You've got to be joking."
"You have a gift."
"No no, no. I don't. Me? A priest?"
"Yes, Caleb. You have the gift. You can transform this church, right here in Ulum."
I laughed. "You clearly don't know me very well! Trust me, I don't have what it takes…"
"You do."
"Listen," I said. "You don't know the real me. I've done some really bad things. All throughout growing up…"
"So?"
"What would I even do? Deliver a sermon on punching people in the face?"
"All have sinned," he smiled. "Vhat makes you less vorthy than anyone else? You say you've done bad things, ve all have. It's not about that. It's about the difference you make in people's lives. Look around you. Vhy is Valren asking me how long you plan on staying? Think about it! You could open up these doors and get out in the community. Caleb, these people need help. You could make this place into your vision."
"I…" I stumbled over my words. "I have to go to Carthia."
"I told you I vould take care of that."
"But how is that fair? My friends have to risk their lives for the good of the Empire but I get a free pass? I can't do that. No."
"Ve all are called to our own purpose, Caleb. Some are called to vun, and some are called to another. Vhat if God allowed your summons to bring you here and show you this place?"
"I can't do it. You said that I would make this place into my vision, that vision does not include abandoning the people I care about, not when they're being sent off to die. I can not do that."
"I believe God is calling you, Caleb."
"I don't know about that."
He stretched out his fingers and let out a yawn before taking another sip from his mug. "You said that Dune needed a miracle."
"Yes?"
"Vhat if the geboo-ee works on her? Vould that be miracle enough?"
I considered it for a moment. Ulum wasn't so far from Gath that I couldn't write Father Yewan for advice or go back to visit. Perhaps I could ask Sarina to come join me, and we would work on this place together.
What if Sarina came to Ulum with me? "That would be a miracle."
He smiled and reached out his hands for me to take. Then, we closed our eyes and bowed our heads as he spoke. "Father in heaven, I have your servant Caleb here. I believe you have called him, and that you have chosen this church for him as a place to bloom. Ve need proof that you have spoken this, and so ve ask that you reach out your merciful hand, to heal Dune of her injury and restore her health. If instead you allow Dune to perish, ve vill know that you release your servant Caleb to go as he vills. For thine is the blah blah blah, all that stuff, Amen."
"Amen."