The Orchard of Hope (32 page)

“Oh, the hair!” he exclaimed.
“Well, it’s not quite long enough yet, but it will get there in
time. Give it another day or two,” he replied dismissively. “Now,
what else makes a ceiling and a wall different?”

“It’s growing on the bottom of
your feet.” As soon as Nicholas spoke, he realized he should have
let the subject pass. He glanced at Newton, who slapped a paw on
his forehead and closed his eyes.

“Yes, it’s not quite thick enough
to protect my feet from the chill in the stone floor. Much quieter,
though. It softens the step nicely.”

Newton raised one eyebrow and
lowered it again, which Nicholas took as a sign to move on and stop
asking Moss questions. He returned to the lesson.

“The difference between the
ceiling and a wall?” Nicholas asked for clarification.

“Yes,” Moss nodded. “What are
those differences?”

The distinctions appeared to be a
little too obvious to Nicholas, so he took a moment to examine the
ceiling and floor in the room where they were sitting to see if he
had missed any details of importance. The plaster on the wall was a
deep brown color and had some paintings hanging in various places,
while the ceiling was painted white and had wax stains in circular
splotches from where candles had been left burning too long in one
place. The scorch mark from the weather lesson was still there,
also. He described these differences to Moss.

“Very good. And sometimes the
walls are brick, but the ceiling usually isn’t,” Moss added.
“Correct?”

“Yes. Am I going to learn about
construction?”

“Of course, but not of buildings,”
Moss replied. “And often, the ceiling and walls are both covered in
plaster, so you don’t know if they’re made of the same material or
not. You’d have to remove the plaster in order to see for yourself,
correct?”

Nicholas nodded. Moss began to hum
to himself – another odd “Moss moment.” Nicholas was starting to
wonder if Moss was going to finish the lesson or not, so he asked
another question to get Moss’ attention.

“We’re talking about how walls and
ceilings are made, but I’m not going to learn
construction?”

“Correct,” Moss said with a smile
but didn’t continue. Newton cleared his throat a few times until
Moss’ mental detour finally ended. “Well, pathways are often the
same. They look identical, but you can’t tell which one is which
until you know how they’re constructed.”

“So, am I learning about road
construction?”

“No,” Moss replied as he shook his
head. “Follow along.”

Nicholas had no idea whether
something relevant or something completely random was coming next,
and finally said, “I’m not sure what this has to do with
discernment …”

“Everything. It has everything to
do with it. There are two types of pathways: those that lead
to
somewhere and those that lead
away
. Both are useful. You will need to
learn how to make both kinds.”

“Make or discern these paths?”
Nicholas asked for clarification. “One of these sounds like a lot
more work than the other.”

“Both. Once you know how to create
them, you will understand how these things are constructed, and you
can discern them. It’s a lot like the weather.”

This made a little more sense, but
Nicholas was still confused. He glanced at Newton for
help.

“The weather that you created, not
the weather outside,” Newton interjected.

“I’m handling this, Newton,” Moss
said politely but firmly. “Don’t you have an appointment with some
cookies or a pot roast?”

“I’m working on balancing my needs
with the cookies’ needs,” Newton answered.

“Cookies don’t have needs,” Moss
snapped.

“They do. Everything has needs.
For example, I need to eat the cookies, but the cookies don’t need
for me to eat them at this moment. It’s kind of a Zen thing.”
Newton replied with an air of authority. Moss studied the
gargoyle’s calm expression before speaking again.

“They’re all gone, aren’t they?”
Moss suddenly asked.

“Yes,” Newton admitted.

“You ate them all earlier, didn’t
you?”

“Yes.”

Moss and Newton stared each other
down. Moss squinted and was about to speak again when Nicholas
attempted to redirect the conversation.

“Roads and buildings,” Nicholas
interjected. “We were discussing something about making and
discerning, and it involved the weather.”

“Yes,” Moss agreed as he turned
away from the gargoyle and began pacing again. “Roads and buildings
have rules for construction, and you can tell what’s being built by
what rules were followed in the process,” he explained. “For
example, if something was built vertically, it’s a wall and if it
was built horizontally it’s probably a ceiling, even if it’s made
out of the same material. These structures are supported
differently, also. Walls have vertical support systems alone, while
ceilings have both horizontal beams as well as vertical
supports.”

“I think I understand.”

“Just as buildings have different
types of components, there are different types of pathways. Truth
leads to one place, and lies lead to another completely different
place.”

“Are these physical locations?”
Nicholas asked.

“Sometimes,” Moss answered as he
nodded thoughtfully. “There are also easy paths as well as
not-so-easy ones. The most difficult pathways to find and follow
are made of thought. Thoughts are like the diamonds of the magical
world.” Moss paused to laugh heartily at his own joke. “Because
diamonds are the hardest material objects in the physical world …
and they’re used to cut other things.”

Nicholas and Newton both stared
back expressionless. “Well-constructed thoughts are considered
sharp. You’ll understand better when you’re my age.”

“Jokes aren’t like wine. They
don’t get better with age. They’re more like milk. They go sour
over time,” Newton replied flatly.

“All I’m saying is that in time
you’ll come to appreciate the perspective from which the humor
originated,” Moss replied. “But never mind that, we have some
pathways to build.”

“How do we do that?
”
Nicholas asked.

“We start with what we know and
fill in the blanks.”

“Can we start with something
simple? And something that doesn’t have to do with the
sorcerer.”

“I always start simply,
”
Moss announced.
“
Paths
that lead somewhere are about growth.
”

“For example,
”
Newton interrupted,
“
paths that lead to the kitchen also lead to growth
in Mos
s'
waistline.
”

“Enough, Newton! I
’
m not the one with the huge appetite.
”
Moss snapped and then continued.
“
As I was saying, paths that lead to truth involve
growth. However, paths that lead away from truth can lead to any
one of the multiple unrealities ...
”

As Moss was speaking, a hawk
abruptly landed on the window sill and began squawking wildly. It
was talking far too fast for Nicholas to translate everything, but
Nicholas understood that someone was in
“
grave danger.
”

Chapter

23

A Conversation for the
Birds

“Has Roland sent a bird?” Maggie
asked as Kelsey returned to the discussion with Bardou on the edge
of the orchard.

“Yes,” Kelsey
confirmed.

“Good,” Maggie replied. “Once
Nicholas agrees to help grow the plants, we can make the cuttings
and send the wolves on their way to cultivate their own
hope.”

“This could work,” Kelsey said
with admiration. She recalled how Nicholas had carried the flame
through the City of Eternal Beauty. If he could make an impact on
the trees without having to travel to the orchard, then Maggie’s
plan would work.

“I know you,” Bardou said to
Roland.

“We’ve met before.”

“Old friends,” Bardou agreed with
a nod of his head.

“That wolf is not such a bad guy,”
Kelsey whispered to Maggie. “He likes Roland.”

“You have an odd criterion for
judging character,” Maggie said with a smile.

“We all have our standards,”
Kelsey said wearily. She was feeling weak and looking forward to a
hot meal and some rest. It might have been the healing that took it
out of her, but she’d never felt so tired after a battle. This was
an odd situation for her. She usually felt energized after a fight.
However, today she felt light-headed. As she listened to the
conversation, her vision blurred for a moment, but she shook it
off. It was no time to be tired, at least not yet. She had a job to
finish.

“Do you think the pack will agree
to this arrangement?” Maggie inquired of Bardou. “Will you talk to
them?”

“I can ask,” he replied. “Wolves
are not farmers, but the prospect of getting all the hope they need
may be appealing to them. It will take some convincing.”

“I’m sure the Brothers of
Discipline will be more than happy to teach the pack how to
cultivate the crop,” Maggie said. “It’s in everyone’s best
interest.”

Bardou nodded and trotted back to
the pack to deliver the message. He conversed with the group for
several hours, pacing back and forth and answering questions that
the wolves posed to him. Maggie and Kelsey watched from a distance,
observing that the conversation became quite heated at
times.

After the first few minutes of
monitoring the wolves’ debate among themselves, Kelsey sat down on
the ground and propped her back against a tree. She invited Maggie
to do the same. By this time they had all been awake for two days
and were feeling exhausted from the combination of the battle and
lack of sleep. Kelsey’s muscles were aching, and the pain in her
hand was severe.

While they were waiting for the
wolves to finish their discussion, the Sisters of Mercy came out to
the edge of the orchard and set the bone in Kelsey’s hand. Kelsey
watched Bardou continue to negotiate with the pack and paid little
attention to the nurse bandaging her hand. After a short time, her
hand was tightly wrapped with a splint to prevent further injury.
Kelsey looked down at it.

“This is inconvenient,” she
said.

“It’s more annoying to have a hand
that doesn’t work properly for the rest of your life,” the nurse
replied. “A short period of inconvenience is worth the
trouble.”

“It still hurts an awful lot,”
Kelsey said.

“And it will for quite some time.
We don’t stock pain medication here. This isn’t a hospital.” The
nurse abruptly walked away once she had finished
speaking.

As the discussion continued, Kelsey
could see some of the wolves were restless, and their leader had to
work to keep them calm and agreeable. Kelsey dozed off briefly from
exhaustion a few times, but she awoke again each time that she
heard the noise of the wolves disputing. There was a lot of waiting
and discussion, and everyone was tense. Bardou finally turned away
from the wolves and trotted slowly back to where Kelsey and Maggie
were sitting.

“They don’t trust you,” Bardou
said wearily.

“But they trust you,” Kelsey
responded, “Don’t they?”

“Some of them. The others think
I’ve gone soft and lost my edge. Almost all of them like the idea
of getting our own hope, but quite a few think you’re attempting to
trick us.”

“That’s understandable,” Maggie
replied. “They’ve been fighting with the brothers and sisters for
so long, and trust doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time to build
it.”

“We don’t have time,” Kelsey
interjected.

“But we do have the trust of some
of the pack,” Bardou insisted. “And I think I can sway the rest of
them to at least try this solution, but as I was talking with them
I realized that I don’t fully understand how I changed my mind on
the situation. It’s confusing.”