Where the Stones Sing (4 page)

‘You must be Quincunx,’ she whispered.

The reply was a deep purr. The cat settled on her chest and curled into sleep, and the comforting feel of the warm fur and the gentle noise of the purring soon sent Kai to sleep too. 

Rat's Eye View

ark. Dark was good. Dark was safe. The darker the better. Noise and clatter and shouting – not so good. Humans and that bloody cat that had been the family's torment throughout the voyage. But now the ship had stopped. Though still rocking, the boat no longer moved forward into the waves. Time to explore. Hmm … Shapes, barrels, good, and something that smelled REALLY good. The rat crept down the rope, and slithered noiselessly onto the stones of the quay. It lifted its head, sniffing the air. That way – that was where the smell of humans and human food was strongest. It crept up the hill towards the cathedral, stopping only to scratch itself vigorously. It had been a long voyage and it felt as if it were being eaten alive by fleas.

The next day began with the bells calling everyone in the priory to prayer. Life in the priory was strictly ordered, with the services in the church at the centre of all the activity. Even during the night the monks rose to go to the chancel to pray. Although the children did not have to go to the night-time service, they did have to get up before dawn so they could sing lauds in the cathedral.

Kai went along, although she could not yet join in the singing. The choir entered the cathedral as the sun rose, streaming through the great eastern window and lighting the gold and jewels on the high altar, making it the focal point of brightness. At its very centre was the great cross, the cross that had spoken and was now at the heart of the devotions of almost everyone who came to pray in the cathedral. But as she walked through the nave, Kai was not looking at the altar but up at the roof of the cathedral. It rose into an arch above her, making her feel as if she was looking for the sky through the branches of a forest. The pillars of the arches were
beautifully
carved. Stone flowers grew out of them; dragons curled around them; angels sang from their tops.

Tearing her eyes away from the wild extravagance of the carvings, Kai looked down at the floor. Here there were more wonders, for the tiles made intricate, colourful patterns under her feet. She saw lions and eagles and even a group of little foxes walking on their hind legs, dressed as pilgrims and following each other around in a circle. Kai could hardly keep her eyes on where she was going, as the children made their way up near the high altar, to the part of the cathedral called the choir.

As Kai kneeled and listened to the monks' voices rising
upwards in harmony, she peered through the fingers
covering
her eyes in prayer. She could see the tombs that lined the walls: jolly-looking, chubby bishops with their feet
resting
on little dogs; solemn knights with their swords by their sides; ladies with elaborate headdresses and their hands folded piously. One little tomb looked as if it belonged to a child. It was dark and shadowy in the cathedral, but the darkness was not frightening, because it left space for the light to come through the stained-glass windows. A bird's shadow flew across the glass, reminding Kai of the world outside. Dublin would just be waking up to face the new day.

Kai would learn to love these windows, telling herself the stories of the pictures they held: Noah's ark, with all the
animals
clambering on board; St Laurence, blessing the orphan children he had sheltered; the Queen of Heaven surrounded by stars; the Holy Ghost; the dove that was part of the Holy Trinity, after which the cathedral was named. She especially liked the Christmas windows. Here were the shepherds
hearing
the news from the singing angels; one of them had his hand over his mouth in shock. But the first time Kai gazed up at the windows, she noticed one that frightened her: a devil with a boar's head, dragging a very unhappy looking woman down into the fires of hell. She quickly averted her eyes to the carvings on the tops of the stone pillars. Just next to her was a carving of a flock of birds with children's heads nestling against the stone, their mouths open. She couldn't
decide if they were singing or waiting to be fed. She thought proudly that soon perhaps her brother would be one of the masons that would carve new scenes in the stone.

The choir sang the first psalm and then there were a few moments of silent prayer. Kai thought how strange it was that people could never help coughing or sneezing or
rustling
during times like this. But finally there was total silence, and in that silence she thought she heard another sound: the faintest of whispers, the quietest of laughs. She looked around at her companions; nobody seemed to be paying any attention. She looked closely at the cross; perhaps it really could speak? But the sound had not come from that part of the cathedral. She shook her head. It had to be her
imagination
. So much had happened since yesterday, she was hearing things. Then her attention was brought back to the Mass. The choir, made up of the brothers and her three
fellow-choristers
, had begun to sing again. The sound was beautiful. As part of the choir even Roland seemed transformed into something better than himself.

After the lauds there was a light breakfast and then Brother Albert took Kai around to show her the different parts of the priory. As she had seen the night before, the priory was built around a central square, the cloister. It was covered in
soft green grass, with a fountain in the middle. There were covered passageways lined with decorated stone arches on all four sides. The monks could walk around the square,
reading
or praying as they went. The cloister was enclosed by the cathedral itself to the north. To the east lay the chapter house and the kitchen, and the dark, half-underground alley known as Hell. The refectory was south of the cloister. To the west was the Great Gate, and Kai was given a quick glimpse of the prior's chambers with its coloured glass in the windows and its huge and elaborate fireplace. Brother Albert even brought her down to the crypt of the cathedral. It was dark and frightening, the very oldest part of the church.

‘You have already seen some of our relics, the ones held in the cathedral, such as the great cross. And did you notice the relic of St Laurence, his heart held in the silver reliquary?'

Kai shook her head. She didn't like the idea of seeing
anyone's
heart, saint or not. Brother Albert continued, ‘I will show you later. But this is where the rest of our relics are stored, along with the treasures of the cathedral.'

Kai thought of her father and tried not to listen. The less she knew about the cathedral treasures the better.

Finally, Brother Albert took Kai to the outbuildings of the priory. There were stables and bakehouses and brewhouses, and an infirmary which had a stillroom very much like Dame Maria's. Kai began to sniff the air, smelling something rather unpleasant, and Brother Albert, beaming, said, ‘We are
approaching the piggery. Because of the smell, it's a little
outside
the walls of the priory.'

Despite the faint smell, the piggery was cleaner than any piggery she had ever seen. Brother Albert introduced the inmates:

‘That's Amby, short for Ambrose, and the darker one is Jerry – his full name is Jerome. The one beside him snuffling in the dirt is Ignatius, usually called Iggy. Iggy the Piggy. The two girls are inside the stye, they are called Augustina and Basilia.'

The little monk was gazing at the pigs with a proud expression on his face.

Kai coughed. ‘Eh, do you mind me asking – where do the names come from?'

‘Do you not recognise them? They are called after the Fathers of the Church. We'll be studying their works in class. The great thinkers of Christianity, my boy. These fine
animals
are named in their honour, although I did have to take the liberty of giving the sows female versions of Basil and Augustine.'

Kai wondered how she was going to feel when she came to the works of Basil, Ignatius and the rest of them in her lessons. It might be hard to take seriously the thoughts of someone who she would always see in her mind's eye as having a snout and a curly tail. But Brother Albert obviously had great respect for his pigs.

‘We don't let them out at all, you know,' he said. ‘It is a dangerous thing to allow pigs loose on the streets, for the pig as well as for humans. We feed them twice a day – that will be one of your jobs. Out in the streets, you never know what they might eat. The street pigs eat every kind of rubbish they came upon, and knock people over and cause mayhem with their squealing and stealing. So they are kept in here, though I sometimes feel they could do with a little more exercise.'

‘Would you like me to take them out sometimes, for you?' Kai asked. She quite liked the idea of bringing one of these clean and intelligent-looking beasts for a walk. Brother Albert shuddered.

‘A kind thought, but no, thank you. Jack took one of the piglets – it was Basilia, in fact – to bed with him once. He thought she was lonely, and of course she escaped and ran all over the priory and even got into the prior's bed. You should have seen the havoc she caused, rampaging around. And this was all going on in the middle of the night! Never again, never again. Ah look, there is Basilia herself coming out. She's a bit of a wild one. A touch of the Gaderene swine, perhaps. No, Basilia.' He poked the small black pig with his stick as she tried to bite Augustina. ‘Stop it now, or you'll be seeing the inside of a frying pan sooner rather than later.' He turned to Kai, as the bells rang overhead. ‘But now, time is moving on and we must get to class!'

Brother Albert, as well as teaching them singing, was to
educate them in grammar, arithmetic, Latin, and reading and writing. Kai found that the actual singing came easily to her, and her quick brain had little trouble learning the words of the psalms. Her first lesson in following musical notation was more difficult. But she loved the look of the notes marked on the huge pages of the psalter. The black shapes flew like birds among the words of the hymns, soaring upwards into the air, as the music had soared upwards into the stone of the cathedral.