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.
Brother Albert was pleased with her progress, and when they broke for the midday meal he told her she could have the rest of the day free. He would stay with Tom that afternoon and try to get him to retain some of the Latin lesson in his head. Tom looked very doleful when he heard this.
As they ate, Jack suggested that they go down to the river and see if any new boats had come in, but Kai shook her head.
‘Today I’m going to go to see my brother Edward. He’s started an apprenticeship in the stonemason’s yard over towards St Kevin’s Gate. I’ll go with you another day, though. I love going down to the river too.’
‘Common children go down to the river to play in the mud,’ said Roland. ‘I have better things to do than go down there.’
‘I didn’t ask you to come, Roland,’ said Jack, ‘But Kai, if you are going past St Patrick’s, be very careful. If any of the choirboys from there spot you going past wearing the priory colours, they will jump on you for a fight. We do the same to them if they dare come up the hill.’
He added, ‘So Roland, so what are you going to do for the afternoon? Torture Quincunx? We all know it was you who tied that piece of metal to his tail.’
Kai, who had been known to rescue cockroaches from drowning, looked at Roland in horror.
‘You can’t possibly know it was me who did that,’ said Roland.
Tom broke in:
‘Yes we can. Because you are the only one here that would have done something that mean. It’s your favourite thing, isn’t it, watching animals in pain?’
But Roland only smirked as if he didn’t care what anyone said about him.
‘Well, then, prove it,’ he said. ‘You’ll see, you can’t. I’m far too clever to be caught.’
Kai left her companions and made her way across the Corn-market and into the Liberties of St Sepulchre. Giles the stonemason had his yard there, where he worked on the carvings for the churches and monasteries of Dublin. Kai had met him the last time her family had been in the city. She had liked him, and his cheerful wife and his daughter Joan, who was just a little younger than her brother. Joan was brown haired and green eyed and very pretty and she had beautiful clothes that Kai envied a little. She was always friendly and kind, though, and Kai had thought that, if she could have acted as a girl with Joan, they might have become good friends. She had a feeling that Edward also liked Joan a lot. Now he would be an apprentice living in Giles’s house and would have a good chance to get to know her better. At least things were working out well for her brother, who, like her, had longed for a quieter life. Maybe they could both now live in a manner that did not involve trying to hang onto their father’s cloak tails as he made his dizzy way through life. That was how her father made her feel, dizzy and excited but with the slight threat of a pain in her stomach. As if you had a hive of bees buzzing inside your head.
Even from outside the doorway in the wall that led to the stonemason’s yard, Kai could hear loud hammering. She pushed the door open. Inside was a courtyard, full of noise and the fine pale dust from the stone that filled the yard. Half a dozen workers were banging away at blocks of stone with their chisels and mallets. She spotted Edward in one corner, but he did not see her. He was concentrating hard on the piece of stone he was working on. Even when she came right up to him, she had to shake his shoulder to get his attention. He looked up and smiled, then wiped his sleeve across his face, in an attempt to clear some of the dust that had gathered around his cheekbones. It smeared all over his face. It was not a warm day, but his face was covered in sweat.
Kai laughed at him. ‘I see you haven’t managed to get any cleaner since you left the road!’
‘Katy!’ Edward shouted the name in delight as he hugged her tightly. For her part, Kai almost jumped out of her skin. She pulled back from Edward. Too much hugging between brothers might make people wonder. ‘Shhh,’ she whispered. ‘Remember.’
‘Sorry, Kai, I mean. How are you? I like the fancy duds.’
A part of Kai wanted to tell Edward about how hard it was going to be to keep her secret from her new friends. Apart from anything else, her conscience felt grubby. She hated to deceive Tom and Jack and kind Brother Albert. And then there was the strange feeling she had had in the cathedral. Those voices – they had sounded so real. Had it been the cross, she wondered, speaking to her? But a cross would surely not laugh – and that had been a very distinct giggle she had heard. It gave her goosebumps to think about it. But she decided not to tell Edward, for what could he do to help? If she told him her worries, it would only make him worry too. And he seemed so happy now.
Kai grimaced as she answered, ‘Dame Maria gave them to me. I feel so mean lying to her, especially as they belonged to her son. You should be wearing them! But so far everything is going well. Brother Albert is nice and I think I will make friends with two of the other boys who are part of the choir. I’m not sure about the third one. Well, to be honest, I am sure. He is a really horrible boy. And how are you?’
Edward’s smile lit up his face. ‘I’m so happy that this has all worked out so well. I love the work here and I’ll be learning all the time. Master Giles says I’m good. He has already let me take on some of the simpler pieces – look, this is going to be in St Mary’s, across the Liffey.’
Kai looked. Edward was carving a simple rosette into the stone. It would be one of dozens which would become part of the abundance of flowers and leaves, of small animals and angels which would decorate the abbey.
‘This stone is quite easy to work in because it’s soft, though you have to be really careful to treat it gently. Some of the other stone, like the granite Paul is shaping over there, is much harder and slower.’
They went over to where Paul was working. Paul was a tall young man with massive arms, but Kai could see that he was using all his strength with each stroke he made with his chisel and mallet on a large uneven rock. Beads of sweat stood out on his forehead and his jaws were clenched. He did not smile at either of them, just kept working at the stone.
‘Hello, I’m Kai,’ said Kai, holding out her hand to Paul. The young man just grunted and Edward pulled Kai over to where Master Giles himself was working a piece of golden-yellow stone.
‘What’s wrong with him?’ asked Kai, looking back to where Paul continued to beat at the stone, a frown on his face.
Edward raised his eyebrows. ‘I don’t know. He has been nasty to me ever since I arrived. But come, have a look at this.’
Kai looked at the stone. It was the same type of stone that Edward had been carving and reminded Kai of the creamy stone of Christ Church.
‘You must come back to see this piece finished – it will be wonderful. One day,’ he told his sister, ‘I will be allowed to put my own mark on the stone, so that in years and years in the future people will be able to look at some wonderful carving and know that it was me that made it, me, Edward Breakwater.
Kai grinned and couldn’t resist a tease. ‘Do you think they will care? And are you sure that the cathedrals will last so long?’
‘Of course they will. They are made of stone. What could last longer than stone?’
Kai looked on as Master Giles, his forehead furrowed in concentration, worked with a tiny chisel and hammer on what seemed to be becoming a group of people. The noise of the chisel made its own music as Master Giles worked the stone. Looking more closely, she saw that the group was made up of musicians. Each instrument was delicately carved, each face was different. Edward spoke again. ‘It’s like magic, isn’t it? The way he pulls the figures out of the block of stone. It’s almost as if they are speaking to him, asking to be set free from the stone.’ Edward’s voice was low and reverent.
Kai looked at her brother in surprise. She had never heard him sound so passionate about anything.
Now Master Giles looked up from his work and smiled.
‘Well, young Kai, greetings to you. I have heard that you have taken up residence in Dublin too. It will be good for your brother to have you nearby if your father goes off on his travels again. And I believe you are singing in the cathedral. That’s a great honour indeed. We usually go to Mass in our own church, but we must be sure to all go up to hear you sing. Edward has a great voice too. I’m sure we are often going to ask him to sing for us in the evenings.’
Master Giles lifted his head as the bells of the city rang out. They had to stop their conversation until they had stopped. ‘There now, it’s getting late. I must keep working on this. It is for Christ Church itself. You two go into the house and Joan will get you some almond pastries and something to drink. But you must not wait too long to go back to the priory, Kai. The streets can be dangerous at night.’
As they made their way into the house, Edward said, ‘He’s a great master, isn’t he? He treats me like one of the family. And he has said that he will look after my application to the guild, and even pay the fees, so that I can become a real mason. I can’t ask for better than that.’
Kai nodded. She had heard stories of apprentices who were treated worse than slaves during the time when they learned their craft, and could do nothing about it. An apprentice had to stay until he was finished the long years he was bound to his master, or risk punishment. But Kai was sure that Edward would be more than happy here.
Now her brother asked her, ‘Kai, has Father said anything about leaving?’
‘I haven’t seen him since we were both with him outside the priory yesterday. When he was muttering about getting me to let him into the cathedral. But I won’t do it. I won’t.’
‘Oh, he was probably just teasing you. You know the way he loves to do that. Anyway, you might not have to worry about it for too long. I have heard news that Father was gambling with a group of sheep farmers and they are not happy with the way things turned out for them. Pa may find it is better for him to get as far as possible outside the walls of Dublin for a while. And then the archbishop has been preaching against beggars, and the mayor has been complaining about travelling entertainers. He says they do no work, just live off the labour of the good people of Dublin. Pa may find he has to get up and go. There’s a part of me that would be almost happy if he did.
‘Me too,’ said Kai, guiltily. ‘Even if he went for just a little while. It would be so nice to stay in one place and make some friends.’
That was one of the problems with having adventures and travelling all the time. She never got a chance to get to know other children. Everywhere she went, she was the last one in, an outsider coming to a place where people already had best friends. And just when she got to know somebody really well, Ned would arrive and break the news that it was time to move on.
That night Quincunx came to Kai’s cell, mewing fretfully. He jumped on her bed and began kneading the bedclothes with his paws.
‘Do you want to go out then, you brat?’ asked Kai, and went to open the shutters in the tiny arched window over her bed. But when she looked out she jumped, for standing in the moonlight looking up at her was a cloaked figure.
Within a moment the figure had pulled down his hood. Kai saw it was her father.
‘Pa!’ she said. ‘What is it? Where have you been?’ She shivered. Surely her father was not trying to get her to sneak him into the priory already?
‘I have been lying low, my dear. Those bloody sheep farmers are looking for me and are very persistent in their searching. It must come from looking for lost sheep … But I came to talk with you and Edward, before I go away for a while. How is it with you?’
‘Good, Pa, better than it’s ever been. Edward is very happy in Master Giles’s house, and I am happy here too, in the priory. I want to stay here, for a while anyway.’
‘That is what I have come to speak to you about. No, don’t look at me like that – I have not come to ask you to let me into the priory. Not this time. Now, listen to what I have to say. I fear it may not be safe for you to stay here. In fact, I have changed my mind – I have decided that you should leave Dublin and come with me.’
‘Leave Dublin? Why?’ Kai was astonished.
Her father looked grim.
‘I have heard stories about a terrible disease. It has already killed hundreds of people in Europe. It’s said that it has made its way as far as the English ports. And if the infection has reached that far, it is bound to come to Dublin as well. Dublin is a city and a port; boats come in from England every day. The disease is a dreadful one. It is almost always mortal. I cannot bear to think of you or Edward catching it. So, I am leaving the city, going up into the mountains with some of the fairground people. I want you and Edward to come with me. You will be safer out of Dublin. But we must get on the road tonight. Will you come with me now?’
Kai couldn’t believe that her father was doing this to her. Again. Just as soon as she had adapted herself to whatever mad plan Ned Breakwater dreamed up, he changed it. This had happened so many times. And she had done as he wished. But not this time. This time she was going to do what she wanted. And she did not want to go back out on the road again. Not with winter coming on. Not with the possibility of new friends like Jack and Tom and Dame Maria and a safe, ordered life in the priory.
She shook her head. ‘No, I told you, I’m happy here in Dublin. And Edward is the same.’
‘Aye, I have already been to talk to him. He too has refused to come with me. But you, Kai, you are younger. I beg you to come to where you will be safe from the plague. I would wait a while, but, as you know, I am in some difficulties with those sheep farmers. And with some guardsmen. And with some ladies of the city. I fear I cannot stay to watch out for you any longer.’
Her father sounded as if he were close to tears, but Kai knew what a good actor he was – nearly as good as herself. She suddenly felt very angry.
‘When did you ever watch out for me? Go away, Father, and leave me here in peace. You must go now, straight away. I can hear someone moving.’
It was true, she could hear someone shifting in the cell to her right – the one where Roland slept. She couldn’t bear the thought of him finding her talking to her father, so she said again, her voice sharp, ‘Father, you have to go. I have nothing else to say to you.’
She saw her father’s face change, and realised with a sense of shame that she had really hurt his feelings.
He compressed his lips.
‘Very well, child. If that is what you want. But if you need help, be sure to leave a message with Ymna. She will be able to find me. I wish I did not feel that I was leaving you in danger. But perhaps the plague will not reach across the sea, and you will be safe with the good brothers. Go with God, my child. I will not be so far away that I cannot come to help you.’
Her father turned and moved into the shadows, and Kai, with a sudden pang, wondered when she would see him again.