The Divining (47 page)

     Taking a step closer, however, he saw that it was no vision but a person sitting there, patiently waiting to speak. Sebastianus blinked again, and frowned. This must be the Chaldean, he thought, but what an extraordinary creature!

     Of surprisingly humble appearance, considering his reputation, the Chaldean wore only a long white robe that had known better days. His long bony hands rested on the table, his head bowed, showing a crown of hair that was blacker than jet, parted in the middle, and streaming over the shoulders and down his back. Presently the head came up, and Sebastianus received a shock.

     The Chaldean was a woman. Sebastianus was further arrested by the unusual aspect of the face, which was long and narrow, all bone and yellow skin, framed by the streaming black hair. Mournful black eyes beneath highly arched brows looked up at him. The Chaldean almost did not look human, and she was ageless. Was she twenty or eighty?

     "You have a question," the Chaldean said in perfect Latin, eyes peering steadily from deep sockets.

     Sebastianus took a seat opposite and it seemed that, the closer he drew to the astrologer, the more the incense invaded his head. It took on a cloying scent, with an underlying odor that was vaguely unpleasant. The room seemed to grow dimmer, the walls closing in.

     "You have a question about the stars," the astonishing woman said in a voice that sounded older than the ziggurats of Babylon.

     "Do they contain messages?"

     "All things contain messages. They are all around us. You have but to see."

     "Can the stars be relied on for messages from the gods?"

     "Why do you trouble yourself about that?" the seer said with sorrow in her eyes.

     Sebastianus grew impatient. The astrologer had not asked him for the day and hour of his birth, his sun and moon signs, the constellations that had hung in the night sky when he drew his first breath.

     He scanned the surface of the table. It was bare. No charts, no diagrams or equations or astrolabes. "Listen here," Sebastianus began, and then he paused. The Chaldean was staring straight ahead with liquid black eyes. But there was something strange in the look ...

     Sebastianus lifted a hand and waved it in front of the astrologer's face. She did not blink.

     The Chaldean was blind.

     The young mother held her paralyzed daughter as she chanted her prayer: "Rabbi Judah, I beg of you to help us," she whispered with her eyes closed, as Ulrika and Miriam, Primo and his men, everyone looked on in silence. Her prayer was filled with such poignant despair, her voice touched every heart, brought tears to many eyes. "Dear Judah, I have no other recourse, nowhere else to turn. We have not eaten in days. We have no home, no family. Tomorrow I must sell myself into prostitution so that I and my daughter can live. Perhaps I should prefer death. For myself, I might, but my daughter is only four years old. I want her to live. Spirit of this place, whoever you are, if you are Judah, take
my
legs instead. Take the life that is in my muscle and bone and put it in my daughter's lifeless limbs. I beg of you, lift this curse from my baby and place it on me, and I shall revere you and speak your name for as long as I live."

     Lifting her head, the young mother sent her plea to the sky. "We are a hopeless cause," she said as she began to weep. "Perhaps we are not worthy of divine notice. But I ask nothing for myself! Please
save my daughter!
"

     "Mama?" came a tiny voice. "Mama?"

     Feeling her daughter stir in her arms, she opened her eyes and said, "What is it, baby?"

     "Who is that man?"

     "What man?"

     The child pointed. All heads turned. No one saw a man among the humble tents and palm trees.

     "There is no one there, baby," the young mother said.

     "He has honey! He has dates!" The little girl struggled in her mother's arms, pushed away, and fell to the ground.

     "Baby!" the mother cried, reaching for her child.

     But the girl was suddenly up on her feet and toddling away on legs that had not moved in a year.

     The crowd fell silent. Ulrika turned. The child who had, moments earlier, been unable to walk, now ran. And she was running, Ulrika saw, in the direction of Judah's grave.

     "Why will you not answer me directly?" Sebastianus asked in growing frustration. "You speak in riddles! Not even that, for riddles are meant to be solved. Your words make no sense!" He rose from the stool. "I have wasted enough time."

     "Wait, Sebastianus Gallus ..."

     He turned. Blind eyes did not look at him as a whispered prophecy came from her ancient lips ...

     He stared at the Chaldean and when he heard her prediction, felt himself snap. "Now I know you are false!" he shouted. "For what you have just said will never come true. I promise you that!"

     As he descended the three hundred and thirty-three steps, Sebastianus knew that his suspicions were sealed. What he had just heard was an impossible prophecy, and so he knew now that there were no messages in the stars. There were no gods. There was no such thing as miracles.

     "Baby!" the young mother cried, running after her daughter.

     Everyone watched in stunned silence, even Primo and his men, startled to see what they had thought was a paralyzed child suddenly running toward Miriam's camp.

     Ulrika and Timonides watched in spellbound astonishment as the girl ran into the camp and then twirled in circles, her arms outstretched as she cried, "Honey and dates! Honey and dates!"

     The mother fell to her knees before her child, her moist eyes wide as she watched the spindly legs dance on the sand. "It is a miracle!" she cried. "Thank you, Blessed Judah, for I know now that it was you who worked this miracle! I will do good deeds in your name! I will revere you all my days. I will bless your name forever, Oh Venerable Judah!"

     Ulrika stared in shock. As the child twirled and her mother wept, as the mob burst into cheers and the sun moved one degree closer to the western horizon, Ulrika felt the world undergo an irreversible and profound shift.

     She had found the Venerable Ones.

     When Sebastianus appeared in the golden rays of sunset, galloping on horseback across the desert, Ulrika ran out breathlessly to greet him. He jumped down from his horse and drew her to him, kissing her deeply. Then he stepped back and looked around at the jubilant camp. People were lighting torches, dancing, singing, and passing around skins of wine. Many were on their knees chanting prayers. "What happened?" he said. "Who are all these people?"

     "Something wonderful, my love! But tell me about the Chaldean. Did he restore your faith?"

     "It is all a sham. Astrology is nothing but fakery to cheat a man out of his money. I shall never be so gullible again."

     "Why do you say this?" she cried in dismay.

     He described his experience, and then said, "Here is the prophecy the Chaldean uttered: 'You have a possession that you value above all others. Before one year has passed, Sebastianus Gallus, you will willingly relinquish that cherished object.' Oh Ulrika, every man has one possession he cherishes above all others! And while most men, under certain pressure and the right circumstances, will part with their most treasured possession, what the Chaldean does not know is that long ago I vowed upon the altar of my ancestors that I would never let this bracelet leave my arm as a remembrance of my brother." Sebastianus clasped his fingers around his wrist and said,
"This
is my most cherished possession, and there is no force on earth that would make me break my vow never to part with it."

     Gripping her by the arms, looking into her eyes as if he and Ulrika were the only two souls in the middle of the desert, Sebastianus said with passion, "Men in their fear and foolishness try to predict their destinies, thereby hoping to control them. But the future is unpredictable, Ulrika, and destiny is as intangible as a cloud. There are no messages in the stars. I will destroy the charts, instruments, devices for observation and calculation that I brought from China. I will not visit the observatory in Alexandria where the greatest astronomers in the world study the heavens. For I know now they cannot put it all together and uncover the secrets to the meaning of life."

     He looked down at her, love in his eyes. "Do not be sad for me, my dearest. Timonides's false readings and lies, and his confession revealing his misdeeds, have opened my eyes to the truth. For I am now a free man, believing in nothing, choosing my own destiny. This is why I forgive Timonides. For he is only human, and who is to say I would not have done the same under those circumstances? Perhaps he did me a favor. For now I am in control of my life. No more waiting to see what the stars portend. I will awake each morning my own master."

     He gripped her shoulders and, looking deep into her eyes, said, "I climbed the three hundred and thirty-three stairs a man filled with hope, and descended them a man filled with new wisdom. From now on, dearest Ulrika, you will be my religion, my goddess, and I will worship you all the days of my life."

     He kissed her then, and finally stepped back, as if bringing himself back
to the physical world. He looked around. "Who are all these people? What has happened here?"

     She told him about the little girl's astonishing cure.

     He arched his eyebrows. "Do you believe Rabbi Judah restored her legs?"

     "It does not matter what I think. When word of this reaches the city, there will be a stampede to this spot. Sebastianus, I feel responsible. I told Miriam to bring her husband here. And I told her that he wishes to be remembered. I handled it all wrong. I had not foreseen that this would happen. These people are all in danger and it is my fault. Sebastianus, my spiritual gift is to find sacred places and sacred people—I found a Venerable One!—and to lead people to them. But I must also do it responsibly, not in a way that will bring harm to others."

     "Do not worry, we will find a way to fix this."