Read Online Written in the Ashes by K. Hollan Van Zandt - Free Book Online

Oasis.”
    “Truly?” asked Hannah. “I would love to see such a tablet.”
    “No one knows where it is. The Nuapar monks on the isle of Pharos guard the knowledge of its location.”
    “Does Alizar practice these seven secrets of alchemy, then?”
    “Indeed. Alizar is attempting to find a remedy for Naomi. He always returns with more herbs from his journeys to boil down into remedies,” said Jemir.
    “Do you think she will live?” asked Hannah.
    Jemir sighed. Leitah nodded. Tarek just stared at his wine.
    There was a moment of complete silence in the kitchen until Leitah dished herself a bowl of steaming fuul , the bangle bracelets on her wrists clinking as she dipped flatbread in the thick broth.
    Hannah looked to Jemir, her eyes full of questions about the mute maidservant.
    Jemir understood. “Leitah was studying to be a priestess at the Temple of Serapis under Antoninus, but the temple was burned to the ground by the last bishop. After that she took a vow of silence.”
    “How did the temple burn?”
    Tarek puffed his chest like a pigeon, delighted to tell the story. “Emperor Theodosius the First made an edict forbidding pagan practices in 391, and Bishop Theophilus of Alexandria decided to enforce it without so much as a warning. He attacked the Serapeum temple, killed everyone defending it, and one of his soldiers chopped the statue of Serapis to bits. All the texts were burned, and the Christians erected a church in place of the temple.”
    “The Christian bishop burned the temple?” Hannah shuddered, thinking of her introduction to the city, how the men in black robes had tortured and burned the man before the great wooden doors.
    “Yes, but he is not the bishop any longer.” Tarek lowered his eyes. “His nephew holds the title now.” Cyril. The name was perched on Tarek’s tongue but he refused to speak it in Alizar’s house. Instead he spat on the stone floor.
    Just then, the bell at the door sounded and Leitah rose to answer it. She reappeared a moment later and nodded to Tarek who went to see about it.
    Hannah excused herself a moment later to relieve herself, but could not resist her curiosity when she saw the open window near the front door and heard the sound of a young girl crying.
    She peaked through and saw Tarek, standing over the girl with his fist raised, and the girl kneeling in the street at his feet.
    “I told you never to come here,” he said.
    “But the child is yours,” she cried.
    Tarek let his fist fall heavily on her cheek, bruising her other eye as she cried out. “You are nothing but a whore,” he said. “You service a hundred men and come to me because we have money. I am not so gullible as that. Go back and tell your bawd that if I see you here again the beating will be worse. Now go.” He kicked her to her feet, and she clutched her shawl around her body and fled.
    Hannah heard the front door open and shut, and she pressed herself flat against the wall in the shadow, holding her breath as Tarek passed so he would not see her. The light illuminated her feet, and quickly she drew them back beneath her robe.
    “Stupid woman,” he said, shaking the hand he had used to hit the girl. He passed by Hannah without seeing her. When he had gone, Hannah exhaled and looked back out the window to the empty street where the poor girl had been a moment before. She knew then that of all these strangers, it was only Alizar and Jemir she would trust.

 
    5  
    It was announced to the hall that the meeting of the clergy would be delayed an hour because the bishop was bathing, which was not uncommon, but this particular morning the announcement veered slightly from the truth, as he often suffered from acute constipation. When he finally arrived, red in the face from an hour of strain, the oblong stone table was surrounded by impatient faces stamped with scowls, which was for most of them a natural angle of repose.
    “Heirax, your report.” Bishop Cyril took his seat at the head