Flesh-&-Bone(33)

Brother Alexi, the towering giant, smiled a cruel smile.

Mother Rose raised her arms wide. “We must take Sanctuary. That, more than anything, is the great task of our time. That is the most sacred of missions assigned to us by God. As long as Sanctuary stands, all that we do, all that we have done, is in jeopardy.”

Suddenly every one of the reapers whipped their blades from belts and sheaths. The wicked silver flashed in the sunlight.

“Brother Simon, I charge you to find the team leaders and bring them to me at the Shrine of the Fallen in two hours. The rest of you . . . you know what must be done.”

The reapers leaped to their feet, swearing on their lives, their souls, and their salvation. Only the giant remained silent, watching like a granite statue.

Mother Rose studied each of the reapers with her cold, dark eyes.

“To break faith with me is to break faith with God.”

The reapers begged her to accept the truth of their promises, and they fell on their faces, scrabbling at the lowest streamers tied to her clothes, kissing the colored cloth, touching it to their closed eyes and to the center of their foreheads. Mother Rose allowed the adoration to go on for twenty full seconds before she held up a hand to stop them. The weeping reapers got to their feet and stood stock-still, their eyes locked on her and that raised hand. Then Mother Rose gave a single dismissive flick of her hand and spoke a single word.

“Go.”

The reapers whirled and headed into the woods as fast as they could, howling like demons as they went. On foot and on their motorcycles. In moments they were gone from sight.

Mother Rose waited until even the sound of the motors was gone, and then she exhaled, blowing out her cheeks. The giant set down his sledgehammer and grinned.

“Jeez, you laid it on pretty thick there, Rosie,” he said.

“It works every time, Alexi.” Mother Rose shrugged. “Besides, you can’t dial it down with this crowd or they start thinking for themselves.”

“Heaven forbid,” he said, and they both laughed.

Brother Alexi came and stood close to Mother Rose. “Are you even sure that Sanctuary exists? We’ve been to this part of Nevada three times now and we haven’t found a trace of it.”

“It exists,” she said firmly. “I’m positive of it.”

“Hey, don’t shine me on, sweetie,” Alexi growled. “This is me you’re talking to, not one of your adoring worshippers.”

Mother Rose reached up and stroked his cheek. “I’m serious. I know that it’s real, and I know that it’s close. Why do you think I’ve been steering our campaign this way? Why do you think I established the shrine here? Sanctuary is close.”

“How do you know? Or is this another of your celestial visions?”

“Don’t make fun of me, Alexi,” said Mother Rose with just the tiniest bit of coquettishness in her voice. “And no, this is not a vision or anything like that. This is fact. I’ve known about Sanctuary for three years.”

“Okay, but—how?”

Mother Rose paused. “My daughter told me.”

“What?”

“Three years ago.”

“That’s impossible. Margaret took off four years ago and—”

“And she came back,” said Mother Rose firmly. “Just the once. She snuck into our camp when we were in Nebraska, the night before we torched Auburn. She said that after she left the Night Church she got really sick. Cholera. She almost died, but then she met some of the Children of God monks, and they took her to a place in Nevada where they cured her.”

“Cured her of cholera? What’d they do? Use a time machine and go back to when the pharmacies were still open? C’mon, Rosie, ever since the Fall, if you get something like cholera you die. End of story.”

Mother Rose smiled at him. “And yet when she came into my tent she was completely healed. Margaret thought that it was a miracle. She said that there were what she called ‘special monks’ who had machines and all sorts of chemicals.”

“‘Special monks’? You mean scientists? Doctors?”

Mother Rose nodded. “She thought that it would change my view of the world, that I’d no longer think there was no hope. She thought that if I knew such things were possible, then I would stop trying to kill everyone.”

“Jeez.”

“Funny thing is,” said Mother Rose, “she was right. Just . . . not in the way she hoped.”