Saint Fire (Secret Books of Venus Series) by Tanith Lee

stood firm, ready for the blow, and half indifferent to it. Eyes as clear as crystal—where had he seen this look before? It was rare enough among men …
    “You must, reply, Volpa.”
    “I don’t know. The black priests asked me about my dreams, and I told my dreams.”
    “I have read your account of the dreams, Volpa.
    Journeying with your mother, and the curious animals and plants, and the mountain that burned always with red fire.”
    “She showed me how to make the fire. It’s simple.” Volpa said, he could have sworn
patiently
, “Don’t others do it?”
    Danielus’ eyes and brows indicated, for a split second, inner laughter. “No. I’ve never known any makea fire in the way the woman Luchita says that you did. Nor do any walk in fire unburned, save the three friends of Danielo, that Nabucco flung into a fiery furnace. But an angel kept them from harm and led them to safety.”
    Something fluttered through the girl’s own eyes.
    This was not laughter, more like a passing light.
    “An angel then,” she said. “Oh, I see. It was that.”
    “What are you saying? Take care.”
    She did not. She gazed at him openly, frowning a little, and said, “I was in his bedroom, now I remember it. And he wanted to hurt me. He threw me down on the mattress and pressed his face to mine. I ran away across the room. Then I forget, but I had no clothes on me. And yet someone put my shift on to my body, and led me out, through the window, and then I forget again. But I see now, it was an angel who led me out from the fire. An angel who clothed me in my shift.”
    Beside Danielus, the clerk gasped and surged up.
    Danielus spoke quickly, like the edge of a knife. “
Sit down
.”
    Volpa said, “I understand it now.”
    “What, Volpa, do you understand?”
    “It was one of the angels I saw with my mother, when we were on the hill.”
    The clerk had sat, frozen, turning the color of whey.
    Danielus said, softly, “You say you’ve seen angels?”
    “When I was a child. Only once.”
    “Describe them.”
    The flood of reason, the solving of her puzzle, had loosened her tongue.
    “On a green sky against the first stars. They flew over. We thought they were birds—but they were men.
    Their arms were crossed on their chests. They had great wings. Flames burned on their heads.”
    Danielus heard the teeth of theclerk chattering.
    The room seemed very cold. Danielus said, “Volpa, do you know your Lord’s Prayer?”
    “No, signore.”
    “I will say it. You must say it after me.”
    She nodded. Her face was bright, almost happy, as it must have been in the easy, happy, beautiful place she had detailed from her dreams.
    “Father of all, who abides In Heaven—”
    She spoke the words carefully after him. All and every one. With no tremor she pronounced the names of God, then of the Virgin, and the Christ.
    When they were finished, he had her speak the prayer over alone. Unlettered, unable to read, and a chattel, she had been used to learning by rote. She was word perfect.
    “You perceive,” said Danielus to the trembling clerk, “she has no fear of God’s name. Write that down.” The clerk wrote. The sound of the pen irritated less.
    “Now Volpa,” said Danielus without inflexion, “won’t you call just a little flame, to start this candle for me.” She looked unsure. But then, her eyes strayed to the frightened clerk.
    Danielus saw the peculiar transformation which went over her. He gauged its secret as no other had had space—or mind—to do.
    Emotion was her impetus. Ghaio had meant to rape her—lust—and rage? Luchita had been urgent and weeping—sorrow, pain. Now the clerk’s religious terror.
    Volpa drew off her woman’s veil and cap. The hair spilled out—still damp from washing, a dark lion’s mane, glorious red as a sunset. And from it, stroking, coaxing, she pulled a tiny little sun, and put it down on the candle, just as Danielus had asked.

PART THREE

      M ATTHEW :  
Why doth