Kushiel's Avatar - Jacqueline Carey [259]
The how, it transpired, was complicated.
We sat for long hours that night in the widow's kitchen, poring over maps of the night sky; for that, it transpired, was the only means by which we might find the island of Kapporeth, the fabled land-mass in the Lake of Tears on which the Ark of Broken Tablets was hidden.
"You see, here," said Morit, who was entrusted with our teaching, as she pointed to a scroll. "Nemuel departed from the shores of what would be Tisaar." She was a young woman and grave with her calling, coming from a family that had practiced the art of Mazzalah for time out of mind, mapping the night skies and charting time by it. "And here he writes, 'The red planet of war hung low upon the horizon in the tenth degree of the Lion of Judah, and it is toward that I made my way, with the Throne of Shalomon hanging behind my left shoulder like an omen. For five hours we rowed, and came ere daybreak to this isle I have named Kapporeth, that is the mercy seat of the Luvakh Shabab, may Adonai have mercy upon us all. And here I shall dwell until the end of my days.' " Morit raised her gaze. "He refers to the Broken Tablets, you understand, and where the temple was built to house them. The location of Kapporeth is known only to Aaron's line and the Sanhedrin of Elders, but a copy of this document was given unto the keeping of my many-times-removed great-grandmother, for the records of the Mazzalah"
"Then we have but to follow the red star," Joscelin said, adding wryly, "and row for five hours, I take it."
"No." Morit smiled with kind condescension. "Only the distance remains constant. Nemuel travelled at the end of the rainy season, my lord D'Angeline, and the stars have changed their position from where they were on that night many hundreds of years ago. For two days, I have studied the records. This— " she pointed, " —is a chart of the night sky which Nemuel followed. And this— " she pointed again, " —is the sky as we behold it tonight.”
I gazed at the circles inked on parchment, the stars and constellations drawn in with a fine hand. "They're completely different."
"Yes," she said simply. "They are."
For the remainder of the night, into the small hours of morning, Morit taught us to read the charted stars, working out a course that paralleled that by which Nemuel had steered his craft.
Semira was right. It would not be easy.
"The Eagle of Dân is ascendant," Morit observed. "See here, this bright star marks its passage. Do you depart when it is in the tenth degree, and make for the smallest spoke of the Wheel, you will be nearly on course. Keep you the constellation of Moishe's Rod behind your left shoulder, which stands in place of Shalomon's Chair. Do you see, here?" She traced a shape on the parchment. "Moishe holds here the rod which became a serpent when he cast it down, and he seized it by its tail."
"Ye-es," I said, dubious.
"You will see," Morit said, and smiled. "I will show you."
And that she did, for we went into Yevuneh's courtyard and she pointed out to us the myriad stars, naming the constellations and tracing with her forefinger those vast, mighty shapes betwixt the expanse of blackness, the forms of which were echoed in miniature upon her parchments. Over and over she drilled us, a relentless taskmistress, until all of us could name and recite them by rote.
"Now you see," she said, and took us to the second story of Yevuneh's house, where we leaned out the window and gazed at the horizon and Morit showed me how to mark the distance from the horizon to its apex degree by degree.
"So when the Eagle of Dân stands here," I said, squinting down the angle of my raised arm, "we must depart."
"Yes," her voice said from behind me. "I would give you an astrolabe, if I dared. But it was decided. Wisdom only; naught more. Let Adonai and Wisdom decide. If it is meant to be, you will find Kapporeth. And Adonai help you, once you do."
"It is enough." I lowered my arm, having fixed the angle in my memory. Such things are not strange, to one who has been a Servant of Naamah.