Exit Kingdom

another road, and the Vestal Amata points to the road.
    Look, she says. Tyre tracks. Cars have been through here. A lot of them it looks like.
    Mosesnods.
    It’s a good place to hole up, he says. The dead ain’t much of a threat – at least half of the year.
    They begin to see skeletons of old fighter jets parked on concrete platforms, landing strips and radio towers every which way.
    Where is this citadel we’re going to? asks the Vestal.
    It’s military. The friar said it was part of the Air Force Academy.
    The Vestal shakes herhead.
    Goddamn army men, she says. They’re the worst for surviving ugly.
    What’s that mean?
    It means I don’t trust em.
    Maybe it ain’t for you to trust them – but for them to trust you.
    God and the army – two things that ain’t ever worked so well for me.
    What about that pendant you wear on your neck?
    What about it? she says, placing a palm against her chest. It was a gift,that’s all. The symbol of it’s neither here nor there.
    They round a bend and come to a large gate in a fence that runs out of sight in either direction over the snowy foothills.
    Moses stops the car before the gate, and two soldiers emerge from a guardhouse. One stands at a watchful distance while the other comes to the window of the car.
    Are you hurt? asks the soldier.
    Not to speakof, says Moses.
    Are you seeking shelter?
    Huh-uh, Moses says and shakes his head. We got business. I was sent by a friar in Tucson. He said to bring her to the cathedral here. She’s a vestal canoness.
    A what?
    I don’t know what it means either. I was just told to bring her, so here she is. You’ll like her, she does tricks.
    The soldier leans down to look at the Vestal Amata, whoglares at him. Then he stands and goes to the guardhouse while the other soldier stands watch.
    I ain’t a pet to do tricks, she says in a low voice to Moses as they wait.
    Ain’t you?
    Look, Mose, she says and turns to him. I don’t like it here.
    Her voice has a quiver of nervousness to it, but he doesn’t know how far he should believe her.
    It ain’t exactly my vision of home either,he says.
    We don’t have to do this, you know. We could turn around right here.
    Moses tightens his hands on the steering wheel. He looks grimly forward through the grey clouds that have settled over the landscape.
    You got to finish things in life, he says finally. It’s important.
    The gate before them rolls open and the soldier returns to the car window.
    You can proceed inside,he says and points not with a finger but with his full open hand. Take your second right and then your first left after that. The chapel’s ahead. You’ll see
it. Pastor Whitfield will be waiting for you.
    Moses pulls the car slowly through the gates, and the Vestal Amata begins a quiet and breathless plea.
    Moses, Moses, she says. I ain’t dirty, Moses. Really, I’m not. I ain’t a holy womaneither. I ain’t clean nor dirty either one. Moses, I’m just me. I don’t
want to be anybody’s solution. I don’t want to be anybody at all. Moses. Moses, please. I know I’ve been a burden on you.
    She is frightened. He has not seen her as a frightened girl before, and he has seen her as many things.
    We’re just findin out is all, he says and looks straight ahead. You could be of help topeople. We’re just findin out why it is you’re different.
    I don’t want to know, she says in a voice that’s almost a whisper. I don’t want to know. I don’t. I really don’t.
    The snow has started to come down now, drab grey and inhospitable. It whips around in flurries and gusts. It fills in all niche and nuance of the world. It blocks out the sky.

Eight
    Seventeen Spires » Whitfield » Tests and Judgements » A Farewell » The Whole Horrible Gravity of Darkness » A Collision » A Surprise »
‘The Man Laughed’ » Keeper and Caliper »
Interlude
» Alone » Ambush
    The citadel is a thing to behold.
    They get out of the car and block their faces from the windblown snow. They can see figures, living men and women, walking to and fro unhurriedlyacross a courtyard. These are people who have
grown accustomed to safety. They have lived behind these barriers for who knows how long – and they no longer have the wilderness inside them. The courtyard is a wide square expanse around
which the low buildings of the compound are situated. It might be grass under the ice, or concrete, or something else entirely – but right now it is simplya plain of colourless drifting