The Day After Judgement by James Blish Read Free Book Online Page A

sinner would be proud.
    5
    Monte Albano, Father Domenico found with astonishment and a further rekindling of his hope, had been spared completely. It
     reared its eleventh-century walls, rebuilt after the earthquake then by the abbot Giorgio who later became Pope John the Twentieth,
     as high above the valley as it always had, and as always, too, accessible only by muleback, and Father Domenico lost more
     time in locating a mule with an owner to take him up there than the whole trip from Positano had cost him. Eventually, however,
     the thing was done, and he was within the cool walls of the library with the white monks, hiscolleagues under the hot Frosinian sky.
    Those assembled made up nearly the same company that had met during the winter to consider, fruitlessly, how Theron Ware and
     his lay client might be forestalled: Father Amparo, Father Umberto (the director), and the remaining brothers of the order,
     plus Father Uccello, Father Boucher, Father Vance, Father Anson, Father Selahny and Father Atheling. The visitors had apparently
     continued to stay in the monastery, if not in session, after the winter meeting, although in the interim Father Rosenblum
     had died; his place had been taken though hardly filled, by Father Domenico’s former apprentice, Joannes, who though hardly
     seventeen looked now as though he had grown up very suddenly. Well, that was all right; they surely needed all the help that
     they would get, and Father Domenico knew without false modesty that Joannes had been well trained.
    After Father Domenico had been admitted, announced and conducted through the solemn and blessed joys of greeting and welcome,
     it became apparent that the discussion – as was only to have been expected – had already been going on for many hours. Nor
     was he much surprised to find that it was simply another version of the discussion that had been going on in Positano: namely,
     how had Monte Albano been spared in the world-wide catastrophe, and what did it mean? But in this version of the discussion.
     Father Domenico could join with a much better heart.
    And in fact he was also able to give it what amounted to an entirely new turn; for their Sensitive, the hermit-Father Uccello,
     had inevitably found his talents much coarsened and blunted by the proximity of so many other minds, and in consequence the
     white monks had only a general idea of what had gone on in Ware’s palazzo since the last convocation – an impression supplemented
     by the world news, what of it there was, and by deduction, some of which was in fact wrong. Father Domenico recapitulated
     the story of the last conjuration briefly; but his fellows’ appreciation of the gravity of the situation was already such
     that the recitation was accompanied by no more than the expectable number of horrified murmurs.
    ‘All in all,’ he concluded, ‘forty-eight demons were let out of the Pit as a result of this ceremony commanded to return at
     dawn. When it became apparent that the operation was completely out of hand, I invoked the Covenant and insisted that Ware
     recall them ahead of time, to which he agreed; but when he attempted to summon up L UCIFUGE R OFOCALE to direct this abrogation, P UT S ATANACHIA himself answered instead. When I attempted to exorcise this abominable creature, my crucifix burst in my hands, and it was
     after that that the monster told us that God was already dead and that the ultimate victory had instead gone to the forces
     of Hell. The Goat promised to return for us all – all, that is; except Baines’s other assistant, Doctor Hess, whom Baphomet
     had already swallowed when Hess panicked and stepped out of his circle – at dawn, but he failed to do so, and I subsequently
     left and came to Monte Albano as soon as it was physically possible for me to do so.’
    ‘Do you recall the names and offices of all forty-eight?’ said Father Atheling, his tenor voice more sinusy than ever with
     apprehension.
    ‘I think I