“But they are Deryni, they were excommunicated, and they have not been absolved,” Arilan pointed out. “You must admit that the first seems to have a bearing on the second and third.

“And yet, should it? Is it right to deal a different kind of justice to a man just because he happens to be born of the wrong set of parents, because of something over which he has no control, which he cannot change?”

Cardiel shook his head stubbornly. “Certainly not. That would be as ridiculous as your saying you’re a better man than I because your eyes are blue and mine are gray—things which neither of us can change.” He stabbed the air with an emphatic forefinger. “Now, you may be better than I because of what you see with your eyes, or what you do with what you see. But the color of the eyes, or the fact that your mother had one blue eye and one green eye, hasn’t a blessed thing to do with it!”

“My mother’s eyes were gray,” Arilan said with a smile.

“You know what I’m talking about.”

“Yes, I do. But blue eyes versus gray eyes is one thing; good versus evil is quite another. What it comes down to is whether the good or evil of a man has anything to do with the fact that he happens to be born Deryni.”

“You don’t think my analogy holds true?”

“I didn’t say that. Thomas, I told you before that I was not convinced that all Deryni are evil. But how do you convey that simple truth—if, indeed, it is truth—to the common man, who has been taught to hate Deryni for the past three centuries? More specifically, how do you convince him that Alaric Morgan and Duncan McLain are not evil, when the voice of the Church has said otherwise? Are you totally convinced?”

“Perhaps not,” Cardiel murmured, not meeting Arilan’s eyes. “But sometimes, perhaps we must believe in the uncertain. Perhaps we must take some things on faith, even in the real world, away from the metaphysics of religion and doctrine and subjects that we usually associate with what priests teach.”

“Simple faith,” said Arilan. “I wish it were that simple.”

“It has to be that simple. I know that I have to believe it, at least for now; that I want to believe it, desperately. Because if I’m wrong about the Deryni—if they really are as we have believed for all these centuries of hatred—then all of us are lost. If the Deryni as a race are evil, then Morgan and McLain will betray us, as will our king. And that will leave the way open for Wencit of Torenth, who is also Deryni, to ride over us like the revenging wind.”

Arilan stood with his eyes downcast for a long time, his manner solemn as he toyed with the cross on his breast. Then, with a resigned sigh, he beckoned to Cardiel and walked with him, hand on shoulder, toward the left side of the chapel, where a mosaic pattern in the floor awaited.