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Chapters (43)
  1. Cover
  2. Epigraph
  3. CAST OF CHARACTERS
  4. Map
  5. Part One
  6. I
  7. II
  8. III
  9. IV
  10. V
  11. VI
  12. VII
  13. Part Two
  14. I
  15. II
  16. III
  17. IV
  18. V
  19. VI
  20. VII
  21. VIII
  22. IX
  23. X
  24. Part Three
  25. I
  26. II
  27. III
  28. IV
  29. V
  30. Part Four
  31. I
  32. II
  33. III
  34. IV
  35. V
  36. VI
  37. EPILOGUE
  38. afterword
  39. Dedication
  40. acknowledgments
  41. By Katherine J. Chen
  42. about the author
  43. What’s next onyour reading list?

She stood then, rising out of her chair to face him. “But what do you want from me? I am no prophet. I do not bleed from my hands and feet. I have never been visited by angels.”

He took a step closer to her. The top of his head reached only to her chin, but he did not flinch. “There is a time to be humble, Joan, and this is not one of them. I have questioned the men who accompanied you here—the knight and squire, the royal messenger. I have heard the Duke of Lorraine sing his praises of you, and read a letter from the captain of the garrison in Vaucouleurs, Sir Robert de Baudricourt, a steady and trustworthy man, who asked that we should grant you an audience with His Majesty. Would you call these men liars for what they have reported about you? Would you say they are deceivers?”

In an almost tender voice, he added, “We are all afraid to fail, yet we must still try. There has never been more at stake. More to lose.

“For we are down to our last few pieces, some scattered pawns, some handful of knights, and the Dauphin—so terrified is he of being remembered as the king who surrendered the crown of France to her ancient enemy that now he does not move at all, not even the pieces he still has on the board. Three times a day, he goes to Mass; he makes devotions to his protector, Saint Michael, and spends most of his time praying, so a number of us thought, perhaps God can give him courage; perhaps God alone can imbue him with the strength he needs to fight and win this war. And how does God speak to us, save through those He favors, His appointed messengers? Thus the holy maid, the monk, the boy with bloody hands and feet.” Le Maçon bowed his head. “And now: you.”

VII

They are in a small private room, brightly lit and warm. A strong fire burns. Beeswax candles flicker, illuminating, on the writing desk, a pair of dancing angels worked in gleaming silver. On the opposite wall: a tapestry of the Tree of Knowledge. Before Joan casts down her head and kneels, she glimpses Adam and Eve, huddling for shelter from the first storm cloud to visit Paradise. The tapestry hangs beside a door, and it is this door that leads into the chamber where the Dauphin sleeps each night with an obliging servant at the foot of his bed and a pair of armed guards outside.