‘As strong as his rule looked, and as deeply entrenched as he was in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, it would’ve made sense.’ Lourds constructed a timeline on a page of his personal journal. ‘So the Joy Scroll remained on the Island of Patmos for almost four hundred years after it was authored.’

Joachim nodded.

Helena had been a powerful figure in Emperor Constantine I’s courts. Historians attributed the discovery of the relics of the True Cross to her and her efforts to find them. The Chapel of Saint Helen, constructed to identify the Burning Bush of Sinai, had been erected on her orders. During a dig under the temple to Venus built near Calvary over the site of Jesus Christ’s tomb, her people had found three crosses. One of them was supposed to be the cross Jesus was crucified on, while the others held the thieves. According to the stories, Helena had taken a diseased woman from Jerusalem to touch the crosses. Upon touching the third cross, the woman had recovered from her ailment. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre had been built on the site, and more churches on holy sites followed thereafter. Legend had it that Helena had discovered the nails from the cross as well. Back home, she had got a blacksmith to put one in Constantine’s helmet, and another in his horse’s bridle.

‘How did Helena persuade the Brotherhood to give up the scroll?’ Lourds asked.

‘Her presence there told them the scroll was no longer safe. In those days, the Brotherhood was trained only in the ways of peace. If they had tried to defend the scroll, they would have died.’

Lourds glanced at Joachim’s calloused hands. ‘Now the Brotherhood is different?’

Sadness flickered across the other man’s face. ‘Over the years, the Brotherhood has become forced to become more than it was ever intended to be. We hang onto our peaceful nature, but we’re unafraid of violence.’

‘So you’re killers?’ Cleena asked. ‘That doesn’t make you sound much better than Qayin and his people.’

‘No!’ Joachim slapped the tabletop with his open palm hard enough to jar their drinks. ‘We do not kill. The Brotherhood has never taken a human life.’

Lourds noticed the modifier but decided not to ask.

‘If you don’t kill,’ Cleena pointed out, ‘it’s going to be hard to put up a fight.’

Joachim looked at her. ‘An incapacitated foe can’t fight any better than a dead one. We have trained ourselves to incapacitate those who threaten the scroll. We don’t have to kill to achieve our goals.’

‘Altruism aside,’ Cleena said, ‘not killing the people who are after us is going to put you at a decided disadvantage.’

‘Don’t you mean “put us”?’ Olympia asked.

‘No, I don’t.’ Cleena’s voice was perfectly neutral, but the threat was naked in her words.

Lourds sought safer conversational ground. ‘Helena convinced the Brotherhood to move the scroll?’

‘It looked like a win-win situation for the Brotherhood and Constantine,’ Olympia stated. ‘At the time of the scroll’s arrival, along with the Brotherhood, Constantine was building the Megale Ekklesia.’

‘What’s that?’ Cleena asked.

‘The literal translation is Great Church,’ Lourds answered. ‘Constantine started building it during the fourth century. He didn’t live long enough to see it completed.’

‘But he did live long enough to hide the scroll,’ Joachim said.

‘In the church?’ Distress filled Lourds. ‘The original church was destroyed a little over forty years later.’

‘Forty-four years. The church was built in 360 AD and destroyed in 404 AD.’

Lourds waved a hand in acknowledgement. If he had known where he was supposed to be looking, he would have known the dates too. Scholars didn’t have to know everything. All they had to know was where to find everything.

‘John Chrysostom was appointed archbishop of the Church of the Holy Wisdom, as the Great Church was named in those days by Constantine-’

‘In 398 AD,’ Joachim interrupted.

Lourds sipped his beer. ‘I suppose there’s a lot of rote work in the Brotherhood.’

Joachim smiled.

‘While holding his office,’ Lourds went on, ‘John Chrysostom ran foul of Theophilus, who was Patriarch of Alexandria at the time, and Emperor Arcadius’s wife-’

‘Aelia Eudoxia,’ Joachim supplied.

‘Thank you. With the patriarch, John Chrysostom refused to bow down, and with the empress, John Chrysostom took to task women who chose to flaunt their wealth in clothing. The patriarch and the empress arranged the Synod of the Oak in 403 AD and banished John Chrysostom. The people became enraged and demanded that he be returned to his position.’

‘There was more to it than that,’ Joachim said. ‘On the very night that John Chrysostom was arrested, an earthquake occurred. Many people, including the empress, believed it was a sign from God.’

Lourds thought he remembered something like that, but wasn’t certain. ‘During that confrontation, the first Church of the Holy Wisdom was destroyed.’ He studied Joachim. ‘How are you sure that the Joy Scroll wasn’t incinerated in the fire that claimed the church?’

‘Because the Joy Scroll was hidden in the maze of tunnels beneath the church.’

‘Beneath the church?’ Lourds rubbed at the stubble that covered his jaw. ‘Not in the church?’

‘Exactly.’

‘Then why haven’t you found the Joy Scroll before now? Your Brotherhood has had sixteen hundred years to accomplish that.’

‘Because for many years we weren’t supposed to find it. Emperor Constantine and a few members of the Brotherhood knew the hiding place where the scroll was kept. Despite being in a land where everyone felt the scroll was protected, the emperor and the elder brothers knew that many enemies remained outside the city walls. The choice was made to keep the number of people who knew where the scroll was to a handful. Each generation in turn handed down the knowledge of the scroll to only a few people. That number was cut further after the Nika Riots.’

‘The war between the Blue and the Green,’ Lourds said.

‘Yes.’

‘What is the War between the Blue and the Green?’ Cleena asked.

‘During this time, the early 530s, I believe,’ Lourds said.

‘532,’ Joachim supplied, then smiled. ‘It is as you say. A lot of rote work.’

‘There were a lot of social associations called demes. They supported the different teams that competed in chariot racing and other contests.’

‘You mean like bookies?’ Cleena asked.

‘Nothing so small,’ Olympia said. ‘Think of the demes like long lines of political parties and street gangs. It wasn’t just about the sporting events. They actively pursued social issues of the times and fought against those they didn’t like. Battles often broke out in the streets between the different groups and the emperor’s soldiers.’

‘To make matters worse,’ Lourds said, ‘many of those demes were patronized by Roman aristocrats. Several of them believed they deserved the throne more than Emperor Justinian, who currently held the throne. There was a riot in 531 that resulted in murder. Members of the Blues and Greens were arrested and held accountable. Most of them were hanged. However, early in 532…’ He looked at Joachim.

‘On the tenth of January, to be exact,’ Joachim said.

‘One of the Blues and one of the Greens managed to thwart their guards and flee into the crowd that had already formed to protest against the hangings. Already stretched thin between internal strife and negotiations with Persia, Justinian elected to rescind the death sentences and give the men life sentences.’

‘I assume they didn’t take it,’ Cleena said.

‘No,’ Lourds agreed. ‘The chariot races took place at the Hippodrome next to the palace and the Church of the Holy Wisdom. During the course of the day, violence broke out and swelled into a riot that lasted five days and left the second church burned to the ground.’

‘And still the Joy Scroll remained hidden,’ Joachim said.