“I damn you, Cecilia Rosa!” shrieked Mother Rikissa, displaying strength that seemed to come out of nowhere. Her red eyes were now wide open, and Cecilia Rosa thought she could clearly see the slitted pupils of the goat.

“I curse you and your indecent liar of a friend Cecilia Blanca. May you both burn in Hell, and may you suffer the punishment of war for your sins, and may your kinsmen die with you in the fire that shall now come!”

With these words Mother Rikissa fell back as though she had lost all strength. Her black hair, which had begun to turn gray, had slipped out from under her wimple. Out of the corner of her mouth ran a narrow stream of blood which looked completely black.

Bishop Örjan then cautiously put his arm around Cecilia Rosa’s shoulders and led her out, closing the door after her. Then he returned to the abbess as if he found it necessary to try to have a few more words with the dying woman before it was too late for her to repent, too late to confess.

Mother Rikissa died that night. The next day she was buried beneath the flagstones in the arcade, and her seal as abbess was broken in two and placed beside her. Cecilia Rosa attended the funeral, although reluctantly. But she didn’t think she had much choice. On the one hand she found it unreasonable to pray for someone so evil and stand there feigning grief with all the others. She could not imagine anything more meaningless than rattling off prayers for the inveterate sinner who had lied during confession on her own deathbed.

On the other hand there was a concern that had to do with the secular life. She had no idea who this Bishop Örjan from Växjö was; she had never even heard that there was a bishop in Växjö. But there had to be a reason why this unknown and insignificant bishop had been called to Mother Rikissa’s deathbed. First, he had to be of the Sverker clan, perhaps closely related to Mother Rikissa. Second, he now had knowledge of Mother Rikissa’s last wishes, and that was surely of some importance. With the last words she uttered in her life, as Cecilia Rosa had heard, Mother Rikissa had threatened to plunge them all into fire and war. What she meant by those words probably only Bishop Örjan knew. So it would undoubtedly be wise to stay close to this Örjan as long as possible, in order to discover if possible at least part of the secret he now held.

The other reason for staying for the funeral was more practical. Cecilia Rosa and her increasingly impatient companions had traveled far so that she could conduct business. It would be best to conclude these matters now and not have to travel back home in the spring.

Bishop Örjan was a tall, thin man with a neck like a crane and a bobbing Adam’s apple. He stammered a bit when he talked. Cecilia Rosa thought she could tell immediately that he was not very bright, although she reproached herself for such a hasty judgment, since a person’s appearance did not necessarily match his inner qualities.

But her preconceived opinion turned out to be correct, for when she innocently suggested that she and some of her companions along with the bishop and some of his companions should drink a grave ale together in the hospitiumbefore they parted, he was quick to find this a very good suggestion.

As the only woman in the hospitium, she naturally led the bishop to the table, and of course he grew more talkative the more he drank. At first he complained that he, as a member of the Sverker clan, had been able to win only the new bishopric in Växjö. All the new promotions of importance in the church were now going to those who were either Folkungs or Eriks or related to them in some way.

With that Cecilia Rosa had learned her first important bit of information.

It wasn’t long before the bishop expressed concern as he enquired whether Cecilia Rosa—who, as far as he knew, had been close to Queen Cecilia Blanca during her time at Gudhem—knew exactly when Cecilia Blanca had taken her convent vows before Mother Rikissa.

With that Cecilia Rosa had acquired her second important piece of information, but now her blood turned to ice.

She tried not to let on, she tried to pour more ale down her throat and giggle a little when she replied, but then she told him the truth: that Cecilia Blanca had never taken any convent vows. On the contrary, the two of them had promised each other never to do so, and they had lived as close friends for many years at Gudhem.

Bishop Örjan then fell silent as he pondered this news for a moment. Then he said that naturally he couldn’t break the confidentiality of the confession, but he could say something about what Mother Rikissa had written in her last will, which he had promised before God to send to the Holy Father in Rome. In that document it said that Queen Cecilia Blanca had taken convent vows at Gudhem.

To hide the fear that now came over Cecilia Rosa, she served Bishop Örjan more ale to give herself time to think. He drank it down in one gulp.

She had now obtained her third important piece of information.

Shouldn’t such a testament be sent to the archbishop as quickly as possible? she then asked as innocently as she could.

No, it shouldn’t. For two reasons. First, the country’s other archbishop Jon had recently been murdered in Sigtuna when the wild folk from across the Eastern Sea had plundered the town, so at the moment there was no archbishop. And if Mother Rikissa’s testament was to go to Rome, then it would be an unnecessary detour for him to take it via Östra Aros. There he would have to wait for a new archbishop, who would surely also be a Folkung, Bishop Örjan muttered crossly. So he now thought he would honor his oath to the dying abbess Rikissa by traveling south and handing over the testament to his Danish kinsman, Bishop Absalon in Lund.

With that Cecilia Rosa had now acquired her fourth important piece of information. At once she poured more ale for the bishop and giggled happily when he put his hand on her thigh, although she was repulsed.

Cecilia Rosa now realized that she knew all she needed to know, because nothing else was of any importance. So she attempted to do what she had quickly realized was a hopeless endeavor: to talk sense into this fool of a bishop.

First she cautiously pointed out that she and Cecilia Blanca had spent more than six years together at Gudhem as the closest and dearest of friends. It was hard to imagine that one of them would have done something as momentous as to take vows without telling the other.

The bishop then made a concerted effort to act dignified and stern while he was drunk, replying that the vows a person took before God, like everything that was said in confession, were to be forever kept secret from the rest of the world.

Cecilia Rosa feigned concern as she objected that the venerable bishop might not know how things were done in a convent. But it so happened that if anyone took the vows, she instantly became a novice. She then had to undergo a year of probation and was immediately separated from all novices and lay-sisters. If Cecilia Blanca truly had taken the vows, then wouldn’t it have been noticed, if only by those within the convent?

To this the bishop slurred some vague reply that much was seen by God alone and that only He could look into the souls of human beings.

Since Cecilia Rosa could make no objection to that observation, she at once changed tactics. She herself had understood through Mother Rikissa’s own words that the abbess had refrained from confessing her mortal sins before she departed this life. Surely a person who lied in such a situation could hardly be expected to tell the truth, especially when it concerned an outlandish assertion that the queen had taken the vows and then given birth to four children in sin. For wasn’t that what this was all about?

Yes, that was indeed what this was about, admitted Bishop Örjan in the middle of a yawn, but then he quickly changed his mind. No, it was all about the sin itself, he hastened to explain. The sin was at the heart of the matter. One couldn’t take into account the fact that the sin in this particular case had certain consequences for the throne of the realm. Then he asked whether Cecilia Rosa might want to accompany him to Denmark. Of course there was some talk that bishops would no longer be able to marry before God, but there were simple solutions for getting around that problem. And he had plenty of silver, the bishop bragged ignorantly, so why not?