Exit Kingdom by Alden Bell

from his lungs and picking dry hay from his beard, he discovers that his brother Abraham is gone from the crib. He rushes from the stable and
through the courtyard where the faces of the acolytes question him without words. Ignoring their expressions, he continues the searchfor his brother near the picnic tables, by the kitchen house,
in the vegetable garden.
    He eventually discovers Abraham in the church itself. He holds in his hands a fragment of cloth that has painted on it in watercolours a house and a sunset and a smiling girl. The girl herself
stands next to him and beams up happily at his admiration.
    This is quite a picture now, he says to her,holding it out away from him in an exaggerated performance of appreciation. You got a deft touch with the brush. I’ll tell you something, this
is about as pretty a picture as I’ve seen in years. They should hang this up in a museum somewhere. You know what a museum is?
    The girl shakes her head no.
    It’s a place where they put all the greatest paintings in the world. And this one herecould hold its own against any of those.
    He hands it back to her with great delicacy.
    You best hold tight to that, he says. Keep it safe. It’s so pretty, someone’s gonna want to steal that away from you.
    The girl takes the watercolour back and scurries away.
    Behind Moses the monk Ignatius appears. He has been observing the interaction as well.
    Your brother doesn’t seem likethe man you make him out to be, Ignatius says quietly.
    You missed the point, friar, the lesson he was teachin that girl. It was to watch out because pretty things get plucked.
    Then Abraham notices the two standing in the wide doorway of the church.
    Mornin, he says. Moses can see him bristling under his brother’s suspicious gaze.
    Good morning, Ignatius says. I trust you both sleptwell. I hope you’ll reconsider your arrangements for tonight and take one of the bunkhouses. We have plenty of room.
    I think we may be movin along today, friar, says Moses. You been very kind, and we don’t want to take undue advantage of your hospitality.
    Leaving so soon? Ignatius says. All the more reason to show you what I need to show you and make you my proposition. You have weapons,I take it?
    So Ignatius instructs them to get a couple guns from their car and to meet him at the front gate of the compound.
    What do you suppose the holy man has in mind for us? Abraham asks Moses as they dig through the satchels of weapons in the trunk of the car. You think it’s a trap?
    It ain’t a trap, Moses says.
    Then what?
    Moses shrugs.
    We’ll know when we know. It ain’tthese people who are a danger to
us
.
    What’s that mean?
    But Moses doesn’t respond. He hands his brother a rifle and takes a pistol for himself and walks to the front gate of the mission, hearing Abraham slam the car trunk closed and follow
behind him.
    At the gate, they find the monk Ignatius waiting for them – and next to him the young woman in white robes that Moses noticed at dinnerthe night before. She has long red hair brushed
straight out over the back of the robes, and there’s a quality to her expression that Moses can’t make sense of – as though there were springs in the corners of her mouth that
naturally want to draw her face into a sneer were it not for the constant exhausting effort to keep it serene. He estimates her age to be just over two decades – thougha pair of decades rich
with hazard and life.
    Ignatius gestures for them all to follow him out the front gate – and once outside he glances around nervously, but there are no slugs to be seen. In the distance, there are desiccated,
sand-blown corpses like features of the desert – and some of them might rouse themselves to action if you were to come near them – but the place is too barrenfor much life, even the
life of the dead.
    As they walk around the perimeter of the mission, Ignatius introduces the woman.
    Abraham and Moses, I am honoured to introduce you to the