Astralabe

Eleven year old AstralaBe's windswept days stretch by. Afternoons at the Abbey, trying to concentrate on his lessons; hours mesmerised by the lilac sky mirrored in the stingers washed up at his feet; on cool evenings, eating thin soup - crouched - absorbing the whisperings of the village.

AstralaBe: the child of luminaries Abelard and Heloise, as distant and blinding as the very stars he was named to chart. This boy is not from Pigun - instead he is a stark reminder of all the village has lost to Christ and glory in the Crusades. Their boys sent away by those same monks who see only in AstralaBe the lack of all his lineage seemed to promise.

But those around him have other concerns: lambs born mangled, healthy young women fail. Discontent in Pigun blooms, and as the tension between the villagers and monks increases, inquisitive AstralaBe begins to see what so many around him cannot.