Evelyn Vance
Listen to The Infinite Arch by Evelyn Vance as a bilingual audiobook with synchronized read-along text in English and German.
High above the whispering valley, suspended in a web of pine scaffolding, Master Julian adjusted his brass sight and peered through the swirling dust of carved limestone. The evening wind rattled the linen banners fluttering from the flying buttresses, carrying with it the fragrant scent of pine resin and rain-soaked earth. At seventy-two, Julian’s lungs harbored the quiet sediment of half a century’s grit, a fine white powder that settled in every crease of his weathered skin. He smoothed his heavy cotton tunic, wiping his dust-caked thumbs along the hem, his joints aching with a familiar, rhythmic throbbing that matched the dull thud of wooden mallets below. Across the dizzying expanse of the incomplete nave, two figures worked with silent, synchronized precision upon the upper clerestory arches. Young Arthur, whose hands had once lacked the subtle delicacy required to coax grace from stubborn granite, was now maneuvering a plumb line with effortless dexterity. Beside him stood Clara, her linen apron stained with iron oxide, as she carefully measured the curvature of a springing arch using a carved wooden template.