“And those boys can’t do that for themselves?”
“They don’t seem inclined to try. Too much like work.”
“Principaté Doneto is thrilled with your progress.”
“I was sure that he would be.”
“Here comes Joe. What’s the word, Joe?”
Just Plain Joe rode up on an ambling Pig Iron. Pig Iron looked bored and put upon. Joe said, “Don’t go barking, boss. This old boy’s only got one speed.”
Else asked, “What happened to you?”
Joe’s left leg was in a splint. It stuck out from the side of the mule at a strange angle.
“Got hit with one a them fish arrows with the barbed heads. The ones they ties ropes on and use to get sharks. Went in and bounced off the bone. Smarted some. They was able to push it on through and got everything fixed up before it festered. Cap’n Ghort, sir, I don’t think you’re gonna get much cooperation from anybody. Not even the pirates. They ain’t giving up. They promise they’ll go away, though. If you let them.”
“I’d let them if it was my call. But I’m not allowed. The mercenaries and the Imperials won’t root them out?”
“Cap, even I ain’t dumb enough to get myself killed trying to fix something that’s just naturally gonna fix itself if I just sit around and wait.”
“And there you have it,” Ghort said. “And guess who’s fault it’ll be if the whole city stays shut down because these idiot fishermen won’t lay down and die? I didn’t watch my back close enough. Doneto let me set myself up to be the perfect scapegoat.”
“I doubt you’re perfect at anything.”
Just Plain Joe said, “Maybe instead of paying them mercenaries day rates you might oughta pay them piecework. Way it works now, sitting on their hands pays them just as much as fighting.” Ghort said, “The man may have a point. The money from the levy is going fast but there’s enough left for some serious bounties.” That would not matter, overall. Those Calzirans who had not yet escaped never would. The Collegium and the Patriarch agreed. Not one Calziran would be there to defend his home when war came to Calzir.
“Let you in on a secret, Pipe,” Ghort said, as they strode toward the Castella dollas Pontellas. “This is one I’m not supposed to know. But I happened to be accidentally eavesdropping when I heard.”
“Accidentally, Pinkus?”
“That would’ve been my plea if I’d gotten caught. I know how much you love those guys.”
“Uhm?”
“I overheard Doneto talking to his sister’s son, Palo. Palo is an aide to the Patriarch.”
“The suspense is killing me, Pinkus.”
“I doubt it. But here it is, just in case, on account of your ass is too big to haul around if you drop dead on me. That regiment of Imperial cavalry showing up right on time. Wasn’t no coincidence.”
“No! You don’t say.”
“I mean, they weren’t headed for Alameddine, after all. They were headed for Brothe from the start. Sublime cut some kind of deal with Hansel. Which explains why I saw Ferris Renfrow sneaking around a while back.”
“Our friend the interrogator from Plemenza?”
“The very one. Bo spotted him. On the Embankment, not far from Krois. Bo lost him there. When I heard about Sublime making a deal I knew why. He headed into the Patriarch’s hideout.”
“I believe you. But I don’t understand. Why would the Patriarch and the Emperor get together?”
“Sublime? Because he’d get soldiers. Two ways. Imperial allies on the front end and his own men freed from paving to guard against Imperial incursions on the back side.”
“What’s in it for Hansel?”
“Good question, Pipe.”
“What can Sublime give him that he can’t get anywhere else?”
“More good questions. And we’ll see them all answered. If we’re clever enough to stay alive long enough.”
“Hey, Pipe! Cap’n Ghort!” Just Plain Joe called. He and Pig Iron were dawdling along ahead of Else and Ghort. Ghort asked, “What you got, Joe?”
“Crossing the Blendine Bridge.”
“Oh. Hey! It’s that embassy from the Connec. They want to cut a deal with Sublime, too. I wouldn’t want to be Immaculate today. All my pals are fixing to dump me on the shit pile of history.”
Two of Sublime’s biggest distractions were about to become something else entirely. Meaning the Patriarch might get to preach his crusade to the Holy Lands after all.
Else needed to visit Gledius Stewpo.
Better yet, he needed to visit Anna Mozilla. There was genuine comfort to be found with the widow.
25. Brothe, with the Connecten Embassy
The Mother City awed Brother Candle despite his inclination to remain unimpressed by things of the world. But time lay so much more thickly and obviously on Brothe than elsewhere.
Khaurene and Castreresone were ancient, too, though they had worn different names when Brothen conquerors arrived in the Connec.
Any stroll down a Brothen street provided reminders of the glory that was. Conquerors still remembered had walked these cobblestones. Triumphant armies had paraded along these boulevards. Today the streets carried folk who did not understand that the glory days were gone. Though Brother Candle suspected that for most ancient Brothens the glory had been of little moment. Then and now, what interested the poor would be food and shelter.
They would not be remembered. That honor was reserved for the man who whipped them to the work of empire, who extorted the taxes that financed monuments and legions. Yet, always, the Brothen rabble lived better than the poor of lesser cities. That was a simple, cruel truth, whether or not it suited Brother Candle’s ideology.
“What troubles you now, Brother?”
“I was considering the plight of the poor.” He looked round to see where the group had gotten while he was preoccupied.
They had reached that scenic overlook used to view the Teragi, its bridges, island fortresses, all the neighboring structures, and the monuments of the Memorium, sprawled in dirty golden splendor.
“Amazing,” Brother Candle said.
Michael Carhart remarked, “I’ve been here before. Twice. I’m still impressed.” Local spectators stared. Brothens were used to segregation of faiths. Michael Carhart said, “We’re here at the perfect time of day, in perfect weather. The lighting...”
A far rumble interrupted. A cloud of dust rose against the afternoon sunlight, golden brown. Someone said, “A building just collapsed.”
Gently sarcastic, someone remarked, “That would be in one of the areas they told us to avoid because of the fighting.” The struggle with the pirates was winding down. Brother Candle had seen some captives earlier. They had not been sound enough to understand what was happening. They were hungry and afraid and relieved that it was all over. Brother Candle wondered how they would fare at the hands of the Brotherhood of War.
The Brotherhood was extremely interested in acquiring information about those who had instigated the Calziran adventure. Which was not yet ended. Raids continued along the eastern coast.
The Connecten clerics settled down to watch the afternoon light play amongst the edifices and monuments. Squinting, Brother Candle could just make out soldiers guarding the wrecked ships across the river, valuable as salvage.
Michael Carhart sighed. “I wonder how it’s going’?” While they roamed idly and gawked at wonders of old renown, Duke Tormond and Queen Isabeth were in audience with the Patriarch. Everyone expected that to go badly. Tormond was too wishy-washy. Isabeth was an unknown. She was just fourteen when she went off to Navaya to be Peter’s queen.
Brother Candle said, “Let me become a prophet in my own time. The Queen of Navaya will be more naive than the Duke of Khaurene. Who will become confused and deliver his patrimony to Sublime because that’s easier than standing fast and doing the right thing.”
“Look there,” one of his companions said. “More Patriarchal troops.”
Thirty soldiers were
crossing the bridge nearest Krois. Sublime was pulling his garrisons in. Prematurely, if he was preparing for a Calziran expedition. It was a huge risk, counting on Johannes Blackboots not to leap at the nakedness of the Patriarchal States.
They knew immediately when Tormond and Isabeth ended their audience. The Duke’s party were in plain sight crossing over from Krois to the south bank of the Teragi.
The Duke and his sister and those closest to them were guests of the Cologni family, in a Cologni satellite citadel, the Palazo Bracco. The Palazo Bracco was the seat of Flouroceno Cologni, the Cologni family Principaté. The Principaté, however, had moved to a suite in the Chiaro Palace when the pirates arrived. Most of the Principatés had treated themselves to luxurious security when the enemies of God appeared.
Flouroceno Cologni enjoyed showing off. He was doing so by housing the Connecten embassy. Overall, though, he was a nonentity who, if remembered at all, would lay a claim on history only because he did host Duke Tormond during his unhappy visit to the Mother City.
Members of the embassy began to gather in the central court of the Palazo Bracco. The Duke waited until no one else could crowd in. To his credit, he did feed everyone. On Sublime. “Eat up! We’re Sublime’s friends, now.”
Brother Candle took advantage of the feast, served in every-man-for-himself fashion from tables along the courtyard wall. The horror show lasted for hours. During which Bishop LeCroes cornered Brother Candle. LeCroes, having internalized an admirable quantity of Firaldian wine, had developed a grand despair because he expected the Duke to abandon Immaculate.
“We don’t know that,” Brother Candle protested. “Tormond is a man of principle. One principle the Dukes of Khaurene never forget is that Worthy VI was legitimately elected Patriarch of the Episcopal Church.”
“Of course, he hasn’t forgotten. But he won’t let what’s right get in the way of doing what’s expedient.” The Duke signaled a henchman. The man bellowed for silence. Tormond had imbibed a quantity of wine himself. Eventually, carefully, he announced, “The goal toward which we’ve worked saw fruition today. There will be peace between the Church and the Connec.”
No cheers were heard. Anonymous declarations of disbelief were.
“Isabeth and I spent four hours in converse with the Patriarch.” Tormond paused. “I mean, with the pretender to the mantle of the Patriarchs of the Church founded by Saints Eis, Domino, and Arctue. We discussed the Connec’s obligation to the Church and the Church’s duty to the Connecten people. And the news, my friends, is good.”
The Duke wanted to say more but the wine caught up and rendered him inarticulate.
Despite Tormond’s incapacity, the facts of the conference took shape and substance. That shape was unappealing. That substance produced an unpleasant odor.
There were witnesses, the nameless, colorless clerks who are always there to write things down.
***
SIXTY MEN AND A WOMAN LISTENED AS A SLOBBERING, ALMOST incoherent Tormond defended the agreement he had made with Sublime, once he spent time having nothing to drink.
The Connec would recognize the Brothen Patriarch. Priests and bishops who refused would be handed over to the new Bishop of Antieux. The bishop would be elevated to the Collegium within five years, guaranteed. His successor, the next Connecten
Principaté, would be chosen by the ruling Duke at the time.
Bishop LeCroes flew into a rage. “You’ve betrayed your own faith, now? For a promise of peace from that feckless Benedocto jackal? You gain nothing, My Lord! Nothing! He can do nothing if you defy him. He’s impotent. He’ll turn on you as soon as he can. No Connecten Principaté will ever sit in the Collegium.”
Tormond let the Bishop rage until his venom was spent “Second. We must eradicate all heretical cults and beliefs.”
The most anticipated of Patriarchal demands, that sparked the most ferocious response. Even pro-Brothen Episcopals were outraged by what seemed an arrogant and inexcusable meddling in matters of no concern to anyone but Connectens.
Brother Candle stood glumly silent, betrayed by a friend.
Tormond’s speech became less slurred. That did not make his words any more welcome. “The Connec must provide twenty-eight-hundred armed men to help punish Calzir for the afflictions it visited on the Episcopal world.”
Someone shouted, “You mean on the Benedocto family, don’t you?”
Bishop LeCroes said, “In other words, Nephew, you gave the false Patriarch everything we resisted when he invaded our homeland. Then you threw in the lives of our young men as a bonus, so Sublime can work his wickedness on someone else. A true diplomatic triumph, Nephew. There will be jubilation from one end of the Connec to the other. There will be dancing in the streets when the news reaches Khaurene.”
The Duke was not so far gone in his cups that he failed to understand. Those dancers might be carrying torches and pitchforks and a notion to shape history by their own hands, by making it necessary to find a new Duke.
Tears flooded Tormond’s eyes. Till that moment he had been sure that he had scored a diplomatic coup. Why such bitter anger from his friends and advisers?
“Let me offer a suggestion, Nephew,” Bishop LeCroes snarled. “Stay in Brothe until the soldiers you gave away come home. Otherwise, our people might end up doing you personal harm in their wild enthusiasm for the peace that you’ve won.”
Even the drunken Duke heard the soft speculations. How would Raymone Garete react when he heard? Any way he wanted. He would have the support of most Connectens.
Duke Tormond was befuddled. Brother Candle wondered how he could remain so consistently and stubbornly disconnected. Had they done something to his mind inside Krois?
Duke Tormond stumbled away from what he had expected to become a huge celebration. His disappointment, his confusion, were obvious.
His sister put aside her natural shyness, stepped forward to clarify the range of agreements reached. Those were of broad scope and implication and included Navaya, the rest of Direcia, Calzir, and the Empire in addition to the Connec, Firaldia, the Patriachal States, and the Church. Sublime had imposed no hard deadlines except in the matter of the armed men, who were supposed to be available in time for an autumn campaign against Calzir.
Isabeth said her husband would guarantee the independence of the Connec. He would send ships and siege specialists to help with the war.
Brother Candle did not fail to note that a punitive expedition had metamorphosed into a war. A war that would become a crusade, probably. Supported by a king who had no part in putting the thing together.
Isabeth was a sharper negotiator than her brother. In return for King Peter’s help in reducing Calzir, Sublime would convey the island of Shippen to Navaya. Along with the smaller islands nearby. Shippen was large enough to have been an independent kingdom at times. It was more vast than Peter’s current Direcian territories, though much poorer.
Isabeth also reported Sublime’s arrangements with the Grail Empire.
Mainland Calzir, with its coastal islands, would be conveyed to the Empire and Alameddine. Various towns and castles would go to individuals who helped in the reconquest but they would be subject to the Emperor and the King of Alameddine.
Sublime was generous with territories not yet reclaimed.
Peter would do well in a successful war. And Sublime’s Firaldian foes would be weakened. While Johannes became stronger.
Brother Candle began to suspect that there was a deeper plan behind Tormond’s apparent fecklessness.
If Shippen passed into Navayan control, Platadura would gain immense influence eastward on the Mother Sea, at the expense of Sonsa, Dateon, and Aparion. Of Sonsa in particular. Most of Sonsa’s trade passed through the narrow, treacherous Strait of Rhype, which separated Shippen from mainland Calzir.
Brother Candle worked his way close to Isabeth. “I smell a mystery. Where does Johannes figure? What’s changed? How I can the Grail Emperor suddenly be friends with the Patriarch? The
y’re natural enemies, like cats and dogs.”
No one else was much interested, now. Isabeth whispered, “This won’t remain secret long. So I suppose I can tell you. Johannes only has one son. Lothar is twelve, sickly, and won’t outlive his father. Johannes wants the Grail succession kept in the Ege family. Sublime, as Patriarch, has pledged that the Church will guarantee the Imperial succession through all of Johannes’s children.”
Interesting. “Even through the daughters?”
“Absolutely. Katrin, then Helspeth, before anyone else can be considered. The price? Johannes has to help conquer Calzir. You’ve already heard of the division of spoils.”
There would be more to it man that, Brother Candle believed. Sublime would not give his dearest enemy anything that cheaply. Nor would Hansel be subverted that easily.
Later, Michael Carhart wanted to know, “Will any of that really happen? Tormond can tell Sublime anything. What happens if he does try to suppress the Maysaleans, the Devedians, the Dainshaukin, the Pramans of the Terliagan Littoral, or the free-thinking Episcopals of the Connec?”
Seldom spoken Tember Sihrt observed, “He’ll find himself in a cold and lonely place.”
“Literally,” Bishop LeCroes said. “A lot of people will turn their backs if he tries. He needs a lot of cooperation to hold things together.”
Michael Carhart observed, “None of you, and no one else since Honario Benedocto’s election, has pointed out how few of the world’s problems would be problems if Honario Benedocto wasn’t Patriarch.”
Brother Candle asked, “Are you saying that somebody should do something about that?”
“Oh, no. No! I was stating a fact. Sublime’s election has caused a horrible amount of misery and death. And he’s just gotten started.”
“The man has a point,” Brother Purify observed. “Now we’re going to blacken our souls further by not keeping the Connec out of this war with Calzir. I know some Pramans. Plenty still live around Terliaga and along the coast there. They’re mostly good people. Like most Connectens. Like these Calzirans Sublime wants to butcher.”