Abbot Braumin walked through the great gates of Chasewind Manor humbly, his brown hood pulled low to protect him from the light rain, his arms crossed over his chest, hands buried in the folds of his sleeves. He didn't glance up at the imposing row of Allheart knights lining both sides of the walk, with their exquisite armor, so polished that it gleamed even on this gray day, and their huge poleaxes angled out before them.
He understood the meaning of it all, that Duke Targon Bree Kalas had offered to meet him on the Duke's terms and in the presence of his power. The battle between the two was just beginning, for the city hadn't really settled down after the fall of Markwart until after King Danube had departed. Then winter weather had minimized the duties of both Church and Crown. Now, the King was back in Ursal and most of the brethren from St.-Mere-Abelle had returned, or soon would, to that distant abbey. For the first time in more than a year-indeed, for the first time since the coming of the demon dactyl and its monstrous minions-the common folk of Palmaris were settling back into their normal routines.
He was let in immediately, but then he spent more than an hour in the antechamber of Kalas' office, waiting, waiting while it was reported to him several times that Kalas was attending to more pressing matters.
Abbot Braumin recited his prayers quietly, praying mostly for the patience he would need to get through these trying times. He wished again that Jilseponie had agreed to accompany him-Kalas would never have kept her waiting!-but she would hear none of it, claiming that her days of meetings and political intrigue had reached their end.
Finally, the attendant came out and called for the abbot to follow him. Braumin noted immediately upon entering Kalas' office that several other men stood about-bureaucrats, mostly-shuffling papers and talking in whispered, urgent tones as if their business were of the utmost importance. Duke Kalas, Baron of Palmaris, sat at his desk, hunched over a parchment, quill in hand.
"Abbot Braumin Herde of St. Precious," the attendant announced.
Kalas didn't even look up. "It has come to my attention that you have put out a call for craftsmen, masons, and carpenters," he remarked.
"I have," Braumin agreed.
"To what end?"
"To whatever end I desire, I suppose," the abbot replied-and that brought Kalas' eyes up, and halted every other conversation in the room.
Kalas stared hard at him for a long and uncomfortable moment. "Indeed," he said at length, "and might those desires entail the expansion of St. Precious Abbey, as I have been told? "
"Perhaps."
"Then save time," Kalas said sternly, "both for yourself and for the craftsmen. There will be no such expansion."
Now it was Braumin's turn to put on a steely expression. "The land about the abbey is Church owned."
"And no structures may be built within the city walls, Church or otherwise, without the express consent of its baron," Kalas reminded him. He looked to one of the bureaucrats at the side of the room, and the mousy man rushed over, presenting Abbot Braumin with a parchment, signed and sealed by Baron Rochefort Bildeborough and by Abbot Dobrinion Calislas, that seemed to back up Kalas' claims.
"This refers to structures built by 'common men,' " Braumin noted, pointing out the phrasing,
Kalas shrugged, not disagreeing.
"This text was written to prevent the influx of Behrenese," Braumin reasoned, "to prevent every open space within the city walls from becoming even more crowded. Common men, which includes neither the Church nor the nobility."
"That is one way to interpret it," Kalas replied. "But not the way I choose."
Abbot Braumin tossed the parchment to the desk. "You obscure meanings and pervert intentions, then," he said. "This parchment is irrelevant to any construction upon St. Precious Abbey, upon lands owned by the Abellican Church."
"No, my good Abbot," Kalas said, rising up ominously and matching the monk's unblinking stare with one of equal determination. "It is perfectly relevant. It is the written law, endorsed by your own beloved former abbot, which I can use to arrest any who work upon your abbey, the written law I can use to confiscate tools and materials."
"You risk angering the populace."
"As do you, good Abbot," Kalas snapped back. "You offer work to craftsmen who already have much work to do in the aftermath of the war. They do not need your work at this time, Abbot Braumin, but they do need their tools. Who will they come to hate? I wonder. The lawful baron, acting according to law, or the presumptuous new abbot of St. Precious?"
Braumin started to answer, but stuttered repeatedly, having no appropriate reply. He understood the bluff-Kalas would be starting a battle for the hearts of the Palmaris citizenry that could go either way. But was Braumin ready to join such a battle? He knew the fights he would soon face within his own Church; would he be able to withstand those inevitable challenges if the people of Palmaris turned against him?
A smile found its way onto Braumin's face, an admission that, for the time being at least, Kalas had outmaneuvered him. He chuckled and nodded, then turned and walked briskly from the room and out of the manson, this time leaving his hood back despite the rain. The Allheart knights remained in position along the walk to the gates, and the nearest soldier moved over and pulled them wide for the abbot's exit.
"Your workers did an excellent job in repairing them," he remarked loudly, noting the gates, "after Jilseponie so easily threw them aside, I mean, as she threw aside your brethren who tried to stand before her."
He heard the bristling behind him as he walked out and took some comfort, at least, in that minor victory.
He smelled it, so thick in the air that he could almost taste the sweet liquid on his feline tongue. The young girl had hurt her arm, scratching it CO a branch, and now she was coming his way, calling for her mother, holding the arm up, the line of red, sweet red, visible to the weretiger. : De'Unnero turned away and closed his eyes, telling himself that he could | oat do this thing, that he could not leap out and tear her throat. He had t IdUed only once throughout the harsh winter, an old lecherous drunk who | had not been missed by the folk of the town of Penthistle. I i Tie scent caught up to him, and the tiger's head shifted back toward the jSlpproaching girl.
1^ She would be missed, De'Unnero reminded himself, trying to make a 'logical argument to go along with his moral judgment. These people, who |bd taken him in during the early days of winter, after he had devoured the linwrie and run away from the fields west of Palmaris, had accepted him ; Wth open arms, glad to pass an Abellican brother from house to house. He i offered to work for his food, but never had the folk of Penthistle given Q any truly difficult jobs, and always had they given him all that he could , and more.
. Hus, De'Unnero had run off into the forest whenever the tiger urges id called to him, too great to be withstood. He had feasted many times in deer, even on squirrel and rabbit, but he had killed a person only that WR time. I'But now the winter had passed. Now it was spring and with the turn of the season, the folk were again active outside their homes. De'Unnero had come out in search of conventional prey, hopefully a deer, but he had found this child instead, far from her home. As soon as he had spotted her, he had managed to turn away, thinking to run far, far into the forest, but then she had cut her arm, then that too-sweet scent had drifted to his nostrils.
Hardly even aware of it, he gave a low growl. The girl tensed.
De'Unnero tried to turn away, but now he could smell her fear, mingling with that sweet, sweet blood. He started forward; the girl heard the rustle and broke into a run.
One leap and he would have her. One great spring would put him over her, would flatten her to the ground at his feet, would lay bare that beautiful little neck.
One leap . . .
The weretiger held his place, conscience battling instinct.
The girl screamed for her mother and continued to run.
De'Unnero turned away, padding into the darker thicket. The hunger was gone now, for the girl, even for a deer, and so the creature settled down and willed himself through the change, bones popping, torso and limbs crackling and twisting.
It hurt-how it hurt!-but the monk pressed on, forcing out the tiger, fighting the pain and the killing instinct resolutely until a profound blackness overtook him.
He awoke sometime later, shivering and naked on the damp ground, the cold night wind blowing chill against his flesh. He got his bearings quickly and found his brown robes, then donned them and headed for Penthistle.
As chance would have it, the first person he encountered within the small cluster of farmhouses was the same little girl he had seen out in the forest, her arm now wrapped in a bandage.
"Ah, but there ye are," said her mother, a handsome woman of about forty winters. "We were needin' ye, Brother Simple. Me girl here lost her fight with a tree!"
De'Unnero took the girl's hand and gently lifted her arm up for inspection. "You cleaned the wound well? " he asked.
The woman nodded.
The monk lowered the girl's arm, let go, and patted her on the head. "You did well," he told the mother.
The monk headed for the house now serving as his home. He stopped just a few steps away, though, and glanced back at the little girl. He could have killed her, and, oh, so easily. And how he had wanted to! How he had wanted to feast upon her tender flesh.
And yet, he had not. The significance of that hit De'Unnero at that moment, as he came to understand the triumph he had found that day. Fear had forced him out of Palmaris after the fight in Chasewind Manor, after he had been thrown out the window by Nightbird. It was not fear of Nightbird or of the King or of the reprisals from the victorious enemies of Markwart, the monk realized. No, it was fear of himself, of this demanding inner urge. Once he had been among the most celebrated masters of St.-Mere-Abelle, the close adviser of the Father Abbot, the abbot of St. Precious, and then the Bishop of Palmaris. Once he had been the instructor of the brothers justice and had been touted as the greatest warrior ever to walk through the gates of St.-Mere-Abelle, the epitome of the fighting tradition of the Abellican Order. In those days, Marcalo De'Unnero had relied heavily on the use of a single gemstone, the tiger's paw; for with it, he could transform a limb, or perhaps two, into those of a great cat, a weapon as great as any sword. During Markwart's rise to unspeakable power, the Father Abbot had shown De'Unnero an even stronger level of the stone's transformational magic, and with that increase of intensity, the young master had been able to transform himself totally into the great cat, an unprecedented accomplishment.
But then something unexpected had happened. De'Unnero had lost the gemstone, or rather it seemed to him as if he had merged with the gemstone, so that now he could transform himself into a tiger without it-and often against his will.
That was really why he had run away from Palmaris. He was afraid of himself, of the murderous creature he had become.
It had been a wretched existence for the man who had once achieved such a level of power, despite the hospitality of the folk of Penthistle. Marcalo De'Unnero had feared that he would be forever doomed to travel through the borderlands of civilization, running from town to town whenever the killing urge overpowered him. He pictured himself in the not too distant future, fleeing across a field, a host of hunters from half the kingdom in close pursuit.
But now . . .
The ultimate temptation had been right before him-the smell of fear and blood, the easy, tender kill-and he had battled that temptation, had overcome it. Was it possible that De'Unnero had gained control over this disease?
If he could control it, then he could return to Palmaris, to his Church.
De'Unnero pushed the absurd notion away. He had murdered Baron Bildeborough, after all, and his escorts. He had wounded Elbryan, which had sent the man, weakened, into battle with Markwart, the wound that, as much as the Father Abbot's efforts, had truly killed the man. If he went back to Palmaris, what trial might await him?
"What trial indeed?" De'Unnero asked aloud, and when he considered it, his lips curled up into the first real smile he had known in more than half a year. There was no evidence implicating him in Bildeborough's murder, nothing more than the speculation of his enemies. And how could he be held accountable for anything that had happened at Chasewind Manor? Was he not merely performing his duty of protecting his Father Abbot? Were not Elbryan andJilseponie, at that time, considered criminals by both Church and Crown?
"What's that, Father? " the girl's mother asked, not really catching his words.
De'Unnero shook himself out of his thoughts. "Nothing," he replied. "I was only thinking that perhaps it was time for me to return to my abbey."
"Ah, but we'd miss ye," the woman remarked.
De'Unnero merely nodded, hardly hearing her, too lost in the intriguing possibilities his victory over the weretiger urge had presented to him this day.
"The Saudi Jacintha will take me," Brother Dellman reported to Abbot Braumin, the younger monk entering the abbot's office at St. Precious to find Braumin talking excitedly with Brother Viscenti. "Captain Al'u'met plans to sail within the week, and he was excited to be of service, so he said."
"And you discussed the price? " the new abbot asked.
"Captain Al'u'met assured me that the price has been paid in full by the new brothers of St. Precious, that our actions against the evil that was Markwart and our defense of the Behrenese of the docks more than suffice."
"A wonderful man," Brother Viscenti remarked.
"You understand your duties? " Braumin asked.
Dellman nodded. "I am to observe first, to try to get a feeling for the intentions of Abbot Agronguerre," he replied, "and then, on my instinct and judgment, I may inform the man that you and others plan to nominate him at the College of Abbots that will be convened in Calember."
"You are a messenger first, bringing word of the College and of the events in Palmaris," said Braumin.
"Likely, he has already heard," Viscenti put in, shaking his head. "Who in all the world could not have heard? "
Abbot Braumin smiled and let the point go to his excitable friend, though in truth he doubted that anyone in Vanguard had heard of the events in Palmaris in any more detail other than the unexpected death of Father Abbot Markwart. The Abellican Church would have been the only real messenger to that distant place; and even if St.-Mere-Abelle had sent a courier, no one there truly fathomed the implications of the events, and certainly no one there would have been so bold as to take sides in the budding philosophical war. But that was just what Braumin had instructed the wise and trustworthy Brother Holan Dellman to do: to take the side of the victors, to show that the good had won out over the cancerous evil.
"Treat Markwart's memory gently," Braumin urged Dellman yet again, "but foster no doubts concerning the fall of the Father Abbot-the fall from grace before the fall from life."
Dellman nodded, then turned as Brother Talumus entered the room.
"Go and accept the passage from Al'u'met," Braumin instructed Dellman. "Extend to him our profound thanks, and then prepare your thoughts and your belongings. Go with the blessings of Avelyn."
That last line, spoken so casually, raised Talumus' eyebrow.
As soon as Dellman had exited, Braumin motioned to Viscenti, and the man quickly closed the door.
Talumus glanced around, seeming suspicious.
"St. Precious is not nearly as strong as it will have to be, if we are to withstand the continuing assault by Duke Kalas," Braumin remarked to Talumus. Indeed, many times over the course of the winter, Kalas and Braumin had argued over policy, over minor issues, mostly, but ones that perceptive Braumin understood might well grow in importance now that winter had relinquished its grasp and the folk were out and about the city.
"Jilseponie is leaving," the younger monk reasoned.
"Very good, Talumus," Braumin congratulated, and he raised a finger into the air. "Keep vigilant, and pay attention to every clue."
"She said she would leave when the roads were clear," Talumus explained. "Many times has she met with Belster O'Comely these last days, and I have heard that it is his intent, with prodding from Jilseponie, to return to the northland."
"She will indeed take her leave of us, though truly it pains my heart to let her go," Braumin confirmed. "What an ally she has been to the Church, a force to counter any potential intrusions on our sovereignty by the aggressive Kalas. But she has her own path to follow, a road darkened by grief and anger, and I cannot turn her from that path, whatever our needs.
"To that end," he continued, "we must bolster the strength of St. Precious." As he spoke, the abbot turned his gaze over Brother Viscenti.
"A promotion," Brother Talumus reasoned.
"From this day forth, Marlboro Viscenti will be known as a master of St. Precious," said Braumin, and the nervous little Viscenti puffed out his chest. "Master Francis, who departs this very day for St.-Mere-Abelle, will see that the promotion is approved at every level; and even if some wish to argue the point, which I cannot fathom, I am certainly within my rights as abbot of St. Precious to make the promotion unilaterally."
Talumus nodded and offered a smile, somewhat strained but more genuine than not, to Viscenti. Then he looked to Braumin, his expression turning curious. "Why tell me now, and why behind a closed door?" he asked.
Braumin chuckled and walked around his desk, sitting on its edge right before the other monk, removing the physical barrier between them as he hoped to remove any possibility of insincere posturing. "The risks you took and your actions in the last days of Markwart speak highly of you," he began. "Had you more experience, there is no doubt that Talumus, and not Braumin, would have become the abbot of St. Precious, a nomination that I would have strongly supported. In the absence of that possibility, it has occurred to me that Talumus, too, should soon find his way to the rank of master. Yet, in that, too, you've not enough years in the Order for such a promotion to be approved without strong opposition-and, in all honesty, it is not a battle I choose to fight now."
"I have never asked-" Talumus began to protest, but Abbot Braumin stopped him with an upraised hand.
"Indeed, I will support your nomination to the rank of master as soon as it is feasible," he explained. "As soon as you have enough time-and I do not mean the typical ten years as the minimum. But that is a matter for another day: a day, I fear, that will be long in coming if St. Precious is to withstand the intrusions of Baron Kalas. We need more power and more security, supporters of my-of our-cause, in line to take the helm in the event of unforeseen tragedy."
His words obviously hit a strong chord within Brother Talumus, who had recently witnessed the murder of his beloved Abbot Dobrinion Calislas. The man stiffened and straightened, his eyes unblinking.
"Thus, there must be others, like Master Viscenti, who will ascend above you within the Order at St. Precious," Braumin explained. "I will need voices to support me at the College of Abbots, as well as against Duke Kalas. I wanted to tell you this personally, and privately, out of respect for your service and loyalty."
He stopped, tilting his head and waiting for a reply, and Brother Talumus spent a long while digesting the information. "You honor me," he said at length, and he seemed genuinely content. "More so than I deserve, I fear. I was not enamored ofJilseponie and Elbryan. I feared ..."
"As we all feared, and yet you certainly took the right course of action," Braumin interjected, and Viscenti seconded the remark.
"Very well," Talumus replied. "I understand now the implications of the battle within Chasewind Manor. My path is obvious to me, a shining road paved with all the glories of the true Abellican Church. My voice will not ring out with the commands of a master at this time, but it will be no less loud in support of Abbot Braumin Herde of St. Precious and of Master Viscenti."
The three men exchanged sincere smiles of mutual appreciation, all of them relieved that their team was forging strong bonds now for the fights-against Kalas and against those within the Abellican Church who feared any change despite the momentous events-they believed they would soon find. Francis had thought that the road ahead would be an easy one. He started with his stride long and full of conviction. But as he considered the reality he now faced, Francis began to recognize that this journey might prove as troublesome and dangerous, to the Church at least, as the one that had brought him to Palmaris in the first place. For he was walking a delicate line, he came to understand, stepping between the future Church he envisioned and the past one he had served. He believed in Braumin's cause, in the cause of Master Jojonah, burned at the stake for his convictions, and in the cause of Avelyn Desbris, who had flown in the face of Markwart's Abellican Church and had, subsequently, destroyed the physical form of the awakened demon.
Yes, Master Francis had come to accept the truth of many of the explanations that Braumin and the others were according the actions of Jojonah and of Avelyn, and he had come to recognize that Jilseponie and Elbryan were indeed heroes to both Church and Crown. But Markwart's last words haunted the man: Beware that in your quest for humanism you do not steal the mystery of spiritualism.
There was a threat to all mankind in sharing the mysteries of the gemstone magic with the common folk-not of war or of uncontrolled power, but a threat of secularizing the spiritual, of stealing the mysteries of life and the glory of God. What good would the Church do the world, Francis wondered, if, in its quest to become more compassionate, it took from the populace the one true inspiration of faith, the promise of eternal life? Soul stones or not, everybody would one day die, and how much darker that moment would be, to the one whose life had come to its end and to those loved ones left behind, if there was no faith in life eternal. Men who entered the Abellican Order trained for years before entering St.-Mere-Abelle or any of the other abbeys, and then they trained for many more years before learning the secrets of the gemstones. The Abellican monks understood the reality of the gemstones, the orbiting rings and the stone showers, but they could place that reality within the cocoon of their greater faith as inspired by the years of study. But what of the common man, the man not privy to the days, weeks, months, years of meditation? Might that man come to see the soul stones, the very fabric of the Abellican religion, as a natural occurrence, no more mysterious than the fires he kindled for warmth or the catapults the King's army used to batter the castles of enemies?
Francis didn't know, and he feared that it would take a wiser man than he to comprehend the implications of Markwart's final warning.
What he did know, however, was the reality of the situation in St.-MereAbelle; and even beyond his private doubts about how far Braumin and his friends should be allowed to open the Church, the young master understood that they would find more enemies than allies at the prime abbey. Thus was Francis, so close an ally to the demon that Markwart had become, walking a delicate line. If he strayed too far against Markwart, he would, in effect, be implicating himself, thus diminishing his own voice. And yet, he could hardly support the dead Father Abbot. He knew now that Markwart had been very wrong; and even aside from that truth that was in his heart, Francis knew that the Church would be inviting disaster if it continued to follow Markwart's path, that the populace would turn against it, and that Braumin and his followers would successfully establish the church of Avelyn Desbris.
It was all too troubling for the young master, the former bishop of Palmaris, the former lackey of Markwart-positions all, he feared, far beyond his abilities and experience.
Now the road to St.-Mere-Abelle lay before him, the road to the past and the future, the road to the wounded masters-such as gentle Machuso, no doubt-who would need reassuring, and to the more volatile and confident masters-the names Bou-raiy and Glendenhook stood out most prominently in his thinking-who would resist change and would likely resist demeaning the memory of Father Abbot Markwart, a man whom they had gladly served.
Yes, Bou-raiy, Francis told himself; and an image of the man, holding a burning branch in one hand and cheering as the pyre around the heretic Jojonah caught flame, rattled him.
He heard the door open behind him and turned to see Abbot Braumin entering.
"So you have not yet departed," said the abbot. "I had hoped to see you before you began your journey."
Francis nodded, though he hardly saw any point to Braumin's seeing him off. The two did not see things eye to eye, as Braumin painted the world, it seemed to Francis, too much in black and white. Though Braumin had not been pleased when Francis had retracted his support of Jilseponie for mother abbess, they had come to an understanding.
"Did you find any time alone with Abbot Je'howith before he departed?" Braumin asked.
Francis chuckled. "Do you fear that I did? "
"Fear?"
Francis chuckled again. "I did speak to him, and he told me, I expect, exactly what he told you that morning before the final meeting with King Danube," said Francis. "Abbot Agronguerre seems a fine choice, a man possessed of a healing soul. Exactly what is needed within the Church, I would say."
"So you support his nomination?"
"I would like to learn a bit more about Agronguerre, but from what I already know, yes," answered Francis.
"And was that all Abbot Je'howith expressed to you?" asked Braumin.
Francis looked at the man hard, tried to get a feeling for the trouble about which his words were hinting. "The memory of Markwart," he stated more than asked.
Braumin nodded slightly, his expression grim.
"Believe me, brother, I am more confused by that issue than are you," Francis assured Braumin.
"But you know the evil that Markwart had become?" Braumin pressed.
"I know the mistake the man made," Francis pointedly answered.
"You step backward," Braumin accused.
Francis thought about that for a moment, and almost agreed. "Sideways," he corrected. "There was error in Father Abbot Markwart's reasoning, to be sure, but there was also a ring of truth that Abbot Braumin would do well to hear."
Francis saw the man's face get very tight.
"We have been through this before," Francis remarked, holding up his hands as a peace gesture. "We are not of so different beliefs that you should fear me, Abbot Braumin. I go to St.-Mere-Abelle to speak the truth of the events in Palmaris."
"Which truths? " the skeptical Braumin demanded.
Francis chuckled yet again. "You-we-are both too young for such cynicism," he said. "The painful events in Palmaris brought resolution, though at a price too high for any of us to be satisfied. Markwart was wrong-he admitted as much to me before he died-and so I threw my support behind Braumin Herde andJilseponie."
"But not enough to nominate her, as you said you would," Braumin reminded him.
" Not enough to destroy that which is left of the most stable institution in all the kingdom," Francis corrected. "We will find our common way, I believe, but by small steps and not ground-shattering leaps. The people are confused and frightened, and it is our duty to comfort them, not to provide more confusion." He fixed Braumin with a determined stare. "I am not your enemy," he declared. "And neither need be the memory of Father Abbot Dalebert Markwart."
Braumin asked, "What ofJojonah? What ofAvelyn?"
"Resurrect those memories in the light of our recent revelations," Francis answered without hesitation, "bring them up beside Elbryan the Nightbird as victors over the darkness. Yes, I intend to work to those very ends, my brother. Master Jojonah forgave me, though he knew he was a doomed man-no small feat! And I will see him properly interred in consecrated ground, his good name fully restored."
"And Avelyn? " the abbot prompted.
"Avelyn must be investigated . . . honestly," Francis replied. "I will second the nomination to beatify Brother Avelyn, should you begin the canonization process at the College of Abbots. I will second it with all my heart and with my voice strong and full of conviction. But that does not mean that I believe him to be a saint. It means only that I believe him worthy of the investigation that might lead us to that end. Let us see what the man truly espoused and accomplished. Let us decide rationally if Avelyn truly saw a better course for the Church or a path that would lead to our destruction."
"Do you mean to balance his canonization on a matter of philosophy?" Abbot Braumin asked, shaking his head, his eyes wide.
"Not his sainthood, no," answered Francis, "but rather, his belief. I may be willing to vote for his sainthood without necessarily believing that his methods would be the appropriate course for the Church. It is his intent that will determine the decision of the canon inquisitors. But neither will my support for his canonization be wholly based upon the man's intentions for the Abellican Church, if he even had any such intentions."
He paused and watched as Abbot Braumin digested the words, the man finally coming to nod his head in agreement.
"Travel your road carefully and wisely, brother," Braumin said. "I expect that you will find fewer brothers of like heart than those opposed."
"The Church changes slowly," Francis agreed, and Braumin took his leave.
Master Francis Dellacourt, thirty years old and feeling as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, left St. Precious soon after, an escort of nearly a score of monks, brothers who had come to Palmaris in the procession that had brought Father Abbot Markwart to this fated city, beside him.
"What is left for us here?" Pony asked in all seriousness, curling her lips into an obviously manipulating pout. She was in Tomnoddy's, a bustling tavern that reminded her, somewhat painfully, of Fellowship Way in its best days.
"What isn't? " Belster O'Comely responded, smiling as he asked the question and without any sharpness in his tone. He was glad to see Pony excited about something again-about anything-even if that happened to be a decision that the portly innkeeper did not necessarily agree with. Also, Bolster was happy that Pony had come to him, begging him to go north. They had been through a fair amount of arguing in the last days of the struggle, when Pony had laid bare Bolster's prejudice against the dark-skinned Behrenese. "We've got our friends, after all, bonds made fast in the turmoil."
"Prym O'Brien's going north," Pony reminded him.
"He's been saying that every fair day since last summer," Belster replied. "Doubt that he'll ever do it."
"It is time to go home, Belster," Pony said seriously. "I know that, and so I'll be leaving in two days. I hope that you will share my road to Caer Tinella and to Dundalis, for there I will need you, I fear." "To do what, girl?" Belster asked.
"To rebuild," said Pony without the slightest hesitation. "To put up a new Howling Sheila on the very spot of the previous, on the stone foundation that had once served as the base for Elbryan's home."
"Probably a house there already," Belster mumbled, reaching for his foaming drink and draining half the mug.
"Tomas assured me that the place would be mine, should I ever return," Pony said. "I mean to hold him to that promise, even if it means tearing down his own house in the process!"
"Bringing some of them gemstones with you, are you?" Belster snipped, and he wanted to take back the words as soon as he spoke them, seeing the cloud suddenly cross Pony's fair face.
"I will raise the tavern," the woman said quietly, "the Howling Sheila, or perhaps I shall call it Fellowship Way in honor of the Chili chunks. More enjoyable will the task be if Belster O'Comely walks the road with me, but even if you do not, I leave in two days."
"You mean to run a tavern?" Belster asked skeptically. "After all that you have seen and done? You're not thinking that to be a bit of a boring task, girl?"
"I mean to run a tavern," Pony replied sincerely. "I mean to sit with Roger on a hillock at sunset and hear the piping of Bradwarden as it drifts through the forest. I mean to tend the grove. ..." Her voice trailed off, and Belster turned a sympathetic gaze on her.
"Are you sure that you're not just running away? " he asked her bluntly. "Haven't you tasks left unfinished right here?" Even as he spoke the question-a question that he knew Pony would not answer-Belster considered her last statement more carefully and found the insight that convinced him of her convictions. Pony had chosen not to go north with Elbryan's caisson, had chosen not to be present when the ranger was lowered into the cold ground. How could he refuse her request now? Pony and Elbryan had saved his life, and the lives of all his friends, during the days of the dactyl and in the troubled times immediately following the demon's fall. Pony and Elbryan had stood beside Belster and all the others, at great personal peril; and the innkeeper had no doubt at all that if the demon had captured him and put him in the very pits of blackness, Pony and Elbryan would have come for him, would have given their very lives to save him.
"Two days?" he asked. "Have you talked to Dainsey?"
"Dainsey is staying," Pony replied, referring to the woman who had served the Chilichunks at Fellowship Way before Markwart had taken them hostage, and then had served as Bolster's companion in the tavern when he had reopened it at Pony's request. "She has become sweet on a particular young man, and never would I take her from that."
"The poor girl's deserving some happiness," Belster agreed, for Dainsey Aucomb had indeed lived a trying life. The innkeeper gave a belly laugh and emptied his mug, then wiped the foam from his lips and glanced a Pony-to find her staring at him hard.
"Two days?" he asked again.
Pony's stern look melted into a smile. "Meet me at the front doors o St. Precious," she instructed. "And don't you be late! I want an early stai and a long day's ride."
"Well, bring a horse for me, then," Belster said with a resigned sigh. "I I'm to go back to that wilderness, I'm planning to spend all my fund beforehand." He finished and turned to the barkeep, motioning for thi man to refill his mug.
Pony kissed him on the cheek and rushed out of Tomnoddy's, heading straight for St. Precious and a meeting with Abbot Braumin that she knev would pain her friend profoundly.
She found him in his office, the same office that had served for Abbo Dobrinion Calislas, and for Bishop Francis. Brother Anders Castinagis arguably the most fiery of the followers ofJojonah, was there with Braumin and Pony heard his agitated voice long before she entered through the room's open door.
"Come in, come in!" Braumin said to her, motioning to a chair at the left-hand side of his desk. Castinagis was standing, Pony noted, his big hands planted on the front of the desk, his eyes locked on the new abbot of St. Precious. "We were just discussing Master Francis' departure," Braumin explained. "He set out this day for St.-Mere-Abelle, to bring the word to our brethren and to confirm the appointment of Brother Viscenti to the rank of master."
That last statement caught Pony by surprise, and her blue eyes widened. "So soon?" she asked. When her words brought a somewhat crestfallen look to Braumin, she quickly added, "Well, never was there a man more deserving."
"So I believe," said Braumin. "And Brother Viscenti will soon enough pass the minimum time required by our Order, so there should be no serious complaints."
"Unless the messenger presents the nomination in an unfavorable manner," Brother Castinagis remarked, and then Pony understood the reason for their apparent argument.
"You do not trust Master Francis? " she asked the towering man.
"Should I?" Castinagis replied.
"Yes," she answered simply, and the brevity other pointed response put Castinagis on his heels.
"As I was just saying," Abbot Braumin added. "Brother Castinagis wished to accompany Master Francis, but I have been trying to explain to him that we who follow Avelyn's beliefs are more vulnerable here in Palmaris than perhaps anywhere else in the world. With Brother Dellman leaving for Vanguard and with Master Francis gone, we of expressed conviction number only five, including us three and Brothers Talumus and Viscenti. We must rally the flock of St. Precious behind us," he went on, aiming his words now at Castinagis and not Pony, "first and foremost, if we are to hold ground with Duke Kalas."
"You are soon to be four," Pony interrupted, drawing the attention of both men. "Belster O'Comely has agreed to accompany me," she explained. "I leave for Caer Tinella in two days."
Abbot Braumin seemed to sink back into his chair, and Brother Castinagis just stood there, shaking his head. The news was not completely unexpected, but Braumin had hoped to keep Pony in Palmaris at least through the first half of summer.
"And how long will you remain in Caer Tinella? " the abbot asked.
"A few days, no more," Pony replied. "I hope to be in Dundalis before summer proper, that I might establish my home fully before the onset of next winter."
My home. The words echoed as a bell of finality in the head of Abbot Braumin. "Be not so quick to tie yourself to the place," he advised.
"You may find your road turning back to Palmaris," Brother Castinagis added. "This is the center of the world at this time, for the future of the Church, at least." He continued, gaining volume and momentum with each passing word. "How might the memory of Master Jojonah, and that of Brother Avelyn-" Abbot Braumin stopped him by clearing his throat loudly. When Castinagis turned to regard the man, the abbot nodded toward the door, and Castinagis took that as his cue to leave.
"He is an excitable fellow," Braumin said to Pony as soon as the brother had departed.
"And he overestimates our importance, I fear," she replied,
"Does he?"
Pony just smiled.
"Or is it, perhaps, that you, in your grief, have come to underestimate everything else in all the world? " Abbot Braumin asked.
"Perhaps I have come to see the truth of the material world," Pony was quick to answer, "the truth of the folly and of false hopes. Are you then to promise me eternal life? "
Braumin stared at her hard, his expression a cross between anger and pity.
"If I accept your Church's definition of eternal life, then I say again that Brother Castinagis overestimates our importance," Pony declared, "because no matter what we do here, we will all die. True? "
The abbot continued to stare, to chuckle helplessly, and, in the end, to merely shake his head. Yes, Pony had lost her way, had given up, he knew;
and he understood, as well, that there was nothing he could do to persuade her differently, to show her the error of her despair.
Pony came around the desk, then, and hugged the abbot. "You are my friend, Braumin Herde," she declared, "a true friend to me and to Elbryan, a kin in heart and soul. You stood with us in the darkest hour, and better is all the world for your efforts."
Braumin pushed her back to arm's length. "If you truly believed that-" he started to argue, but Pony put her finger over his lips.
"The road to Caer Tinella and the Timberlands will be well traveled over the next seasons," she said. "I promised you that I would attend the opening of the chapel of Avelyn in Caer Tinella, should that come to pass. Send word and I will be there."
"But that will be years hence," the abbot protested.
"And we are both young, my friend," Pony said. She bent low and hugged Braumin again, then kissed him on the cheek and walked out of his office.
When he heard the door close behind her, Abbot Braumin felt as if his heart would break. Suddenly he felt very alone and very afraid. He had allowed his hopes to soar, despite his pain, after the battle at Chasewind Manor. Francis had declared that he would nominate Pony as mother abbess, and Braumin had dared to hope that this woman, his hero, would stand tall at the front of his straying Church and, through sheer determination and willpower, put them back on the proper course. Even after it became obvious that Pony would not so ascend within the Church, Braumin had thought his position solid, and the ascension of the followers ofJojonah and Avelyn certain.
But then Francis had withdrawn his support for Pony, and-despite the man's continuing opposition to Abbot Je'howith-Braumin wondered now how much trust he could put in Francis.
And now Pony was leaving, and though he still had Castinagis and Viscenti supporting him, and though he understood that Brother Talumus and several other minor-ranking monks of St. Precious had given themselves to his cause, Braumin remained afraid. Because now he was in charge of it all. His would be the primary voice battling stubborn Duke Kalas; he would be the one answering any questions that came to St. Precious from St.-MereAbelle; he would be the one fronting the cause of Master Jojonah at the College of Abbots. And that cause, he knew, would not be an easy one to sell to many of the Abellican leaders, including many of the masters whom Braumin had served at St.-Mere-Abelle less than a year ago.
Only then, with the sound of that closing door, did Abbot Braumin come to realize the truth of it all: he had depended upon Pony to protect him and bolster him, to fight the battle for Avelyn and Jojonah from the lead position.
He was very afraid.
On a drizzly spring morning two days later, the small wagon bearing Pony and Belster O'Comely rolled through Palmaris' northern gate, bouncing along the road that would take them to Caer Tinella. Many heads turned to regard them as they crossed the city and then the rolling farmlands just north of Palmaris, and the departure of this most notable woman sparked many whispered conversations.
In a copse of trees on a hill just beyond those farmlands, Marcalo De'Unnero, too, noted their passing. From the farmers, he had heard that Pony meant to leave Palmaris, and now he was very glad to see that the rumors were true. De'Unnero didn't want to face Jilseponie now, for he believed that any such encounter would end in violence, a battle that would prove disastrous for him, whether he won or lost.
He waited for more than an hour after the wagon had rolled out of sight, considering his course. Many times during that hour, the former bishop reminded himself that he had controlled his inner beast, despite the ultimate temptation. He had defeated the demon within, and thus was ready to take his rightful place back in the Abellican Order.
Though what that place might now be, the man could not be sure.
Marcalo De'Unnero had never marked the days of his life with fear or lack of confidence, and would not do so now. He jumped up from his mossy seat and trotted down the face of the hill onto the road, turning south for Palmaris. The same heads that had regarded Jilseponie's departure turned to mark his approach, but they seemed not to care.
And why should they? De'Unnero asked himself. He hardly resembled the man they remembered as their bishop, the man who had fled Palmaris months before. He was leaner now, a thick beard upon his face, his black curly hair hanging several inches longer, bouncing at the base of his neck. Indeed, the guards at the open north gate hardly seemed to pay him any notice at all and didn't even ask his name.
He felt even more invisible as he moved unrecognized along the busy streets of the city, and he found that he did not enjoy that anonymity. Rationally, he knew it to be a good thing-he had not left the folk of Palmaris on good terms, after all!-but still he did not like it, did not like blending into a crowd of people he recognized as his inferiors.
Soon enough, he came to the front door of St. Precious Abbey, and he paused there, staring at the structure with his emotions churning. The farmers had told him the name of the new abbot, and that alone made him want to spit at the place. Braumin Herde? When De'Unnero had fled the city, the man wasn't even formally a master! And though De'Unnero knew that Markwart had once meant to promote Herde, it was only for political reasons, to quiet the other side, and certainly not the result of anything Braumin Herde had ever accomplished in his mediocre existence.
De'Unnero stood there, outside the door, for a long time, playing through his emotions and his anger, throwing the negativity aside with conscious reminders that he would have to find a way to fit into the new order of his Abellican brotherhood. "May I help you, brother?" came a question from a monk approaching De'Unnero from the side, a monk whom the former bishop did recognize.
De'Unnero pulled back his hood and turned a hard stare on the man.
"Brother? " the oblivious monk asked again.
"Do you not recognize me, Brother Dissin?" De'Unnero asked rather sharply.
The younger man glanced up, scrutinizing the speaker, and then his eyes widened.
"B-bishop De'Unnero," he stammered. "But I-I-had thought-"
De'Unnero waved at him to stop his blabbering. "Lead me in," he instructed. "Announce me to the new abbot of St. Precious."
