Cherryh, C J - Fortress 02- Fortress of Eagles (24 page)

“Brother,” Efanor said, overwhelmed, “for the good gods…”

“Oh, let us not couple good and gods in this priest’s company. His Holiness would create a breach between himself and me only if he were an utter fool—which he is not. Being no fool, nor dealing with one, he will bless the wedding and make very certain there are no ill omens or offending liturgy in the ceremony. He has overreached himself, coming perilously close to extinction. Let us see if we can arrive at a definition of our positions, we two, tonight.
Now
.”

“I advised two kings, most gracious Majesty, I counseled your grandfather and your father. I advise you now for your good, that the Quinalt can find exception for everything you ask. Everything but one. Nor can I unsay what is being said in half the houses in Guelemara tonight. If Your Majesty wishes not to see a breach between Quinalt and Crown, let him not place the Quinaltine at odds with him! The northern barons are in doubt of this marriage.

The Quinaltine, on Your Majesty’s part, would stand firmly with Your Majesty, but cannot do so with the presence of that banner and such allies! ”

“I shall value Your Holiness’s view,” Cefwyn said, coldly purposeful as the old man was purposeful in every well-prepared word. “Her Grace has a strong right to inherit of her father the Cherryh, C J - Fortress 02- Fortress of Eagles Regent, and now this new Usurper is advancing on her capital…

with wizardous assistance, Holy Father. Threatening all of us.
As
witness your roof
. Tristen it was who came to us with the first warning of sorcery, Mauryl’s heir, and would I had understood that warning earlier than I did, but I suggest if Your Holiness
can
muster the wherewithal to turn sorcery from the Quinalt roof, Your Holiness should consider doing so quite urgently. Even so great a wizard as Mauryl Gestaurien did not withstand what assailed us at Lewenbrook and could not safeguard his tower from destruction or his own life from extinction. Dare you take up the battle—without the Warden of Ynefel?”

“The prayers of the righteous are not to be despised.”

“Excellent. Pray away and keep a supply of roof tiles. Meanwhile we stand a chance of settling the Elwynim succession in a lasting peace, gods send us common sense. As Mauryl’s heir, Tristen opposed hostile sorcery by force of arms on Lewen field. And did Your Holiness wish to hear us who
were
on Lewen field, I do strongly believe that we are appointed one vital chance,
by
Mauryl’s defense, and that the gods have guided us to this marriage, these unlikely allies—”

“Do not lesson us on the gods, Your Majesty!”

“Do not lesson
me
on policy! Sorcery has bent all its strength to prevent this marriage!”

“To
gain
this marriage, equally well!”

“Oh, no, no, no, you dare not say so much, Holy Father. I assure you, you dare not say so much.
I was there
, Holy Father. Sorcery Cherryh, C J - Fortress 02- Fortress of Eagles threw the rebel Aseynéddin at us, at Lewenbrook. That failed. Now it advances on Ilefínian through Tasmôrden’s attack; and
if
that lightning bolt that descended on your roof is sorcery, then the prayers of the righteous did damned little to prevent it. Sorcery tried once to overthrow us. It tries to cast misfortune in the path of a marriage
it does not want
, Holy Father, and if there was by any remote chance some sorcerous transformation of a good Guelen penny, I suggest
sorcery
did so precisely to discredit the heir of the Warden of Ynefel, who has fought against an enemy that—by the gods!—I shall send you to face
in his stead
, if you wish to replace Ynefel in the battle line. How say you to
that
, Holy Father? Dare you?“

That
hung in the air, and occasioned immediate reconsiderations and retrenchment: “Your Majesty is in our devotions constantly. We only suggest possibilities.”

“We value your goodwill, Holy Father.”

“And who will say, if this is sorcery, that there may not be another, fatal attempt? If it is sorcery that directed the lightning, I pray Your Majesty come to sober thought that, as you may believe,
I
did not direct it. Your Majesty wishes a wedding free of omens. I cannot again countenance the banners in
the holy sanctuary
, my lord king!”

“
You
cannot countenance!”

“
In the name of the gods
, I cannot countenance them. The gods bless and keep Your Majesty and Her Grace of Elwynor. The Tower and Checker will have our blessing.
But I cannot abandon every
principle of the faith
! Even the Star and Tower we will bless at need… and, yes, defend as an ally, perilous though it be.” Was it a Cherryh, C J - Fortress 02- Fortress of Eagles shudder he saw? Had the man sensibilities and scruples after all?

“But not in every service, on every holy day dare we keep that banner in the sanctuary, Your Majesty. We dare not provoke wizardry to cross the river, if wizardry it was, as I do very much fear And alliance with the Lord Warden may cost us far more than we yet reckon. These things have a cost! ”

Fear. There was the word. His Holiness was not the young priest who had stood with his grandfather, or exorcised ghosts from the Guelesfort stairs.

Cefwyn stared at him in bleak consideration, leaned forward, chin on fist, and stared longer.

And longer, while his heart beat hard with anger and his eyes refused to see except through a dark pall. Something thumped into place; it felt that way. Safety for Tristen—power to his southern lords—comeuppance for Ryssand.

“Amefel is vacant,” he said at last, out of that moil of shadow, and saw his brother open his mouth.

And shut it.

“Tristen might do very well in Amefel,” Cefwyn said with a deeper breath, and leaned back in the seat of judgment, regarding all before him. “What says Your Holiness?”

“To make this creature lord of a
province
?”

“He is already lord of Althalen and Ynefel, within the selfsame province. You wish no untoward doings; I wish a peaceful wedding and an end of talk about the roof. Dare we agree that we agree?”

Again, a hesitation. A quaver in the voice. A man who had danced Cherryh, C J - Fortress 02- Fortress of Eagles with lightning was, whatever his other faults, grateful for simple things, “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Never mistake me,” Cefwyn said, and left a long silence. “Never mistake me, Holy Father. As I shall never mistake you. We each have our domains. Never cross into mine.”

Stare met stare. But the Patriarch did not state the converse. There was a measurable difference, then, in what they dared.

He had, he hoped, just made that everlastingly clear. And he would have himself wed, and Tristen—

Tristen.

“Tomorrow,” he said. Wounds were best done quickly, thoroughly.

He had no wish to contemplate the issue. And knew what he had done, in anger and what he had to do, for a winter’s peace. And did his enemies know, as Idrys knew, what Tristen was? “Tomorrow, in the Quinaltine, he will swear. Roof or no roof you will witness his oath.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Good rest, Holy Father. I trust you have adequate escort. A wrap against the weather outside.”

“Completely adequate,” the Patriarch said, and took the cue, saying nothing regarding prophecies, Kings to Come, or the Elwynim Regency.

Efanor saw the Patriarch as far as the door, but he lingered. Idrys did not remotely think of leaving.

“My lord king.” Idrys broke the silence. “
Amefel
?”

Cherryh, C J - Fortress 02- Fortress of Eagles

“Tristen has a chance,” Efanor cried, “a mere chance, to rescue his soul. And you are damning him! You are giving him over to a sorcerous province, where he has no shield but magic, when here he had a chance at holiness!”

This last was a curious proposition, the only genuine question of faith he had heard in the last quarter hour. The first was only the surface of the question that ran, at depth,
Has my king taken leave of
his wits
?

“Where
else
can I secure him a livelihood, if you please? Ynefel and Althalen are ruins. I have him where my servants and my guards can provide for him… but that also places him near me, near Ninévrisë, near very sensitive matters. I can call him back at need. I
shall
call him back, and meanwhile I provide him a banner they cannot fault.”

“Many another man in difficulty,” said Idrys, “one appoints a small pension and a village sinecure. A province does seem extravagant.”

It was perhaps the measure of his mood tonight that only Idrys could set him in a better humor. And Idrys did not say the half of what he was sure was on Idrys’ mind.

“He cannot fend for
himself”
Efanor said. “How can he manage a province two hundred of the king’s best troops cannot keep in order?”

“And where
else
shall he be safe?” The temper rose again. “If you were less familiar with priests and more with me, brother—” No, that was not fair. “Forgive me. But this entire business is connivance.”

Cherryh, C J - Fortress 02- Fortress of Eagles

“The lightning stroke—”

“Bother the lightning stroke! It happened and that old fox had already planned to trot out that blaspheming coin! I’ll warrant he had one in the hoard he keeps, his own coffers.”

“Brother, that is blasphemous.”

“Mark me, mark me, that is a villainous man. You heard him. I shall have my wedding if I banish Tristen. Does that measure the true depth of his conviction? Mark the day. I shall have within a fortnight a request for his cousin Sulriggan, his reinstatement in my favor.”

“You need not grant it.”

“Did you not hear? Threats fell left and right. That is a
malevolent
man, who hounded our grandfather with fear of hell, our father with fear of
me
, and drove our father to his death with his suspicions, brother! Piece the account together, for the gods’ love! Our father would not have trusted Heryn Aswydd if he had not trusted the Holy Father first.”

“That is extravagant.” Efanor’s face was white as death. Efanor had
seen
the Holy Father at his political worst and heard the truth tonight.

“Words kill, brother. They need not be sorcerous.”

“But the lightning stroke, I say—”

“Brother, —”

“My lord king,” Idrys said in his calm, even voice, “the court, meanwhile, will be in doubt.”

Cherryh, C J - Fortress 02- Fortress of Eagles The hall and the dancing. He drew a breath. “Brother,” he said more moderately, even pleadingly, “open your eyes. I grant you your lightning bolt if you grant me that this
coin
is political, not godly, and we are in mortal danger of this man’s ambitions and his determination to keep what power he has. Your priest may be godly.

But the Patriarch is no honest priest.”

“I think you provoked him too far, sir.”

“
I? I
provoked?”

“My lord king,” Idrys said.

“We have the court to settle,” Cefwyn said, shoving aside all fruitless argument. “My decision stands. Lord of Amefel, successor to the Aswyddim, him and his issue, as they may be, in fealty to the Crown, which he will freely swear. Idrys, send a messenger to him; send to the Patriarch, officially, that tomorrow afternoon, come wrack, come ruin or a hole in the Quinalt roof, we will stand before the altar, that the banner of Amefel will stand there above those of Ynefel and Althalen, which will be all the comfort we afford His Holiness, and the court will attend in
their
goodwill on such an occasion.”

He rose, then, and in Efanor’s shocked silence led the way back through the short passage and into the warmth and motion and music of the royal ball.

He had resumed his perch on the stone-propped seat, alone, before the musicians saw him and tinkled to a stop, with the dancers.

He stood up. The dancers bowed. The one whose head only nodded was Ninévrisë, who came to his outstretched hand, Cevulirn Cherryh, C J - Fortress 02- Fortress of Eagles attending her, and received his smile… on which he was conscious the whole room hung.

He handed her toward her seat: she stood beside him.

“The Quinalt roof is not as serious a matter as one might have feared,” he said, and with coldest, most matter-of-fact address of policy, he let his face frown. “But it was meant by Her Grace’s enemies to be far more serious than it was.
Sorcery
has done its worst, and now,
with the Patriarch’s blessing
, we shall answer it.

We shall ask the Lord Warden of Ynefel to march south to bring Amefel into our hand and to give these sorcery-dabbling rebels a pause for reflection the winter long. To that intent,
with the
Patriarch’s blessing
—” How he loved taking the Patriarch’s name in vain! “—we create him duke of Amefel and grant him all titles the Aswyddim held. And,
with the Patriarch’s blessing
, we bid him hold the southern marches.” In the general impression, by his fondest hopes, it was now not for the Lord Warden to defend himself against charges of sorcery, but for the Lord Warden to deal with
all
such sticky questions of sorcerous attacks, as was the Lord Warden’s post when Mauryl had held it. He had, at a stroke, settled Tristen in the one place he had never considered it possible to settle any friendly lord, but where it was most reasonable to settle Tristen, in a land which would welcome him, at a moment when the court, reeling from sorcery, wished protection of a sort that might be effective, but not in their witness.

And in a place where prophecies and sorcery could do their worst:
win his love, Emuin had advised him
.

There was confused approbation from the young, there were far Cherryh, C J - Fortress 02- Fortress of Eagles more sober looks from the old, and perhaps even looks of relief in several faces, Murandys and Ryssand chief among them, who were glad to have the Lord Warden south of
them
, or in hell, whichever would come soonest. They had won their assault… the king’s friend was leaving. But the king, let them realize it soon, was not pleased with them.