The King's Peace (55 page)

"It is a new thing m the land," Urdo said. "I think it will come to the whole land, but in time, when the people and the land are ready. The White God said that all things have a time and a season, and Kerigano wrote that we should not presume to think that we know the intention of God or recognize when that season has come."

"He was talking about all good people choosing to praise," Raul burst in.

"But Sethan himself put a note in his translation saying how many things this thought could be applied to," Urdo said, and smiled at Raul. "Here we see the wonders of reading a text in the vernacular."

Raul's lips twitched into a reluctant smile. "But still," he said. "He says all those who can see will open their eyes in time. He says that everyone will come to their places and praise and the world will be made perfect as it was in the beginning."

"But that time is not ours to force," Urdo said. Then he turned to Ohtar. "Nobody is telling you to convert. I want you to make peace with the monks, and stop killing them on sight."

Ohtar hesitated a long moment, looked at Raul, at Urdo, and at me. Then he shrugged.

"All right," he said. "While we have peace I won't kill them, unless they preach against my rule, but I won't encourage the rabble either."

"Good," Urdo said. "For now you can witness, for your High Gods, as Sulien can for hers."

Ohtar looked at me shrewdly.

"Shouldn't you ask Emer or Mardol or someone?" I asked. "I'm not a king."

"People will listen to you just as well," Urdo said. "I know your heart. I'd have your mother in if she were here, but she's not. You two stand there and be quiet, witness for me. Raul, come here."

Raul crossed the room in two swift strides to where Urdo sat. "What do you want of me?" he asked, and he sounded as if he felt pain.

"Bring Father Gerthmol, if he will come," he said. "If not, I will go to him."

"He might understand you, but he will never forgive these witnesses," Raul said, very fervently.

"He will want to hear for himself that Ohtar will have peace with the Church," Urdo said.

Raul sighed loudly and went out.

There was an awkward silence, then Urdo laughed. "Making peace among people is hard enough, let alone making it between gods!"

"When we judged on top of Foreth we all swore by our own gods, and they were there to see justice done," Ohtar said. "It does not seem so very difficult to me."

"It does to Raul," Urdo said. He straightened one of the piles of papers. The top one was a map of the northwest coast of Tir Isarnagiri sketched in black ink. "I never said that I would take the pebble when peace was made, but it seems that they have all expected it as an accepted thing. Even Elenn thought I would. It seems people have been promising it in my name for years."

"You were brought up in the monastery," I said. "They really do think everyone can be persuaded sooner or later. They're sure of it."

"I do serve the White God in my own way," Urdo said. "But the whole island is my responsibility. I swore before all the kings to protect the land and the people."

Then Raul came back with Father Gerthmol. Raul went back to his post by the window.

Urdo stood up, and he and the old priest bowed to each other. Then he introduced Ohtar, and then me. We all bowed. He settled Father Gerthmol in one of the chairs and sat down again in the other. I made sure I could jump between them if I needed to. I wasn't really worried about Father Gerthmol killing Urdo, but if he struck him in front of Ohtar it would make difficulties.

"A misunderstanding has come to my ears," Urdo said. "I have invited you here to tell you that in the Island of Tir Tanagiri all will be free to worship as they would. No priests will be persecuted or killed for preaching their faith."

Father Gerthmol looked up at Ohtar, inquiringly, and stared into his eyes.

"I have agreed to this," Ohtar said, holding his gaze. "As long as they do not preach against me and say I am no king, then I will not hurt them."

"Praise the Lord!" said Father Gerthmol, looking back to Urdo, who was sitting still and serious.

"No priest will be harmed, but neither will any one god be raised above the others." I wondered if the gods were there listening. I felt no sign of them. "Nor do I plan to take the pebble at this time."

Father Gerthmol rocked back on his chair a little, and looked over at Raul, who was again looking out of the window. From the courtyard below the came the cheerful sounds of Fifth and Sixth Pennons starting their morning weapons training. I wished I was out there with them. "And why not?" he asked at last. "All this time we have been struggling towards this Peace in the name of the Lord, and now we have it and still you will not take the pebble?"

"What would it do if I brought the land under the White God against its will?" Urdo asked.

"What would it do to my oaths as king? What would !t do to my people and to the powers of the land?"

"It would bring them into the light, and make them part of the family of God," Father Gerthmol said. "No longer would the gods be withdrawn, speaking only to kings and lords; everyone would know themselves and their place in the glory and the love of God."

"If so they choose," Urdo said. "But a forced choice is no choice, Father. I would not see those who honestly serve other gods forced from their old ways."

"You surround yourself with enemies of the Church!" Father Gerthmol said, looking from me to Ohtar and back again. "But see," he said, more gently, "people who have not seen the light need not be forced to it by your taking the pebble. After all, who but a king can lead the powers
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of the land into the light, unless it is done by force as Chanerig did it?

You can speak to those powers and bring the spirits of the whole island with you."

"It is not what they want," Urdo said, firmly. "Understand me, even if I had the power, I would force my gods no more than I will force my people."

Father Gerthmol looked furious. "What a chance is being wasted!" he said. "I have indeed misunderstood. From the time you were twelve years old you have been steadfastly refusing to take the pebble, but I believed you were a friend all the same. I thought you would come to serve the Lord, and so would the Peace you were making. It seems I was wrong." He looked again at Raul, and back to Urdo. "While we helped you fight," he said, bitterly, "we were fighting to bring this land into the light, not for you to have power for your own sake. I have misjudged you, son of Avren."

" 'It is a king's duty to his people to make, and keep, and hold peace, within which they may prosper; it is a king's duty to the gods to listen.' Thus I swore and thus you witnessed when I took the crown at Caer Tanaga twelve years ago. The land has as much peace as do men, and the land does not clamor to praise the White God forever. I have no power to demand such praise."

Father Gerthmol stood up in silence and looked at me and at Ohtar. Deliberately, he touched his pebble in a warding gesture. Then he turned and, turning, put up the hood of his robe so that it covered his head. He went to the door. We were all staring at him.

When he reached the door he stopped, half turned, and called "Raul!" Raul started. "Come Raul. We must leave now if we are to be in Thansethan tomorrow."

Raul looked from Father Gerthmol to Urdo, took one step towards the door, stopped, looked again at Urdo and up at the hooded monk. He took another step.

"Raul!" Urdo said, quietly, as if it hurt him to speak.

"I am sworn to obedience," he said, looking straight in front of him. Urdo opened his mouth but said nothing. Raul took another step. Father Gerthmol went out, and Raul followed.

"Thank you for witnessing, you can go now," Urdo said, without looking at us. His voice was thick. Ohtar and I looked at each other. I put a hand on Urdo's shoulder, tentatively.

He stood up and walked to the window. "I will speak to you later," he said. Ohtar took my arm and drew me out of the room. I could see Raul at the end of the passage, by the stairs.

Shaking Ohtar off, I ran towards him.

"How could you do that to him!" I said. "After all these years. He needs you, Raul, and you know it."

"He needs Thansethan," Raul said, blankly, stopping. Father Gerthmol was halfway down the stairs already.

"He can manage without Thansethan if he must. But he needs you. You're his friend, his clerk, his brother nearly. How can you just walk away?"

"Would you always put your friends before your gods, Sulien ap Gwien?"

I hesitated. "I don't know," I said. "But by all the bright gods, it counts for something that nobody has ever put me in a position ?where I have to make that choice! It isn't your god you're choosing, it's Father Gerthmol and Thansethan and the Church. That whole quarrel was about letting people find their own way to holiness. But you will do what Father Gerthmol tells you, and not your own heart? You're not like Marchel, you know you're not. And you understand him; you can't walk away like that!"

"I am sworn to obedience. Would you break your armiger's oath?" There were tears on Raul's cheeks. "In any case, if I am with Father Gerthmol, maybe I can make him understand Urdo.

If I disobeyed, he would see us both as enemies. Tell Urdo that. I might bring him around."

Father Gerthmol was at the bottom of the steps. He called up to Raul.

"I must go. Tell Urdo that, and tell him—" He hesitated, took a step downwards. "Tell him he should have listened to me, and I love him." He brushed away tears, smiled grimly, put up his
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hood, and clattered down the stairs after Father Gerthmol.

—33—

"Secrets only remain secret if very few people know them."

— Caius Dalitius, The Relations of Rulers

I don't think anything ever distressed Urdo as much as Raul leaving. Ohtar had more sense than I did and didn't waste time running after Raul. He went and got Elenn, and she went in to Urdo.

Neither of them came out until it was nearly time for the evening's feast, so it wasn't until then that I told Urdo what Raul had said. He listened to me, and said, "Thank you, Sulien," and went on. He looked terrible. I have had armigers take grief like that after losing a close comrade in battle. We deal with it by pouring strong drink down them and all mourning together. It almost always works. I knew it wouldn't work that time. Raul wasn't dead, he had left of his own will.

It was three years before Raul came back. Urdo got over the shock slowly, but it was a blight on what should have been happiness for him. He worked on his law code, and he started to implement ideas he had had years before. Yet all the time I could feel him reaching out for Raul, as an armiger who has lost an arm will keep reaching for it and remembering.

Thansethan would no longer help Urdo, and though that was a heavy blow, it was less of a loss.

Those three years were peaceful ones for me. The war in Demedia rumbled on for two of them.

We raided the coast of Oriel, using Ohtar's ships and landing a pennon or so at a time. They would land, kill the few who dared to stand against them, and scatter those who fled, take whatever plunder looked valuable and portable, then burn everything. We did it after the spring planting, and again as soon as the harvest was in. When Ayl heard the details of what we had done he shuddered and said to me if he had known Urdo could be so ruthless he would never have taken up arms against him. I think he wanted to know why we hadn't done this with the Jarnsmen. I don't know if Urdo ever told him.

After two years of this and of defeats in Demedia Atha ap Gren sued for peace and passage back to Tir Isarnagiri. Needing to ask passage, after we had burned their ships, must have been the last humiliation. She swore to Angas she would never set foot in arms in Demedia again. She was ruling all of Oriel by then, some of it in trust for her son. Black Darag was dead, we heard, killed by Larig, who was then in turn killed by one of Darag's men.

Thus perished the only one of Thurng's children to live an honorable life. Chanerig was still in Tir Isarnagiri, founding churches and meddling in politics. He kept sending furious letters whenever our raids happened to kill or capture any of his converts. Marchel and her ala had been disgraced after the massacre of Varae. Urdo said that what she had done was unacceptable for a civilized person, she no longer had his confidence or friendship.

She was exiled, never to return, and she could never hold or inherit land in Tir Tanagiri. I think he only gave her her life for Thurrig's sake. Her ala was broken up, the armigers scattered among the other alae, mostly those in Demedia. Her officers were all returned to the ranks. She had given the order, but they had carried it out. There was no longer an ala of Caer Gloran.

Urdo made them cut their banners and Marchel's praefecto's cloak into strips and wrap them around sticks and thrust them into a fire like a funeral pyre.

They wept as they did it, all but Marchel, whose face stayed set rigid. This shocked all of my armigers. Urdo talked to everyone of signifer rank and above who could get to Caer Tanaga about what an order was and when it should be questioned. I was very glad I took my orders from Urdo himself and had no need to wrestle with such things.

Amala went with Marchel to Narlahena. Ap Wyn and her children went with them.

Thurrig looked ten years older after they took ship. He went back to his fleet, and we did not see
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him often. Amala was not disgusted with Marchel but with Urdo for disgracing her daughter for something she could not see as important. She had never really understood Tir Tanagiri, and I hoped she would be happier in her homeland. Ap Wyn and the boys returned after a year or two, without saying anything to anyone. Veniva mentioned to me in a letter that they had arrived one day on a ship from Narlahena, stayed a few days with Daldaf, and then gone up to Nant Gefalion. He had not cared for Narlahena much and wanted to get on with his work. I mentioned this to Urdo, who said that only Marchel was exiled and the rest of them could come back at any time.