The Robin And The Kestrel

Robin had claimed for the Deliambren. And there was no sign of any emotion that Kestrel recognized. Harperus' odd-colored eyes studied his, seeming more coppery this morning than yellow.

'Y-you've b-been w-watching th-things for a l-l-long t-time,' he said, finally. 'C-collecting inform-m-ma-tion. S-so maybe you kn-know. H-how c-can wh-what the Church is d-doing b-be j-j-justified?'

'One of the characteristics of organized religion is that no action it takes has to be justified from outside, if it is justified by the religion itself, Kestrel,' Harperus said, patiently. 'That is a truism for nonhuman as well as human religions. No matter how irrational an action is, if it is done in the name of the religion, that alone serves the organizers.'

Jonny shook his head. 'I d-don't understand,' he said, plaintively.

Harperus sighed. 'Neither do I. But then, I have never claimed to be religious.'

Both of them wore coats against the chill in the air, and once again, Jonny shoved one of his hands into his pocket and wished that he were somewhere warm that had never heard of the Church. 'Wh-when I asked the tr- traders wh-why these th-things were happening, th-they d-didn't know either. And th-they didn't s-seem worried.' He tried to make his glance at Harperus an inquiring one, and evidently Harperus read it that way.

'That seems to be the prevailing attitude.' Harperus looked up at the sky, broodingly. 'The only human folk who are worried are the Free Bards and the traveling musicians_and they seem concerned only with the immediate effect these sanctions are having on their livelihood. No one seems at all concerned about what could happen next, or the sanctions against nonhumans. To be honest with you, Kestrel, those worry me the most. And not because I am Deliambren, either.'

Jonny had formed some ideas of his own last night, and he wanted to see how they matched with the Deliambrens. 'Why?' he asked.

Harperus smiled thinly. 'You pack many questions into a single word, youngster.' He leaned back against the side of his vehicle. 'I am not concerned for myself and my race, because there is no one in the Twenty Kingdoms who can effectively threaten us, my earlier protestations notwithstanding. We can simply outlive human regimes. We have the capability of closing up the Fortress and outliving this current generation. We have done so before, and are always prepared to do so again. It is simply not our policy to boast of that ability.'

Jonny's eyebrows rose. He had not expected Harperus to be so frank....

'However, the reason that these little, petty annoyances worry me is that they seem to have been formulated, by accident or deliberately, to undermine a great deal of the progress that has been made here in the last few centuries. Progress in cooperation, that is.' The Deliambrens expression was a brooding one. 'Each little action seems designed to strike in such a way that the group that is acted against is quite certain that the actions against them are far more important than the petty annoyances of other groups.' He leaned towards Kestrel, his mouth set in a thin, tight line. 'Look at you_the Gypsies think there is no problem at all, because it is only happening in the settled places, and they pay very little heed to anything done in towns. They assume that if trouble spreads, they can simply drive away from it. The Free Bards are more concerned with the restriction on their ability to make a living, and not on the reputation they may be getting thanks to the tales spread by Churchmen _'

'N-not N-Nightingale,' Kestrel protested.

'True. Not the Nightingale. But she is unique among all the Free Bards and Gypsies I have spoken to.' He shook his head. 'None of them are at all thinking about what is happening to the nonhumans, because they think their own problems are much greater. I have not heard from the nonhumans themselves_and that alarms me. Are they being harassed? Are they being arrested and taken off into oblivion? Are they being deported? Or is there nothing happening at all? I have heard nothing, and when I hear nothing, I worry more than when I hear rumors. I only know that the few nonhuman traders I know have simply turned over their routes in Rayden to human partners. The human traders frankly see this in terms of less competition and more profit. The nonhumans are gone, and I cannot question them.'

Kestrel blinked. He had not considered the possibility that there might actually be bad things happening to the nonhumans. 'Do you th-th-think _'

'That any of that has happened?' Harperus' grim expression lightened a little. 'Not yet, Kestrel,' he said gently. 'But I greatly fear it may.'

'M-m-me t-t-too.' Jonny was serious about that; he had seen too many 'insignificant' things turn out to be dangerous, had things that should have been no more than annoyances turn out to be life-threatening.

'There is a last 'why' that I have not answered,' Harperus continued. That is because I do not know. Why is this happening? I honestly have no idea, partly because my people do not think like yours. It would seem to me that the Church is doing very well without all this nonsense. Or it is, if you take the Church's primary goal as being the saving of souls and directing people to act in a moral and responsible manner. But if the Church's goal has changed to something else _'

'Th-then th-that m-may b-be the why.' Jonny licked his dry lips, nervously, and ventured his thought on the matter. 'M-maybe it isn't j-just a wh-why. M-maybe it's also a who.'

Now it was Harperus' turn to raise his eyebrows. 'This might be the work of one person? Perhaps a person in a position of power within the Church? Or_someone who wishes to use these changes as a means of gaining more