'Perhaps we would be better served in your private offices,' Master Machuso said softly.
'Why so, Master Machuso?' De'Unnero loudly replied.
'We have come on official business of the Abellican Church,' Master Glendenhook said firmly, 'sent by Father Abbot Agronguerre himself.'
'Ah, yes,' De'Unnero replied, walking about, glancing up at his friends and followers lining the courtyard wall. 'And how fares the new Father Abbot? I trust that my in absentia vote was counted.'
'Recorded and noted,' Master Machuso assured him.
'And still Abbot Agronguerre counted more votes than did Abbot Olin?' De'Unnero asked, again loudly; and his words made Glendenhook glance about suspiciously, for he understood that De'Unnero's announcing that he had voted for Olin would bolster his popularity among the brethren of St. Gwendolyn, who had many ties to Olin's Entel abbey.
'Indeed,' Master Glendenhook added dryly. 'Agronguerre of St. Belfour was well supported by many different factions within the Church. Thus, he is the rightful father abbot, whose word initiates canon law. Now, good Master De'Unnero, may we retire to a more private setting and conclude our business efficiently? '
'I doubt that your business and my own are the same,' De'Unnero replied.
'My business concerns you,' Glendenhook insisted.
'Then speak it plainly!' De'Unnero demanded angrily.
Glendenhook stared at him long and hard.
'You have come to inform me that I am recalled to St.-Mere-Abelle,' De'Unnero stated, and several of the gathered St. Gwendolyn brothers gasped.
Glendenhook continued to glower.
'And what of my appointment as abbot?' De'Unnero went on. 'Sanctioned, or not? Not, I would guess, else how might I be recalled? '
'You were never appointed as abbot of St. Gwendolyn!' Master Glendenhook shouted.
'What say you, brethren? ' De'Unnero was calling out before the visiting master even finished the declaration.
'Abbot De'Unnero!' one young brother cried; and then others joined in, howling their approval for this man they had accepted as their leader.
Master Machuso came forward and took De'Unnero by the elbow-or at least tried to, for the fiery master yanked away from him.
'Do not do this,' Machuso warned. 'We are sent with the strictest of orders and backed by all of the power of St.-Mere-Abelle.'
De'Unnero laughed at him.
'Master De'Unnero is not your abbot!' Master Glendenhook called loudly, addressing all the gathering. 'He is needed in St.-Mere-Abelle, in the court of the new, of your new, Father Abbot.' 'While we twist,' cried one young brother.
'A new abbot will be appointed presently,' Glendenhook assured the man, amid the murmuring of discontent. 'You have not been forgotten, nor is your plight of minor concern.'
'Of no concern at all, then?' De'Unnero was quick to quip. Glendenhook just looked at him and sighed profoundly. The crowd about them began jostling then, some brothers coming down from the parapets, others hanging back but shaking their fists. Glendenhook looked back, to see his escorts from St.-Mere-Abelle shifting nervously and glancing all about-until they saw him. He gave a nod and produced a gemstone; and all of his brethren-except for Machuso, who started praying-did likewise.
'You are a bigger fool than even I believed, if you allow this to continue,' Glendenhook said quietly to De'Unnero. 'Did you think that Father Abbot Agronguerre would not anticipate this from you?'
'Fio Bou-raiy, you mean,' De'Unnero said coldly; and he was not laughing, not smiling at all. He held up his hand, and those brothers who had begun to approach stopped in their tracks. The tense pose held for a long while, Glendenhook and De'Unnero staring, staring, neither blinking. 'Do not do this, I beg,' came Machuso's soothing old voice.
De'Unnero broke into a chuckle, a sinister, superior, and threatening sound. 'You have come for St. Gwendolyn,' he said, 'and so she is yours. You have come for Marcalo De'Unnero, but he, I fear, is not yours. No, Master Glendenhook. I see the road before me, the path where I might preach the true word of God, rather than the petty and self-serving proclamations issuing forth from St.-Mere-Abelle. My path,' he said loudly, moving out and reaching with his voice for his many followers, 'our path,' he corrected, 'is not within the shelter of a secluded abbey, oblivious even or the cries of those dying of the rosy plague right outside our doorway. No, our path is the open road, that our words might reach the ears of the needy peasants, that they might find again the course of righteousness!'
Cheers went up from every corner or the courtyard, and Glendenhoofe and the others from St.-Mere-Abelle could only watch and groan. Glendenhook tried to appeal to the brothers of St. Gwendolyn, but De'Unnero's words drowned out his, in both volume and impact.
Finally, an outraged Glendenhook looked back directly at De'Unnero his eyes full of hatred.
'You came here seeking the abbey, and so St. Gwendolyn is yours,' De'Unnero said innocently.
'Do not do this,' said Glendenhook, and his tone was nothing like the begging, pleading words of Master Machuso, but one dripping with threat. 'You go against Church doctrine here, walking a dangerous road.' 'And who will rise up against me?' De'Unnero asked. 'Against us? Your friend Fio Bou-raiy, the lackey of gentle Agronguerre? The King? No, brother, we recognize the truth of it all now. We understand that the Church has stepped from that truth, and we will not be deterred from the righteous road.'
'Master De'Unnero!' Machuso cried, horrified.
'Join with us!' De'Unnero offered suddenly and apparently sincerely, 'before all the world is fallen into darkness. Help us put the Church aright, and thus end the misery of the plague.'
Glendenhook stared at him incredulously.
'Now is the time for action and not words,' De'Unnero insisted.
'You believe the plague to be a punishment from God?' Glendenhook whispered harshly.
'On a deserving populace,' De'Unnero growled back at him, 'on those who have forsaken the truth.'
'Absurd.'
'Obvious,' De'Unnero countered. 'I see it, and they see it.' He swept his arm about to encompass the gathered brothers of St. Gwendolyn. 'We know the truth and we know the source-and no edicts from Father Abbot Agronguerre will sway us from that path.'
'You cannot-' Master Machuso started to say, but Glendenhook knifed an arm across the older man's chest, bidding him to be quiet.
' You risk the wrath of Father Abbot Agronguerre and all the masters of St.-Mere-Abelle,' Glendenhook warned.
'And you, Brother Glendenhook, risk the wrath ofMarcalo De'Unnero,' De'Unnero said evenly, moving right up to the man, his posture and the set of his eyes and jaw a poignant reminder to Glendenhook of the reputation of this monk, Brother Marcalo De'Unnero, widely accepted as the greatest fighter ever to walk out of St.-Mere-Abelle, ever to train in the Abellican Order. 'Which of us, then, do you believe in the worse situation?'
The question obviously unnerved Glendenhook profoundly. The man held a gemstone in his hand-a graphite likely, or perhaps even a lodestone. But he'd never try to bring up the magic, De'Unnero knew with confidence, because Glendenhook realized that De'Unnero could kill him with a single, well-placed blow. No, Glendenhook would never find the courage to take such a risk.
'Take your abbey and be glad that I deemed our path to be out there,' De'Unnero said quietly, staring unblinkingly with each word. 'We are beyond you now, all of us. We will follow the true course of the Abellican Order, that perhaps our actions will inspire others-even Master Glendenhook, perhaps-to walk beside us.'
'You have gone mad,' Glendenhook remarked.
'As much has been said of many prophets,' De'Unnero was quick to respond. He held up his hand, then, and all about him hushed. 'To the road!' De'Unnero demanded with a powerful signaling movement, and the brothers of St. Gwendolyn gave a cheer and led the way to the front gate.
'If you try to stop us, you may prove victorious,' De'Unnero said calmly-too calmly! 'But I warn you that I will come for your throat first and foremost.' He finished and lifted one arm, revealing that it was no longer a human
