simplicity.
“Those who can,” Petronus said, “will come and help as they can.” Shifts of a week on and a week off by thirds-two men at home looking after their neighbor’s farm as well as their own while that good citizen was away. Women working in similar shifts. And those who had nowhere else to go-they would leave with Petronus and Neb in the morning and go set up their camp.
“What about pay?” someone asked.
And Neb’s mouth fell open at Petronus’s words. “Those who need it will get it. Those who don’t will work for love.”
Petronus hopped down from the washtub and winked at Neb. “How did I do?”
Neb nodded, wishing he could say something. Then he heard another loud voice and looked. The mayor had climbed onto the washtub now and was holding a scrap of paper up in the air. “I have a word to share as well,” he said. “Though I hate to contradict our well-spoken guest.”
The mayor waited for the crowd to quiet. “I have word today that Bishop Oriv at the Papal Summer Palace has been named the Pope of the Androfrancine Order and King of Windwir. His Excellency has ordered all Androfrancine resources and personnel be gathered there to be inventoried in the light of this great tragedy. He also sends along a Writ of Shunning against the Ninefold Forest Houses and an Exercise of Holiness.”
Neb gasped. A Shunning was an Old World practice that had carried over to the New World through the wisdom of P’Andro Whym. It severed all ties of kin-clave, making its recipient fair game for anyone and an enemy of the light. It had only been used a handful of times, and usually as leverage to manipulate a Pope’s desired outcome. But during the Heresies, it was used as a mask for open war.
And the Exercise had fallen out of fashion for over a thousand years. But there was a time when once in seven years, the Pope declared an Exercise of Holiness, calling for Windwir to be closed to the outside world for an entire year. Twice, it had been used to wait out schisms-a year of separation could quell most arguments. Enforced by the Gray Guard, violators early on were killed… but later merely punished and evicted.
If Neb had wondered about its meaning, it would’ve been clear on Petronus’s face.
“There will be Gray Guard at the Summer Palace,” Petronus said in a quiet voice. “Not many. Not enough to enforce this.”
The mayor continued. “And out of kin-clave with Windwir, Lord Sethbert, Overseer of the Entrolusian City States, has agreed to provide guardianship and enforcement of the Exercise. His Excellency, the Pope, compels all townships within the Providence of Windwir to comply and assist as required.”
Neb watched the crowd to see how they would respond. And he watched Petronus, too. The old man’s face was hard and unreadable. The mayor climbed down and no one moved.
Finally someone spoke up, and Neb was surprised at the voice. It was
“I am not a man to leave my kin unburied,” Neb said.
And when he said it, he couldn’t help but think of Brother Hebda.
Rudolfo
Rudolfo sat in the shade of a fir tree, alone, and thought. There was dried blood on his sleeve and his boot, but it wasn’t his. He’d killed a magicked sapper the night before when they breached the perimeter. Rudolfo’s men had taken a beating had held their ground. Three of his Gypsy Scouts-
Gregoric slipped beside him and sat. “General Rudolfo,” he said.
Rudolfo nodded. “Gregoric. What do you think?”
Gregoric shook his head. “I don’t know.”
The bird had arrived two hours earlier bearing news of the new Pope and the Writ of Shunning. Rudolfo had immediately sent word to House Li Tam and the Seventh Forest Manor. Just as he’d finished, his Captain of Intelligence had approached with more bad news. “We’ve word that two more brigades of Delta infantry are northward bound. And Pylos and Tyrn are sending contingents.”
That’s when Rudolfo slipped from the camp into the forest in order to think. Of course he’d known that Gregoric, still magicked from the morning patrol, had followed at a distance. And after sufficient time had past, his first captain had done as he always did and came to sit with his friend.
Rudolfo sighed. “I think we may have to pull back and find new vision. This new Pope has changed the pieces about on the board.”
“Aye,” Gregoric said. “We still have some time. A few days. We can do what we can and then divide the army.”
Rudolfo nodded. “And I will be needed elsewhere.”
Tomorrow, with his own half-squad of Scouts, Rudolfo would ride for the Papal Summer Palace to parley with this Pope. Behind him, his Wandering Army would fall back to their forest islands until their general called them back to war.
For the first time in a week, Rudolfo wondered if he truly would prevail.
Chapter 11
The halls of the seventh forest manor were wide and long, with hardwood floors and wood paneling on the vfac walls, dressed up with thick silk carpets and framed portraits. During her brief stay, Jin Li Tam explored what rooms she could, finding few locked doors in the large four-story building. Most of the rooms were spacious, including the servants’ quarters, and even boasted running water, heated in a large metal furnace and gravity-fed through copper pipes. Another gift from the Androfrancines.
She’d walked most of the manor on the first day. But now, she sought out the floor she had avoided. She took the wide sweeping staircase that passed the second and third floors, going directly to the fourth.
There, at the end of a short wide hallway, stood the double doors and stained glass windows leading to the Family Quarters.
She looked in on the rooms for children. There were many, all empty now but for one-the room of a small boy, she gathered, complete with scattered toys and a small silver sword hung over the bed. An unwrapped turban lay draped over the back of a chair, and a small boot jutted haphazardly from beneath the bed.
It had been carefully cleaned, but she could tell that the room had been this way for a long while.
A dark, unlocked door marked Rudolfo’s quarters-a suite of rooms that included a den and connected to another suite through a large bathing room. The bathing room was impressive. It smelled of fresh lavender, and at its center was a large, round marble tub. An elaborate golden nozzle was set into the ceiling, along with long cords tipped with golden tassels for bathers to pull and bring down the hot rain.
Jin walked through the room, her hand moving over the edge of the tub. The marble was cold to the touch.
Beyond the bathing room a similar suite waited, and the softer colors told her that someday soon, if her father’s will held despite the recent Papal Writ, she would be moving from the guest quarters into this space as Rudolfo’s bride.
She’d known that someday, when her father willed it, she would either be released to seek a mate for reasons of her own, whether love or convenience, or she would be wed for strategic purposes to advance House Li Tam’s interests in the world. Of course, some of her sisters had chosen to stay home instead. She’d always thought that if she were left to her own heart, she’d neither wed nor stay home. Instead, she’d go to the places she wished to instead of the places her father sent her.
She reached out a hand and touched the thick quilt folded at the foot of the large canopied bed. Certainly, this place would have been one that she would’ve wanted to see. The ancient forest islands in an ocean of prairie, and their ruthless Gypsy kings-tied by their past to the legacy of Xhum Y’Zir, evidenced by their Physicians of Penitent Torture and their redemptive work. Yet Rudolfo’s forebears had blended that dark blood magick rite with
