Lamentation

They walked to the door and she knocked on it. When it opened, the Gray Guard’s face was unreadable. “Thank you,” she told him, inclining her head toward him.

Returning to her chambers with Isaak in tow, she selected a few pieces of fruit from the bowl in her sitting room. She drew a stack of parchment from the desk and placed it near a pen and a small bottle of ink.

While Isaak went to work, she took the fruit into the bathing room. She drew a bath and climbed into the large granite tub of steaming water.

Biting into a pear, she found her mind wandering back to the night before, then leaping into an imagined future.

There was a strength beneath Rudolfo’s foppish exterior, a steel that reminded her very much of her father. And considering that Vlad Li Tam was the greatest-and most formidable-man alive, this could not be a bad thing. But she wondered at the same time how the Gypsy King would deal with his changing world.

She knew enough of him. A life spent on the move between nine manors and a hundred small forest towns. A deep passion for good food, chilled wine and… She found herself blushing and settled deeper into the tub.

But if-or perhaps now it was simply when-they solved the present dilemma of the Papal Writ, and if Rudolfo did somehow manage to rebuild some portion of the Great Library far away in his northern woods, how well would the General of the Wandering Army take to being rooted in one place?

And how well would she?

But moving the center of the world came with consequences and sacrifice. So did shifting history, that wide and strong river, in a new and unexpected direction.

Chapter 16

Rudolfo

Pope Resolute spent most of a week interrogating Rudolfo at his leisure. Most of those meetings occurred in the sitting area of Rudolfo’s quarters, but at least twice the Gray Guard had escorted him-shackled, of course-to the Pope’s office on the top floor. Apart from that first night, Rudolfo had not seen Jin Li Tam.

Resolute, he thought, was learning his job.

But this time, when the Gray Guard came for him, they did not shackle him. And he was surprised to find Isaak and Jin Li Tam both sitting in the office with Resolute.

“Lord Rudolfo,” the Pope said, looking up from his desk. “Please sit.”

Rudolfo nodded to Jin Li Tam and she returned the nod.

“It is good to see you, Lady Tam,” Rudolfo said.

“And you, Lord Rudolfo.”

Rudolfo sat. “And, Isaak, what of you? Are you well?”

The metal man opened his mouth to speak, but Pope Resolute spoke for him. “The mechoservitor is in working order. I am grateful to your betrothed for its safe escort.”

Rudolfo’s eyes quickly searched the room. There was more paper on the desk than there had been two days ago. The Pope himself looked less well rested, and the door behind his desk was closed against an overcast sky. The weather was cooling-he’d felt it in the last several days. Soon, rain would drum his thin, high windows. And this far north, the snow was just behind it. It was a conservative and predictable strategy. Something right out of an Academy textbook. They’ll hide here, Rudolfo thought, and assess what they have. In the spring they’ll know what to do, what to become. He suspected it wasn’t this Pope’s doing. Someone had to be advising him. Someone from the military.

Rudolfo couldn’t be here that long. He couldn’t be here even close to that long.

Pope Resolute leaned forward on his desk. “I’ve brought you here, Lord Rudolfo, to outline the next steps of this investigation.”

“You do not intend to recall the Writ of Shunning?” Rudolfo asked.

“I have no evidence indicating I should do so,” Pope Resolute said, moving papers across his desk.

Jin Li Tam spoke, her voice sharp. “And you have no evidence that you should not. The mechoservi? Thstitor corroborated-”

“The mechoservitor corroborated only what Rudolfo had told him. I do not doubt at all that Brother Charles’s apprentice changed the mechanical’s script. I do not doubt at all that this mechoservitor spoke the spell and destroyed Windwir. Beyond that, I know nothing.”

Jin Li Tam’s fingers moved along the arm of her chair. He stalls.

Yes, Rudolfo signed. “I can appreciate your position, Excellency,” he said. “Please continue.”

“In light of this, you will continue to be my guest. We continue to gather our people and our resources-every day, a few more respond. Soon enough, I’ll be able to convene a Council of Investigation.”

Rudolfo nodded. “A fair solution, I’m certain.”

There was a knock at the door. Resolute looked up. “Yes?”

An aide materialized, moving quickly to the Pope’s side and leaning down to whisper in his ear.

I cannot stay, Rudolfo signed.

I concur, Jin Li Tam signed back.

When the Pope looked up, his face betrayed surprise. The aide left quickly, and Resolute released his held breath. Rudolfo thought he might even look more pale than usual. He glanced at Rudolfo, then stared at Jin Li Tam.

“I have surprising news,” he told her.

But before he could continue, the doors opened. Pope Resolute stood, and Rudolfo took it as a cue to the same. Jin also rose, and out of the corner of his eye Rudolfo saw surprise now color her face as well. A slight man in saffron robes and short red hair shot through with gray entered the room. Two young men dressed in black silk accented with saffron colored sashes accompanied him, and Rudolfo immediately saw the resemblance in the faces and the posture. Brothers with their father, he noted.

But he saw more than that. He glanced at Jin Li Tam again to be sure, and there was no doubt. They had the same eyes.

“Lord Tam,” Resolute said. “It is an unexpected honor to meet you.”

“Some messages should be delivered personally,” the slight man said, his eyes sharp and hard. “I will be brief, Archbishop Oriv.”

Cu?s Nll rious, Rudolfo thought, that he does not address him as Pope.

Resolute noticed it, too, he realized. The man’s eyes narrowed. “When I’ve concluded my business with-”

Vlad Li Tam waved aside the words like so many gnats. “I believe you will find that my business takes precedence.” He looked at Rudolfo and offered a tight smile, then he looked to his daughter and the smile widened. “It is good to see you, daughter.”

She bowed. “You also, Father.”

“I promised to be brief,” Vlad Li Tam said, turning to Pope Resolute.

“I will have my guests escorted-”

Again, Lord Tam waved the words away, interrupting. “That will not be necessary, Archbishop. What I have to say is for their ears as well.”

Resolute sat heavily, a dark look crossing his face. “Very well.”

“The matter of your succession to the throne of Windwir and the Holy See of the Androfrancine Order appears to be in dispute,” Vlad Li Tam said in a matter-of-fact tone. “There is another Pope-one with a more direct line of succession. I can personally verify this.”

Rudolfo watched Resolute’s eyes widen. “Another Pope? How is that possible?”

Vlad Li Tam shrugged. “Those questions are for another to answer. But as a steward of the Androfrancine treasury, I am required to inform you of this officially before suspending your access to the Order’s holdings. I could have sent a courier but I felt such news should come directly from me.”

“Where is this Pope then? Why has he not announced himself?”