up the Vierses from Tramaine.
Sir Eardale said, 'Gade and Aude Learner. On behalf of King Brill of Santerin.' Dunn's tone was neutral. Brill's father had been the winner in the succession war that caused his exile. 'They aren't official ambassadors, just men with a message.'
One Learner took a seat. The other leaned on the back of a tall chair that had seen generations of service. 'Our holdings are in Argony, near the Pail of Arnhand. We have cousins over there. They keep us posted. What's been happening since the Black Mountain Massacre is scary.'
Learner had his audience's full attention. 'Anne has widened her web, nursing the anger of those who lost men. The fact that they asked for it doesn't matter.'
Brother Candle stepped in. 'Why has King Brill sent you?' And felt dim immediately. Any problem Arnhand suffered benefited Santerin.
'We have our own troubles with Arnhand. The more troubles they have, the better. Especially now, when the Crown is ineffectual and the strongest voice in the kingdom belongs to a whore.'
That was extreme. Anne was of high birth. She just had a huge appetite for pleasures of the flesh. And for power. She wanted her son Regard, by King Charlve, to succeed him despite the boy's illegitimacy.
'And Anne's problem lies at the heart of what you're here to tell us?'
Both outlanders started.
'When you're my age you'll read minds, too.'
The talking Learner grinned. He had a decade on Brother Candle. 'Yes. Anne has pulled most of the key folk of Salpeno into her camp by telling them she's building a war chest to raise armies to punish the Connec. She's making all manner of secret deals. Now she thinks she's invulnerable. She's raised enough.'
He had his audience enrapt. Even the serving staff.
Nothing said here would stay secret longer than it took these people to get home to their families. Even the churchmen would gossip.
'Enough?' Sir Eardale demanded. 'Get to it, man. Never mind the drama.'
'Enough money to buy the Patriarch, sir. Not to raise the army that she's been promising.'
That caused a stir, of course, but more of confusion than consternation.
'Please expand,' Sir Eardale ordered. 'Again, dispensing with the drama.' A whip crack edged his voice, the soldier in the old knight blazing through.
'Yes, sir. Sublime has huge money troubles. Anne has problems getting her claws on Arnhand's throne. Should Charlve die.' Anne had two sons by Charlve the Dim, Regard and Anselin. Only Regard interested her. 'She's also raising money by selling royal treasures. Altogether it's enough to see that Sublime will discover Charlve's marriage to Queen Alisor not to be valid because he's actually been married to Anne for two decades. Making Regard and Anselin legitimate and placing them at the head of the succession. With enough money extra to put together a small army.'
Terrible news, Brother Candle thought. Unless Anne's obsessions had led her to pick Arnhand's fiscal bones so clean that there was no way Arnhand could sustain more than a brief incursion into the Connec.
But now, perhaps, the Brothen Patriarchy could afford an invasion of its own.
Clever, clever Sublime, Brother Candle thought. Exploiting the Arnhander woman's avarice. Probably leaving her onvinced that she had gotten the better of the deal.
Only the Brothen Patriarchy stood to profit from a crusade against the Maysalean Heresy.
Brother Candle shook his head sadly. He had prophesied disaster for years. Circumstance had beaten him down every time. But now everything was falling into place for the Adversary. At last.
'Is it true? The rumor about the Queen of Arnhand?' Kedle Archimbault asked. No. Kedle Richeut, now.
Brother Candle was staying with the Archimbault family, essentially in hiding from those who haunted Metrelieux. He used all the resources of the Maysalean community to collect information about everyone close to the Duke. Those who did the scut work in Metrelieux were especially useful. People full of themselves generally failed to notice the worker bees.
'What rumor is that?' Brother Candle asked.
'That she's bribed the Brothen apostate… I'm sorry.'
'No need. If you've heard that, news got out faster than usual.' Brother Candle stated the facts as he knew them, feeling no need to keep any secrets.
'I hope you don't mind,' Raulet Archimbault said. 'I've invited the members of our circle in tonight.'
'Not at all. An evening of talk and debate with your circle is what I need. They're intelligent people, open to the old ways. The ways of Aaron and Eis and the others.' And they might turn up a few useful facts.
'Good. Though we'll be serious and practical for a while.'
'Raulet?'
'We have worldly matters to discuss. We're having trouble refurbishing the works on the Reindau Spine.'
'That would be?'
'The height overlooking Lake Trauen. Almost vertical, with a knife edge top. The stoneworks up there date from the bad times after the fall of the Old Empire. We're refurbishing them and laying in stores. Because someday the Adversary will make himself known in the End of Connec.'
'I don't know the place but I understand what you're doing.'
'Students everywhere have been getting ready since Black Mountain Massacre.'
'When did Student come into use here?' Brother Candle asked. The usage was common in the dualist communities of the Grail Empire and the Lowland Duchies north of Arnhand, but not among the Connec's Maysaleans.
Raulet said, 'I don't know. A year ago I wouldn't have understood that a believer who isn't yet Perfect could be considered a student. Now everybody knows.'
'So. What's the trouble with your illegal fortification?'
'The cold. And ice. Everything is covered with ice up there. It's almost impossible to get there without falling and breaking something.'
'Then don't go.'
Raulet would have no congress with common sense. He shook his head, sorrowing at the Perfect Master's uninformed attitude.
'Ice?'
'The rain all turns to ice up there. When it does melt it drains down into places where it'll freeze and be more treacherous. Even the cisterns freeze over.'
'They say the whole world is getting colder.'
'Yeah. I don't remember it being nearly so cold when I was a kid.'
'I don't know what to tell you. Except don't attract the Duke's attention. He has strong opinions about people who build their own forts.'
Raulet sneered. 'He may have strong opinions but it'd be ten years before he actually got around to actually doing anything. By then he'll be back for another go round the Wheel of Life.'
The Learners' news swept across the End of Connec as swiftly as ever bad news does.
The Counts of Robuchon and Doy repudiated their oaths to the Dukes of Khaurene. They shifted their allegiances to Tramaine and Arnhand, respectively. Which allowed them to continue being enemies while aligning themselves with strong, decisive protectors. Jancar, Herve, Carbonel, andTerliaga formally took their allegiances southward, to Peter of Navaya, sheltering under the skirts of the day's strongest sovereign. A king not the least cowed by Sublime V.
Respect for Duke Tormond continued to wane. More local leaders hired more mercenaries, most of them Grolsachers. Which meant more refugees coming into the Connec in hopes of finding similar work. Neighbor fought neighbor. It became increasingly difficult to sustain the armed bands. Their to and fro destroyed resources. Travel grew ever more dangerous. Mercenaries who had not been paid indulged in fits of banditry. Then people who had lost everything fled to the wilds and became brigands themselves. In the very shadow and embrace of the Instrumentalities of the Night.
Those who could afford to recruited more mercenaries to guard what they had. While mercenaries who did not get paid not only robbed travelers, they turned on their employers and ate them alive.
The Chief Inquestor of the Patriarchal Office for the Suppression of Sacrilege and Heresy began to filter
