He felt her urgency and gravity and didn’t relish the grim conversation that lay ahead of them.
“What were you doing in the garden?” Danielle asked, as they crossed the patio for the stone stairs.
“Thinking.”
“Things go that horribly then?”
He knew she was referring to the meeting he’d just come from. “Horrible probably isn’t the right word. More that I have much to tell you that you won’t like overly well. I also have a few questions to ask of my own.” He frowned as they reached the bottom of the stairs and the garden lay before them, oak trees offering shade, flowerbeds enjoying the sunlight, and everywhere the sound and aroma of spring. “Where we going?”
“I thought a walk down to our usual spot by the fountain might be best, given the nature of what we’re going to talk about?”
He had expected as much and nodded. It was private and allowed them to talk freely even if it meant more walking for his poor legs.
The door closed behind them and James followed dutifully down the balcony step, slipping his sword into the scabbard belt at his hip.
“I’ll have your mother’s sword returned to you this evening. It’s been anointed with god’s water five times in accordance to the cleaning ritual. Whatever poisonous magic Fren used, will have been cleaned away.”
“Are the words still in the steel?”
“They wouldn’t come out. Likely the steel is slightly tainted. If you’d prefer to wear another sword …”
“No, my mother’s sword will do just fine.”
He had expected her to say as much. Joseph looked out at the mountains and grimaced as a distance crack of thunder rolled across the heavens. He had been so preoccupied with the events of the day; he had not given a thought to the weather. The sun was still shining but towering black clouds were building to the east and encroaching on the city with the usual suddenness of a spring storm. He was suddenly conscious of the growing humidity.
Danielle seemed oblivious as she said; “Has Renwick sent word to his court ordering the search of Lord Helidon’s lands yet?”
He said it had been done and she pursed her lips and gave a little nod as her attention returned to the garden for a moment. “Are you sure we can trust Renwick’s liegemen to undertake this task?”
Her piercing blue eyes settled on him again, waiting for his answer.
“You needn’t concern yourself, lass. Lord Rifkins is going to get quite a surprise when Bishop Marple and a good number of brothers of the reformist church in Renwick turn up with your father’s warrant to join the search. It’s all being kept quiet of course. There would be no point showing our hand to a snake as shrewd as the Archbishop.”
“That’s cleverly done. And here I was thinking you and father were becoming doddery old men.”
Joseph offered a grin of his own. “Even doddery old men have their moments of genius.”
They walked in silence for a while and he saw her smile wane with each step.
After a short silence she gave a little shake of her head and said, “Almost a hundred members of the council voted for this, Joseph, and they all but got away with it.”
It had been haunting him, too—all of them in fact. Her father had been furious.
“I know, lass. We’re going to have to work a great deal harder to avoid this kind of thing happening again. It also shows that our network of spies and informants is not working as effectively as it used to, which is equally troubling and will be remedied quickly and thoroughly.”
Danielle nodded, her face serious as she slipped into her own thoughts again.
Joseph looked sideways at her and after a few strides he said, “Lass, I’ve got some important things I need to talk to you about.”
Danielle smiled knowingly. “Let me guess: Father and the others want to know who approached me with this information about Kane’s bill?”
“We are curious, yes, and more so since you swore your companions to silence.”
“I’m responsible for this person’s welfare, Joseph.”
“You needn’t worry about that. This person has done Arkaelyon a great service; we’re hardly going expose him now, are we? Though we are a little troubled you weren’t forthcoming about this diary which I assume you received from the same person who gave you the information about your brother’s bill last evening, or were you lying when you recanted the rumours you’d been spreading?”
“Yes on the first and no on the second.”
“So?”
“Even if I tell you, I don’t think you’ll believe me.”
“Your father is not going to rest until he has a name, lass, so please, who was it?”
They had reached the fountain at the bottom of the garden. Danielle sat on the stone bench there and gazed at the stream of water shooting from the mouth of the ivy covered stone lion, every drop sparkling like a diamond in the sunlight. It was a pleasant spot, and private, with only the sound of birdsong in the trees around them and the agreeable scent of the flowerbeds. Joseph settled down beside her and laid his walking stick aside.
Another peel of thunder and a sudden breeze through the trees had him look up at the sky again. The sun disappeared behind a bank of menacing cloud. “Might be wise if we seek shelter in the stone pergola, yonder.”
Danielle was looking skyward too, and didn’t argue, though the coming rain was the last thing on her mind.
“Should we have James join us?” Joseph asked. James was shadowing them at a distance. The wide berth made Joseph think Danielle wanted it this way, but he thought he should ask.
“I would rather talk alone. James understands and the trees will keep him dry.”
Even as they made shelter under the small ivy covered structure, which stood on a rocky outcrop overlooking the small lake in the southern garden, a peel of thunder directly overhead heralded the first heavy drops of rain.
Joseph sat down on a stone bench at the centre of the pergola to take the weight off his aching legs. Danielle, meanwhile, remained standing, her back to him as she gazed out at the lake. The rain on the slate roof overhead was almost deafening. Water was pouring down the side in rivers and the surface of the lake was being ravaged.
“So?” Joseph asked.
Danielle turned to face him and said, “It was the Lady Winters.”
Joseph wasn’t sure that he had heard correctly. His old ears were not what they once were. “What did you say, lass?”
She walked over and sat beside him. “It was the Lady Winter’s who told me of Kane’s bill.”
Joseph stared at her a moment. “You mean…the Archbishop’s …”
When Danielle nodded, Joseph felt his old heart race. He took his spectacles off and rubbed his eyes, wondering what to think about what he’d just heard. And couldn’t think of much that was good.
“She was at the banquet last night. She asked for a private audience. Of course, I didn’t know who she was until we got to my chambers and even then it was only luck that we discovered her identity.”
“Luck? Are you telling me that your future as a member of the General Council and the likelihood of the king’s daughter receiving a public whipping is reliant on information given to you by a servant of your father’s most hateful enemy?”
“She was acting for another. Joseph, she’s not what you think.”
“Oh, believe me, that woman is very much what I think,” he said, removing a handkerchief from his robe to clean the lenses of his spectacles more vigorously than they needed. “The fear her name evokes among the peasantry is all for a very good reason. She’s as dangerous as a trodden viper—more than eight priests of our faith have been murdered in the past three or so months, and I have little doubt that it was done on her instructions …”
Danielle looked appalled and somewhat puzzled. “You said nothing of this to me?”
“It’s not important you know. You should have nothing to do with her! And you definitely should have brought this to my attention immedia
tely. Gods, Danielle, if I had known this …”
Impatience swept across Danielle’s pretty face. “Have you ever met her?”
A flash of lightening lit the rain-drenched garden, and the ground trembled as seconds later thunder-crashed overhead.
Joseph winced slightly and glanced out into the pelting rain before raising his voice and saying, “That’s beside the point. I know her by reputation.” He put his spectacles back on and cursed and removed them again as they began to fog up.
“Then you wrong her,” Danielle said indignantly, her eyes sharp with anger as she got up suddenly and walked to the edge of the pergola.
“And you, lass, are far too trusting. By all the gods, she is the sword of your father’s most dangerous enemy.”
She folded her arms, her back to him again and didn’t offer a reply so Joseph eased himself up and hobbled over. “Lass, I don’t mean to be hard, but …”
“She doesn’t act freely,” Danielle said cutting him off. “The Archbishop is blackmailing her—has been all these years. She loathes the man.”
Joseph had heard these rumours, too, but he wasn’t sure he believed them. The High Church of Arkaelyon was well known for its lies and deceptions, and why shouldn’t this be just one more?
Danielle sat back down and took his hands drawing him down beside her. Her eyes were large and pleading the anger gone as quickly as it had come. “I don’t understand it, but I found her sympathetic. She did this because she wanted to, not because she had to. She revealed much more than her employer intended. This shipping diary and the story I fabricated, it was an after thought.”
“Or a trap.”
“If it was a trap why would she chastise me for handling this matter on my own? Contrary to the will of her employer, she thought it most imprudent that I didn’t bring it to you directly. Why would she want to protect me?”
He chuckled mirthlessly at that. “Oh, I’m sure she has a reason, and I suspect it has little to do with your safety.”
Anger flashed at him again and Danielle’s jaw acquired that stubborn bearing her mother had possessed and the daughter had mastered.
“How can you be so hard? She betrayed her lord by bringing this to us—and with goodness knows what consequences to herself and her family if he ever finds out. You said yourself, Joseph, she has done Arkaelyon a great service.”
He mulled that over; for that he could not deny. Danielle was a good judge of character, after all, but still, this was the infamous Night Reaper they were talking about. Her reputation for evil was undisputable… Wasn’t it? He gave up trying to defog his spectacles and slipped them into the pocket of his robe, took a handkerchief from the opposite pocket and blew his nose. When he had finished he said more calmly, “Okay, so how am I to tell your father about this?”
“That we could have a very useful ally in time if we play our hand right.” Danielle paused for a moment, then said, an air of accusation in her tone, “However, before we worry about that, she also gave me some rather troubling news other than this business with Kane.”
Their eyes met, and Joseph knew immediately he wasn’t going to like what was about to be said. “What?”
“I don’t know? But apparently you do?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Apparently the Archbishop is planning something that could reshape the balance of power here in Arkaelyon. The Lady Winters said you’d know well enough what she meant—something else you and father have been keeping from me? Or is this more to do with my dream?”
Joseph gave a deep sigh and rubbed his sore eyes before forcing himself to look at her. If truth be told they deserved her anger, at least on this point.
“Yes,” he said reluctantly, “I have some idea what she might be referring to. And no, it is quite another matter from your dream. And as it happens, your father has decided that after your good work this morning, our failure and an obvious need for more unification, henceforth nothing should be kept from you. You are to be a full member of his Inner Council and on his instruction I am to tell you some things, including of what you speak and this woman is likely referring to. However, I want you to know that we kept this from you in the first place only because we knew it would scare you to hear it, and leave you worrying unnecessarily.”
“Just tell me, Joseph.”
He nodded reluctantly and hoped they were doing the right thing. He took a moment to gather his thoughts and then began, saying, “Six months ago our spies began to report that the Archbishop had developed an interest in the Book of Minion. We didn’t pursue Kane and his business of late because we thought the Archbishop was using it to conceal a more troubling endeavour.”
“The Book of Minion? And you kept this from me?”
Danielle smiled mirthlessly and got up abruptly, shaking her head as she walked over to the railing again and gripped it. They had expected her to take this news heavily.
Joseph raised his voice above the pelting raining, “Yes. At first it was because you were drawing much of the nobles’ attention. Giving us room to work unnoticed if you will. But with your dream and this odd prophecy it contained, we knew you’d likely jump to all sorts of wild and terrible conclusions and it became a matter of protecting you from yourself.”
Danielle clearly didn’t appreciate the last comment. “I want to know everything.” She came back to him and sat down again.
Joseph nodded. “We fear that he might have found truth of a very old and well-guarded secret regarding that bloody book.”
“That being?”
“You know the particular legend that says that the end of the Long Terror was brought about because someone stole the Book of Minion from Brutarius Victorium’s sanctuary, robbing him of the Dark One’s power?”
“Vaguely.”
“It’s no legend. Three members of the Aquarius Brotherhood undertook the theft. At the time it was believed that the Druid overlords derived their power from that ancient tome, and my forbearers hoped that if they could steal it and destroy it the realms of this continent might have a chance to rise up and throw off their shackles and take back what was theirs by right. The gods favoured us, at least initially. Problem was, you see, destroying the book was not as easy as the elders had hoped. In fact, it proved impervious to all their attempts. When it was discovered it could not be destroyed, it was agreed that our brotherhood would become its protector, or jailor if you prefer. We would see to it that the cursed thing was buried so deep men would forget it even existed. And for the past two hundred years we have seen to that duty with unfailing vigilance.”
She laughed humourlessly at the notion, then began to recite part of the prophecy of her dream, “A royal womb he will share with a sister, and on her heels he will enter the world. When he comes to manhood, the religious zeal of an orthodox priest, and his thirst for revenge on a blasphemous king, will again bring the Arkaelyon throne—and my gifts to Larnius—within the ambit of his power.”
Joseph had expected this, though the peel of thunder that followed her recital made the hairs on his arms and the nape of his neck stand on end. He instinctively made the sign of protection, even as he said, “Danielle, you have to understand that the book is in a place that no living man can reach. And I mean that quite literally. Not even the men of the brotherhood can get at it. The Archbishop can search as much as he likes. He can even know its exact location. But he can’t get his hands on it.”
“So where is it?”
“That I can not tell you. Not even your father knows.”
“So I’m expected to take this on faith?”
“Yes.”
“If it can’t be found, then why are you so concerned?” That seemed to puzzle her.
“Because of why the Archbishop would seek the book. And I am quite sure it was this that the Lady Winters was referring to when she said what she said to you earlier today, not your dream and a prophecy we have never heard of.”
“What are you saying? What is he up to?�
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“We think he could be about to make a play for the throne in a wider attempt to restart the crusades to Amthenium. His association with Kane we suspect is part of this, and we fear that after today failure to find the Book of Minion—which is certain, will not stop this treason from proceeding. Or at least most of us of the brotherhood and your father’s inner council are leaning that way.”
“Which is exactly my fear! You know what the prophecy says …”
“And I have told you the book can not be had where it lies.”
“Yes, and a few months ago I might have believed you; before I saw an old woman turn into a crow and a steel blade bleed.”
“Yes, and of such things, I know a great deal more than you, so if there was reason to be concerned, you would think I might know?”
Grudgingly she changed the subject. “So what’s been done to protect my father?”
“A number of things. We’ve told our friends in Noren, Lunwraith and Corenbald of our suspicions and we have their support if the Archbishop attempts to raise a noble’s revolt here in Arkaelyon. Even now they have men stationed close to our border as a precaution. There has also been talk of a pre-emptive strike, that is, of assassinating him, even your brother. But most of us oppose the idea.”
“Yet it’s still on the table?”
“Yes, but won’t be necessary …”
“You must suspect that this conspiracy runs deep, if the church can out number us in the field and you have gone cap in hand to our allies?”
“We do. Perhaps it is as many as three to one.”
Danielle visibly blanched and sat back as if recoiling from a blow. But before she could reply, he said, “You need not fear. For when slaves are found on Lord Helidon’s estate—thanks to your brilliant work this morning—the Archbishop will swing from a gibbet ending any plot he is working on.”
“More likely provoke it by backing him into a corner. If the church knows they have the numbers.”
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