Mortalis dw-4

by Robert Salvatore

  Constance was gone in the blink of an eye.

  "I hope she made you as happy in the moment of conceiving the children as you made her now," Duke Kalas remarked. Danube turned a dangerous stare on him, warning him that he might again be crossing the very thin line that separated the words of a friend to a friend from the words of a Duke to his King.

  "I am weary of the road, my friend," Prince Midalis told Andacanavar as the two at last came into the more familiar reaches of Vanguard, nearing home. "I do not understand how you can live such a nomadic life."

  "It is the way of my people," Andacanavar explained. "We move to follow the caribou herds and the elk, to escape winter's bite in the far north and summer's plague of insects in the south."

  Midalis nodded and smiled, obviously unconvinced of the benefits of such a life.

  "This road was more lonely than most," the ranger went on. "Few contacts, out of necessity. Trust me, my friend, you will enjoy another such journey someday, after the plague has passed, when we can dine with the farmers along the road or speak with the hardy woodsmen of the Timberlands across a tavern table."

  "And perhaps we shall do just that," said Midalis. "But for now, I am glad to be home."

  Soon after, the pair came in sight of St. Belfour, walking their mounts along the trail climbing to the lea that lay before the abbey.

  And then they saw them, the refugees, strewn across the lawn before St. Belfour, Miserable, plague-ridden wretches, many near death.

  The rosy plague had beaten Prince Midalis back to his homeland.

  "Would that I was born with a womb," Duke Kalas snickered as Constance walked by him later that night in a torch-lit corridor in Castle Ursal, "and all the charms to catch a nobleman's fancy."

  Constance glared at him, but he relieved the tension with a burst of laughter. "I blame you hot at all," Kalas went on.

  "And I do not appreciate your sarcasm," she coldly replied. "Can you deny the responsibility of my decision? Would you have Honce-the-Bear without a proper line of succession should King Danube die? "

  Kalas laughed again. "Pragmatism? Or personal gain?"

  "Can they not be one and the same? "

  "I am not angry with you, dear Constance," the Duke explained. "Jealous, perhaps, and filled with admiration. I believe that you became Pregnant by King Danube deliberately, both times. You conceived Merwick on the barge south from Palmaris, when you knew that another woman had caught Danube's oft-wandering eye." He noted that Constance did wince a bit at the reference to Jilseponie. "And so you struck your love coup, and brilliantly, and you have patiently awaited the time to gain the declaration that you hold so dear."

  Constance stood, steel jawed, staring at him, not blinking.

  "You used those tools and weapons available to you to insinuate yourself into the royal line," Duke Kalas stated bluntly, and he gave a great bow and swept his arm out wide. He staggered a bit as he did, and only then did Constance catch on that the man might have indulged himself with a few potent drinks.

  She started to comment on that, but stopped herself. How could she judge Kalas at this unsettling time, after the terrifying incident in the garden? In truth, Constance, too, would have liked to spend that night curled up with a bottle!

  "You can think whatever you wish of me," she said instead calmly, "but I do love him-"

  "You always have," Duke Kalas replied. "And do not misunderstand me, for I'll say nothing to King Danube to change his mind or his course, nor do I consider that course ill for Honce-the-Bear."

  "You judge me," Constance accused, "but I do love him, with all of my heart."

  "And he?"

  Constance looked away, then shook her head. "He does not love me," she admitted. "He'll not even share my bed any longer, though he proclaims that we remain friends-and indeed, he treats me well."

  "He asked you to ride today," Duke Kalas said, and his voice took on a different, sympathetic tone.

  "Danube has always held me dear as a friend," Constance said. "But he does not love me. Never that. He loves the memory of Vivian. He loves…"

  "That woman," Kalas finished, his voice low. "The hero."

  His obvious enmity surprised Constance. She was no friend of Jilseponie Wyndon's, of course, but it seemed from Duke Kalas' tone that he cared for the woman even less than she. Wounded pride, Constance figured, for hadn't Jilseponie refused his advances in Palmaris?

  But then Kalas surprised her even more.

  "Pity the kingdom if King Danube finds his love," he said.

  Constance stared at him curiously,

  "The marriage of Church and Crown," Kalas said dryly, "the end of the world."

  "If you feel that way, then it is good that you do not oppose me," Constance said after a long and considering pause. She gave a little snicker and started away. "A pity that you have no connections in Vanguard," came Kalas' voice behind her, and she stopped and turned on him suspiciously. "Else you could eliminate the last barrier to your glory."

  Duke Kalas bowed again and wisely ran away.

  His remark had been said in jest, Constance knew, but still, she could not help but retrace the actions that had brought her to this point. She was not without guilt, but that was only a minor twinge against the reality of her current situation. The kingdom was better off for her deliberate course, and now Constance had insinuated her bloodline, her children, into the royal line. Even if neither of her sons actually got to the throne, their children would remain in the line of ascent, and so on throughout the coming generations.

  One day in the future, near or far, Constance Pemblebury would be remembered as the Queen Mother of Honce-the-Bear.

  Chapter 33

  The Abandoned Flock

  He looked at his lover and blamed himself. There was no avoiding it. Dainsey had wanted to come back to Palmaris for a visit-the plague had arrived in all force in Caer Tinella, anyway-but Roger had argued against the course.

  But he hadn't argued strenuously enough, and the two had traveled south. Now, less than a month later, Dainsey stood beside him on wobbly legs, her eyes sunken and listless, her brow beaded with the sweat of a fever, her body marked by rosy splotches ringed in white-though Roger had taken great pains to cover the woman enough to hide those telltale marks before venturing here to St. Precious.

  Still, it would not be enough, he knew, to get them through the gatehouse. They had been admitted over the tussie-mussie bed immediately, for Abbot Braumin's invitation to them remained in force. However, inside the gatehouse came a second test, where several monks, trained with soul stones, sent out their spirits to inspect any who would cross into the abbey.

  With that uncomfortable scrutiny ended, Roger now could only wait and hope.

  The minutes stretched on and on, and Roger understood that if the monks had failed to detect the illness, they would have already let them in. No, they knew the truth of it, he realized, and had gone to speak with Abbot Braumin.

  Roger knew what was coming even as the small panel slid away at the end of the narrow gatehouse corridor, and the grim face of a brother appeared beyond.

  "You may enter, but the woman cannot," came the voice-a voice that Roger recognized.

  "She is my heart and my soul, Brother Castinagis," Roger argued.

  "She is thick with plague," came the reply, firm but somewhat tempered by compassion. "She cannot enter St. Precious. I am sorry, my friend."

  "I want to speak with Abbot Braumin." "Then come in."

  Roger looked at Dainsey. "What of her?" he asked.

  "She cannot enter," Castinagis said again. "Nor can she remain within the gatehouse. Send her back out, beyond the flower bed."

  Roger considered the course. Things beyond that flower bed were not pretty, with plague victims milling about and-since the town guard would come nowhere near them-lawlessness abundant. He had to take Dainsey back to their rented room at The Giant's Bones, he knew.

  "Tell Abbot Braumin that I will soon return," he said to C
astinagis, lowering his voice to show his anger. "Alone."

  "If you go back beyond the flower bed, then you will be subjected to another spiritual inspection before you are allowed to enter the abbey," came Castinagis' unyielding response.

  "I will be gone but a few minutes," Roger argued.

  "A few seconds would be too long a time," came the answer, and the panel at the end of the corridor slammed shut.

  Roger's heart sank with that sound. He had hoped that he, as a personal friend of Braumin's, would find some assistance here, some of the compassion that St. Precious was not lending to those other unfortunate victims. He had hoped that his connections with the powerful churchmen would save Dainsey.

  But now, even though he hadn't yet uttered one word to Braumin, Roger was being forced to face the truth, the fact that not Braumin, not Viscenti, not any of them, would do anything at all to help Dainsey, that her affliction would bring to her the same end as everyone else so diseased.

  It took Roger a long while to find enough strength to lead his dear Dainsey back out of St. Precious. Never in his life, not even when he had been caught by Kos-kosio Begulne of the powries, had he felt so helpless and so wretched.

  "There's not many goin' into the city o' late," the ferry pilot said to the leader of the curious group of men as they neared the Palmaris wharf. They wore robes like those of Abellican monks, except that theirs were black with red hoods instead of the normal brown on brown. "Den o' sickness, it is!" the pilot said ironically with a cough.

  "Do you think you can hide from it?" the leader of the group, Marcalo De'Unnero, said to the man, his voice a tantalizing whisper. "The rosy plague is a punishment from God, and God sees all. If you are a sinner, my friend, then the plague will find you, no matter how deep a hole you find to climb in."

  The pilot, obviously shaken, waved his hands and shook his head. " Not a sinner, I ain't!" he cried. "But I'm not wantin' to hear ye no more."

  "But hear me you must!" De'Unnero said, grabbing the man by the front of his dirty tunic and lifting him up to his tiptoes. "There is no place for you to hide, friend. Salvation lies only in repentance!" he finished loudly, and all the hundred red-hooded men behind him, the Brothers Repentanttheir numbers swollen by the rush of eager townsfolk to join their ranks, for they, after all, by De'Unnero's own words, held the secret to healthcheered wildly.

  "Repent!" De'Unnero yelled, and he drove the man to his knees.

  "I will, I will!" the terrified pilot replied.

  De'Unnero lifted his other hand, which was now the paw of a tiger, so that the pilot could see it clearly. "Swear fealty to the Church!" he demanded. "The true Church of St. Abelle, the Church of the Brothers Repentant."

  Eyes wide at the sight of the deadly appendage, the poor pilot began to tremble and cry, and he even kissed De'Unnero's hand.

  Behind De'Unnero, the Brothers Repentant howled for blood. They began jumping so violently that the ferry rocked dangerously. They began punching each other; several stripped off their black robes and walked through the rest of the gathering, accepting slap after slap so that their bare skin reddened.

  "We are your salvation," De'Unnero said to the trembling man.

  "Yes, master."

  "Yet you took our money for passage," De'Unnero went on.

  "Kill him, Brother Truth!" several men yelled.

  "Take it back!" the pilot begged, pulling his purse from his belt and thrusting it into De'Unnero's hand. "I swear, Brother Truth, if I'd'a known, I'd not taken a copper bear. On me mum's soul, I swear."

  De'Unnero took the purse and eyed the pilot dangerously a bit longer. Then he shoved the man down to the deck. "Get us in to dock," he said disgustedly, and he moved forward. The city was coming into clear view now, the buildings showing through the morning fog.

  His anger was feigned, though, for in truth, the former Bishop of Palmaris was in a fine mood this particularly sweet day. He and his ferocious brood had swept across the southland, all across Yorkey, scouring town after town of infidels, and taking care to avoid any Abellican abbeys-with the sole exception of Abbot Olin's St. Bondabruce. As De'Unnero had guessed, Olin had been quite sympathetic to his cause, and while the man hadn't openly endorsed the Brothers Repentant, hadn't even let them into his abbey, neither had he opposed them and he had secretly met with De'Unnero. That meeting had gone wonderfully, as far as De'Unnero was concerned, for he hadn't missed the intrigue on Olin's face when he had hinted that he might know the way to Pimaninicuit, the far-off isle holding the treasure equivalent of the hoards of a hundred, hundred kings on its gem-covered beaches.

  But those were thoughts for another day, the fierce master knew. For now, before him lay the most coveted jewel, the city of his greatest triumph and greatest defeat. Here lay Palmaris, mighty Palmaris, thick with the plague and ripe for the words of the Brothers Repentant.

  Marcalo De'Unnero had not forgotten the treatment the folk here had given to him, nor the stern words of Abbot Braumin when the fool had expelled him from the city.

  No, De'Unnero had not forgotten anything about Palmaris, the city in which all of this trouble with the plague had really begun. The city where Markwart and the old ways had been abandoned for this new foolishness. The city that embraced Braumin, and thus Jojonah and thus Avelyn and their insane ideas that the Church should be the healer of the common folk.

  De'Unnero spat as he considered the irony of that goal. Where were the healers of the common folk now, this kinder and more compassionate Church? Hidden away, by all reports, behind thick walls and stinking flower beds.

  Their cowardice would be their undoing, De'Unnero knew. Their cowardice would deliver the desperate, abandoned people of Palmaris to him, would make them heed his words of potential salvation.

  Then Abbot Braumin and his foolish friends would come to understand what their errant beliefs had bought them.

  Yes, this was a particularly sweet day.

  Roger suffered through the indignity of another spiritual rape in the gateouse of St. Precious, then stormed out when at last he was cleared to titer. house of St. Precious, then stor enter.

  "Where is Abbot Braumin?" he demanded of Brother Castinagis, who was again manning the gate.

  Castinagis snorted and shook his head, patting poor Roger to calm him. "He will see you," he assured the man, but Roger shoved him away.

  "He will hear me!" Roger retorted. "And woe to those who turned Dainsey away!" Roger turned and stomped off, heading for the main building and the office of his friend.

  "Abbot Braumin already knows," Brother Castinagis called softly behind him, stopping Roger in his tracks. "He knew even as we were inspecting you and the woman, even as we were following his orders that no one enter St. Precious without such inspection. He knew that your woman friend was turned away before it ever happened. Do not look so surprised, Roger! Have you forgotten that similar treatment was afforded Colleen Kilronney when Jilseponie brought her to our door? "

  "B-but…" Roger stammered, and his thoughts were all jumbled. "I am your friend."

  "Indeed," said Castinagis, with no trace of sarcasm, "a valued friend, and it pains me, as I'm sure it pains Abbot Braumin, that we cannot help your woman companion. Do you not understand? This is the rosy plague; we have no weapons against it."

  "What am I to do?" Roger asked. "Am I to sit by and simply watch Dainsey die? "

  "You would be wiser by far to stay here with us," came a soft voice behind them. Roger turned to see his old friend Braumin Herde emerging from the building. The man had aged noticeably in the last year, the first signs of silver streaking his curly black hair, and deep lines running out from the sides of his eyes. "There are plague houses which will make your Dainsey comfortable. I can arrange it. You need not return to her."

  Roger stared at him incredulously.

  "There is nothing you can do for her," Braumin went on. He moved closer and tried to put a comforting arm on Roger's shoulder, but Roger danced away. "And contact with her great
ly endangers you."

  "There must be some answer…" Roger started to argue, shaking his head.

  "There is nothing," Abbot Braumin said sternly. "Only to hide, and you must hide with us."

  "Dainsey needs me," Roger argued.

  "You will do nothing more than watch her die," Castinagis said.

  Roger turned back to him, his expression grim and determined. "Then that is what I must do," he declared. "I must watch her die. I must hold her hand and bid her farewell on her journey."

  "Those are a fool's words!" Castinagis cried.

  Roger started to shout back at him, but he hadn't the strength. He stuttered over several beginnings, but then just threw his hands up and wailed. Then, his legs giving out beneath him, he fell to his knees, sobbing. Both monks rushed to him immediately.

  "I will arrange for her care," Abbot Braumin promised.

  "You will stay with us. Among friends," Castinagis added.

  Roger considered their words, their good intentions, for a brief moment; but any comfort or hope they tried to impart was fast washed away by an image of Dainsey, Roger's dear Dainsey, the woman he had come to love so dearly, lying feverish on a bed and calling out for him.

  That was a cry that Roger Lockless, whatever the potential danger, could not ignore.

  "No!" he growled, and he stubbornly pulled himself up to his feet. "No, if you cannot help her, then I will find someone else who can."

  "There is no one," Braumin said softly. "Nothing."

  "Then I will stay with her," Roger snarled back at him, "to the end."

  Castinagis started to say something, but Abbot Braumin cut him short with a wave of his hand and a nod. They had seen this behavior before, of course, in Jilseponie, and so it was not unexpected that one who was not of the Church could not see the greater good against the immediate pain.