He ignored the implied rebuke. “It’s an institution where I came from . . . America. We believe scholastics are better concentrated in larger numbers than here on Caedellium into a critical mass to generate new ideas.”
“Critical mass?”
“Sorry. In numbers large enough that their interactions allow them to have new ideas and clarify their own thinking more easily than by themselves or in smaller groups. It’s something I feel strongly about. I’d talked to Abbot Sistian about it, and we agreed to start by adding about twenty-five scholastics in three areas of study—mathematics, the study of the history and customs of different peoples and realms of Anyar, and the study of living creatures. The three to be organized in the departments of Mathematics, Nations, and Biology.”
Maera asked questions about why those three areas, either quickly grasping their potential importance or willing to take Yozef’s word. “I can see why you believe mathematics so important, Yozef, but I must warn you that most people will see it as merely intellectual puzzles with no application to their lives. I’ve listened to you and Cadwulf enough about how mathematics is applied, so why don’t you call it the Department of Applied Mathematics and be sure to emphasize utility?”
Within an hour, they similarly changed the other names to the Department of Biology and Medicine, and the Department of History and Societies. Maera went beyond his broad-stroke ideas on each of the areas and had intuited some of the rationales Yozef hadn’t mentioned to anyone else.
By the time they finished, they’d also added a Department of Apothecary and Chemistry. Yozef insisted the two were different, in that chemistry was dependent on rules and principles, while apothecary was little more than rote memorization of recipes.
“Yozef, no one on Caedellium, including myself, understands about your chemistry, but we all see what you’ve done with ether, kerosene, soap, and gunpowder, all of which you insist involves chemistry. I’ve heard you say that apothecary will eventually change into chemistry, so why not set up a department to speed it along? Doesn’t some of what an apothecary does relate to chemistry?”
“Probably to some extent. St. Sidryn’s library hasn’t many apothecary books, and I haven’t had the time or opportunity to look elsewhere. For all I know, there’s more basis for chemistry than I’m aware of in books elsewhere on Caedellium.”
“The answer is for you not to do the search yourself. We’ll hire an apprentice from one of the abbeys training apothecaries, such as St. Alonso’s Abbey in Hewell Province, a good place to start. He can scour libraries throughout Caedellium for everything known about apothecary and mixing substances. We’ll collect it here, along with enticing additional apprentices who can form the basis of your Department of Apothecary and Chemistry. Then, as you think it possible, you can begin introducing more chemistry knowledge.”
Yozef tugged on his lip, then chewed on his beard while thinking. “Yes, I hadn’t thought of that strategy. You’re right.” He chewed more. “Yes. A core of young apothecaries not yet stuck in the rut of their profession is the perfect place to start. I can put them to work experimenting with distillation, differential precipitations and extractions, elementary thermodynamics . . .”
Yozef lost Maera, as he ruminated in what she assumed were English words.
Well, she thought, looks like it’ll definitely be four departments.
Five minutes later, Yozef remembered Maera was in the room, and he realized another problem.
“All these ideas are wonderful, but there’s a stumbling block. The number of new scholastics will need to be larger. The abbot and I talked about twenty-five as all we could support to begin. I now think the number may need to go higher, perhaps forty or more. I doubt the abbey can help more, and I’d have to check with Cadwulf on the conditions of my enterprises to see how much more I could do.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Maera said. “I’ll write to Father and describe the university idea, offering reasons it would be advantageous for Keelan. You can write up a summary of your ideas, and we can get Abbot Sistian to write a supporting letter. I’m sure we can arrange for additional coin to reach the forty scholastics you believe is a better number to start with.”
Yozef stared at his wife. “Maera, and this is meant as a compliment, having you around is like having more hours in the day or even a second me. Too often, I come up with ideas I don’t have time to implement, and sometimes I’m simply bad at carrying through on plans. With you to help, I’m wondering if I’ve underestimated what’s possible.”
The rest of the meal and the evening, they were two colleagues planning a grand venture.
“Unfortunately, we won’t have access to more knowledge outside of Caedellium,” she rued.
“Damned Narthani again!” said Yozef. “Why do so many things have to keep coming back to them?”
“We all pray they’ll be gone someday. Until then, we can only do what we can do. And what we can do now is establish your university.”
Yozef sat back in his chair and scowled. “As good as all this sounds, someone needs to be in charge, a head of the project and the university itself. I don’t have time to do what I’m already involved in, so someone else would need to lead this. I’ll have to find someone to . . .” The solution was obvious before he finished the sentence. “Maera, is there any reason you couldn’t lead the university project?”
“Me? I’m not even a scholastic.”
“The leader of the university doesn’t have to be a scholastic. Often they are, but it’s not required. What’s needed is someone to lead, plan, and keep everything organized. I can’t imagine anyone better than you to get the project started. You’re smart enough to talk to scholastics in different areas, even if you don’t know details of their studies. Moreover, I’ve heard the abbot say you’re almost a scholastic in your own right on Caedellium history and customs. You’re the hetman’s daughter and the wife of the man providing much of the coin. Who else would be better?”
Maera sat considering. As seconds passed, he could see her face slowly flush, her eyes dance, one hand stroking her chin faster and faster. “I can do it. Woman are not usually in such leadership roles, although it’s not unheard of. Think of Diera being the lead medicant at St. Sidryn’s.” She pounded a fist into the other palm, raised both hands shoulder high, and almost danced in her chair. “I know I can do it.” She was talking to herself, her eyes focused on a distance. “I can hold my own with any scholastic. I’m the hetman’s daughter and the wife of Yozef Kolsko, so by those alone I have to be taken seriously. And by Merciful God, it sounds exciting!”
She jumped from her chair and hopped into Yozef’s lap, plopping a kiss on her surprised husband’s lips. “Yes, yes, I can do this, and I want to do it! Oh, Yozef, what an opportunity! It’s something important that can be mine. Even with you and Father supporting me, if it succeeds everyone will acknowledge Maera Kolsko-Keelan. Thank you, husband!”
Approval of additional funds came a sixday later from Hetman Keelan, and Maera formally became Chancellor of the University of Abersford. They agreed that the four planned departments each needed a leader. To begin, Cadwulf would lead Applied Mathematics, Diera Biology and Medicine, Maera History and Societies, and Yozef Apothecary and Chemistry. As the university staff grew, each could relinquish leadership once the department was established and a suitable candidate identified.
Yozef tempered Maera’s enthusiasm to expand rapidly, cautioning they needed to recruit carefully. At the same time, he contracted for new structures to house the university. This time the workers came from Caernford, Dyfeld Filtin being too busy for a project this size. It would take many months to finish the buildings, and recruitment would take even longer, but establishing the first university on Caedellium had begun.
Chapter 22: Secrets
Children
Yozef wasn’t completely comfortable that Maera’s diligence in the bedroom often seemed too much a duty. When he had such reservations, he usually chided
himself. The marriage was new, Maera had been inexperienced, and he knew she took “duties” seriously. While he didn’t know if she felt pleased by their couplings, he perceived that she was relaxing more, and there were worse things than a wife willing to have sex every night. Given Maera’s dedication to duty and the lack of birth control, the consequences were inevitable.
Yozef got the news one evening.
“I saw the Mertons today,” Yozef said, after Elian had served the evening meal and left. “They stopped at the shops so I could see the baby and hold him for a while. I must confess, it feels a little strange for me to have a son and not see him regularly. I suppose that will change if we have a child.”
“It’s no longer an ‘if,’ husband,” said Maera.
Her tone was composed, but he’d swear her eyes and mouth attempted to hide elation. He stared, his mind recognizing that she was telling him something.
“Uh . . . does that mean . . . ?”
“I believe so. I’ve missed my monthly bleeding and noticed my breasts are more tender. While it’s too early to be positive, I’m confident I’m with child.”
She took another bite of beef roast and, while chewing, broke off a piece of dark bread and lathered it with butter, only then sneaking a look at him.
Well, I gave him the news. Is he going to be pleased? What will he say? Maybe he doesn’t want children right now. Maybe I’m a total ninny!
Other thoughts were going through Yozef’s head.
Well, I knew it was going to happen. She’s certainly been dutiful enough to increase the odds of it. One child here and now another on the way. Good lord! How do I feel? Ambivalent. for sure. Thinking about the possibility of children and the reality aren’t the same.
Maera’s expression had become tense. He wasn’t saying anything.
Yozef noticed. Hell, no matter if I’m ambivalent, it’s a fact, and Maera Kolsko-Keelan, Scourge of the Unwary or not, needs to be reassured.
He pushed his chair back, went around the table to her, took her hand, and pulled her to her feet to envelop her in a tight embrace.
“What wonderful news, Maera. It was just so sudden to find not only that Bronwyn’s child was here, but now the news you’re pregnant.” He kissed her deeply and held her against him.
She sighed and hugged back. Husband or not, more thoughtful than most Caedelli men or not, gently respectful and affectionate to her or not, there was always the tinge of uncertainty about what he would do or say next.
They resumed the meal, Maera talking about how they needed to further expand the house now that children were really on the way, getting word to her family, how the good news would be welcome throughout the province, how she would need some new clothes once she began to swell, and on and on.
Yozef responded when it seemed appropriate, although his thoughts were elsewhere: How could they bring children into this world with all of the uncertainties about what the future might hold for Caedellium? How would his life change now that he would be a father twice over? How would Maera adjust her life when there was an infant to care for? Did high-caste Keelan women have daycare or wet nurses? Did Caedelli custom not expect sexual relations during pregnancy? Of those five, the first was unknowable, the next two would only be answered with time, the fourth Maera would handle, and the fifth a pregnant wife would answer later that evening.
Top Secrets
One troublesome issue hovered over the first months of their marriage: Maera’s inveterate inquisitiveness. Keeping his background story straight for causal encounters or even friends not overly curious, such as Carnigan and Cadwulf, or those who chose not to pry was one thing. Keeping everything secret from a wife, especially one like Maera, proved something else. Inconsistencies that others might have passed off, she remembered and probed further.
He hadn’t appreciated how hard it would be. The first few times, he tried covering his lapses as momentary slips of the tongue or the mind. A critical mistake was when he blamed her faulty memory. The set of her mouth and the toss of her head expressed her rejection of that possibility. For two sixdays, they danced around the issue. She quit hinting one day, as they walked home from Abersford. It was an hour before sunset. The onshore wind tugged at their clothing with a chill preceding dark clouds on the southern horizon.
The words came without preamble. “You’re hiding too much, Yozef,” she asserted.
He didn’t know what to say. This moment had been anticipated, with no escape plan formulated. They walked several hundred more yards without speaking. At a loss about what to do, he opted to delay.
“Maera, there are things I need to say to you, but right now I need time to think. Can we talk about this later?”
“Of course, husband.”
The last word was laced with insinuations of obligations.
No further word on the matter was mentioned again for several days. Their routine continued as before, until ...
Yozef’s gasps of pleasure accompanied several final thrusts, and he let his head sag next to Maera’s on the bed, his weight supported by arms and knees, their bodies pressed together. His breathing and heart rate slowed, as he stroked the opposite side of her head, her arms under his and her hands firm on his shoulders. He started to withdraw, but her arms slipped around his back, and her legs clutched at the backs of his, pinning him to her. He raised his head to look into her impassive face.
“What?”
“I haven’t pressed you these last few days, Yozef, but with a child coming, I think you’ve had time to think.”
“Think?” he said in a futile attempt to feign ignorance.
“About what you’re hiding from me.”
Christ! Talk about being ambushed. And not to mention the attempt to lay a guilt trip on me. Right after sex and knowing she’s pregnant.
She said nothing more but held him tight. He could have moved away, but, still connected as they were, his intuition told him this might be the best time, even if the position was unorthodox.
He kept stroking the side of her head and hair. “You’re right. There are things that I’ve kept secret. Not because I wanted to, but because I thought it best.”
“So you don’t trust me enough.”
He stared firmly into her eyes, their faces inches apart. “I trust you more than anyone I know, Maera. However, there are things I can’t tell anyone right now, no matter how much I want to. Maybe someday, and if that day comes and there’s only one person I can tell, it will be you. I know that’s not the answers you wanted, and I wish more than you can know that it was different, but it’s not. All I can ask is that you trust me.”
She was silent for a minute, still clutching him, her eyes searching his face in the candlelight. Finally, she sighed, and her face softened. “You’re right, it’s not the answers I wanted, but God tells us in the Word not to expect answers to all our questions. While I won’t pretend it doesn’t bother me, it’s something I believe I can live with.” Her grip eased, her hands rubbed his back, and her heels ran along the backs of his thighs. “I don’t pretend to understand you. Still, as different as you sometimes seem, I know you’re honest and caring.
“You’re still the mysterious Yozef Kolsko, even if people in Abersford and St. Sidryn’s are accustomed to you. I suppose I have to accept there will always be things I don’t understand. The Word also says a person is judged by his deeds, and you’ve given me no reason to judge you harshly.”
Yozef sighed with relief. I’m going to get away with it.
“My people say, ‘You know the tree by its fruit.’”
Maera laughed and gave him a playful tap on the cheek. “There you go again. Just when I’m being noble and understanding, you go and pull a phrase or a piece of knowledge out of the air.”
“I’m sorry, I—”
She laughed again. “No! Don’t apologize. It makes me feel like I’ve done something wrong and makes me wonder if I should have reacted differently.”
“You react as comes na
turally to you, Maera. All you have to do is be yourself. Maera Kolsko-Keelan is the only person I want you to be.”
“Now you’re trying to flatter me. It’s working, but I’m afraid we’ll have to uncouple. My legs are starting to cramp.”
Yozef rolled to one side, keeping one arm under Maera. She stretched her legs, then turned to him, and they embraced, legs intertwined.
“I’ll try to be patient, but this doesn’t mean I’m not going to stay curious.” She poked him in the abdomen with a finger. “There isn’t anything you can tell me?”
“You don’t find a contradiction in telling me you’ll try to be patient and then in the next breath asking a question?”
“Just this once?”
“All right, but I’m serious, Maera. This will be the last time until the day comes when I believe I can tell you more.”
She nodded eagerly.
“The secrets have to do with where my home was and how I got here. They have nothing to do with any intentions for anything except the best for Caedellium and its people. I know that doesn’t tell you anything you didn’t already suspect, but that’s the best I do.”
She hugged him tighter. “One thing to remember, Yozef, you have a home. It’s here with me, wherever we are, be it here in Abersford, in this house, in bed with me, or wherever we’re together.”
Chapter 23: Raid into Moreland
Memas Erdelin
He pushed his horse up the inclined road, then reined in only momentarily before spurring again down into a wide valley. The twenty-man escort strove to keep up with their commander, who was a superb horseman and relished long, punishing rides. They would change exhausted horses in another six miles and continue to Hanslow, the Eywell Province capital. His men would have preferred making the sixty-mile trip from Preddi City in two days, but Erdelin wanted to get back to his headquarters as soon as possible. The Eywellese leaders had orders to meet with him in Hanslow at sundown.
The Pen and the Sword (Destiny's Crucible Book 2) Page 27
