by David Weber
“Perhaps Archbishop Praidwyn will be able to inspire the Lord Protector to be of somewhat greater assistance,” he said, then smiled. “And if he can’t, there’s always the Sword of Schueler, isn’t there?”
“Indeed, Your Grace,” Rayno agreed with an answering smile.
“And Operation Rakurai?”
“The men have been selected,” Rayno said in a much graver voice. “All of them have been carefully examined and vetted, Your Grace, and I have their dossiers for you to consider at your convenience. The arrangements to deliver them are almost complete, as well. Once you’ve made your final selections, we’ll be able to move rapidly to put them in place.”
“You’re satisfied with them?”
“With all of them, Your Grace,” Rayno replied firmly. “We haven’t told any of them exactly what Rakurai will entail, of course. I’ve tried to provide you with at least twice the number of recruits you requested in order to give you the greatest possible latitude in making your final choices. In addition, of course, I’m sure we’ll be able to find… other uses for men with such deep faith and fervor. But as you’ve so rightly stressed from the beginning, security is of critical importance, for this mission especially. We can’t afford to have anyone not directly involved in it privy to any of its details.”
“But you’re confident all of them will be willing to undertake the mission when the time comes?”
“I’m certain of it, Your Grace. These men are truly committed to the will of God and to the Archangels’ service and Mother Church, and they know abomination when they see it.” The archbishop shook his head. “They won’t flinch in the face of Shan-wei herself, Your Grace, far less the prospect of any mortal foe.”
“Good, Wyllym,” Zhaspahr Clyntahn said softly. “Good.” . II.
HMS Royal Charis, 58, and Archbishop’s Palace, City of Tellesberg, Kingdom of Old Charis
“Thank God,” Nahrmahn Baytz said with quiet, heartfelt fervor as he watched the Tellesberg waterfront creep steadily (if slowly) closer. “I’ve come to the conclusion, all of Nahrmahn Gareyt’s dreadful novels about buccaneer kingdoms notwithstanding, that while I may be an island prince, I am not a swashbuckling one.”
“Don’t worry,” Cayleb Ahrmahk reassured him. “I doubt anyone’s going to expect you to be one. In fact, the mind boggles at the thought.”
“Oh?” Nahrmahn looked at his emperor with raised eyebrows. “Are you implying that I cut a less than romantic figure, Your Majesty?”
“Heavens, no!” Cayleb looked shocked at the suggestion. “As a matter of fact, I think you cut a much more romantic figure than you did before we left Cherayth. Or a considerably thinner one, anyway.”
“Don’t tease him, Your Majesty,” Princess Ohlyvya scolded. “And as for you, Nahrmahn, you cut quite romantic enough a figure for me. And I’d better not catch you cutting romantic figures for anyone else!”
“Somehow I don’t think you’re saving him from being teased, Ohlyvya,” Cayleb pointed out.
“I didn’t say I was trying to. With all due respect, Your Majesty, I was simply pointing out that he belongs to me. If there’s any teasing to do, I’ll do it.”
Cayleb smiled, although it was true Nahrmahn had dropped quite a few pounds during the long, strenuous voyage. He didn’t doubt for a moment that the Emeraldian could scarcely wait to get his feet on dry land once more.
If the truth be told, Cayleb was more anxious than usual to get ashore himself. The trip from Chisholm had been the most exhausting voyage he could remember, with one ugly storm after another, and his role as a mere passenger had kept him effectively confined below decks the entire time. For some reason, Captain Gyrard seemed to object to having his sovereign on the quarterdeck when everyone had to be lashed into place with lifelines. After the first couple of real blows, Cayleb had discovered he lacked the heart to overrule the captain’s obviously sincere (and worried) objections and accepted his banishment below. Not that the captain hadn’t had a valid point, he supposed. The mountainous seas had frequently reared as high as twenty-five or thirty feet, and their power had been mind-numbing. The unending succession of impacts had left Royal Charis ’ crew and passengers feeling as if they’d been beaten black and blue, and the ship’s carpenter had been kept busy dealing with a host of minor repairs. The boatswain had been kept busy, as well, as sails and gear carried away aloft, and one of their escorting galleons had disappeared for three days. If not for the imagery from Merlin’s SNARCs, Cayleb would have assumed she’d gone down, and at one point, as his flagship had driven before the wind under nothing but bare poles, giving up heartbreaking miles of her hard-won western progress, he hadn’t been at all sure Royal Charis wasn’t going to founder herself-a point he’d been very careful not to discuss with Sharleyan at the time.
The main reason he wanted off the ship, though, had nothing to do with all of that and everything to do with the tasks awaiting him. One of them, in particular, promised to be especially ticklish, and the timing window for it was going to be interesting.
He watched the oared galleys that served as tugs rowing strongly out to meet his flagship and heard the cheers of welcome rising from their companies and his smile grew a bit broader.
“Just be patient, Nahrmahn,” he said soothingly. “We’ll have you ashore in no time. Unless one of those tugs accidentally rams us and sinks us, of course.”
***
Sir Rayjhis Yowance, Earl of Gray Harbor, was generally recognized as the First Councilor of the Empire of Charis, although the title tended to change off with Baron Green Mountain when the court was in Cherayth. Now he stood watching the galleys nudge Royal Charis closer to the stone quay and felt a vast surge of relief. Throwing lines flew ashore, followed by thick hawsers that dropped over the waiting bollards. The ship took tension on the mooring hawsers with her own capstans, fenders squeaked and groaned between her and the quay’s tall side, and a gangplank went across to her bulwark-level entry port.
Gray Harbor had commanded his own ship in his time, and he recognized the signs of heavy weather when he saw them. Much of the galleon’s paint had been stripped away to expose patches of raw wood; sea slime streaked her hull; one of her quarter boats was missing, the falls lashed tightly across the davits where the sea had stove in the vanished boat; the railing of her sternwalk had been badly damaged; two of her topsails had the newer, less stained look of replacement canvas; and one of her forward gunport lids had been replaced by the ship’s carpenter. The bare, unpainted wood looked like a missing tooth in the neat row of the galleon’s gunports, and as he looked at the other four galleons of her escort, he saw equal or worse signs of how hard their voyage had been.
I know that boy has an iron stomach, the earl reflected, but I’ll bet even he had his anxious moments on this one. Thank God I didn’t know anything about it until he got here! I’ve got gray hairs enough as it is.
Gray Harbor knew he tended to worry about what Cayleb airily called “the details” of keeping the Empire running. That was his job, when it came down to it, and he was well aware that whatever Cayleb might call them, the emperor knew exactly how important they truly were. Nonetheless, there were times he felt a distinct temptation to say “I told you so,” and looking at the battered ship at quayside was definitely one of those moments.
I don’t care how much sense it made from a diplomatic perspective , he thought now, sourly, this nonsense about their spending half the year here in Tellesberg and the other half in Cherayth is just that-nonsense! Ships sink- even the best of them, sometimes, damn it-and if anyone should’ve known that, it’s Cayleb Ahrmahk. But, no, he had to throw that into the marriage proposal, too. And then he and Sharley- and Alahnah-go sailing back and forth on the same damned ship. So if it sinks, we lose all three of them!
He knew he was being silly, and he didn’t really care. Not at the moment. And he didn’t feel any particular responsibility to be rational, either. Certainly, this time Sharleyan was on a different ship… b
ut that only meant she’d have the opportunity to sink on her own on the way back from Corisande. Assuming, he reminded himself, HMS Dawn Star hadn’t already sunk somewhere in the Chisholm Sea, taking Empress and Crown Princess with her.
Oh, stop that!
He shook his head, feeling his disapproving frown disappearing into a grin as Cayleb Ahrmahk came bounding down the gangplank in complete disregard of the careful formality of an emperor’s proper arrival in his capital city. The trumpeters, as surprised as anyone by Cayleb’s diversion from the anticipated order of disembarkation, began a belated fanfare as the youthful monarch’s feet found the quay. Half the assembled courtiers looked offended, another quarter looked surprised, and the remainder were roaring as lustily with laughter as any of the galleon’s seamen or watching longshoremen.
You’re not going to change them… and even if you could, you know you really wouldn’t, Gray Harbor told himself. Besides, it’s part of the magic. And -his expression sobered- it’s part of their legend. Part of what makes this whole thing work, and they wouldn’t have it if God hadn’t given it to them. So why don’t you just do what they obviously do and trust God to go on getting it right?
“Welcome home, Your Maj-” he began, starting a formal bow, only to be interrupted as a pair of powerful arms which were obviously as unconcerned with protocol as the rest of the emperor enveloped him in a huge hug.
“It’s good to be home, Rayjhis!” a voice said in his ear. The arms around him tightened, two sinewy hands thumped him once each on the back, hard, and then Cayleb stood back. He laid those hands on Gray Harbor’s shoulders, looking into his face, and smiled that enormous, infectious Ahrmahk smile.
“What say you and I get back to the Palace out of all this racket”-he twitched his head to take in the cheering crowds who were doing their best to deafen everyone in Tellesberg-“and find ourselves some tall, cold drinks while we catch each other up on all the news?”
***
“Thank you for joining us, Paityr,” Archbishop Maikel Staynair said as Bryahn Ushyr ushered Paityr Wylsynn into his office once again.
The intendant began to smile in acknowledgment, but then his face went suddenly neutral as he realized Hainryk Waignair, the elderly Bishop of Tellesberg, and Emperor Cayleb were already present.
“As you can see,” Staynair continued, watching Wylsynn’s expression, “we’ve been joined by a couple of additional guests. That’s because we have something rather… unusual to discuss with you. Something which may require quite a lot of convincing, I’m afraid. So, please, come in and have a seat. You, too, Bryahn.”
Ushyr seemed unsurprised by the invitation, and he touched Wylsynn’s elbow, startling the young Schuelerite back into motion. The two of them crossed to Staynair’s desk to kiss his ring respectfully, then settled into two of the three still unoccupied chairs arranged to face the archbishop and his other guests.
“Allow me to add my thanks to Maikel’s, Father,” Cayleb said. “And not just for joining us today. I’m well aware of how much my House and my Kingdom-the entire Empire-owe to your compassion and open-mindedness. To be honest, that awareness is one of the reasons for this meeting.”
“I beg your pardon, Your Majesty?” Wylsynn’s expression was a combination of surprise and puzzlement.
The emperor had arrived back in Tellesberg only yesterday afternoon, and with all that had happened since he and the empress had left Old Charis for Chisholm, there must have been a virtual whirlwind of details and decisions requiring his attention. So what was he doing anywhere except the halls of Tellesberg Palace? If he wanted to meet with Archbishop Maikel or any of the rest of them, he could easily have summoned them to the palace rather than meeting them here. For that matter, how had he gotten to Archbishop Maikel’s office without anyone noticing it? And where were the Imperial Guardsmen who should be keeping an eye on him?
“In answer to one of the several questions I’m sure are swirling around inside that active brain of yours,” Cayleb said, “there’s a tunnel between Tellesberg Palace and the Cathedral. It’s been there for the better part of two centuries now, and I’m not the first monarch who’s made use of it. Admittedly, we’re using it quite a bit more now than we used to, and we never made use of the tunnel between the Cathedral and the Archbishop’s Palace before the, um, recent change in management.” He smiled infectiously. “I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to discover there were similar tunnels between a lot of cathedrals and a lot of palaces. Prince Nahrmahn’s confirmed that there’s one in Eraystor, at any rate.”
“I see, Your Majesty.” Wylsynn knew his voice still sounded puzzled, and Cayleb chuckled.
“You see that much, you mean, Father,” he said. “You’re still at sea about the rest of it, though, aren’t you?”
“I’m afraid so, Your Majesty,” Wylsynn admitted.
“All will become clear shortly, Father. In fact,” the emperor’s expression sobered suddenly, “a great many things are about to become clear to you. Before we get into that, however, Maikel has a few things to say to you.”
Cayleb sat back in his chair, passing the conversation over to the archbishop, and Wylsynn turned to look at the head of the Church of Charis.
“What we’re about to tell you, Father,” Staynair’s voice was as sober as the emperor’s expression, “is going to come as a shock. In fact, even someone with your faith is going to find parts of it very difficult to believe… or to accept, at least. And I know-know from personal, firsthand experience, believe me-that it will completely change the way in which you look at the world. The decision to tell you wasn’t lightly made, nor was it made solely by the men you see in this room at this moment. The truth is that I sent you to Saint Zherneau’s for more than one reason, my son. I did send you there because of the spiritual crisis you faced, and I was absolutely honest with you when I told you I’d experienced a similar crisis many years ago and found answers to it at Saint Zherneau’s.
“What I didn’t tell you at that time was the way in which what I learned at Saint Zherneau’s changed my faith. I believe it broadened and deepened that faith, yet honesty compels me to say it might just as easily have destroyed my belief forever, had it been presented to me in even a slightly different fashion. And the second reason I sent you to Father Zhon and Father Ahbel was to give them the opportunity to meet you. To come to know you. To be brutally honest, to evaluate you… and how you might react to the same knowledge.”
Wylsynn sat very still, eyes fixed on the archbishop’s face, and somewhere deep inside he felt a taut, singing tension. That tension rose, twisting higher and tighter, and his right hand wrapped its fingers around his pectoral scepter.
“The reason for this meeting tonight is that the Brethren decided it would be best to share that same knowledge with you. Not the safest thing to do, perhaps, and not necessarily the wisest, but the best. The Brethren feel-as I do-that you deserve that knowledge, yet it’s also a two-edged sword. There are dangers in what we’re about to tell you, my son, and not just spiritual ones. There are dangers for us, for you, and for all the untold millions of God’s children living on this world or who may ever live upon it, and I fear it may bring you great pain. Yet I also believe it will ultimately bring you even greater joy, and in either case, I would never inflict it upon you if not for my deep belief that one of the reasons God sent you to Charis in the first place was to receive exactly this knowledge.”
He paused, and Wylsynn drew a shaky breath. He looked around the other faces, saw the same solemnity in all of them, and a part of him wanted to stop the archbishop before he could utter another word. There was something terrifying about the stillness, about those expressions, and he realized he believed every word Staynair had already said. Yet behind his terror, beyond the fear, lay something else. Trust.
“If your purpose was to impress me with the seriousness of whatever you’re about to tell me, Your Eminence, you’ve succeeded,” he said after a moment, and felt almost surprised his voi
ce didn’t quiver around the edges.
“Good,” Cayleb said, reclaiming the thread of the conversation, and Wylsynn’s eyes went to the emperor. “But before we get any further into this, there’s one other person who needs to be party to the discussion.”
Wylsynn’s eyebrows rose, but before he could frame the question, even to himself, the door between Staynair’s spacious office and Ushyr’s much more humble adjoining cubicle opened and a tall, blue-eyed man in the cuirass and chain mail of the Imperial Guard stepped through it.
The intendant’s eyes widened in shock and disbelief. Everyone in Tellesberg knew Merlin Athrawes had been sent to Zebediah and Corisande to protect Empress Sharleyan and Crown Princess Alahnah. At that moment, he was almost seven thousand miles from Tellesberg Palace as a wyvern might have flown. He couldn’t possibly be here!
Yet he was.
“Good afternoon, Father Paityr,” Merlin said in his deep voice, one hand stroking his fierce mustachios. “As I told you once in King Haarahld’s presence, I believe in God, I believe God has a plan for all men, everywhere, and I believe it’s the duty of every man and woman to stand and contend for Light against the Darkness. That was the truth, as you confirmed for yourself, but I’m afraid I wasn’t able to tell you all the truth then. Today I can.”
