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DerynifanK

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Two Kingdoms 29: Returns

Started by DoctorM, December 14, 2022, 02:40:34 PM

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DoctorM

TWO KINGDOMS 29: RETURNS

Author's Note: This is the twenty-seventh part of an AU construction about a very different post-1120 Gwynedd, where the coronation challenge at Kelson's coronation went rather differently--- very differently. This episode falls immediately after "Rules of the Game". As always, input and comments are very much appreciated. I do like hearing from anyone who reads these episodes.


****

All morning the Shadow Queen has whirled and kicked and swooped across the guardroom floor, the steppe dances driven by drums and eastern flutes. Blonde hair falls damp across her shoulders, and she's looking back at her women sitting there on benches.

"Since I was a girl," Charissa says. She's not out of breath yet, but she's getting there. "I've been doing this since I was eight or nine. My father didn't know whether to applaud the dancing or be horrified at what I was learning. But it's worth it. I do this 'til I can't walk, and if I don't do this, there'll be homicide whenever I have to deal with people. This is what we do here.  You lot— you're my ladies, and you're not here to do embroidery and read prayer books. If your families ever want you back, you're going to know how to ride and hawk and dance like this. If you learn anything from me at all, it'll be how to be scary. Trust me on that."

Charissa points a long finger at one of her women. "You— you're pouring. I want the Fianna white." She looks over the other five.  "You, blonde girl, Kenna— over here."

The girl Kenna freezes for an instant and then comes over with bowed head. All of les chiennes are in hose and men's shirts today, and they're most of them still uneasy about being seen dressed as garconnes. Respectability still haunts them, even when the Queen knows all their secrets. Charissa lets her stiletto drop from a sleeve and hands it over. Kenna looks up at her with wide eyes.

Charissa tilts her head. "You've held a knife before," she says. "But this is my blade— Christian and I got matching ones a long time ago. He taught me to use it, and now I'm teaching you. Turn around."

Two of the other ladies-in-waiting look at one another and smirk, and then go rigid as the queen's eyes rake over them.

Charissa leans across the girl's shoulder and grasps her wrist. "Hold it like this," she says, "Across your palm— thumb there, elbow here, weight on that foot, It's a stiletto, not a dagger. It has a point, not an edge. Keep it held low." Her fingers slide back and up and cup the girl's elbow. "And...thrust and turn. When it goes in, you turn it. Always keep moving. Never just stand there, always keep moving." Her hair falls over the neck of Kenna's shirt. "See how easy? If you ever go back to Marluk country, they'll all think you're dangerous but worth pursuing. Lady Death is always a good pose for a tall girl."

Kenna looks back and up. She's halfway between smitten and terrified. "Your Grace...is that what my lord of Kheldour says he thinks about you?"

Charissa laughs. "Since I was about fourteen."  She stops and closes her eyes for a moment. There's a point of crimson light in her mind's eye. She tilts her head and nods. "And...speak of the devil. Someone's home again."  She pushes Kenna's arm down. "Keep it at your side. Keep it in close. Let your hip come back. It's just like a dance. Duke Lionel must've taught you about lots of things that were just like a dance."

Kenna blushes and tries not to see the other ladies grin. The Queen is close behind her. "We'll keep doing this," Charissa says. "Kheldour will be here soon enough. Let's see what he has to say."

****

Christian comes into the guardroom with Marc-Friedrich Aurelian at his side. The Shadow Queen looks back at the two of them, her Inquisitor of State and her Remembrancer. Aurelian has a portfolio full of papers with him, and her husband is carrying a cloth-wrapped package.

She puts a hand on Kenna's hip and turns her around. "You— go somewhere and practice. Keep at it 'til I send for you. Learn the stiletto, and then we'll teach you how to play backgammon for blood. I need competition, and so does Kheldour." She jerks her head at the other ladies-in-waiting. "Chiennes— out! Go and do more re-packing. I travel light, and I expect you to know how to  do the same."

The Shadow Queen draws in a breath. Christian's brought it with him, the  after-the-rainstorm feeling of Portal travel.  She slides the stiletto back into a sleeve. "Where'd you come in from?"

Christian drops the package on a table next to a row of wooden practice knives. "Djellarda," he says. "Two Portal links and I'm here." He reaches for the Queen's outstretched hand and kisses it. Charissa pulls him over and they kiss.

She steps back and looks at him. "Did you find Stefan Coram? Is he dead yet?"

"Not yet," Christian says. "I didn't find Coram, but I found a few other things. Brought you a book, too."

Charissa looks down at the package. "Well, too bad. This is going to get complicated, isn't it? I'm going to hate this, I know. I was hoping you had Coram's head for me. But what I get is...a book?"

Christian reaches across the table for the Queen's cup and the wine. He passes it to her. "It's not just Coram. There's more out there."

The Queen looks over at Aurelian and back to her husband. "I hate complicated things," she says. "Not Coram, there's more— tell me what that means. Tell me about that and then I'll tell you about the Rhemuth front."

Her husband hands a wine cup back to Aurelian and takes one for himself. "Here's the way I think it's working. Coram has his faction, his Heldurnii Brotherhood. They're mostly Council staff and Council agents. But there's something else, too.  Out of Djellarda."

Charissa straddles a bench and drinks off most of her wine. "Djellarda? It's the Anvillers behind Coram?" She frowns. "The Knights haven't bothered about Gwynedd in years and years. Why do they care about Coram and his effing Heldurnii? Why meddle now?"

"If I'm right, it isn't the Anviller leadership. It's something else. There's been a split in the Knights of the Anvil. Probably more than one. There's some kind of offshoot. They have money, though."

"Of course they do. The Anvillers are more bankers than fighters these days."

"Here's what I think. Coram put together his little army out of Council staff. He wants to kill you and put Kelson Haldane back as king of all Gwynedd. He was getting money from Tiercel de Claron to pay for it. But then these ex-Anvillers— Coram found them or they found him. I don't know which way it happened. But now Coram has lots more money. And the other people, they're taking an interest in Gwynedd. They have a mission. It's all in their book."

Christian is unwrapping the package. He raps with ringed fingers on the heavy cover. "It's called The Guardianship of the Land. The land being Gwynedd. The guardians being the ex-Anvillers. Though I'm betting Coram is thinking there only needs to be one guardian. Guess who."

The Queen stares at what's in the package. "They have a book. They're telling the world what they want to do. Where'd you get the book?"

"Driss' bookshop in Djellarda. You remember Driss and the mektaba. These people, the ex-Anvillers, they hired Driss' people to do the copying. So they have money, but there can't be very many of them."  He opens the book and riffles the heavy pages. "Aurelian and I are going to go through it. We'll get a précis to you. It's not well written at all, mind you. Coram would have an apoplexy if you put his name on it. But it does have a lot of heated prose."

Charissa shakes her head. "I can guess what it says. God loves the Haldanes and hates me. The Haldanes are the Chosen Ones, the Festils are evil. It's the same as all those sermons floating around eastern Gwynedd. If there's anything different, it'll just be that all good Deryni have to support the Haldanes."

"That's pretty much it, at least on first reading." He raises his wine cup to her.  "Just one other thing. The ex-Anvillers have an Order. They have a name."

Charissa pours herself more wine. "An Order. Well, they would. Who are they?"

"They call themselves the Hands of Camber."

"Oh, effing bloody hell. That's what I need. This Hedurnii thing and somebody calling up Camber effing MacRorie's name. The Hands of Camber.  What do you know about them?"

"Not much so far. They have themselves drawn like they're monks, but faces hooded and carrying swords. They have money. They're all Hands of Camber, but some of them are Eyes, too. So they have ranks. They have secular agents or they just don't mind dressing in secular clothes. They buy houses and hire bravos. They're in the South, but they're sending money into Gwynedd. Maybe via Coram, but I think probably not. I think they have a parallel channel, a parallel operation of their own. I mean, would you trust Coram?"

The Shadow Queen raises her wine cup. "Coram thinks he should be running the Camberian Council all on his own. He'll act like that with these new people, too. He can't help himself."

Christian looks back at Aurelian. "The hand-and-eye people, they're new at this. There aren't that many of them, and they don't know Gwynedd. They're southern. They're still trying to tell themselves what they need to do. Agreed?"

Aurelian nods. "They're learning as they go. They don't have a real grasp on politics here yet."

Charissa has her stiletto out and she's fidgeting with it.  "The last time an Order had political ambitions in Gwynedd, it was the Michaelines. That piece of history I do know— the Michaelines brought down a Festillic king."

Christian shrugs. "I think these people may want to be like the Michaelines, just without men-at-arms of their own.  It may even be ex-Michaeline land and money they're using.  Maybe."

Charissa looks at her Remembrancer and her Inquisitor. "You know what I want done. Whatever King Imre tried to do to the Michaelines, I want you to find these people and do it to them— just do it a lot better than that idiot Imre ever did.  Same for Coram's people. I don't want one of them left. In a hundred years, when scholars write about the Gwynedd wars, I don't want these people remembered. I want them erased. I want not even a ghost of a name left. Are we clear?"

"Very clear. I'll make sure nobody will ever know Stefan Coram's name. And these hand-and-eye people, too."

The Queen looks at Aurelian. "Have you briefed my husband on the Rhemuth front?"

The Inquisitor shakes his head. "Not yet. But we should do a full presentation anyway. Maps and intelligencers before you leave for Tolan."

She looks at Christian. "Here's the news from downriver. Lord Nault's men have taken Mary's Pool tower. They've invited Duke Nigel in.  They tried at Riverbyrne tower, got driven off, but they came back. We haven't heard from Riverbyrne in two days.  Your man Graff— his people are holding on at Crowfield, but they'll have to evacuate north.  Riots in Rhemuth for the last week. It's time  to cut loose."

Christian takes a deep breath. "The money going to Nault and his friends, that's hand-and-eye money. I'm sure of that. We have evacuation plans in place at Rhemuth— are there warning orders out?"

"Not yet. We'll send them when I leave for Tolan. You're coming with me, though. I want to show off my husband in Tolan and Marluk. Let's let everyone back home see that I'm not worried about losing Rhemuth. Let's show them I'm a grown-up queen now, that I even have a husband." Charissa grins. "I'm taking Marley's woman, too. I want her in my entourage. I want  word back in Marbury that all we northerners are fine together."

"Did I miss something?" He can sense Aurelian's smile behind him.

"I had a talk with Marley's woman. It was...fun. She threatened me, I condescended to her. Most fun I've had in weeks and weeks."

"I can't leave you alone ever, can I?"

The Shadow Queen finishes her wine. "Security commanders for a conference in the morning. Then we leave by Portal for Tolan in two days. I have you all to myself for tonight. And then we'll see about these people out of Djellarda. I am serious, by the way. These people are all going to disappear— like they never existed at all. Coram's little faction as well. And if that means getting rid of the Council, we'll do that, too."











Jerusha

"And if it means getting rid of the Council, we'll do that, too."  I do so like the Shadow Queen's style!   :)
From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night...good Lord deliver us!

 -- Old English Litany

DoctorM

Quote from: Jerusha on December 15, 2022, 01:08:13 PM"And if it means getting rid of the Council, we'll do that, too."  I do so like the Shadow Queen's style!   :)

She's determined...and beginning to see that lots of things are going to have to change.

DerynifanK

#3
But will things change the way she wants? There are lots of slips between the cup and the lip.  You mention Nigel but I really want to know what Alaric and Kelson and the Haldanes are doing. You will have to deal with them eventually. I can't believe they are just sitting back and letting things happen without action. Of course, one could try to promote problems for Charissa from the Hand and Eye order and others, keep her preoccupied while they make their own plans and begin to infiltrate her lands. You're a good writer and this could get really interesting.
"Thanks be to God there are still, as there always have been and always will be, more good men than evil in this world, and their cause will prevail." Brother Cadfael's Penance

DoctorM

Quote from: DerynifanK on January 11, 2023, 08:14:37 AMBut will things change the way she wants? There are lots of slips between the cup and the lip.  You mention Nigel but I really want to know what Alaric and Kelson and the Haldanes are doing. You will have to deal with them eventually. I can't believe they are just sitting back and letting things happen without action. Of course, one could try to promote problems from Charissa from the Hand and Eye order and others, keep her preoccupied while they make their own plans and begin to infiltrate her lands. You're a good writer and this could get really interesting.

I think we're beginning to see what's happening on the other side of the field... And we're going to be seeing a lot of people have new plans...

revanne

I love the way you weave your plots.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
(Psalm 46 v1)

DoctorM

Quote from: revanne on January 27, 2023, 04:36:17 AMI love the way you weave your plots.

Revanne-- thank you so much! I'm glad you like my plots!