Two Kingdoms 21: Coins

[DoctorM]

TWO KINGDOMS 21: COINS

This is the seventeenth 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 segment falls just after "Doors and Corners".  As always, input and comments are very much appreciated.


Outside, Valoret is dusted with early morning snow. Inside what used to be the palace of the archbishop, the Lord Mayor of Valoret is standing at the far end of the conference table, cap in hand, watching his day go bad around him.

The Shadow Queen is at the head of the table, dressed all in midnight blue. There's nothing at all in her face, and she's staring at the Lord Mayor.

"I've been thinking," Charissa says. "Your good citizens let strangers come into my capital and try to kill my husband. I'm thinking that your citizens need to be a lot more diligent in reporting anything suspicious. Your parish wardens need to be paying attention to things. And reporting them. I'm thinking that the parish and the City are going to be paying fines over this. Care to guess what my husband's life is worth? Tell your aldermen to be ready for it. I'm not tearing down all the houses on the street, and I'm not going to hang everyone on that street. I'm sending the bill, though. Be ready for it. Go."

The Lord Mayor stammers and bows and the Queen's guards chivvy him out. The Queen looks round the table. "I want to hear it," the Shadow Queen says. "How did it happen, and who paid for it?"

Her Inquisitor of State motions to his aides and they unroll a sketch plan on the long table. Aurelian stands and sweeps a hand over the plan. "The basic idea wasn't bad," he says. "They were fairly good at setting it up. They rented two houses, one on each side of the street. Rented a week apart, rented by different men who said they were conveyancers acting for a principal. Rented on different terms, paid for in cash.  The city legal profession can't identify the conveyancers from descriptions.  Almost certainly not local, if they were conveyancers at all. If they're still alive, they're long gone."

The Shadow Queen looks down the table at the drawing. "The locals never asked why a pack of Howicce bravos had moved in?"

Aurelian shakes his head. "The city emptied out when we took it. Now it's filling up again. All the usual kinds of people— shady horse traders, shadier moneylenders, people who keep armed guards and keep their mouths shut. Nobody remembers any back-and-forth between the houses.  I pressed hard on that question."

"They were there in the houses for days," Charissa says.  "Where did they keep the Deryni?"

"Not there," Aurelian says. "Nobody recalls seeing them until a day before the ambush. We know there were three, but we've only got one face left to ask about. The Deryni only came for the actual ambush."

At her right hand, Christian leans forward. He looks from Aurelian to the Queen. "It really wasn't a bad plan on paper. They had Deryni up on the bridge over the street. They were supposed to launch strikes, take me and anyone around me down first. Then the axemen would come in and make sure. But the bravos moved too soon. And the ones up on the bridge— they knew how to call up power; they were good at that. They just didn't know how to focus or aim."

"You're saying...adepts on paper. But no real world experience."

Christian shrugs. "Almost no one has any.  How many Deryni ever do anything like that? You grow up Deryni, you learn shields and wards. But offensive powers? How many Deryni ever use those? One in a hundred? One in a thousand? Until I was out there in the street, I never had."

The Queen looks down the table at her security commanders. "Show of hands," she says. "Who's ever fought a duel arcane?"

The Deryni among them shake their heads. Only Yusuf al-Fayturi, commanding the Queen's Moors, raises a hand. "Only once, Khatun," he says. "When I was first a fidai. Before I came to your service."

"Someone paid for three Deryni who could pass as adepts— whatever that cost —but they couldn't find men with arcane combat experience." She looks over at Aurelian. "That's not Wencit or Rhydon."

Aurelian nods. "Wencit's king of Torenth. He'll have lists of every Deryni in Torenth who's any use to him. Whatever Wencit knows, Rhydon knows.  They'd do better."

Christian is filling his wine cup. "Wencit and Rhydon have both been soldiers. The ambush fell apart because there wasn't any discipline. Nobody'd practiced it, nobody was ready. I mean, it wasn't done by anybody who knows about running an ambush. This was put together by people who'd read about ambushes but never seen one."

Down the table, Brennan de Colforth leans in. "I agree with Kheldour, your grace.  Whoever planned it, they weren't soldiers. They weren't even used to something like city politics down south."

The Shadow Queen leans back in her chair. "Add it up for me."

Aurelian sits down again. He motions for his aides to remove the street plan. "It's not the Haldanes," he says. "Corwyn and Duke Nigel don't have a problem hiring assassins. They showed that at Rhemuth last summer. But they wouldn't do it this way. And they wouldn't hire Deryni."

Christian turns to his wife. "Not just wouldn't— couldn't. Morgan and Nigel get on well enough, but their captains and councillors don't. That's why they're bogged down and not back in Rhemuth already. Morgan couldn't risk hiring Deryni assassins. Neither could Nigel. Bad politics for either of them."

"And not Wencit or Rhydon."

Christian looks from Aurelian down to Colforth and al-Fayturi. He looks back at Charissa. "I don't see it. Not this way. And...Wencit knows who I am, but  setting up a street ambush for me? He wouldn't think I was worth it. I'm just the boy you slept with when you were fourteen and fifteen. He'd come straight for you. Rhydon....might come for you and Aurelian.  But not me. And whatever they did—"

"They'd have done it better."

"Exactly."

The Shadow Queen thinks for a moment. "The ones who rented the houses. You said they paid in cash. What kind of coin? Do you know?"

Aurelian grins. "I took a look at that. The lessors decided they'd rather be helpful than not. They decided the money was better off in royal hands than in theirs. Most of it was in Gwynedd coin, with a few pieces in Howicce-and-Llannedd coinage. Just what you'd expect. But there were a few foreign pieces— one of the lessors kept a couple he hadn't seen before."

He motions to one of his aides, who hands him a folded piece of white cloth. Aurelian opens it out on the table. There are two silver coins inside.  "There were these. Solid weight, good silver. Take a look."

The Queen reaches for one of the coins. They're new, the mint stamps still sharp.  "Logreine," Charissa reads. "That's in Forcinn country."

Aurelian nods. "The big town is called Lognac. There's a bit of silver mining in the Andel foothills. In Lognac there's a mint. Not many coins come out of it, and they don't usually turn up outside Fianna and the Forcinn." He nods at Christian. "We were through there once, on our way to Vezaire. A very long time ago."

Charissa closes her hand around the coin. "Kyri," she says. "Kyri was there once upon a time, too. Claron took her there, back when they were...an item. He has lands there, Claron does."

Christian makes a face. "Kyri and Tiercel de Claron. Poor bloody Kyri. She always manages to pick the worst men."

Charissa pushes the coin back to Aurelian. "It's hard to pick well when you don't like what you're choosing from anyway."

Aurelian puts a finger on the coin. "Claron is...on the Deryni Council?"

"With Coram and Arilan, yes. On the Council."  Charissa  looks over at Aurelian. "Tiercel de Claron is a conceited little coxcomb who thinks he's a lot smarter than he is. Brief affair, and an ugly one. One of Kyri's worst choices. I said that to his face. In detail."

Aurelian looks at Christian. "Do you know him?"

Christian shakes his head. "No. Only by reputation. When the Council had me on the carpet to tell me I was a bad boy, he wasn't a member yet. I've never heard anything good about him, though. Kyri de Roiste isn't fond of me, but she likes me a lot more than she likes Claron."

Aurelian folds the coin back into the cloth. "Is he smart enough to plan an assassination?"

"Christ, no," Charissa says. "But he's stupid enough to let Stefan Coram make him believe he is. And he's certainly stupid enough to let Stefan Coram talk him into paying for an assassination  attempt."

Christian sighs. "Coram and I had some hard words back when I was up in front of the Council. I'm a threat to his idea of what being Deryni is all about. He'd think seeing me dead in the street would be God's will.  Claron doesn't know me, but he'd kill me to impress Coram...and to hurt Charissa. Because of Kyri de Roiste."

Aurelian unfolds a second cloth. "There was this, too. It was on one of the dead Deryni at the ambush." He slides a small medallion across to the Queen. 

Charissa picks it up. It's the size of a saint's medallion, with antique script running round the edge. Charissa feels its weight. "Good silver," she says. "But whatever is says looks like the way they wrote back forever ago.'

"It's very new," Aurelian says. "It's a re-strike of something very old. Something maybe before Gwynedd was ever a kingdom. Can you make out what it says?"

Charissa holds it up. "Oh, Christ, it's all in abbreviations. HELDRN. And...FRAT. What is it?"

Aurelian opens his hands. "Heldurn, I think. Frat could be brotherhood.  Heldurn could be Heldurnia, if it's a place."

Christian is looking back and forth at the two of them. "It's a tribe," he says. "From back eight or nine hundred years ago. Heldurnii. Back when I was writing about the earliest Deryni— I saw the name then. They were supposed to have come from the west and settled in...Kheldour. Heldurn, Heldurnia— that's Kheldour." That brings him up short. He stares at the medallion. "The legend is that they destroyed a big Byzanti army up above the Eirian. Maybe with Deryni magic."

Charissa grins. "Well, you're Prince of Kheldour now. Maybe they think you're the new Byzanti invasion."

"That makes so little sense," Christian says. "The Heldurnii were supposed to be Deryni. I'm Deryni, and so are you. I don't see us counting as a foreign invasion. And... Kheldour's pretty much Deryni-empty these days. The Kheldishmen  aren't Deryni."

Aurelian looks down at Yusuf al-Fayturi and back at Christian. "You could argue that it's not about Kheldour. It's about Deryni fighting back, about Deryni destroying their enemies.  Heldurnii Brotherhood. It's about Deryni who want to be—"

"Shahid." Al-Fayturi finishes it for him.  "Martyrs. If the syed Coram can make them think they're the defenders of the Deryni, he can make them want to be shahid. "

The Shadow Queen's face is like ice. "I'm going to hate this," she says. "All this makes sense. Coram always cultivated the Council's aides and staff. He always talks about a higher purpose, a higher calling. That's what he's doing, Stefan Coram— he's turning Council agents into his own little army. He's having medals struck and telling Council agents they're part of some ancient tradition he's just made up. He's pulling Tiercel de Claron's strings to get him to pay for it, too. I'm really going to hate this."

Christian looks at Aurelian. "I was hoping this was all about Wencit and Rhydon. I'd even settle for a couple of Kheldish lords who want to collect a bounty from Duke Jared on my head. If we're right, if we're sitting here and we're right, this is going to get very ugly."

"Three fronts," Charissa says. "Coram's starting his own secret war. Or maybe the Council agents are starting it for him. Oh, Christ— I wanted to keep Rhydon and Wencit away from Thorne and Kyri.  I'll need to keep Coram off them, too."

Charissa stands up from the table. "Claron's too stupid to try again.  But Coram will just find someone else to work through. We're back here at dusk. I want plans in draft.  New wards, new vetting procedures, new security. This thing in the street was a bad joke. But from now on, we act like Stefan Coram is waiting around every corner."

[Jerusha]

I love this intrigue!  Masterfully written, DoctorM.   Waiting breathlessly for what is next.

Aurelian is rather good at getting information, isn't he?  Probably best we don't know the details of his methodology.   

[DoctorM]

I love this intrigue!  Masterfully written, DoctorM.   Waiting breathlessly for what is next.

Aurelian is rather good at getting information, isn't he?  Probably best we don't know the details of his methodology.   

Thanks! And Aurelian is...thorough. Quiet but thorough.

[Laurna]

Oh! An ancient Kheldish Brotherhood. I really like the conclusion that Coram is silently pulling other peoples strings. I think that is what he likes running the CC for. But we know that he also likes to get his hands dirty and let himself play in the sandbox.  I wonder if the next time he will be more hands on.
Interesting!

[DoctorM]

Oh! An ancient Kheldish Brotherhood. I really like the conclusion that Coram is silently pulling other peoples strings. I think that is what he likes running the CC for. But we know that he also likes to get his hands dirty and let himself play in the sandbox.  I wonder if the next time he will be more hands on.
Interesting!

We'll have to see. Coram I think is creating his own faction, which may not align with the Council.

[DerynifanK]

More twists and turns than a high mountain road. I wonder who will next be used in planning attacks on Charissa, if indeed there is not a more ambitious and threatening mystery player here. How many different fronts can she defend? Very intriguing.

[DoctorM]

More twists and turns than a high mountain road. I wonder who will next be used in planning attacks on Charissa, if indeed there is not a more ambitious and threatening mystery player here. How many different fronts can she defend? Very intriguing.

We'll see what happens, and see what counter-moves she's planning.