TWO KINGDOMS 39: PADISHAH

[DoctorM]

TWO KINGDOMS 39: PADISHAH

This is the thirty-seventh part of an AU construction about a Gwynedd where the duel at Kelson Haldane's coronation went very differently indeed. We are now almost three years into the Gwynedd Wars-- Charissa's new kingdom at Valoret against the Haldanes in the south and the kingdom of Torenth in the east. This episode follows some weeks after "Homecoming" and immediately after "Leopards".  As always, comments and suggestions are very much appreciated.

*****

"We'll have it done before midday tomorrow," Wencit says. "We'll have the heralds read everything out in the Grand Hall, and then I'll go up on Coronation Hill with the Sword of Furstan and make the declaration of war formal. I'm going to strip that scarface bitch of every foot of land she holds. I'm going to have her head on a spike before the year's out. That goes for my traitor brother-in-law, too."

Down in the Hall light pours in through stained-glass windows that have long been the wonder of the East. Rhydon is up in a curtained part of the galleries, all in royal blue trimmed in black, watching the Padishah-King's Herald step down from the raised area where the king of Torenth is sitting his throne. The heavy crowd of Torenthi nobles and their hangers-on draw back as the reading begins.

"We, Wenzel Furstan Padishah, second of Our name, King of Torenth and  Tolan and of All the Lands Therein, Lord of the Seven Tribes and the East, Lord of the Northern Realms..."

Rhydon shifts his gaze from the Netterhavens and the other Jandrich lords  to where the king's Sostra cousins are whispering together. He can see the faces from up here, and it's all he can do not to laugh.

****

Rhydon lifts his wine cup. "Well," he says, "the proclamation's the easy part. It's what you hire all those lawyers for. The tricky part, now, the tricky part's getting your nobles all in line." Rhydon's there in a chair by the window, his high-booted legs up on a half-turned mate to his own chair. There's a draft of the royal proclamation propped on his knees. He looks down at the heavy sheets.

He looks up from a red-inked emendation. "What are you adding here? King of Torenth and of Tolan — the Netterhavens and the others aren't going to like that. Even the Nordmarkers won't. Why are you adding that? The Tolan was never a kingdom."

Wencit drains off his own wine. "I'm taking everything she has from her father— Marluk and the Tolan both, plus Gwernach. Every effing foot of it. I won't leave her enough for a grave. And...if she wants to call whatever she's holding over in Gwynedd her kingdom of Tolan, I'll have that Tolan off her as well."

"Well, so much for Netterhaven and Jandrich ambitions."

"Eff their ambitions. The Tolan's mine. I'll have every foot of it. And Tolan-by-Sea generates decent enough port revenues. Those are mine, too."

Rhydon grins and shakes his head.  "I remember, you know. Back when she was just a girl. There was a time when you'd have married her for the Tolan. Or maybe just because Aldred wanted her but didn't get her."

Wencit makes a face. "I'd have married her for the Tolan and Marluk. And to see about breaking her to the halter. That would've been a project— teaching that scarecrow whore her place."

He reaches for more wine. "Strip her of everything— my brother-in-law, too. Outlaw them both. I want effing Lionel hanging in chains. I want his  head next to hers for the crows." Wencit looks over at Rhydon. "Where's  bloody Teymuraz in all this? What are you doing about him?"

Rhydon shrugs again. "Playing coy, that's what he's doing. Playing Miss Yes-But-No with my messengers. He'll avoid taking a side until all the work's done. Lionel's other brothers will stay with him, but Teymuraz is going to keep his options open. You're better off giving Arjenol to one of the Sostra or Csorna crowd. Isn't that why kings keep minor family branches around?"

"And what a lot of use you are to me these days. You can't give me Teymuraz and your effing bravos couldn't even get to Fat Thorne and the very boyish Lady Roiste."

Rhydon waves a hand. "The Red Lady and poor Thorne don't matter."

"Of course they bloody matter. I want Charissa to know we can kill her friends anytime we want. And I don't want a single voice on the Council that doesn't want her dead."

"They don't matter politically, and that's what counts. Kill them later, if you want. You get rid of the Shadow Queen and get her lands, and what do Lady Roiste and Thorne matter? They're both finished politically— they're nested with Charissa at Tolan-by-Sea or Valoret or wherever.  Nobody on the Council is going to support them now that they've shown who they're really friends with. They went to the Shadow Queen and not to the Council when things got dangerous. No one's going to trust them any more. They're done."

He lifts his wine cup to Wencit. "You pay too much attention to the Council, anyway.  They're a useless lot. I walked out on them and they haven't done a damned thing no matter what I've been up to— what you and I have been up to."

Wencit is looking out the window at the great length of St. Basil's Bridge. "That Tolan whore is Deryni, just like us. She's claiming that she's the one protecting Deryni over in Gwynedd. The Council are a useless lot of preening talkers, but they've got legitimacy to hand out for Deryni. We get her outlawed, she'll have to watch out from other Deryni. She won't be able to just say that she's standing for Deryni in the West. Maybe we can get the Council to send their people after her."

Rhydon shakes his head. He's pouring more wine. "You think too much of the Council. You wanted to be on it, and they wouldn't have you. But they're not important any more. They haven't spoken for all Deryni in generations. They never counted for anything this side of the Rheljans, anyway.  And it looks like they already sent people after her— or at least after her fancy-man. Tried to kill him in the Valoret streets, That went just about as well as you'd expect."

The king grimaces again. "No worse than what your men did with Roiste and Hagen. That was Stefan Coram behind what happened down in Valoret with the Tolan girl's plaything. He's ambitious enough, Coram is, but street fighting, that he doesn't know." He looks hard at Rhydon. "Charissa's fancy-man— he's another thing. He's the one who drew up her effing new list of titles, all those things she's calling herself now, all those things he made up out of thin air for her to claim. You can tell it was some scribbler's work, some effing poem-writing kept man. He's nothing. His head goes up next to hers. I'll make her watch him broken one the wheel first, though."

"No. No. Those titles they made up, those are dangerous. Oh, right, it's her  kept plaything who drew them up, but he's not stupid. I could cut him up in a heartbeat in a sword fight, but he's never been stupid. He listed every place where anyone in her father's family ever held any land. He created all these titles no one's ever heard of, but don't you be a fool,.either. She's calling herself princess of Nordmark and the northern lands— so think about it. Every dunghill lord in Nordmark or Eistenmarck or half Jandrich is going to think they can get charters from her about land rights or successions or taxes or trade and then ask if you can match her."

Rhydon takes a long drink of the wine. "She doesn't want Torenth.She doesn't care about Torenth. She'll leave that for Lionel and the Lorsol Haberlingens. What she wants is to see Torenth break up. That's what she's playing at."

"She's why women shouldn't sit a throne. She's why Torenthi succession law says nothing goes to women. Look at Lionel— my brother-in-law is a damned traitor and a rebel, but what he wants is easy enough to understand. He just wants my crown. That Tolan bitch wants to burn the world down."

Rhydon has to laugh at that. "Maybe so. I'd like to see the fire, though. I'd like to see what the world looks like with everything from Rhemuth to the end of the world burning bright. What do you think? Ever want to see Byzantyun all alight some snowy winter evening? Maybe she just wants to make sure you and Kelson Haldane don't get anything. Could be it's that simple."

Wencit empties the last of the wine into his cup. "It would be a lot easier if she just said she wants my throne. Or if she just wanted Gwynedd for herself when I should be king over there. But that's not what she wants. It's that effing pretty boy of hers— he's telling her to burn the world down. That's what she likes. Burn it all down, make sure I don't get anything.  She's doing it all for spite. Well, she's going to be the one dying landless. Like I said, not even enough land for a grave."

"It's more than spite. But she does hate you. She thinks you pushed her father into going off to fight King Brion back once upon a time.  She thinks you've been trying to get her duchies off her since her father died. Certainly since you've been Padishah. And she thinks you don't take her seriously. She has something to prove, probably to you and the Haldanes both." He swings his boots down from the chair. "We have to take her seriously. Other people do."

Wencit glares over at him. "I might take Alaric Morgan seriously. Or that Marley bastard she has as her captain-general. But not some scarface scarecrow girl. Not her fancy-man. And not that boy in Rhemuth, either."

"Some people take her very seriously. Lionel does, and when was he ever a fool? Stefan Coram does— he has his own little army deployed against her. And look— things are happening in Gwynedd that I don't understand. My people tell me that someone's been asking about Coram and the Council— not me, not your people, not anybody we know. Someone Deryni, someone with money, someone dangerous."

Wencit shrugs. "That could be Alaric Morgan. Or even the Bremagni. Who knows what they want down there? Maybe they want Charissa dead so they can be the ones Kelson Haldane owes his throne to. Not that it matters." He tosses the empty wine cup onto the table. "You think too much about spies and bravos and wars in the shadows. You always think too much. No more fancy backstage footwork, now."

Wencit walks back over to the window He's there, hands on hips, face hard. He's a big man, and he fills up the room. He's staring out at the hanging gardens of the palace and the onion domes of the cathedrals.  "I'll ride up effing Coronation Hill tomorrow with that damned antique sword and call up all the banners, all the lords. We're going to have a real war. She's a girl, not a real king. We'll put an army or two into whatever she's calling north Gwynedd these days and we'll take her back to Beldour in chains, her and her kept man.  Then we'll have Lionel and his brothers and his sons all left spiked up for the crows on the Beldour gates. Then it'll be mine— the Tolan, Marluk, and every bit of land in north Gwynedd. And after that, we go to Rhemuth. We'll do this the real way. I'll have siege lines in place at Valoret before the year's out."

Rhydon holds up his wine cup. "Nothing's ever easy. This won't be. Go call up your banners. Get the Patriarch to bless you and your army at St.-Constantine's. Let's ride down to Valoret, by all means. But it won't be easy. Not this. Too many loose ends, too many things backstage. Well, at least we'll get to see what the world looks like when it burns."

[drakensis]

Interesting take on Wencit - not his goals, but his attitude. Perhaps he's putting on an act for Rhydon, but from what we see from his perspective in the books and short stories, he had a lively respect for Charissa. Not fondness, but even when she was a child he didn't take her lightly.

[DoctorM]

Interesting take on Wencit - not his goals, but his attitude. Perhaps he's putting on an act for Rhydon, but from what we see from his perspective in the books and short stories, he had a lively respect for Charissa. Not fondness, but even when she was a child he didn't take her lightly.

I think that Wencit is mostly very, very angry right now. He'd been planning a war with Brion Haldane, and when King Brion died, things should've been easier. He should've been able to sweep into a leaderless Gwynedd. But now Charissa-- young, female --is unexpectedly in the way, and some Gwynedd houses (like Bran's Rheljan in-laws) are at least cooperating with her to keep the Torenthi out. So much for a simple offensive into Gwynedd.

He's angry at Lionel, too-- naturally. His brother-in-law is aiming at the throne, either for himself or for Lionel's heirs. Torenthi politics is ruthless enough, and Wencit now has to deal not only with a more complicated war in Gwynedd but with revolt inside Torenth as well. Lionel has supported Charissa from the start, and Wencit sees her putting together a new regime in Gwynedd/Tolan as encouraging other ambitions inside Torenth.

[He's also furious over her new list of assumed royal titles. He's an ambitious man, Wencit is, and I think his vanity is a bit wounded.]

I think, too, that Rhydon is taunting Wencit just a bit. Rhydon is enjoying seeing a bit of chaos in the Eleven Kingdoms. Chaos is where men like Rhydon can thrive. His own ambitions are opaque, but he is enjoying seeing Wencit forced to deal with a more complicated war in Gwynedd and with division inside the Furstan clan.

[Jerusha]

Very, very interesting.

I wonder who will be left to roast hot dogs as the world burns.

[DoctorM]

Very, very interesting.

I wonder who will be left to roast hot dogs as the world burns.

Now you've made me want chili dogs for dinner tonight!

And I am having visions of Rhydon standing by a campfire in a ruined city with a frankfurter on an unfolded coat-hanger...

I can see Christian, Aurelian, and Charissa debating the proper kind of mustard...

[DerynifanK]

So Wencit is formally declaring war, on Charissa first though he obviously plans to expand his attacks. He seems to hate Charissa for what he sees as her interference with his plans. Sounds like he intends to take over Eleven Kingdoms. Wonder if he is biting off more than he can chew? Others may take advantage of his focus on Charissa to advance their  own plans. Should be very interesting. You certainly do a great job of creating intrigue.

[DoctorM]

So Wencit is formally declaring war, on Charissa first though he obviously plans to expand his attacks. He seems to hate Charissa for what he sees as her interference with his plans. Sounds like he intends to take over Eleven Kingdoms. Wonder if he is biting off more than he can chew? Others may take advantage of his focus on Charissa to advance their  own plans. Should be very interesting. You certainly do a great job of creating intrigue.

You're quite right, I think. Wencit had planned for a war against Gwynedd in King Brion's day, and Charissa is interfering with his plans. He's furious about that, and about Lionel's change of sides, which has triggered a lot of local ambitions and highlighted a lot of local grievances in Torenth.

The ice, as Aurelian said, is cracking.