So the most powerful barons of the north took a new tactic… they were older, cannier, more experienced in court politics: they already had the good will of the most conservative priests. They would use the Quinaltine and the people's faith, prevent the marriage, treat the lady Regent as a captive— and seize land in Elwynor.
Cefwyn determined just as resolutely to bring them into line and shake the kingdom into order. He sent the southern barons home to attend their harvests and to prepare for war, all but Lord Cevulirn of Ivanor, whose horsemen had less reliance on such seasons, and who stayed as a shadowy observer for southern interests.
In Elwynor, meanwhile, the wars had come to a swifter conclusion than anyone expected. One rebel lord brought a largely hired army out of the hills, supplied it off the resources of the peasants, besieged his own capital of llefinian, and declared the Lady Regent a helpless captive in the hands of the Marhanen king. This brought the situation Cefwyn had left in Elwynor to a state of crisis, and Cefwyn took immediate steps to set elite cavalry at the bridges that faced Elwynor. This both stabilized the border and removed some of the force on which the Crown maintained its authority.
Cefwyn took immediate measures to assure that the Quinalt would approve both the marriage and the treaty that recognized Ni-névrisë as Lady Regent of Elwynor, independent of the Crown of Ylesuin, and renounced all claims to each other's kingdoms.
The barons retaliated with an attempt to limit the monarchy over them, and to reject both the marriage treaty and their king's associates.
Tristen and Emuin both had kept to themselves since their arrival… for Cefwyn, fighting for his right to wed the woman he loved and trying to wrest back greater sovereignty in his own capital, wished to obscure the presence of wizardry in his court.
Obscurity, however, only increased the mystery surrounding Tristen. The barons saw him and Emuin as an influence on Cefwyn that must be eliminated, and on a night when lightning, whether by chance or wizardry, struck the Quinalt roof, a penny in the offering in the Quinaltine was found to be Sihhë coinage, with forbidden symbols on it.
The charge against Tristen was to be sacrilege, wizardry attacking the Quinalt and the gods.
Cefwyn suspected that His Holiness the Patriarch himself was devious enough to have substituted the damning coin, and Cefwyn moved quickly to compel the Patriarch into his camp. But the rumors were so rife that Cefwyn felt compelled to remove Tristen further from controversy and from the site of rumors. In what he thought a clever and protective stroke, he sent Tristen back to Amefel not as a refugee in disgrace, but as duke of Amefel… a replacement for the viceroy he had left to replace the disgraced Orien Aswydd.
Now this viceroy was Parsynan, a minor noble appointed on the advice of some of these same troublesome barons, notably Murandys and Ryssand… or Cefwyn had exiled Orien Aswydd and her sister to a Teranthine nunnery for their betrayal, and had never appointed another duke, until now.
Hearing that Tristen was going to Amefel, and that Parsynan was recalled, Corswyndam Lord Ryssand panicked, for he feared certain records might fall into Tristen's hands and thus into Cef-wyn's. He sent a rider to advise Parsynan of his imminent replacement.
Corswyndam's courier rode hard enough to reach the Amefin capital ahead of Cefwyn's messenger. Receiving the message, Parsynan quite naively brought his local ally Lord Cuthan, an Aswydd by remote kinship, into his confidence, since this man had supported him against his brother earls before.
Cuthan, however, was in on a plot to create war in Amefel, a distraction for Cefwyn. If Amefin earls rebelled and seized the citadel, Elwynim troops would then invade and engage with the king's forces: this was what was promised, and Cuthan not only failed to warn Parsynan it was coming… but he also said nothing to warn his brother lords that a detachment of king's forces was about to arrive along with a new duke, one they might approve. One or the other would happen first, and Cuthan meant to stay safe.
So, ignorant of such vital information, certain Amefin, led by Earl Edwyll of Meiden, seized the South Court of the fortress of Amefel and settled in to wait for Elwynim support.
In the same hour, losing courage, Cuthan told the other earls that the king's forces were coming.
And there were as yet no forces from Elwynor: Tasmôrden's forces had not arrived.
The other earls consequently sat still… which suited Cuthan welclass="underline" he and Edwyll were old rivals, and now Edwyll was patently guilty of treason, sitting alone in the fortress with the Marhanen king's forces approaching. And none of the rest of them were yet guilty of anything, as long as they kept their secret. The one most apt to betray it— was Edwyll himself.
Then in a thunderstroke, before anyone had thought, Tristen arrived and moved swiftly uphill to the fortress to take possession. The commons turned out to cheer. The earls of Amefel rapidly set themselves on the winning side.
Edwyll meanwhile died, having enjoyed a cup of wine— out of Orien Aswydd's cups, untouched since the place was sealed at her exile. Whether Edwyll's death was latent wizardry attached to Or-ien's property, or simple bad luck, the command of the rebels now devolved to Edwyll's son, thane Crissand, who was forced to surrender. Tristen now had the fortress in his hands.
Not satisfied with the death of earl Edwyll, however, or possibly at the instigation of some party to the guilty secret, Parsynan, in command of the garrison troops, seized the prisoners from Tristen's officers and began executing them.
Tristen found out in time to save Crissand… and summarily dismissed Lord Parsynan from the town in the middle of the night and without his possessions.
It was scandalous treatment of a noble king's officer, but if there was anything wanting to make Tristen the hero of Henas'amef, this settled matters. The commons were delighted, wildly cheering their new lord. Crissand, Edwyll's son, himself of remote Aswydd lineage, swore fealty to Tristen in such absolute terms it scandalized the Guelen clerks who had come with Tristen— for Crissand owned Tristen as his overlordafter the Aswydd kind, aetheling, aroyal lord.
The oath reopened all the old controversy about the status of Amefel as a sovereign kingdom. Crissand had become Tristen's friend and most fervent ally among the earls of Amefel… who, given a lord they respected, came rapidly into line, united for the first time in decades, under terms forever influenced by Crissand's oath.
In the succeeding hours Tristen gained both the burned remnant of Mauryl's letters, and Lord Ryssand's letter to Parsynan. The first told him that certain correspondence Mauryl had had with the lords of Amefel might have some modern relevancy… one archivist had murdered the other and run with the letters. The second letter revealed Corswyndam's connivance with Parsynan.