He nodded. “I did.” He waved his arms around, taking in the four points of the compass. “These others weren’t prepared to do it. They’re too busy posturing and pointing fingers.” He stared at Vlad Li Tam. “We both know who really brought down Windwir.”
Vlad Li Tam’s eyes flashed. “They’ve done this to themselves. We both knew they would when they started playing with words that should not be played with. It was only a matter of time.”
Petronus felt his fists clenching and unclenching. “You claim House Li Tam had no part in Ehad"1ethis?”
Vlad Li Tam shrugged. “We monitored increased intelligence gathering in the City States coinciding with the discovery of the final fragment. My forty-second daughter, Jin Li Tam, was Sethbert’s consort until recently. She’d known something was under way but not exactly what. I knew an event of some kind was likely.” He stepped closer to Petronus and put a hand on his shoulder. “When or who-these facts eluded the best work of my sons and daughters.” He leaned forward. “But I do know this much-word of the final fragment was not initially leaked by the Androfrancines. They were most cautious.”
“And you did not leak it yourself?”
Vlad Li Tam shook his head. “I did not.”
“But you knew of it?”
He nodded. “I did. I had been approached years ago about storing something of great value and great danger in the Li Tam vaults. There was talk of scattering the fragments under Pope Introspect, but it was quickly abandoned.”
Petronus studied the man, then studied the line of his face, and tried to gauge the truth of his words. But Vlad Li Tam was a master of queen’s war and a master of himself. There were no telling movements, no revealing posture, no hints whatsoever to catch him in a lie. And not even the best Francine training could see through that perfect mask. “Then we need to know how Sethbert discovered the spell and what compelled him to take action.”
Vlad Li Tam shook his head and chuckled. “An Androfrancine to the end.”
Petronus felt his blood rise. He pointed to the filled-in trench, then pointed to a line of diggers closer to the center of the city. “A city lies dead, Vlad. A way of life is ended. What little remains of the light is guttering. If it weren’t for the mechoservitors, it would be all but extinguished now. I want to know why.”
“We all do, Petronus. But strategy would dictate that first, we shore up what remains.” Vlad Li Tam sighed, looking away for a moment before meeting Petronus’s eyes. “I’m afraid I have not been completely truthful with you.”
Petronus felt his eyebrows furrow. “What do you mean?”
Vlad reached into his belt pouch and drew out a yellowed scroll, rolled carefully and tied with Androfrancine purple. He passed it to Petronus.
Petronus read the note and paled. He read it again, this time more slowly, and the words finally came together. He looked up. “These are plans for the relocation of the Order, away from Windwir.”
He nodded. “Under Introspect’s seal.”
Petronus’s mind spun. “Why would they do this?”
“Defensive posturing,” Vlad Li Tam said. “It seems they had a sense of what was coming, too.”
Petronus racked his brain, trying to find some scrap of memory that might make sense of this. For two thousand years, the Great Library and the Order had occupied Windwir. They were the backbone of the Entrolusian economy, centrally located yet distant enough for a modicum of safety and privacy.
Suddenly, he saw Vlad Li Tam’s strategy more clearly and understood it. “The Ninefold Forests,” he said quietly.
Vlad Li Tam nodded. “I have been under Holy Unction by the Order for nearly thirty years-really, since just after you left-to groom Rudolfo for this.” Petronus studied him, surprised when the line of Vlad Li Tam’s face betrayed him in such a small lie.
Longer than that, he realized, but he didn’t say anything. The one person other than Vlad Li Tam that could truly say when this started had died in the Desolation of Windwir. But Petronus suspected that the work-both the study of the spell and the plans to relocate Windwir-had started well before he’d stepped down from the Papacy and returned to fishing.
Another reason you should have stayed, old man.
Petronus forced his mind back to matter. “You mean to continue Introspect’s plan, then?”
Vlad Li Tam’s eyes were hard, blue glass. “That depends on the word of my Pope.”
Petronus nodded. “Does Rudolfo understand exactly what this means?”
Vlad Li Tam shrugged. “He may or he may not. I’ll not tell him-I’m bound by Holy Unction. And there have been certain-” he paused to find the right word “-complexities in implementing the Androfrancine strategy. You studied the Francine way. Men can be shaped for a role, but it often involves sacrifice.”
Petronus’s eyes narrowed. “What have you done?”
Vlad Li Tam climbed into his saddle. “These are matters best left in the past.” He settled himself and looked down.
“I am your Pope, Lord Tam,” he said, his voice taking on a tone that he’d not used in decades. “I would know of these matters.”
Vlad Li Tam laughed and turned his horse. “You are a fisherman, Petros, digging graves in the rain. When you openly declare yourself to be more than that, ask me again. Demand it of me, even, and under Holy Unction I will tell you everything.” He walked the horse in a wide circle around Petronus. “Rudolfo is taking back the mechoservitors tonight. The spell-caster is already in the Ninefold Forest, planning the library in the care of my forty-second daughter. They will want your input soon so that work can begin with the spring.”
Petronus nodded but said nothing.
“Declare soon, Petronus,” Vlad Li Tam said. “We’ve light to guard.”
As he rode away, Petronus realized two things. First, that once he declared he probably would not want to know exactly what Vlad Li Tam had done to prepare the Ninefold Forest for this time. Not just for the sake of being able to face Rudolfo, but also because of what it meant for the boy who had once been his friend, who had once shared his home and hearth and boat.
The second thing he realized was the more surprising of the two. The thought stayed with him long after Vlad Li Tam’s horse crossed the blackened landscape and galloped up the western hills to be swallowed by the forest.
As he played it out in his mind, following that river of reason with its many branching streams, Petronus realized that he would do whatever he had to do to protect the light.
Even if it meant letting the Androfrancine Order die where it lay, ending its backward-watching dream of two thousand years.
Resolute
Pope Resolute the First looked out at the blanket of white that covered the rooftops and courtyards of the Summer Papal Palace. The first snows of winter had fallen, and judging by the looks of it more would come soon. In the courtyards, staging areas had been hastily erected during second summer to catalog and inventory Androfrancine property returning by his order. From there, the goods were stored in barns, papers and books hauled into the Papal Palace itself. The migration north had grown to a trickle despite the invisible pretender’s support of the notion.
Now, another bird from the pretender called for the cessation of the migration as winter set in, deeming the northern routes too treacherous to risk what little remained of Androfrancine resources-human and otherwise. This new word called for Androfrancines to wait out the winter wherever they were, bidding them to remain patient and assuring them that new instructions would follow soon.