I felt the fear again, the weakness that was a worse pain than pain. By fighting I must lose everything in the world worth having, and gain nothing. But I could not go back. We faced each other across the narrow room. Behind Blodwen hung the picture of my mother. There, too, was beauty; a beauty which I had worshiped but which had given me small comfort.
I raised my voice: “Guard!”
He clomped in from his post in the Hall of Mirrors. Blodwen still stared at me. I said to the guard:
“The Lady Blodwen is under arrest.”
He said impassively: “Yes, sire.”
Blodwen said: “Will you throw me in your dungeon?”
Her voice was angry and incredulous. I said:
“Conduct her to her apartments. See that she is well guarded there.”
• • •
Grimm, the Seer, came to me in mid-morning. He looked as large and easy of mind as ever, but he said:
“Things are in a sorry mess, Luke.”
I said: “I have known them better.”
“All was going so well.” He shook his head. “We must not have an injury to our plans at this stage.”
He meant the plans of the High Seers: the plans to restore Science and machines, to transform men’s lives. Children’s voices called outside as they played some game. The hopes and schemes of the Seers mattered as little to me.
“What do you plan to do with them?” Grimm asked. I did not answer. “Will you hear my advice?”
I said, listening to my own voice’s echo and amazed by its seeming calm:
“I will always hear your advice, Grimm.”
“Send her back at once to her father’s court.”
“She will not go without Edmund.”
“Then send him with her. Klan Gothlen is far enough away. It is no threat to us.”
“And he will have her.”
The calmness must have wavered. Grimm stretched his bulky body in the chair. He said:
“Before I became an Acolyte there was a girl from whom I got much misery. Some of our order find it hard to be deprived of women in their lives. I have been glad of it. There are other pleasures.”
His belly proved his point. I said:
“I am glad, for your sake.”
“Her name was Lucy,” Grimm said. “The hurt at that time was great: I thought I would have died of it. But I did not, as you see. And though I remember her name I cannot recall her face. All things pass.”
He waited but I said nothing. He said:
“Be careful, Luke. Do nothing rash. Much hangs on you.”
• • •
I had another visitor: the Christian Bishop. When his name was brought to me, as one requesting audience, I thought of saying no. But any company was better than the company of my thoughts. So I let him in, and looked at him indifferently.
“What do you want?” I asked. “More of my bounty? Have you not had gold and land enough?”
He said: “Men gather in the streets. Only a few so far but the numbers may grow. They cry a name, Prince, but it is not yours. They cry ‘Blodwen.’ She is well loved by your people.”
I laughed. “I have had the Seer telling me what to do but I did not think the Christians would send their Bishop! I did not know you took such interest in the affairs of state.”
“Nor do we. I do not speak of politics but of people. One person in particular. She is a good woman.”
I stared at him, half angry, half amused.
“That is true, Bishop.”
“And honest.”
“True also.”
“She has done you no wrong.” I said nothing to that. “And if you wrong her you will wrong yourself far more.”
“I am a Prince,” I said. “Remember it.”
He shrugged his heavy shoulders and his bald head bobbed.
“That is what they call you. But you are a man first, and she a woman.”
“What do you know of men and women? Are you not celibate, to please your god?”
“I know this,” he said. “I know that what moves you is not love but pride.”
“Of course,” I said, “your god called pride a sin. And you cannot be expected to know better. You are not a warrior.”
“Whether it be sin or not,” he said, “your pride could yet destroy you. Not all your warriors nor your own right arm will save you then.”
“You weary me, Bishop,” I said. “Go back and pray to your god who had no pride.”
• • •
Lastly Jenny came. She had been weeping and her eyes were red still. I said:
“Lady, what service would you do me now?”
“Only to right a wrong.”
“No wrong. You called me blind and that was true. My eyes are opened and I thank you.”
“There was no truth in it! Edmund did not betray you. I lied in anger.” She looked at me, her face a mask of shame. “And in jealousy. I could not bear the way you looked at her. Forgive me, Luke. And do not hold my lies against Edmund.” She drew sobbing breath. “Nor against her.”
If I had pity to spare I would have pitied her. All that she said was true, and made no difference. I said wearily:
“They love each other. What comes of this must come. There is no profit in regrets.”
She turned from me, weeping again, and went away.
I heard the tumult and ran out, my sword bare. The noise came from the north wing, where Blodwen’s apartments were. When I got there I found frightened polymufs, splintered doors, one guard dying and one dead. The dying man could not speak and the polymufs were too incoherent to make much sense. There had been fighting, they said, which was plain enough. It was plain also that they had seen nothing because they had hidden out of the way.
But the door to Blodwen’s room was smashed, and she was gone.
I was still standing there five minutes later, staring at the broken door, when Greene rode down Sack Street with a dozen of his troop. He dismounted. There was blood on his sleeve but he did not seem badly hurt. I roused myself and said:
“Who took her?”
“Charles.”
“Charles? How? By himself?”
Because he was Edmund’s brother I had that morning, as a precaution, split his troop among other Captains.
Greene said: “He picked up half a dozen of his men. They surprised the guard here. We gave chase but . . .”
“You lost them? It makes no difference. Half a dozen men? He must be mad. And what good does it do to take her? Does he think to use her as a bargain for Edmund’s release?”
“He has released Edmund already.” I stared at him. “They have the citadel. That was what turned us back.”
“Then Blaine . . .” Blaine’s men had taken over the citadel guard that morning. “Blaine is with him in this.”
Greene nodded. “It seems so.”
“So it is rebellion. And Blaine thinks that with his troop and what he can bring together of Charles’s, he can take this city?”
“There is more. He has given the Wilsh their swords back. I saw them on the citadel wall.”
Disarming Blodwen’s Wilsh bodyguard had been another precaution. It was hard to believe that even Blaine could do such a thing as to arm foreign soldiers within the city. But I had no time to waste on incredulity. The revolt was a major one and must be put down. I said to Greene:
“He will be looking for others who may go over to him if they think he is strong enough to win. We need to establish our own strength fast. We must rally those Captains on whom we can rely and get them together, Wilson and Ripon, Nicoll, Barnes, Becket, Stuart.”
Greene nodded.
I said: “You go for Nicoll and Barnes. I will get the others. We assemble here, in the palace yard.”
• • •
By dusk the lines were drawn. I had failed with Stuart, who had taken his men over to Blaine, and Turner’s troop was also in the citadel; but I had expected that. Grant, about whom I had been unsure, on the other hand had stayed loyal. We held the palace and the city in general, they the citadel.
Much hinged on what Harding might do. His troop was perhaps the strongest of all. If they joined us we must win easily: the citadel offered a strong defense but it had never been meant to be impregnable. The city’s walls and its warriors had always been our chief safeguard. If he went over to Blaine I was still confident of the outcome, though the fighting would be harder and bloodier.