The priests got to go only due to Brother Candle’s appeals. Socia wanted to herd them together and burn them the way the Society did with Seekers.
* * *
Brother Candle left the wall for the house Socia had provided for Kedle and her fellow refugees. Scarre the baker and his wife had set up on the street level. They were developing a clientele for Khaurenese soft breads. The Archimbaults, with Guillemette and Escamerole, and grandchildren, all crowded in there. Guillemette and Escamerole took care of the children and worked in the citadel, mostly caring for the Countess and Lumiere. The Archimbaults had not yet found full employment. Raulet was a tanner. Antieux’s tanning industry was depressed. So was the butcher trade. Invasions, attacks, and sieges had eliminated the livestock once common in the countryside.
Leatherworkers, too, were having a bleak season.
Twice during his walk to the refugee home Brother Candle witnessed purported friends of Count Raymone rounding up the Count’s supposed enemies. The old man was sure Bernardin had someone inside the Society. He knew who they were. He knew their fellow travelers. A settlement of old scores had begun.
Brother Candle dared not poke his nose in. The Maysalean creed was strong in Antieux but many Seekers had been rendered harsh by the wars and sieges. They had no forgiveness left and no tolerance for him who preached it.
Raulet Archimbault observed, “The wolves are loose. That’s why we didn’t see Kedle off.”
Not true, but the Perfect offered no challenge. Raulet had his right to disapprove of his daughter. “I came by to see how you’re doing. I can’t stay long. The Countess keeps me busy.”
She did. She had a big political problem: what to do about the ducal throne to which Raymone was supposed to ascend. With Raymone gone that was lost unless, implausibly, Isabeth let the dukedom devolve on Lumiere.
Brother Candle had to handle the correspondence because he knew Isabeth. There had been no answers, so far. But it could not be long before the disappointments began to arrive.
Brother Candle’s visit let the Archimbaults follow Kedle’s progress without them having to set aside their disapproval.
A Maysalean family could generate as much drama as any other.
Brother Candle visited the grandchildren, finished chatting with the Archimbaults, then headed downstairs to see Scarre and his wife. His knees ached from the up and down. He promised to see everyone at weekly services, then headed for the citadel armed with a fat loaf of Scarre’s best. Socia had developed a taste for soft bread while she was hiding with the Perfect, at the Scarre bakery, in Khaurene. Brother Candle delivered the loaf to the Countess three hours after Kedle led her hundred off to war.
Socia expected a lecture. She had a guilty air. She was behaving badly according to her religion. Brother Candle failed her expectation. He saw no point. He could no more control her than he could convince a storm to withhold its fury.
Socia’s rage had to run its course.
She asked, “They got off all right, then?”
He pretended his news would be the first she had heard. “They did. They moved out briskly, like well-motivated men.” He tried to appear content. He did not want to argue. He was too old to keep on fighting the stubborn fight.
And, maybe, the girl would think if she was not focused on defending herself.
He was sure that Kedle had permission to go beyond recovering the fallen. That would be done, surely, but the fiercest riders would hurry onward, hoping to overtake the injured Patriarch.
Serenity, as Bronte Doneto, had survived several collisions with Antieux, all at his own instigation. Kedle would try to end his run.
Privately, Brother Candle implored the Good God’s intercession. He did not want the stain of what would follow Serenity’s capture besmirching the souls of Socia Rault and Kedle Richeut.
* * *
Eight days after Kedle’s departure a ragged gaggle of peasants and carts appeared at Antieux’s gate. Kedle had hired them to transport the fallen, all in an advanced state of putrefaction. The corpses included all the local fallen-Count Raymone, too-and those of Serenity’s companions whose relicts might be ransomed.
The peasants, all of whom claimed to worship Count Raymone, brought some live bodies as welclass="underline" two men who had ridden out with Kedle, now wounded, plus a dozen Society brothers, several Episcopal priests, and six Arnhander prisoners.
Kedle had run into an Arnhander force three hundred strong, also looking for Serenity. They were inexperienced and led by Society vermin associated with Anne of Menand. Kedle launched a massacre. Her force suffered one dead and the two walking wounded.
Two hundred enemy had fallen, supposedly.
Kedle was headed north. Her soldiers had fallen in love with her. Socia was jealous.
Later, in the privacy of his cell, Brother Candle muttered, “The Adversary moves in strange and mysterious ways.”
12. Brothe: Brief Homecoming
Piper Hecht and his family arrived inside Principaté Muniero Delari’s Brothen townhouse. The place had been damaged badly during the fighting when the Righteous occupied the Mother City.
Hecht and his sister each began bleating about how the other should have remembered that the townhouse was not habitable.
Pella said, “Dad, I’ll check on Anna’s house. We can’t stay here.” He took off before he could be pelted with unwanted instructions.
Pella’s estimation proved to be inaccurate. Delari’s staff-Turking, Felske, and Mrs. Creedon-remained in place, in charge, and adequately housed.
Heris told Hecht, “Keep a low profile, little brother. You don’t have an army behind you now.”
He had begun to brood on that already.
Years ago, when he was another man, er-Rashal al-Dhulquarnen had armed him with a wrist amulet that warned him against danger from the Night. The Ninth Unknown had replaced that with another that er-Rashal could not track.
In times of no threat he forgot the amulet. He had done so in the Realm of the Gods, though Februaren did say that it would not work there. But now Hecht was back in a world where the charm was efficacious.
He felt a continuous, low-grade, maddening itch around his left wrist.
“And where is my egg?” Heris demanded.
“Right here.” Inside his shirt. But it felt different. It was cold, and lighter. “Here.”
“What happened? It’s dead. Or something. What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything. You were there. You know.”
Mrs. Creedon, Principaté Delari’s cook, intruded upon their attention. “Don’t argue where the workmen can hear. Come with me. Turking will inform the master that you have returned.”
“Good point,” Hecht said. “Let’s go. And that was the easiest transition yet. I hardly felt it.”
“I’ll save your butt from the local villains by jumping it back out before word gets around.”
“It’ll take all of you.” He was not prepared to transition with Heris alone. “What about the egg?”
“I don’t know. I expected something like, it would go away if Zyr connected with his other soul. Maybe the old old man can figure it out. I’ll be damned. This part of the dump held up pretty good. Looks like hell from outside, though.”
The cook had taken them into the kitchen, pantries, and servants’ quarters. “The cellars are fine. We can put you down there.”
Anna appeared glum. She would be on her own again, soon. And the children had had a taste of adventure. The girls in particular were sure to get into mischief. And Pella wanted to get back into the field with his father. He insisted that the education Hecht wanted him to get he could pick up from Titus Consent, Drago Prosek, Kait Rhuk, and others. And that was hard to deny. They all indulged the boy.