Mahrtynsyn nodded slowly. Sir Vyrnyn Atwatyr, the Duke of Black Bottom, was an aristocrat of the very old school. He’d avoided any previous plots against the Crown, however, because he’d had a lively respect for the Royal Army and no desire to see it marching across his lands. But he was also seventy-eight years old, and unbeknownst to the majority of his fellow aristocrats, he was secretly a fierce Temple Loyalist. More than that, both his sons and his only grandson had predeceased him, which made the current heir to his duchy a grandnephew he didn’t particularly like, and his health was declining rapidly. He felt the cold wind of mortality on his spine, urging him to make his peace with God, and this time around he had very little to lose in this world.
“Well, I sort of intimated to Mountain Heart that Lantern Walk’s more … enthusiastically committed to us than he actually is at the moment. Mountain Heart’s too cautious an old wyvern to go bleating to Lantern Walk about it, and Lantern Walk’s too cautious to ask Mountain Heart which way he’s leaning. So at the moment, both of them are inclined to believe the other one’s already signed on with us. And that, obviously, gives each of them multiple borders to worry about. Lantern Walk already had Swayle and Holy Tree on his frontier; if Mountain Heart and Black Bottom both come in, he’ll be surrounded on three sides. As for Mountain Heart, if Lantern Walk comes in, he’ll have Black Bottom to the southeast, Cheshyr—one way or the other—on the south, and me right on the other side of Lake Land. Once upon a time, I’d’ve counted on Lake Land’s support, but that was before old Symyn died last year. After the way Paitryk stabbed us in the back in Tellesberg—and the way he’s been sucking up to Sharleyan and Cayleb ever since—things have changed, unfortunately. I could be wrong about Paitryk now that he’s formally inherited the title and started dealing with the realities of Sharleyan’s tyranny, but I’m damned sure not saying a word to him ahead of time! On the other hand, he’s got less than a third of the population I have and no more than twenty or thirty armsmen, courtesy of Sailys’ damned restrictions. I, on the other hand, have close to a thousand of them training out in the back of beyond. If I have to, I’ll go through his duchy like shit through a wyvern, and he—and Mountain Heart—both know it.”
Mahrtynsyn nodded slowly, and his respect for Rock Coast went up another notch. No one would ever call the duke a brilliant man, but he clearly meant business. The under-priest was impressed by the sheer focus he’d brought to the task, and this time around he’d taken remarkably few missteps.
“But the other bit of good news from Lady Swayle is that she’s been in contact with Elahnah Waistyn.”
“Was that wise, Your Grace?”
Waistyn found himself wondering abruptly if he’d been overly optimistic about missteps. Elahnah Waistyn, the Dowager Duchess of Halbrook Hollow, was Empress Sharleyan’s maternal aunt by marriage. She was also the Duke of Eastshare’s sister. To be sure, her husband had been convicted of treason after his death, so she and Rebkah Rahskail had that much in common. More, their husbands had been close friends for many years. But venturing into the complex stew of Elahnah’s understandably conflicted loyalties did not strike him as a prudent move.
“Oh, don’t worry! First, Elahnah contacted Rebkah, not the other way around. They hadn’t actually spoken since Barkah’s execution, so she was a little surprised by the invitation to visit Halbrook Hall. And she didn’t say a word about any conspiracies while she was there. But Elahnah made it quite clear that she would ‘look favorably’ upon the restoration of Mother Church’s proper authority here in Chisholm. I’m sure she’s still in a great deal of pain over Byrtrym’s death, and especially over the way he died. But her faith’s solid, and if we approach her properly when the time comes, there’s an excellent chance she’d lend us at least her passive support. And Sailys is the spitting image of Byrtrym in more than one way. You know he shared Byrtrym’s beliefs, and there’s been very little contact between him and Sharleyan since his father’s death. I know which way his heart will pull him, and if it looks like the entire West is coming over to us—and if his mother pushes him just a bit—I don’t think it will matter a lot which way his head pulls.”
Mahrtynsyn breathed a surreptitious sigh of relief. He wasn’t as convinced as Rock Coast that the young Duke of Halbrook Hollow’s heart was that thoroughly with the Temple Loyalists, but he could be wrong. Halbrook Hollow’s proximity to the Crown had made him far too dangerous for any of the Inquisitor General’s agents to contact, so Mahrtynsyn had no personal impression one way or the other. But it was certainly possible Rock Coast had a point, especially if, as he said, it looked like the entire southwest was falling into line. And if Halbrook Hollow did join them, it would be huge.
It was already clear that Ahdem Zhefry, the Earl of Cross Creek, would never join them willingly. Bad enough he’d always staunchly supported Sharleyan and the monarchy in his own right, but Earl White Crag, who’d become the kingdom’s First Councilor after Baron Green Mountain was crippled by one of Zhaspahr Clyntahn’s assassins, was his brother-in-law! Yet if Holy Tree, Lantern Walk, and Halbrook Hollow all came in, not only would Cross Creek be hemmed in on three sides by hostile territory, but so would three-quarters of the Duchy of Tayt eastern border.
It really looks like Rock Coast’s going to pull this off, the Schuelerite thought almost wonderingly.
He’d worked towards that end for over two years, yet he’d never really believed it was going to happen. He’d been willing to make the effort, despite the dangers, for at the end of the day he was not simply a man of the Church, but a man of deep and abiding faith. A man had to know what he was willing to die for, and Sedryk Mahrtynsyn had decided that the day the Jihad officially began. But only now did he truly realize that he’d never actually expected it to work.
Not until this very day.
“Your Grace, I’m deeply impressed. Especially that this is all coming together now. Surely it’s an indication of God’s approval that this should be happening at the very moment that General Kahlyns is in the process of sending all the new regiments to the front!”
“Of course it is,” Rock Coast agreed. “But let’s not forget that God and the Archangels help those who help themselves, Father! No matter how many people we can recruit before we strike, we’ll represent only a minority of the Kingdom, at least to start. I’ve discussed it with Black Horse, and we’re in agreement that what we need is for the two of us to declare our defiance of the Crown first and then bring the others in in a sort of rolling cascade. Have them make it clear to everyone that they’re responding to the inherent justice of our demands only after we’ve made them rather than part of some preconcerted plot. It shouldn’t take more than a five-day or so for all of them to make their ‘decisions of conscience,’ and doing it that way will create a wave of momentum in our favor.”
“I can see that, Your Grace,” Mahrtynsyn said, impressed yet again.
“So far, Black Horse and I have boiled it down to five principal points,” Rock Coast continued, unlocking an iron-reinforced desk drawer and extracting a single sheet of paper. “I’ve discussed most of these with you, at least in principle before, but we’ve hammered it into a semi-final shape and I’d like your opinion.”
“Of course, Your Grace.” Mahrtynsyn leaned back in his chair, tucking his hands into the arms of his cassock and cocking his head attentively.
“First,” Rock Coast said, glancing down at his sheet of notes, “we begin by declaring that Sharleyan’s marriage to Cayleb is null and void because it was patently illegal, since the House of Lords’ ancient and customary right to approve the betrothal or marriage of the heir to the throne was flouted. Langhorne! It wasn’t simply flouted; it was completely ignored! She simply stood up in Parliament and told us all what she’d already decided!