Two Kingdoms 57 - Sources

[DoctorM]

TWO KINGDOMS 57: SOURCES

This is the fifty-seventh part of an AU construction about a Gwynedd where the duel at Kelson Haldane's coronation went very differently indeed. We are now a bit more than three years into the Gwynedd Wars-- Charissa's new kingdom at Valoret against the Haldanes in the south and the kingdom of Torenth in the east. This episode is set just after "Black Flower". As always, comments and suggestions are very much appreciated.

****

There's wind in from the north and west. It's still notionally summer here at Tolan-by-Sea, but you can feel the change of seasons beginning. The Lady Kyri has been there since Terce. She's perched on a rock atop the rise, looking down  to the black sand of the beach. Men's riding clothes this morning, and a long, long scarf in grey silk from somewhere out east-of-east. The scarf's a royal gift, and the horse picketed down the reverse slope is from the royal stables.

She can hear someone coming up behind her. Her hand moves to the stiletto at her belt, but she doesn't turn around. She points at the low clouds far out over the Gulf. "What do you think? Rain today?"

Beside her, the Queen's husband drops down onto the next rock over and stretches out. "Put your hand out," Christian says. "Put a thumb out with the bottom edge on the horizon." He's not looking at her. "Keep it parallel with the horizon. Look at the edge.  If the clouds are below the top edge of your thumb, then it'll rain before sunset. That's what sailors say. I'm thinking mid-afternoon. That's what I'd say on the steppe."

Kyri puts her arm down. She finally looks over at him. She brushes long red hair back off her face. "And here you are," she says. "The Queen's Vindex. That's the Latin word, right? Avenger, Vindex?"

Christian hasn't looked back at her yet. "Vindex is fine. It works."

Kyri regards him. He's in a black jerkin and riding cloak this morning and he's wearing a Moorish scarf in Falkenberg colours. She can see the sheathed kinzhal on his belt. She tilts her head. "Queen's Avenger," she says. "You've been hanging people again. It's starting to be a habit.  I saw the bodies when I left the palace. What was it, a dozen today?"

He shakes his head. "Ten today. Just ten."

Kyri draws in a breath. "My God. Ten of them— that can't all be Hand-and-Eye."

Christian shrugs. "None of them were Hand of Camber. This lot, today's lot, were just ordinary. Eight plus two, they were. Two very ordinary Torenthi spies— Wencit's people, not even Rhydon's. The others were all Ratcliffe's finds. They worked in the palace storehouses. Had a thieves' ring in place— just thieves."

"So no Hand of Camber. No more shape-changers."

"Not so far."

Kyri is smiling. It's a cold smile. "Poor Chrissy... Is it harder to do spy catching than you thought? They can't be out-thinking you, can they?"

He shrugs again. "They're not here— or not here anymore. Right now I'm looking at what they used when they came for Charissa— and for you. Those weren't ordinary Portals. I want to know about the techniques they were using.  But I know where they are—where they have to be. I know where I'm going to have to go to find them and kill them."

"South," she says. "You're going to go down south. Someplace in the Forcinn. Someplace where the Knights of the Anvil used to be."

Christian finally looks over at her. "Someplace where the Anvillers still are. Take the war to the enemy— that's what you do if you're light horse."

"Meanwhile...you'll just keep hanging people. Maybe even the right ones."

"Don't bother feeling anything for anyone we're hunting down. They came to kill Charissa. And they were here to kill you as well. They'd have killed your young companion, too, if they'd had the chance. You know that."

Kyri starts to say something and changes her mind. She takes a breath. "I'm Connaiti," she says. "I know all about blood feuds and vengeance. I grew up with that. You have to kill them, the Hand-and-Eye people. Of course you do. I know that. I'm not opposed to it. But I don't like what you and Aurelian and Ratcliffe are doing— the arrests, the hangings, whatever you do to get information. I don't think I'll like this new you."

Christian grins. "I didn't think you liked the old me very much."

"I didn't. I don't. But...all your life, all the time since I've known you and Rissa, you've been the one at the edge of the crowd. You stand there and watch everything  everyone else is doing and you say clever things about them. You like that, you like being more clever than everyone else. You like not being really a part of anything. That's why you liked being a sell-sword. You didn't have to care about why you were fighting for anything. Causes never mattered. Everything for you is always like being a character in a story. I know why Rissa's in love with you. I've spent time around you. You're polite and kind and it's easy enough to like the stories you tell. But you have something in life to take seriously now. And there's something hard and cold coming out in you. I'm not going to like it."

He looks back out at the clouds over the Gulf. "You don't have to like it. But whatever I'm doing, I'm going to keep Charissa alive. You, too— just by the way."

Kyri draws her knees up and wraps her arms around her riding boots. "Before you go down south, I have something for you. Something to tell you. That's why we're here."

Christian grins again. "Let me guess, Roiste. Affairs of the heart— you're moving your young companion into your rooms and you're worried about  what Charissa will say."

"You know, I keep thinking that I don't like you much, and I do have a blade on my belt and one in my boot top."

"I've known you for fifteen years. You haven't stabbed me yet."

"You're Prince of Kheldour these days, whatever that's worth. This is about your princedom. It's about the Heldurnii."

"Ah. And here I was thinking you wanted me to explain to Charissa why you were stealing away one of les chiennes."

"I haven't stabbed you yet. It's coming, though."

Christian is holding her gaze. "I gave you the best advice you ever got about affairs of the heart. I told you to get a blade, go to Tiercel de Claron, and gut him like a fish. That's the best advice ever. You should've taken it. So what about Kheldour and the Heldurnii?"

Kyri puts a hand on his sleeve. "I don't want you dead. I really don't. I want...I want you and Rissa to win your wars. Listen to me, now.  I'll never repeat that; I'll never say it again. But it's true."

She puts her chin down on her boot tops. "Coram. His Heldurnii Brotherhood. This is about them. Do you know where and what St. Conran's is?"

Christian shakes his head. "Not a clue."

"It's in Old Kheldour," Kyri says. "It's almost in Claibourne country. In the mountains where they come down to the sea west from Stevenham. It's an abbey and it's big and it's about as old as it gets. It's on the coast. It used to be important, a few hundred years ago."

"Who has it now?" It's a different voice, crisp and quick.

"Not really anybody. It had more than a hundred monks, maybe two hundred, once upon a time, and then it didn't. St. Conran's got smaller and smaller. No monks, no income. Ten, fifteen years ago there weren't a dozen monks left. Maybe nobody has it now. The duke of Claibourne hasn't done anything with it, I know that. Not Kierney, either. Abandoned, or mostly abandoned."

Christian is looking north over the Gulf. There's nothing in his face. "Coram's people are using it— is that what you're saying?"

"Yes. Stefan Coram's people, the Heldurnii Brotherhood, they've been there.  They've been using it. They're doing something there."

"What's something?"

Kyri takes a breath. "They're getting ready for some kind of meeting there."

Christian looks hard at her. "You know this how?"

"I still have friends on the Council staff. Not many left, but a few. Coram's purged almost everyone, brought in his own people from God knows where. But there are still a handful who know me, who trust me. I trust them, too. They took a risk to tell me."

Christian sits up. "He has the Council hall for his own now. This is different. An abbey in the middle of nowhere, an abbey on the sea. What kind of meeting?"

"The people who told me—"

"Do they have names, these people?"

"Not for you, they don't. I'm sorry if I look like someone who'd name the people who trusted her." She looks over. "The meeting is supposed to be with strangers. That's what the staff heard— all in whispers. Strangers were coming to St. Conran's."

"Coming how? Horseback, ship, Portal?"  There's something cold and dark in his voice.

Kyri's mouth sets into a grim line. "I have no idea. And don't you ever effing sound like you're interrogating me. Don't ever do that again."

Christian puts a hand over hers. "No. I'm sorry. That's the new me, and he's not very likable. I'm sorry." He pulls her hand up and kisses it. "This is important. It's the Hand-and-Eye. It has to be. Coram's mending fences with his allies. They'll be planning together, too. They've had no joint planning. They'll need to do that. But it'll be mending fences, mostly— Coram persuading the Hand-and-Eye that he's not trying to use them for pawns."

Kyri unfolds herself. "Of course he wants them as pawns. That's what Coram wants from everybody." She looks over. "Saint Canice's Day. Saint Machar's Day as the alternate. That's what I'm told."

Christian closes his eyes for a moment. "I want you to come with me when I tell Charissa and Aurelian. I need you to do that. I'm still going south— that's still happening. The Hand-and-Eye are southern-based. But St. Conran's, St. Conran's is here in Gwynedd and it's in the open."

He takes her hand again. "Your people are Council staff. I recognize that. They won't spy for Charissa or for me. I won't ask for that. But anything they tell you— numbers, arrivals, topics, what this abbey's like —that won't be about helping the Queen. It'll be about undermining Coram. That's not even untrue. You aren't lying to them. You know what Coram's done to the Council." He grins at her. "Thank you for this, Roiste. That's from the old me."

She presses her chin back against her boot tops. "I'm not sure if I should cry. I'm not sure what I'm doing in all this. But I'm Connaiti; you're right about that. The Hand of Camber came to kill me; they'd have killed Rissa, too. And someone else I care about. I won't let them get away with that. I'm Connaiti; this is in my blood. Coram dies. The Hand-and-Eye all die, too. Clever Chrissy— do you think we can get drunk before it rains?"

NOTE

I've spent time thinking about who would be cast as Kyri de Roiste in my imaginary streaming series of "Two Kingdoms".  I've decided that a younger, more red-haired Rebecca Ferguson might make a very good Kyri— though I'll also note that I do imagine a Connaiti accent as being just a bit Irish. Let me know what you think.



































 

[tmcd]

"Put a thumb out with the bottom on the horizon." He's not looking at her. "Keep it parallel with the horizon. If the clouds are below the top of your thumb, then it'll rain before sunset...."

Do you mean perpendicular? If it's parallel, then the top of the thumb is at the left or right side, and "below" doesn't work so much, and clouds would hardly be visible. And maybe "above the top of your thumb" instead? This rule of thumb (snrk) would mean that having more clouds means it won't rain, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

[drakensis]

I read it to be that if the bottom of the clouds is closer to the horizon than the width of the thumb then expect rain. If the clouds are higher, rain is less likely.

[Evie]

I agree that Kyri likely has an Irish accent of some sort, since I've noticed many (possibly most?) of KK's place names are loosely derived by actual real-world place names or at least hint at a country of origin/inspiration in the sound of their names, and "Connait" seems pretty similar to "Connacht/Connaught."

[Evie]

I read it to be that if the bottom of the clouds is closer to the horizon than the width of the thumb then expect rain. If the clouds are higher, rain is less likely.

This is what I took it to mean also.

[Evie]

Christian is holding her gaze. "I gave you the best advice you ever got about affairs of the heart. I told you to get a blade, go to Tiercel de Claron, and gut him like a fish. That's the best advice ever.

Not sure what it says about me that this "advice" made me laugh out loud. 😅 It definitely reflects my own opinion of Tiercel!

ETA: No, wait, I was thinking of Thorne Hagen. Poor Tiercel, what has he ever done to...oh, wait.  Can't say I'm overly fond of Tiercel either, though maybe not quite gut-with-a-fish-knife unfond!

[DoctorM]

Aha. I see what you're saying. A quick fix may be in order.

"Put a thumb out with the bottom on the horizon." He's not looking at her. "Keep it parallel with the horizon. If the clouds are below the top of your thumb, then it'll rain before sunset...."

Do you mean perpendicular? If it's parallel, then the top of the thumb is at the left or right side, and "below" doesn't work so much, and clouds would hardly be visible. And maybe "above the top of your thumb" instead? This rule of thumb (snrk) would mean that having more clouds means it won't rain, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

[DoctorM]

Exactly.

I read it to be that if the bottom of the clouds is closer to the horizon than the width of the thumb then expect rain. If the clouds are higher, rain is less likely.

[DoctorM]

Exactly-- Connaught. The part of Ireland that's always fascinated me.

I agree that Kyri likely has an Irish accent of some sort, since I've noticed many (possibly most?) of KK's place names are loosely derived by actual real-world place names or at least hint at a country of origin/inspiration in the sound of their names, and "Connait" seems pretty similar to "Connacht/Connaught."

[DoctorM]

Now Thorne is someone we'll be seeing again, and I do have some sympathy for him. Tiercel on the other hand...

At some point Kyri had an affair with Tiercel de Claron-- which was not a good decision on her part. I mentioned in an earlier episode  ("Aubade") that at some point Tiercel left a serious bruise on Kyri's face, and there was a...discussion...between Charissa and Tiercel about that. Certain consequences (*cough* gelding and flaying *cough*) should he ever come near Kyri again were made very, very clear to him. (This is a moment where Charissa could use her full height to emphasize her point.)

Kyri has a reputation for making highly dubious choices in men. Christian's belief (and Charissa's) is that Kyri is unconsciously choosing the worst possible men so that one day, some day, she can walk away from them altogether and make a decision she's been too afraid to make.

Christian's advice is...probably not the worst idea.

Christian is holding her gaze. "I gave you the best advice you ever got about affairs of the heart. I told you to get a blade, go to Tiercel de Claron, and gut him like a fish. That's the best advice ever.

Not sure what it says about me that this "advice" made me laugh out loud. 😅 It definitely reflects my own opinion of Tiercel!

ETA: No, wait, I was thinking of Thorne Hagen. Poor Tiercel, what has he ever done to...oh, wait.  Can't say I'm overly fond of Tiercel either, though maybe not quite gut-with-a-fish-knife unfond!

[DoctorM]

I've made a small change to try to clarify that.

I read it to be that if the bottom of the clouds is closer to the horizon than the width of the thumb then expect rain. If the clouds are higher, rain is less likely.

This is what I took it to mean also.

[Jerusha]

I especially liked this chapter; good conversation and real information. Not sure I like Christian's darker side, but suspect it is inevitable and necessary to survive.

[DoctorM]

Thank you! I do like seeing how Christian and Kyri interact. Kyri is trying very hard to reconcile a lot of things at the Queen's court.

I especially liked this chapter; good conversation and real information. Not sure I like Christian's darker side, but suspect it is inevitable and necessary to survive.