Two Kingdoms 62 - Night Music

[DoctorM]

TWO KINGDOMS 62: NIGHT THOUGHTS

This is Part 62 of an ongoing AU construction about a Gwynedd where the duel at Kelson Haldane's coronation went very differently indeed. We are now almost four 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 at approximately the same time as "Array". As always, comments and suggestions are very much appreciated.

****

"You're taking Aurelian with you to Kheldour," Charissa says. It's not a question. It's after midnight here in the old ducal palace at Tolan-by-Sea, and she's in Christian's private rooms, perched on the worktable in his library. No candles here tonight, no oil lamps, and no balls of Deryni witch-light drifting across the ceiling. She's wrapped in just a bedsheet, and there's a pale, almost silver aura flickering around her.

Christian stretches out in his chair. "Always," he says. "I'm not going anywhere without Aurelian. I'm taking Rizak, too. I need somebody who knows about Deryni combat."

The Shadow Queen looks down at him. "I want them both back, and I want  them soon. Alaric Morgan is out there on the Molling River with an army. I want Aurelian here running intelligencers. Ratcliffe's very, very good, but he's not Aurelian."

"Nobody's Aurelian. I haven't made a move without him in a dozen years. I'm not starting now."

"You're sailing over to the Kheldish Riding in a royal ballinger. That's not a secret. At Stavenham town, they know you're coming. What do they think you're coming to do?"

Christian shrugs. "I'm Prince of Kheldour. I've been prince for almost four years and I've never been to my princedom. Everyone in Stavenham's on notice that I'm coming to set up my government. I'll show up and put my own officials in place. I'm taking both your ballingers, and if anybody's looking, what they'll see is clerks plus men-at-arms I'm sending for a garrison in the capital and a couple of the bigger towns. That gives me an excuse for showing up with an armed retinue. I'm supposed to be doing some arrayment and purveyancing, too— collecting money for the war in Gwynedd. That part's real enough, mind you. We have an army to pay. Anybody asks, this is all of it about me being Prince and getting my hands on a revenue stream. If I'm wandering around the countryside, it's about milking the  Kheldishmen. It's not about going to St. Conran's abbey to kill Stefan effing Coram and his guests."

The Shadow Queen considers. "Both royal ballingers, that's...what? Space for something like a hundred men total that you're bringing?"

"About that. They won't all be fighters. Some of them really will be garrison troops and clerks. But the ones I'm taking to this abbey meeting, they'll be enough."

"They'll be enough, you hope. Hope's not a plan; we both know that."

Christian takes her hand and slides his fingers between hers. "Stavenham's the capital. That's where all the Riding tax and land records are. I'll see what they have to say about this abbey. There's a church there that had ties to St. Conran's back once upon a time, too. I have that much from Kyri. I'll be looking at all the church records before I go to the abbey. They may have a layout plan of the abbey, and I really want one of those.  I won't go in blind, and I won't go in without doing scouting in person, too."

"I'm thinking," Charissa says, "I'm thinking this is all so very much you. It's just exactly the kind of thing you'd like. Going off to a rockbound coast on the edge of the world, going off to a deserted abbey that's probably filled with ghosts. You're going off to a haunted abbey by the sea to use dark magic to kill people. You've told me for years and years that you hate adventures, but you'll be writing all this down. You'll put every minute of it into a book. Res gestae and all that."

She drops from the table and kneels by his chair. "I want you back to write it, too. I want Stefan Coram dead, but I want you back here. Also...you're not allowed to die, not ever. La reine le veult."

He lifts her hand and kisses it. "I won't die. It's Coram who's going to die."

" Good. No capturing him, no sending him back in chains. Nothing like that."

Christian nods. "If he's still alive when we find him and take him, he dies on the spot. I've told my people— if I'm not there to do it, any one of them can do it. No putting him in chains, no sending him back here, no gloating at him in a dungeon. I don't care about torturing him. I don't need to know anything from him. He doesn't get to be a martyr, and he doesn't get to give any last speech. He just dies." He presses his lips to the inside of her wrist.  "I'll send you the head."

"Good." She leans over the arm of his chair to kiss him. "But we need to talk about something. Coram dead— that's a start. But he isn't acting alone. He's not the only Deryni enemy we have— even past the Hand-and-Eye. There's a list. I made a list."

"Of course you did. You like lists." He smiles and brushes blonde hair away from her face. He traces a finger along the white scar across her nose and cheekbone. "Tell me who's on this one."

"Killing Stefan Coram doesn't end anything. I'm not talking about the Hand-and-Eye, either. We need to look at the Camberian Council. I mean, not at Barrett. Barrett's not on the list. Barrett's a good man, maybe even a great one. I won't do that. For Barrett— a dignified exile. Something honourable. But...Lady Vivienne. Vivienne's  effing well on the list, right behind Coram. She hates me, and there's no way that she wasn't supporting Coram's coup at the Council. Vivienne de Jordanet is on the list."

Christian shrugs. "That's fine. And of course—"

"Claron. Absolutely Tiercel de Claron."

"Obviously. Claron goes without saying. I mean, he did pay for Coram's first try at having me killed. And of course there's the Kyri story."

"There's Kyri. You know the story— me threatening him to his face about things he did to her. I should've cut his effing throat then and there. You know all the things he said about Kyri. About me, too. I don't like men who hit women. I don't like people who hurt Kyri." Charissa taps a long finger on Christian's arm. "His name's on the list. You can underline it in red. When you're done, I'll send his head to Kyri. Sapphic whores have to stand up for one another." 

"Whores, well... I didn't think you ever took money for anything." He's grinning in the near-dark of the room.

"Oh, never money. I'd take kingdoms, never coin." She's doing one of her more dazzling smiles. "Though I suppose I could start sending you a bill. I like you, so...I'll just charge what the prices would be at Mistress Montague's house." She jerks her head at the flagon on the table. "You pour. And yes, I do know what the rates are there.  Especially for the things I know you'd like."

Christian hands her a cup. "Fianna white," he says. "I know what you drink, and you know everything about me."

"Everything. I know where you are and what you're doing, every hour of the day." She unfolds herself and looks into his eyes. "Remember this. I own you. Like I own the horses in the palace stables. Like I own this chair. I do own you." She kisses him with her hand clenched in short-cropped black hair. "I own you...and of course that works both ways, too. It always works both ways. It always will. Always and ever."

"I know that. I've known that since I was fourteen. I never wanted it to be any other way."

"Like you had a choice." She kisses him again. There's wine on her lips. "Tell me what I taste like tonight."

There's Deryni light in a sharp blue-white around his arm and his own wine cup. "Pears," he says. "That's what Fianna white always tastes like— it tastes like pears, and it tastes like you."

Her thumb traces its way along his lips. "You go off to this haunted abbey on the sea, and you'd better effing come back soon. And now...the rest of the Council. Kyri and Thorne are my friends. You know that. So what do we do about Laran?"

Christian touches his wine cup to hers. "Do we need to do anything? I mean, Claron and Coram and Vivienne, sure. Laran's no problem if we want to add him, too. But should we care?"

Charissa tilts her head to one side. "He doesn't mean anything to me. He's done nothing outright against me. And Laran's supposed to be a skilled physician. That's something in his favor. If he goes home and stays in his study and keeps his mouth shut, then fine. He gets to live in retirement. Which leaves us with...Bishop Arilan."

"Definitely on the list. I mean, he did call you the daughter of the Antichrist. Putting him on the list, though— that could be a problem, if we're worried about the Church."

"I'm not. We hanged half the bishops in Gwynedd right after the coup. I'm not worried about the Church. They hate me and that's just a given. Arilan goes to the gallows. Or the block. That's your call. Or just effing poison him. I don't much care how it gets done."

He runs a finger along the sharp lines of her bare collarbones. "We can get rid of what's left of the Council. After that happens, now— do you want there to still be a Council? I can make an argument for you, and a good one, that the Council's no longer needed."

"I want you to make the argument for me, and make it in writing. Make one about the Church, too. Aurelian says we should take more of a grip on the Church. I don't give a damn about theology and belief, but  if we win, we need to get secular procurators to manage all Church lands and revenues. We need to get veto rights over higher Church appointments, over who gets to be a bishop or gets to be abbot at the big monasteries."

He looks down into his wine cup. "We have to win, then. We have to win everything, not just create  a kingdom in the Gwynedd north and in Tolan and Marluk. Getting rid of the Council's one thing. Crossing the Church, though, that's another. Do we want that fight?"

Charissa presses her forehead against his knee and then looks up. She takes a breath. "Then we have to win everything. We've come this far, and we'll go all the way. Being a queen— it doesn't mean anything if I have to reign with somebody like Stefan Coram out there in the shadows watching me and judging. It doesn't mean anything if I have to spend my life being afraid of the Church and waiting to see if the Church appoints somebody like Arilan or Edmund effing Loris who'll try to tell me what to do. If I'm going to be queen, we need to go all the way. I need you to go all the way with me."

"I will. You know that." Christian reaches for more wine. "I keep wondering if all married couples do this— sit together late at night and talk about who they're going to have murdered."

"Maybe more couples should," Charissa says. She reaches for her wine cup. "But this isn't murder. It's not murder if a queen does it, not if it's about holding on to a throne."

"Agreed," he says, "But we do have to win."

The aura around her fades into a softer, deeper blue. "Go to your haunted abbey," she says. "Kill Coram. Kill everyone he has with him. Talk to Rizak, though. Talk about duels-arcane and what you need to know. Kill Coram and come home. I don't like waking up at midnight and not having you there."

[Evie]

Could we pretty please add Thorne Hagen to Charissa's list? I mean, I'd be glad to take Arilan off her hands and whisk him off to someplace else if she would just send Christian or anyone else to eliminate Hagen!   

[DoctorM]

Hmmm... We'll have to see. I have my notes for Thorne's next apperance, so do keep an eye out...

Could we pretty please add Thorne Hagen to Charissa's list? I mean, I'd be glad to take Arilan off her hands and whisk him off to someplace else if she would just send Christian or anyone else to eliminate Hagen!   

[Jerusha]

Dear Aurelian - I'll always be in his corner.

Not too keen about eliminating Denis Arilan - I've always had a soft spot for the old curmudgeon.  But war is war....

[DoctorM]

Dear Aurelian - I'll always be in his corner.

Not too keen about eliminating Denis Arilan - I've always had a soft spot for the old curmudgeon.  But war is war....

Things are growing here. The Gwynedd wars are spreading-- and everyone's plans are growing. We'll see how things happen in Kheldour, in Meara, and in the shadows...

And I'm very sure Aurelian will be a key player.

[Evie]

Dear Aurelian - I'll always be in his corner.

Not too keen about eliminating Denis Arilan - I've always had a soft spot for the old curmudgeon.  But war is war....

Things are growing here. The Gwynedd wars are spreading-- and everyone's plans are growing. We'll see how things happen in Kheldour, in Meara, and in the shadows...

And I'm very sure Aurelian will be a key player.

Now why did I have a sudden flashback to the old TV show Babylon 5 when you mentioned the shadows? 😅

[DoctorM]

Now why did I have a sudden flashback to the old TV show Babylon 5 when you mentioned the shadows? 😅
[/quote]

Y'know, I really liked "Babylon 5". I discovered it on late-night TV just as its Season 2 began, and I watched it all the way to the end. (And...the Shadows had those really great ships!)

[tmcd]

Remastered episodes of Babylon 5 are being posted to YouTube, one every few days.  The Gathering can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaIZc2icdTU , for example. I think they can be found via ClipZone.

[DoctorM]

Remastered episodes of Babylon 5 are being posted to YouTube, one every few days.  The Gathering can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaIZc2icdTU , for example. I think they can be found via ClipZone.

Thank you! I'll definitely take a look!