The Tyranny of the Night

42. The End of Connec: The Return

Connecten forces evacuated Shippen after the spring storm season. They disembarked in Sheavenalle after an easy twelve-day passage. Brother Candle and the chaplain corps made the passage aboard Taro, the vessel they had ridden southward. Insofar as Brother Candle could determine, ship's company and human cargo were short fewer than a half-dozen men, none of whom had been slain by Calzirans. Accident and illness accounted for most of the expedition's losses.

Big changes were under way in the End of Connec. That was plain before Brother Candle cleared Sheavenalle's waterfront. He saw armed men in leather armor, never alone, going in and out of low places. They spoke harsh foreign dialects.

They were employed by the wealthy families who were the real powers in a city that owed fealty directly to the Dukes of Khaurene.

Duke Tormond's vacillation, his perceived weakness, his failure to stand up for his people and the legitimate Patriarch when bullied by Brothe, had begun to yield their fall of poisonous fruit. Those hotheaded nobles and knights who had taken part in the Black Mountain Massacre, those they inspired, and the wealthy bourgeoisie, had been hiring thugs to protect themselves – initially from the predations of the Brothen Church. But, once they had armed men available, they succumbed to the temptation to settle old scores.

Duke Tormond possessed neither the means nor the will to suppress these abuses of law, ducal rights, and the ancient peace. Not while the horrors could still be smothered in the nest. Bishop Richenau was the worst offender. He had recruited three hundred toughs during Count Raymone's absence. He insisted he needed them to punish the enemies of the Church.

Mathe Richenau was only modestly less corrupt than his predecessor. And at one time had counted himself amongst Anne of Menand's lovers.

HOWEVER MUCH COUNT RAYMONE HAD MATURED WHILE ON crusade, so had he been hardened and his confidence in himself been tempered. He returned to Antieux one afternoon in early summer. Next morning, as the sun cleared the hilltops beyond the Job to the east, he and his veterans attacked the manor house formerly occupied by Bishop Serifs, now the residence of Bishop Richenau. Outnumbered, nevertheless they routed the Bishop's bullies with great slaughter. They then fired the manor house to flush Richenau. Following a ten-minute trial the Bishop was reunited with his god by being buried alive, head down, with his desperately pumping legs exposed.

Count Raymone had not matured to the point where he understood that these kinds of messages are never understood by those for whom they are intended.

Count Raymone ordered all confiscated properties returned to their rightful owners and all Brothen Episcopal priests turned out of Antieux. Some suffered cruelly. Nobody cared. Raymone turned on those who had conspired in, collaborated with, and profited from Bishop Richenau's corruption.

BROTHER CANDLE HAD JUST SETTLED INTO THE BAKER Scarre's home when Khaurene began to buzz with rumors about events in Antieux.

The Perfect Master wept.

The time of despair, which he had foreseen two years earlier, was about to claim the End of Connec, worse than ever he had imagined.

Once he regained his equanimity Brother Candle took up the task begun in St. Jeules ande Neuis, two years ago.

The Seekers After Light, and their neighbors, must prepare for the onslaught of darkness.