Working God's Mischief

11. Antieux: Deathwives

Two days after Bernardin’s return to Antieux a troop of forty lances left the city with orders to travel fast, far, and light. Still, with equerries, serjents, and servants, and with every man sharing the workload, the party really consisted of a hundred souls and three hundred animals.

Everyone had to ride. Everyone had to bring food, tents, and equipment. Warhorses, usually asked to do no more than amble along till fighting time, ended up carrying supplies.

Brother Candle watched from above the city gate. He marveled at what these fighting men considered light. Nothing like the horse soldiers of the east, though he had heard that those riders often had vast trains of camels in trail.

The Perfect was troubled. Those men were in dire awe of their captain. Even the animals might be a little intimidated.

Countess Socia had given Kedle Richeut command, then had disdained all dissenting arguments. Nor had she been reluctant to be heavy-handed with anyone who tried to thwart her.

There had been surprisingly few attempts at that.

* * *

Kedle’s reputation had grown since events in Khaurene. And Socia had been around Antieux long enough to have made an abiding impression. No one forgot her massacre of those men at Suralert Ford, all privileged by birth or status in the Church.

Most folk of Antieux had been satisfied with Count Raymone’s rule. The Countess promised more of the same, possibly more intensely.

But…! A woman commanding warriors? However fierce a woman? That was legendary stuff. It did not happen in modern times.

Against that argument Socia named Queen Isabeth herself, Anne of Menand, and Empress Katrin and her sister Helspeth. Both daughters of Johannes Blackboots had seen combat during the Calziran Crusade, when they were younger than Kedle Richeut. Then there was the Countess of Antieux herself. Socia Rault had been handling weapons against armed foes since she was sixteen. And she was sending Kedle Richeut out only because she could not yet sit a saddle herself.

The Countess was who she was and Count Raymone’s judgment was trusted. Socia’s wishes were accepted by the nobles and magnates.

Antieux would ignore the unnatural arrangement as long as Socia and Kedle produced results.

Brother Candle watched the riders head into the dewy sunrise and blamed the moisture on his cheeks on the morning damp. He was sad. Kedle was walking away from her life to do this thing.

Kedle meant almost as much to him as Socia did. He had known her since she was in diapers. She was the only surviving child of two good friends. He had brought Raulet and Madam Archimbault to the Good God before Kedle was born.

Raulet and his wife were distraught. They had not been able to bring themselves to watch Kedle ride away, armed, surrounded by a hundred crude men. Her hunger for bloody action pained them deeply.

Pacifism was ingrained in the Maysalean Heresy. Although the Good God insisted that evil be resisted by all means, including use of arms, most Seekers would not fight. Brother Candle himself never raised a hand in anger. Kedle not only embraced violence, she abandoned her children to follow its call.

* * *

The time between Bernardin’s return and the departure of Kedle’s expedition was full for Brother Candle. He spent a lot of time with Raulet and his wife, reminding them to remain strong for the sake of the grandchildren. He had to endure, in silence, Socia’s robust pogrom against all things Brothen Episcopal, including public execution of eleven members of the Society for the Suppression of Sacrilege and Heresy. She imprisoned forty-three suspected agents of the Brothen Church, then ordered the expulsion of Episcopal priests known to have been honestly active before Count Raymone’s misadventure.

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 well: 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.”