Padrec spared him the question. "We sustained ninety- eight and the half percent casualties. I am one percent of the survivors." He touched Malgon's shoulder. "Mal is the odd half. The rest spread the faith. Glory to God."

"Alleluia," Malgon mumbled.

They look dead. I've seen cadavers with more life in their eyes.

279.

Marchudd unrolled a notitium and gave it swift pe- rusal. "Father Patricius, I have my tribune's full report of your otfense. The killing of your superior, Gallius Urbi, in the field-Father, do I have your attention?"

Barely audible. "Yes."

Marchudd snapped. "Yes what?"

"What would you like?"

"Don't be insolent, priest. Both I and Ambrosius are disposed to clemency in this matter. Do not insult your way back into jeopardy. The killing of your superior offi- cer. which the legate pro tern of the Sixth Legio is willing to mitigate. Are you not. Tribune?"

"Urn? Yes." Wrapped in his own thoughts, Ambrosius responded absently. His face was thinner than Meganius remembered. "As convening authority in the field, I press no capital charge against Succatus Patricius."

The prince accepted this mildly. "None whatsoever?"

"None, sir. Since this inquiry is under the rose, as my report to you, I declare that Patricius struck in self-detense, Gallius raised his sword first."

"I see." To Meganius, Marchudd seemed far from concerned and barely curious. "Quite. We remand the prisoner to canonical authority. But for the record, Tribune?"

"For the record," Ambrosius appended, "guilty of dereliction of discipline in the field."

"And the specifications?"

"Faulty judgment." Ambrosius moved to Padrec. "In- subordination. Accordingly reprimanded and fined two sesterces. Let the record reflect the penalty."

Not like a man delivered out of the lion's mouth, Padrec just stood there like an ox. "I don't have any money." He stripped off one of the heavy gold bracelets and held it out.

"Oh, put it away." Ambrosius gave it up. "Yours, your grace."

Padrec spoke then. "Since I am acquitted, 1 ask the prince to keep his promise."

"What?" Marchudd's head came up like a nervous spaniel. "Man, you've been given your life. What promise?"

"Land for the Prydn, which you pledged in return for our service. I must collect it for those who could not

280 Parks Godwin

appear today with me. For Dorelei, who stipulated the bargain to Ambrosius."

The tribune shrugged politely. "I was merely the con- veyor of terms."

"What land, what promise?" Marchudd demanded.

"Must your bishop describe for you the blessings and indulgence you've already received? You are free to go, and I advise it."

But Padrec persisted with the wan patience of a ghost.

"You promised land in perpetuity to the Prydn. To Queen Dorelei- It was the very basis of our enlistment."

"What memory 1 have of that wholly unofficial discus- sion was that I would consider it." Marchudd lunged off the dais to Ambrosius. "Do you recall or have you re- corded such an agreement in the terms of their enlistment?"

The tribune was a study in innocence. "Not I."

"1 thought not. Father Patricius, have you about you written memorandum of such an agreement, signed by myself?"

"You did not give us a writ."

"Ah. Well-"

"Only your word as a man."

Marchudd stung under the implied reproof. He turned on the smaller man, ready with ail the thunder at his formidable command, when the other voice, gentle but weighted with authority, checked him.

"Father Patricius said as much to me, my prince,"

Meganius declared. "As I recall, the first word out of him after greeting- On the very day they enlisted."

And you, Brutus? "Indeed? Your grace remembers so?"

"Clearly. And as your spiritual father and counselor-"

"Yes, yes."

"Father Patricius' converts, while not Augustinian,"

the bishop parenthesized meaningfully, "are stiff a light of God among heathens and deserving of the support of a Christian prince."

"Well. Well, then." Marchudd bounded back onto his dais and hurled himself at the chair, frowning. From a pile of rolls by his foot, he scooped one up and tossed it to Patricius. "Find Churnet Head on the map."

The fort was marked with a tiny circle. Entirely inade- quate to what happened there.

257.

"From Churnet Head, we give you in perpetuity the land north to River Dane, south and west to the Cair Legis road."

Studying the map over Padrec's shoulder, Meganius knew the impossibility of it. He asks a flame afid gets ashes.

The violation is complete.

Padrec saw the circle on the map and past it lo ditches where men drew and loosed, drew and loosed again. Un- der a ghost-clamor he lay with Bredei's brain on his fin- gers. He knew that hill and those around it. Mosdy forested, miserably suited for sheep, still full of Coriiani trevs. Ev- erything Dorelei or any gern called her own in such a place would be disputed forever, never truly theirs any more than what they had now.

And it was small for people used to changing pastures each season. Even a handful of fhains would find them- selves cramped in competition with each other. Move a day's ride to new grass, and they would be outside this pathetic portion, among people who hated them as viru- tently as the Picts. Padrec controlled an urge to ram the map down Marchudd's smug throat.

"They can't live there."

With plodding patience, Padrec told Marchudd why.

The prince was not impressed. "There was no mention of seasonal migration. Or of where you would settle them.