"I do not intend to let it fall, Ensign."

"You have refugees crawling all over the fortress. If the Merduks chanced upon this place it would not last an hour."

"There has been confusion, what with the transfers to the west. It is coming under control." Martellus appeared faintly irritated. "Our scouts inform us that the Merduk main body is still in Aekir, though they have light troops out skirmishing a scant league away from here. We have time and to spare; it will be weeks yet ere the main enemy body begins to move. My orders are to get as many of Aekir's refugees away to the west as possible before cutting the bridges. Now, tell me. What is the enemy strength?"

Corfe hesitated. "Since the siege, they may be left with some hundred and fifty thousand."

The officers glanced at one another. Such an army had never been seen before, never imagined.

"How many did they have before the siege began?" one asked harshly.

"A quarter of a million, maybe. We cut them down like straw, but they kept coming. I know that many were also sent back to guard the supply routes over the mountains, but the first snows will be in the pa.s.ses of the Thurians now. I cannot see how they will keep supplied through the winter."

"I can," Martellus said. "Duke Comorin of Kardikia says they are building boats by the hundred on the Ostian river. That will be their new supply route, and it will remain open through the winter. Their advance will continue."

Martellus bent over the table and examined a map of the land between the Searil and the Ostian rivers.

"Show me the line of their advance," he said to Corfe.

Corfe got up, but then something occurred to him. "Has Macrobius been seen yet, or his body found?"

"The High Pontiff? Why, no. He died in Aekir."

"Are you sure? Did anyone see him killed?"

"His palace burned, and just about every priest who was in the city was put to the sword. I have it from civilians and clerics who were there. I do not think the Merduks could have overlooked someone of his eminence."

"But Mogen had him locked in a storeroom in the palace to stop him fleeing the city."

Martellus stared, incredulous. "Are you serious?"

"It was a rumour in the city just before its fall. The Knights Militant almost left Mogen's command over it.

Would you know the High Pontiff if you saw him?"

Martellus became exasperated. "I suppose so. I have supped at the same table as him a few times.

Why?"

"Then you must send men over to the eastern bank. You will find an old man there near the barbican wholacks eyes, and a young monk with an injured face."

"What about them?"

"I think the old man may be Macrobius."

THIRTEEN.

C HARIBON. The oldest monastery in the world, home of the Inceptine Order.

It stood on the sh.o.r.es of the Sea of Tor in the north-west foothills of the wild Cimbric Mountains.

Surrounded by the Kingdom of Almark, it was nevertheless autonomous, as Aekir had been, and was governed by the elders of the Church and their head, the High Pontiff.

Some seven thousand clerics lived and worked here, the majority of them in Inceptine black though there were some in the brown of the Antillians and others in the warm saffron of the Mercurians. Very few indeed were robed in the ordinary, undyed wool of the ascetic missionaries, the Friars Mendicant.

Here resided the greatest libraries in Normannia, now those in Aekir were no more, and here were the chief barracks and training grounds of the Knights Militant. They had a citadel of their own higher up in the hills beside Charibon, and there some eight thousand of them were quartered. Usually there were several times that number on hand, but most of them were in the east or had been dispatched to the various Ramusian monarchies to aid in the struggle against heresy. Two thousand were even now riding west, to Hebrion.

Down in the complex of the monastery itself there were the famed Long Cloisters of Charibon, walked by fifteen generations of clerics, roofed over by cedar imported from the Levangore and floored with basalt blocks hewn out of the once-volcanic Cimbrics.

Radiating out from the square of the cloisters and the rich gardens they enclosed were the other structures of the monastery, built in ma.s.sive stone and roofed with slate from the quarries in the nearby Narian Hills. No humble thatch here.

But the Cathedral of the Saint towered over and dominated the rest. Its outline defined the skyline of Charibon, made it recognizable from leagues away in the hills. A huge, three-sided tower with a horn of granite at each corner formed the apex of the triangle that was the rest of the cathedral. It was the cla.s.sic Ramusian shape, reminiscent of the Praying Hands but on a scale vaster than anyone had ever envisaged.

Only Aekirians might sniff at the cathedral of Charibon, comparing it to their own Carca.s.son, of which it was a copy.

But Carca.s.son was no more.

The monastery sprawled out from the twin foci of cloisters and cathedral, the original pure design of the place lost in a welter of later building. There were schools and dormitories, cells of contemplation, gardens restful on the eye and conducive to contemplative thought. Most of the theories which had shaped the Ramusian religion had sprung from here as their authors looked out on the fountain-rich gardens or the green hills beyond.

There were also kitchens and workshops, smithies and tanneries, and, of course, the famed printing presses of the Inceptines. Charibon had its own lands and herds and crops, for there was a secular side to it as well as the spiritual. A town had sprung up around the swelling monastery complexes and a fishing village on the lake's western sh.o.r.es kept the monks supplied with freshwater halibut, mackerel and even turtle on fast days. Charibon was a self-sufficient little kingdom whose chief exports were the books thatthe presses ceaselessly turned out and the faith that the Inceptines promulgated and the Knights Militant enforced.

The monastery had been sacked a hundred and fifty years before by a confederation of the savage Cimbric tribes. There had been a war then, with troops from Almark and Torunna sending expeditions into the mountains' interior along with contingents of the Knights. The tribes had eventually been crushed and brought into the Ramusian fold, finally completing the task which the Fimbrians had attempted and failed to accomplish some four centuries earlier. Since then, a dozen tercios of Almarkan troops had also been stationed at Charibon, even as the Torunnans had garrisoned Aekir further east. Charibon was a jewel, a light to be kept burning no matter how dark the night-especially as the brightness that had been Aekir was now extinguished.

A LBREC squinted into the cold, eye-watering wind, looking for all the world like a short-sighted vole peering from its burrow at the close of winter. This high in the hills the winters were bitter, snow lying for four months in the cloisters and the inland sea growing fringes of ice along its sh.o.r.es. His cell then would be like a small cube of gelid air in the mornings, and he would have to break the ice in his washing bowl before spluttering at the coldness of the water on his pointed face.

He wore a habit of Antillian brown, much worn, and the Saint symbol at his breast was of mere wood, carved by himself in the dim, candlelit nights. Though all were clerics alike here in Charibon, some were of a higher order than others. Some indeed were of aristocratic background, the younger sons of n.o.ble families whose fathers had nothing to give in the way of inheritance. So they became Inceptines, a different kind of n.o.ble. For the commoners, however, there was only the Antillians, the Mercurians, or if one was of a zealous turn of mind, and hardy to boot, the Friars Mendicant.

Albrec's father had been a fisherman from the sh.o.r.es of northern Almark. A dour man, from a hard country. He had never quite forgiven his son's fear of the open sea, or his ineptness with the nets and the tiller. Albrec had attached himself to a small monastery of Antillians from a nearby village, and found a place where he was not reviled or beaten, where the work was hard but not frightening as the days on an open boat had been frightening. And where his natural curiosity and inherent stubbornness could be put to good use.

He worked in the library of St. Garaso, his hand not being apt for the rigour of the presses or the finer of the ill.u.s.trating that went on in the scriptorium. He lived in a dusty, half-subterranean world of books and ma.n.u.scripts, old scrolls and parchment and vellum. He loved it, and could lay his hands on any tome in the entire library within a few minutes.

It was because of his labyrinthine knowledge of the shelves and chests and stacks that he was kept on as a.s.sistant librarian, and in return he was allowed to read anything he chose, which for him was a reward beyond price. There were levels to the library which were rarely visited, ancient archives and forgotten cupboards, their contents mouldering away in dust and silence. Albrec made it his mission in life to explore them all.

He had been here for thirteen years, his eyesight progressively worsening and his shoulders becoming more bowed with every book he squinted over. And yet he knew he had not yet unearthed one-tenth of the riches contained in the library.

There were scrolls there from the time of the Fimbrian Hegemony, works which he spent days coaxing open with sweet oil and a blunt knife. Most of them were dismissed by Brother Commodius, the senior librarian, as secular rubbish, or even heresy. Some had been burned, horrifying Albrec. After that he had shown no more of his unearthed treasures to the other brothers, but had h.o.a.rded them secretly. Books should not be burned, he believed, no matter what they contained. To him all books were sacred,fragments of the minds of the past, thoughts from men long gone to their graves. Such things should be preserved.

And so Albrec hid the more controversial of his finds, thus unintentionally beginning a private library of his own, a library of works which, had his spiritual superiors discovered them, would have consigned him to the flames in their company.

T HIS morning he was staring out of one of the library's rare windows to the hills beyond. His Excellency the Prelate of Hebrion was expected to arrive today to join the three other Prelates who were lodged in Charibon already. The entire monastery was abuzz with gossip and speculation. There were rumours that since Macrobius was dead, G.o.d have mercy on his soul, the Prelates were meeting to choose a new High Pontiff. Others said there was heresy brewing in the western kingdoms, sorcerers willing to take advantage of the confused state of the Ramusian monarchies in the wake of Aekir's fall. This synod would be the beginnings of a crusade, it was said, a holy war to rid the west both of its enemies within and the Merduks who bayed at the gate.

Momentous times, Albrec thought a little nervously. He had always considered Charibon as a retreat of sorts, isolated as it was up here in the hills; but he saw now that it was becoming one of the hubs upon which the world turned. He was not sure if the feeling thrilled or frightened him. All he asked for was the peace to continue his reading undisturbed, to remain in his dusty, candlelit kingdom in the depths of the library.

"Gathering wool again, Brother?" a voice drawled casually.

Albrec backed away from the window hurriedly. His addresser was in rich Inceptine black, and the symbol clinking at his breast shone with gold.

"Oh, it's you, Avila. Don't do that! I thought you were Commodius."

The other cleric, a handsome young man with the pale, spare visage of a n.o.bleman, laughed.

"Don't worry, Albrec. He's closeted with the rest of the worthies in the Vicar-General's quarters. I doubt if you'll be seeing him today."

Albrec blinked. He had an armful of books which he was cradling as tenderly as a young mother might her first child. They shifted in his grasp and he gave a grunt of dismay as they began to topple. But Avila caught them and set them to rights.

"Come, Albrec. Lay down those dead tomes for a while. Walk in the cloisters with me and watch the arrival of Himerius of Hebrion."

"He's here, then?"

"A patrol has reported his party to be approaching. You can lock the library after you-no one will be needing it for the next few hours. I think half of Charibon is outside indulging their curiosity."

"All right."

It was true that the library was deserted. The cavernous place resounded to their voices and the patient dripping of the ancient water-clock in a corner. They turned the triple locks of the ma.s.sive door behind them-it was always a source of pride to Albrec, a pride that he immediately chastised himself for, that he carried on his person the keys to one of the great libraries of the world-and, tucking their hands in their habits, they journeyed out into the cold clearness of the day."What is it about this Hebrian Prelate that has the monastery in such a fuss?" Albrec asked irritably. The broad corridors they traversed were crammed with fast-walking, gabbling monks. Everyone, from novices to friars, seemed to be on the move today, and twice they had to stop and bow to an Inceptine monsignore.

"Don't you know, Albrec? By the Saints, you spend so much time with your head buried in the spines of books that you let the events of the real world roll over you like water."

"Books are real, too," Albrec said obstinately. It was an old argument. "They tell of what happened in the world, its history and its composition. That is real."

"But this is happening now, Albrec, and we are part of it. Great events are afoot, and we are lucky enough to be alive to see them happen."

Avila's eyes were shining, and Albrec looked at him with a curious mixture of affection, exasperation and awe. Avila was a younger son of the Dampiers of Perigraine. He had gone into the Inceptines as a matter of course, and no doubt his rise in the order would be meteoric. He had charisma, energy and was devastatingly attractive. Albrec was never sure how the two of them had become friends. It had something to do with the ideas they pummelled each other with, the arguments that they flung back and forth like b.a.l.l.s between them. Half a dozen novices were hopelessly in love with Avila, but Albrec was sure that the young n.o.ble was not even aware of them. There was a curious innocence about him which had survived the rough and tumble of his first years here. On the other hand, no one could play the Inceptine game better than he. Albrec could not help but feel that his friend was wasted here. Avila should have been a leader of men, an officer in his country's army, instead of a cleric tucked away in the hills.

"Tell me, then, what I should know in my ignorance," Albrec said.

"This Himerius is the champion of the Inceptines at the moment. Hebrion has a young and irreligious king on the throne, one who has scant respect for the Church, I am told, and who regularly consorts with wizards. Abrusio has become a haven for all sorts of heretics, foreigners and sorcerers. Himerius has instigated a purge of the city and is coming here to try to persuade the other Prelates to do likewise."

Albrec screwed up his pointed nose. "I don't like it. Everyone is panicked after Aekir. It smells like politics to me."

"Of course it does! My dear fellow, the Church is leaderless. Macrobius is dead and we no longer have a High Pontiff. This Himerius is establishing his credentials as soon as he can, putting himself forward as the sort of strong leader that the Church needs at a time like this-one not afraid to cross swords with kings. Everyone is already talking of him as Macrobius' successor."

"Everyone except his fellow Prelates, I take it."

"Oh, naturally! There will be deals done, though, with the Vicar-General brokering the whole thing. He is barred of course from the Pontiffship by virtue of his present office, but I do not doubt that he will have another Inceptine at the Church's head in a short while."

"Over a century, it has been, since we have had a non-Inceptine High Pontiff," Albrec said, stroking his brown Antillian habit reflectively. "And of all the Prelates, only Merion of Astarac is not an Inceptine, but an Antillian like myself."

"The Ravens have always run things their way," Avila said cheerfully. "It'll never be any different."They walked out of the cloisters and began toiling up the cobbled streets of the town that formed the fringes of the monastery. The buildings here were tall, leaning over the road, and the streets were clean.

The entire place had been tidied up for the Synod on the orders of the Vicar-General.

Clerics clogged the streets, climbing higher so as to be the first to catch sight of the man who was favourite for the Pontiffship. Avila helped Albrec along as the little monk puffed and sweated up the hill.

Their breath clouded around them in the cold air, and they could see the snow on the higher slopes above them.

"There," Avila said, satisfied.

They stood on the ridge that curled protectively about the south-west of Charibon. The slope around them was black with people, religious and lay alike. They could stare down and see the entire, beautiful profile of Charibon with its towers and spires kindled by the autumn sunlight, and the inland sea of Tor glittering off to their right.

"I see him," Avila said.

Albrec squinted. "Where?"

"Not there, you ninny, along the northern road. He's coming by way of Almark, remember. See the escort of Knights? There must be close on two hundred of them. Himerius will be in the second coach, the one flying the scarlet Hebrian flag. They're certainly putting on a show for him. I'd say he had the Pontiffship in the palm of his hand already."

One of their neighbors, a hard-faced priest in the plain robe of a Friar Mendicant, turned at Avila's words.

"What's that you say? Himerius as Pontiff?"

"Why yes, Brother. That seems to me to be the way of it."

"And you have looked deeply into these matters, have you?"

Avila's face seemed to stiffen. It was with his full aristocratic hauteur that he replied, "I have a mind. I can examine the evidence and form an opinion as well as the next man."

The Friar Mendicant smiled, then nodded to the approaching cavalcade. "If yon Prelate a.s.sumes the High Pontiffship you may no longer be permitted the luxury of an opinion, lad. And many innocent folk will no longer possess the luxury of life. I doubt if that was the way of the Blessed Ramusio when he was on this earth, but it is the way of your brother Inceptines these days, with their Knights Militant, their purges and their pyres. Where in the Book of Deeds does it say you must murder your fellow man if he differs from you? Inceptines! You are G.o.d's gorecrows, flapping round the pyres you have created."

The grey-clad Friar turned at that and stumped off, elbowing his way roughly through the gathering throng. Avila and Albrec stared after him, speechless.

"He's mad," Albrec said at last. "The Friars are always an eccentric lot, but he's lost his mind entirely."

Avila stared down the hillside to where the Prelate of Hebrion's retinue was thundering along the muddy northern road, raising a spray of water as it came.

"Is he? I cannot ever remember a tale of Ramusio destroying someone who did not believe in him.

Maybe he is right.""He struck down the demon-possessed women of Gebrar," Albrec pointed out.

"Yes," Avila said absently, "there is that." Then he grinned suddenly with his accustomed good humour.

"Which is another reason why clerics do not marry. Women have too many demons in them! I believe all clerics have mothers, though."

"Hush, Avila. Someone will hear."

"Someone will hear, yes. And what if they do, Albrec? What would happen? What if they chanced upon that cache of books you have saved? Do you ever wonder what would happen if they did? We had a mage on my father's staff when I was a boy. He used to do tricks with light and water, and no one could heal a broken limb faster than he. He became my tutor. Is that the sort of man the Church wants to destroy? Why?"

"For the sake of the Saint, Avila, will you be quiet? You'll get us into all manner of trouble."

"But what manner?" Avila asked. "What manner, Albrec? When does a conversation, an idea, lead to the pyre? What must one do to earn such a death?"

"Oh shut up, Avila. I won't argue with you, not here and now." Albrec looked round with increasing nervousness. Some of the nearby clerics were turning to listen to Avila's voice.

Avila smiled again. "All right, Brother. We'll chase this hare later. Maybe Brother Mensio can help us out."