CHAPTER 56

Elena lay dreaming, her lover Stefan's arms wrapped around her protectively. He was a good man, and he had a dream for the both of them that was both realistic and achievable. She was studying to become a Priestess, a healer in the Church of Begierde. That had been the length and depth of her dream, but then she'd met Stefan, who had encouraged her to think deeper, think broader in scope.

"What if, instead of simply becoming a healer, you were to have a clinic?" He'd asked her one night.

"A clinic? Me?" She'd sat there across from the table, a confused expression on her face. Surely he was joking, but his face was serious.

"I have no family ties worth mentioning." She rebutted. "I cannot run a clinic. Such a thing is beyond my reach." Clinics were usually owned in some way by the Merchant Lords, nobility that ruled the cities of Tannit, Begierde, and the magnificent port city of Einsamkeit. To have a clinic would require family ties, ties she did not have.

He gave her a small smile. "I have friends within the Hospitallers. They are always looking for healers." he explained. "If you do your job well- and I have no doubt at all that you will-" he urged, "You could gain enough authority through them to open a clinic."

She hadn't thought of that. The Ordo Hospitallers were an Anglish order of Knights who provided care and protection for the poor, sick, and refugees.

"What would such an undertaking entail?" She asked, curious. He shrugged. "If you offered your services to them- and proved that you can do what we both know you can do- there's no doubt in my mind that they would give you the authorities you'd need to establish your own clinic." He explained.

It was a path she could take, she understood. It was realistic and achievable. She'd committed to it.

And then the harbor of Einsamkeit had filled to bursting with ships from Blackwall overnight, disgorging thousands upon thousands of refugees.

Stefan had swept her up in the Cathedral's hall before she could protest, and brought her to their favorite tryst spot, a hayloft in the stable of Church of the Golden Lady, where they'd had a simple supper and a bout of lovemaking.

"Stefan," She'd argued, "this is hardly the time." He'd merely laughed, and pulled her into his embrace.

"My love, tomorrow and the day after and the day after..." he stretched on. "Perhaps weeks, or maybe even months, you will be much too busy. So tonight, we'll have a little wine, a private meal, and tomorrow you can be the healer you need to be. Tomorrow, we will be busy until we are too exhausted to continue, and we'll be busy anyway. So just for tonight, let us rest in preparation for what's to come."

He was right of course, so they had dined, and made love, and she'd fallen asleep in his arms.

Now she was dreaming of spring, when the sun dawned over the city, the light fog breaking up the light into a warm haze. Spring was here, the promise of renewal. No more ice and snow, and the terror of the winter cold. A time of light and life and renewal, where gardens and parks all over the city greened with new growth. It was almost as if she could feel the warmth of the sun, just behind her eyelids.

She opened her eyes. There was a light, but it came from below, in the stables. It couldn't have been more than a couple of hours since she'd fallen asleep; dawn wasn't due for at least another six hours.

Two women and a man stood in the stable. She couldn't recognize any of them. The source of the light was a delicate halo of light that circled one of the women's heads.

"Well, that's a relief." the haloed woman murmured to her compatriots. "I'd hate to have lost her for good. We've traveled a lot of miles, her and I." She was tall, taller than Elena, and had a braid of hair that hung down her back. She turned to the other woman. "You're going to stick to the plan, right?"

The other woman crossed her arms over her gambeson and regarded the other woman with a complicated expression. "You know that I will." She replied, finally. "I wish Ollara were here, she'd at least be able to talk you out of nonsense."

"We all have our paths to walk under the light of the Golden Lady." the haloed woman replied comfortably. She gestured to something in front of her. "Have her saddled and brought to the docks, Elizabeth." She paused. "You should have one, too. Leave enough silver and this so the Church doesn't think you've stolen from them." She passed the other woman a scroll, who nodded. The haloed woman turned to the lone man. "Make sure she reaches your ship safely?" She phrased it like a question, but the tone of her voice indicated that it was anything but a request.

"Of course, my Lady." He responded comfortably. "You realize my ship wasn't meant to transport horses, right?" He offered lamely, and she waved her hand.

Whatever the woman thought of it, it didn't seem to affect her decision. "Do it anyway. It'll be uncomfortable, and will probably be troublesome and problematic, but do it anyway."

He let out the sort of longsuffering sigh that a man typically let out when he was saddled with a particularly onerous woman. "As you command, my Lady." he offered in a voice that indicated he wasn't happy at all with the arrangements.

The second woman- Elizabeth- returned to the circle of light radiated by the other woman, who seemed to be in command, leading two horses.

"Ahhh, she's a sight for sore eyes." The glowing woman murmured, rubbing the champagne-colored horse's nose affectionately. "You two head back to the docks. There's one more thing I have to take care of. I'll be ten minutes behind you, at most."

The woman and the man left the stable, and the haloed woman, who had spent the entire conversation with her back to Elena, turned and looked her in the eye.

"Hello there." She greeted pleasantly enough, but Elena was frozen with terror. Icy sweat trickled down her back.

The woman was possessed of an aristocratic beauty that was both severe and lovely.

"Come down here, please." The woman urged in a voice that refused disobedience. She wore a sword on one hip, and a strange wood-and-metal club on the other.

Shaking, Elena descended the ladder, shivering in the late-night cold. She stood in front of the radiant woman, naked and terrified.

The woman reached into her coat, and produced a metal disk that was scribed in gold.

"You know what this is, right?" She asked, as she handed it to Elena. She eyed the disk, which was roughly the size of the palm of her hand. Inscribed in the steel disk in sacred gold was the outline of a lily. At the heart of the lily was a shield, and on the shield was two crossed torches.

If Elena was terrified before, she was mortified now. The woman before her, the woman with a luminous halo encircling her head, was a member of the Inquisition.

"I'm commanding you as an Inquisitor to reveal nothing of what you've seen here, tonight." The woman warned.

Elena was already trembling, now she shook uncontrollably.

"Look at me." She commanded, and Elena shook her head.

"Look at me." The woman commanded again, and Elena raised her eyes to the woman's face.

"I'm going to command you again. Reveal nothing of what you've just seen." She repeated. "Not to anyone. Not your mother, not to your lover sleeping up there, not to anyone on pain of death. Now tell me you understand."

"I..." her voice was a scratchy whisper. "I understand." She breathed.

"Good. I was never here. You saw or heard nothing." The woman commanded, and then looked up at the hayloft.

"He's a good man. You're truly blessed to have him as a partner." The woman mused thoughtfully. "He won't lead you wrong." She murmured. "I once knew a priestess. She's a good woman. I'm sure you're a good woman, too." She complimented. "But you will keep silent."

Elena nodded, and passed the disk back to the other woman.

"Go back to sleep. You've got a lot of work to do."

Elena was certain she would never sleep another wink, but after slipping back into Stefan's embrace, she fell asleep almost immediately.

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The seat of power for the Anglish Empire, the empire that spanned five continents, dozens of cultures, and all united under the banner of the Golden Lady, the Goddess of the Dawn, was the Alstroemeria, the Grand Cathedral of the Golden Lady. It was a titanic man-made mountain of a church, a six-lobed cathedral, stretching a thousand or so feet into the air, an ostentatious monument glorifying the work of man.

The church towered over every edifice and structure, a city within a city, and within the massive gothic edifice of flying buttresses, fluted pinnacles, crockets, finials, and intricately carved spires was the Book of the Golden Lady.

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The Book of the Golden Lady was a council composed of six Lady Cardinals, charged with overseeing the six regions of the Anglish Empire divided across five continents, and headed by Her Grace the Grand Cardinal, who in turn oversaw them. It was not often that they were all assembled together; each preferred to work on their projects and oversee their districts with veritable armies of messengers, clerks, and administrative staff. Under the Lady Cardinals were the Cardinal Bishops, Cardinal Priests, and Cardinal Clerics, and below them were the bishops, priests, and clerics who in turn oversaw their own areas.

Today, the Book of the Golden Lady was fully assembled in the High Court to discuss several matters, the foremost of them was the relocation effort from the continent of Rothgar, an effort that had been ongoing for more than sixty years. There was no feasible realistic way to evacuate an entire continent in one lifetime.

"It's official: contact with Ardeal has been lost." Lady Cardinal Gabrielle announced, tones of regret in her voice. "They've been silent for the past six months; we can only assume the worst."

"It won't be long before we lose the resources from Blackwater, then." Lady Cardinal Constance replied clinically. "I'd hoped the scourge would have been arrested on the Stair for longer." She let out a sigh as she referred to the narrow passes between the mountains that led to the highlands over Lyonesse. "What was the population of Ardeal as of the last census?" She asked curiously. She was a woman that her contemporaries considered odd. Dry and acerbic, dispassionate and analytical, with gold-flecked eyes and hair pulled into a severe bun at the back of her head.

Gabrielle's mouth twisted. "Eight million, as of seven years ago." She reported in a pained voice. Gabrielle herself was a woman who looked and behaved as though she'd be better suited for a life of decadence and debauchery, with a rich mane of luxurious black hair, a husky, sultry voice, and a curvaceous body that strained the robes of her office.

"Eight million souls, lost." Phoebe murmured quietly. A somber silence filled the room. Phoebe was a slight woman with short brown hair and blue eyes. She oversaw Philippa, a country on the northeastern tip of the Rothgar continent.

"Actually, contact with Ardeal has been restored... of a sort." Lady Cardinal Olivia replied, reviewing her own stack of papers. Everyone looked at the woman in confusion. Olivia was known for two things: her devotion to setting up hospitals and orphanages, and her penchant for sleeping with maids. Hers was the widely-known but never spoken scandal. She barely concerned herself with the continent of Rothgar, as she was born and raised on the continent of Hesperia.

"Don't look at me like that." She mock-scolded. "I just got the report from the Hospitalers in Einsamkeit today. Several dozen ships were commandeered at Blackwall and the remainder of the Ardeals were evacuated."

"Several dozen? How many ships, exactly? And by whom? On whose authority?" Lady Cardinal Celeste shot back, furious. Blackwall was part of her territory. Celeste refused to acknowledge anything that happened on this frontier continent, wholly focused on the southern lands on the continent of Rothgar, and guarded her resources jealously.

"Eighty-four ships. That's freighters, frigates, merchant vessels, and battleships. Every ship that could be pressed into service in Blackwall to transport refugees across the Sea of Mirras." Olivia reported, secretly pleased her news could dig at the Lady Cardinal Celeste. "As to who performed this feat..." Olivia continued, eyebrow arching, lips curving in a small smile, "Lady Inquisitor Katarina lon Pavlenko."

The silence that dropped in the room was so thick and sudden that all of the Lady Cardinals could hear the muted shuffle and clink of the guards' armor, a quiet cough, the grit of a spearbutt scraping on the floor.

"The reports collated from a mixed variety of reputable and questionable sources, but they all corroborate on several points:" Olivia ticked them off her fingers as she spoke.

"One, she arrived at the capital, Wallachia, and immediately "commanded the blightstorm to flee" and drove a storm right out of the sky." The seven women exchanged baffled looks. "There was a magical storm, likely originating from the blighted highlands. The storm was magical, and Katarina drove it back, which makes sense..." She paused with a raised eyebrow, "of a sort, as Witch Hunters are known for their skills in repelling sorceries. All of the reports, from the meanest wheelwright to the surviving clergy all explicitly state: She drove back a magical storm that was mutating the populace of the capital." She shook her head at that.

"Two: Katarina led the refugees to the pass between Ardeal and Blackwall." she added. "It seems at this point she was using her authorities as a member of the house of Pavlenko."

The Grand Cardinal raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing.

"Three: Katarina headed "into the black"- forgive me, I don't know what that means- back the way they came, to seek out the source of that affliction."

"Never to be seen again?" Phoebe remarked sarcastically. "Isn't that how fanciful stories like this are spread?" She added with a sarcastic rolling of her eyes at Celeste.

"Hardly." Olivia replied drily. "Less reliable accounts have placed her in Montesilvano, and an entire city in Tassili disappeared shortly after someone matching her description showed up." she shrugged to show those were irrelevant, but the shocking disappearance of an entire city was hardly worth brushing aside. "She showed up some months later in Blackwall. She issued commands with her Inquisitorial seal, and dispatched the ships for Einsamkeit." She finished. "My contacts have informed me that their declared intent is to continue on to Begierde, so that they can join the House of Pavlenko." This last statement brought a look of alarm to the Grand Cardinal's face.

Celeste let out a sigh of frustration. "Why have we not arrested the woman yet? Are we overburdened with incompetence within our ranks? Why were Katarina's Witch Hunter authorities revoked, but not her Inquisitorial authorities? How can she... flounce around the entire Empire, disregarding the righteous authority of the Book of the Golden Lady?" She argued hotly, slapping the desk sharply. "This is an outrage. This is an offense. How dare she subvert my authority and commandeer my ships? I want that woman's head on a plate as an example to all the Witch Hunters that come after, a reminder of what it means to stand against the Empire!"

"Are you quite finished?" The Grand Cardinal asked dryly.

"What, you think I should be silent?" Celeste retorted.

The Grand Cardinal nodded. "Yes, please." She urged. "You clearly haven't thought things through thoroughly enough. We need to move, and fast." She added. "Do we have an accurate count of the refugees?"

Olivia shook her head. "Difficult to say. Anywhere between eleven and twenty thousand souls."

The Grand Cardinal nodded.

"As I thought. My own sources agree with Olivia's. She saved several thousand survivors from a nation that had been ravaged by the scourge of blasphemous sorcery." The Grand Cardinal countered. "I'd heard about the city in Tassili being destroyed, but hadn't heard she might have been ... attached... to that. What's clear about Ardeal, however, is that she did it on her own, without help, aid, or succor." She added, and then allowed a smile to reach her face. "She single-handedly pushed back the blight out of the nation of Ardeal."

"Bullshit." Celeste replied. "You can't. We've sent whole armies at that blasphemy for over fifty years and we've lost at every turn. You send an army one hundred strong, and sixty would come back with mutations, cancers, or possessed by blasphemous entities that howled and gibbered and slaughtered their brethren. We wouldn't be here, in Darnell, were that not the truth of it." She replied hotly. "No one woman could do such a thing without help. I still hold that she has made blasphemous pacts and is spinning a web of lies and deceptions to shroud us from her heresy."

"Are you calling me a liar, Lady Cardinal Celeste?" The Grand Cardinal asked gently.

Celeste froze for a moment. "Certainly not, Your Grace." She vacillated suddenly. "I am saying that we simply do not have the facts, and we cannot act on hearsay and speculation."

"And yet you want to put that woman's head on a plate for your own speculatives?" The Grand Cardinal asked, and Celeste frowned.

"The Goddess will forgive me for my crimes should I be wrong." Celeste replied truculently, folding her arms across her chest.

"But the Empire will not." The Lady Cardinal replied, causing Lady Celeste's arms to come apart as shock painted her face.

"The house of Pavlenko has a strong authority from Tannit all the way to Begierde and Einsamkeit." The Grand Cardinal began. "And all of our trade with Nauders currently goes through them. The current House head is Bianka Pavlenko, a woman who is notorious for being extremely cold towards the Empire." She paused. "We did take both of her daughters from her, after all." she explained in a low voice, and then continued in a stronger voice. "That family is getting something near twenty thousand loyal men and women from a land the Anglish Empire had written off as lost." She let that sink in for a space of a few seconds. "If we were to cut off her daughter's head on the grounds of speculation, we could lose half the continent of Hesperia, from Einsamkeit to Nauders in civil war." She snapped her fingers for emphasis.

After that sank in, the Grand Cardinal arranged her own papers. "Your strange fixation on that Witch Hunter has already cost us our High Lady Inquisitor, and now you want to risk civil war? We're losing our home continent of Rothgar, in case you've forgotten, and you want to turn half of this continent against us? At this point I cannot see any other recourse but to call for a vote of no confidence against you... at least as far as your involvement with that woman." She looked to the members of the Book of the Golden Lady.

Constance tapped her finger against her lips meditatively. "Before I can lend my vote I would like to review the evidences in detail. That woman's behaviors are certainly worth speculation, but everything I have heard requires context to be understood fully." There was a pause, and then she nodded. "For now, however, I agree: Lady Cardinal Celeste's fixation is unusual." She looked to the other woman. "Perhaps you should recuse yourself?" She suggested, and after getting no response from the woman, sighed and nodded. "I vote aye, conditionally."

Lady Cardinal Yuriko glanced at the Grand Cardinal.

"Rather than prosecuting a war against one of our own Witch Hunters on suspicion of heresy, I have engaged the Cultus Sancte to pursue an investigation against Katarina of House Pavlenko." She began, and at this pronouncement all of the members of the Book of the Golden Lady stared at her in shock. Yuriko was certain at least that the Grand Cardinal's shock was an affectation, though she wasn't certain of the others. They all secretly spied and maneuvered against each other constantly.

"After all, there are confirmed reports from distinguished clergy that Katarina died, and was resurrected three days after her death." She paused. "I vote yes."

Celeste rolled her eyes at this.

"Our responsibility is to the Empire, and to the people that populate it." Lady Cardinal Olivia spoke up. "I can't understand your fixation, Celeste. Something of this nature should be left to Inquisitors. I also vote aye."

"I for one like seeing Celeste fired up." Gabrielle said with a husky chuckle. "It's a change from the laconic boredom I see on her face at every meeting, but Olivia brings up a valid point: There are systems in place to handle these things. I vote aye."

Lady Cardinal Phoebe glanced at the others, and then at Celeste. Phoebe was long known as a co-conspirator of Celeste's. Phoebe was quick to go along with whatever Celeste suggested.

Celeste sighed. "Look, that woman pissed me off, all right? Blackwall is my responsibility. It offends me she felt it prudent to appropriate my ships without consultation. If you want, I'll recuse myself. I apologize for my outburst."

"Do we have any idea where that Witch Hunter might be?" Constance asked the group. "It seems reasonable to assume she also disembarked with the refugees, but a confirmation would be beneficial."

Olivia shook her head at that. "She was not seen at Einsamkeit, though she has proved to be extremely elusive before." She mentioned. "She only approaches the church to turn in bounties and receive her assignments."

"That woman's been gone for a year since we commanded her to return to us." Gabrielle mused. "What could have possibly have delayed her?"