Camber the Heretic, Page 3

  “See if you can find some writing materials, will you, love? We’ll ask the good bishop to come to his injured friend, the Earl of Ebor. We’ll appeal to his duty as a priest and bishop, as well as a friend, but I’ll add another short message in the seal that only he can read. The outward words will be enough to make him come, and for Cinhil to let him go, and the seal will tell him why we really want him. I’ll have a messenger saddle up and prepare to ride, while you get started.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

  —Daniel 11:21

  Cinhil Haldane coughed fitfully into a napkin, then moved an archer on the inlaid gameboard, his glance darting quickly to his opponent’s face as he settled back in his chair. Across the board, the man the king knew as Alister Cullen smiled and moved a mounted scout in reply.

  Cinhil frowned.

  “Now, why the devil did you do that, Alister? The caradot’s lair is over there, you know that. Sometimes I really don’t understand you.”

  Camber shrugged and raised a shaggy Alister eyebrow, masking a smile with one casually raised hand.

  “I am aware of the caradot’s location, Sire. I am also aware of the strength of my archers and cavalry.”

  “Your archers? But, I—oh.”

  Cinhil’s voice trailed off as he studied the formation of the pieces in question, but then he seized another of his own archers and moved it in counter-attack.

  Slowly, almost languidly, Camber reached out and pushed his war-duke to the next square. At Cinhil’s gasp of surprise, he held up a forefinger.

  “You have one chance, Sire, and one only, to extricate yourself from your present situation. If you can find it, you can also win. If not, you must resign the board.”

  “What?” Cinhil blustered. “You haven’t got the strength to—oh. I see.” He sighed. “Damn you, Alister, do you have to be so bloody good at everything you do?”

  At Camber’s repeated shrug, Cinhil furrowed his brow and leaned his chin on his hands to stare at the board more intently, chewing at the edge of his grey-streaked mustache in concentration. He stifled another cough, but he could not entirely mask the pain the effort cost him.

  Camber pretended not to notice, leaning back in his chair with half-lidded eyes and twisting the amethyst ring on his right hand with his thumb, but he knew the king had not fooled Joram, who sat reading quietly in a window seat across the room, out of earshot but not sight of the man who was actual as well as spiritual father to him.

  Joram was nearly forty now, though he still looked the fit young Michaeline knight he had been almost a score of years before. He still wore the blue of a Michaeline priest and the white sash of his knighthood, but now he served as private secretary to the Bishop of Grecotha, his former superior in the Michaeline Order. The position was an excellent cover, for it enabled him to continue working with the man whom most folk thought dead these thirteen years now, and a saint, at that. So far as anyone outside Camber’s immediate family knew—and not even all of them knew the true story—Camber was dead, slain in the battle of Iomaire in 905, while trying to defend his friend and battle-comrade, Alister Cullen, from the Princess Ariella. Only Joram, Rhys and Evaine, and the steadfast Jebediah of Alcara knew that it had been Alister and not Camber who had died that day, and that Camber had magically taken his dead friend’s shape and memories, the better to carry on his work of guiding the new-crowned king. The secret had been kept now for nearly thirteen years, and the gamble had paid off. By and large, Cinhil had been a good king. The success of the next reign depended at least partly on Camber’s secret being kept yet a while longer.

  Joram had raised his head in inquiry at Cinhil’s cough, freezing in a listening attitude which had become all too common at court of late, but Camber gave him the slightest shake of his head and returned his attention to Cinhil. The king coughed lightly again, then moved his priest-king to threaten Camber’s archbishop.

  “All right, try that one, Alister.”

  As Camber’s hand glided out to counter the attack, there was an insistent knock at the door. With a sign of exasperation, Cinhil rolled his eyes heavenward and shook his head.

  “Not now, please!” he muttered under his breath. “Joram, will you answer it? I don’t want to stop now, just when I’ve got him on the run!”

  “On the run, indeed!” Camber scoffed good-naturedly, as Joram got to his feet with a nod and moved toward the door. As it opened inward at the priest’s hands, Camber could glimpse a tall, lanky form wearing the unmistakable colors of Carthane. It was Earl Murdoch himself, one of the human governors of the young princes and a staunch opponent of anyone or anything Deryni. He was also, Cinhil had informed him somewhat apologetically a few months before, to be one of the regents for young Alroy, if Cinhil died before the boy turned fourteen. When Camber had asked him why, Cinhil had simply said that Murdoch seemed to him a pious and temperate man, well-suited to such authority. Besides, Murdoch had sons only a little older than the twins.

  Earl Murdoch’s gaunt face mirrored intense annoyance as he encountered Joram at the door instead of one of the royal squires.

  “Excellency,” Joram murmured dutifully, standing aside and making a precise and correct bow.

  Murdoch tried unsuccessfully to cover his displeasure with a brusque nod of his head in return, but the movement was hardly gracious. He was well aware that Joram’s father had been an earl of even greater seniority than himself, and that Joram, if not for his priestly station, would have been Earl of Culdi after him—and Murdoch’s senior in rank. The fact that Joram was not the earl made no difference to Murdoch. He still resented a Deryni in any position of authority, real or potential.

  “Father MacRorie,” Murdoch replied, each syllable clipped by his dislike. “I would have audience with the King’s Grace. Be so good as to announce me.”

  Secretly enjoying Murdoch’s aggravation, Joram made the man another bow of strictest formality, then turned slightly toward the two men seated in the sunshine.

  “Sire, His Excellency, the Earl of Carthane.”

  Cinhil, his back safely to the door, was able to indulge in a tiny sigh of resignation before turning his profile to the waiting lord. “Ah, Murdoch, can’t it wait? I’m just trouncing Bishop Cullen at Cardounet.”

  “My most profound apologies, my liege,” Murdoch answered, giving Joram a glance of purest disdain as he pressed past the priest and bent to kiss the king’s hand almost reverently. “I thought to acquaint you with the progress of the royal princes’ studies, as you did request, but if the time is inconvenient, I can come back another time. My Lord Chancellor.”

  As he straightened from Cinhil’s hand, he gave Camber the curtest of nods, and Camber inclined his head graciously in return, knowing that his politeness would gall Murdoch far more than any incivility on his part. Murdoch’s mouth took on the appearance of a man who had been eating lemons, but he hid that from Cinhil as he turned away briefly to draw up a stool, having been bidden by Cinhil’s gesture to take a seat.

  “Nay, you need not come back later, my lord,” Cinhil said. “I did ask after my sons, and you have done right to come and tell me. Are you and their other governors satisfied with their progress?”

  Murdoch settled on his stool with a flourish, watching Cinhil toy with one of the captured pieces. He masked his annoyance well, but Camber could tell that he was less than pleased to have only Cinhil’s divided attention. His voice was nasal and irritating. Camber wondered, not for the first time, what Cinhil saw in him besides his ancient human lineage. He had met Murdoch’s sons, and counted them no particular enhancement to any family line.

  “Prince Alroy progresses well, Sire. His Highness has a flair for languages, and Bishop Hubert is very pleased with his studies of the scriptures. He is also growing stronger daily. He will make a worthy king to succeed Your Gr
ace—though of course we all pray that will be far in the future.”

  “Yes, yes, go on.”

  “Of course, Sire. Prince Rhys Michael is yet young, of course, but both Earl Ewan and Lord Rhun agree that he shows great promise as a strategist and tactician, as well as skill with weapons. If he should one day become king, you need not fear for the welfare of this land.”

  “Oh, come now, the boy’s only ten! What about Javan?” Cinhil asked impatiently.

  Camber tried to keep his face impassive as Cinhil turned his full attention on Murdoch. Beyond the king, he could see Joram perched gingerly on the edge of his seat in the window embrasure, felt Joram extending his senses so that he might overhear all through Camber’s mind. At one time or another, Joram had been tutor to all three of Cinhil’s children, and Camber knew that the crippled middle prince held a special place in his son’s heart.

  He turned his attention back to Cinhil, feeling for the king as well as Joram as the royal lips drew back in a tight-lipped grimace.

  “Why do you hesitate about Javan?” Cinhil asked quietly. “Is he a problem for you?”

  With an embarrassed shrug, Murdoch began a minute inspection of a gold thumb ring on his left hand. “Well, his swordsmanship is the best he can manage, under the circumstances, I suppose,” he said depreciatingly. “And Earl Tammaron says he rides rather better than anyone ever expected he could—better than the other two boys, if the truth be known,” he admitted grudgingly. “But—the devil take it, Sire, he’s not fit to wear the Crown after his brother, and you know it! The people won’t tolerate a cripple on the throne. Not only that, I don’t like the ideas that young Lord Tavis is putting into his head. Bishop Hubert and I did warn you about a Deryni tutor, Your Grace!”

  “Yes, you did warn me,” Cinhil replied neutrally, glancing aside uncomfortably at the most decidedly Deryni Bishop of Grecotha and at Joram. “However, Tavis O’Neill is a highly qualified teacher, and a fine Healer, as well. With Javan’s—handicap—it seemed an ideal pairing.”

  “What ails Prince Javan cannot be helped by a Healer, Your Grace,” Murdoch retorted coldly. “Forgive my bluntness, but you know that is true. And meanwhile, that Deryni poisons the boy’s mind against those who are entrusted with his care and education. He hates Rhun. He undermines the authority of—”

  “Have you proof of this, my lord?” Camber interjected, quietly, but with such intensity that Murdoch was cut off in midsentence. “It appears to me that you are accusing Lord Tavis of sedition, a serious allegation. Unless you have proof—”

  “Sire! Must I be contradicted in the performance of my duty?” Murdoch retorted, drawing himself up like an angry spider. “If the King’s Grace insists upon surrounding his royal person with Deryni, such as slew Your Grace’s noble family many years ago, that is certainly the royal prerogative! But Your Grace has given me the responsibility of raising up the future heirs of this realm, and if I am to fulfill that responsibility, I must have some authority. The royal nursery is not the place for Deryni, Healers or no!”

  Camber opened his mouth, then closed it, glancing at Cinhil for some guidance as to how and whether he should proceed. Cinhil had gone white at Murdoch’s words of accusation, his grey eyes darting to Camber almost as if the bishop personally had drawn the bow which sent feathered shafts of death into his great-grandfather’s body, plunging the kingdom into those dark years called the Interregnum.

  All at once, Camber was poignantly reminded of the delicate balance he constantly walked with Cinhil, despite nearly a decade and a half of close association, both as Camber and as Alister. And in all that time, the core of royal doubt about Deryni had not really diminished—not in that private heart-of-hearts to which Cinhil still retreated under stress.

  Camber did not move, only his ice-pale Alister eyes pleading with Cinhil for a return to sanity, a denial of the insinuations which Murdoch had just flung out like a gauntlet. The Interregnum times were past. Cinhil knew that in his head. The Deryni who served the present Haldane line were of a different breed than those who had put the Festils into power nearly a century before.

  But Cinhil must say that, not Camber or Alister Cullen.

  For a seemingly interminable moment, Cinhil did not stir, his grey gaze darting from Camber’s face to Murdoch’s and then back again, until Camber thought he must burst from the tension.

  Then Cinhil took a deep breath, as if about to make a major pronouncement—and started coughing instead.

  As Murdoch watched, Camber grabbed a goblet from the table next to their gameboard and filled it with wine from a silver ewer, upsetting half the pieces on the board in his haste to get to Cinhil’s side and ease the wine past his lips.

  Cinhil drank in grateful gulps between coughing spasms, gaining some ease after he had gotten a few swallows down, and Joram hurried to his other side to offer the king a napkin to wipe his mouth, picking up fallen gamepieces awkwardly as the red-faced Cinhil fought to control the coughing.

  Camber laid hands on the king’s head, willing the coughing to subside and perhaps even succeeding a little. In any case, Cinhil managed to stifle one more coughing bout, then stopped, cleared his throat, and spat into his napkin. His face was composed if ashen as he eased back onto his chair, and he would not let them see the crumpled cloth in his hand.

  “I apologize if I have caused you distress, gentlemen,” he said, in a weak but steady voice. “I seem to have a touch of a winter cold.” He cleared his throat again, then swallowed noisily.

  “Murdoch, would you mind if we delayed the rest of your report until later? I have been aware of your concern about Javan and Tavis for some months. I think the matter can wait a few more days. However, I hasten to point out that when Tavis was sent away for a time last year, the boy sickened and refused to eat. Under Tavis’s tutelage, he has thrived—at least as much as he is able. The fact that Tavis is Deryni does not concern me nearly as much as Javan’s unhappiness and ill health when Tavis is not about.”

  “You coddle the boy, Sire. It is not good.”

  “I do not coddle him. I face the realities of his—deficiency. You are aware of my feelings on that subject.”

  “I’m sorry, Sire. I meant no disrespect.”

  “I know you did not.”

  Awkwardly the king reached out to press Murdoch’s shoulder in reassurance, and bowed his head as the younger man seized the royal hand and pressed it to his lips again.

  Camber almost could not bear to watch, amazed that Cinhil could let himself be so deceived. Cinhil could even Truth-See Murdoch if he wanted to; but Cinhil rarely used the abilities which Camber and his children had given him so many years ago. Please God, Cinhil’s children would not be so blind!

  “Please forgive me, Sire, but it’s only that I care so much,” Murdoch was whispering.

  “I know. Fear not. You yet are in my grace,” the king replied.

  He stifled another cough, and his face went a little paler against his scarlet robe.

  “Please go now, Murdoch. I think I must rest now. Alister, stay with me awhile, old friend. Though you are not a Healer, your company does much to ease my discomfort.”

  “As you wish, Sire,” Camber replied softly, moving closer to stand with his hand on the king’s shoulder. “Earl Murdoch, my secretary will see you to the door. His Grace will surely send for you again later.”

  With that, he turned his attention to Cinhil, bending closer to the royal ear. “Try to relax, Sire. Take a slow, steady breath—not too deep, or you’ll start yourself coughing again. That’s right. Now exhale. Let the pain detach.…”

  Murdoch rose in annoyance, ignoring Joram’s polite and precise bow as he made his own way out. Joram, when he had closed the door after Murdoch, returned to stand attentively beside the stool Murdoch had just vacated. After a few minutes, Camber straightened up and glanced at Joram, signalling him to sit as Cinhil slowly opened his eyes.

  “Is that better, Sire?”

  “Yes, thank you,
” Cinhil whispered. “It helps. It really does. I should know better than to let myself get so agitated. I don’t dare breathe too deeply any more, or it starts me coughing all over again.”

  With a raise of one eyebrow, Camber leaned down to retrieve the napkin which had fallen from Cinhil’s hand after he stopped coughing, noting the browning-red stain on the fabric. Calmly Cinhil reached out and took it gently from the bishop’s hand, folding the napkin so that the stain could not be seen. When Joram started to open his mouth to speak of it, Cinhil shook his head and carefully laid the napkin aside.

  “I know, Joram, I need no lectures,” he whispered, very matter-of-fact in the stillness which his acknowledgment had created. “I am very ill. Only Rhys and I know precisely how ill. And this matter of Javan—I need to speak of it to both of you. Believe me, I trust Tavis. He is a fine young Healer. But—”

  A short, staccato rap on the door stopped him in mid-phrase, and Camber flicked a glance in the direction of the door. He recognized the mental presence on the other side, but it was obvious from Cinhil’s sigh that the king did not.

  “It seems this discussion is not to be,” Cinhil said resignedly. “No matter. See who it is, Joram.”

  As Camber had known it would be, Lord Jebediah of Alcara eased past the door which Joram opened.

  “Your pardon, Sire,” he said as he approached, making a slight bow in Cinhil’s direction. “Alister, one of the Earl of Ebor’s men just delivered this. He said something about Gregory having been injured in a riding accident.”

  The greying earl marshal was dressed in worn blue riding leathers—from his rosy cheeks and the amount of mud liberally spattering his body, it was apparent that he had been jumping his new hunter in the castleyard—but he was carrying a clean packet of parchment in one gloved hand, the green of a Healer’s seal bright against the creamy white.

  Cinhil perked up immediately. “Is he all right? What’s happened? I sent Rhys and Evaine to him this morning.”