S. Farrell - A Magic of Twilight

“I’m as troubled as any person of faith would be,” he answered. He took a piece of the bread and broke off a hunk from the end of the loaf.

He turned it in his fingers. “The Concenzia Faith is what sustains us, and the Archigos is the person to whom we swear our allegiance. Not to the Kraljiki. Not even, with your pardon, the Hirzg. So yes, I am troubled, because the Archigos is there in Passe a’Fiume and with the Kraljiki, and it’s not a trivial consequence for a teni to be cast out from the Faith.” He glanced down at his wiry hands, holding them up to Jan.

“You know what happens to a teni who has been cast out, should he ever use the Ilmodo again.”

There it is, then. Jan watched as cu’Kohnle tucked the bread carefully into his mouth, chewed a moment, and swallowed. “Continue, Semini. I’m listening.”

“I’m a practical man, as you know, my Hirzg. I was born in Firenzcia. Within the Faith, I served Archigos Orlandi for his entire tenure as A’Teni of Brezno. My loyalty was always more to him than to that dwarf Dhosti, and my loyalty was also always more to the Hirzg than to Kraljica Marguerite, and certainly far more to you than to Kraljiki Justi.

My sympathies are with the new Archigos’ stated goals, as you know. I would gladly help drive the Numetodo from the Holdings and end their heresy. The Ilmodo must remain in the hands of Concenzia, for many reasons. I realize these are sentiments you share as well, and that is why you and the Archigos were so well-suited to each other. I also gave my word to serve you in your position as the leader of the Firenzcian army, as did the other war-teni here. I am Firenzcian. But. .”

He tore another piece from the loaf. “If the Archigos declares that we war-teni who fight with you are in defiance of the Divolonte, then I don’t know. Some will still fight; some will not. The same is true of the chevarittai and the soldiers: there are those who will be afraid to fight if they think doing so endangers their relationship with Cenzi.”

Jan nodded. And you wouldn’t be saying this to me if you didn’t already have your solution in mind, and if you weren’t looking for something.

He poured wine into one of the goblets and held it out to cu’Kohnle, then poured himself a glass. “I appreciate your cautions and thoughts, Semini,” he said. “It strikes me that, since poor Estraven ca’Cellibrecca never reached Brezno, the seat of A’Teni of Brezno lies vacant, and that as the person who leads my war-teni and as the confidant of the Archigos when he was at Brezno, you are now the highest ranking teni in all Firenzcia. I would suspect-and I only speculate here, Semini-that the Archigos could be persuaded, after we have prevailed, to name you as A’Teni of Brezno.”

Jan saw small muscles twitch along cu’Kohnle’s jaw line as the man pondered Jan’s half-promise. Yes. That was it! “For that matter,” Jan continued, “should the Archigos make the terrible mistake of betraying me here, a mistake he might well make, then after our victory I would be in a position to influence all the a’teni of the Faith to name a new Archigos, one whose loyalty was beyond question. I reward well those who stand with me, Semini. I reward them very well, especially if they demonstrate how effective a leader they can be. I assure you that the soldiers of Firenzcia will not fail to fight even if a false Archigos threatens their souls-because those who command them will not allow it.

Because I will not allow it. Starkkapitan ca’Staunton failed to understand that, but Starkkapitan ca’Linnett seems to have grasped the concept. Do you take my meaning, Semini?”

The man nodded, slowly. “Yes. I believe I do, my Hirzg.”

Jan took a step toward him, close enough that he could see the hairs in the man’s nostrils. “Then I ask you, U’Teni cu’Kohnle, as the commander of the war-teni, do you think that those in your charge would understand that an Archigos who has betrayed his word to me is a false Archigos who does not deserve his title? Do you think they would understand that such a man no longer speaks for Cenzi, no matter what title he might claim for the moment?”

The man’s eyes narrowed. He was looking at Jan, but his gaze was somewhere else, wandering in his imagination. “I think I can persuade them to see your point of view, my Hirzg, if it should become necessary. Yes.”

Jan lifted his wine and tapped the rim of his goblet against that of cu’Kohnle. “Good,” he said. “Then let us drink to our understanding.”

Ana cu’Seranta

Nessantico bereft of a Kralji lurched like a boat without a hand on the tiller. Concenzia bereft of an Archigos in the temple stuttered and hesitated. The city held its collective breath and jumped at every strange noise and cowered with every cloud-shadow. Rumors flew through the city like dark, flapping bats, frightening and furious.

The Garde Kralji was especially skittish, and the Bastida was crowded with people arrested for treasonous statements. The judicial system was quickly overwhelmed; judges offered many of those incarcerated the chance to prove their loyalty (and regain their freedom) by joining the Garde Civile; many did so. In addition, the conscription squads of the Garde Civile roamed through the city and the villages and farmlands around it daily, taking any unwary men they found and depositing them in the growing tent encampment outside the city walls along the Avi a’Parete. There, ragged and uncertain squads could be seen marching and training during the day. Garrisons from Villembouchure and Vouziers arrived a few days after the Kraljiki’s departure, swelling the encampment so that the Avi north and west of the city swarmed with them from the road to the banks of the River Vaghian.

Hundreds if not thousands of the soldiers flooded into the city at night: into the restaurants, the bars and taverns, the brothels. Even during the day, groups of sword-girt soldiers were seen in every public square.

The crisis affected Concenzia as well. With the Archigos and the more-adept lesser teni gone, the infrastructure of Nessantico faltered.

The a’teni, most of whom had remained behind to attend to the affairs of Concenzia in the Archigos’ absence, were rumored to be looking for excuses to return to their home cities and planning their departures.

The teni of the city were poorly directed as a result, and worries and uncertainty rendered their Ilmodo spells weak and ineffective. Sewage flowed untreated into the A’Sele, making it more of a cesspool than usual, the stench reaching far out from its banks. The nightly lighting of the Avi a’Parete was erratic-sometimes long stretches of the Avi, especially in east Oldtown, went dark only a few turns of the glass after the lamps were set aglow. The foundries that utlizied teni to power their great ovens and forges found their Ilmodo-fires sometimes too weak to melt the ore without using far more coal than usual. The teni-driven carriages were a rare sight even for those within Concenzia, and since the growing army had taken most of the horses, people walked or stayed home. Of greatest concern was the lack of teni for the fire patrols, and there were worries that an errant spark could destroy blocks of houses, especially in Oldtown, before enough teni could be found to extinguish the flames.

The great stone heads at the various gates of the city no longer rotated with the sun; there were no teni available to lend them mobility.

The wind-horns on the temples still sounded the calls and the services continued in the temples-the u’teni and o’teni who performed the rituals found more people in the seats than usual but fewer folias, siqils, and solas in the donation boxes.

War shadowed everyone’s thoughts, everyone’s activities. Nessantico herself hadn’t experienced a siege or even a nearby battle in centuries. This was not a situation that had a counterpart for long generations of the families living within the long-sundered walls of the capital. War was something that took place on the edges and frontiers of the Holdings-in Tennshah, in Daritria, in Shenkurska or cold Boail or the far Westlands-always there, always easily available for those who sought glory and fame through its bloody auspices, but always held at a safe distance.