Paul Hoffman - The Left Hand of God

There was a pause.

“Yes,” said the Marshal at last.

“Good. I will return the city of Memphis to your control and allow you to rebuild a standing army to reinstate the lines of power in your empire-subject to certain taxes and conditions, the details of which you will agree to at a later date.”

The Marshal and Arbell stared at Bosco, eyes wide with hope and suspicion.

“What conditions?” said the Marshal.

“Don’t misunderstand,” said Bosco, so gently that Cale could barely hear. “This is not a negotiation. You have, of course, nothing with which to negotiate. You are utterly powerless and you have only one thing that I want.”

“And what’s that?” asked the Marshal.

“Thomas Cale.”

“Never. Not for anything,” said Arbell passionately.

Bosco looked at her thoughtfully.

“How interesting,” he said.

“Why would you do that?” asked the Marshal.

“Swap a boy for an empire? It hardly seems likely, I agree.”

“You want to kill him,” said Arbell.

“Not so.”

“Because he killed one of your priests doing something unspeakable.”

“Well, you’re right: he did kill one of my priests and he was doing something unspeakable. I knew nothing of these heretic practices until the day that Cale ran away. All of those who were subsequently found to have been involved were cleansed.”

“You mean killed.”

“I mean cleansed and then killed.”

“Why did Cale think you were responsible?”

“I’ll ask him when I see him. But if you think that I would give away an empire in order to execute Cale for killing a murderous heretic and pervert…” He paused, looking sincerely puzzled. “Why would I do such a thing? It makes no sense.”

“You could be lying,” said the Marshal.

“I could be. But I don’t really need to. I’ll find Cale sooner or later, but I would prefer it were sooner. You have the means to give me what I want, but I only have so much patience, and once that’s gone, you have nothing.”

“Don’t listen to him,” said Arbell.

“And why are you so very concerned?” said Bosco. “Is it because you are lovers?”

The Marshal stared at his daughter. There were no indignant demands to be told the truth, no condemnations for having tainted royal blood. Just a long silence. At last he turned back to Bosco.

“What do you want me to do?”

Bosco drew in a deep breath.

“There’s nothing you can do. There are not many people, if indeed any at all, Cale trusts, and certainly not you. Except for your daughter, of course, and for reasons now acknowledged by us all. What I require is for her to write a letter to Cale that she will give, as it were, secretly to one of his friends. In this letter you will ask him to meet you outside the walls at an appointed time. I’ll be there and with such numbers that he must surrender.”

“You’ll kill him,” said Arbell.

“I will not kill him,” said Bosco, raising his voice for the first time. “I will never do so, and for reasons that I will explain to him when he can see that I’m telling him the truth. He has no idea what I have to say to him, and until he knows, his life will be as it has been since he left the Sanctuary-violent, angry, a life that can bring down only pointless destruction on the heads of everyone he has anything to do with. Consider the havoc he has brought to your lives. I alone can save him from this condition. Whatever you think you feel for him, you cannot understand what he is. Try to save him, which you can never do, and all you will achieve is to bring ruin upon your father, your people, yourself, and, above all, on Cale.”

“You must write the letter,” said the Marshal to his daughter.

“I can’t,” said Arbell.

Bosco sighed sympathetically. “I know what it means to wield authority and power. The choice you have to make now is of a kind no one would envy. Whatever you do will seem wrong to you. You must either destroy an entire people and a father you love, or a single man you also love.” She stared at Bosco as if transfixed. “But though this choice is harsh, it is not so harsh as you fear. Cale will come to no harm at my hands and I will find him sooner or later in any case. His future is too bound up with the will of God for him to be anything but one of us-and a very special part.” He sat back and sighed again.

“Tell me, young lady, for all your love for this young man, a love I can see now is certainly genuine…” He paused to let her swallow this sugary poison. “Haven’t you felt something…” He paused again, searching carefully for the right word, “Something fatal.”

“You made him like that with your cruelty.”

“Not so,” replied Bosco reasonably, as if he understood the accusation. “The first moment I saw him when he was very young, there was something shocking about him. It took me a long time to put my finger on what it was because it simply didn’t make sense. It was dread. I dreaded this little boy. Certainly it was necessary to mold and discipline what was already there, but no human being could make Cale what he is. I am not so boastful. I was merely an agent of the Lord to incline his nature for our common good and in God’s service. But you have seen this in him and it frightens you-as well it might. The kindnesses in him that you have sometimes seen are like the wings of the ostrich-they beat but will not fly. Leave him to us and save your father, your people and yourself.” He paused a moment for effect. “And Cale.”

Arbell started to speak, but Bosco held up his hand to silence her. “I’ve nothing more to say. Consider it and make your decision. I will send the details of the time and place when we will meet Cale. You will either write the letter or you will not.”

Two Redeemers who had been standing by the door moved forward and gestured for Arbell and her father both to leave. As she went through the door, Bosco called out to her as if reluctantly sympathetic to her plight. “Remember that you are responsible for the lives of thousands. And I promise never to raise my hand to him again, nor allow anyone else to do so.” The door closed and Bosco said softly to himself: “For the lips that to him now are as luscious as honeycomb, shall be to him shortly as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.”

The Lord Militant turned and gestured Cale forward into the light. The guard removed the gag and led him over to Bosco.

“Do you really think she’ll believe you?” said Cale.

“I can’t think why not: it’s mostly true, even if it’s not the whole truth.”

“Which is?”

Bosco looked at him as if trying to read something in his face, but with an uncertainty Cale had never seen before.

“No,” Bosco said, at last. “We’ll wait for her reply.”

“What are you afraid of?”

Bosco smiled. “Well, perhaps a little honesty between us would be no bad thing at this stage. I fear, of course, that true love will conquer all and she will refuse to deliver you into my hands.”

Back in her palazzo, Arbell Swan-Neck was suffering the terrible pangs of private desire and public obligation, the dreadful and impossible betrayal involved in either choice. But it was worse than it seemed because in her heart of hearts (and the yet more secret one that lay within that heart) she had already decided to betray Thomas Cale. Understand her loss, the numbing shock of witnessing all she had ever known collapse in front of her. Then understand the dreadful power of Bosco’s words that echoed her most fearful thoughts in almost every way. Thrilling though Cale was to her, it was the same strangeness that roused her that also roused distaste for him. He was so violent, so angry, so deadly. Bosco had seen right through her to the other side. How, given who she was, could she be other than refined and delicate? And, make no mistake, this refinement and delicacy were what Cale adored; but Cale had been beaten into shape, hammered in dreadful fires of fear and pain. How could she be with him for long? A secret part of Arbell had been searching for some time for a way to leave her lover-although she was unaware of this, it is only fair to record. And so as Cale waited for her to save him while he worked out a way of saving her, she had already chosen the bitter but reasonable path of the good, of the many over the one. Who was there, after all, to say otherwise? Not she. Surely even Cale himself would understand in time.