Jack Whyte - The Sorcer part 2 - Metamorphosis

"Visit him? D' you think me mad, with five hundred men and three times that many horses? I can imagine his face, seeing me there in his yard! We couldn't even speak to each other last time, when I was alone. "

My brother was still smiling. "He may have learned our tongue since then. "

"Latin? Oh yes, I'm sure he must have, almost certainly. He probably writes regularly to the Emperor nowadays, in Constantinople. No, Brother, I'll be doing no visiting. I'll be moving as quickly as I can. As for how long it may take me to come back, how long do you expect to be in Cambria? I'll come back when I can, but not before I've done what must be done. Three months would be the shortest time, I'd guess."

"Aye, that's what I thought. You might then have to come and rescue me from Cambria."

I smiled at that. "I will, if I have to, and I'll bring the Third Legion with me, since the threat from the northeast will be resolved by then." I looked at my brother, taking great strength from his confidence and his ardour for the crucial task at hand. "Have I ever told you how glad I am you're here?" He looked at me in surprise and I grinned at him. "No, I mean it. I shudder to think of what my life would be, had you and I not met. I would have missed the better half of myself and would have had to live with half a brain. I thank God, frequently, for your existence, for the fact that we are kin, and for the miracle of meeting you."

"Kin? Man, we are practically twins."

"I know, and that calls for a drink." I glanced around me. "I suppose everyone else is long abed. We've been talking here for long enough to outlive the lamps, and the fire's almost dead."

Ambrose sat up straight and grunted. "Aye, well I'll replenish the fire and see to some of the lamps, if you'll find us some mead. There should be some left on the shelves in the triclinium."

By the time I returned, clutching a flask and two stemmed glass cups, he had remade the fire and was pouring oil carefully into one of the failing lamps. I sat down and poured mead for both of us, then waited until he returned to his seat and picked up his cup.

"You know, while I was looking for the mead, one thing occurred to me—a flaw. It's the only one I can see in what we've planned, but it's enormous."

He sipped at his drink, and I watched the expressions flow across his face as he tried to guess what I was talking about. "Very well, you must be more perceptive than I am, because I can't see it. What is it?"

'The whole thing is backwards."

He frowned, trying to make sense of that. "I don't follow you. What's backwards?"

"Our plan. I should be the one going to Cambria and you the one headed for Northumbria, because I don't speak the languages they use up there and you do."

Now he scowled. "That's nonsense, on three counts. First, Vortigern speaks Latin—"

"Granted, but Vortigern and all his people might be dead, and you speak the tongue of the Outlanders, the Danes."

"Aye, but only poorly, and I've no knowledge of the other tongues at all—Anglian, and the gibbering of the Jutes."

"But it's Horsa's Danes who worry us. Theirs is the tongue we need, even for listening. It doesn't matter if we ever talk to them, as long as we can listen to them speak among themselves, hear them and know what they are saying. I'm useless there. You should be the one to go."

"No, I disagree. And here's my second objection. If I go there and find Vortigern alive, I might have difficulty leaving again."

That caught me unprepared. "What d'you mean? You would prefer to stay there?"

"Of course not! It's simply that..." He hesitated, seeking the right words. "If Vortigern's alive, and I turn up there in his lands with half a thousand horsemen, he might be inclined to... seek to restrain me from leaving again. My force would give him an enormous advantage."

"You think he might use force?"

"No, not at all. Discourage me from leaving would be more accurate. Don't forget, I was once among his senior and most trusted captains. Until I met you and decided to come south to meet my own people, he had all my loyalty. In any event, he would try to find some way to persuade me to use my troops in his support. "

"It would be no different if I were leading them. "

"Ah, but it would. You would leave when the time came, and he would be quite powerless to stop you, whereas he might convince himself that I yet owe him loyalty. He might make it very... difficult for me. I would defy him, if I had to, but I would not enjoy that, and the thought of having to lead my men against his—against him—makes me cold with loathing. "

That made me pause. I had almost forgotten the extent of Ambrose's former ties to Vortigern. But then, evaluating what he had said, I accepted it and moved on. "You said my suggestion made no sense on three counts. You've given me two—what is the other?"

"Ah! You're not familiar with my campaign plan for Cambria, or with the strategy I've devised. "

"We can change that in a matter of days. How well do you know Cambria?"

"I don't, not well at all. "

"And do you speak the tongue fluently? Or that of Cornwall?'

He shook his head.

"And I do. I speak the tongues, and I know the land and the terrain. You explain your strategy to me, and I'll carry it out. On the matter of Vortigern's being tempted to coerce you into staying, I doubt that's likely. I don't think Vortigern would dare to make an enemy of you and your force. He has too many real enemies already. So I'll act as you intended to, and you will act as I would have, had I gone to Northumbria. Remember, we are almost identical, so no one seeing either of us from afar will be able to tell which of us he is seeing anyway. It only makes sense, then, that each of us should do what he does best. Don't you agree?'

"Partially. " He was still far from convinced. "I'm an infantry commander, Cay, not a cavalryman. "

"Horse turds. The Scouts are yours. You created diem. They'd follow you into Hades. " I stopped, then spoke more quietly. "Look, Ambrose, it's too important to decide right now, tonight, in haste. Why don't you think about it overnight. Then, in the morning, if you're still reluctant, we'll proceed as planned. Either one of us can go to either place. It simply seems more sensible to me that we should make the most of what we have, and that means using your skills in the northeast and mine in the west, where we are both familiar with the surroundings. Will you think about it?'

He smiled. "No need to think On it. You are obviously right, and what you have said makes sense in every detail. We'll do as you suggest. But there's a price to pay, for convincing me so easily to accept your plan over my own. "

"And what is that?"

"I want to take young Arthur with me, make the next stage of his training my responsibility. You've had the shaping of him exclusively for six years and more. I think it might be good for him to have a change of teacher, at this stage, and it might be safer for him, too. You will be riding into certain war in Cambria, with all its risks. I might encounter no hostility at all in the northeast. What say you?"

I did not even have to hesitate. "I think young Arthur will be delighted, and you're right about the risk. Good. I'll pay your price, and I'll take on young Bedwyr. But you've reminded me of another thing I wanted to ask you about. I saw a school on the plain, today, did I not? Is it a school?'

"Yes, it is. One of Ludmilla's female Councillors suggested it, about four years ago, and it started the year before last, in the late summer. What about it?"

'Tell me about the priests I saw there. "

He looked surprised. "What do you want to know?"

"Who are they and where did they come from? Were they invited here, and if so, why? They looked to me to be monastics. "