DemonWars Saga Volume 1 (215 page)

They called it the "Progos thaw," and though it seemed to occur at the turn of each year, it always had the folk out and about, shaking their heads and mumbling about the strange weather. And this year, for the first time in many years, the folk did have something to mumble about. Spring weather came on suddenly in Palmaris, with several storms in succession starting out with threatening heavy snow but producing only cold rain before the second month had even begun.

The winter, among the mildest that even the oldest folk could remember, was fast ending, and Pony's belly was becoming noticeable. Thus, she made it a point to keep her bar apron around her waist even when she was not working in the Way, even when she was going out at night, as she was this evening, to meet with one or another of her fellow conspirators.

The base of resistance was solidifying, she reminded herself hopefully as she brushed past Belster and out of the inn. Between Belster's many friends, Colleen's information from inside the enemy camp, and Al'u'met's Behrenese and sailor comrades, those opposed to Bishop De'Unnero controlled much of the street and dock talk in the city. Not that they were open in their complaints and resistance; it had not come to that.

Not yet. No, they were planting the seeds of rebellion, fostering a different viewpoint concerning the manner in which the Church was ruling the city. If it came to a fight —and a large part of Pony dearly hoped that it would—the Bishop and his minions would be surprised indeed at the scope of the resistance.

That notion of an open battle against the Church prodded Pony to step more quickly as she headed for her appointed meeting with Colleen Kilronney. The fires of vengeance had not cooled within Pony, and if it came to blows, she remained determined that she would use her magic, Avelyn's magic, to wreak devastation on the leaders of that accursed Church that had murdered her parents and her friends.

She was surprised indeed when she turned into the alley and saw that Colleen was not alone, and her surprise became amazement at the sight of Colleen's companion. A monk! A monk wearing the robes of St. Precious!

She came forward cautiously.

He leaped at her, hands grasping for her throat. Like all Abellicans, the man had been trained in the fighting arts, and so his attack came swift and sure.

Pony fell back under his weight. Her hands grabbed at his wrists, trying to pull his fingers from her throat. She fell quickly into the trained warrior mode, and even as a stunned Colleen rushed in from behind, Pony hooked her thumbs under the monk's, then bent her legs and fell to her knees, bringing the man down with her. Now leverage became Pony's ally, and a simple twist broke the monk's hold —and she could have twisted farther and shattered his thumb bones altogether.

But she did not —in deference to Colleen, who had brought this monk to her. She stood up quickly, sweeping her hands under the monk's forearms, then yanking his arms out wide. Using her momentum, she turned one palm out, curled her fingers tightly in, and drove the heel of her hand under the monk's chin. The blow lifted him from his feet and shoved him several inches back.

Up came his arms in desperate defense, but Pony was already moving like a striking serpent straight ahead. She connected again, this time with a stunning blow to the bridge of his nose, and then again as blood began pouring from both his nostrils.

Colleen caught the monk as he fell and offered him support, but also neatly immobilized him, slipping one arm under his shoulder, then around the back of his neck, and hooking her other hand, pulling the monk's other arm back at the elbow.

"I see you have brought your friends," Pony remarked sarcastically, straightening her clothes and eyeing the man dangerously. She had done well to control her mounting, boiling anger —anytime a man wearing the robes of that Church offered her an excuse, she meant to punish him terribly—but resolved that if he came at her again, he would not leave this alley alive.

"She is the one," the monk tried to explain to Colleen, spitting blood with every word.

"The one who'll be breakin' yer stupid neck?" Colleen retorted.

"T-the companion of N-Nightbird," the monk stammered.

"I telled ye that much," said Colleen.

"The friend of Avelyn the heretic, the thief of the sacred stones, the ally of the demon dactyl," said the monk.

"Seems like every time I'm hearin' it, yer reputation for troublemakin' grows," Colleen said to Pony. "I'm likin' ye all the better, girl!"

"You do not understand," the monk cried.

"I understand that I could be lettin' ye go now, and lettin' ye get yerself killed," Colleen shot back; as she said it, she did release the man. "Go on then, I'll be enjoyin' the sight o' me friend kickin' the life from yer robed body."

The man hesitated, glancing nervously from Colleen to Pony. He reached up to wipe the blood from his nose with his sleeve.

"A friend of Avelyn, yes," Pony admitted. She reached into her apron and tossed the man a rag. "A friend of Avelyn, the same Avelyn who destroyed the demon dactyl, despite what your masters have told you."

The man continued to stand his ground, continued to look all about.

"Why did you bring him?" Pony asked.

"He's no friend to De'Unnero," said Colleen. "I was thinkin' that a common enemy might be a good place for startin' an alliance. And can ye doubt how valuable a man inside St. Precious might prove to be?

"And I didn't know," Colleen added, giving the monk a kick as she spoke the words. "I telled him about ye and he seemed friendly enough."

"A ruse so he could get at me," Pony remarked.

"We could just kill 'im," Colleen replied, and as she did, she slid a dagger from the back of her belt and put it firmly against the monk's back, forcing him to arch his shoulders.

"I am no friend of Bishop De'Unnero," the man said.

"Thought ye'd be seein' it that way," said Colleen, but she didn't remove the dagger.

"Then you are no friend of Father Abbot Markwart and no friend of the Abellican Church," Pony replied. "And closer in mind to Avelyn Desbris than you believe."

"The college branded him heretic and murderer."

"To the dactyl's own home with your college!" Pony retorted. "I've not the time to teach you the truth, Brother —"

"Brother Talumus," Colleen explained, "one I thought a friend."

The monk half turned and glowered at her. "That was before I knew you conspired with outlaws."

"One who came out here to plot against De'Unnero has a strange way of defining that term," Pony remarked.

"Are we to convince him or kill him?" asked the brutal Colleen. Both Pony and Brother Talumus understood that she was not kidding.

"Not kill him," Pony replied immediately.

"Are ye ready to be convinced, then?" Colleen asked him in his ear.

Talumus did not reply, but neither did he turn away or give any clue that he would not be receptive.

"Did you revere your former abbot?" Pony asked.

"Speak no ill of Abbot Dobrinion!" Talumus replied, his tone more forceful even than when he had attacked Pony.

"Never that," said Pony, "for Dobrinion was a good man, a great man, and more akin to Avelyn Desbris than you know. That is why Father Abbot Markwart had him murdered."

The monk stammered a syllable, then chewed his lip.

"Colleen brought you here, and so I assume she has judged your character correctly," said Pony. "Though she has erred before on such measures," she added, tossing a disarming smile at the woman soldier. "I will tell you the truth, plainly, and then let you judge my veracity. Be convinced or not, as you judge."

"But if ye're not. . ." Colleen said, prodding him with the dagger.

"If you are not, then we have a place to put you until this distasteful business is complete," Pony put in. "And you shall not be mistreated, in any case."

"Abbot Dobrinion was slain by a powrie," Talumus said. "We found the wretched creature dead on the abbot's bedroom floor. And I know of no powries in St. Precious."

"Slain by the same powrie that did not take the time to open a cut on Keleigh Leigh and dip its beret in her blood?" Pony asked. That had caught Talumus by surprise, she realized by his expression.

The monk thought to respond that perhaps the creature had not the time, but changed his mind and asked bluntly, "How do you know this?"

"Because Connor Bildeborough told it to me."

"Connor, who annulled your marriage," said the unconvinced monk.

"And who came north to warn me that the same men who murdered Abbot Dobrinion were after me, and after him," Pony corrected. "Connor, who was also killed by one of those men, by a brother justice, trained and loosed by the Father Abbot of St.-Mere-Abelle."

"Connor, whose uncle was murdered by the man ye now call bishop," Colleen added.

Talumus' shoulders sagged under the weight of these accusations —ones he had obviously heard before.

Pony recognized the posture. The monk did not believe the words, of course, but neither could he dismiss them. And any hint of their truth could send his entire world crashing down around him.

"The Behrenese are being persecuted," Pony stated flatly.

Talumus, seeming thoroughly defeated, nodded.

"And you do not agree with this policy."

Again, a nod.

"Then stand with us if you will, or at least do not stand against us," said Pony. She motioned to Colleen, who at last put away her dagger.

"I will not stand against my Order," Brother Talumus said boldly.

"Then stand back and watch with an open mind," Pony explained. "And bid your fellows of St. Precious to do so as well. Bishop De'Unnero is not a good man, and not truly an Abellican at heart. We will prove that to you."

"I been a friend o' yers for years," Colleen reminded him. "Ye don't betray me on this."

"I will watch," Brother Talumus agreed after a long moment. "And I will view, and review, things in light of the revelations you have offered. But when I am done, if I am convinced that you are wrong and that your claims against the Church are unfounded, I will go against you."

Colleen's hand slid back toward the dagger, but Pony cut her action short. "That is all that we can rightfully ask," she replied, "and generous and wise of you, by any measure."

Talumus backed away from the pair, eyeing Pony nervously as he moved cautiously down the alley. When he judged that he was far enough away, he turned and ran off.

"You should not have brought him here," Pony scolded Colleen, "not yet."

"When then?" asked the other woman. "Are ye thinkin' we can stand long against the likes o' Bishop De'Unnero without any help from the monks? Bah!" She snorted. "They'll find ye and kill ye to death, don't ye doubt. I only bringed Talumus because he confided to me that another of his brothers sensed magic coming from the general area o' Fellowship Way the very last night, and he's knowin' that I been going there."

Pony's shoulders slumped at this news. She had used the hematite again last night, to visit the child that was growing within her, the child who had become such a pleasurable focus of her life of late. She could hardly comprehend that her spiritual bonding with her unborn child might have ruined everything. Were De'Unnero and his minions that efficient?

"Warned me to keep clear o' the place," Colleen went on.

"Then De'Unnero is coming," Pony reasoned.

"No," Colleen replied. "The monk that saw yer magic use told none but Talumus, who told only meself. And then I bade Talumus to tell t'other monk that it was him using the stones, and no enemies o' the Church. And so he did, and so he'll continue to say now, for I think ye handled that one well."

Pony paused to consider the words, to consider whether or not she and Belster and Dainsey should abandon the Fellowship Way altogether, though such a move would surely destroy much of the progress they had made in beginning an underground alliance over the last few weeks.

"Brother Talumus is sincere," she decided. "He will not betray us. Not now."

"Then we got some provin' to do," Colleen remarked.

True to his word, Brother Talumus was already mulling over recent events in light of Pony's words as he made his way back toward St. Precious. One meeting was particularly significant: Baron Bildeborough and another man had come to see Talumus shortly before Bishop De'Unnero had arrived in Palmaris, and shortly before Bildeborough had gone off to the south and been killed on the road to Ursal. Both Bildeborough and his unknown companion that day had spoken to Talumus about the murder of Abbot Dobrinion and had quietly mentioned that same fact: the powrie had not cut Keleigh Leigh and dipped its beret in her blood. This now seemed meaningful indeed to the young but experienced monk.

Not knowing too much about powries, Talumus couldn't give that the same weight as had Baron Bildeborough, his companion, and now the woman, Pony. But could it be evidence of so heinous a betrayal as the Abellican Church going against one of its most respected abbots? Brother Talumus wasn't yet ready to make that jump.