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good sign he ought to go get in it. This wasn t prayer anyway, it was just
argument with the gods.
Prayer, he suspected as he hoisted himself up and turned for the door, was
putting one foot in front of the other. Moving all the same.
At the last moment, with principles agreed upon, treaties written out in
multiple copies in a fair court
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hand, signed by all parties and their witnesses, and sealed, practicalities
nearly brought all to a halt. The
Fox, not without reason in Cazaril s view, balked at sending his son into
Chalion with so little guarantee of his personal safety. But the roya had
neither the men nor the money in his war-weary royacy to raise a large force
to guard Bergon, and Cazaril was fearful of the effect upon Chalion of taking
arms across the border, even in so fair a cause. Their debate grew heated; the
Fox, shamed by the reminder that he owed Bergon s very life to Cazaril, took
to avoiding Cazaril s petitions in a way that reminded Cazaril forcibly of
Orico.
Cazaril received Iselle s first ciphered letter, via the relay of couriers
from the Daughter s Order that he had set up on their outbound route. It had
been penned just four days after he had left Cardegoss, and was brief, simply
confirming that Teidez s funeral rites had taken place without incident, and
that
Iselle would leave the capital that afternoon with his cortege for Valenda and
the interment. She noted, with obvious relief, Our prayers were answered the
sacred animals showed the Son of Autumn has taken him up after all. I pray he
will find ease in the god s good company.
She added, My eldest brother lives, and has back sight in one eye. But he
remains very swollen. He stays at home, abed.
More chillingly, she reported:
Our enemy has set two of his nieces as ladies-in-waiting in my household. I
will not be able to write often. The Lady speed your embassy.
He looked in vain for a postscript from Betriz, nearly missing it till he
turned the paper over. Minute numbers in her distinctive hand lay half-hidden
beneath the cracked wax of the seal itself. He scraped at the residue with his
thumbnail. The brief notation thus revealed led him to a page toward the back
of the book, one of Ordol s most lyrical prayers: a passionate plea for the
safety of a beloved one who traveled far from home. How many years decades had
it been since someone far away had prayed just for him? Cazaril wasn t even
sure if this had been meant for his eyes, or only for those of the gods, but
he touched the tiny cipher secretly to the five sacred points, lingering a
little on his lips, before leaving his chamber to seek Bergon.
He shared the other side of the letter with the royse, who studied it, and the
code system, with fascination. Cazaril composed a brief note telling of the
success of his mission, and Bergon, his tongue clamped between his teeth,
laboriously ciphered out a letter in his own hand to go to his new betrothed
along with it.
Cazaril counted days in his head. It was impossible that dy Jironal not have
spies in the court of
Ibra. Sooner or later, Cazaril s appearance there must be reported back to
Cardegoss. How soon?
Would dy Jironal guess that Cazaril s negotiations on Iselle s behalf had
prospered so stunningly? Would he seize the royesse s person, would he
calculate Cazaril s next move, would he try to intercept Bergon in Chalion?
After several days of the deadlock over the royse s safety, Cazaril, in a
burst of genius, sent Bergon in to argue his own case. This was an envoy the
Fox could not evade, not even in his private chambers.
Bergon was young and energetic, his imagination passionately engaged, and the
Fox was old and tired.
Worse, or perhaps, from Cazaril s point of view, better, a town in South Ibra
of the late Heir s party rose in arms about some failure of treaty, and the
Fox was forced to muster men to ride out to pacify it again. Frenzied with the
dilemma, torn between his great hopes and his icy fears for his sole surviving
son, the Fox threw the resolution back upon Bergon and his coterie.
Resolution, Cazaril was discovering, was one thing Bergon did not lack. The
royse quickly endorsed Cazaril s scheme to travel lightly and in disguise
across the hostile country between the Ibran border and Valenda. For escort
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