"Do not make such a vow!" Jilseponie scolded. "You do not understand the power that will come against you!"
"You would have me welcome them?"
"I would beg you to flee!" said Jilseponie. "To St.-Mere-Abelle, and from there to Vanguard, if that is necessary. If you stay..." Her voice failed her then, and she began to pant, trying to catch her breath. She would have fallen to the ground had not Braumin rushed forward and caught her in his grasp, holding her tightly once more.
Aydrian waved them all away and continued to stand at the map table as the noblemen filed out, talking amongst themselves. De'Unnero grabbed that open door and stepped beside it, as if he meant to close it behind the others while he remained in the room.
"Go to St. Honce with Abbot Olin," Aydrian said to him. "Help him to prepare the formal documents declaring the change in the Abellican Church."
"And what is that change to be?" De'Unnero asked, and he looked back to the hall to make sure that Olin was far away by then. "Are we to proclaim Olin as Father Abbot?"
"For now, our friend Olin will serve as the official Abellican emissary to Behren," Aydrian replied. "That is all we need to tell your brothers.
Soon, Olin will be named Father Abbot of the Abellican Church in Behren."
Not surprised, De'Unnero nonetheless chuckled. "You make it sound so easy."
"That part will be easier than placing Marcalo De'Unnero as Father Abbot of the Abellican Church in Honce-the-Bear," came Aydrian's response, one that had De'Unnero's dark eyes glowing. "While most of the country south of the Gulf of Corona will fall to me without bloodshed, we both understand that your Abellican brothers will not so easily accept you as their leader."
"They are not my brothers, so killing them will bring me little pause,"
De'Unnero replied.
"Then go and begin the process of your ascent," Aydrian told him. "Invite all who would come to join you in the march of King Aydrian, as the kingdom is solidified, as the church is renewed. Do not overtly threaten any who refuse, but - "
De'Unnero stopped him with an upraised hand. "I understand how I must proceed, now that it is clear that Abbot Olin and I are to walk diverging roads."
"The more you convince with promises, the easier it will be to destroy those who refuse," Aydrian said.
De'Unnero smiled wryly and left the room, closing the door behind him.
Aydrian turned back to the table, to the large map of the world. He ran his hand from Ursal to Palmaris, then from Entel across the Mantis Arm, following the coast all the way to St.-Mere-Abelle, the most coveted prize of all, and the one he knew would prove the most difficult to attain.
"You see?" he asked.
Across the way, a drapery moved, and Sadye walked out into the open.
"Tell me," Aydrian asked her, "what did you perceive of Duke Monmouth of Yorkey?"
"He fears you," the woman replied, walking to stand beside Aydrian at the table. "And he hates you. Though neither emotion is as strong in him as in Duke Kalas."
"And yet the fear within Kalas is so profound that it dooms him as my ally," Aydrian remarked. "What of Bretherford?"
Sadye looked up at him, her gaze lingering on his young and strong and undeniably handsome features for a long while. "I do not know."
"The southland must be secured before I do battle with Prince Midalis,"
Aydrian explained to her. "That will be a process more of measuring the loyalty of the noblemen who service each region than of conquering the commoners."
"King Danube was loved by the common folk, as was your mother."
"The common folk care not at all who is their king," Aydrian told her, and he looked away from the map, locking stares with her, and smiled. "If they are eating well, they love their king. If they are starving, they despise him. It is not so difficult a thing to understand."
"And you will feed them well," Sadye said.
Aydrian looked back at the map, running his hand from those areas already shaded red to those areas, all the rest of the world, he intended to overtake. "I will win with kindness and I will win with cruelty," he said calmly, matter-of-factly.
The fact that they were standing almost directly above the dungeon staircase, beneath which rotted the body of Torrence Pemblebury, only strengthened that statement.
"Long live King Aydrian," Sadye said quietly, and she gently touched his arm.