demoralize her, and hole her monks up tight behind their walls. When Midalis comes, if he is so foolish, then St.-Mere-Abelle will be of little help to him. Your Palmaris must only hold him back for the week it will take us to swing our army back here across the river and properly destroy the line of Ursal."
"Easily achieved with but a few thousand warriors," De'Unnero assured him. "Little magical power will accompany Midalis, other than that of your mother."
"And if Midalis does not come, then we will play the waiting game, finishing off St.-Mere-Abelle before turning our eyes to the region north of the gulf," Aydrian replied. "Perhaps we will have to wait until the spring of next year to begin that final march, but with all the southern kingdom secured, and Behren added to our hold, we will only grow stronger while Midalis hides among his tall trees. The ending, it would seem, is inevitable."
"We always knew that it would be," said De'Unnero.
Aydrian waited for the monk to stop pacing long enough to look at him directly. "You will soon enough become Father Abbot," he said.
"I already am," De'Unnero countered. "St.-Mere-Abelle is isolated, if Duke Kalas completed his march, and I cannot believe that he has not. No abbey of southern Honce-the-Bear is any longer aligned with the mother abbey and Fio Bou-raiy. He has lost before St.-Mere-Abelle even falls."
"Then I salute you, Father Abbot De'Unnero," Aydrian said. "Perhaps we should hold a formal ceremony announcing your ascent before we march upon St.-Mere-Abelle."
De'Unnero paused for a bit, then nodded.
"So tell me of your new Church," Aydrian prompted. "You will not endorse the final canonization of Saint Avelyn, I would guess."
"Of course not."
"And you will return the Abellican Order to its cloistered roots, where the sacred gemstones are held tight by the brethren alone and their magics are not so openly offered to the common peasants?"
"Of course, as you already know," De'Unnero said. "Indeed, in your absence, my brothers have collected many of the gemstones from the folk of Palmaris - reimbursing them, of course, as we discussed. The old order is already returning to the land, elevating the Church above the ordinary, as it once was. But you know all of this, so why do you ask?"
Aydrian stared at him long and hard, locking the monk's gaze with his own. "I sent Sadye to Chasewind Manor," he said bluntly. "There she will remain. With me."
De'Unnero narrowed his eyes, sucked in his breath, and stood very still, his hands clenched at his side.
"I offer her back to you," the young king said. "Wholly. But only if you are willing to forsake that other prize you so crave."
"Take care your words," De'Unnero warned.
Aydrian rose from his chair and calmly walked to the hearth, pointedly putting his back to the monk, showing De'Unnero that he did not fear him in the least. "I am quite beyond you now. You know this. You desired the Abellican Order, and I have delivered it to you." He turned about to face the monk. "To you alone. How convenient, was it not, that I sent Abbot Olin south to the land he most desired?"
"And in exchange, you take my wife?"
"I did not take anything that was not offered," Aydrian replied.
De'Unnero started forward, as if to attack, but stopped himself abruptly.
Aydrian did not even make a move to defend himself.
"Allow her to become queen of Honce-the-Bear," Aydrian said. "You know that she desires such. Of course, she does! And why should she not? I have my kingdom, I give to you yours. What life will Sadye know at your side? That of a secret consort, to be whispered about and gossiped over by every other brother of the Abellican Order, and by the peasants, as well. What life is that for the woman who has served us both so brilliantly?"
De'Unnero trembled as he stood there, hardly seeming mollified.
"But it is not your choice, after all," Aydrian went on. "Nor is it mine.
It is Sadye's to make, and so she has. Now I ask you to let her go without penalty. Fondly hold those times that you had side by side, my friend, but recognize the truth. Your position has outgrown her. You cannot lead the Church in its former image and glory if you openly hold a wife! "Be sensible, my friend! You are stepping into a most delicate situation.
Obviously so! You would so risk everything to hold Sadye at your side?"