Everything and Everyone

They arrived at Sutton on the morning of the third day. It was an odd sort of arrival as they met Ivo and Duilio on the road just outside Sutton. The two men had set out that morning intending to go to Norton to discover what had happened to Illumina and the others. There had been rumors of a new Lord of the North and of the dispersal of the Death March but no one in Sutton was sure what was happening in the north.

Ivo and Duilio were surprised to see the Prince and Nina on the road accompanied by the man of the forest and a strange woman with an odd resemblance to Illumina. The resemblance obviously went deeper than mere appearances as the Prince clearly deferred to her, she was no mere hanger on. They had to back off and control their horses as the wolf came among the party. He had been foraging off the road and came quietly in amongst the horses; making his way to his accustomed place beside Manueline. He had grown, in both height and weight and sat staring at the other men, seeming to enjoy the effect had had on them and their mounts.

Ivo and Duilio recovered and managed to persuade their horses to stand still again. The Prince made the introductions:

"Manueline, this is Ivo and Duilio. They were my companions on the journey from Loro. Ivo, Duilio, this is Manueline. She comes from north of the Great Forest, she brought the people of the death march through the forest and was mentor and guide to the man who was taken as the personification of death."

Ivo spoke up, a look of astonishment on his face, his voice on the edge of anger, "You mean she is responsible for the Death March? She is responsible for all the carnage and upheaval they brought among us?"

Libby responded with real anger in his voice, "No she is not. She is responsible for keeping thousands of people alive who would have otherwise died. She is also responsible for keeping the people of the Death March close enough to their humanity that it was possible for us to stop it and disperse them when they got to Norton. You saw what happened at the bridge. Without her, the same thing would have happened at Norton and the destruction of Norton would have taken the whole country with it."

Ivo literally back away a little, "I'm sorry. I spoke in haste."

Manueline answered, "It's all right Ivo. It has been a trying time for all of us and many terrible things have happened. I understand your reaction. I hope you understand at least some of my part in what has happened and can see some credit in it."

Ivo looked at her curiously, nodding his head but saying nothing. He was still trying to absorb the implications of what he saw before him. He was about to ask about Illumina when Manueline continued, "Illumina told me we might meet you in Sutton and that I should ask for your help." She laughed, a quiet, warm sound in the chilly early morning air. "I did not expect to meet you on the road. Ivo I am glad we have met. Will you help us?"

Manueline had a way of directing her attention to one person to the exclusion of everything and everyone else around her. She gave that attention to Ivo, he responded to it, losing sight of everyone else for the moment, just considering himself and Manueline. He found he was nodding his head. It was clear he would help her, whatever that meant, he would help her. Even as he consented, she turned her attention to Duilio, asking the same question in the same way. The affect on Duilio was the same. He just looked at her for a time and then nodded his head.

Ivo found his voice again, "It will be difficult. The South Lord is almost as bad as the North Lord. I think the only reason he didn't send anyone after the Prince is that he thought we were coming to Sutton anyway. Sutton and Eaton have their factions in the King's City. There are all kinds of rumors about the King and Queen. The only way the South Lord will consent to the Prince going to the city is if it strengthens him or weakens someone else."

They were talking on a rise overlooking the town. Manueline said, "Come we should get off the road and talk somewhere we are a little less conspicuous."

They went north up the road a little until they came to a stream. They left the road following the stream until they came to a meadow where they could set up camp and let the horses graze for a while.

Duilio took up the conversation again, "The North Lord was allied with the City faction, the faction that has the strongest base in the city; they are keeping a low profile without any ally in the country outside. The Sutton and Eaton factions are about equally balanced. Eaton currently has the ear of the King, though the Queen constantly tries to separate them from him."

"They are the people responsible for the assassination attempts on my mother?"

"Eaton and the City faction both. The Queen also tries, wherever she can, to weaken the City faction and they hate her for it. Apparently, there are people in the City faction who hate the Queen regardless of her politics and, I am told, the feeling is mutual. You can imagine how vulnerable the Queen is with the King under the influence of the very people who most want to see her dead."

Manueline looked at him, "It doesn't seem so hard to me. One of the main reasons for the Prince returning to the King's City is to help his mother. She is supported by the Sutton faction, it seems natural enough that he would be seen as supporting the faction as well."

"But there is a problem. He will also be seen as supporting the King. In that role, he may try to separate the Queen from the Sutton faction and reconcile her with Eaton. That is what they fear. What they really fear is that with the North out of the game, Eaton and the City faction will reconcile their differences and unite against Sutton."

Manueline clutched her head, "All these factions and alliances. I can't keep track of them all. Doesn't the King have any say in all this?"

Libby answered, "No, or very little. He has no power base of his own other than whatever control he has over the city; that control is mediated by the people of the city, hence the factions."

"It is like one of Cosimo's games." Manueline began to draw in the dust. She drew two squares next to each other drawing a woman's face in one, a man in the other. Below them she drew three circles in a line labeling them 'Sutton', 'Norton' and 'Loro' with Sutton closest to the King and Queen, Loro furthest away and Norton in the middle. Just above the King and Queen, she drew another circle and labeled it 'The City', a considerable distance off to the right she drew another circle and labeled it 'Eaton'. She drew a line with arrows on both ends connecting Loro and the Queen, a line with a single arrow pointing to the King connecting the King and Queen; a line with a single arrow pointing to the King connecting Loro and the King. A double headed line connecting Loro and Norton; a line with a single arrow pointing to the Queen connecting Sutton and the Queen; a line with two arrows connecting Eaton and the King. Finally, she added dotted lines between the Queen and the City and between the Queen and Eaton.

She looked up from the diagram and asked Ivo, "How many people are there in Eaton?"

Ivo shook his head, "Not many, maybe eleven or twelve thousand. I doubt they can put more than a thousand men in the field. Even Loro, though not having as many people, can field a more effective force as the people are better off and have more horses. "

"Let's get the sizes right," and she started changing the diagram in the dust aided by Ivo, getting the size of the circle to correspond to the military power of the faction it represented.

Libby pointed at the diagram. "You should change the size of the North. The following effectively doubles its population. I bet it is now almost the same size as the South." Certainly, Norton and Loro taken together are easily bigger than either Sutton or the City taken on their own. The people of the Death March would follow Wals off the end of the earth if he asked it of them."

Manueline looked at him, everyone going quiet for a moment. "Libby, they would follow you as well. You and I with the wolf beside us; they would follow us without question." She looked again at the diagram. "Don't you think it strange that the King would ally himself with the weakest and most isolated of the factions? Why Eaton, why not the City? Or if he does not trust the City, why not Norton or Sutton?" She did not wait for a response but answered her own question. "I think he chooses Eaton precisely because they are the weakest of the factions. Any other choice will lead to open conflict between the chosen faction and the rest. If we force him into an alliance with Sutton we will precipitate a civil war that will destroy the entire country."

Libby laughed quietly, "I don't know that father's that clever."

"I think he is. Remember how you agreed with me that because of the way the kingship is set up, father will be set against son, brother against brother, mothers against their own children. He has had to fight for life itself all his life. Everything he does is done through a struggle with someone else. He is still struggling and I think he is losing. He is unable to protect your mother any longer, not openly anyway. Still he fights on. I think the only safe path for all of us is to support him not hinder him. Maybe just this once we can give him something he does not have to struggle for."

Nina had been a mute witness to the whole discussion, at first distancing herself from it, making up a fire and heating up some water. Towards the end, she came and stood on the fringes of the circle, watching Manueline, listening to her, apparently fascinated by what she had to say. As Manueline spoke, 'fight for life itself,' and 'struggle with someone else' Nina nodded her head as though urging her on or adding confirmation to the words she said.

Ivo looked disturbed, unsure of himself, "I see what you're saying. Where does it lead us? What are we to do?"

Manueline bit her lip, looking at the diagram. She looked up at Ivo, asking an apparently unrelated question, "How difficult is it to get across the river?"

"You mean take the horses across? There is a ferry less than half a morning's ride that way, well above the town. Why would we do that?"

Libby answered the question, Manueline smiling as he spoke. "She means we should go to the Lord of the East. I think she's right. If we go to Sutton, the South Lord will merely make prisoners of us or worse. Even if we could get through to the City, we would be powerless to help the King or the Queen and in any case we would be seen and the South Lord would pursue us. If we go back, we will accomplish nothing. The only course open to us is to make for Eaton. There is a good chance we can influence the East Lord to protect the Queen and strengthen and control him through an alliance with Norton and Loro."

Manueline had been drawing another diagram as Libby spoke, she looked up and asked Ivo, a note of anxiety in her voice, "Was there any hint of our coming before you left?"

"No, none given to us anyway. We saw nothing that looked like a preparation for a pursuit."

Manueline got to her feet, a sudden sense of urgency in her manner and her voice. "Come then, we should hurry. The sooner we get to this ferry and across the river the better."

To follow this thread in the story go to: Unless He had to

The next section to read is: Fabric of the Day

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