The Angry Mermaid 23 ... Y Morforwyn Dicllon.23

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Where Drustina comes into more serious conflict with the Bishop and his henchmen.

The Angry Mermaid 23

Or

Y Morforwyn Dicllon 23

Mabina. The youngest daughter and Twin to
Drustan Her twin brother.
Grandpa Erin the twins grandfather.
Giana The twins grandmother
Caderyn The twins father.
Herenoie The twins wise and beautiful mother.
Morgaran The Twins oldest brother.
Aiofe The twins oldest sister. Famous for her beauty.
Tara The twins second oldest sister. Famous for her grace.
Feidlim Twins aunt (Caderyns’ beautiful sister.)
Mogantu Twins uncle (Married to Feidlim.) Chief of the Gangani tribe.
Brun. Twins 2nd cousin and the Acaman clans’ blacksmith.
Feorin. Twins second brother. Also training to be a blacksmith.
Rhun Feidlims’ son and Feorins’ favourite 1st Cousin. (Both red-heads.)
Arina Child of a Demetae fisherman, (rescued by Aiofe, Drustan and Mabina.)
Penderol Dumnonii Minor chief.
Udris Young Dumnonii warrior.
Dryslwyn High chief of the whole Celtic nation. Dwells in Brithony.
Bronlwyn Dryslwyn’s wife (and queen.)
Magab The moor who taught numbers.
Eric Saxon galley slave rescued from Corsair pirates.
Carl Another Saxon galley slave rescued by Drustan.
Torvel Celtic galley slave rescued from the same captured corsair ship
Arton. Turdetani Chieftain Holder of Gibral Rock.
Carinia Arton’s wife.
Isobel. Arton’s adopted daughter.
Appotel King of the Turdetani Tribe. (Southern Iberia.)
Bramana Queen. (Wife of Appotel)
Pilus King of the Capetani.
Shaleen Pilus’s queen and sister to Bramana.
Pedoro Lord Marshal of the Southern border region.
Lady Shulaar Lord Pedoro’s wife.
Taan. The scullery maid.
Isaar. Pedoro’s oldest son.
Ferdie Pedoro’s 2nd son
Sular Pedoro’s 3rd son
Gontala Pedoro’s youngest son.
Shenoa Pedoro’s only daughter.
Portega. Tyrant King to the west.
Portua. Portega’s grandson.
Jubail. Old Fisherman.
Mutas Magab’s younger brother and usurper.
Walezia King of Malta.
Alviar Megalomaniacal bishop of Carthage. (Hates Drustina.)
Ethelia Female healer who treats Drustina during her pregnancy.
Seripatese Drustina’s faithful horse.

King Magab was busy with paperwork as he heard a commotion in the antechamber.

“You cannot enter the King’s chamber. He’s busy!”

Magab recognised his Chamberlain’s voice then more readily recognised the maidenly voice that argued back.

“Oh, so he’s too busy now is he ... too high and mighty to even see his own sister-in-law!”

Magab sighed. Much though he dearly loved Drustina she could try the patience of a saint. He wondered why she had not adopted her usual recourse and quietly mentioned what concerned her at the evening meal when she dined every night with Magab and his Queen Aiofe. It must be something of considerable consequence to bring her shouting and arguing at the King’s innermost door. He put down the parchment and stepped across his own chamber to open the door himself; an event unusual in itself but the brief period after lunch was a quiet time in the Palace, a time when most courtiers took a siesta in the midday heat. King Magab even dismissed his servants for he dearly valued the peaceful interlude to get on with his affairs of state without interruptions. Only his wise old Chamberlain lay dozing on the antechamber settee as old men were wont to do. It was a custom he had learned from his murdered father and often, as he sat musing in the peaceful silence of a hot afternoon, he wished his father was there to advise him now. As he opened the door the Chamberlain gasped with embarrassment and sprang to attend to the portal.

“My lord! There are servants to open doors!”

“Oh pisht, Chamberlain. I’ve got two perfectly good arms. What’s my sister ranting on about?”

Drustina cursed and stalked angrily into Magab’s chambers without so much as a ‘by your leave’. Magab sighed, he was used to Drustina’s peremptory manners. He signalled to the Chamberlain that everything was under control and closed the door behind Drustina to give them some privacy. Magab was fully aware of the disturbing situation developing between Bishop Alviar and his sister-in-law. Drustina turned to speak and Magab saw fear in her eyes for the very first time. It worried him.

“What is it sister?”

“That bloody Bishop. He’s spreading lies about me. He says I am a monster because of my ... my duality!”

“I’ll have a word with him about it. I’ll tell him to tone it down.”

“It’s gone past that stage. This morning one of his henchmen was abusive to me and insulted me in the square. I stopped his poison there and then!”

“Oh shit! What happened?”

“He called me a whore and other things. Then he accused me of being some sort of bloody monster. He also told me the Bishop thinks I should be burned at the stake!”

“What!”

“Exactly. The man’s a beast. He’s got a fixation with something called hellfire and brimstone!”

“He’s a powerful man Drustina. He has the support of the Archbishops of Constantinople, Athens and the Archbishop of Rome.”

“Huh. Rome is finished. The empire is breaking up like a wrecked ship on stormy rocks.”

“No Drustina, that’s only the temporal empire. This spiritual empire grows in strength with every year. In times of uncertainty more people seek comfort where they can find it.”

“Yes, and get led like lambs to slaughter as these hypocrites play on fear and uncertainty.”

“That’s your view Drustina and I suppose you have a right to it. But I was brought up in this faith although I must confess old Bishop Tambrel was a much kinder and cerebral man when it came to interpreting some of the conundrums. Bishop Alviar seems to take a much more militant, literal translation.”

“Well he’d better not try getting militant with me; he’s already lost two of his henchmen.”

Magab frowned. “What d’you mean?”

“After I sent that bully of a sergeant packing, his mates came looking to avenge his injury. The Templar Captain and a troop of six soldiers cornered me by the well. They tried to set about me with their swords. They’ll not be doing that again.”

Magab sighed as he tried to anticipate the next bit.

“Go on. What happened?”

“Well two of them are dead and two more will be a bit more circumspect about bullying nursing mothers.”

“Oh shit!” Magab cursed. “I’m having enough trouble with Alviar; this’ll stir up a hornet’s nest!”

“Why do you suffer him? Send him back to Cypru ... him and his bully-boy troops.”

“It’s not as easy as that. The archbishops appoint their bishops to each see.”

“So why do they need a company of soldiers? You keep the peace here, and it’s a pretty good peace now. I listen to the other mothers at the well.”

“Thank you for that. You information brings me comfort.”

“But this peace it seems doesn’t extend to peoples of other faiths. It did in Appotel’s kingdom and where Pilus reigns. I was never attacked by their soldiers.”

“These men are not my soldiers. They are Templar knights.”

“Yes ... bloody mercenaries; and only in it for their own gain.”

Magab tried to caution Drustina tactfully.

“Some might call you a mercenary, Drustina.”

“Oh - and when was I last paid?”

“Touché sister. That was a bit impetuous of me.”

“Exactly! Who planted the idea in your head that I was a mercenary?”

“Uuuhmm ... the Bishop.”

“Damn him to hell. You see how he sows his poisonous seeds! I have never taken a penny for my services to my sister and all through our battles, all I have sought is food and shelter. I even brought Aiofe’s dowry to you ... yes, I know it was not much, but we hail from a poor family of boat builders. It was all that was left of our family’s wealth after the damned Norsemen murdered our whole family except for me and my sisters.”

At the mention of her own family, Drustan started to cry and she was embarrassed by her tears. She turned abruptly, angered by her weakness, and stumbled from the room before Magab had a chance to reassure her. In the ante-chamber, Magab found her slumped on a settee with her shoulders heaving as the Chamberlain bent over her trying to offer a crumb of comfort. He looked up at the sound of the King’s door opening and turned to glare at Magab as he entered.

“What did you say to her, Majesty?”

“Nothing Chamberlain, honestly. It was a bad memory of her family’s murder that brought this on.”

“Well I think you’d better leave her to me. There’s another visitor waiting to see you.”

“Dammit! This is my private time; I even forego my siesta to find this uninterrupted time. Who is it?”

“Who else my liege? That infernal Bishop!”

Magab cursed and nodded towards the exit door.

“You’d best escort her to her chambers. Now my day’s completely ruined. There’s no peace.”

Magab watched as the elderly Chamberlain, the last survivor of his father’s coterie, gently helped Drustina out of the antechamber. Magab had a huge affection for the wise old Chamberlain for he had been like a second father to him during his father’s reign. During Mutas’s reign of terror, the old man had hidden in the marshes for over a year. As the Chamberlain exited with his arms around the sobbing Drustina’s shoulders, Magab addressed the other door. Bishop Alviar looked up slightly bemused to find the King opening his own doors.

“Are there no servants now sire?”

“There are Bishop, but this is my private time. I don’t usually receive visitors during the heat of the day. I use the peace and calm to reflect and write. The servants are aught but distractions, just like your visit now. So what business is so urgent that it cannot wait until the council meeting in the morning?”

The Bishop had prepared his speech carefully.

“It’s this sister of yours, she undermines the faith ... she contradicts the teachings.”

“This is hardly something that cannot be discussed in council.”

“No but the murder of two of my knights is something that needs immediate attention.”

“Murder Bishop? It appears that your soldiers drew their swords on her; a nursing mother I might remind you!”

“They only did it to arrest her. They had no intention of harming her.”

“How would she have known that? One of your bully-boy sergeants had already abused her, and drawn his sword earlier that morning. I know all the facts Bishop, I have my own reliable sources of information.”

The Bishop frowned angrily. He thought he was the first to report to Magab but somebody had obviously preceded him and that someone must have free access to the King. The only person with an accurate version of events and free access to the King’s chamber was his accursed sister-in-law, Drustina!

“Has that witch been here already?”

“Careful Bishop, that’s my sister-in-law you’re talking about. I could charge you with treason for that.”

“So she has! How do you know she is not lying?”

“She has no cause to lie. Her life has been one long brutal truth. There is no more certain truth than to face a foe in battle. You forget - I have known Drustina since she was but ten summers old. I taught her numbers and Latin and Greek. Her own grandmother taught her letters. As a child she, or rather he, never lied and I’ve never caught her out in a lie since.”

“But that’s just it. You said it yourself... he or she?”

“It matters not to me Bishop. What has befallen her is no fault of hers.”

“Is it not? Then whose fault is it?”

“I don’t know Alviar, and I doubt that you do.”

“It must be somebody’s fault.”

“Where’s the fault Bishop? What fault applies to an individual who can enjoy the supreme delights of both motherhood and fatherhood? If anything, I would offer that she is supremely blessed! Where is the fault in receiving a blessing?”

“It’s not God’s blessing!”

“How do you know that?”

“God does not make mistakes, God does not create monsters! God is infallible therefore it follows that she was created by the devil! If she is neither man nor woman and yet both, she is obviously a mistake and should be destroyed before more like her come to destroy us. She is a monster!”

“She’s hardly a monster Bishop, in fact she is a very kind and dare I say it a very attractive girl.”

Even as he said it Magab cursed himself and the Bishop seized his opening.

“Precisely! A very attractive girl, a temptress, a witch, a spawn of Satan!”

“How does being an attractive girl make her a witch?”

“She is the embodiment of the original sin, the fall from grace, the serpent!”

“How so? She is loyal and chaste only unto one, namely Torvel, another warrior who helped me win back my throne. I’m sorry Bishop. You’ll have to do better than that. Bring me evidence of treason or theft or some such secular crime and I’ll perhaps address your issues, but as to hypothetical crimes based upon uncertain Biblical sagas and even more uncertain interpretations, I cannot act against anybody for that.”

“This is a Christian country and you were crowned as a Christian King; any who refuse to acknowledge the supremacy of the one God must therefore be guilty of some sort of treason.”

“'Some sort of treason’. That’s not a very certain premise is it? ... Prisoner before us, I charge you with ‘some — sort — of — treason’. How would that work before a court? I’m sorry Bishop, you’ll have to bring a better case than that. Now you are disturbing my peace, I must dismiss you.”

As Magab said this the Chamberlain returned and stood holding the door open; an obvious sign to the Bishop that his audience was over. After he had left Magab turned to the kingly old man.

“Is she still upset?”

“She sleeps my liege. Queen Aiofe is with her and the maids with the babes.”

“She’s frightened Chamberlain. I’ve never seen her frightened before.”

“It’s the Bishop's lies my lord. She does not know how to fight lies. She has only been a woman but a short time and she knows little of the subtleties of dealing with men and particularly dishonest men.”

“D’you deem the Bishop Alviar to be dishonest then?”

“He accepted Mutas’s illegal claim to the throne.”

“He had to otherwise he’d have gone the way of the rest of my father’s court.”

“I didn’t my liege. I admit I simply ran and hid away but I am an old and weak man. I did not give Mutas the legitimacy he craved.”

“Indeed Chamberlain, you’re perfectly correct and for that I’m supremely grateful. So how to protect my sister from this man’s sinister divinations and plotting?”

“I don’t know my lord. He’s a devious and clever creature and he uses the faith to suit his own prejudices.”

“Why does he so hate women? He’s always relegating them to a back seat. He objects even to Queen Aiofe sitting around the council chamber but the others are adamant she is there by right for she did her part and more during the fight for my restoration.”

“As indeed did Drustina,” the Chamberlain replied, “but now she leaves her seat empty for she so hates the Bishop and his antagonism towards her. She will not sit at the same table.”

Magab nodded and added, “Two or three years ago the Bishop would have been run through by that Toledo blade of hers for just one of those malicious suggestions he keeps repeating. If he pushes her too far she might still do it. He doesn’t know how close he is to death.”

“If he was killed my lord, that would put your realm in severe conflict with the church.”

“I know. I wish we could change him for a more enlightened man like old Bishop Tambrel.”

Magab had been considering writing to the Archbishop of Rome for some time. That same afternoon he finally felt compelled to act, so he composed the letter and despatched it.

Sadly, events in the kingdom moved faster than the ship-borne mail of those faraway days.

Drustina was down in the square a couple of weeks later and another attempt was made to arrest her. It seemed that Bishop Alviar was obsessed with having the blasphemous abomination burned at the stake for her offence in the eyes of the Lord.

This time the Templar knights arrived in considerable force but again their plotting was confounded. They arrived suddenly in the square and rapidly approached Drustina as she chatted with her two remaining loyal friends. The guard Captain shouted at the girls to step aside as he warned them.

“There might be bloodshed if the witch resists!”

One of the girls shouted back demanding to know how they knew Drustina was a witch. The Captain censured the girl for questioning the wisdom of God and warned her that she might also be arrested as a witch for consorting with the blasphemy.
The girl became afraid and shrank behind Drustina who had now drawn her sword as she gave her warning.

“I warned you last time Captain. How many of your thugs need to be killed before you’ll leave me alone?”

The Captain ignored her warning then unrolled a piece of parchment and started reading it aloud.

“The Witch known as Drustina, reputed to be both man and woman, is deemed a blasphemy in the eyes of the true God. All who know of this must render assistance to the forces of God and the Bishop Alviar as God’s representative in Carthage. The offence is subject to canon law not secular law for the crime is one of unearthly deviation from the true forms of man or woman.”

Drustina cursed and stood to arms as she drew her sword to confront the dozen soldiers who had arrived with the Captain to arrest her. The Captain sneered as he leaned casually by the low gap in the well wall where the bucket was normally tipped.

“There are too many of us witch and we are armoured for war. The only way you can defeat us is if you consort with the devil to employ satanic magic.”

“There’s no magic in this sword Captain, only certain death and speed!”

She turned to her friends again and advised them to take her babies and make for the palace but this time the Captain had prepared properly. As the girls carried the babies across the square, more soldiers emerged from various streets and the girls were surrounded. The soldiers seized the babies and the Captain challenged Drustina.

“You will come quietly witch or your brats die.”

Drustina played the last peaceful card she knew ... her relationship to Queen Aiofe.

“Touch those babies Captain and you touch the King’s nephew and niece, I advise you to think again.”

“The brats will not be harmed if you surrender your sword!”

Drustina knew better than to surrender the last remaining obstacle to her capture. She had dealt with bullies and liars enough in her short life. Instead she slipped her hand under her loose blouse and rested it on the hilt of her dagger. Again she repeated her warning.

“I warn you Captain, if you harm my children you will pay with your life.”

Even as she said this one of the babies, Drustina’s son, let out a wail and the soldier holding him tried to forcibly suppress the bay’s cry. The girl who had been carrying him, screeched her objection and tried to remove his hand from the baby’s mouth but the soldier hit her across the head. In so doing he lost his grip of the baby and dropped him. The baby howled in pain and that was the last straw for Drustina. She gave a scream of rage and flung herself at the Captain.

“I warned you, you bastard! En Garde!”

The Captain cackled his contempt for he had girded all his vulnerable parts with plate and chain-mail. There was no way the bitch could penetrate to his person with her blade. He raised his hand lower the visor to his helm but he was too slow. Drustina’s dagger had already flashed free and, with a fluid movement, the dagger flew unerringly through the unguarded space to pierce the Captain’s eye. The weight and force of the dagger strike drove the blade through his eye and directly into his brain. The Captain let out a redundant scream for he was already dying then he fell lifeless down the well.
A stunned silence descended on the square.

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Comments

Damn all religions

NoraAdrienne's picture

that use scare tactics to force THEIR beliefs on others.

Magab

Magab does nor seem to be ruthless enough, or wise enough to be a good king.
This bishop must have enemies among the priests and the real power of the church lies in the sermons done in the parishes, not in the big one at the Catedral.
The easiest way to solve the problem was sending a letter to Rome, as he finally did, but should have done as soon as he got to power. He should have put the bishop in irons for helping in the murder of his father, this would put the church in a difficult position and he could use help from the lesser priests to explain the situation to the comunities.
Now he still can put the bishop in jail, find a lot of acusations and wait for the verdict of the Pope. He also can remind the Pope that if the bishop is not punished there will be problems with four kings, not one.
Aside the moral dilema, if he allows the bishop to kill his sister in law he will loose all his temporal power. The next time it will be Aoife at the stake or anyone, even the king, that defies the bishop.
In the midle ages conflict between church and state were more commom than we can imagine. Sometimes the church won, sometimes not.
Magab has a faithfull army, if he can get the help from a few priests he can deal with the bishop.

Don't worry Ed.


He get's dealt with. Chapter 24 Is being posted as I write.

Bev.

Growing old disgracefully.

bev_1.jpg

And damn

All binary bigoted thinkers!

alissa