Free Warden of Time (The After Cilmeri Series Book 8) by Sarah Woodbury Page A

him.”
    “Why?” Lili said, which had been my question, but before Callum could answer, Lili waved a hand. “Never mind. I know why.” She looked up at me. “To test Dafydd.”
    I released a sigh and walked to one of the ornate chairs near the fire to sit, very tired where before I’d had too much energy to contain. “Everyone’s motivations are murky. I can’t figure out the purpose of the pope’s demands either. Why put me in a corner, first by asking something of me he knows I can’t give easily, and then by forcing me to show—in public—how far I’m willing to go to protect a heretic?”
    “What demands?” Lili said.
    I regaled her with the tale of Acquasparta’s three issues.
    Her brow furrowed. “He wants you to refuse. He wants you to deny the requests.”
    Callum gave a low growl. “She’s right. The latter two, in particular, are outrageous. He has to know that you would never agree to them, and that you could never agree to them.”
    “That doesn’t answer my question,” I said. “What happens when I do refuse? Does the pope retaliate by excommunicating me? By placing all England under interdict? What would he gain by that?” While an England under interdict meant priests couldn’t perform sacraments and ceremonies, the populace would still belong to the Church. Excommunication, on the other hand, would mean I was thrown out.
    “The pope would gain England,” Lili said, “or at the very least, control over it.”
    Callum nodded. “Either you capitulate, giving him authority you are currently withholding, or a fight with the Holy See could be the tipping point that forces your barons to unseat you. I wouldn’t have said you were weak at home, but perhaps he knows something we don’t.”
    “He doesn’t,” Lili said.
    I tapped a finger on the arm of my chair. “And if the barons unseat me? What then?”
    “He would seek a more malleable king,” Lili said, “someone he could control more easily.”
    “Does he know my barons?” I said, with a laugh.
    “Maybe not, but whomever he found might not be so quick to defy him. He would see what happened to you and be more conciliatory.” Callum looked at Lili. “Particularly if he was young like Thomas, Edmund’s son.”
    “Pope Boniface has to know about my family’s rocky relationship with the papacy, I suppose,” I said.
    “How could he not?” Lili said.
    At King Edward’s request, the previous pope had excommunicated my father twice, in 1276 and again in 1282. My great-grandfather had been excommunicated once too for the same reason: refusing to kowtow to the English king.
    “Boniface has to be wondering how much of your father’s son you are,” Callum said.
    Lili nodded. “He would want to nip any rebellion on your part in the bud.”
    “My personal ancestry aside, English kings have a long history of taking a hard line against papal decrees they don’t agree with,” I said. “In fact, Edward persuaded the last pope to excommunicate my father in the first place by putting pressure on him through his moneylenders, who threatened to call in his loans if he didn’t do as Edward asked. Boniface will know that too and think it sets a bad precedent.”
    “The new king wouldn’t be placing his throne in jeopardy over a few heretics, either,” Lili said.
    “What Boniface really wants is for you to acknowledge his secular power,” Callum said. “We know that. He hasn’t said it out loud yet, but we don’t need him to do so to know what he is thinking.”
    Lili looked from Callum to me. “You’re talking about something that happened in Avalon’s history?”
    I nodded, my eyes still on Callum. “There’s still something we aren’t seeing. I think he does know something we don’t. He feels he has an advantage over me, beyond his ability to excommunicate me, though I can’t see what that might be.”
    “Acquasparta wasn’t exactly forthcoming,” Callum said.
    “Did you speak to him or Peckham after you