Free Winter's Reach (The Revanche Cycle Book 1) by Craig Schaefer Page A

table.”
    “Hrm. And with that worm Accorsi leading the charge, he might be right. Best choice in a barrel of rotten apples. No matter what, we’re all going to bite down on a maggot.”
    “A disturbing but possibly apt metaphor. You have a talent for those.”
    Livia swiveled her hips on the bench, curling her legs underneath, to turn toward Amadeo.
    “I’m eight years older than Carlo,” she said.
    “So you are,” he agreed.
    “If I had been born a man,” Livia said, “I’d be the next pope.”
    “I’m not sure there is much value in that sort of speculation—”
    “Tell me something, Confessor. And tell me the truth.”
    He lifted his chin, catching the look in her eyes. Sharp. Hungry. She made him think of a falcon soaring over a field of mice.
    “If I had been the one,” Livia said, “would my father have needed to coerce you into an oath to serve me? Or would you kneel down and kiss my ring of your own free will? Would you recognize me as the rightful heir, one worthy of leadership?”
    Amadeo looked over at the iron tree, unmoving in the warm breeze.
    “I have seen where you go at night,” he said.
    She crossed her arms over her stomach.
    “I have seen you,” he said, “garbed in hooded rags, down in the Alms District and the worst parts of the city. Carrying food and medicine for the destitute. I have seen you cradle a leper in your arms as he died.”
    “No one was supposed to—” she started to say, quaking with barely controlled fury.
    “No one else knows. And no one will. I have said nothing to your father. You know how he would react, if he found out his only daughter was putting herself in danger like that.”
    “The Church is broken,” she said. “My father has tried his best, but the cardinals have blocked him at every turn. We have the means to help people, far more than we do, but Gardener forbid we actually
get
it to them. All I can offer is my little service.”
    “I happen to agree with you. And to answer your question, no. There would have been no coercion. I would have gladly seen you on your father’s throne, but that does not change the reality. The reality is that you are a woman. The reality is that canon law doesn’t change without a four-fifths majority of the College in favor, and they can’t build that much agreement on whether water is wet. The reality is that Carlo will be our next pope and you, as his sister, have the opportunity to bend his ear in ways none of us can.”
    “So I can graduate from the useless girl,” she said, standing up from the bench and smoothing her skirts, “to the slightly less useless girl. Tell me something else, Confessor? If you had the opportunity to change things, to truly change things for the better, for everyone…how valuable would your pledge be then? Would you break your oath to my father, if it meant saving the Church?”
    Amadeo looked up at her, surprised, peering into her eyes as if trying to read her mind. He shrugged. “I can’t answer that.”
    “One day,” she said, “you might have to.”

Chapter Ten
    Days passed, and the sky turned white as the ocean turned black.
    Shipboard life took on a dulling rhythm punctuated by moments of terror. Felix could sit for hours, lulled while the boat swayed on an easy wind, then suddenly feel his stomach clench as a rogue swell lifted the galleon high only to slam it back down on waves that felt hard as stone.
    He had to bundle up now when he went topside, swaddled in his brother’s cloak. The air was cold as a Mirenzei winter, and twice now he’d seen glimmering snowflakes kiss the billowing sails. Sailors scrubbed the deck night and day with thick chunks of sandstone, fighting the encroaching frost. Felix’s alarm grew one morning when he looked out over the bow and saw floes of ice bobbing in the brine.
    He found Anakoni on the starboard side, tightening the braces on a massive harpoon gun. He grunted, waved Felix over, and pressed a wrench into his