Free By Schism Rent Asunder by David Weber

entire bungled affair, they’re going to be feeling a lot of internal pressure. Remember, they’ve always had enemies of their own in the Council of Vicars. They haven’t forgotten that, at any rate, and some of those enemies have significant power bases of their own. Our little note to the Grand Vicar is going to both weaken them and embolden their enemies, as well. Against that backdrop, they’re going to have to move at least a bit cautiously, unless they choose to risk everything on some dramatic, do-or-die gesture of defiance. They’ve never done that in the past. Indeed, if they’d had the least notion their attack on the Kingdom could possibly turn into the diaster it has, they would never have undertaken it. Or, at least, never so offhandedly and casually. Having already fed one hand to the slash lizard, I believe they’re unlikely to want to raise the stakes any higher than they absolutely must, for a time at least.”
    â€œI hope you’re right about that,” the king said. “I really do hope you’re right about that.”
    So do I , Merlin thought dryly. Which is why I hope you and Maikel were both right about setting forth your position vis-à-vis the Church quite so … forthrightly .
    â€œMy hope is the same as yours, Your Majesty.” The archbishop smiled slightly. “Time will tell, of course. And”—his smile broadened and his eyes twinkled—“I’m very well aware that the nature of my own concerns lends itself to operating on the basis of faith rather better than yours does.”
    â€œMy own impression is that His Eminence is probably right about the Group of Four’s disinclination to rush into some sort of white-hot religious confrontation, at least in the short term,” Merlin said, and saw Cayleb’s almost subliminal grimace. Merlin hadn’t actually advised against Staynair’s letter to the Grand Vicar, but he hadn’t exactly been one of its stronger supporters, either.
    â€œI think that’s inevitably where we’re headed, unfortunately,” he continued now. “Completely ignoring our own correspondence with them, the mere fact that we’re no longer obeying their orders would push them into that, and things are going to get extraordinarily ugly when it happens. For now, though, habit, if nothing else, is going to keep them trying to ‘game the situation’ the way they’ve always done it in the past. That’s how they got themselves into this mess, of course, but I think it’s going to take at least a few more months for it to penetrate just how completely the rules have changed. Which means we should have at least a little time to press our own preparations.”
    â€œWhich brings me to the real reason I asked you and Rayjhis to stay behind, Maikel,” Cayleb said.
    He leaned back in his chair and ran the fingers of his left hand across the emerald sets of the chain he had inherited so recently from his father. He did that a lot, as if the chain were a sort of talisman, a comforting link between his father and himself. Merlin was confident that it was an unconscious mannerism on his part, but the seijin felt a familiar pang of personal grief as it reminded him of the old king’s death.
    â€œBryahn is right about the necessity of dealing with Nahrmahn and Hektor,” the new king continued. “There’s always Gorjah, as well, but Tarot can wait. At least, though, we know where we are with Nahrmahn and Hektor. Our options there have the virtue of straightforwardness, you might say. But then there’s Chisholm. Have the two of you given any more thought to my proposal?”
    â€œAs a general rule, Your Majesty,” Gray Harbor said dryly, “when the King ‘requests’ that his First Councilor and his Archbishop ‘give some thought’ to one of his proposals, they do that.”
    â€œAll right.” Cayleb flashed a