Lady Knight by L J Baker

heretics and
unbelievers. Consecrated women must raise their voices to call for holy war.
    Could the old woman, or one of her supporters, have seen any hint of what
Aveline planned? Did the matriarch feel threatened by the prospect of being
prodded into action? But this crude stratagem would not stop Aveline. She had a
divine mission to see this come to pass.
    Aveline tapped the parchment. King Fulk of Iruland, whose vassals’ domains
abutted the territories most recently swallowed by the last resurgence of the
Empire, was naturally most eager to end the truce and wage war on the infidel
enemy. The idea of having an army recruited for his aid from all over the
Eastern Kingdoms, and sanctioned by the four gods, could not fail to appeal to
any monarch. Fulk, who was a cousin of her late father’s, had already responded
positively to her overtures about a possible holy war. The matriarch acted too
late if she sought to keep Aveline from him. The representative the Irulandi
king would send as his official observer to the Quatorum Council would be primed
to lobby for crusade.
    Aveline sat and reread the message. On balance, she was inclined to believe the
rescinding of her special authority had no stronger root than the old woman
clipping her wings. It was a demonstration of power and a notification that
Aveline had been noticed. So be it.
    Aveline sat back and frowned at a lamp flame. Mathilda’s coronation had probably
come as a nasty shock to Matriarch Melisande. Few had believed that men would
accept a woman sovereign. Well, they had reckoned without Aveline. There were
always means and methods around human problems. It was merely a question of
finding the right lever, the right price.
    Aveline needed to attend the convocation. She must persuade one of the
mother-naers who would accompany the matriarch to the Quatorum Council to
include Aveline in her entourage. If Aveline was present at the Quatorum
Council, she would be in a position to stiffen the resolve of members of her own
order. She could also communicate directly with her peers in the orders of
Atuan, Naith, and Kamet. The Patriarch of the Order of Atuan, god of war, would
need no persuading to put forth a call for a crusade. The followers of the other
two gods might require more convincing. How much easier they would be to sway if
they could be shamed with the taint of cowardice and weakness if the women of
the Goddess spoke with a determination to rid the world of unbelievers. Male
pride could be a weapon used against them for the good of all.
    Once the Quatorum Council published a call for holy war, men would flock to take
the vow. Be they freeborn peasant, knight, lord, or king, men would fight
knowing their deaths on crusade would guarantee direct entry into Paradise.
Their act of dedicating themselves to the gods’ will absolved them of their
sins. Killing infidels served the cause of righteousness. Some, admittedly,
would have one eye on the loot and land to be gained from the reconquest of
Evriat. That the rewards could be both spiritual and temporal only added to the
incentive. Aveline did not see why avarice could not be used as a means to coax
sinners to noble purposes.
    The Quatorum Council only met every fourth year. The next meeting was but a
handful of months hence in late autumn. She did not want to have to wait another
four years for the next opportunity.
    Aveline drummed her fingers on the table. There must be someone who would, in
return for a gift of land or gold from her sister the queen, arrange for Aveline
to attend. She mentally ran through the list of the score of mother-naers on the
convocation. Which one had relations amongst Mathilda’s vassals who might be
grateful that her family enjoyed the financial goodwill of their liege lady?
    Aveline remained preoccupied with this when she returned to the main hall. The
sound of singing and a lute greeted her. She paused to see Lady Eleanor playing
to a rapt audience. The song, Aveline noted as