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

spies, moneylenders, and merchants that stretched from Aberystwyth to Constantinople. The Pope usually didn’t choose to borrow money from Jews, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t know everything there was to know about him as a matter of self-preservation.
    “How did you leave it with Cardinal Acquasparta, my lord?” Ieuan said.
    I grimaced. “We set a tentative date of two weeks from now for some kind of response from me regarding the Pope’s ‘concerns’, as Acquasparta called them.”
    Bevyn grunted. “Two weeks.”
    “A lot can happen in two weeks,” Cassie said.
    “A lot has happened in one day,” Bronwen said.
    “What’s the other avenue you thought to pursue, Dafydd?” Lili said.
    “A more familiar one,” I said. “Do we know where Gilbert de Clare is at present?”
    “My maid says he’s in Kent,” Lili said, speaking of Branwen, who was not so much an inveterate gossip as an able listener. Lili had invited her into the Order of the Pendragon, but she’d sniffed her disdain and commented that she would prefer to join whatever order was designed to protect Lili, a sentiment for which I could only honor her. “He may not know you are here, however.”
    “I need him,” I said.
    “Why in particular?” Carew said.
    “I may have to start a war—or at least pretend to.”
    As one, my companions gaped at me, but I laughed. They’d reacted as I’d hoped. My constant preoccupation with politics meant I had to take my amusement where I could. “Boniface is concerned about my claim to Aquitaine, right? He fears that if I pursue it, we will have a war with Philip of France, who also claims it.”
    “So you want to go ahead and start that war now?” Cassie said.
    “I want him to believe that I plan to,” I said. “Look—the Archbishop brought out three items that he wants from me: he wants to prosecute heretics in England; he wants the money Pope Nicholas gave me from his taxatio ; and he wants me to back off from my claim to Aquitaine. Doesn’t it strike you as an odd list? On the surface, the first item should be the most important to him. Refusing it is certainly the most important to me, and today Acquasparta gave every impression that heretics are to be rounded up whenever they are found.”
    “But you don’t think that’s really it?” Cassie said.
    I made a maybe motion with my head. “He cares about it. Callum and Carew assure me that he cares about it, but we’re talking about a handful of people in the whole of England.”
    “There are more in Wales,” Lili said. “It may be that the pope is pursuing you first as a way to set a precedent for negotiations with your father, who he deems the stronger.”
    “You are usually right about these things,” I said, “but the numbers are still small—certainly fewer than a hundred people.”
    “So far,” Cassie said.
    “Okay, true,” I said.
    “The principle is the important thing,” Carew said. “You openly defied the Church when you welcomed heretics into England. He can’t have that. It sets a bad precedent for the rest of Europe.”
    “I know that,” I said, annoyed that they were undermining my well-conceived thesis with their logic. “But I don’t see why he would link that issue with these other requests, ones much more material in nature if heresy is really his chief concern. Specifically, he has no business meddling in Aquitaine, which a) has nothing whatsoever to do with the pope, b) indicates an alliance with Philip, all of which, c) seems deliberately designed to raise my hackles. It feels like he wants me to defy him.”
    “Which is why we were thinking that Aquitaine might be what Boniface cares most about,” Callum said. “If that’s the case, by pretending we care most about it too, we might induce him to bend on the issue of heresy.”
    “That is remarkably devious of you, my lord,” Cassie said. “I’m impressed.”
    She never used my title except in public, so I smirked and bowed. “Thank