“I don’t know.”

“If only we could talk to them, if we could find out what really happened at Saint Torin’s—we might act as intermediaries with the archbishops, and perhaps end this ridiculous dispute.” Cardiel shook his head. “God knows, I had no wish to split the Curia down the middle on the eve of war, Denis—but neither could I support Loris’s Interdict for Corwyn.” He paused, then continued in a lower tone.

“I search my heart and try to think what I might have done differently, to avoid arriving at the crossroad where we now stand, but I keep coming up with the same answer. Logic tells me I did the only thing I could do and still remain true to myself and my holy vows. But another small part keeps nagging that there must have been some other way. Silly, isn’t it?”

Arilan shook his head. “Not silly at all. Loris made a powerful appeal to emotion, with his shouts of heresy and sacrilege and murder. He made it sound as though Interdict was the only conceivable punishment suitable for a duchy whose duke had offended God and men.

“But you were not dismayed. You stripped away the histrionics, the verbal harangues calculated to conjure up hysteria, and stood steadfast to the tenets by which you have always lived. It took courage, Thomas.” Arilan smiled gently and raised an eyebrow. “I’ll own, it took courage to follow you. But there is not one of us who did who regrets that decision, or who will not stand by you, whatever you decide to do next. We all share responsibility for this schism.”

Cardiel smiled weakly and lowered his gaze. “Thank you. I value that, coming from you. The trouble is, I haven’t the slightest notion what we should do next. We are so alone.”

“We are hardly alone,” Arilan pointed out dryly. “We have the entire city of Dhassa behind us—and your personal militia. They were not swayed by Loris’s rantings. Granted, they know that Morgan and Duncan were responsible for the destruction of Saint Torin’s—and it will take a while for some of them to forgive that, no matter how justified Morgan and Duncan appeared to be. But their loyalty to Kelson remains unshaken despite all that. Look at the size of our army.”

“Yes, look at it,” Cardiel said. “And that army is doing Kelson absolutely no good where it now stands, camped outside the gates of Dhassa. I am not certain we dare wait much longer for Morgan and McLain to show up. I am thinking seriously about sending another dispatch to Kelson and telling him we will meet him where and when he orders. The longer we wait to move, the stronger Warin’s rebels and the more obstinate the archbishops.”

Arilan shrugged. “I’ll grant you that. But I really think you should delay a while longer. A few days either way will make little difference as far as Warin and the archbishops are concerned. But if we can clear the air with Morgan and Duncan before joining with Kelson, it would do a great deal to allay any suspicion of us. We could then march on Coroth and Loris and present a united front, with some real hope of effecting a reconciliation. For, make no mistake, when we refused to agree to the Interdict, we also sided indirectly with Morgan and Duncan and the entire Deryni cause, whether unwittingly or not. Resolving that breach can only be accomplished by proving that we were right about Morgan and Duncan’s innocence to begin with.”