The Bishop’s Heir

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Also by Katherine Kurtz

The Deryni Novels

The Chronicles of the Deryni

Deryni Rising

Deryni Checkmate

High Deryni

The Legends of Camber of Culdi

Camber of Culdi

Saint Camber

Camber the Heretic

The Histories of King Kelson

The Bishop's Heir

The King's Justice

The Quest for Saint Camber

The Heirs of Saint Camber

The Harrowing of Gwynedd

King Javan's Year

The Bastard Prince

The Childe Morgan Trilogy

In the King's Service

Childe Morgan

The King's Deryni

Other novels

King Kelson's Bride

The Bishop's Heir

The Histories of King Kelson, Volume One

Katherine Kurtz

This one is for my Sibling,

JEANNE MARIE BROWN,

and the rest of the Brown Clan:

David, Graham, and Adriane

Contents

Prologue

And he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal for a cloak
.

—Isaiah
59:17

I  He made him a lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: to bind his princes at his pleasure
.

—Psalms
105:21–22

II  They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh
.

—Song of Solomon
3:8

III  And thou shalt put the mitre upon his head …

—Exodus
29:6

IV  Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment
.

—Psalms
60:3

V  They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not
.

—Hosea
8:4

VI  They only consult to cast him down from his excellency: they delight in lies: they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly
.

—Psalms
62:4

VII  The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet were drawn swords
.

—Psalms
55:21

VIII  Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels
.

—Isaiah
47:13

IX  But thou, mastering thy power, judgest with equity, and orderest us with great favor: for thou mayest use power when thou wilt
.

—Wisdom of Solomon
12:18

X  Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time
.

—Amos
5:13

XI  They fall into many actions and businesses, and are void of sense, and when they think of things pertaining unto God, they understand nothing at all
.

—II Hermas
10:12

XII  All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee
.

—Obadiah
1:7

XIII  Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity
.

—
Nahum
3:10

XIV  Let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth
.

—
Wisdom of Solomon
2:11

XV  But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled
.

—Job
4:5

XVI  In the valley of vision …

—
Isaiah
22:5

XVII  He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abominations to the Lord
.

—Proverbs
17:15

XVIII  And I shall even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness
.

—Hosea
2:20

XIX  A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones
.

—Proverbs
17:22

XX  Yet will I bring an heir unto thee
.

—Micah
1:15

XXI  I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son
.

—Hebrews
1:5

XXII  For the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married
.

—Isaiah
62:4

PREVIEW:
The King's Justice

BONUS STORY: The Priesting of Arilan

APPENDIX I: Index of Characters

APPENDIX II: Index to Place Names

APPENDIX III: Partial Lineage of Haldane Kings

APPENDIX IV: The Festillic Kings of Gwynedd and Their Descendants

APPENDIX V: Partial Lineage of the MacRories

About the Author

P
ROLOGUE

And he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal for a cloak
.

—Isaiah 59:17

Edmund Loris, once the Archbishop of Valoret and Primate of All Gwynedd, stared out to sea through the salt-smeared windowpanes of his tower prison and allowed himself a thin smile. The rare display of self-indulgence did nothing to diminish the fury of the wind shrilling at the ill-fitted glass, but the letter secreted in the breviary under his arm gave its own grim comfort. The offer was princely, befitting even the exalted status he had enjoyed before his fall.

Exhaling softly of his long-hoarded bitterness, Loris bowed his head and shifted the book to hold it in both hands, wary lest the gesture seem to make it too precious in the eyes of his jailers, who could look in on him at any time. For two years now they had kept him here against his will. For two years his existence had been defined by the walls of this monastic cell and the token participation permitted him in the life of the rest of the abbey: daily attendance at Mass and Vespers, always in the company of two silent and all-too-attentive monks, and access to a confessor once each month—seldom the same man twice, and never the same one any two months in succession. Were it not for one of the lay brothers who brought his meals, whose fondness for intrigue Loris had early discovered, he would have had no contact whatsoever with the outside world.

The outside world—how he longed for it again! The two years spent in Saint Iveagh's were but an extension of the outrage which had begun a full year before that, with the death of King Brion. On just such a chill November day as this had Brion Haldane met his doom—blasted from life by the hell-spawned magic of a Deryni sorceress, but leaving an unexpected legacy of forbidden powers to his son and heir, the fourteen-year-old Kelson.