He Only Did What He Had to Do

[caper_est]

770 words, and another chapter put to bed.  Yes, I did the morally cruel thing instead of the tactically cruel one.  Twelve Gods, my protagonist can be a shit when he needs to be.

But given the choice between betraying an old friend who loves him, or the men and women who've trusted him with their lives in a struggle against cruel foes at outrageous odds... I don't see what else he could have done.  Katy could never have gone there.  Kate would have done it blithely when she was 'young and golden', but less now even than Katy: it wouldn't occur to her any more, and trying it would destroy her.  Luke, though, is the man who'll win Langdale if anybody can - whatever it costs him, and up to a damned high bill all round.  He's a hard cold man, even as a champion of humankindness.  I knew that.  I thought I knew what it meant.  But I don't think I got all that it meant, in my bones, until I finished this scene this morning.

I'm glad I did it this way, because rigging the game so that he got to do a right thing yet again would have been both feebler and fouler.  I am prepared to write a just war: I am not prepared to write a good one. 

Eh, but what a kick in the gut it proved, to be there when it happened!  I hope this is a good omen for future readers, and not a bad one.