by Glen Cook
Four days before leaving for the wild country Hecht received a request that he visit the Penital, a direct appeal from the Imperial legate himself. With assurances that no misdirection was involved.
Rumors that the Imperial nuptials had grown shaky abounded. Hecht supposed the legate wanted to set the record straight.
He supposed right.
The legate told him, "The wedding has been postponed again. Because of complications with King Jaime's recovery from his wounds. He was less ready to travel than he believed. He collapsed as his party neared Khaurene."
"Is he trying to elude the commitment?"
"Not at all. He's too eager. Her Majesty will contact you as soon as we set a new date." The legate smiled at some private joke.
"My appreciation, My Lord." Hecht left the Penital bemused yet again by the Empress's evident interest. Why?
The legate had shrugged and shaken his head when asked the question direct.
The Patriarchal army approached the Dechear River with twenty-four hundred men, all Boniface VII would approve for the campaign. The Patriarch believed a larger force might spark a Connecten resistance while fewer soldiers would not be enough to handle the anticipated supernatural chaos. The Captain-General had no Principates underfoot. Members of the Collegium were sticking close to Brothe. The next Patriarchal election would be a critical one. It would be fought to the bitter end. There would be no antique compromise to fill the slot while younger men maneuvered. Hecht hoped there would be no election for years. He liked Hugo Mongoz as Patriarch. He hoped Principate Delari and Cloven Februaren would use the power of the Construct to assure his longevity.
"Rider coming in," Clej Sedlakova announced. "I'd guess down from Viscesment."
Hecht spotted the man. He wore Braunsknecht dress. "Good guess." Despite Empress Katrin's rapprochement with the Brothen Church, a small band of Braunsknechts still guarded Bellicose.
The man drew closer. He picked up shadows from among the outriders. Hecht observed, "We've seen this one before." He urged his mount farther from the road, where the troops were heading down to the Dechear in no particular hurry. Sedlakova, Smolens, Consent, and several others stayed with Hecht.
"Algres Drear," Consent said. "That's what he called himself when he came to borrow Drago Prosek."
Drear approached carefully, though his caution was of no value. "Captain-General. I bring dispatches."
"Captain Drear. I thought you attended to Princess Helspeth's safety."
"Once upon a time. In another life. Before I let her get away with going into the field against the Remayne Pass monster. Where the chit embarrassed the heroes of the Empire by actually slaying the dragon. I got rusticated. I'm being rehabilitated, now. Allowed to work my way back. As commander of the six-man company protecting someone the Empress would rather not protect. But we have to observe Imperial tradition."
"I see. Dispatches?"
Drear produced a fat, wheat-colored leather courier's case. "Long-winded, I'm sure. But the gist will be, Bellicose and Boniface have a deal. Bellicose will end the Viscesment Patriarchy. He'll succeed Boniface in Brothe. Once he's gone, there'll be just one Patriarchy."
Hecht's staff refused to believe it. Those with deep ties to the Brotherhood indulged in some derision. Hecht read the dispatches. "The Captain is right, gentlemen. It's all right here, in Church legalese."
Colonel Smolens said, 'The whole goddamned Collegium will be shitting square turds over this."
"Probably," Hecht said. "But first, Captain, how old would Bellicose be?"
"In his fifties. And full of ambition. But he's a cripple. Polio when he was little. It's a miracle he's lived this long."
"I see. So. The Collegium might go along. If cool heads prevail and enough men want to end the multiple Patriarch problem."
Not many men accounted the Collegium collectively capable of making mature decisions. Hecht counted himself among the skeptics. Those old men all behaved like spoiled eight-year-olds.
Drear said, "A further consequence of the agreement is that Bellicose is now your ally. The bridges over the Dechear are now available. Bellicose hopes you'll make Viscesment your base for operations in that part of the Connec. That would stimulate the local economy."
Interesting. "Colonel Smolens. An opportunity to return to the scene of your crimes. Take our main force north and cross at Viscesment. That will put us right opposite the country we need to clear."
Madouc was scowling already. He knew he would not like what he was about to hear.
"I'll stay with the battalion already crossing here. We'll follow the west bank north. Madouc, I don't want to hear it. Where's my kid? Why the hell does he keep disappearing?"
"He's with Presten and Bags," Madouc replied. "He wanted to see where the worm came out of the ground."
Hecht glanced southward. There was no sign now of what had happened last year. "You lose him, you won't have to explain to me. I'll just feed you to Anna. What now?"
A rider was headed back alongside the road, as hard as he dared without trampling anyone. The soldiers had begun stopping and falling out as word spread that a change of plan was in the works.
The rider was one of Drago Prosek's falconeers. They had been first to cross the river.
"Captain-General. Sir. Some Connecten nobles want to talk. One is that Count Raymone Garete."
"Never stops raining," Hecht said. "Captain Drear, stick with me till I can deal with you more fully. Sergeant Bechter, make Captain Drear's visit pleasant. Madouc, I wasn't kidding about the boy. I had a letter from Anna yesterday. She isn't happy." She also reported that Principate Delari and Principate Doneto had enjoyed less than complete success at destroying the killing beast underneath Brothe. They had gone below with silver and iron and borrowed falcons. The thing had flown after one debilitating encounter. Since then it had evaded them. And had not betrayed itself by coming to the surface to practice its horrors. Now there were rumors of terrible things happening to those who lived underground. Pallid adults had dragged themselves into the hateful sunlight for the first time in their lives. The Principates feared the killing thing was a more potent Instrumentality than originally suspected. Research was under way. Other members of the Collegium were being enlisted in the hunt.
Principate Delari still guaranteed its extermination.
The Principates now feared the thing was the queen of a terrible brood. They had caught and destroyed a dozen smaller, murderous evil things like it-all summoned into being by the hateful imaginings of the refugee populace.
So. Instrumentalities could be created by the pressure of the irrational fears of too many people crowded into too narrow a space.
Hecht supposed that should have been no surprise.
Madouc said, "It's not the boy we need to worry about. He's tractable enough when it comes to the wishes of his lifeguards."
"Yes. Yes. I know that psalm by heart. Let's go, gentlemen. I want to meet this paragon of Connecten nationalism, Raymone Garete."
Count Raymone did not seem remarkable. A reasonable man, apparently. He just wanted to be sure he understood what the Patriarchal forces meant to accomplish.
"In that case, Captain-General, I can lend you some of my own people. In particular, those who fled the counties where the Night holds sway now. I hope you go after the invaders with as much zeal as you came after us last year."
"You're welcome to join me. I can't support you financially, though. I can barely support myself, that way."
"That isn't a problem."
Hecht eyed the woman beside Count Raymone. The former prisoner, working hard to keep her mouth shut. Raymone's wife, now. Presumably, some of the Count's companions would be her brothers.
"I expect another hard winter," Hecht said. "We'll operate out of Viscesment." That startled Count Raymone. "Boniface and Bellicose have made peace."
The wide man, the cousin, Bernardin Amberchelle, barked malicious laughter. "Open season on the Society, brothers! Open season."
"Indeed," Hecht said. "The new Patriarch has a fixed loathing for the Society. But I don't think we'll find many of those where we'll be campaigning. They lack the nerve to operate under the nose of the Night."
"I like this guy," Amberchelle said. "Even if it wasn't all that comfortable being his prisoner."
"Enough!" the woman said.
Hecht said, "I trust you found your captivity less taxing, Countess."
The woman loosed a jackass bray of laughter. "Stupidest thing I ever did was run away. I was warm and I got fed regular. After I escaped I froze for weeks and almost starved to death. But, by damn! I was a free Connecten."
"I've been there. Count Raymone, I want to make it plain that I haven't been sent here to recover your lost territories for you. I'm here to get rid of rogue things of the Night. I will, however, keep those things away from you while you deal with squatters. I'm told a previous attempt bogged down because there are so many Night things up there."
"There was that. And the fact that I only sent a few men."
"I'll have no trouble working with you that way. I look forward to everything but winter. Which looks like it's going to come even earlier this year."
It did. And it was fierce.
Campaigning out of Viscesment made for some comfort. The Captain-General and Count Raymone moved from strongpoint to strongpoint, eliminating their respective targets, seldom spending much time in the cold. Neither the squatters nor the Night offered any challenge. Both fought in furious despair, to little effect. Arnhander knights in captured castles were more difficult at first, but faced with a choice between instant surrender or certain extermination, they abandoned resistance and began migrating northward before Nemesis overtook them.
Drago Prosek and his henchmen had a wonderful time with the stinks and bangs. "But this isn't much harder than butchering chickens," Prosek averred. "Big or little, these Night things suffer from an abiding plague of stupid."
Months based in the onetime seat of the Anti-Patriarchs allowed the Captain-General to become familiar with the local offshoot of the Chaldarean faith. And to meet and grow partial to the man Rocklin Glas, a man much like Hugo Mongoz. Hecht made a point of reminding Cloven Februaren, who turned up randomly, that Bellicose was a good man. He wrote Boniface and the Collegium to report the same thing. Never failing to remind the latter that Bellicose could not possibly survive Boniface by long.
Come spring Titus brought word: "King Jaime is on the move. His advance riders just arrived. He'll use the Viscesment bridges. If you want to attend the wedding you can join up with him here."
Hecht had Boniface's permission to attend. Indeed, he would stand in for the Patriarch, Boniface being too frail to cross the Jagos.
Colonel Smolens overheard. "Go ahead. Sir, you'll never enjoy a grander honor. Sedlakova, Brokke, Consent, and I can keep the outfit from falling apart."
King Jaime of Castauriga was just tall enough not to be accounted a dwarf-in Piper Hecht's opinion. He disliked the Direcian at first sight. The man had a dramatically inflated notion of his own worth. So much so that Cloven Februaren proved incapable of restraining his inclination to deflate swelled heads.
After just two days of sharing the road with the future Imperial consort, Madouc observed, "They say the Empress is mad about Jaime. She'd have to be."
Pella cackled like an old woman. Hecht said, "We'll reach Alten Weinberg a week before the wedding. That should give Katrin time to see through the dusky little bastard."
He knew that was wishful thinking, though. Katrin had her mind made up and her heart set. Her Council Advisory were not, supposedly, even a little thrilled. Especially not those members who had seen Jaime at Los Naves de los Fantas.
Piper Hecht did not worry about Katrin. He could not drag his thoughts away from Helspeth. In just days he would see her again. How much had his imagination run away from reality?
He felt like a callow youngster. And wondered what the Princess might be thinking. Might be anticipating.
And never stopped worrying about the soldiers he had left behind, tasked to tame the Connecten Night.
How could they possibly manage without him?
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