Surrender to the Will of the Night (60 page)

“Kinzer heard voices. We thought you might be in trouble.”

“Did I call for help?”

“No, sir. But …”

“Go away. And don’t do this again.”

The men behind Vircondelet were trying to see inside. They looked less sheepish than they ought.

Hecht shut the door.

“They’re worried about you.”

“They’re more worried about themselves. They watch me close because they think that I died and came back to life.”

“You did. But you weren’t possessed by the Night. We kept all that at bay.”

“I did? I died?”

“I thought you understood that.”

“I … No. I thought …”

“Don’t you go getting silly, too. There’s nothing different about you. A lot of people have been gone much longer than you were. They came back untouched. Will you still be here tomorrow night?”

“Probably. I don’t have the manpower to take this much farther. An unexpected diplomatic success could change things, though.”

“See you tomorrow night, then.”

***

An unexpected diplomatic success occurred. The high roads of Firaldia swarmed with messengers, Imperial and Patriarchal. On the Imperial side the news they carried was good. The nearest Imperial cities quickly affirmed their support for the Empress. Several nearby Patriarchal dependents volunteered to stay out of the squabble. “Promises written on air,” Titus Consent observed. “They’ll turn on us if Serenity has any success.”

“Of course. That’s Firaldian politics. They’ll never change.”

“Unless a strongman comes along and ends it.”

“Someone strong and long-lived. Johannes might have managed if he’d survived al-Khazen.”

Consent shrugged. “He did, we’d be on the other side, here.”

“No doubt.”

“I’m thinking Johannes’s offspring might have what it takes, too. If it interests them. If they have the drive.”

“Meaning?”

“Katrin and Helspeth are both capable of making the tough decisions. And their people seem accustomed to the idea of a female monarch, now. But the Empress doesn’t seem to have the commitment.”

“Uhm?”

“She’s changeable, boss. We could be knocking on the gates of Brothe and she’d get distracted by some ephemeral ambition somewhere else.”

“She’ll be constant till she’s shoved Serenity against a wall and made him explain why her special guy is no longer among the living.”

“You’re enjoying the hell out of this, aren’t you?”

“Titus?”

“You’ve changed since the Empress changed her mind about Serenity and the Church. You’re happy about it. Even though we’re likely to end up having to face friends we campaigned with before.”

“I hope it doesn’t come to that, Titus. I hope we can give Katrin what she wants before Pinkus can disengage in the Connec.” Word from that direction had the Captain-General facing serious difficulties. Serenity had few friends in the eastern Connec. Count Raymone Garete and his Countess had harvested the crop.

Hecht did think that Serenity would scream like a scared little girl when he understood what was headed his way. He was very much the product of his past.

His Plemenzan captivity had not been harsh. It was just time taken out of his life. But torments he had suffered earlier in the Connec remained tattooed on his soul. Never again would he allow himself to be at the mercy of another.

Failure, defeat, surrender, captivity, none were acceptable options. Unless God deserted him completely.

Hecht desperately hoped to see Heris again. The more he eyed the chances of success the more worried he became for Anna and the children.

There was an ancient saying: “Children are hostages to Fortune.” And, unhappily, any other asshole who could lay hands on.

***

A grimly weary Heris turned sideways, into being, seconds after Kait Rhuk and Drago Prosek left Hecht. She grumbled, “I know. I can sleep after I’m dead.”

“You can’t tell if there’s somebody here before you do that, can you?”

“Sometimes. Mostly not. I can halfway arrive and keep from being seen if I’m rested enough.”

“You missed popping in between Rhuk and Prosek by five seconds.”

“That would’ve been embarrassing.”

“You think?”

“Worried about them finding out?”

“Absolutely. About anyone finding out. We have a huge advantage as long as nobody knows. We lose that fast as soon as they do.”

“Get one of those folding screen things to drag around with you. Wherever you set up shop, put it in a corner so I can pop in behind it. That way I can get away again without anyone seeing if you’ve got somebody with you.”

“That might work. What do you have for me?”

“You don’t have a social life, do you?”

“What?”

“I know. All business, all the time. Saves having to deal with stuff. Story of my life, too.”

Hecht was confused. This was not the Heris of his experience. “You’re hanging around with the Ninth Unknown too much. You’re turning into another him.”

“I am a bad girl, little brother.”

Heris proceeded with a long report, some of it not very interesting. Since her last visit she had been a fly on the wall in a dozen venues, including Krois in Brothe, Pinkus Ghort’s camp a dozen miles above Antieux, Alten Weinberg’s Winterhall, Hochwasser, and even briefly in Salpeno, where Anna of Menand was ecstatic about the deaths of kings at Khaurene. There was panic in Krois and elation in Alten Weinberg because Katrin had come back to her father’s path. There was crippling indecision in Ghort’s camp. Pinkus himself was willing to carry out orders but he was up to his ears in legates, envoys, Society angels, and other pests, all of whom insisted on telling him what to do.

Though the news about the Empress was fresh, levies had been assembling at Hochwasser for weeks, according to annual custom. Those forces were in motion already, according to a marching plan laid down in the reign of Johannes II. That plan was no secret. Once through the Jagos the Imperial main force would advance down the West Way toward Brothe. Resistance would arise mainly at river crossings.

Thus it had been with invasions and defenses for two thousand years. Thus it would go. Geography dictated it.

“Nothing remarkable there,” Hecht said. “And though they’ll make a lot of racket, they won’t move with any vigor. How close to Serenity did you get? What’s his plan?”

“Close enough to sit on his lap. If I wanted. Close enough to blow hot air down the back of his neck. Close enough to convince him that his favorite wing of Krois is haunted by Ostarega the Malicious and Ostarega doesn’t love him.”

“Ostarega the Malicious?”

“One of the early Bad Patriarchs. His reign name was Clement. The Second. He was awful. God had the Collegium bend him over a wine cask and hurry him on to Paradise by impaling him with a white-hot iron rod. So there would be no blood spilled.”

“Strangling or drowning would’ve worked.”

“That wouldn’t have made a strong enough point. It was personal.”

“I guess so. Serenity’s plans?”

“The reason I keep him jumping. The haunted wing of Krois is where the good quiet rooms are.”

Hecht controlled his impatience. If he barked too loud Heris might just go away. So he said, “Good thinking.”

Heris did a little jig, absurd for a woman of middle years. “I’m so smart!” Like a child. Grinning. “All right. I’m done messing with you. He means to pull together every man he can and come straight at you, through the Shades.” The Shades being the nearest stretch of the Monte Sismonda, the mountain range forming the spine of the Central Firaldian peninsula. Why the local stretch was called the Shades had been forgotten. It had been the Shades when the Old Empire arrived.

It would have something to do with the Night.

“That wouldn’t be smart. If I don’t go meet him.”

“He means to swarm you before you pull together enough Righteous and Imperials to turn into a real nuisance.”

Which did not make Hecht nervous enough to suit her. “He isn’t playing around, Piper. He’ll order the prisons turned out. He’s already summoned the militias. He’s posted a call for mercenaries. He could have twenty thousand men here by the end of the week.”

“Twenty?
Thousand?
”

“That’s what he thinks. There’re a lot of hungry people in Brothe. And he’s offering good money.”

“Twenty thousand.” That was a kick in the gut. Even if Serenity’s plan was fifty percent wishful thinking. “A rabble, though.”

“Sure.”

But there would be men he had trained among them, giving them backbone.

“Are you all right, Piper?”

“Just in shock. I didn’t count on Bronte Doneto being another Tormond IV but I did think he would dither awhile.”

“He’s thought about this, Piper. Knowing he might have to butt heads with you someday. He knows you won’t let him have time to waste. So he’s done what he has to do.”

Hecht began to pace, muttering, “Twenty thousand.”

“Think about the others instead of Serenity.”

“The other what?”

“The other men involved. The ones Serenity has to rely on. Who aren’t him. Are they eager for a fight? Will they drag their feet, hoping you’ll go away? Because they’re afraid of you? Because they’d have to leave Brothe filled with uncontrolled enemies if they came out to meet you?”

Hecht muttered, “Twenty thousand men.”

“Will you get over that?”

His mind did slide past it. He began to think like a general. A general faced with a hopeless task.

First, he had to protect the Empress.

Then he had to protect and salvage the Righteous. And the firepowder weapons. Having provoked the Eastern Emperor so thoroughly he could not let that prize get away.

And he had to ensure the safety of such Firaldian allies as had begun to accumulate. That was only right.

“I wish I could talk this over with the old men.”

“No help for you with Double Great Grandpa. He’s inside the Realm of the Gods. But Grandfather is a possibility.”

“I don’t see how …”

“I can skip there. And take you with me.”

“You can what?”

“Come here.”

Hecht did as she said, still distracted by the possibility of having to face an overwhelming Patriarchal force within a few days.

Heris seized him in a fierce grip, twisted, wrenched him violently.

Darkness followed.

***

Darkness swarmed with dreams that were mostly nightmares. Terror pounded Hecht. He was sure he would be trapped there forever.

***

“Damned good thing you had some get-acquainted time with the Construct,” Principaté Delari said. “That gave Heris the leverage she needed to drag you all the way through.”

Pale, exhausted, Heris still shook, minutes after arriving. There had been unexpected problems.

Also shaking, Hecht grumbled, “Wonderful. Marvelous. What the hell happened?”

“Calm yourself. I don’t know. I don’t use the Construct that way. Heris hasn’t had this problem before.”

Heris said, “Tell me what you saw, Piper. That might give me a handle.”

“Crawling chaos. Ghosts. Nothing that made sense. Nightmares and monster games. What should I have seen?”

“Double Great and I see the world without much color, other than reds and darkness. With everything moving a thousandth the speed of normal when we’re traveling.” She explained that her journeys took her through a thousand shades of red, few of them dark. She went where she wanted by thinking about it hard. Now that she was experienced, she could go places she had not visited before.

Hecht was frightened but also amazed because here he was in the quiet room of Muniero Delari’s town house, only minutes after Heris had taken hold of him a hundred miles away.

***

Anna and the children soon learned of Hecht’s presence. Principaté Delari had insisted that they move to the town house to shelter from Bronte Doneto’s malice.

Hecht thanked Delari for that, enthusiastically. Then he thanked Anna for swallowing her pride and letting the Principaté put the family where they would be harder to reach. “Lover, Doneto is a bad man.” He eyed Delari, wondering where the feud between the Principaté and the Patriarch stood.

Anna said, “Don’t pat my back before you hear the whole story.”

“So you did try to be stubborn, eh?”

“Absolutely. Nobody was going to bully me and my kids. Not even the Infallible Voice of God.”

“But?” Hecht was having trouble keeping his hands off her — though he did keep it clean enough for the presence of family.

“That new man at the Castella, Addam Hauf? He came to the house. He said Serenity wants to take us hostage. That was before the news about you landing in Vis Corcula.”

Delari said, “The Brotherhood of War has no affection for Serenity. Their obsession is the liberation of the Holy Lands. Serenity is interested only in his vendetta with the Connec.”

Hecht made a snorting noise.

Delari continued, “Serenity’s personal crusade has not gone well.”

Hecht then first heard about the death of King Regard. “Does that mean Pinkus Ghort is out there on his own?”

“No. There are several smaller Arnhander forces roving around, commanded by Society priests. Complete incompetents. However fierce she is, Anne of Menand can’t manage the intervention herself. With Regard gone she’ll probably abandon Ghort and Serenity.

“She’ll be scrambling to hang on to power till Anselin hears the news and comes home. Which he might not do. He has no love for Anne and might make her regret it if he does come home. He has an independent streak. He might not suffer the abuses that Regard did.”

Anna and the children grew more sour while Delari talked. They cared nothing about any of that. Hecht was their interest.

As they were his, for the moment.

He was startled by how much emotion seeing them brought upwelling. And how much guilt he felt on recalling his involuntary interlude with the Empress.

In truth, he doubted that Anna believed he would remain celibate while away. He was a man. Indulgence was expected.

Delari gestured at Heris, who said, “We’ll let you enjoy one another for a while, now. Piper. Remember. I need to get you back in time for your morning staff meeting.”