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,” Principat? 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. Principat? 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 Principat? 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 Principat? 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.
