“You’re probably right. Though I’ll miss my sessions with the Construct.”
“Sarcasm duly noted.”
“Sorry. I am starting to get the hang of using it to communicate.”
“I have a work-around. Is there more coffee in that pot, Heris?”
“There is, Grandfather. But we need to find a smuggler. We’re almost out of beans.”
“Tell Turking. He knows the man who knows the man who knows where to get the beans. Here’s what we’ll do.”
Hecht’s people started reporting within hours of his having sent out word of his intentions and his hope of getting through the Jagos before bad weather arrived. The Imperial ambassador provided a headquarters suite at the Penital. Unattached staff were invited to move in. Where they got to work eighteen hours a day in return for room and board.
Titus Consent knocked on the frame of the doorway to the little room Hecht had commandeered for his own use. Beckoned, Consent stepped inside. “I think we’ve heard from about everyone who is going to respond. More of them than I expected. Kait Rhuk can’t wait to get going. I let him, Vircondelet, and a dozen others get started this morning. Hagan Brokke is with them. The others are spies or quartermasters. Oh. Drago Prosek says he’s in. Claims the Brotherhood will survive without him.”
“Efficient, as always.”
“It’s a curse. Couple of things came up today. Surprises, sort of. First was a letter from Smolens. He says he made a mistake when he decided to stay and work for Ghort. He wants to know if you’d have a job for him if he quits the Patriarchals.”
“What do you think?”
“I like Smolens. He did good work. But I’d always wonder if he’d come to us just to spy for Ghort or Serenity.”
“And we were sure of him before? He was forced on us the first time. And, like you say, did good work. I hated to lose him. I’ll leave it to you. If you can think of a way to use him that leaves him no chance to cause harm, bring him back.”
“I’ll find a way. Meantime, second surprise. I just got finished talking to Clej Sedlakova. He says he convinced Addam Hauf that the Brotherhood needs to keep somebody close to you. Somebody besides Prosek, who cares about nothing but his falcons.”
Hecht laughed. “I’m not surprised. I know Clej. His real motive is, he wants to skate out of the Brotherhood buildup in the Holy Lands. He’s been there. He lost the arm there. He’s welcome. But I’m really thrilled about Prosek. He is the master of artillery. Both kinds.”
“Don’t let Kait Rhuk hear you say that. He thinks he has that title wrapped up.”
“One is as valuable as the other. Rhuk is more the theoretical guy. Though that was Prosek when we started. How soon can you be ready to travel?”
“Half an hour? No. Make it an hour. I need to go get No? knocked up before I grab my stuff. Don’t give me that disgusted look. Tell me you won’t give Anna a special goodbye.”
Hecht shuddered, uncomfortable with that kind of talk. “I can’t say for sure exactly when we’ll go. Not before I have a solid idea what I’ll have to get started and what I’ll need to pull together. Mid-level officers, for sure. And I’ll want everybody to travel in small groups. The country can’t stand a big mob moving through all at once.”
With the best of will an army could not prevent disruptions and damage.
“So your plan is, you’ll avoid angering the Patriarchal States till Katrin tells you to jump on them.”
Hecht nodded. He hoped to redirect the Empress into pursuing her father’s old squabbles with the Patriarchy.
Consent said, “I wish I knew more about how her head works. We could build an interesting future if we knew how to manage her.”
Hecht laughed aloud. “Titus, you’ve got to know that every noble in the Grail Empire is thinking that exact same thing. And, so far, she’s been Hansel’s daughter and has manipulated them.”
“Now you mention it. But the idea is still valid.”
“Let’s get things moving.”
Piper Hecht’s last hours in Brothe included an intense, possibly ultimate night with Anna Mozilla, and some vigorous discussion with Principat? Delari in the quiet room at his town house. He did avoid further congress with Serenity by contriving to be elsewhere whenever the Patriarch’s messengers came looking for him. Which he managed because Heris seemed to be reading Serenity’s mind.
She said, “They say Krois is haunted. They’re right. I’m the haunt. Along with your fart children.”
Principat? Delari grumbled, “Language, woman. You’re getting as bad as my grandfather.”
Heris did not argue. Neither did she appear chastened. Delari said, “I wish we’d had more time with the Construct, Piper. But what time we did have will pay dividends. Heris. Break out the medallion.”
She brought a pendant, gold and amber with inlays of jade and lapis lazuli, presented it to Hecht. “Heavy,” he observed.
The metal portion took the form known as an Ihrian knot, very complex. It had a turban shape at its center and four equal arms surrounding it. The Ihrian knot was one of the earliest symbols of the Chaldarean faith.
“Show him,” Delari said.
“You’re connected to the Construct now. No matter where you are. Use that to touch it back. Tap the inlays in the right order, you can send a message one character at a time. Here. These are the code sheets. I tried to write them down so it isn’t obvious that the code is connected with the pendant. Someone who gets hold of the sheets will look for letters written in the same substitution cipher.”
Hecht examined the pages, considered the inlays on the medallion. “I see it. I can memorize this.”
“Good.”
“Just for fun, why don’t I send my messages in Church Brothen?”
Ignoring that, Delari said, “Be careful, Piper. You’ve never been as vulnerable as you’ll be the next few weeks.” Mainly because of the need to travel in small bands. “Heris has caught whiffs of several potentially unpleasant schemes.”
Heris said, “People you’ve never even met want to get you just because you’re you, Piper.”
“I’ll become caution itself. We’ll disguise ourselves and take a route that stays mostly in the Imperial territories. We’ll be all right once we get to the Remayne Pass.”
“Be wary of false friends. Serenity is wooing weather vanes like Germa fon Dreasser.”
“I know who I can’t let get behind me, Grandfather. And I’ll go armed with all the legal instruments the Penital can provide.”
“So va Still-Patter has developed an affection for you.”
Heris sneered. “He hopes Piper will help him achieve his own ambitions.”
“An understandable basis for an alliance.”
It was not yet light out. Hecht said, “Titus is outside. He’ll be getting impatient. I’d better get gone before Serenity finds me and has me dragged in. What’s his problem, anyway?”
Heris said, “He’s really worried about his falcons and firepowder. Ghort says he can only find a few falcons. Most of those are damaged. Serenity counted on having scores to use against Antieux.”
“He won’t let that go, will he?”
“Not as long as he lives.”
“I couldn’t help him with the falcons. I told him to take a closer look at his own people. There are always crooks around our homegrown Patriarchs. Plenty would sell military stores and equipment to line their own purses.”
Delari said, “I’ll start a rumor, give it a few days, then raise the question in the Collegium. We have the right to insist on an accounting of where the Church’s money is going. That will put him on the defensive.”
“Add a little pressure by insisting on being told where it’s coming from, too.”
“Anne of Menand?”
“She’s always in the mists somewhere, isn’t she?”
