“He’s just showing off.”
“I’d say it’s more like he’s trying to prove something to himself.”
“So. What news?”
“Anna is well. Sends her love. The girls are well. Not thrilled about school. Pella has the whooping cough. The rest expect to have their turns. Grandfather has, in my way of thinking, been getting too bold in the Collegium. He’s deliberately provoking Serenity.”
“Of course. There’s a history. And he’s counting on Serenity to be worried sick by the continued existence of Cloven Februaren. The Ninth Unknown had a nasty reputation in his time. Several old-time Patriarchs regretted attracting his ire.”
“Piper, Serenity doesn’t know any of that. He’s almost completely ignorant about the Unknowns. And about anything before his own grandfather’s time. He doesn’t care about old times. And he was never invited in on the Construct project. Hardly anyone knows about it anymore, other than the orders involved and those who do the funding. Meaning just a few members of the Collegium. Grandfather’s cronies, who are all sure that the fall of the old world is right around the corner. The last Patriarch who expressed an interest in the Construct was Pacificus Sublime. When he was still the Fiducian. He wanted to know where the money was going but never looked at the project up close. Something blindered his thinking.”
“Something like the Ninth Unknown?”
“Probably. Grandfather says Hugo Mongoz knew a little but that was only because he’d been around so long he couldn’t help it. Bellicose knew nothing. Serenity won’t, either. Neither will whoever comes after him. That’s the way the old people want it. They’re thinking about sealing off access from the Chiaro Palace.”
Hecht wondered: How would that impact all those monks and nuns who worked on the project? Some had done nothing else for fifty years.
There were other ways to get to the Construct. For the dedicated worker. Of course. Since nuns were not supposed to be inside the Chiaro Palace in the first place.
“Did you have anything exciting to report?”
“Sure. We gave the Windwalker a bath. And the really old man thinks he’s found the place where the Bastard lives. Getting there and doing something with the information might be problematical, though.”
So. Someone had put a label on the man they sought. “Expand, please.” He had no idea what Heris, the Ninth Unknown, and Muniero Delari were up to. Only Heris was ever forthcoming. And seldom did she have much to say.
She told a long story now.
“You have been busy.”
“We’re going to get busier. I won’t be able to pop in here half a dozen times a day to spoon-feed you information. You need to use the pendant. That’s what it’s for.” She sounded like the mother of a stubborn child, patience exhausted.
“I was hoping I could get you to haunt Alten Weinberg the way you haunt Krois and the Chiaro Palace.”
“I’d like that, Piper. I really would. You think you could get them to do me the courtesy of speaking Firaldian or Church Brothen? Or maybe Melhaic?”
“All right. Sarcastic exposition of obstacle noted. I’ll do my own haunting.”
“I mean it about the pendant, Piper. I’m really busy.”
“I understand. It’s good for me, too. There won’t be so many questions about who I’m talking to in here.”
There had been questions. Concerned questions. Partial truths had sufficed, so far. He had a spy whose identity only he knew. The spy wanted it to stay that way. The staff worried about how she came and went.
An informal bodyguard had begun to form.
Empress Katrin was coming in from her progress. At last. Forerunners had been arriving for days, for their own purposes or hers. When word came that Katrin had reached the Eastern Gate Hecht ordered work stopped and the men turned out to line the way, to do the Empress honor. They were snappy, which pleased the Empress and her sister both.
The Imperials passed by.
Titus whispered, “They’re carrying her in that sedan so people can see her. But she doesn’t look like a woman about to give birth.”
Hecht agreed, though he had been distracted by the Princess Apparent. He could not help imagining having seen both hunger and promise there. He turned to say something to Consent.
Something slammed him violently from behind. He felt metal drive through the padded scale mail shirt he wore. Felt it enter his back, turn on his shoulder blade, and so miss his heart. There was no pain.
He had been wounded before. He knew it would be a while before his body began to protest the damage.
He staggered a few steps, aware of shouting. His first reaction was incredulity. There had been no warning from his amulet. But there would be none when the attack was worldly. He offered a silent apology to Madouc, wherever he might be.
The bad guys had gotten him at last.
He began to worry about his men, about Anna and the children, even about the woman in al-Qarn and her daughters. He had not been able to provide for them.
His right hand stole inside his shirt almost without conscious thought.
Hands caught hold of him. Bodies surrounded him. Shields built a turtle over him.
The shouting went on. He was not the only one hit. And the men were responding.
Confusion. His mind would not work right. His heart was not doing its job, either. Still, he tapped on his pendant till consciousness fled.
Piper Hecht wakened to find himself surrounded by grim-faced men, some with light wounds, all angry and every one frozen still as a statue. Time had not stopped, though. Several had fallen, stricken in midstep.
Heris said, “It’s working. He’s awake.”
Hecht could not see her. The Ninth and Eleventh Unknowns, though, entered his field of vision. The elder said, “The arrow was poisoned. Fortunately not with anything fast. There was no damage to your organs.”
Februaren was thoroughly unhappy. He could not express himself fully. There was no telling what the frozen men would recall when they recovered.
Heris said, “He’s starting to show some color.”
“The poison actually helped once his heart stopped.”
“It’s racing, now.”
“Yours would be, too. We got lucky. We were quick enough. He’ll make it.”
Delari mused, “I wonder how this will change him.”
Februaren grumped, “It might finally get the idea through that there really are people who want to kill him.”
“I meant changes because he’s been one with the Night.”
Hecht wanted to tell the Principat? that he was wrong. He had not had congress with the Night. He had been unconscious.
“Scrub those minds, Muno. Quickly. So we can get your ass out of here. We’ve been here too long already. It’s a miracle no one’s walked in on us.”
“No miracle. I spelled the door. Anyone who gets close forgets why he came. He’ll wander off trying to remember. There. That should do till they get a healer in. I’m ready.”
Heris appeared. She touched Hecht’s cheek. “Be more careful, Piper.” She and Februaren placed themselves to either side of Muniero Delari, locked arms with him. Somehow, despite the clumsy configuration, they managed the sideways turn.
There was a soft poof! as they vanished.
Sound and confusion. A dozen men all asking one another what had happened, helping one another get up, asking each other if they were all right.
“Holy shit! Lookit here! The boss is breathing. Hell, he’s awake!”
