Lord of the Silent Kingdom

Plemenza.'

'You don't need to make excuses. Reading isn't a bad thing.'

'Now you sound like the Principate. Hey! Kid! Pellapront. How's Alma?'

The boy froze in place, eyes big. He stared at Ghort, bewildered. 'Your Honor?'

'Never mind. Go on. And stay on the paved streets. I don't care if it is longer that way.' To Hecht, he said, 'The Lay of Ihrian is this long-ass comic poem about a guy who goes on a tour of the Holy Lands. But only in his dreams. Guided by a ghost who lies about his name all the time.'

'I can see where you'd be amused by that.' Hecht eyed his surroundings uneasily. This was a different Sonsa. Too many surly men stood around doing nothing. Blaming their ill fortune on anybody but themselves.

'Ain't we all? Anyway, all the names the ghost gives are names of gods that had something to do with the Wells of Ihrian. Very blasphemous. Toward the end, this guy- whose name in the story is the same as the name of the poet-he gets into a big romp with a whore who turns out to be his sister, Alma. It's pretty funny. But The Lay of Ihrian was banned by the Church. Though nobody probably pays any attention except in Brothe. Principate Doneto says there's probably only four or five copies in the city but the story is famous up north. Like around here, I guess.'

'I think we're close.'

'Keep an eye out. This could be the tricky part.'

Pella let them catch up. 'That's Karagos Middle Street up ahead, Your Honors. Cutting across. But I never heard of no House of the Ten Gallons.'

Ask around,' Hecht suggested.

Yes, Your Honors. Right away. What did you mean about Alma, Your Honor?' he asked Ghort.

Nothing, really. There's a poem with a Pellapront Versulius in it. He has a sister named Alma.'

The boy gulped some air.

'Shit,' Ghort said. 'You got a sister named Alma?'

Pella nodded. He was a gaunt little thing, small for his age. His eyes seemed exaggeratedly large.

'Find out about the house,' Hecht urged.

'That's spooky,' Ghort said when the boy was out of earshot.

'It is unusual,' Hecht conceded. 'But not a mystery we need to solve.'

'No. Hey. Somebody knows where the place is.'

'Good. It's late. We need to get off the street.'

Pella came back. 'Your Honors didn't have it right. It's the House of the Ten Galleons.'

'That makes more sense. Here.'

'My sister would make you a better deal.'

Hecht recalled the boy offering his sister on the quayside. 'Another tie to the poem. I take it the House of the Ten Galleons is a sporting house.'

Pella nodded, not conceding the possibility that his charges would be unaware of that fact.

Ghort observed, 'An interesting place to find our friend.'

'Indeed.' Members of the Brotherhood took the same vow of celibacy as less warlike priests. But the Brotherhood tried to observe its vows. All of them. Which was a source of frequent and abiding friction with the rest of the Church.

'We'll think about your sister later,' Hecht said. 'We need to see a man who lives at the House of the Ten Galleons.'

'Really? He must be a eunuch, Your Honor.'

'Show us where.'

Pella showed. Ghort gave him a coin and told him to wait. 'We'll be right back out. We'll need you some more.' Once they were away, he asked, 'We will be right back out, won't we? You didn't get any special instructions in that mess, did you?'

'Just to give the packet to a man named Beomond. Using a set of signs and countersigns.'

'What's he look like?'

'Six and a half feet tall, almost as wide, with a big scar on his face. Plus a wine stain birthmark that starts on his left cheek and runs down his throat and under his shirt.'

'Sounds like a beauty. Good evening, sir,' Ghort told the man who responded to their knock.

Hecht offered, 'We came from Heber,' which was the formula included in his instructions.

'Confuckinggratulations. Show me some silver.'

That was not the appropriate response.

A small, high voice piped, 'Out of the way, Tiny.'

Tiny moved. A truly tiny, wrinkled old woman whose coloring suggested origins far to the east stepped forward. 'Where are you from?' Her Firaldian was flawless, with a Sonsan accent. She must be a Chaldarean refugee from the Kaifate of Qasr al-Zed. There were countless pockets of non-Episcopal Chaldareans scattered around the Realm of Peace.

'Heber.'

'Welcome, countrymen. Come in. Can I offer you refreshments?'

'Coffee, perhaps.' All part of the sign-countersign, but here the old woman broke the rhythm. 'We can't afford coffee anymore. Business has been bad lately.'

'I'm sorry to hear that.' Hecht knew that was the sort of complaint an eavesdropper would expect to hear. 'Whatever's convenient, then.'

'Wine would hit the spot,' Ghort said.

Hecht scowled. Ghort was far too fond of wine. But to say so would be dangerous. All westerners drank wine, many to excess.

Hecht asked, 'Is my cousin Beomond here? My uncle wanted us to bring him his birthday gift.'

Tiny held out a hand. Hecht ignored it. The old woman told him, 'Go wake him up.' She continued a frank examination of the visitors. 'You're finally catching on how to look like regular people.'

Hecht did not understand. Ghort replied, 'It's a gift. Some got it. Some don't. Me an' Matt, we're natural-born talents. In fact, Matt really was regular people, once upon a time.'

A great, sloppy, jiggling mountain of a man appeared, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. He was naked to the waist. The wine stain birthmark extended down his chest to the level of his heart.

Ghort said, 'Cousin Beo has been living large since we seen him last.'

Hecht released a blurt of nervous laughter. Because what Ghort said was true. The man had gotten fatter since last Hecht had seen him, in Runch, working as a porter in the Sonsan factor house. He had lacked the scar, then. And the birthmark had not been obvious in the poor light of the factor house. His name was Goydar back then.

He was drunk. He squinted at Hecht. 'I seen you somewhere before.'

'I'm your cousin, Mathis. Matt. I brought a birthday present from your father. I wanted to hand it over. We're in kind of a hurry. We have other business.'

Mention of a present pierced the fog in the giant's mind. Dad remembered? I was beginning to wonder. You have any trouble out there? In the street?'

Puzzled, Hecht said, 'No. We hired a boy off the quay. He brought us straight here.' He indicated the possessions they had dropped after being admitted. 'The city almost seems deserted.'

The fat man asked, 'You didn't get stopped by any Family patrols?'

'No.'

'You will. There'll be rumors about strangers out by now. That'll turn into spies from the Brotherhood or agents of the Deves. They really want to get even with somebody. Sonsa is dying. And they claim it's all our fault. Not the damned Deves. They're gonna need passes. Good ones. Brothers, when they stop you, forget who you are. Just show your passes. Do what they say. Don't give them any excuse to strip you down. They do, you'll be lucky to end up just having your stuff taken and your ass seriously kicked. They killed a Deve last week. And he was under the protection of Don Alsano.'

Ghort chirped, 'Matt, you want to remind me why I had to come with you?'

'Stupidity?'

'Yeah. That's the one.'