run anymore. Then it kept walking. And here he is.'
'What happened to the money?' Some things of the Night had an abiding loathing for silver. Iron bothered a lot more, though those daunted by the ignoble metal were mainly minor entities.
'Whoever had the coins would've stood the best chance of surviving.' He went back to Ogier briefly, then returned to Hecht looking puzzled. 'He had some silver on him that the robbers didn't find. Their captain took the money. But he and the rest all ended up dead. The money must still be there. Somewhere.'
Though Ghort kept his voice down, he was overheard. Members of the crowd began to find interests elsewhere. Despite complete ignorance of how much might be involved.
'Ain't that amazing?' Ghort beckoned the one-eyed man, whispered briefly, then said, 'We got to get on the road, Pipe. Trouble ain't gonna wait on us down there.'
And so they did, turning their backs to a sudden flow northward. Hecht muttered, 'They're idiots. Eight or ten men have just been killed by a monster and all they can think about is there might be money on the corpses. What were you whispering about, there at the end?'
'About him taking care of Ogier till he can get on his feet again. I explained about the money Ogier has. And how things will turn nasty for the Knight of Wands if he don't do right by Ogier.'
'I see.' And saw more than Ghort perhaps intended.
Ogier and Aubero might have been family after all.
3. Alten Weinberg, Heart of the New Brothen Empire
Princess Helspeth, Grafina fon Supfer, Marquesa of Runjan, and so forth, had come to Alten Weinberg thinking the Emperor meant to celebrate her twentieth birthday. She went to her knees three times before her little brother, Lothar, Emperor of the Grail Empire. In the presence, now, she suspected his summons had nothing to do with her birthday. The hall was filled with the ravens and vultures who orbited Lothar these days. And Katrin had come, too.
But not Ferris Renfrow. She would have been more comfortable if Renfrow were visible. You could call Ferris Renfrow the conscience of the Empire.
Helspeth did not like bending the knee but her brother was acting in his official capacity tonight. Probably reluctantly. In front of Omro va Still-Patter, Grand Duke of Hilandle, first among equals in the Council Advisory, styled the Protector. Accompanying Hilandle, interposing themselves between the Emperor and the lesser lights in the hall, were the Master of the Wardrobe, the Master of the Privy Purse, and the Lord Admiral Vondo fon Tyre, whose fleet was almost entirely imaginary. These men had gotten their claws into the Imperial power simply because Lothar was still five years short of his majority.
Helspeth's older sister Katrin, Grafina fon Kretien and Gordon, Princess Apparent, also knelt. She did not disguise her irritation, nor her loathing, for Hilandle and his cronies. Lothar was her baby brother, her beloved 'Mushin.' She had pampered him through countless illnesses, spoiling him terribly. Helspeth did not like or think well of her sister but she ould not deny that Katrin loved, nurtured, and indulged her brother selflessly. And, like Helspeth, she loathed the grasping old men who had seized control of the boy.
Tall, lean, blond, and beautiful, clad simply in dark clothing, Katrin Ege seemed cold and remote. She had her father's stubborn will but little of the magnetism that had served him so well. That lack, her sex, and the ambition of so many nobles put her in a weaker position than she liked. But the Protector and his cronies were blinding themselves willfully, seeing either of the Ege daughters as a weakling.
All the children of the Ferocious Little Hans were in weaker positions than they liked.
Johannes had compelled the Electors to fashion an Act of Will and Succession that enacted, published, and ratified by the Patriarch and Collegium would withstand every possible challenge. But Johannes Blackboots had not anticipated his own death in battle. He had expected to outlive his sickly son and see the Imperial throne passed on through Katrin and her sons. He had hoped to forge powerful alliances through both daughters.
Negotiations had come and gone before Johannes fell at al-Khazen. No arrangements had been finalized.
Helspeth had been included in the succession almost as an afterthought. Johannes was thorough in everything. After Helspeth, the sons of his sister Anies were named in the Act.
It would take a major Ege family disaster to put the succession back into the hands of the Electors.
Lothar stated, 'The Council Advisory has cautioned us, and we are in agreement, that the world today presents our reign with unprecedented challenges.'
This was the first time Helspeth heard Mushin use the royal 'we.' It took her aback. She was not accustomed to her little brother being anything else. And, studying him closely, she suspected that this Emperor Lothar was a creation of the Grand Duke and his cronies. An eventuality she had feared increasingly as Hilandle and his flock circled more closely round the Emperor and isolated him ever more from his family and the world.
Lothar understood what was happening. A minor, he had little hope of halting the process. He had to remain strong and play one Councilor off against another. He managed that with some success.
'It has been demonstrated that our present style of life is inappropriate for a family of Imperial dignity. The daughters of our father should not be inviting scandal and disaster by roving like common men-at-arms.'
Helspeth glared at Lothar. Half the nobility had spent the past ten years appalled and scandalized because the old Emperor not only permitted but encouraged his maiden daughters to accompany him to the field, to risk the life of the camp, and to come into regular contact with coarse, crude common soldiers.
So the Council was about to end all that.
The boy Emperor wilted under Helspeth's glare. And was no happier when he turned to his older sister.
Katrin was less inclined to the scandalous life. Helspeth had taken up arms and armor during the Calziran Crusade, getting into desperate straits under al-Khazen's wall. Katrin was more willful, more determined to preserve her prerogatives and independence.
Lothar was strong of mind, if not of flesh. He did not remain cowed. 'We have decided that our princess sisters shall withdraw into their households till suitable marriages can be negotiated. Silence! Both of you.' Helspeth had been about to explode. She did not see Katrin's reaction because her own focus had become so narrow. She was sure her sister was equally outraged.
The Grand Duke all but sneered behind his short, gray-tinged beard. His eyes were icy. 'It's the Emperor's will.' Meaning Lothar had been bullied until he gave in.
Helspeth reminded herself that Hilandle, till Johannes forced his Act of Will and Succession upon the Electors, had counted himself the leading candidate to succeed.
The boy Emperor then demonstrated that his advisers did not have him as neatly under thumb as they might want to believe. 'Katrin, we convey to you the Imperial holdings at Grumbrag, with all the rights of Eathered and Arnmagil.'
Members of the Council were so aghast they failed to sputter. There were snickers amongst the lesser lights.
The boy continued. 'To our sister Helspeth we convey the City of Plemenza and its dependencies and trust that she will lake the opportunity to further her education.'
Plemenza was much the lesser prize. Eathered and Arnmagil, now unified into a single Imperial province, had been kingdoms in their own rights scarcely a century gone. But Plemenza had been Johannes's favorite city. He would have shifted his capital there from Alten Weinberg had the Firaldian city not been so far from the heart of the Grail Empire. He had spent a lot of time in Plemenza, often for his own pleasure, not just because Imperial policy focused on Firaldia and the difficult behaviors of Sublime V and the Church. Johannes's daughters had enjoyed much of their schooling there.
Helspeth flashed a grin. Lothar flashed right back.
Hilandle had been outmaneuvered. Two score witnesses, few congenial to the Grand Duke, had seen the Emperor convey Imperial holdings to members of his family. If Lothar was clever indeed, the patents were ready now, prepared by someone he knew was not Hilandle's tool.
The Grand Duke's face turned stony. He would never underestimate the boy Emperor again.
Helspeth glanced sideways. Katrin seemed pleased. Eathered and Arnmagil was a plum, a fine, fruitful
