of a coin. For children that was usually, a small silver piece. Hecht turned over a gold solidus, or five-ducat piece, which bore the bust and crest of a long-dead, obscure Patriarch named Boniface. The senior military men, including Colonel Smolens, Clej Sedlakova, Hagan Brokke, and members of their staffs, were equally generous. Consent had to start a new life. His situation would be difficult. His skills were crucial.
Despite his background, Consent was well liked.
'Thank you, sir. Courage isn't as important as knowing what you want, though.'
Principate Delari was more generous than Piper Hecht. After amenities, the old man said, 'If I can borrow you for a moment, Piper, I need a word in private.'
'Or course, sir. If you'll excuse me, Lieutenant?'
This time the official rank and title sank in. Hecht watched Consent's face light up. He had been welcomed to the tribe he had chosen over his old.
'Sir?'
'When we're in private.'
The Principate led the way upstairs, away from the public rooms. Hecht had deemed those austere, even by his own standards. The private quarters were more so.
Here Principate Muniero Delari had no congress with decadence or sinful luxury. Hecht considered a man who chose to live that way one worthy of respect. But only here. His Chiaro Palace apartment lacked no comfort desired by his boy.
Delari took Hecht into a room with four unpainted plaster walls, furnished with one rude table, three rude chairs, and two clay lamps burning cheap, unscented oil. Hecht's amulet tingled.
Delari sat, said, 'I've examined the matter of Rudenes Schneidel. He is in Viscesment.' Delari pulled a cord. A bell tinkled somewhere, muted.
'You have? So soon? How?'
'I'm a member of the Collegium, Piper. And not one of the hacks. There is some basis to the rumors about us. Which, I'm pleased to see, are the subject of public disparagament lately.'
'Oh.'
'Occasionally, I worry about your powers of observation, Piper. I fear that my son overestimated you.'
'I worry about that, too. I never understood why he chose to mentor me. So, did you find out anything useful about Schneidel?'
'Very little. But enough to caution you against sending someone after him. Unless there's someone you want to dispose of without taking the blame.'
A woman came in. Hecht had seen her downstairs, looking vaguely out of place. She was tall, faded blond, and worn down by life. She brought coffee and cups. Hecht pulled the aroma into his lungs. Coffee was his biggest vice. 'Ah. The best Ambonypsgan beans.' He sighed. 'You're much too good to me, sir.'
'Quite possibly true. Time will tell. This is my granddaughter. Brewing good coffee is one of her special talents.'
Hecht exchanged nods with the woman as she presented a cup.
Delari continued. 'The sorcerer has set up shop not far from the Palace of Kings. But there's no obvious connection with Immaculate. He may want it thought that there's a hidden connection. He seems to have much too exalted an estimate of himself. A fault he may be granted the opportunity to regret.'
'Thank you,' Hecht told the woman. The beverage was rare and rich. Frowning, he eyed her more closely. Had he seen her before? There was something remotely familiar there. Then he concentrated on Delari.
The Principate said, 'Rudenes Schneidel can't possibly have any feud with you personally. He may have wanted to eliminate the Captain-General. My own feeling is, the attack was meant to frame Immaculate.' Delari frowned as he spoke, possibly questioning his own reasoning. At the same time, he again seemed disappointed in Piper Hecht.
'A stretch, sir. That would mean he knew how things would go before they happened.'
'It is a stretch, isn't it?'
'Did you find out anything else?'
'No. Rudenes Schneidel is an accomplished sorcerer. He has no trouble covering himself.'
The woman refilled Hecht's cup, then left. Hecht said, 'She doesn't look much like her father.'
'You knew him only as a dying cripple. And none of Grade's children took after him. She's the image of her mother.'
'How many kids did he have?'
'Four. Two sons, two daughters. All on the wrong side of the blanket. While he was overseas. By a woman he freed from Praman captivity. She'd been captured by pirates as a child and purchased by a merchant in Aselin who treated her badly. Grade was in the field for the first time. The Brotherhood and the Gisela Frakier had taken Aselin by surprise. Grade saved the woman from the Frakier when he recognized her rusty Old Brothen. She came from a family of education and standing.'
Though key words had been butchered in transition from Peqaad to Firaldian, Hecht understood the Principate. Gisela was a transliteration of a tribal name. Frakier, roundabout, came from a phrase meaning 'beloved traitor.' In common usage in the Holy Lands, Frakier were Pramans who allied themselves with the crusaders.
'I apologize if I've made you uncomfortable, sir.'
'You haven't. I'm at peace with all that. I'm guilty of the same indiscretion. I did do a better job of seeing my son to his maturity. I never had to leave him behind because of my martial obligations.'
'You didn't want him to be a soldier.'
'Nor a priest. But he was of age. He chose. When he created a family he did the best he could. But three of the four were lost.'
Hecht could think of no appropriate response. That was the way of the world. As the world had been, always.
Harsh. Cruel. Unforgiving. Merciless. That was the world Piper Hecht knew. Happiness and pleasure were fleeting. Each moment had to be seized. The positive constants he had known were the brotherhood of the Sha-lug and the loyalties soldiers shared. Which, with limited success, he had been trying to recapture in exile.
'You seem troubled, Piper.'
'My faith has been shaken lately, sir. I'm troubled in spirit'
'What more can you ask than what you have?'
'I don't know. That's part of the problem. A higher purpose? I owned one, once.'
Principate Delari looked disappointed yet again. 'We'd better get back downstairs. Leave the cup. Heris will take't are of it.'
'Who was that woman you kept staring at?' Anna demanded as they left Delari's house.
'Delari's granddaughter. Drocker was her father. He wanted me to see her for some reason. Maybe to show how he takes care of family. Drocker kind of adopted me. I kept thinking I'd seen her before. I was trying to remember where.'
He was not concentrating, though. There was something not right. He beckoned a soldier from the City Regiment. 'Where did the rest of the men go?' He saw none of his own guards, nor anyone from the Brotherhood of War.
'Sir. Armed men were spotted up that way. Where the coaches would pass. Maybe setting an ambush. So the Brothers and the Patriarchals decided to ambush them back.'
A distant tumult began on cue, metal rattling on metal. Anna heard it, too. She dropped her nag immediately. 'There may be problems bigger than my insecurities.'
'Huh?' Piper Hecht was not a man who caught things unspoken by women. Till Anna he had spent very little time around them.
'Let's get the children home. By a different route.'
This was something Hecht did understand. 'No. We'll go the way we know what the situation is. Somebody may want people to go another direction.'
'You're the expert.' She began harrying the children into the coach.
The kids were excited. Hecht thought that Vali might break down and talk. But Pella would not shut up long enough for anyone else to get a word in edgewise.
Hecht had the coach stop at the scene of ambush. A young officer hurried over.
