the man. Who had no business being anywhere within a thousand miles of the Mother City.
'You know him, Your Honor?'
'Sorry. No. It's the wounds.'
One gawker said, 'This ain't the first one that's been chewed up like that.'
Another agreed. 'And this one, he's got a foreign look to him.'
Hecht nodded. The dead man looked like someone pretending to be Brothen without knowing the nuances.
Alive, he had been Hagid, son of Nassim Alizarin al-Jebal, a soldier in Else Tage's company. He had been placed there by his father, for seasoning in the field. Nassim Alizarin, called the Mountain, was a crony of Gordimer the Lion. A classmate from his old school. Nassim had sent Hagid out with the unstated understanding that the boy would come home if everyone else had to die to make it so.
Back in the house, with the kids still outside, Hecht told Anna, 'He was a good kid. He tried hard. But he started fifteen years behind the rest of the company. I can't imagine him ever leaving al-Qarn once I got him home alive.'
'You're sure it isn't somebody who looks like the boy?'
'I'm sure!' He was angry. 'Here's another mystery I don't have time to solve. And I can't hand it off to anyone else.'
'We'll see.'
'Honey! Before you get any ideas, go look at what happened to…'
Pella burst in. 'Anna, you shoulda seen! Part of his skin was gone and his stomach was cut open. They said they pulled out his heart and his liver.'
Hecht's glower shut him off. 'I want you to remember that there's someone out there who does that to people.'
Pella was suitably cowed. For maybe thirty seconds.
'At least Vali has sense enough to be scared,' Anna said as the children raced off to the kitchen. 'I'd better keep an eye on them.' But the children, excited, returned eating seed cakes and scattering crumbs. 'They're hopeless!' Anna' complained. 'Freke will quit on me.' Freke (pronounced Freck-ie) Blagowidow was Anna's part-time maid and housekeeper. A desperate refugee, she would not quit no matter what.
'I'll talk to Herrin and Vernal next time I visit the baths.'
'Oh, no. This is my house. You won't bring any of your toys in here.'
Hecht leapt into the squabble happily. It distracted Anna from thoughts of Hagid.
A Captain-General was seldom alone. Especially since the attempts on Hecht's life. He wanted to vanish into the confusion of the Mother City, to sneak off to the Dreangerean embassy or the hideout of a spy from the Kaifate of al-Minphet, but the opportunity never arose.
Principate Delari asked, 'Did you collect this body, too?'
'I did, sir. I thought you'd want to examine it.'
'We're developing quite a collection. Though we've started releasing those from the other night. People are claiming them. We buried the ones that attacked you. Nobody wanted them.'
Hecht was surprised. 'People are claiming them?'
'They were all city residents. Disgruntled Brothens who wanted to bash whoever was in charge for being in charge when they're disgruntled. If you follow.'
Hecht did not and said so.
'There's an upwelling of revolutionary sentiment out there. Which doesn't seem to have caught any official attention yet.'
Hecht understood that. 'The Deves haven't bothered to warn us?'
'Say, rather, that a man in my position can't logically trust the cooperation and faithful support of people who follow false gods.'
Hecht considered reminding the Principate that Aaron of Chaldar never declared his god a deity different from that of the Devedians. What Aaron and the Founders set forth bore only passing resemblance to its Episcopal descendant.
'Were there Deves among the dead?'
'No. Mostly unemployed Episcopals, according to relatives-who had fallen in with a crowd that blames Sublime for all the world's ills.'
'Interesting. After centuries of being told that the Holy Father is infallible. Would the ambush be part of a broader conspiracy?'
'My sense is that it was, yes, but it was just slapped together, on the spur of the moment, by drunks in a winehouse egging each other on. They didn't mean it to go as far as it did. It wouldn't have if the Brotherhood hadn't been there.'
'No half measures there. For them it's all black and white.'
'A certain kind of man likes everything inscribed in absolutes. He gravitates to the Brotherhood naturally.'
Pinkus Ghort had inherited the problem of the dead. He had arrested none of the claimants of the corpses. He hoped to find out who was connected to whom, and how.
'Maybe Pinkus organized it so he can keep his job. No, sir. I'm joking. It doesn't look like the Five Families see much point to maintaining the City Regiment.'
'Oh. I have trouble recognizing it when you aren't being serious.'
'You aren't unique, sir.'
'Yes. So. Let's go examine your corpse.'
Hecht stayed out of the old man's way. Delari muttered to himself. Hecht worried that the body might betray its origins.
The Principate observed, 'A Calziran, presumably. A Praman, certainly. His one true God didn't protect him from this horror, though.'
'Sir?'
'We have a problem, Piper. Of a sort I've only read about.'
'Sir?'
'There's a necromancer among us. A sorcerer who kills people in order to effect his sorcery. And he's thrown it in our faces. He's daring us to come after him. Possibly to draw us out.'
'Really?' Hecht did not want to believe it. Firaldia was civilized. That sort of thing had not happened since the black heart emperors of the Old Empire had indulged their egos. 'If some human monster did this for sorcerous reasons, wouldn't that mean that there are Night things around strong enough to need rough handling?'
'It does. We should've anticipated this. It could become a real crisis.'
'What can I do?'
They were headed for Principate Delari's apartment now.
'Nothing. Pretend you haven't noticed. This animal won't watch his back if he thinks he hasn't gotten our attention.'
'All right.'
'You seem rattled.'
'I am. This is outside my experience. Outside my imagination.'
'Then loosen your mind up. Because horror and madness is coming.'
'Sir?'
'I'm not supposed to know. Sublime's party lumps me with Hugo Mongoz. Failing to realize that Mongoz is more than he seems, too.'
Hecht stirred impatiently. Which made Delari smile. 'In that case, you get to enjoy a short lecture before I give you the bad news.'
Piper set his expression in stone. The Principate could ramble endlessly if so inclined.
'Don't throw yourself on your sword, Piper. I'll keep it short. Here in the Chiaro Palace we not only fall into pro-and anti-Benedocto parties-siding with the high bidder- we also form factions according to our talents for manipulating the Instrumentalities of the Night. And our inclinations to use those talents. So while Doneto and I are at odds over Sublime's idiot ambitions, we're in lockstep about harnessing the powers of the Collegium.'
