Lord of the Silent Kingdom

tempted to turn into a mob.'

'Yes, sir.' Bechter grabbed several men who had nothing else to do.

Consent reported, 'There's word, sir. They've got him. They're headed for the gate. We should think about going.'

'Excellent. You men. Get that fire started.' That would make it hard for the Duke's men to come to his rescue.

Bechter fell in beside Hecht as they left the city. 'Sir, there was a man in that crowd back there that we've seen before.'

'Uhm?'

'In Brothe. He's a little under average height, average frame, hair well trimmed. Beard likewise. No hair on the cheeks. Head and chin both brown, so he's probably not a native. Salted with gray. Gray eyes. Forty to fifty years old. He looks pretty much like Grade Drocker did at the same age. Make that like Drocker would've looked if he didn't get mutilated.'

'Really?' He would have to consult Principate Delari about that.

He thought he had seen the man Bechter meant. Without noting any resemblance to Drocker. Whom he had not known unmutilated. He had had only a few glimpses of the sorcerer earlier. 'Was he wearing brown?'

'Yes, sir. And every time I've noticed him it's been right after that creepy feeling came on.'

'Worth remembering. Keep an eye out once we're back in Brothe. I'll see if I can't get the Collegium after him.'

The Patriarch himself came out for Piper Hecht's report on the Clearenza operation, though the Captain- General never spoke to him directly. By the time the Collegium assembled Sublime had accepted Germa fon Dreasser's ransom and the Duke was headed home. The soldiers were not pleased. They had received no share of the ransom. There had been casualties, though just a few and only two of those fatalities.

Hecht told Anna, 'I can't fathom this man's mind. He doesn't understand people at all. Next week he'll tell my men to go break up one of those riots. And he won't be able to figure out why they just stand around watching.'

'It's getting scary here, Piper.'

Her tone got his attention. 'Yes?'

'It isn't just the riots. I don't feel safe outside anymore. I don't like the kids going out. Not since that man was killed. I always feel like somebody is watching me. Even stalking me. The kids feel it, too.'

'I'll talk to Pella. He understands the streets better than you or I do.'

Anna was not impressed. He needed to make a better showing. 'There's an advantage to being the Captain- General of the Armies of the Faith.'

'Other than being able to fling around an overweight title?'

'Yes. I can tell people to do things. And they do them. Even if they think it's crazy to hold exercises in a neighborhood like this. They'll do what I say because they're afraid they won't get paid.'

'And what does all that mean?'

'That I can come around here and turn the whole neighborhood over. And claim it's business. I'd be hunting heretics.'

Heretics were about to become big business. There was a lot of talk about heresy in the Collegium, mostly among Sublime's cronies. Preparing minds for what they hoped would come.

'Bring that idiot Morcant Farfog. Maybe the boogeyman will get him.'

Hecht had not met Bishop Farfog. He knew little about the man other than that he headed the Patriarchal Office for the Suppression of Sacrilege and Heresy, with the title of Chief Inquestor. Rumor had the monasteries emptying out as monks signed up to help.

What little Hecht knew about Farfog suggested that he was more foul than Bishop Serifs of Antieux had been.

Why did Sublime favor such men?

'Clever work in Clearenza,' Principate Delari told Hecht, joining him in the baths. Osa Stile smirked from behind the Principate.

'Thank you, sir. Lieutenant Consent deserves most of the credit.'

'And you used his information to sculpt a plan. You made the decision to go.'

'Uh…'

'You took a chance. It paid off. Most men would have dithered like Tormond IV, never confident enough to jump. We suffer from an absence of decisiveness. Everyone wants a sure thing.'

'We sure got a surprise when we discovered those Braunsknechts.' Though the Imperials had gotten a big surprise themselves.

Delari chuckled.

Herren and Vernal seemed a little starstruck this morning. And unusually friendly. 'Stop that!' Hecht told Vernal.

Delari chuckled again. 'Everybody loves a winner.'

'There's a problem, sir.'

'I don't like the sound of that. What?'

'I thought it was my imagination till Sergeant Bechter mentioned having the same problem.'

The Principate listened. Hecht described the creepy feelings he sometimes got and that Bechter sometimes saw a particular man when that feeling got to him.

'I may have seen this man myself, once or twice. Bechter says he looks a lot like Grade Drocker a few years before his misfortune. Though shorter.'

Delari frowned. Drocker's passing still pained him.

Hecht preferred to avoid the subject, too. Because Drocker's unhealing wounds, that claimed him eventually, had been his fault.

'Sir, I'm just reporting hearsay. I didn't know Grade Drocker before his misfortune.'

'What happened to my son still troubles me, Piper. A lot. You can't imagine how much. But talking around the sides of it doesn't help. Say what you mean if you have something to say.'

'Yes, sir. Though there isn't anything else to say, now.'

'How is your Anna doing?'

'She's worried.' Hecht explained.

'We haven't learned anything more from the man who was butchered. No one claimed his body. Other than the usual sailors and embassy people, there aren't many Pramans around. The dead man doesn't seem to have any local connections. If we had anyone capable, I'd try raising his shade.'

'Sir!' That lurked at the edge of the blackest of sins imaginable.

Osa Stile looked shaken, too.

Might Hagid bin Nassim have known Osa Stile, back in Dreanger?

Possibly. Hagid's father might have been in on the planning. But had Osa seen the corpse?

'Only thinking out loud. Tell Anna not to worry. We'll arrange for her to feel more comfortable.' The old man might have been decreeing a new law of nature.

Chip by chip, glacially, another face emerged from the facade of the doddering Principate Muniero Delari. Was this the real Eleventh Unknown? Hecht was certain, now, that

Muniero Delari was the heavyweight sorcerer far peoples believed members of the Collegium to be.

'Herren, stop that!'

'You don't like it, Captain-General?'

'I like it altogether too much. Stop it.'

Osa Stile snickered. So did both girls. But Herren desisted.

Delari made a tiny gesture. Osa's amusement stopped instantly.

Osa might not be as much in control as he wanted.

'There are two worlds, Piper. This is particularly true in the Church,' Principate Delari said. They were under the Chiaro Palace, overlooking the huge map. Hecht saw no obvious changes. 'But it's true everywhere, every when. There's the raucous old world of everyday passion, pain, and corruption. The one where we come of age, basically.