'What is it?' The man in brown frightened him. Little else did. He was testy because he considered that a failing.
'I want to caution you. There are schemes afoot with you as their target.'
'Not really news.'
'True. But arrows are in flight. I don't know what. Or where. But it's coming. Also, it's time to rid you of that amulet. I've created a replacement that will do everything it does, including cloud men's minds when they start asking you about your background. And it may polish up your personality besides.'
Februaren laughed outright at Hecht's expression. 'That's not true. But, face it, Piper. You're a bit of a stick.'
'Why are you here?'
'To swap your amulet for a new and improved version that won't let your great enemy track you. And for the same reason I'm always nearby. To be your guardian angel.'
Hecht prepared to quarrel.
'How many times have they tried to kill you?'
Hecht counted off, starting with the effort by Benatar Piola, in Runch, on the Brotherhood island of Staklirhod.
'Very good. At least you do recall the ones you were aware of at the time.'
'Meaning?'
'Meaning, you thickheaded and ungrateful excuse for a descendant, that you've survived another two attempts for every one you know about. Thanks mainly to your great-great-grandpa. Since the end of the Calziran Crusade, you've become the focus of an assassination industry.'
The old man made no sense. He never had. Hecht said so.
'You're right, Piper. Insofar as your argument goes. You're a talented military personality. You've had some luck. You've had support from some hidden sorceries. But there's no reason to think you're likely to reshape the world. Easier to assume you've triggered a lethal obsession in someone of immense power.'
'That's easy. The Rascal. I've never been close to anyone else who has his connections with the Instrumentalities of the Night.'
'The Rascal?'
'Er-Rashal el-Dhulquamen. The great…'
'I know who he is. From the little I've been able to find out, he seems the most likely candidate for being your great enemy. And he's completely mad.'
'Really?'
'Sarcasm doesn't become you, Piper. Let's get this amulet change done. Your bodyguards have begun to develop a vague notion that something is going on. Give me your left hand.'
Whatever happened next, it did not stick in Hecht's mind. After some vague fumbling around his left wrist, there was a moment when he felt like he had been relieved of the weight of the world. Then he was standing in the middle of the meadow, alone. His left wrist itched horribly.
For an instant he thought he must be something more than just Piper Hecht, Captain-General of the Patriarchal armed forces. The word soultaken came to mind. He drove it out.
He might be something wicked, after these years with the Unbeliever, but a tool of the Instrumentalities of the Night he was not, nor would he be.
Before he shook his disorientation completely disconcerted lifeguards surrounded him again.
He had had enough fresh air.
'Bechter! Titus! What is this?' Hecht had found four similar rings on his map of the End of Connec. The map lay on its own crude table. It never got put away. Three rings were silver. The other was gold.
Bechter and Consent arrived. Consent said, 'I don't know.'
The rings were covered with symbols, none Chaldarean. Two lay atop sites where serious setbacks for Sublime's cause had occurred. Places where Arnhanders and Grolsachers, striving to do God's work, had suffered severe defeats.
Another ring lay on Viscesment. The last rested atop Antieux, eighty miles to the southwest in the End of Connec.
'Sergeant Bechter, see if you can't find the Principate for me.'
'Which one?'
'How many do we have? Did Doneto sneak back?'
'No. But two more showed up last night. The Bruglioni and Gorin Linczski from Aparion.'
'Linczski? I don't know him. And that name doesn't sound Aparionese.'
'I think he's from Creveldia, originally. Sedlakova could tell you about him.'
'Why are they here?'
Bechter shrugged. 'Aparion? Sonsa?'
'The old man is the one I want.'
'On the way, then.'
'Bechter, when people like that turn up I want to hear about it when they're still on the horizon. Not the next day. No exceptions. No excuses.'
Principate Delari said, 'The meaning would be between you and grandfather. You talked to him?'
Hecht nodded. 'Mostly he talked about saving me from people who want me dead. You're sure it was him?'
'Yes. The rings may have belonged to someone who had you marked as a target. Though that's just a guess. I couldn't understand him half the time when he explained things face-to-face. Let me study the rings.' Seconds later, 'They all have the same symbol stamped inside.' He indicated a trident that looked like a diving bird. 'Piper?'
'Sorry. I was startled. I've seen that before. It's a pagan religious symbol. From antiquity.'
'Eastern?'
'I saw it there. But I think it turned up everywhere before the Old Empire tamed the Instrumentalities of the Night.'
'Let's look at the map again.' After fifteen seconds' study, 'Has anyone plotted the appearances of the revenants in the Connec?'
'Revenants?'
'Hilt. Rook. Weaver. Shade.'
'Never heard of those last two.'
'More of the same. Personifications. Discord. Crop disease.'
'Saints?'
Delari chuckled. 'You might say. Answer the question.'
'I can't. Titus can, I'm sure.' He called downstairs for Consent. When Titus arrived, Hecht said, 'We need to know where all those weird things were seen. In the Connec.'
'Sir?' Consent seemed unfocused.
'Rook. Hilt. Those things. I know you've heard the stories. We've talked about it'
'Oh. Yes. I kept a journal on that.'
'Show us some whereats on the map.'
'All over here. Where the Grolsachers first turned up. The Sadew Valley.' Consent went on. Sightings had been grouped closely where two of the rings had lain. But the ande Lette area had produced the most sightings. No ring lay there.
'What about Antieux? Or Viscesment?'
'No reports there yet.'
'Interesting,' Delari said.
'Is something wrong, Titus?' Hecht asked.
'Sir?'
'You seem distracted.'
'I just got a letter from Noe. Anna and the kids are fine. They've moved back to her house.'
Hecht knew. As the Captain-General's woman Anna could take advantage of the courier service.
