Heris said, “If he’s a half-god and near-immortal he might not need a Construct. When was the bastard born? How long ago?”
No one knew. The child was mythical. Februaren grumbled, “At least four hundred years. Probably more.”
Hecht said, “You have an eyewitness. A participant. Inside the ascendant.”
“Who couldn’t say. Arlensul never developed any skill at grasping a place in time in the middle world. A common failing of the Night. Which has kept you alive. So far.”
Hecht said, “Whatever else, Renfrow is a place to start. Even if he isn’t our man he might know where to look.”
The Ninth Unknown blurted, “I’ve got it! When I was a boy! Younger than Pella. The Sixth Unknown was in charge. The Construct was primitive back then. But we did get more support from the Collegium. … You wouldn’t have recognized it. …”
“Grandfather! Did you have a point?”
“Oh. Sure. There was a brother who worked on the project. Something was wrong about him. Beyond being just plain creepy. A lot of brothers, especially ascetics and monks, are natural-born creepy. It has to do with the kind of personality that’s attracted to the life. …”
“Grandfather.”
“Yes. Creepy. I told my father and grandfather and his father. None of them wanted to hear it. He worked hard and didn’t do anything heinous in public. And he definitely had a talent for the work.”
Hecht said, “And his name was Brother Ferris.”
“No. It was Brother Lester. Lester … Temagat! That’s it. Temagat. He was way more interested in the Construct than anyone I’ve ever seen. Including Muno. But maybe excepting Heris. Heris is in there like a fish trying out water.”
“I have plans, ancestor.”
“Temagat disappeared under what I considered mysterious circumstances. No one else gave a rat’s ass. People came and went. The old folks only whined because they couldn’t come up with as dedicated a replacement.”
“Temagat? Lester Temagat?” Hecht asked. “You’re sure?”
“Of course I’m sure, pup. I’m old, not senile. The melon works as good as ever. Why?”
“I know that name.”
“Ah! Then talk to me, young Piper.”
“When we were in captivity in Plemenza, being interrogated by Ferris Renfrow, Pinkus Ghort told a story about one of his early jobs as a mercenary. He was working for the old Duke of Clearenza. Which was under siege by the Emperor. An Imperial agent named Lester Temagat supposedly murdered Ghort’s father and opened the gate during the night. This all came up because Ghort insisted that the man interrogating us was the man who called himself Lester Temagat back then.”
“Very interesting.”
“The problem is, Pinkus Ghort is notoriously unreliable about details of his own past. He’ll tell conflicting stories about the same incident on the same day. I didn’t try hard to find the truth about that. But Clearenzans don’t recall events the way Ghort did. Till now I’d have bet that the story was mostly true but with Pinkus Ghort in the Temagat role.”
“Rather a bleak indictment of your friend.”
“He is a friend. That doesn’t make him any less a villain to some. It doesn’t guarantee that he won’t be a villain to me, someday. Especially if he’s had too much wine. He can’t resist a good vintage.”
“Vintage this,” Anna said, ending that chatter. “Find out more about Pinkus. If only so we know how he came up with that name.”
“Anna?” All three men spoke her name at once.
“Pinkus Ghort is definitely a bastard. So far, he’s been our bastard. What are the chances he’s the half-god bastard you want to find?”
Futilely trying to be funny, Hecht suggested, “He would have to be several hundred years old to have done all the things he claims.” Which failed to stir a smile.
Cloven Februaren said, “You people will have to deal with that. My focus will be the Great Sky Fortress.”
“Wouldn’t this be part of that?” Hecht asked.
“The hunt for Pinkus Ghort’s past? Doubtful. Though my mind isn’t working with its usual cool precision. I’m a bit distracted these days.”
That piqued Principaté Delari’s curiosity. “Explain that.”
“The Windwalker is coming. Uh. No. Not here. Toward the entrance to the Realm of the Gods, through Andoray. He knows the way is open. And, before we got started, there was an explosive event under the Andorayan Sea. An immense surge of power. It’s fading now but it’s still leaking. Every Night thing able to get there is coming to feed.”
“You think he might overwhelm the others.”
“I’m scared that he’ll get strong enough to freeze the water between Andoray and the gateway. If he does, we’re doomed.”
Hecht pictured a map of the north. “Wouldn’t that approach be going the long way round? Coming along the south shore of the Shallow Sea would be shorter. He’d end up in Friesland, which would put him closer to the entrance.”
“He can’t leave the frozen country. The ice isn’t permanent south of the Shallow Sea. Yet.”
“I don’t recall my mythology that well, Grandfather,” Delari said. “Wasn’t Kharoulke afflicted with a curse that kept him from crossing open water?”
“Some. He can step over puddles and streams with little discomfort, unless the water touches him. He can wade through liquid water for a short time if he concentrates on managing the pain. If he takes the time, he can make water freeze for a hundred yards around him. One way of handling him, back when, was to make sure he stayed distracted around sizable water barriers.”
Hecht said, “This is a winter god who can’t abide water? Winter is all about ice and snow.”
“He isn’t bothered by ice or snow. They just get harder when he’s around.”
Anna observed, “There’s water naturally in the air. It evaporates. Would that explain why this devil is in a bad mood all the time?”
“Could be. Or, like some people, he could just be a natural-born asshole.”
“Well, gentlemen, I appreciate you letting me into your club tonight.” Anna downed a last sip of coffee, pushed her chair back. “But I’d better go check on the children.”
The Ninth Unknown told her, “When you get to the door, stop and count slowly to ten before you lift the latch.”
That puzzled everyone. For eight of the requested seconds.
Hecht grew irritated because the old man kept staring at Anna’s lower half.
Februaren pointed a finger, spoke a word. The word hung in the air, glowing like hot, violet metal.
Hecht loosed a violent belch, first in a gassy chorus that embarrassed everyone.
High-pitch shrieks erupted from the folds of Anna’s skirt. Shadows fell out, writhing, looking like foot-tall humanoids with scorpion tails and an extra set of arms. Nothing cast them. For an instant each shone the same dark glow as Februaren’s floating word. Then they collapsed into little piles of black sand. That sand quickly decayed to black dust.
The Ninth Unknown said, “A few seconds more, if you please, Anna. Heris, scatter that dust. Gently. You should find two tiny amber beads. Patience, Anna.”
Heris did as instructed. “I don’t see any beads. Just two flakes of gold.” She placed those in front of Februaren.
“Well, well.”
Anna asked, “Can I go, now?”
“Certainly. Catch hold of that word and drag it along. That’ll keep any others from sliding in while the door is open. Once you close that, give the word a shove to put it in motion. It’ll drift around and rout out any more lurking things. Lurking! I love that word. It should last twenty minutes. The floating word should, that is.”
Anna followed instructions, refusing to be impressed or intimidated by the unexpected.
The door chunked shut.
“So what do we have?” Hecht asked.
Everyone stared at the flakes. Hecht downed some more coffee. Finally, Delari said, “Bronte Doneto has gone clever on us.”
/>
Heris asked, “Why do you think it was him?”
“Because of the flakes. Any true Night thing would’ve left an egg. In this size, a bead. These were specially created from Night things, then trained by a sorcerer who had the inclination to spend a lot of time shaping them.”
“All that from a couple flakes?”
“All that. I’d guess they represent years of work.”
Heris asked, “How did you know?”
Februaren tapped the side of his nose. “Talent, sweetling. Talent. Take my word. Since you don’t have it yourself you’ll never really understand.”
“I understand when somebody is blowing smoke, though.” Heris was irked but only mildly so. Februaren had not been condescending. “Won’t their disappearance tell him you’re on to him?”
“He has half a brain. He should assume that anyway.”
“When he doesn’t know you’re still alive?”
“He’ll know that as soon as he gets the news from the show downstairs.”
Principaté Delari said, “I have no love for Bronte Doneto. But I have an almost boundless respect. He’s done an amazing job of crafting himself, almost entirely in secrecy. I still have no real idea what he was up to in the catacombs with the Witchfinders that time. You be careful of him, Piper. He must have figured out that you and Armand helped me escape.”
Februaren added, “Keep an eye out for rogue Witchfinders, too.”
“Rogue Witchfinders?”
“You’ve been around the Brotherhood of War most of the time since you arrived in Firaldia. Have you figured out what the Witchfinders were up to in the catacombs? Or in Sonsa, at the Ten Galleons?”
“No.” And he had tried to find out. Cautiously.
“Chances are, nobody knows anymore. Except maybe Bronte Doneto, the only survivor. Barring Lila or Vali knowing something they’ve never reported.”
“There’s nothing there.”
Heris said, “You could always ask the Patriarch himself.”
The others chuckled charitably.
The Ninth Unknown asked, “How soon till you go haring off after your impossible fantasy, Piper?”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m sure you won’t resist the blandishments of Alten Weinberg. I’m hoping you hold out awhile. So Muno can get you connected to the Construct.”
Hecht’s response was instant aversion.
Februaren revealed a lot of teeth. Those could have used more attention. “You aren’t in the Realm of Peace anymore, Piper. And it’s important.”
Delari observed, “The Realm of Peace turned its back on you.”
“You don’t have to do that. I get it. But I don’t like it. I don’t like being an exile, either. I’ll spend as much time with the Construct as I can.”
Heris remarked, “Note that he denied nothing about Alten Weinberg, nor the Empire, nor the two pullets running the farmyard there.”
Februaren said, “Oh, we noted.”
Hecht’s cheeks grew heated.
***
Breakfast at Anna Mozilla’s house. The Consent family visiting. Noë in the kitchen with Anna. Little Consents infesting the place like they were twice their actual number, playing some game where they fled from Pella and the girls, shrieking and running.
Hecht slumped in a comfortable chair, sipped a mint tea, and enjoyed the domestic chaos. Titus occupied a chair facing him. He had said nothing since they finished eating. He sipped from a showy Clearenzan glass filled with grape juice. He, too, was savoring the moment. Finally, reluctantly, he asked about Alten Weinberg. “Are we going?”
Hecht nodded. “I don’t know when. I visited the Penital. Told them we’ll take the job if the Empress still wants us.”
“Us?”
“She takes everybody. Or nobody. Has Prosek decided?”
“He waffles. He loves the stinks and bangs and won’t get to play with them if he follows the Brotherhood to the Holy Lands.”
“I don’t want to lose him. Or Kait Rhuk. By the way. There’s a new ambassador. Bayard va Still-Patter. Graf fon Wistrcz got called home. His wife did something to offend the Empress.”
“Bayard. Not so good. He didn’t like us taking over his place.”
“All is forgiven. If he hadn’t been made to suffer through that, Katrin wouldn’t have given him this plum assignment.”
“What’s holding you here?”
Hecht made a gesture to include their surroundings. “And Principaté Delari. That old man is a slave driver.”
“Having you do what?”
“He claims it’s education. I’m not allowed to talk about it.” And did not want to. Encounters with the Construct left him feeling inadequate, even retarded. Heris said she had felt the same in the beginning. He could accept that intellectually but never before had he had difficulty mastering any skill.
“All right. We’ll go when we go. I won’t need to look for work right away. But I do worry about Noë getting sick of having me underfoot.”
“I can empathize with that.” Hecht was uncomfortable. Titus no longer seemed able to conceive of life without his being part of Piper Hecht’s staff.
Consent said, “By the way, I’ve found where Krulik and Sneigon are relocating. Which isn’t anywhere near where I expected.” He took a folded sheet of paper from his sleeve, handed it over. Hecht opened it, smoothed it. On it was a painstakingly produced map of the upper Vieran Sea. A red circle lay in the wild mountains over on the Eastern Empire side. “Somewhere in there. I found it because Krulik and Sneigon are recruiting veterans to defend something. Some of my agents were approached. I had them sign up.”
“I presume you know more than this.”
“Of course. Hidden in rough country that’s mostly empty. Plague wiped out the population several hundred years ago.”
An odd and terrible time that had been. The plague hit hardest in the Eastern Empire just as the Praman Conquest reached its ferocious peak. Some believed that the vast movements of peoples at the time spread the disease. Within the Eastern Empire urban populations became so depleted that rural folk flooded in hoping to prosper. Many of them died as well. Vast tracts of country had gone back to nature. And remained wilderness even now, centuries later.
“Why just there?”
“Splendid isolation, yet a river wide and gentle enough for small barge traffic. Vast old forests to turn into charcoal. And nearby ore deposits. Not the best but still good. Especially if they use forced labor. There’s no government to interfere. Tribal leaders can be bribed or intimidated. Those wild people are why they hired soldiers. The ownership plans a huge, bloody demonstration first excuse they get. Construction has already begun. They want a huge operation that’ll make them filthy rich selling to everybody.”
“There are, indeed, fortunes to be made creating the tools for efficient organized murder. What about sulfur? For making firepowder. There aren’t any sulfur mines over there, are there?”
“That they have to import. Unless they make the firepowder somewhere else.”
“Which would make some sense.”
“I’ll keep on it. Yes. But you need to remember that we no longer have any legal standing.”
“I understand. But we’ll pretend. We’ll be our own law.”
“Also, some new intelligence sources have opened up. Because of that.”
“Oh?” Immediately curious.
“A lot of Brothen Devedians aren’t happy about what Krulik and Sneigon are doing. Ones who have seen what happens when Deves get blamed. People like refugees from Sonsa. They’re sure Krulik and Sneigon will bring down the wrath of the Chaldarean world on the Deve communities.”
“You never know.” Full of one of Anna’s finest breakfasts ever, Hecht wanted nothing more than to go back to bed.
“I know. The hammer will fall because Chaldareans will be terrified the Deves might arm themselves with fearsome weapons.”
“And they’d be right.”
“Probably. But
I remind you, Deves never start the ruckus.”
“Titus! Of course they do. Just by refusing to acknowledge a few self-evident religious truths.”
“I’m now a devout convert, boss, but bullshit!”
Hecht laughed.
“I haven’t found anything useful about Ferris Renfrow or Pinkus Ghort. I don’t want to push, especially with Renfrow. I don’t want to alert him. His network is bigger, more sophisticated, and more deadly.”
“I get you, Titus. He worries me, too.”
“Thank you. With Ghort the problem is a lack of resources. I can’t send somebody to Grolsach. Assuming Ghort really is from there. The investigator wouldn’t survive.”
“Naturally. What about the catamite?”
“Not much there, either. He disappeared the day Boniface died. He may have fled to the Empire, in disguise. He might be living on the street. Somebody might have killed him. All three hypotheses have their advocates. Why are you concerned?”
“He lived with Principaté Delari. He heard things. The Principaté is worried that he might repeat them.”
For an instant Hecht wondered if Cloven Februaren might have dealt with Osa Stile. He would have to ask.
“I see.” Said in a tone suggesting that Titus knew he was not hearing the whole truth.
Heris rotated into being behind Titus’s chair. Her mouth burst open. This was a huge blunder on her part. She turned again, hastily.
Consent felt the air stir both times but Heris was gone before he looked back. “What the hell was that?”
“A ghost? Something. It was only there for half a second.”
“But …”
“If this was my place I’d make Anna move,” Hecht said. “Too many weird things happen in this neighborhood. Not to mention too much dangerous stuff, like people blowing up carts loaded with kegs of firepowder. Now what?”
Someone had begun pounding on the door.
Hecht headed that way.
Pella streaked past. And was totally disappointed when he found Heris at the door. Who told him, “My feelings are hurt just by being here with you, too, Pella. I need to see your father.”
By now everyone had come to see what was going on. Pella told Heris, “I thought it might be Kait Rhuk. He said he might come. … Uh-oh.”