“Understand this, Lord Commander of the Righteous. One last time. It was real. Katrin’s pregnancy, Katrin’s delivery, Katrin’s baby. All real. I was there. I saw that thing come out. It was awful. The midwives made it look a lot better before they put it in the coffin. They were terrified. They kept babbling about sorcery and the Night.”
“Hold on.” Even now Hecht had trouble believing in Katrin’s pregnancy. “Any chance somebody besides Jaime could have been the father?”
“Piper! None! How dare you …”
“It’s a process. Seduction of the truth. Save your indignation. So. Before, your sister was rude, self-centered, uncaring, and bullheaded. Everything we admire in a monarch once they’re safely dead. But now she’s more of all that, and crazy religious besides.”
“Yes. She lives according to her faith. As she sees it. But what she sees keeps changing and getting uglier.”
“If she’s devout, then she didn’t have knowing congress with the Night. That she birthed a monster wouldn’t be her doing.”
“Wrong! Of course it’s her fault. She let that animal Jaime spill his seed inside her. She wanted him to. She begged him to.”
“It wasn’t a match ordained in Heaven.” Hecht looked around hard. Where would an eavesdropper be lurking? Along with what else?
He tried to caution Helspeth with a hand sign.
She forged on. “For Katrin it was. It still is. She’s blind about Jaime. Say something against him and you’re on her bad side for sure. I loathe myself for it, but I feed her fantasy.”
Hecht had trouble staying with the discussion. Just sitting there, frightened, Helspeth distracted him. She stumbled over her words. “It’s different when something really could happen. Consequences start rattling around inside my head.”
“It’s not naughty letters to somebody hundreds of miles away anymore.”
“The consequences …”
“Could be awful. Could be deadly.”
“Katrin talks about it every time I see her.”
Hecht frowned. And stared. And could think of no response.
“It’s her new way to torture me. She couldn’t enjoy my misery when she sent me to Runjan. This she can. She asks embarrassing questions in front of people.”
Hecht sighed. An enduring fantasy seemed doomed to a humiliating demise.
“She’s looking for a husband for me again, too.”
“You’d expect that. Now that she isn’t carrying the next Emperor. She’ll feel more insecure.”
“I did expect it. It took her longer than I thought. I did good looking out for her and her interests. She needed time to find some arcane way to think that was all a plot.”
Still concerned about eavesdroppers, Hecht said nothing.
Helspeth understood. “I just wish there was some way to make Katrin understand that I’m not her enemy.”
Her good intentions could be irrelevant. The Princess Apparent was not just a person, she was a symbol. She represented a ready alternative to an unpopular monarch.
Helspeth changed the subject. “How’s your wound? Can you go to the field?”
“Do you know something?” Spring was not far off. Hecht had men training to help with the floods. If they came. They did, three years out of five. “I still have some pain when I’m not careful.”
“Katrin might be thinking about using you against her critics.”
“Not a good idea.”
“Oh?”
“It’d create more problems than it could possibly solve.” Stated for the possible audience.
Using foreign hirelings against her own nobility would enrage the whole class, who resented the central authority already.
“And if she orders you?”
“I’ll carry out my orders. After I do my best to explain why there must be a better way.”
Helspeth winked. “We haven’t gotten much done. But you’d better go. I can’t restrain myself much longer. I don’t want to reduce my market value yet.”
“Nor do I.” Inasmuch as that would be a lapse of trust on a par with outright treason.
***
Even Titus Consent seemed to be hoping for salacious news. “It was just another meeting, troops. Nothing for any of you. Though I did gather that our employer’s reason is slipping. You all go on to bed. Except you, Titus.” Alone with Consent, he said, “Katrin is thinking about giving us crazy orders once the weather turns.”
“Not good, considering the foreign situation.”
“You’ve had news?” Having no regular contact with Heris or Cloven Februaren left him feeling blind.
“I had two reports today. Just coincidence, that. One came from Arnhand, the other out of the Eastern Empire.”
“Bad news?”
“It could be. In Arnhand they’re preparing a massive invasion of the Connec. Anne of Menand bought a truce with Santerin by giving King Brill most of what he claims is his.”
“Guaranteeing bigger trouble there, someday. And it doesn’t bode well for our friends down south, now.”
“I’m sure Anne had her fingers crossed. She’ll turn on Santerin as soon as Arnhand controls the wealth of the Connec.”
“Probably. And King Brill deserves it if he lets her get away with it.”
“Anne hasn’t bought the Empress off, though.”
“Uhn.” Hecht thought he might suggest that Katrin just overlook whatever her frontier barons did to take advantage of Anne’s Connecten preoccupation.
“But the other report is the real bad news. Krulik and Sneigon have begun offering their weapons and firepowder. The Eastern Emperor and Indala al-Sul Halaladin have shown a lot of interest.”
“Not good from our point of view.”
“No. They’ve heard from Serenity and the Patriarchal States, too.”
“That would be Pinkus’s fault. Bet you. He’d want to stock up. He loves falcons almost as much as Prosek and Rhuk do. But with all the demand, how will Krulik and Sneigon manufacture enough weapons?”
“They might not. They’ve only made sample deliveries so far. They’re taking orders against future delivery, no credit offered.”
“That’s smart, considering the people they’re dealing with. Pinkus might never see a new weapon. Unless Bronte Doneto is a better money manager than his predecessors.”
“Yes. Here’s a problem. They’ve figured out how to make big lots of firepowder. They’re experimenting all the time, trying to improve it. One formula includes nephron from Dreanger. I don’t know what that means but someone thought we should know.”
“Nephron is used by mummy makers. I know that. I’ll have to tell the Empress about this, first chance.”
“What good will that do?”
“Who knows? Maybe none. But she has those moments when she’s as fierce and brilliant as her father.” Hecht knew what Johannes would do, Monestacheus Deleanu be damned. “Have your agents dug out Krulik and Sneigon’s future plans?”
“No. But they’re obvious. Get filthy rich producing the instruments of murder.”
“The very best instruments. Of which, you’ll agree, they can produce only so many.”
“Of course. Maybe they’ll go to auctioning their weapons.” That was basic economic sense, every man’s daydream — and a good way to get butchered by an exasperated prince.
“Or?”
“Or what?”
“Or they could pick and choose who gets what. They could steal the power to decide winners and losers.”
Titus grunted unhappily.
“Does that noise have meaning?”
“Krulik and Sneigon moved out to that wilderness in part because they’re so greedy their own people would have turned on them if they had stayed in Brothe.”
“A point you made last year.”
“Keep it in mind.”
“I’ll consider it. I need to rest. The wound is really barking tonight.”
“Want something?”
“No. I don’t want to get addicted.
”
That night Hecht spent an hour tapping on his pendant. He received only a curt acknowledgment from Heris.
He had not seen Heris in months, nor Cloven Februaren in twice as long. He had not weaned himself from emotional reliance on the Lord of the Silent Kingdom. The protection of the Ninth Unknown had been there as certain as the dawn.
The pain in his left shoulder was a solid reminder of the change.
What were those two doing? Why such focus? How grim had it become?
***
A warm wind came up around the end of the Jagos, putting smiles on every face. Though pessimists like Titus Consent still talked doom and gloom through their exposed teeth.
The snows might melt in a rush. The Bleune and its tributaries could flood. That was the case, three years out of five.
The Commander of the Righteous felt no compassion for those who would suffer. “The waters do rise three years out of five. Anybody who keeps living where they’re sure to get wet deserves whatever they get.” But he would help with the relief effort.
***
Piper Hecht was out reviewing his troops. They, with their animals and equipment, had assembled in the Franz-Benneroust Plaza, in front of the main citadel. Franz-Benneroust had been a weak, early Grail Emperor, forgotten except for his public works, though he had ruled longer than any Grail Emperor since. He had spent most of his income improving Alten Weinberg and Hochwasser, and building bridges. His own descendants did not recall him well enough to connect him with the name attached to so many buildings and bridges.
Hecht knew because he accumulated such knowledge. It was a compulsion and a defense mechanism. The more he knew the safer he felt. He was better able to fit in.
For the first time in an age he wondered where he would be if er-Rashal had not made Gordimer fear him.
For the first time in an age he examined the question of why the Rascal needed him dead or out of al-Minphet permanently. As ever, he found no answers.
For the first time in an age he wondered if Gordimer and er-Rashal knew he still lived. Or if they cared, since he was out of their way.
Him leading an Imperial crusade ought to remind them. He could go south from the Holy Lands. It should not be hard to convince Katrin that Dreanger needed liberating, too. Dreanger had been critical to the early history of the Chaldarean faith. Definitely more important than Firaldia had been till the Praman Conquest inundated that end of the world.
He reminded himself that Katrin Ege was the daughter of the Emperor Johannes III and far more clever than she pretended. She would not be led easily.
The parade went off with minimal difficulties. His soldiers were paid up, well fed, not overworked, had several sorts of sharp new uniforms, and could not be in better morale. There were fourteen hundred of them now. Almost to a man they were living the dream that had drawn them into service. Only absent was the part where they got to smash enemy cities and get rich on the plunder.
They were sure that part would come soon.
Drago Prosek and Kait Rhuk concluded the event with a thunderous concert from their falcons. Sulfurous clouds of firepowder smoke drifted through the city in sulfurous clouds, potent reminder of where the power lay.
26. The Chosen: Transitions
The Windwalker’s thrall had fallen off half a frozen world. Wherever they could, wherever they were bright enough, whole peoples took flight.
The edge of the ice became the realm of fury, of war and chaos. Few princes or peoples were as welcoming as Tsistimed the Golden and the Hu’n-tai At.
But Tsistimed did rule the steppes and mountains for six thousand miles.
In the west geography and history made the situation a little different. The refugee problem was not as troublesome. The lands above the Jago Mountains had not been heavily populated, initially, and many natives of the northern principalities had migrated south already. Only around the cities was there a significant impact. Thousands could live off the land in the wilds. And only thousands had escaped the Windwalker’s reign.
The god had spent the rest.
Few escaped the lands above the Shallow Sea, most of those by crossing the Ormo Strait on a bridge of ice that formed briefly during the winter.
The handful who failed to make that crossing would not see summer’s return.
***
A dozen figures prowled the shingle where the fallen god lay, all encompassed by the feeble thrum-hum of the life still animating the Windwalker. Seven were men. One was a wild-haired woman. Those eight were all mad, dedicated priests, the last of Kharoulke’s local adherents. They protected him from lesser Instrumentalities. They prayed and performed rites in an effort to waken him. They grew weaker by the day. They had little to eat but dead things found on the ice, or washed ashore during those brief times when the tides were not roaring back and forth.
In the main, they scavenged the gaunt corpses of fallen Chosen.
Of the other four, two were Krepnights, the Elect. Feeble imitations of the original. The big one stood four feet tall. The other barely topped two. Both had the look of work hastily done by an exhausted artisan.
Like the mad priests, they tried to protect their creator.
Two more madmen roamed the shingle. They were not the Windwalker’s friends. They wanted to murder the god. They did not know how to manage it but they had perfect faith that it could be done.
They were more cunning than the Windwalker’s protectors, whom they had been picking off and eating almost from the moment Kharoulke dragged himself out of the water.
Once a woman came who tried to show them how to realize their ambitions. They attacked her. She did not speak their language so, clearly, could not be trusted.
She hurt them both and went away.
They saw her again, occasionally, never up close. She must be some powerful Instrumentality. She appeared when so inclined and vanished the same. Her visits always marked the start of a setback for the Windwalker. Most visits produced explosions and clouds of noxious brimstone smoke.
Yet Kharoulke kept recovering.
Divine healing went slowly with the wells of power going silent. Kharoulke’s progress suffered frequent setbacks. But the trend was definite.
And Kharoulke was timeless. The pesky mortals could try as hard as they liked. They would fade. They would die. One day, one century, Kharoulke the Windwalker would rise from the shingle as he had risen from the prison where his supplanters had bound him. He would reclaim his frozen realm.
His pain was exquisitely terrible, and without respite.
Kharoulke managed it by fantasizing about himself in the future middle world, exacting his revenge. The dream was much like the real thing would be. Sometimes he lost his way in time and thought he was there already. But his condition did join him to the moment more tightly than usual for an Instrumentality of his magnitude.
Vaguely, he sensed the surface of the nearby ice start to slicken and run.
Now a season of warmth would add to his miseries.
27. The Holy Lands: Fierce New Blood
The Mountain and Azim al-Adil had their first serious encounter with the new castellan of Gherig, at Indala’s suggestion, as spring began to threaten the Holy Lands. Indala wanted to test the Arnhander prince, who was little older than Azim.
Reports said Black Rogert’s successor was businesslike. He was better liked than du Tancret but considered cold and aloof. How he would handle combat remained a mystery. He had gone to Los Naves de los Fantas with his brother but had not been allowed to join the fighting, being thought too young.
In the event, Anselin of Menand proved as valiant and fierce an opponent as any warrior could want. Azim al-Adil and Nassim Alizarin avoided death in addition to humiliation only by being equipped with the faster horses.
The Praman infantry suffered. Those who survived did so by fleeing into terrain where their less numerous enemy dared not follow.
Having learned what he wanted to know, Indala sent reinforcement
s and orders to harass Gherig relentlessly. No traffic was to move westward out of Lucidia till he led the way himself, at the head of all the armies of Qasr al-Zed.
Azim admitted that there was a scheme afoot but he could not share details. He knew nothing. He had not been invited into Indala’s confidence.
***
Rogert du Tancret gathered his cronies in Vantrad. They laid wicked plans. Black Rogert made no effort to hide his ambition, which was to usurp the Holy Diadem, the supposed Crown of Aaron, which went to the kings of Vantrad. The Diadem, nominally, elevated Vantrad’s kings to lordship over the princes and counts of all the Crusader states.
King Berismond was fourteen, plagued by congenital infirmities, chronic diseases, and a marriage made out of political convenience. He always wore gloves and a veil. Clothilde, his queen, was twice his age. Her family had connections with the du Tancrets going back to the home countries. Clothilde had no objection to replacing her mostly useless, heirless, third husband with a fourth who had proven himself a real man.
The lords and knights of the Crusader states had strong feelings about Rogert du Tancret, and about honor. Individual interpretations led men to choose, to stand with Black Rogert or against him. Armed dispute seemed likely.
Both parties began wooing Gisela Frakier, du Tancret’s with less success. Some people did remember from one day to the next.
In Shamramdi Indala al-Sul Halaladin put in long hours rehearsing provocateurs who would try to get a deadly squabble started.
***
Nassim Alizarin underestimated Anselin of Menand just once. Thereafter he made the Prince’s life a hell on earth. Indala gave him the tools. He kept them sharp and used them often.
28. The Ninth Unknown:
Castle in the Wilderness
Pure misery. Misery rendered down, concentrated, coagulated, then force-fed to those experiencing it. Thus did Cloven Februaren think of his recent life. In a namby-pamby sort of way.
The decision to bring the Aelen Kofer to the fortress of the Bastard started the misery. That misery had not yet ended. That fortress had not yet been attained.