a dramatic turn. Serenity’s most obdurate supporters had fled into Krois, where they would assist the Patriarch in waiting the several days it would take the Captain-General to come rescue them.
Whether or not Serenity liked it, Pinkus Ghort could not just turn his back on the Grand Duke. That would get him slaughtered. He needed to maintain a force capable of making a rescue.
Loud supporters of the Patriarch were scarce today. Those Hecht did see were in the custody of partisans of families not named Benedocto. There was no resistance.
Could that thing down under have been a revenant old god of strife?
Hecht delivered the Empress and her party to the Penital, where Ambassador va Still-Patter had been under siege for weeks. The besiegers had gone away during the night.
Hecht rubbed his left wrist. The amulet barely tickled this morning.
Principaté Delari had done good. He had done real good.
* * *
Military operations continued. Krois had to be isolated. The Chiaro Palace had to be neutralized. The north side gates had to be taken under control to forestall their use by the Captain-General, whose motley Patriarchal levies now outnumbered the Imperials harassing them.
Hecht went to one of the little gates of the Castella dollas Pontellas and asked to see his family. After he had made arrangements for his soldiers with families locally to visit their loved ones, with minimal risk.
Chaos waxed and waned. There were no serious outbreaks. No attack on the Devedian quarter materialized. Hecht was quick to encourage rumors that blamed him for having kept an attack from developing.
* * *
Hecht finally sat down with his family. Even Muniero Delari was there. Though triumphant, the old man looked like he was on his last legs, and believed that himself. “This time was too much, Piper. Protecting the Construct, harassing Doneto, slaying his monster, trying to turn the tide in the Collegium … All too much for one old man. And Doneto is still out there, scheming up something else.”
“You stop. He’s been thwarted. Leave the rest for someone else.”
“There is no one else.”
“Pella. I have a mission for you. You can draft Vali to help.”
“Dad?”
“Put this old coot into bed and sit on him till I tell you to turn him loose. Brothe will survive without him tinkering.”
Vali and Pella closed in on Delari. They did not have to drag him. And he did not protest.
All he needed was for someone to take the decisions away. He could then surrender to exhaustion.
* * *
“You’ve been unnaturally quiet since I got here,” Hecht told Anna, lying in bed. She had been powerfully responsive but otherwise uncharacteristically silent.
“I don’t know what it is. I can’t deal with all this emotionally. It’s so frustrating because there’s no way to make it change. We are who we are and the world is what it is, and, I firmly suspect, I wouldn’t be the least bit happier if everything suddenly changed to be exactly the way I think I want it.”
“You always were able to look past emotion. Better than me, really.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“This isn’t over by a long way. Pinkus is coming and he outnumbers me.”
“And you’ll fight. Of course.”
“Not if I can help it. If I can root Serenity out first …”
“No more. Just be here. And save all that for Titus and the others.”
“How are Noë and the children?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t heard from them since all this started. Hauf wouldn’t extend the protection of the Brotherhood to a family of Deves.”
“Titus went down there. We’ll know tomorrow.” He felt a deep and selfish dread that the news would not be good.
Bad news might cost him Consent’s talents.
He did not want to think about that. He did not want to think. He lost himself in the lovemaking.
* * *
Relative peace ruled the Mother City. There were skirmishes but no serious bloodlettings. Hecht stayed busy seeing all the people who felt they had a claim on his time. He figured Serenity was just as busy over in Krois.
There was good news. Titus had found his family safe and well and met his newest son for the first time. Further, Noë’s family had, at last, forgiven her for having deserted the faith of her ancestors when her husband converted. She had reconciled with them.
Hecht never was convinced that Consent’s conversion was genuine so he had no trouble seeing Noë’s as illusory.
No matter. He was pleased for Titus.
One of those who made demands was Addam Hauf, Master of the Castella
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