Book 2 - Lord of the Silent Kingdom Read Online Free PDF

Palace was built of stone from the same quarry as the pavements
but the coloring did not match. The pavements had been in place for
only three centuries. Parts of the Palace went back fifteen centuries.
They showed the effects of all those years of weather and bad air. The
stone was streaked brown, yellow, or pale pink.
    The first foundations of the Chiaro Palace had been laid down before
the Old Brothen Empire recognized itself as such.
    Parts of Brothe were older, still. But Hecht was not impressed. His
boyhood had passed in a city where structures still in daily use were
three times the age of the oldest in Brothe.
    The rain continued, growing heavier. Thunder mouthed off north of
the Teragi River. There was a pre-Chaldarean superstition about
thunder's location being some sort of omen. Hecht could not recall
details. He was too wet and uncomfortable to focus on much but the
ambush and getting into dry clothing.
    His batman came out to help. "What's all this, sir?" Redfearn
Bechter was a pensioner of the Brotherhood of War. And, surely, still
its agent.
    "They ambushed us, Sergeant."
    "Bad decision on their part. I know that one there."
    "What?"
    "Not personally. I've seen him before. He was with Duke Tormond of
the Connec when he visited the Patriarch a few vcars ago."
    Bechter had a scary knack for recalling names and faces. "Rainard.
That's his name. I remember thinking he was either too stupid or too
smart for the job he was doing."
    "And that was what?"
    "He was one of the varlets managing their animals. But he didn't do
much work. He kept sneaking off to hang out in low places. So he was a
shirker. Or a spy. I figure spy. A shirker wouldn't get away with it
for long."
    "You listening, Pinkus?"
    "Plenty. You want to keep him? I'll take the other two."
    "We do have better interrogators here."
    "Let me know what you find out. Look, I came after you for a reason.
The screaming high shits really do want to talk about Clearenza. Now."
    Being Captain-General had its perquisites. A dozen varlets and
stablemen came for the animals and prisoners and casualties. Ghort lied
to them. "The guy with the bad arm is related to Principatè Bruglioni.
See he gets treated like it."
    Polo did come from the Bruglioni household, originally, and likely
continued spying for them. But he was a hireling. Even so, invoking the
name of one of the Five Families got results.
    Ten minutes later, Hecht entered a room he found depressingly
familiar. Each time he visited, it was to face irate members of the
Collegium, the Princes of the Church. This looked like no exception.
The dozen most powerful Principaèes had gathered. A bitter squabble
was under way, along the usual political lines. The one friendly face
he saw belonged to Principatè Delari.
    "About damned time!" Principatè Madisetti bellowed. "Where the hell
have you been? We sent for you hours ago."
    And the Cologni Principatè wanted to know, "Why do you have to come
here filthy, smelling like a dung heap?"
    "We were ambushed. Four men. Three equipped with our own
standard-issue crossbows. The fourth a sorcerer of some skill but very
little luck. The corpse is downstairs. If you want to examine it. Who,
other than Colonel Ghort and yourselves, knew that I'd been summoned?"
Professionally, he had to admire the quickness with which the ambush
had been put together. Though, certainly, the ambush team had been
around, waiting for an opportunity, for some time.
    It did not occur to Hecht that he might not have been the target. He
thought he knew who was behind the attempt. He did not know why.
    He watched the churchmen closely, not expecting anyone to betray
himself. None were major suspects, anyway. Their crime, if any, would
be the sin of talking too much.
    Only Principatè Delari reacted strongly. His response was vast anger
tightly reined. He had, to all intents, adopted Piper Hecht. This
ambush was a direct assault on his family.
    Piper Hecht had not plumbed the relationship deeply enough