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

to
understand. The man he had worked for from his earliest mercenary days,
Grade Drocker, had become his mentor during the Calziran Crusade.
Drocker was one of the top dozen men in the Brotherhood of War. And the
warrior priest had been the illegitimate son of Principatè Muniero
Delari. Who assumed the mentor role with a passion following Drocker's
death.
    Hecht did not understand but he did not scruple to exploit the
situation.
    "I'll return shortly," Muniero Delari said. He was a sallow stick
figure of a man in his seventies. He moved as easily as men thirty
years younger. He left in a rush. The air seemed to go out with him.
    The Madisetti Principatè, Donel Madisetti, presumed to pick up his
attack. For reasons as obscure as Delari's favor, the Madisetti family
had developed an antipathy toward Hecht. The Bruglioni and Arniena
families were firm supporters, though they disagreed with one another
about Sublime V. The Cologni family waffled. More often than not,
though, they opposed the Captain-General because he had worked for the
Bruglioni before his elevation. And the Bruglioni may have been behind
the assassination of Principatè-designate Rodrigo Cologni. Which had
taken place before Hecht's arrival in Brothe.
    The relationships and balances between the Five Families seldom made
sense to outsiders.
    Strange bedfellows. Always. Piper Hecht now worked for Honario
Benedocto, the Patriarch Sublime V. The Benedocto were sworn enemies of
the Bruglioni. This decade. The Madisetti had marched shoulder to
shoulder with the Benedocto for a generation.
    The Captain-General was immune to most of the feuding. He was not
supposed to be part of city politics, only Church politics. Though the
former became the latter at every Patriarchal election.
    He turned his back on Donel Madisetti. He addressed details of the
ambush to Principatè Bronte Doneto, the Patriarch's cousin. And one of
Sublime's few friends.
    Doneto asked, "Why would these men want to kill you?"
    Hecht shrugged. "That will become more clear once, we know who they
are."
    Doneto's gaze shifted to Pinkus Ghort. Ghort said, "I don't have any
ideas."
    "You'll have to answer for the men who led you into the ambush."
Meaning that, while Ghort was beholden to Bronte Doneto already, he was
about to be pushed in a whole lot deeper.
    "We're on that already, Your Grace. They'll be brought back. I'll
see that they talk." Ghort had sent for his man Bo Biogna. Biogna
should be headed north before nightfall.
Hecht said, "I understand there's a problem in Clearenza."
    Doneto replied, "I doubt there's a connection."
    "I doubt it myself. There'd be no state interest at this point.
Would there?"
    "Just so. Donel. For Aaron's sake, stop whining. You're a grown
man." He tossed that at the Madisetti Principatè. To Hecht, he said,
"That bolt would have been better spent sped at another target."
    Donel Madisetti shut up. Appalled. He did not expect to be chastised
by an ally.
    With Principatè Delari absent and Principatè Hugo Mongoz lapsed into
a drooling nap, Principatè Doneto took charge. Though he was not the
eldest.
    Doneto was the sort who wanted to be in charge.
    Most of the time he was not unpleasant about it.
    Doneto said, "I sent Colonel Ghort to get you at the same time I
alerted the crisis committee. They arrived first because they didn't
have to go out into the weather or fight anyone to get here." Doneto
disdained most of the Princes of the Church. The world might be
terrified of the Collegium and its supposed wizards, but Bronte Doneto
knew most of his colleagues were incompetents appointed via nepotism
or bribe.
    There were powerful sorcerers amongst the brethren of the Collegium,
however. Who was, and who was not, was a puzzle that interested
outsiders constantly strove to solve. While the Principatès strove to
stay masked.
    Even Sublime, who had come out of the Collegium but whose
qualifications mainly included family connections and being stone deaf
and blind to the