Lord of the Silent Kingdom Read Online Free PDF Page B

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 Instrumentalities of the Night, was kept in the dark.
    Doneto said, “My cousin is worried about Clearenza because he worries about everything. Too much.
    For him it’s all personal. And an insult to God and all the Holy Founders. All blasphemy, heresy, or something.”
    Hecht had worked for Principatè Doneto for a year. Doneto liked to