The movement north and east went too smoothly for the Captain-General. "I worry when things go right," he told his staff as the army settled in to rest near the monastery complex at Dominagua. "You people can"t be that good at what you do."
The backhanded compliment sparked smiles.
The high excitement soon faded.
Princ.i.p.ate Doneto brought news from his cousin as Hecht was about to resume movement. "His Holiness is involved in delicate negotiations, Captain-General. He wants you to hold off a few weeks."
"Why? He"s been so keen to get on with it for so long."
"I"m baffled, too. I"m not part of the inner circle, cousin or not."
"Does this mean stay here? Can I position myself better for when he turns me loose? Are there any other new constraints?"
Princ.i.p.ate Doneto seemed disconcerted. He glanced round as though displeased by the presence of so many witnesses. "You just shouldn"t take the campaign into the Connec. Yet."
Hecht surveyed his staff. He and they never stopped working. During the rest several notions had gotten schemed out. The professionals wanted to get the maximum return from the city militias during the short time they would be available.
Legally, they could be kept in the field only forty days. The sands were racing through that hourgla.s.s. There were ways to balance that. Pay to those willing to serve longer and rotate replacements in at different times.
Hecht asked, "He does realize that in a month this army will start shrinking? And that bad weather will be along soon?"
"I"m reporting, Captain-General. That"s all. I can send a letter voicing your concerns, but I can"t make him read it. I can"t make him pay attention if he does."
"I want to move up to the frontier."
Doneto shrugged. "You"re the military commander."
Hecht turned to t.i.tus Consent. "Are those scouts back yet?"
"One party. The ferry crossing will be tough with this many men. It could take a week."
"It took us all day last time with just a few hundred. But we need to secure it. Even if we can"t go over we can control traffic. Colonel Ghort. Let"s take a walk. I want to pick your brain."
Hecht paid Doneto no more heed, which probably irked the Princ.i.p.ate. He did not care. He had his own personal Princ.i.p.ate. Muniero Delari traveled slowly but he traveled. His presence a.s.sured Doneto"s best behavior.
There was no sign of trouble between them.
How long could that continue?
Of more immediate concern was the depth of Pinkus Ghort"s commitment to his sponsor.
Doneto thought he owned Pinkus Ghort. Pinkus might not agree but would still feel indebted. It was no secret that he still lived in the Princ.i.p.ate"s town house.
"What"s up?" Ghort asked once they were safe from avesdroppers. Hecht"s lifeguards maintained an acceptable cparation but were close enough to intervene if evil showed is face.
"Recall what we talked about during the ride up? Just tossing things around?"
"We talked about a lot of stuff. Gad, it"s nice. I like it cool like this."
It was windy, almost cloudless, and unseasonably cool. "Might affect the vintage."
"Yeah. Probably. What do you think?"
"I have no idea. I don"t understand wine. The Sonsan nation is what I"m thinking about. Check the map. It"s barely seventy miles from here."
A Bronte Doneto involved in a scheme with the Special Office would not find a raid on Sonsa to his taste. If Ghort was in tight...
"You thinking just a raid? Or a general chastis.e.m.e.nt of the city for being unfriendly?"
"I"m thinking, make Sublime love us by forcing the Three Families to bend the knee."
"And maybe get a closer look at Bit and her crew, too?"
"Absolutely. I do still want the real story on Vali."
They stopped walking, looked across slopes and hills covered with vines. It was beautiful country. Ghort said so. "The Connec is, too. What we saw of it."
"We"ll get to see that part again. Sublime is close to obsessed with taming Raymone Garete."
"Lot of that infecting the Society, too. I"d as soon not. It won"t be close to easy. Even with a pair of heavyweight sorcerers tagging along."
"One sorcerer. Princ.i.p.ate Delari isn"t here to partic.i.p.ate. He"s here to keep an eye on your boss."
"On my boss? On you? I thought he"d, like, adopted you."
"On Doneto."
"Doneto? What do you mean, Doneto? I don"t work for him. I work for the City. What do you mean, Delari wants to keep an eye on him?"
"You still live in his house, Pinkus. And he thinks you"re his man. He still tries to lay claim on me, sometimes. I don"t know what the problem is between him and Delari. Maybe it"s all just Delari. But there is bad blood."
"He hides it pretty well."
"He does. I wouldn"t know about it at all if it weren"t for the boy."
"Armand? There"s something weird about that one, Pipe."
"Wow! Can"t get anything past you."
"What I mean is... Can it. The demon himself." Bronte Doneto had come out for a stroll. Not unusual. But his const.i.tutional kept bringing him closer.
Hecht said, "Go s.n.a.t.c.h Sonsa. If you need more than the Brothen contingent..."
"They should be plenty. How soon?"
"I"m done telling. It"s your mission, now. Do what you need to do and go when you"re ready. Your Grace."
"Gentlemen."
Ghort said, "I was just telling Pipe that this looks like the place I want to retire, I get lucky and round up enough booty. Go into the winemaking business."
Hecht said, "You"d probably suck down all the profits."
Ghort"s man Bo Biogna left camp with a picked team that same night. Next morning the entire Brothen contingent departed. Hecht told the morning staff meeting, "I"ve given Pinkus a special mission. If our master unleashes us, he"ll catch up."
There were questions. Hecht did not answer them. These men did not need to know.
Princ.i.p.ate Bronte Doneto was among those asking. Maybe Pinkus had had moved beyond a sense of obligation to him. moved beyond a sense of obligation to him.
Maybe.
"Forget Ghort," he said. "We need to move up to the Dechear. Colonel Smolens, I suggested a feasibility study to you and Lieutenant Consent. Mainly to keep you out of trouble. Did you follow up?"
Smolens admitted, "We did. It should be easy. Sir." The honorific added only because members of the Collegium were present.
t.i.tus Consent said, "There is no plan for stopping you. a.s.sa.s.sination is their only worry."
Hecht considered Muniero Delari from the corner of his eye. The old man showed no special interest. He hoped that meant this would not get to Osa Stile. "Good. Get out warning orders to prepare to move up. Smolens, you get the other job."
"Is that an execute, sir?" Smolens asked. He was eager.
"Put it together and do it."
Delari was paying attention, now. And suddenly suspicious.
Whatever anyone thought, Piper Hecht was still his own man.
The Patriarchal army drifted westward, covering barely a hundred miles in ten days. Forward elements reached the Dechear and staked out camps at likely crossing points. The nearest surviving bridge was way upstream, at Viscesment. The Captain-General divided his forces, the better to reduce the strain on Ormienden and to remain tactically prepared. Princ.i.p.ate Doneto chose to accompany the southernmost division. The same favored by the Captain-General himself. This was the largest division that would strike toward Antieux. Doneto had begun to smell blood. He had a score to settle.
There was work aplenty even for Princ.i.p.ates, including turns watching over the bridgehead the Captain-General established on the west bank. Doneto and Delari alike spent hours interviewing locals and itinerant members of the Society, trying to gather solid facts about the strange events plaguing the Connec.
Smugly, Piper Hecht noted that neither Princ.i.p.ate had missed Colonel Smolens. They a.s.sumed him to be with one of the other divisions.
Smolens would do to Viscesment what Pinkus Ghort meant to do to Sonsa.
Only Hecht"s immediate staff knew. Enough of a bond had formed that even Clej Sedlakova enjoyed belonging to an inner circle putting something over.
Hecht was with Sedlakova, reviewing recollections of the country round Antieux. "They won"t make the same mistakes. They"ll have built more cisterns and those will be full. t.i.tus says they"ve reengineered the main gate, adding machicolations and a second portcullis operated from a second guardroom in order to make treachery more difficult."
"I wasn"t putting much faith in the Society"s secret friends, anyway."
"That may still work."
"What"s the ground like? Is mining an option?"
"I think it"s on bedrock. That and a height advantage are why it"s sited a little back from the river. We"ll see something similar, on a larger scale, when we get to Castreresone."
"How high are the walls? There"ll be a lot of deep topsoil around if winemaking is serious business."
"You lost me there."
"Something we don"t do much anymore, that they did a lot in ancient times. Build a ramp to the top of the wall. Raise it higher than the wall if you can, so you can attack downhill."
Clever members of the Brotherhood of War had done that in the Holy Lands in the early crusades. Praman castles were no longer sited where that would be possible.
t.i.tus Consent entered the room, which was on the second level in an old windmill. The mill had not worked in years. There was no obvious reason for it having been abandoned.
Hecht said, "Something?"
"Several. All hitting at once."
"And?"
"Smolens has done his job. Had a little problem with Immaculate"s guards, though."
"They didn"t back down?"
"Not soon enough. Smolens got the bad end of the casualty equation."
"I was afraid of that. But why were they still there if the Empress went over to Sublime?"
"I don"t know. But Braunsknechts do take themselves seriously. Which could be a problem."
"Meaning?"
"We"ve got one downstairs. He wants to see you."
"Smolens took prisoners?"
"This one came from Plemenza. He doesn"t know what happened in Viscesment. Yet."
It would not be long before the news reached the ends of the Chaldarean world.
That world now knew that Patriarchal troops had occupied Sonsa. Already there were rumors that Sublime had attacked the city because of a deal he had made with Dateon or Aparion. Or possibly Peter of Navaya, whose Plataduran allies wanted the Sonsan holdings on Artecipea.