Where were Ferris Renfrow and the Commander of the Righteous? Especially Piper Hecht? Algres Drear was fierce and tough but he was not enough.
“Hilda, why do I obsess about a man older than me and already taken?” Helspeth had confessed her uncontrollable interest in the Commander of the Righteous. Lady Hilda had not been surprised.
“Hardly uncontrollable, if painfully more obvious than you think,” Lady Hilda had told her. Now she said, “Maybe because you miss your father.”
“My father was still alive when I caught this fever.”
“Yes. I know. Plemenza.” Lady Hilda had heard it over and over once Helspeth opened up. “Why ask questions if you won’t listen to answers?” Lady Hilda returned to her needlework, almost sullenly, till, suddenly, she giggled.
“What?”
“You’ve had how many chances to make your fantasies come true since Katrin brought him here? But you’re still a virgin.”
“I’m not just me, Hilda. I’m a symbol. And a commodity.”
“I’ve heard it all. What the hell is she doing here?”
Hilda meant Lady Delta va Kelgerberg, whom she detested. The feeling was mutual. Va Kelgerberg had been one of Helspeth’s ladies, once upon a time, but had weaseled her way into Empress Katrin’s court.
“Whatever, she’s sure to be as unpleasant as possible.” Helspeth gloated secretly. In just a few days va Kelgerberg’s life would turn very difficult indeed. In just a few days her harvest would begin to come in.
Helspeth had no immediate opportunity to find out why Lady Delta had appeared. Algres Drear intervened. “Your Majesty.”
“Captain?” Drear needed schooling on etiquette, especially in front of her women. A half dozen of those sat around the big room, every one a spy for her husband or lover. Or for both.
“Ferris Renfrow begs an audience. I know you like to hear his reports as soon as possible.”
“Since he’s seldom seen these days I should seize the opportunity. Hilda, see to Lady Delta, in the annex, then post yourself at a distance so I can see Renfrow privately without my reputation being sullied.”
Muttering, “I’ll take care of va Kelgerberg!” Lady Hilda did as asked. She had chaperoned Helspeth’s meetings before. The Princess Apparent’s enemies tried to make something of those but the charges only elicited mockery and disdain. Alten Weinberg knew Helspeth Ege too well.
Renfrow came in as Lady Hilda herded the other women out. Lady Delta was furious because Renfrow had been given precedence. Drear posted himself just inside the door. He, too, would stand witness to Helspeth’s prudent behavior.
Helspeth told the chief Imperial spy, “Yet again you arrive looking like you’re fresh from work on a hog farm. I cannot imagine how it would harm you to indulge in the occasional bath.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, Your Grace. But I’m here, now. Can we retire to a quiet room?”
“No. The only one handy is being rebuilt. I took your advice, had them inspected. They all leaked. I’ve ordered them rehabilitated. If they still leak afterward I’ll have some necks stretched.”
“Good, if inconvenient now.” Renfrow produced a doeskin sack, shook out its contents. Black beads scattered, opened up like sow bugs. Many-legged black things scooted around, looking for invisible eavesdroppers. “When your workmen tell you they’re done, I’ll do the follow-up examination.”
“I’ll mention that. For now, your bugs should hold the Night at bay. So. What’s so important this time?”
“Not as big a wow as you becoming Empress, but you should know. Remember the rules. No interruptions. But I will answer questions once I’m done. If they’re pertinent.”
“When have I ever been impertinent?” She considered Captain Drear and Lady Hilda, by the door. And wondered if Hilda had added Drear to her list of conquests.
“You have a point.” Renfrow considered the chaperoning pair, too. His thoughts were not obvious.
Renfrow told the tale of his adventure into another world, where he had met gods the Church insisted did not exist along with creatures from fairy tales: dwarves and the mer, who lived in the sea.
Helspeth was fascinated by the mer Philleas Pescatore, who had had so obvious an impact on Renfrow’s libido. “She was a virgin every time she took human form so she could leave the water?” How handy a skill would that be?
“Yes. Questions after.” He went on.
Helspeth noted the filthy bandage on his left wrist.
“The Commander of the Righteous has a sister?” She zeroed in on the personal part of the story.
“If I pulled the evidence together correctly, he does. And their father was a Brotherhood general named Grade Drocker. Who, in turn, was the illegitimate son of Principaté Muniero Delari, one of the most powerful members of the Collegium.”
“I met him when we were in Brothe.”
“I expect you did. Principaté Delari, in turn, appears to be the grandson of Cloven Februaren, known as the Ninth Unknown. Februaren was there for everything. A remarkable character. And a sorcerer of considerable stature who hides it well.”
“I know someone else like that.”
“You do. Though it does get more difficult to do every day. The woman, Heris, called him Double Great, apparently because he’s the grandfather of her grandfather. She and the Commander’s adopted daughters have developed remarkable talents. Hecht and the boy, Pella, remain ciphers, however.”
Helspeth was not happy about the Commander of the Righteous having daughters, adopted or not, though he had not concealed that. Renfrow’s story made the girls more real.
She refused to ask even one question about that Anna Whoever.
Renfrow did nothing to help her relax.
“You talk like you were gone a long time. It’s been two days.”
“Time moves differently there. There’s no fixed ratio but, right now, it’s at least ten days to one.”
“Is he coming? Are they coming here?”
Though she kept her voice neutral, she knew she was not fooling Renfrow. But she was not thinking of the spymaster. Someone might be eavesdropping.
“Those people didn’t worry about keeping Ferris Renfrow informed. They know too much about me. But life produces patterns that we can interpret. The Commander of the Righteous will rejoin his troops on the road. He may bring the boy, Pella, because the lad has become too much for his mother to handle. The rest mean to stay in Brothe. The girls are being educated in one of the Church’s more exclusive academies.”
“So everything will go back to where it was before Jaime got killed and Katrin went crazy.”
“Except that we’ll have a new Empress. And, now, I believe I’ll go have that bath you wished on me.”
“And then off on another adventure? Or dare I hope you’ll become a little more accessible?”
“Possibly. I’ll be here throughout the transition, after the news about Katrin gets here. I saw the Graf fon Rhejm a while ago. See him if you can. He and his brothers would be valuable friends.”
The Graf and his four brothers were the brothers of Hildegrun Machen, Katrin’s mother, who had died when Katrin was an infant. The uncles had been Katrin’s guardian angels. Overall, Helspeth had gotten on with them better than she had with her half sister.
She watched Ferris Renfrow leave. What had he told her that could not have waited another hour? Or even another day? She noted that he had not recovered his mystic sow bugs. Perhaps there were none left to recover.
* * *
The little man who came out of nowhere by turning sideways did so as Lady Hilda started to bring Lady Delta and the other ladies into the sewing chamber. Lady Delta had been given coffee. The implied honor had brightened her mood.
An instant before the sorcerer appeared time stopped for everyone but Helspeth and the little man himself. He sniffed the air. “He’s been here. The Bastard. He’s quick. I should’ve kept a better eye on him, back when.”
“What do you want?”
“I meant to bring you up to date on the Commander’s adventures. But the Bastard seems to have brought the news already.”
“If by that you mean Ferris Renfrow, yes. He just left. From what he said, you must be Cloven Februaren, the so-called Ninth Unknown.”
“That’ll save a lot of palaver. Outline what he told you. I’ll fill in what he left out.”
Would Renfrow keep her in the dark? Yes. Almost certainly. Even close allies were not honest all the time. She hit the highlights. And understood by the old man’s amusement that there had been points ignored or passed over lightly. “So what did he leave out?”
“Not much that you really need to know. Just little things, like the fact that he worked for me a long time ago. And just how successful we were in a world that our religious leaders promise us doesn’t exist.”
“So how successful were you?”
“Extremely. Though the whole truth remains to be seen. I’ll reserve some facts myself. Ignorance could save you a lot of grief someday. In any event, we don’t want you distracted when the news about your sister gets here. But take heart. Piper Hecht and the Righteous won’t be far behind.”
He turned sideways.
Time resumed.
“Captain Drear. I want to see the Graf fon Rhejm or one of his brothers. Go.” She turned to Lady va Kelgerberg. The sooner dealt with the sooner that misery would end.
* * *
Captain Drear found three of Katrin’s uncles. All three responded to the Princess Apparent. Helspeth told them, “Thank you for coming so quickly. I barely dared hope that any of you would.”
The Graf fon Rhejm inclined his head slightly. “The fact of the request made it clear that it was important.”
Albert fon Rhejm reminded Helspeth of her father. He was not a big man, unlike the other two, who were built in the long, lean, blond mode of their niece, Katrin.
“I apologize because I have no quiet room. I picked a bad time to find out that they were all compromised. But what I have to tell you will be common knowledge soon enough.” The youngest brother, Friedl, must have come twenty years after Hildegrun. He had a touch of that same appeal that drew her to the Commander of the Righteous. He also had a wife and was faithful.
“And that would be?”
“I’ll preface by saying this comes from Ferris Renfrow. He recommended that I let you know immediately. He has unusual means of acquiring information.”
“So rumor would suggest. So?”
“It’s hard to just throw out. He says Katrin is dead. For reasons no one understands she went galloping along the bank of the Teragi, in Brothe, fell in, and drowned. And that’s all he told me.”
Katrin’s uncles said nothing. The younger two eventually turned to the Graf fon Rhejm, who choked out, “God has a black sense of humor indeed, to take the daughter that way after what He let happen to her mother. You have no other details?”
“No. But she must have been upset about something if she was out galloping. That was one of the ways she coped.”
“It was. She must have been. Though agitation had become her natural state. She had begun to suffer bouts of insanity. There’s a congenital inclination in the family.” He bowed his head as though to pray. Helspeth did not interrupt.
After some moments the Graf looked up. “Her end could be a blessing for the Empire. For some of us the disease persists for decades. The damage she could have done is inestimable.”
Helspeth noted moisture on one of the Graf’s cheeks. His brothers were doing their best to remain hard and silent. She said, “We’ll get the full story when the Righteous arrive. Several witnessed the actual event, I understand. And several drowned trying to get Katrin out of the river.”
“Helspeth, I’m grateful that you took time to tell us all this. Katrin wouldn’t have done anything of the sort.”
The middle brother, Rodolf, who had said nothing yet, mumbled, “This explains why the Braunsknects are all stirred up.”
Helspeth admitted, “It does. They don’t know why, yet. They’ll find out when everyone else does. But they will have key points already secured.”
The Graf fon Rhejm thanked her again. He and his brothers departed, the Graf pausing at the door. He considered her enigmatically.
She hoped she had done the right thing.
It would not do to make enemies of those men.