Before he could placate her, Helspeth growled, “You want me to take you on faith but you won’t trust me.”
Hecht’s shoulders hunched. The new, imperious Helspeth was disconcerting.
Hecht felt Hourli laughing somewhere close by.
“Very well. But you won’t believe the truth when I tell you.”
“Try me, my lord,” said from inside two feet, head tilted back, eyes narrowed sleepily. Then she reddened.
Hecht was too pressed to respond, with humor or contact. “My Lady Hourli is the old goddess Hourli. Her twin is the god Hourlr. Also helping the Righteous are the goddesses Sheaf, Eavijne, Aldi, Wife…”
“Stop! You’re right. I don’t believe you. I can’t, for the sake of my immortal soul. I know those names from when I was little. My old nurses told me stories about Donner and Ordnan, Hourli and Locke.”
“Excellent. If you won’t believe me I won’t have to explain.” He was sure he heard Hourli laughing. Being the subject of disbelief could be an advantage, sometimes. You could do what you wanted and not be blamed. “Just carry out my recommendations and enjoy the results.”
“Lord Arnmigal … The hell with it! I have no hope of salvation if God does condemn us for sins that that we commit in our hearts.”
Hecht waited.
“Hilda was doing what I told her to. I wanted to know what you’d do. But she went a little further than I wanted. She might mean it.”
“Isn’t that rather juvenile?”
“Yes. It is. But do I know any better? Have I had any chance to learn? I tripped into obsession at first sight with a man I saw for just a few minutes while my father was questioning a prisoner. The prisoner became Patriarch. The man who captured my imagination saved my life under the walls of al-Khazen. My lord, the only other man who ever forced his way into my mind, as a man, was Jaime of Castauriga, which repelled me. He believed he had the right.”
“Uh…”
“He thought he had a claim on any woman he wanted. I infuriated him by refusing. So did Hilda. She’s easy but she has standards. She knows wicked slime when she winds the stench.”
“Helspeth! What are you?…”
“I’m sorry, my lord. I am Empress, now. I don’t get much chance to be human. I fall apart when I try.”
Hecht heard divine laughter once more. Probably his imagination. The Instrumentalities of the Night could not penetrate a well-maintained quiet room. It had to be his guilt about his own obsessions.
Helspeth Ege was naïve about the interplay between man and woman but she did know that Piper Hecht was as captivated by Helspeth Ege as Helspeth Ege was enthralled by Piper Hecht. “There will be a hasty coronation next week. We want to get it done before the grandees go home for the winter. After that I can do pretty much whatever I want.”
“I know. That scares me. I’m a weak man. Sometimes I just can’t do the right thing. And this could hurt people who don’t deserve the pain.”
Helspeth nodded sadly.
Hecht said, “That old man who turns up in odd places at odd times would know right away. He knows my mind already. Others suspect.”
He was rehearsing the facts more to convince himself than to caution Helspeth. She had crossed her last river already. She might offer him no more choice than Katrin had.
But Katrin was between him and God, now. He had been profoundly lucky, there.
Those watching Helspeth were, no doubt, circling in hopes that something damning would happen right now, tonight.
“Anything that happens will touch more lives than yours and mine.”
“And if nothing happens, that will diminish lives as well.”
“We have to make choices, dearest. Amongst them are, who has to suffer the hurt caused by the attraction between us. Us, by denying ourselves? Or those who…?”
“Stop. I can do no more of this now. Go back to your demons. Catch Anselin. Let me get my heart under control. We’ll talk Imperial business later.” Helspeth had recovered.
“As you wish.”
A dozen palace denizens contrived to be close by when the Empress and new Grand Duke emerged from the quiet room. Each felt a letdown. Scandal had been avoided. The couple looked like they wanted to fight.
* * *
Hecht found Lila waiting at the Still-Patter mansion. She had brought Vali. He groaned.
Lila was quick to have her feelings hurt.
“Sorry, girls. It’s been a hard day. I was looking forward to bed. What is it?”
“Nothing important. This was Vali’s first long transition. We thought we’d see how you’re doing. There isn’t any real news except that Brothe has calmed down.”
Vali said, “And a lot of priests are yammering about there being something wrong with the churches. Some say it’s because God is turning away since the Church allowed a layman to overthrow an elected Patriarch.”
“Wasn’t the first time that happened.” Hecht sighed. “It might be heresy but I suspect that God could not care less about the Patriarchy.”
“We can go away if you want,” Lila said.
“No.” He needed contact with reality. “I don’t see you often enough. You remind me of what I have when I’m not Commander of the Righteous.”
Both girls were pleased.
Vali said, “We saw Pella on the way. Him and that dwarf are only about forty miles from here, now.”
“Dwarf?” Startled.
“Oh. No. Not like Iron Eyes. That Armand creature.”
“The freak,” Lila opined.
“Girls. Armand can’t help being Armand.”
“Yes, he can,” Lila said. “People have choices. Maybe limited, like ours in that place where you found us. But nobody has to embrace their own humiliation. Armand is a freak because he does. You’ll see. He gets here, he’ll find himself a keeper who’ll treat him like shit.”
Vali said, “That’s why he split with grandpa Muniero. Grandpa treated him too good.”
“May be, but I don’t care. Tell me how Anna is.”
Neither girl seemed eager to address that. Vali finally said, “She’s just Anna Mozilla while Piper Hecht is away. She goes along in kind of a daze.”
Lila said, “She’s doing better now that she’s back in her own house.”
Another twinge of conscience. But they had worked that out at the beginning.
Anna did not expect him to be faithful. She was a mistress, not a wife, and he was a man. But she would surely suffer from anything as public as a liaison with the Grail Empress.
“When you get back I want you to remind her that I think of her all the time.”
“We could take you.”
“That won’t happen, girls.”
“Fraidy cat,” Vali said.
“Absolutely. Now scoot on out of here.”
They went, but not before needling him with observations between themselves about how attractive some of the younger officers were, especially that Carava de Bos.
De Bos had a definite reputation.
* * *
Piper Hecht did not participate in Helspeth’s coronation, even as a witness. He and his key staffers avoided the end of the political season by joining the expedition to Hovacol. Pella accompanied him.
Asked politely by a purported ambassador-Hourlr in mortal guise-King Stain refused to surrender Anselin. He summoned his host.
Perceived bullying by the Grail Empire guaranteed an excellent response despite Stain’s recent lack of intimacy with rational thinking. More than five hundred horse and a thousand foot awaited the Righteous in a sound foreslope position behind a stream spanned by a wooden bridge eight feet wide.
The consensus of Hecht’s staff was, “Oh, shit! What have we gotten into here?”
Kait Rhuk suggested, “Roll the falcons up to the riverbank. Take them under fire. That will make them come at us.”
Drago Prosek nodded. “I’m considering starting with half charges so they have time to watch the shot come in.”
And Rhuk: “Keep the falcons near the bridge so we can concentrate fire when they charge.”
“All good thinking,” Hecht said. He glanced at the sky. “We have two hours of light left. Pity that ridge is behind us. It wasn’t, the sun would come down in their eyes. Vircondelet. Break out twenty men. Start making camp. We’ll stay here tonight.” That should buoy their confidence. He checked the shadow of that ridge. It was creeping eastward.