Cheeks slightly red, Vali asked, “Should we pop over to Grandfather’s townhouse, or go visit the Construct, or something? So you can have some privacy?”
“No need,” Anna said. “We’re much too old for that sort of foolishness, aren’t we, Piper?”
“Speak for yourself, old woman.” He noted that Anna had aged some since last he saw her. She looked a touch more fleshy, too.
She asked, “Where is Pella? You didn’t bring him?”
“He’s with Hagen Brokke in Arnhand, lifeguarding the new king. I’ve had good reports. He arranged a peace agreement with that Connecten madwoman they call the Widow.” He let his pride show but not his concern. Brokke should have returned to Alten Weinberg by now. He and Buhle Smolens would have to represent the Righteous while the Enterprise was operational. Brokke and Smolens would stand shoulder to shoulder with Ferris Renfrow and Algres Drear to shield Helspeth from her fractious stay-behind nobility.
Not something he needed to worry about, now. This was a holiday from being Lord Arnmigal. He told the girls, “Do go see Muniero. He’s probably browned off because you’re missing your studies, anyway. And let the old fraud know I’m home.”
Both girls made faces, then turned sideways.
Anna said, “You really do presume.”
“Not at all. Let’s go into the kitchen. I’ll show you how they prepare roast chicken in Alten Weinberg.”
“I don’t have a chicken to roast.”
“Damn! And the kids aren’t home. Whatever will we do?”
* * *
“How many people knew I was here?” Hecht demanded of Titus Consent. “How is it possible that, the morning after we arrive, I have a request from Addam Hauf for an interview?”
Titus was pale, frightened by Hecht’s rage. “I don’t know! But lots of people would know as soon as we turned up. Noë and the boys. Anna. Your girls. Muniero Delari and the people at his house. And anyone watching any of our houses.”
“Enough. You’re right. It doesn’t have to be malice.” He suppressed his anger. “Definitely not your fault. The Brotherhood didn’t send the invitation to you.”
“What will you do?”
“Ignore it. I don’t have time. Even though I do owe Hauf for looking after Anna during the troubles.”
“You might put your ear to the ground for a few minutes.”
“What’s happened?” Instantly sure that something bad must have.
“Not what you’re thinking. Mostly foolishness. Like Pinkus Ghort talking Charity into sending an all-Brothen battalion to the Holy Lands.”
“He did that? And, Charity?”
“Your friend Saluda finally picked a reign name. The news from Arnhand tipped him.”
“That silly ass Pinkus. He didn’t want to be left out so he worked his way around me.”
“I expect he’ll be waiting when we get there. Him and a clutter of others who took the sea route because you wouldn’t let them come with you.”
“He’s gone already?”
“Four days ago. With three hundred forty veteran infantrymen, fifty-four horses, plus carts, wagons, and five falcons.” Titus named Ghort’s leading lieutenants. They were men Hecht knew.
“How can you know all this? I’d bet you haven’t been out of bed twenty minutes since we got here.”
“Your opinion of my prowess is welcome but too generous. You’re right. I haven’t been out of the house. But I was your spymaster for a while. Mrs. Spymaster doesn’t get noticed when she’s out. She hears a lot.”
“I understand.” He could not picture timid Noë deliberately eavesdropping. Nor was he comfortable with Noë knowing so much about her husband’s business.
“Change of subject, Titus. Am I arrogant? Am I a controlling know-it-all?”
“You want an honest answer, Boss? Or the one you’re going to like?”
“I think that says it all, right there.”
“Not entirely. You’re on your way but you aren’t there yet. You still listen. You take advice occasionally. But are you controlling? Absolutely. In a huge way, and getting worse every day.”
Hecht stifled his emotional response. “Go on.”
“When we started out you picked people you thought could do jobs, gave them those jobs, then got out of the way and let them do their jobs. You don’t do that anymore. You’re always leaning over somebody’s shoulder.”
There was a reason for …
Exactly the reason he had heard from every out-of-touch senior officer who ever annoyed him by butting in to micromanage.
“Boss?”
“Give me a minute, Titus. I just suffered a bleak epiphany.” He reflected for another fifteen seconds. “I’ve turned into what I loathed when I was a junior officer.”
“The old veterans say you’re not that bad. Yet. If that’s any consolation.”
“It’s not, but it’s noted. Could it just naturally evolve as we advance and get older? A squad is a team. The squad leader is first among equals, the experienced guy who makes good decisions fast. The next level is like that but four or five times bigger. Once you scale it up a couple more steps, though, you’re where you don’t know everybody. The mutual trusts begin to break down.”
“Boss?”
“Musing out loud. Working out why these problems are inevitable. There’s a tipping point somewhere. On the down-below side you trust nobody in charge because they obviously have no idea what the man at the point of the sword is facing. On the up side you can’t trust any of those lazy fools down there to do what you need to get done.”
“Interesting,” Consent said. “I would think that a thoughtful man who didn’t start at the top by right of birth would reach that tipping point later.”
Hecht grunted, alarmed that he was not the ideal commander that he knew he would become back when he led the band that brought the mummies out of Andesqueluz.
Consent said, “Unlike any commander before you, you have the added ego-feeding burden of the Shining Ones.”
That took time to sink in. He was not taking full advantage of the Old Ones? No. Of course he was not.
Hecht told Consent, “Titus, I’m slipping but I haven’t surrendered to the Will of the Night. Not yet.” He thought for twenty seconds. “I could be so much more-of what I’m not sure-if I made better use of the Shining Ones. I bet they mock me when they’re with each other.”
“Boss, they don’t think that way. They’re eternals. That kind of thinking is petty. Meaning mortal.”
“All right.” Hecht thought the Old Ones could be more petty than most humans, considering the myths and folklore surrounding them.
He and Titus were in Anna’s drawing room. Anna was in the kitchen. Otherwise, they were alone. Unless … Hecht was tempted to summon the Choosers, just to see if they would come.
Titus said, “Much as I have enjoyed it, this visit wasn’t a good idea.”
“Titus?”
“The Master of the Commandery knows you’re here. He knows you didn’t ride in or sneak in on foot. He’ll have Special Office help to pry.”
Possibly. But Titus was not taking into account a mundane person’s disinclination to believe in the things of the Night, in any practical sense.
Hecht said, “The Special Office has kept a low profile for years.”
“Had to after they got caught doing what they were doing.”
“Those were rogue Brothers.”
Titus nodded. “Of course. Only a handful understood that they were doing the Adversary’s work. The rest just did what they were told.”
Hecht had fallen out of touch with all that. The Brotherhood of War and Special Office had been only marginally involved in his campaigns as Captain-General. They had only a small presence in the Grail Empire. God’s warriors there belonged to the Knights of the Grail Order. The Grail Order carried God’s wrath to the pagans of the east.
“Why are we worrying about this, Titus?”
“We aren’t. You are, because Addam Hauf has shown that he may have supernatural resources.”
“Right.”
Hecht had options. He could send one of the girls to spy. Or he could send the Choosers. He would do that only in extremity. Hauf was not his enemy.