Book 2 - Lord of the Silent Kingdom by Glen Cook Read Free Book Online Page B

way
around a battlefield. He had lost his shield arm. His face bore two
ugly scars, one down the right side and one across his forehead. The
latter was permanently purple. He did not say much. Nor did he
interfere.
    The other three men had been with Hecht since he had taken over the
City Regiment in the run-up to the Calziran Crusade. They were Hagan
Brokke, a Krogusian who had
been a private soldier at the time of the first pirate attacks.
He had risen swiftly by demonstrating outstanding abilities. He was
Hecht's planning officer.
    The others were Titus Consent and Tabill Talab, chief intelligence
officer and lead quartermaster. Both were Devedian, which made folks
like Clej Sedlakova uncomfortable. Consent was in his early twenties.
    Sedlakova might be uncomfortable but he was implacably tolerant.
Both Deves were exceptionally competent. And unobtrusive with their
religion.
    All five men were accompanied by assistants. Managing the
Patriarch's armed forces was not a minor enterprise.
    Hagan Brokke said, "We're working on that, sir." He indicated a
vast wall map of Firaldia. That was a permanent feature of the room.
Every little county, dukedom, principality, city-state, kingdom, and
republic was delineated. Political entities were identified by color,
in a dozen shades. Isolated parts of the same entity were connected by
black strings. Each entity was tagged with a numbered piece of paper.
That referenced a sheet listing significant local personalities, the
number and sorts of soldiers available, quality of fortifications, and
useful political, marital, and family alliance information.
    Brokke said, "If we have to attempt the absurd we have garrisons
here, here, and here that can support us. I've sent warning orders."
    "Excellent."
    Titus Consent said, "The Imperials will expect that. It shouldn't
worry them. They won't expect anything to come of it. Our side talks
loud but never actually does anything."
    "We might break that precedent this time."
    Consent continued. "Couriers will alert our intelligence assets in
the region, too." He tended to talk that way.
    "Good again." Consent meant messages had been sent to the Devedian
ghettoes.
    There were Deves everywhere. Going unnoticed, they saw and heard
most of the inner workings. And their elders, for the moment, were
willing to feed information to Captain-General Piper Hecht.
    Which was useful but embarrassing. Deves were little more popular
than demons. They were too educated. Too prosperous. Too smart. You did
not want to associate too intimately with that sort. They were the
source of all the world's evil—if there were no handy Pramans or
Maysaleans, other loathsome Unbelievers or heretics, or the
Instrumentalities of the Night, to blame. Being literate, Deves wrote
things down. Often things you did not want retailed accurately later.
    The literate were as mistrusted as those who had congress with the
Night. Either could destroy you with arcane knowledge.
    Hecht said, "Bring me up-to-date. Can fon Dreasser protect himself?"
    Titus Consent was a tall youth, slim, dark of mien, usually
cheerful. He was talented in the extreme and thoroughly competent. He
was not obviously Devedian. He handled rampant prejudice mainly by
refusing to acknowledge it. He was a solid family man. Early on he had
told Hecht that he had been raised from infancy to become a sort of
savior for the Deves of the western diaspora.
    He said, "We haven't had time to find out. I can tell you that it
would be smart to get some arrears money to the garrisons out that
way. Blatantly obvious, but every time we pry back pay out of the
Patriarch we win more friends among the men with the sharp iron."
    That sort of thinking had gotten Hecht exiled from Dreanger when he
was Else Tage. Else Tage had been popular with the soldiers.
    "Any chance we can find some money?"
    "We talked to the Fiducian, Joceran Cuito." Cuito was director of
the Patriarchal treasury. He was a Direcian archbishop who was in line
to join