Iron Eyes observed, “These characters make you look like a callow boy.”
“And they make good beer.”
They did. And had been brewing for the Were for ages. It was not hard for them to adapt production to the needs of a horde of dwarves-assisted by Aelen Kofer brewing magic.
Iron Eyes had told his grumblers they would stay as long as it took to collect the Bastard. Or till the ingredients for making beer ran out.
The grousing did not end. One of the great joys of dwarfish life was the creative complaint. That died down some. The Aelen Kofer had something to look forward to, for a while.
Jarneyn prowled the castle night and day, muttering, like some symbolic ghost in a passion play. The unheard conscience listened to only the ever-present but now stubbornly silent crows. The rest of the Aelen Kofer enjoyed themselves, knowing circumstance would, in time, drive them back to their world or the Realm of the Gods.
Iron Eyes grumbled, “Right here in this place, sorcerer, you see why the Aelen Kofer don’t rule the Nine Worlds. The instant adversity steps aside we lose our focus. We suffer from a cultural absence of ambition. We can weave a bridge out of rainbows if somebody orders one up but we won’t raise a silver hammer to do ourselves any good. We’ll throw up a Great Sky Fortress with fanatic attention to the tiniest details but we won’t build decent homes for ourselves.”
“A little down tonight, eh?” Februaren asked.
Jarneyn sat down facing him. “Enjoying an all-night loving session with despair. Thinking my folk are too much like our new friends, Harbin and Ernst. Automatons. Totally limited…”
The iron eyes shut. Korban began to snore.
The Ninth Unknown’s adventures had revealed a truth unmentioned in myth and legend. Dwarves snored. Always. Regardless. Relentlessly.
Februaren thought the dwarf had demonstrated initiative and inspiration. He ambled off to the chamber he had claimed, dove into a featherbed he suspected must belong to the Bastard himself. He drifted off wondering if they would ever get their man. Or if there was a point to continued pursuit, since the Windwalker still lay on the Andorayan shingle and showed no sign of recovering.
“Get your dead ass out of bed, Double Great. Something is about to happen.”
Heris had returned moments earlier, armed with routine news and luxury comestibles. The crows had begun going crazy. Now the wolves started up.
The castle filled with imminence-and the rattle of Aelen Kofer hastily unlimbering their mystic tools.
Noise and panic had nothing to do with her arrival. She came and went regularly without causing a stir.
“It’s time,” said the Ninth Unknown. He got out of bed and forced himself upright. He smoothed his hair and clothing while observing, “He doesn’t get in a hurry, does he?”
“His way isn’t ours, obviously.” Heris turned sideways, moved only far enough to place herself in a shadowed corner behind a glob of shimmer that was the source of waxing imminence.
A shape formed, as a dark, flat ghost that became humanoid, then gathered color and three-dimensionality. It took nearly a minute for the man to arrive, staggering. The shimmer vanished. The newcomer bent over, hands on knees, gasping. He panted for several seconds before he realized that he had an audience.
Both later wondered if what they heard as soft curses might not have been the muted screams of crows and howls of wolves from outside.
Still gasping, the Bastard forced himself upright. “You? You! But… How did…?”
“Ah, Brother Lester. Welcome. There have been changes. And your assistance is required. Allow me to explain.”
At which point Heris smacked the Bastard in the back of the head because of what he was doing with a hand hidden behind him.
Khor-ben Jarneyn arrived.
The Ninth Unknown announced, “We have him.”
“That fellow?”
“That’s him.”
“He doesn’t look like his mother at all.”
“Maybe he takes after his dad.”
“I never met Gedanke. I don’t know. Tuck him under your arm and take him back.”
“Uh…”
“The stranger his surroundings when he wakes up the more likely he is to listen when you explain. He’ll want information so he can figure out what’s really happening.”
Februaren eyed his captive. He hoped Iron Eyes was right. “Heris? Shall we?”
29. Alten Weinberg: Spring
Titus Consent tapped on the frame of the open doorway. Hecht said, “Come ahead.” He set Redfearn Bechter’s memory chest aside. “What?”
“Algres Drear is here. He wants to see you. He seems distracted.”
“He say why?”
“Not straight up. Not to me.”
“Bring him in. And feel free to eavesdrop.”
Hecht expected that to happen with or without his approval. His people got more protective every day. There were times when he missed Madouc’s easygoing ways.
He resented the increasing isolation. He went back to contemplating Bechter’s bequest.
He did that when he was feeling low. Wondering if there was a deeper message. Was it part of a pattern? Was it proof that the world was essentially random? Was his own passage through life part of a divine plan or just a stream of events with no real meaning?
He could argue both ways. Were he in an epic it would, for sure, lack a traditional plot, everything connecting to everything else and coming together in the end. His epic consisted of a lot of little plots entangled.
Titus Consent coughed, held the door for Algres Drear, then disappeared. Drear peered around. “No armed guards in the inner sanctum?”
“Don’t give them ideas.” Drear was back in Braunsknecht livery, with an extra band of black silk around his wrists.
“It might already be easier to get to Serenity than it is to reach you.”
“I find it tedious, too. Then I have a shooting pain in my shoulder that reminds me why. I try to tolerate the overreaction of the people who want to keep me among the living.”
“Not to be critical. But if you let them isolate you, pretty soon you won’t have any idea what’s going on.”
Which echoed Hecht’s fears.
“You aren’t here to warn me about that.”
“No. I have a different warning in hand.”
“If it’s time-sensitive you’d better spit it up.”
Drear decided not to take offense. “There’s a new plot afoot against you. It appears to include some serious players.”
Hecht considered. “You did go back to work for the Princess Apparent, didn’t you?” He knew the answer, of course.
“I did. In part thanks to you. I owe you for that. Plus, I want to shelter the Princess from the ambitions of her supposed friends.”
“Ah. Do go on.”
Drear told his story. He named no names because he had most of his information second- and third-hand. But there was a cabal, embracing some of the Electors, the Council Advisory, and senior court functionaries. They planned a palace revolution. The Commander of the Righteous would be arrested before all else. And killed, if he resisted. Katrin would be replaced with the more tractable Helspeth.
Hecht observed, “Those kinds of rumors have been around since Lothar went belly-up.”
“And the plotters never have the balls to take the plunge. I know. But Katrin’s recent behavior has given them fresh courage. And I don’t want my benefactor hurt by power squabbles amongst the Empire’s most spoiled nobles.”