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.Nor would there be direct help from Santerin, despite any wishful thinking.Though King Brill's transgressions along Arnhand's borders did now have Charlve the Dim and Anne of Menand distracted.With invaders just sixty miles away Duke Tormond began, for the first time, rehearsing his military options.Brother Candle hoped Tormond would defer to Sir Eardale Dunn."You're the man Count Raymone put in charge.I'm here to keep an eye on everybody."Amberchelle was disappointed.Of course.He had hoped to be told what to do."We'll wait and see, then.If the magnates here go on pretending the situation isn't desperate, we will act.Just be ready to go on short notice."Brother Candle went up onto the wall south of the barbican two days later.A hundred fires burned outside, providing light for the Patriarchal artillerists.Their engines worked day and night.The troops manning them worked in shifts.Local people brought the stone and firewood.Part of the barbican had collapsed a few hours ago.The main wall had begun to creak and groan and shift.The Patriarchals had begun building floating wharves on the east side of the Laur, below their pontoon bridge.A dozen barges and boats were tied up already, unloading by night.Buildings were being erected to warehouse incoming cargo.The besiegers were living far better than the besieged.Though the siege might not go on much longer.The New Town had been lost.Now it looked like the crusaders meant to hit the Burg suburb again, soon.Despair had found a home in the narrow, shadowed streets.Few people now believed this city, that had not been overcome in five centuries, would remain inviolate.They invested their hopes in Queen Isabeth and Duke Tormond.Isabeth and her knights were twenty miles away.The Great Vacillator had sent out a call for volunteers to go help the Connec's second city.Brother Candle suspected little would come of that.A new, small hope came with news from Viscesment.Immaculate's supporters had assembled after the departure of the Patriarchals.They had elected a successor to the murdered Anti-Patriarch.An unknown bishop, Rocklin Glas from Sellars in the Grail Empire, had accepted the ermine and assumed the inauspicious reign name Bellicose.He promised a vigorous campaign against the Pretenders of Brothe.Not the traditional resistance but an aggressive countercampaign.He had sent out a call for crusaders.Though he was not taken seriously outside Viscesment, the Society in those parts faced savage persecutions already.Reaping what they had sown.Bellicose promised to execute a member of the Society every time a non-Brothen Episcopal suffered at its hands.He and Sublime were bee-busy excommunicating and publishing Writs of Anathema against one another.More insanity, Brother Candle thought.Maybe the sides could exterminate each other.Leave the world to the Unbelievers, the Seekers, and those whose harsh old deities had begun slithering in out of muck and shadow.The Perfect Master grew increasingly dismayed as he watched the besiegers.He realized he was looking at something unseen since the collapse of the Old Empire.Professional soldiers led by professional officers, chosen for competence rather than noble lineage, veterans all, were going about their business with the dispassionate skill of butchers and bricklayers.However much the nobility on either side disdained them, they represented sudden, efficient death.How would they stand up to a massed heavy cavalry charge?Bernardin Amberchelle found him there, in his pessimism."Brother? I just left another meeting of the consuls and magnates.""Let me guess.They can't agree on a sensible course of action.""You should be a professional gambler, Brother.""I am, in a way, nowadays.Risking my soul chasing earthly illusions."Amberchelle's short, wide frame shuddered."I've decided.They won't do the needful things.The Patriarchals should go after the Burg in the morning.Tonight may be our last chance to get out.""I feared as much.I am, of course, ready to go.""Good.Good.There'll be enough moonlight.We should be well away before sunrise." Amberchelle sounded shaky.Frightened and trying to hide it."Something out there worries you?""Rumors.Horrible things in the dark."Brother Candle nodded, though the horrible things he had heard of were awful mainly on an intellectual level.Rook.Hilt.The other revenants.They were disgusting but nothing he feared.Not at the strength they possessed now.They barely qualified as ghosts of the gods they had been.Brother Candle said, "Very well.I'll get my things and chivvy the girl.""I've spoken to her already.""Excellent.We might get out of here before sunrise."It was midnight.Socia Rault and Brother Candle, accompanied by Bernardin Amberchelle and his associates, eased out a sally port in Castreresone's north end [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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