Uncle Divino opined, "It would be a huge risk just talking to the Collegium."

"I'm sure he has that angle covered. I don't like him. Not even a little. But he's the man to deal with what might be headed our way."

Paludan wriggled and whimpered for days before he financed his share of the Grand Strategy – once pressured sufficiently by his uncle Divino.

Only Sublime refused to contribute to the defense fund. He did not like the master plan. It did not sufficiently aggrandize him or the Patriarchy.

Else felt boyishly pleased when Grade Drocker announced, "His Holiness will receive no protection since he refuses to participate in the common defense. Eis be blessed, even the heathen Deves are contributing."

Else shivered in secret glee. Everything was going perfectly.

THE CALZIRAN PIRATES DID ATTACK UP THE TERAGI, IN NUMbers far greater than anticipated, a week later than expected. Their sails masked the river for miles.

During the delay week they raided Terea, where the raiders ran into Imperial troops headed south, to take part in whatever adventure Hansel and his local henchmen had afoot in Alameddine.

The Collegium declared the Terea raid a diversion meant to draw defenders away from the city. The Tereans and Imperials were awarded their freedom to twist in the wind.

Rumor said Masant al-Seyhan had secret allies amongst the Five Families. Or the Colors. Or one of Brothe's numerous minorities.

Redfearn Bechter told Else and Pinkus Ghort, "You got to know somebody told them assholes that all we've been doing is trying to fool them into staying away." The occasion was another endless planning meeting where little got decided.

Ghort replied, "I can't believe Drocker counted on them being scared off. I bet he was playing it so maybe he could find out who was friendly with the pirates."

"There's one idea we do need to get spread around," Else said. "The notion that the people in charge know what they're doing."

"This is why I like Hecht," Bechter said. "He's all over fitted up with positive thinking."

Ghort said, "Great idea, Pipe. But a little late." He pointed. A pillar of gray signal smoke leaned southward against the morning sky, way downriver. "Calzirans have entered the river. There's going to be a fight"

This made no sense to Else. How did a mob of fishermen, badly armed peasants, and small-time merchant seamen talk themselves into attacking the seat of an empire in full expectation of looting it? There had to be more to this than was obvious.

Two thousand veterans from amongst the squatters had been recruited and formed into small companies, each commanded by a member of the Brotherhood. Local volunteers and troops the Five Families had brought in from outside added another two thousand men. Else was sure four thousand would not be adequate.

He told Ghort, "These people are insane."

Ghort grunted agreement. "Did you have any idea it would be like this when you decided to come here?"

"No. The stories don't have anything to do with reality."

"No shit. If I'd known what it was really like… These Calziran thugs wouldn't have Pinkus Ghort to bang around on. I didn't get into this racket on account of the opportunities for fighting."

Else did not think many soldiers did like the fighting. Mercenaries ended up where they were, doing what they did, because there was nothing else they could do. They were like prostitutes, that way.

If you chose survival you did what you had to do to survive. Morality, ethics, and charity were luxuries enjoyed only by those rich enough to indulge in them.

"Where the hell are you, Pipe?" Ghort demanded. "Pluck your head out of your ass and let's eyeball the situation."

"You know why we get to stop them in the Memorium?" Else asked.

"Shit, yeah. So that anything that goes wrong will be some dumb mercenary's fault. Meaning you and me, boy. We're carrying the sins of the Patriarch and the Five Families on our shoulders. And we'll be in the wrong whatever the fuck we do."

Gervase Saluda eased up beside Else. "Am I catching all the implications, Hecht? You believe the Patriarch is manipulating things so you and this Ghort creature will take the blame for anything that goes wrong?"

Ghort responded, "And wouldn't you try the same stunt if Pipe didn't work for you? Shit. Pipe. Look. Them pricks are at the boom already."

A log and chain boom had been stretched across the Teragi two miles downriver. It was supposed to fix the pirate fleet for artillery on both banks. Unfortunately, demilitarization left Brothe only a handful of war engines. Most were lightweight and held by people unwilling to surrender them to the corporate good. Just six wheeled ballistae had been collected.

A greasy ball of smoke and fire boiled up over the boom.

Else asked, "What do you think, Sergeant Bechter?"

"I think some major sorcery just happened. I think the bad guys have cut the boom. I think that means we're in trouble."

Arriving news soon suggested that Redfearn Bechter was psychic. Except that his sorcery had been an explosion aboard a boat deliberately driven into the boom.

There might be a thousand vessels in the stampede headed upriver.

Before long a messenger announced, "They've started landing on the north bank, just below the Blendine Bridge."

The Blendine was the first bridge encountered by vessels coming up the Teragi. It stood less than two hundred yards downstream from the Castella dollas Pontellas. Its arches rose high enough that ships could pass below if they unstepped their masts and proceeded under oars. They were wide enough to allow the passage of warships headed for the Castella. Militia armed with javelins, cheap crossbows, boulders, and blocks of building stone, were stationed on that bridge.

But the north shore, below the bridge, was undefended. The pirates attacked the bridge from there. They crossed over against resistance that surprised Else, under withering fire from the Castella. Decimated, sometimes stunned by the horror, the Calzirans plunged into the expanse of monuments, fountains, triumphal arches, and little plazas known as the Memorium, where the earliest and most ferocious fighting was expected to occur. Where the success or failure of the raid might be determined.

Brothe's leading defenders had expected the pirates to come ashore on the south bank, at the downstream end of the Memorium, then attack eastward to isolate Krois and the Castella dollas Pontellas while seizing the bridges over the Teragi to keep help from coming from the north. The pirates could then turn to systematic plunder.

By beaching on the north bank and storming the Blendine Bridge the pirates avoided having to fight through 80 percent of the Memorium, where they would have been treated cruelly in ambushes and cross fires designed to exploit their lack of experience and discipline.

Pinkus Ghort observed, "This isn't no mob gone crazy, Pipe. People on the other side knows what's going on. We're about to get slapped around like a couple teenaged whores."

"There's order and planning, anyway. The pirates may just be here for the plunder but I'm thinking somebody is more ambitious."

Redfearn Bechter generally kept his own counsel. He preferred to do God's work quietly. If you asked the Sergeant, he would tell you God was like a tailor. A gentle entity who preferred to carry on the business of the world with minimal fuss. Bechter observed, "We're screwed if we don't decide right now that this is bigger than just some Praman fishermen trying to steal anything that isn't nailed down. There's an evil genius at work."

Else sighed. "What do you think, Pinkus? Stand tough south and up here, but let them do what they want in between?"

Saluda protested, "That would push them into the heavily populated part of the city."