CHAPTER 6
The man they called the Seal-breaker hung up the phone and considered it for a long moment.
It was supposed to be over. It was all supposed to have died with the priest, but however much War had tried to make his report sound casual, the relaying of a formality, he hadn’t been able to conceal the trace of unease in his voice.
The priest had a brother.
They had known that before. Of course, they had. It just hadn’t seemed important till now.
And may not be still, he thought. And if it became important, if this brother to the hapless priest became a threat, the Seal-breaker would move, and fast.
He had stalled with the priest, assuming the problem would just rinse out over time, but the man had been persistent and stubborn. He would not wait for his brother to become a threat.
Before the man could even rise to the level of irritant or distraction, the Seal-breaker would swat him like the gnat he was.
It wasn’t as if he didn’t have the resources, he thought, with the whisper of a smile. He had the reach, the finances, the sheer power to achieve all manner of things. He also had the will, and that was what would really terrify his enemies, or would if they ever knew who he was. The Seal-breaker himself was impossible to see. He could shake the hand of his most loathed adversary and they would not know him. And when it came time for action, the Seal-breaker would be a world away while his operatives struck.
His horsemen, he called them, all four poised to do his bidding, ready to release whatever private apocalypse the Seal-breaker thought appropriate. He had handpicked each of them for their special talents.
War, his general, a skilled soldier who could deploy his own assault team in any terrain.
Pestilence, his spy, who spread disease with dissimulation and lies.
Famine, his private horror show, a man who sowed terror wherever he walked.
Death, his wild card, and the measure of his near-limitless power.
What could he not do with such cavalry at his command?
It wouldn’t come to that, he thought. But if it did, there would be no hesitation this time. For now he would merely alert them, but if he had to unleash all four of them, he would.
The Seal-breaker considered the two solitary words he had written down during his conversation with War:
Thomas Knight.
He looked at the name of the man who was now blundering aimlessly around the detritus of his brother’s life, and the Seal-breaker, as he dialed the first of the horsemen, felt almost sorry for him.