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"What do you do here? It looks as if you are destroying the city and
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scattering its people."
"That is exactly what I am doing." The cloud of fury came over his face once
more. "The very thought of this city offends me now. The wretched Mana, whom I
will not dignify with the name of king, insulted me as I have never been
insulted." He proceeded to tell the tale of King Mana's funeral pyre.
"To be cheated thus of my just vengeance," he fumed, "is intolerable.
Therefore, I shall obliterate the very name of this city. I will level it and
have the ruins covered with
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soil and sown with grass. It will make an excellent pasture."
She stroked his chest, calming him. "But, my love, Sono is now a province of
your empire. It must have a capital city."
"Til found another. Find me a city in the north and I shall establish a
provincial capital there. A city in the north will be more valuable to us
anyway.''
"Yes, that is true," she said. The meaning of this exchange escaped Ansa.
The king glanced toward Ansa and his face grew puzzled. "Who is this boy?"
Larissa nodded to her guards and two of them loosed his ankle ties and hauled
him from his saddle. With a hand beneath each arm, they marched him before
Gasam and forced him to his knees, then held him in that position with spears
laid upon his shoulders. He forced himself to feel no hope. That would only
make the fear worse.
"This is my present to you, my love. An absolutely unique gift. I could have
searched the world without finding another such, yet it came to me as if by
fate to soothe your just fury at the way this siege has disappointed you."
"Now I am well and truly mystified," the king said. "What could give me that
much joy? Is this some son of Mana's I had not heard about? He does not look
like a Sonoan."
"Far better than that. This is Ansa, eldest son of King Hael."
Ansa awaited the deathblow, but it did not fall. Gasam made a choking sound,
then repeated it. The sound became rhythmic, acquired a voice, and turned into
a full-fledged, roaring laugh. Despite the spears, he raised his face to look
up and meet Gasam's eyes. He had expected me eyes of a predatory beast, like a
longneck, but he was wrong. It was like looking into the sky on a moonless
night, a sky somehow devoid of stars. The gulfs he saw there were as black
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John Maddox Roberts and as deep. He knew then that Gasara was not merely mad.
He was something other than human.
"So this is the son of my foster-brother Hael? Greetings, boy."
"Greetings, foster-uncle," Ansa said. At this, Gasam set off on another
roaring laugh.
"How shall I kill you? Surely, you shall not die as easily as fells the lot of
other men."
"Best you take counsel with your queen, then," Ansa said. "Father always told
me that you lacked imagination." He hoped that, if he provoked the man enough,
Gasam might forget himself and strike him dead quickly. But, the king just
roared with greater mirth. Nothing seemed to kill the good mood his wife's
arrival had brought about.
"Spare him a while, my love," said Larissa. "I have certain plans, and,
truthfully, is he not worth more to you alive? I beg you, do not kill him too
quickly."
His arm around her shoulder, he smiled down upon her. "Could I ever refuse you
anything, little queen? Truthfully, every minute I hold him alive will be a
minute of hell for his father. If he is slain, Hael will get over it quickly.
No, I shall enjoy having him among my possessions."
"I knew you would see the wisdom of it," she said. "We have much to speak of,
my king."
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"And much to do. But first, little queen, let me take you on a tour of my
latest conquest, while some of it still exists. '' He turned to someone who
stood behind Ansa. ' 'Take him to our tent and guard him. He is to come to no
harm, especially by his own hand."
There was a grunt of assent from behind Ansa and he was hauled to his feet.
The royal couple had already turned away, absorbed in their own concerns. As
he was marched toward the tent he realized, to his astonishment, that this
time he was not being handled by the Shasinn warriors. His upper arms were
pressed against something soft and he glanced to his right, astonished to see
not the muscular
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chest of a warrior but a woman's breasts. He was being marched by a pair of
women, and they were women of fearsome aspect. Rubies like tears of blood
dangled from the pierced nipples of one, golden hoops from those of the other.
They were painted and carved with ornamental scars and from them came a
strange, exotic scent.
The tent was divided into several rooms and they took him to one in the rear
and seated him, roughly, on a pile of carpets. Then they sat across from him
and arranged their weapons across their knees. One carried a short spear, the
other an axe with a slender, flexible handle, like that on his stone hatchet.
He noted that both weapons were of steel. If these were elite warriors, they
were the strangest he could imagine.
"I am Ansa. Who are you? Where are you from?" The two looked at him stonily,
then looked at each other, then back to him. "The king did not forbid you to
speak to me, did he? What harm can there be in that?" They glared at him for a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]