A Conspiracy of Kings Read Online Free PDF

city, and I was to be
installed as a puppet in his place.
    The assassination attempt was a catastrophic failure for the
rebels. My uncle fought his way clear and pulled his men to order.
He guessed correctly that the gates of Sounis would be closed to
him, and instead of riding to the city for aid, he turned across
country, eluding his would-be assassins. Heading north, with a
handful of men, he made his way toward his loyal barons.
     
    On the second day, I was well enough to walk. Gorgias, on the
slaver’s orders, offered to leave off the gag if I gave my
word to be silent. I tried unsuccessfully to spit in his face. I
also screamed like a speared rabbit when he put the gag in. Gorgias
looked at me in a puzzled way when I dropped almost to my knees and
then struggled back to my feet, feeling utterly unheroic. My hands
were tied behind me, and I was off-balance. The gag, pushing the
loose tooth into my tender gum, was infuriating.
    Basrus came over and pushed me back down. He efficiently removed
the gag and tilted my head back, holding me pinned in the crook of
his elbow. I struggled like a piglet in a farmer’s grasp.
Like a farmer, Basrus expertly ran his finger inside my mouth,
found the tooth, and yanked it out. I yelled again and kicked, but
he held me immobile. Not ungently, he rubbed my head.
    “It will be better now, lion,” he said. He put the
gag back in, and he was right that it was far less uncomfortable
with the tooth gone. When he released me, he stepped back
carefully. I had seen Pol, captain of my father’s guard,
treat an angry Eugenides once with the same caution, and for good
reason. It was ridiculous that Basrus would treat me so, and humiliation made me more enraged. I
would have run myself into him headfirst if Gorgias hadn’t
grabbed me by the arm and held me back, saving me, not Basrus. My
head was too sore to use as a battering ram, and I would have hurt
only myself.
     
    When we reached Letnos, we marched past the holding pens at the
harbor and out the pier to a boat. I was so tired my only feeling
was one of relief that we had arrived. The swelling in my face had
gone down enough that I could see more clearly, but my head still
hurt. My hands were still tied, my legs were shackled as well, and
I had to be helped aboard. I’d spent the day twisting between
extremes, crying at the thought of my sisters and my mother and
snarling in rage. I’d used my feet to kick until Basrus had
them shackled, and then I’d used my elbows until my hands had
been retied, and my arms cinched tight to my body.
    My back ached and stung like fire in turns, and my stomach had
refused any food. Once in the boat, I was shoved to one side and
locked to a thwart. It wasn’t a large boat, but the other
slaves settled as far from me as they could. All they knew of me
was that I tended, when I was on the ground during rest periods, to
lash out with both feet together. As we settled in, the slave
trader looked over at me. He pinched his nose thoughtfully and said
aloud to Gorgias, “A lamb, they said. No more trouble than
snatching up a little lamb.”
    The center of town was alive with the king’s soldiers,
like an ants’ nest that had been kicked to pieces. The
king’s soldiers moved with no more direction than the ants,
and I watched them balefully as we pulled away from the pier.
    As we left the harbor, a galley pulled up beside us and ordered
the steersman into the wind. The sail flapped overhead as Basrus
made his way to the bow and handed a package of papers across to
the sailor on the galley, who passed them to his captain. Once
again, all the receipts seemed to be in order. Basrus stood at
ease, chatting with the nearest men about the weather and such,
rocking comfortably with the motion of the waves, while the captain
looked through the bill of sale for each of the slaves in the boat.
I sat silent behind my gag. Gorgias had already demonstrated that
he could, with a discreet tap from the lead weight he