Fable: Edge of the World Read Online Free PDF

against. His presence could mean the difference between success and failure.”
    Laylah gave Timmins an unhappy look. Timmins shrugged. “Begging your pardon, Your Majesty,” he said to the new queen, “but I speak the truth. Your husband knows it.”
    The king looked at his friends, then back at Shan. “I will be honest with you, because courage deserves honesty. My friend Jack does speak the truth. I am planning on going to Samarkand, to fight this darkness of which you speak. Your help, indeed, would be invaluable. But I also know what you’ve seen. You’ve already endured more than most strong men could and survived to warn us. If you don’t wish to go, then no one will force you. You have my word as King of Albion.”
    The boy’s eyes searched his, suspicious. The king had heard that Samarkand was a place of wonders, of magic, of beauty and peril. It would seem also that it was a place where trust did not come easily. But Shan was still petting Rex.
    “I believe you,” he said at last, and relief relaxed his taut face. “I will tell you all I know, I swear.”
    They listened raptly as Shan spoke of a realm in which knowledge and beauty and art were honored as well as wealth and power. A place with an old, old civilization, a reputation for birthing Heroes such as Garth, and a history that was as much myth as fact. He spoke of his own life, of an infant brother, two sisters, one older, one younger, of a mother and father. His parents served the Emperor as all did, not directly, but with their good citizenship, devotion, and skills. In return, few in Samarkand knew hardship. The Garden of Pleasures—a title whichhad Ben Finn sniggering and subsequently being elbowed by Page—was open to the public. Fruits and flowers were freely harvested. “No one took more than his share, so that others could enjoy all the pleasures of the Garden.”
    Ben sounded like he might choke.
    “I was little then, but I remember. It was a good life,” said Shan. “A happy life. There was a saying in my land: No honor is greater, no joy sweeter, than being a child of Samarkand.”
    “So it sounds,” said Laylah. “Yet you seem to think otherwise.”
    “That was before
she
came,” said Shan, his voice dropping so low they strained to hear.
    “Who?” asked Kalin.
    “The Empress,” he said, the word infused with such fear that the very air in the room suddenly felt cold. “Almost ten years ago, our Emperor, Zarak, went with one of our trading ships. To meet the king of a distant land, it was said. He returned after almost a year, with a wife. No one ever learned her name. It was said that her beauty was so great that all who looked upon her went mad with desire, so that she had to hide her face from the eyes of all but her husband.”
    “So no one ever knew what she actually looked like,” said Timmins, rolling the words over as if he were sifting through them for information. “Interesting … and convenient.”
    “She probably looked like a horse,” said Ben. Page elbowed him again. “What? I bet it’s the truth.”
    “That, or she didn’t want her appearance to become common knowledge,” said Timmins. “Perhaps so she could pass unnoticed in the city … if she chose.”
    “The Emperor was never the same,” said Shan. “He began to hide himself away. He started enacting laws that seemed cruel simply for the sake of it. All but a select few were barred fromthe Garden. He commissioned a wall to be built around Zahadar—Zahadar! The jewel of Samarkand! When he did appear to the people, those who beheld him whispered that there was nothing behind his eyes.” He fell silent for a long moment.
    “You said ‘was never the same,’ ” prompted the king.
    Shan started, then nodded. “He did not live long after bringing her home. And after he died, she became ruler in his stead. And the cruel laws that Emperor Zarak had enacted in his last year suddenly looked like acts of benevolence. The Empress ruled