Fall of a Kingdom (The Farsala Trilogy) Read Online Free PDF

been possessed!”
    “Yeah, well, that makes no difference, does it now?” said the guard grimly. “Forty eagles by fourth day is the price.”
    Sim tugged frantically on Kavi’s sleeve. “We don’t have that,” he whispered. “We don’t have it!”
    “The boy speaks true,” Kavi told the guard slowly. “Suppose you catch someone else in the next nine days—you could charge twenty eagles for them, and if we give you twenty for the girl, you’d be having your sum. Catch two, and you needn’t ask more than thirteen. Folks might be able to pay that.”
    “Yeah, and suppose I don’t catch anybody,” said the guard. “It’s not like fishing, you know. There’s weeks, months sometimes, when no one happens along. Besides, there’s this ceremony coming up in just a sevenday—sacrificing that commander’s daughter, so the djinn will let us beat the Hrum. There’ll be lots of people coming to the city for that. For the blood and all. Surely there’ll be a way for you to get the money, all those new folks in town.”
    Kavi grimaced. “There won’t be blood. Or, if there is, it’ll be chicken’s blood or goat’s. That’s just a ploy so we can’t complain when they raise the taxes, to pay for this new war. ‘Look what the commander of the army sacrificed—surely you can be paying a few more stallions.’”
    The deghans never paid for anything.
    “I don’t care about the commander’s daughter,” said the guard. “But if you’re wanting your girl back, unscarred with all her fingers, you’ve got nine days to raise the sum. All of it.” He turned and headed back toward the guard station, swearing as he ran into something in the dark.
    “Kavi, we don’t have it!” Sim whispered furiously. “No one has that kind of money.”
    “Some do.” Kavi reached out absently, tousling the boy’s thick curls. He wondered what the men the guard owed had threatened to do to him. Broken joints, from the sound of it. But worse might come to Hama, at the magisters’ hands. “Some do. It’s just a matter of figuring how much we need and the safest way to get it.”
     
    T HEY SPILLED ALL THEIR MONEY onto the table in Nadi’s main room. The hearth fire glinted on stacks of copper, brass, and tin, a bit of silver, and fifteen gold eagles.
    “Seventeen eagles short,” said Nadi grimly. “Seventeen and a bit.” Her warm brown skin was pale.
    “How much could we be getting for the stuff in your packs?” Sim demanded.
    “Not more than four eagles, at the most,” said Kavi. “Not here, for apprentice work. Even if I sold Duckie, she’d only bring a few falcons more.”
    “I could sell the house and the laundry,” said Nadi. “That’d fetch it. But it would be hard to do, in just nine days.” The flickering light picked out worry lines on her face. She looked old.
    Kavi snorted. “And then sell yourself? And your daughters? You’re still thinking honest, woman. We’ve got gold enough below to fetch the sum without adding in a single coin.” He gestured to the pile on the table.
    Nadi’s breath caught. “Sold in just nine days? Never get greedy, you told us. Just one or two pieces in a month. Give them long enough to forget your face.”
    “And for you, who live in this city, that’s true,” said Kavi, faking a confidence he didn’t feel. “But once I’ve finished the selling, I’ll be gone for six months. No reason for me not to sell the lot.”
    “But what if someone up and cuts one of your deep-coated buckles in half? What happens to you?” Nadi’s eyes were dark with hope and guilt, gratitude and fear, but she looked younger. Kavi’s heart lightened to see it.
    “Then I’ll smile, bow, and run like a djinn was on my heels,” he said. “Just like I taught Hama. My time for the Flame hasn’t come yet, Nadi. I promise.”

A NY ACCOUNT OF S ORAHB —at least, any that heeds the ancient legends—must begin with his father. Rostam was the greatest warrior Farsala has ever seen. He