Golden Age (The Shifting Tides Book 1) (15 page)

23

The reddish land ahead grew larger with every sweep of the bireme’s many oars until it came to dominate Chloe’s vision, revealing rust-colored cliffs, rocky bays, and promontories that jutted out into the water like fingers.

The sea had changed color, becoming a pale blue similar to the hue of the sky, indicating a shallower depth. Kargan ordered the sail lowered as he took the warship into a wide bay that became a series of smaller inlets.

Soon, Chloe knew, they would arrive at Lamara.

They had spent the previous night beached near Koulis. Although they had never ventured into the city, remaining camped on the shore just below, she had gained an impression of white columned temples of glistening marble, and men and women wearing surprisingly Galean costumes. The palm trees and baked yellow walls had marked Koulis out as different from Chloe’s home, but when she asked Hasha about it he explained that the city once saw itself as closer to the Galean nations than those of Salesia.

The sun king had dominated Koulis for several years, however, and yellow flags flew from the towers at the corners of the walls. Kargan had sent a trading party into the city, but kept Chloe under close guard. She had watched them leave enviously, trying to remember what it felt like to be free, but she hadn’t complained when they returned hours later with fresh meat, fruit, barley, and bread.

She had crossed the Maltherean Sea, and she was now on the Salesian continent. Soon she would meet Solon, the sun king of Ilea. The thought filled her with dread.

Now, shielding her eyes as the
Nexotardis
headed for its home port, she saw a distant structure on a finger of land and realized it was a lighthouse. Sweeping her gaze in the opposite direction, she saw a second promontory with yet another lighthouse on its tip.

The
Nexotardis
passed between the two structures, miles apart from each other, and Chloe saw more ships ahead, traveling the same way: sailing skiffs and rowing galleys, merchant vessels with bulging bellies, and ramshackle fishing boats.

Another promontory divided the bay in the middle and Kargan led them to the right, following the other ships. Chloe saw that they were entering an inlet, the curling waves colliding with the rushing water of a mighty river. As they passed the central jut of land on the right, she shielded her eyes and saw a huge statue.

It was made of stone and bigger than the lighthouses she’d seen earlier. She recognized Helios the sun god, legs apart and arms at his sides, head tilted back to look up at the sky.

‘The statue marks the start of the river,’ a rumbling voice said beside her as Kargan joined her at the rail. ‘You will see the city soon enough.’

The drum thrummed below the deck, so ever-present that the sound was now at the edge of her consciousness. The
Nexotardis
traveled on oars alone, blades lifting out of the water, sweeping back and dipping in again with endless repetition. There were now banks at both sides, sometimes showing yellow cliffs and other times broken shores filled with boulders.

Buildings appeared on the left bank, mud-brick structures with gaping holes for windows and roofs of stick and straw. Then Chloe saw a wall. It was dusty and red, as tall as the ship’s mast and broad enough for men to walk on top. A hexagonal tower rested up against a cliff where the wall met the river, and for a time the wall hid the city within.

Glancing at the other bank, opposing the city, she decided that this was where the poorer people lived, for the huts were crude and crammed close together. Dusty streets marked out one block of huts from another, while on a hill behind she could see regularly spaced trees and fields of grain. There were no bridges; passage between the two sides of the river would be granted by ferryboat only. Every vessel on the right-hand shore was a fishing boat.

As they passed the wall, her attention turned once more to the left-hand bank and the main city.

‘Lamara,’ Kargan said. ‘Capital of the Ilean Empire.’

Structures appeared as they passed the city wall. So many buildings that Chloe struggled to comprehend them all. Lamara dwarfed Phalesia, more yellow than white, perhaps less beautiful, but . . . huge.

The city followed the bank of the river for at least a mile. A series of tiers in the very center marked out a ziggurat, and on the highest level Chloe saw a walled palace, undoubtedly the home of the sun king. The sprawling edifice crowned the city, spearing the sky with tall spires, so thin that Chloe wondered how they didn’t topple over. Like most of the buildings around, it was made of red brick, but she could see marble columns and the rust color was further broken by a multitude of yellow flags with orange suns in their centers, snapping in the breeze.

Below the palace was a confusion of two-storied residential blocks delineated by winding alleys and broad avenues. Chloe saw temples of basalt and marble statues, sprawling slums and grand villas. Palm trees clustered here and there, made ethereal by the dust.

‘Look,’ Kargan said, pointing. ‘The bazaar.’

‘Bazaar?’ Chloe frowned.

‘Market.’

She realized he was pointing at a rectangular square located somewhere in the lower city between the palace and the riverbank. Canopied stalls with tent-like coverings of every color imaginable crowded one next to another. Aisle after aisle filled the square, leaving no empty space uncovered. The bazaar of Lamara could have swallowed the Phalesian agora several times over.

As they drew inline with the palace the bank dropped away, curving in an arc of sandy shoreline. Chloe realized it was the city’s harbor. She couldn’t believe the number of vessels drawn up on the shore, a number that must be approaching a hundred.

Seeing the sun king’s fleet, she felt fear stab her stomach. Over half of the vessels on the shore were biremes, all of them as large and powerful as the
Nexotardis
. The powerful warship that had so concerned her father and the other consuls was just one of many.

Kargan stayed with Chloe at the rail, appearing to enjoy her awe and consternation at the sheer size of the city. His men knew what to do. In moments he would be home.

Scanning the harbor, she saw soldiers and sailors guarding the ships and scrubbing the decks. The beach sloped up until it joined the buildings facing it. A sailor exited a hut on the shore, two steaming bowls in his hands, handing one to a friend.

Kargan had a hint of a smile on his face as he regarded her, as if he were waiting for something. Chloe frowned, and looked back at the harbor.

Then, somewhat distant, but so large it couldn’t be real, she saw something that took her breath away.

It rose from behind the red buildings, erected on the land further upriver, within the city walls but far from the palace. It was a mountain . . . but a mountain made by men, perfectly proportioned, triangular-faced on all sides. It was the biggest structure Chloe had ever seen.

She rubbed her eyes. She could see shining golden blocks the size of houses piled one on top of the other, describing how it had been made, with each level slightly smaller than the one below. Strangely, two thirds of the way up, the glistening faces ceased and the levels became naked stone all the way to the summit.

The triangular mountain continued to grow bigger in Chloe’s vision as they approached the harbor. Where the stones were clad, the mountain shone bright yellow in the sun.

‘In the name of Aeris, what is that?’

‘It is the pyramid,’ Kargan said.

Chloe couldn’t take her eyes off it. ‘Who built it?’

‘Slaves.’ Kargan laughed. ‘It was built with the pitiful lives of wretches.’ He looked at it for a while before sobering. ‘Solon built it.’

‘What is it?’

Kargan’s expression was now grave. ‘It is the sun king’s tomb,’ he said softly.

‘And is that . . . Is it covered with . . . ?’

‘Gold,’ said Kargan. ‘Pure gold.’ He hesitated. ‘It might help you to know: the sun king is dying.’

Chloe looked at Kargan’s face. He was deadly serious.

‘The magi say there is a cancer inside him, robbing him of breath, causing him to cough blood. He visited the Oracle at Athos to seek the Seer’s wisdom. The Seer did not tell him what he wanted to hear. She said he doesn’t have long for this world, and that he would be dead by the end of the thirty-first year of his reign. When he pressed the Seer, asking what he could do, she said there was only one thing: prepare his soul for the afterlife.’

Kargan was pensive for a time.

‘When he returned to Lamara he consulted the priests of all the gods. But only the prayers of the priests of Helios the sun god were answered; only they gave Solon the solution he sought. The sun god says that building this pyramid will assure the great king’s passage through the gates of Ar-Rayan to the next world. It must be the tallest structure in the world, and it must be clad in gold. Solon has scoured the continent for gold. You will not see golden jewelry on the women here. Yet his tomb is not complete.’

‘What year is it?’ Chloe asked.

‘It is the thirty-first year in the reign of Solon the sun king.’

He and Chloe both gazed at the distant golden pyramid.

‘This year is his last,’ Kargan said.

Chloe looked back at the
Nexotardis
one final time as Kargan’s marines formed an escort for the pair, leading them up from the harbor to the dusty streets of Lamara. Her journey had been an ordeal, fraught with peril, and she still had the prophecy of the Seer burned into her consciousness.

Her greatest trial was still to come.

Led by Kargan, her escort led her away from the harbor along a broad avenue with tall buildings on both sides. These people knew their city, yet the route veered and twisted; there was no clear plan to the streets. She plunged through the bazaar, overwhelmed by the scent of strange spices, stench of refuse, odors of cooking, and sweaty, swarthy masses of hawkers and thronging city folk. The
escort kept her moving, clearing the crowd ahead, but it nonethe
less took an eternity to exit the bustling marketplace.

Beggars leaned against walls on every street corner. A skinny one-armed Ilean tugged on Chloe’s sleeve, but was swiftly repelled by a blow from a soldier’s triangular shield. Children with faces pockmarked by disease hid fearfully from the group, tucking themselves into doorways and raising their arms to ward off blows that never came. The soldiers knocked to the ground an old man leading a donkey who didn’t hear them coming. Glancing over her shoulder, Chloe saw him wearily struggle back to his feet.

Their path twisted and climbed as they now entered a wealthy residential area, the quarter closest to the palace. The doors here were made of solid wood, barred against intrusion. Chloe was constantly in shade; the sun’s rays couldn’t penetrate the streets below.

She lost track of how many steps she climbed, and then suddenly she was in a wide, curving street, squinting and feeling bright warmth on her face. They followed the well-paved road, which skirted a high red wall, smooth and tall. The wall curved and their path curved with it.

Thinking constantly of escape, Chloe realized they were following the exterior wall of the sun king’s palace. She took note of the height – as tall as three men – and the wooden spikes on top placed every few inches. It was designed to keep intruders out and prisoners in.

She saw an elaborate pillar ahead and then a matching post on the other side, a wide gap between them. A dozen soldiers stood just inside the palace gate, with leather skirts covering yellow trousers and matching breastplates over tunics.

A tall officer recognized Kargan and bowed. ‘Overlord. You have been missed. We thanked the sun god when we saw the
Nexotardis
approach. The king of kings wishes to see you.’

‘I have a prisoner,’ Kargan said gruffly, indicating Chloe. ‘She’ll need to be readied before I present her to the sun king.’

‘Should she be quartered with the women?’

‘Until we know what Solon wants with her, that would be best.’

Without another word, Kargan strode imperiously into the courtyard within, his steps bold as he followed a wide path framed by gardens.

Chloe was now alone.

‘Come, girl,’ the officer said. ‘Follow me.’

24

Chloe had neither weapon nor the skill to use one if she had. She was confused and in a strange place. She was determined to find a path to freedom, but for the time being, there was nothing she could do.

The officer handed her to another palace guard, who delivered her to yet another. He took her through an archway draped with a length of silk to obscure the interior. She passed through the gardens just inside the palace wall and then entered a long passage skirting a central courtyard filled with flowering shrubs. She crossed a high-ceilinged atrium that allowed light and air to flood the interior, before following a passage that veered twice at sharp angles.

She now stood outside another curtained entrance while her guard cleared his throat. ‘Eunuch!’ he called.

A wild-looking man with shoulder-length hair and pockmarked skin pulled aside the curtain.

‘What is it?’

‘A newcomer. See she is washed and made ready to present to the sun king, should he call for her.’

The tall man rumbled an assent and took hold of Chloe’s hand. He was as big as Kargan. Attempting to free her hand would serve no purpose other than to anger him.

‘Come,’ he said. ‘You stink, girl.’

He led her down the hall, past open doorways at both sides, to the very end, pulling another curtain aside to reveal bright sunlight. Chloe exited into a sunny courtyard, where ewers of water stood beside wide basins. Piles of cloth sat on stone benches. Small jugs lined the wall.

‘Strip,’ the man said.

Chloe swallowed. She scanned the courtyard, seeing a high wall on all sides, with the only doorway the one through which she’d just emerged.

‘Hurry up. We’re alone here. The curtains mark out the women’s quarters. You’re safe from prying eyes.
’

Still she stood frozen.

‘Look, girl,’ he said in exasperation. Pulling down his loose trousers, he revealed an abdomen coated with hair that grew thicker as her eyes inadvertently traveled down. He thrust his hips out obscenely and parted the bush of black hair.

Chloe flinched as she saw a gash where his manhood should have been.

He pulled his trousers back up. ‘They took it all. You have nothing to fear from me. Now take your filthy garment off.’

She removed first one copper pin and then another, shrugging out of the diaphanous chiton and letting it fall to the floor. The eunuch – she understood the word now – looked on impassively. She felt strange to be naked and standing out in the open in a foreign place. The constant sun of the voyage had tanned her limbs golden, leaving the rest of her body pale as milk.

‘Come over here.’ The eunuch led her to the nearest basin and without further ado splashed water onto her hair and body. ‘The water has been in the sun all day. See? It is warm.’

Chloe nodded as she began to wash away the stains of the journey. The eunuch walked to the wall, bending down and grabbing a ceramic jug before reaching for a horsehair brush. He tipped oil from the jug over the hairs on the brush.

‘Lift your arms,’ he said.

As she complied, the eunuch started to scrub. His strokes were practiced and neither harsh nor soft, the oil lubricating the brush and foaming as he worked. Chloe turned when he asked and when she inhaled she realized the oil was scented; she recognized rosemary and lavender.

He finished by scrubbing her hair and then completed the ritual by upending a ewer over her head.

‘Dry yourself,’ he said, taking one of the piled cloths and handing it to her. ‘Now come with me.’

‘My clothes—’

‘—Will be burned,’ he said matter-of-factly.

Reaching the doorway and pulling the curtain to the side, he frowned when he saw she wasn’t following.

‘Did you not hear me, girl? You are in the women’s quarters. Your lack of clothing will cause no comment.’

With a sigh, Chloe followed the eunuch back into the interior, dark and cool compared to the courtyard. He led her to one of the side doors and, entering, she saw a large room so expansive that if she threw a stone she wouldn’t strike the far end. Frescos of flowers and naked children decorated the surface of every wall. Woven mats covered the floors. Latticed screens divided the area into a multitude of corner spaces, each having a bed pallet and chest. Young female slaves scurried past carrying jugs and baskets. Despite the eunuch’s earlier words, they all looked at her curiously. She fought not to cover herself with her arms.

Then a slim boy with short dark hair entered from a hidden doorway at the room’s far end, obscured by the screens. He was young, barely out of his teens, and held the handle of a jug in one hand.

Chloe stopped in her tracks. Her eyes shifted to the left and right, but there was nowhere she could hide.

‘Master,’ the young man bowed to the tall eunuch. ‘Her place is ready.’ He spoke with a soft, lisping voice. ‘By the tulips, in the far corner.’ He pointed to a place across the room.

‘Good,’ the eunuch said. ‘Come and see me when your work is done.’

‘Of course, master.’ He bowed again.

Chloe felt better when he’d gone, though she wondered if he was also a eunuch. She supposed he must be, to be allowed in the women’s quarters. He was obviously a slave. It disturbed her that anyone could maim a slave, and one so young.

She was led to a bed pallet no different from any others. The other pallets around her were empty; she had the place to herself. The eunuch pointed to the chest. ‘Clothing inside. Dress yourself.’

He turned to depart, and even as she opened the chest and pulled out the first chiton she found, throwing it over her nakedness, Chloe reached out to touch his arm.

‘What is to become of me?’

Behind the question, she was wondering how she might escape.

‘You are a woman,’ he said. ‘Your place is here. Women are to be kept hidden.’

‘Hidden?’

‘Your attributes are beauty and the ability to bear children. You need to be secluded. Unlike men, you have no skills.’

‘Wait,’ Chloe said, biting her lip in desperation. The prospect of spending her life in this place filled her with horror. Without freedom of movement, and the ability to learn about this city, she would have no chance whatsoever to get away. ‘I have skills.’

He shrugged. ‘It is no business of mine.’ He glanced at the white chiton she’d draped over herself like a bed sheet. ‘You know how to clothe yourself?’

‘Of course.’ She scowled.

‘Good,’ he said. ‘I have my duties.’

He stalked away.

Her heart filled with trepidation, she began to dress.

Chloe sat on a wooden bench in a waiting room. Her thick, near-black hair was now combed until it shone, falling from her shoulders to her waist. Her copper amulet was gone, offered to the Oracle, but she still wore the chain of burnished red metal around her neck. Copper pins held the white chiton draped around her.

The youth had summoned her, handing her to a palace guard at the arched entrance to the women’s quarters. She had been waiting for what felt like an eternity. Sweat beaded on her brow, though it was cool in the palace’s interior.

Chloe knew she was about to meet the sun king.

The waiting room had guards at both ends. She could hear a rough, booming voice in the opposite direction to the way she had come. Finally, the guard on that side beckoned.

She felt her chest rise and fall as she followed him into the sun king’s audience chamber.

The cavernous space was bright and airy, facing the harbor so that a cool breeze ruffled the patterned tapestries spread along the walls. White marble columns held up the ceiling and thick carpets rested snugly one against the other so that almost no part of the floor lay bare. At her right, wide windows allowed afternoon sun to pour through, while the left side displayed a series of arches leading further into the palace’s interior.

Palace guards stood ahead of her, still and silent, framing the long rectangular space in the room’s center. She recognized Kargan, standing in fresh clothing, facing a golden throne.

The room was sumptuous and exotic, filled with colors of yellow and purple. As she stepped forward and stopped, Chloe was almost overwhelmed by the sight of so much wealth.

‘Keep your eyes down,’ the guard whispered, standing behind her shoulder.

‘—Raiding is a simple matter,’ Kargan was saying, ‘but complete conquest would be achievable. With a good harbor across the Maltherean, the rest of the world will enter our influence.’

‘So you say,’ a clipped, precise voice came from the throne. ‘Where is she? I think it is time to meet one of these Phalesians.’

Glancing over his shoulder and seeing her, Kargan beckoned.

‘Come, Chloe, daughter of the first consul of Phalesia,’ he said.

Chloe felt her footsteps sink into the carpets as she walked over. She carefully kept her eyes on the floor until she stood by his side.

She finally looked up at the throne, a high-backed chair with arms in the shape of a lion’s limbs, terminating in curled paws. Evidently the sun king wasn’t yet desperate enough to melt his throne: it was made of solid gold.

Solon, the sun king of Ilea, who was said to have taken his nation into a new age of glory, was a tall man; even without the additional height of his raised throne he would look down his long patrician nose at anyone he spoke to. Black hair flowed to his shoulders and he had a sculpted, pointed beard. Piercing dark eyes looked at her from under thin arched eyebrows. He had smooth olive skin and his frame reinforced the angularity of his features – he was extremely lean.

He regarded her with a strangely feverish expression that was both hypnotic and fanatical. As the seconds dragged his visage shifted to sardonic amusement.

‘Prostrate yourself,’ Kargan hissed.

Chloe sank to her knees and clasped her palms together. She realized that this meeting of peoples could have an effect on the fate of her nation.

‘Now bow,’ Kargan muttered.

She bowed forward, awkward in the movement. ‘Greetings, sun king. Were he here, I am certain my father, First Consul Aristocles, would give you his wishes for health and prosperity.’

‘Rise,’ Solon said. He frowned at Kargan. ‘Do all her people speak like this or does she have a speech impediment? I can barely understand her.’

Chloe climbed to her feet and stood uncertainly. ‘I have lived all my life in the one city, the place I call home, sun king. My people all speak as I do.’

‘I can see, Kargan, that I cannot accuse you of preparing her words and actions. Not only does she not know how to behave in front of the king of kings, I address a question to you and she answers.’

‘The women in Phalesia exercise many liberties, Great King,’ Kargan said, scowling at Chloe.

She recalled the words of the eunuch. She had to do anything she could to get a modicum of freedom. If she were treated as other women, she would never escape.

‘If you are so willing to speak, girl, tell me of your homeland,’ Solon commanded.

‘My . . . My homeland is a peace-loving nation—’

Solon interrupted her with a wry chuckle, holding up a hand. ‘A peace-loving nation with well-trained soldiers carrying good steel, a sizeable fleet of war galleys, a defensible harbor, and stout walls on all sides. Unless, girl, you tell me my loyal servant Kargan is lying?’ His amused expression vanished in an instant. ‘Choose your next words carefully. The punishment for deceit is death by impalement.’

Chloe swallowed. ‘Phalesia is peaceful but powerful. We have a city forming the nation’s heart, but several villages give tithe also. Compared to many other Galean states, we are prosperous. We produce the finest ceramics in the world and our silver coins are used as currency from Tanus to Sarsica.’

She stopped there, but Solon nodded. ‘Continue.’

‘If you return me to my father there can still be peace and trade. We have wine, wheat, barley, marble—’

‘What of gold?’ Solon leaned forward, his penetrating eyes staring directly into hers. ‘Is there much gold in your land?’

‘We use silver for coinage—’

The sun king waved a long, delicate hand. ‘Whip her.’

‘Wait!’ Chloe cried. ‘We have some gold. Small items of jewelry—’

Solon held up a hand once more. ‘Enough. I have no time for her dissembling. I tire.’ He winced, and his shoulders slumped. With more time for inspection, Chloe saw dark shadows under his eyes. ‘Kargan, you may leave, and the girl also. I will question her at another time to gain her view on the things you have told me.’

He gestured with his manicured fingertips and Chloe saw a guard coming for her. Kargan scowled again at her, leaving the room with angry strides.

As she was led away, she realized she had survived her first encounter.