Blood and Iron: The Book of the Black Earth (Part One) by Jon Sprunk Read Free Book Online Page B

nightmare. His family was safe, and all he could do was pray for those left behind.

    The opening door woke him.
    Horace jerked upright as two soldiers entered his cell. By the light coming down the narrow window chute, he guessed it must be morning. He didn't resist when the soldiers indicated he should come with them.
    They escorted him back to the open court inside the house. After spending the night underground, the sun felt wonderful on his face. They went outside to the street where the commander sat astride his steed talking to the older man. The rest of the soldiers were assembled behind their leader, but there was no sign of the villagers.
    After a few moments, the commander finished his conversation, and the company got underway. Horace was famished, but his thirst was even worse. He thought about using gestures to ask one of the soldiers for a drink, but they weren't wearing their field kits. No waterskins or packs; just armor, weapons, and shields. Like they were marching into battle. That got his attention.
    The streets were packed with people, mainly commoners carrying produce and driving domesticated goats and oxen. There were few horses, making the commander stick out. People moved aside for him, or perhaps it was the multitude of spears marching behind him. The company paused at an intersection of broad avenues as a pair of palanquins with gauzy silk curtains crossed in front of them. The men bearing them were naked save for breechclouts and sandals. Their oiled limbs gleamed in the morning light. Horace noticed that each bearer also wore an iron collar. He hadn't made the connection at the townhouse between the old man and his muscular bodyguards, but now it was clear.
    Slaves.
    Slavery wasn't unknown. The practice had been legal centuries ago under the old Nimean Empire, but many of the western nations outlawed it after they broke free of the imperial yoke. Yet slavery was evidently still alive and well here in the east. He couldn't help but imagine what it would feel like to wear a metal collar.
    The company entered a large open square. The buildings facing the plaza were grander than most of the others Horace had seen so far, but the palace directly across from where he stood was by far the most ostentatious. Though not very tall—three stories at most—it sprawled across the entire length of the square with a double row of columns supporting an impressive entablature that reminded Horace of classic imperial architecture with eastern accents.
    At the center of the square, hundreds of workers struggled with a rope-and-pulley crane to erect a stone statue. Horace couldn't tell what it was going to be, but based on the four massive legs rising from the base, the final product would be gigantic. A small crowd watched the construction, but most of the people seemed to be here on some kind of business. Merchants hawked their wares from tents and wooden stands to shoppers passing by. The clamor echoed off the brick and stone walls.
    The company made their way through the teeming masses to face a line of soldiers guarding the entrance of the grand palace. The commander dismounted to present a small clay tablet, and the soldiers waved them through.
    Beyond the arcade of columns, two tall bronze doors stood open. Stonestatues flanked the entrance. The effigies were bizarre, having human heads with long, curled beards on lion bodies. They were also quite old by the look of them.
    Through the doors they passed into a long atrium. Rectangular skylights open to the heavens illuminated the chamber. The walls were covered in vibrant paintings depicting a procession of people bringing various goods—sheaves of wheat, fruit baskets, even a herd of sheep—to a huge building that Horace initially took for a palace. Yet he soon realized it was a temple. There, men in yellow vestments took the spoils and placed them on a burning altar, where the smoke from the offerings was inhaled by a row of towering men and women on tall