Book 1 - The Tyranny of the Night by Glen Cook Read Free Book Online Page A

Patriarch as the head of their Church. They considered him a pompous
upstart. Luckily, he was comfortably far away.
    Else strode toward the Northern Gate, as alone as a beggar seeking his fortune.
He had sent the Andesqueluzan mummies ahead while he dealt with the barge master
who had brought him south from the island of Raine. The Lion's own warships were
not permitted to proceed upriver from Raine.
    Two log booms spanned the Shirne, above and below al-Qarn. Cargos destined for
the upper Shirne had to be transshipped several times.
    Dust devils danced across the barren. Else worried. Some evil spirits could come
out in the daytime. If the Lion feared him enough, he might have er-Rashal
al-Dhulquarnen set something diabolic on him.
    Else knew that Gordimer feared him but did not know why. Unless another
soothsayer had filled the Lion's head with absurd ravings.
    Gordimer was addicted to his augurs.
    Else knew his life and performance were beyond reproach, back to his earliest
days in the Vibrant Sapling school. He did nothing less than what was expected.
    He was not perfect. No one is. Perfection is reserved for the God Who Is the One
True God.
    Else entertained a suspicion that many of the gods of the infidels were real,
too, they were just less than the God of gods.
    Al-Qarn's North Wall spanned Gordimer's Waste in a line as
    straight as a razor's slash. Windmills surmounted it at intervals, which made
it unique amongst all the city walls in the world.
    The windmills were there to pump water.
    The top of the wall was an aqueduct. It carried water from the Shirne to
reservoirs in the highest part of the city. Which, at Gordimer's insistence,
were kept filled and free of settled mud.
    Gordimer's Waste left Else wondering if all Dreanger might not end up barren
because of that man.
    Right now, a hundred seventy miles south of al-Qarn, the last forest in Dreanger
was being clear-cut to provide timber for construction of a vast new war fleet
Gordimer had decreed the expansion because he feared the ambitions of the
Patriarch of Brothe, the Emperor of Rhûni and the fleets of the mercantile
republics of Dateon, Aparion, and Sonsa. An invading army would need ships to
reach Dreanger.
    Else entered the city. Behind the wall differed from Gordimer's Waste like day
differed from night. Every inch of al-Qarn was vibrant and busy, humming with
life. Some claimed a million souls dwelt in al-Qarn. That was an exaggeration,
but it delighted Else.
    Al-Qarn was home. To Else and all Sha-lug. Al-Qarn's great mission was to
produce the Sha-lug who protected the Kaifate and who were—in their own eyes—the
chief defenders of the Realm of Peace and al-Prama, the Faith.

    ELSE CLIMBED THE LONG FLIGHTS OF BROAD STEPS THAT TOOK him up to the Palace of
the Kings, no longer aptly named because there had been no kings in Dreanger for
centuries. The name seemed the more unusual because God did not accept the
competition for affection presented by kings. There were no kings anywhere
inside the Realm of Peace. Only strongmen who arrogated the powers of kings.
    Else's Vibrant Sapling school was one of seven that turned young slaves into
polished Sha-lug. Before Gordimer there had been more. Gordimer compelled the
surviving schools to watch one another, in a competition that perverted the
original competition for excellence between schools.
    The midday call to prayer came before Else entered. He abased himself, going
through the motions. In al-Qarn everyone did. Even
visiting infidels. There were spies everywhere. Transgressions were punished
swiftly and brutally.
    Gordimer the Lion had no respect for his Kaif, the captain of the religious
ship, and held the man hostage, but he was a fanatic devotee of the Written.
Despite the circumstances of his birth.
    The record of his purchase survived. The slavers claimed Gordimer was a Cledian
from the Promptean coast. But his name, his coloring, and his build suggested