Dark Sun: Prism Pentad 4 - Obsidian Oracle by Troy Denning Read Free Book Online

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     of the first patrician, a wizened old man whose basket contained several glistening rubies.
    Andropinis selected the largest gem and held it up to the light. “What do you want in
     Balic, usurper?” he asked, addressing his guest without looking at him.
    Tithian's answer was direct and to the point. “I need two thousand soldiers and the craft
     to carry them over the Sea of Silt.”
    Andropinis raised a brow, then took all the rubies from the old man's basket and dumped
     them into the basin in the chamberlain's hands. “What makes you believe I would give them
     to you?”
    Tithian gestured at the satchel on Maurus's shoulder. “If I may?”
    Andropinis considered the request for a moment, then nodded. “But if you draw a weapon-”
    “I'm not that foolish,” Tithian said. He took the satchel from Maurus's shoulder, then
     slipped a hand inside. He closed his eyes for a moment, picturing one of the sacks of gold
     he had placed in the satchel before leaving his own palace in Tyr. When he had a dear
     image of it in his mind, he opened his hand. An instant later, he felt a wad of coarse
     cloth in his palm. Groaning with effort, he withdrew a heavy bag, bulging with coins and
     nearly as large as the satchel itself. He placed it in Maurus's basin, opening the top to
     reveal the yellow sheen of gold.
    Andropinis stared coldly at the coins. “Do you think to buy my favor with that?”
    “Not your favor,” Tithian replied. “Your men and your ships.” When the Balkan's face
     remained stony, he added, “I'll pay the other half when I return, along with compensation
     for any losses we incur.”
    “And what of the losses I have already suffered?” demanded Andropinis.
    “What losses would those be?”
    “Five years ago, Tyr did not pay its levy to the Dragon, and it fell to me to give him a
     thousand extra slaves,” he said. “I couldn't finish the great wall I had been building to
     enclose my croplands. Perhaps you heard about what happened next?”
    “The Peninsula Rampage?” Tithian asked, thinking of the short-lived war in which a small
     army of giants had overrun most of the Balkan Peninsula.
    “The rampage cost me half my army and destroyed a quarter of my fields,” Andropinis said,
     turning away from Tithian. He went to the woman next in line and examined her basket, then
     nodded for Maurus to take the contents.
    
    
     “I
    
    
     doubt there's enough gold in your magic satchel to pay me back for that,” he added,
     glancing at his guest.
    “You can build another wall,” Tithian retorted. “But I still need your fleet. I demand it
     on the Dragon's behalf.”
    “Do not think to bluff me by invoking his name. I should kill you for that,” hissed
     Andropinis. He clamped a hand around Tithian's throat. “Perhaps I will.”
    “I'm not lying,” Tithian said. “You'll realize that when I show you my prisoners.”
    Tithian reached into his satchel and visualized a chain of black iron. When he felt it in
     his fingers, he pulled his hand free of the bag, bringing with it the chain, which was
     attached at either end to a square iron cage containing a disembodied head. As they were
     removed from the bag, the two prisoners glared briefly at Tithian, then focused their eyes
     on Andropinis.
    “Kill him, Mighty King!” hissed the first head. He had a shriveled face and ashen skin,
     with sunken features and cracked, leathery lips. “Slit Tithian's throat and drop him close
     to me!”
    “No, give me the throat!” growled the other. He was bloated and gross, with puffy cheeks,
     eyes swollen to dark slits, and a mouthful of gray broken teeth. Like the first head, he
     wore his coarse hair in a topknot, and the bottom of his neck had been stitched shut with
     wiry thread. He licked the bars of his cage with a pointed tongue, then continued, “And
     let the coward live. I want to see the fear in his eyes when I drink his life!”
    Andropinis took