Kings of Morning by Paul Kearney Read Free Book Online Page B

mouth. ‘I doubt you need my help for that, Kouros. There’s not a whisper comes out of there that your mother has not heard before anyone.’
    Kouros drew himself up like an infuriated bear. ‘You bastard spawned little shit! You do not speak of my mother – she is Queen of the empire – yours is nothing but forgotten bones.’
    ‘Indeed – well, the Queen would know all about that, don’t you think, brother? When you visit her, do you drink her wine, or do you bring your own?’
    Startled, Merach had to step back as the two brothers lunged at one another, Kouros a black bulk, Rakhsar a rapier-lean shadow. They bore no weapons, but seemed about to fly at each other’s throat nonetheless.
    ‘Stand still!’ Ashurnan shouted, his angry bellow clear as a cymbal in the night. His head swam, and it seemed that there were black flies circling in the light of the lamps.
    The two princes froze, their eyes locked on one another, the hatred sizzling in the air between them.
    Perhaps I should leave them to it, Ashurnan thought; get it over with here and now. But the part of him that had grown grey since Kunaksa, that had sat on a throne for four decades, was too disgusted.
    ‘You are princes of the empire, sons of the Great King, not brawlers in some hut in the Magron. Bel’s blood, do you think you can behave so in front of me? Is this how kings are made? I have seen traitors go to the spike who show more respect to the diadem than you. Get out of my sight – and do not speak a word to one another as you go. I will deal with you – both of you – later. Now go!’
    Kouros glared at his father, and in that instant, Ashurnan saw the older man within him; the heavy jowls, the down-turned lines about the petulant mouth. Then he strode off, feet pounding into the ground as if each step set his seal upon it.
    Rakhsar lingered a few seconds more. His face was one perpetual sneer – what would it take to wipe it off? Then he bowed to his father and sauntered away into the trees.
    ‘Perhaps they will finish their argument out in the dark,’ Merach said, and then coloured. ‘Forgive me, lord.’
    ‘That is not their style, either of them,’ Ashurnan said. He waved a hand impatiently at Merach’s two mute, horrified companions, who were standing forgotten on the edge of the light. ‘Go – leave us.’ Then he rubbed his eyes, trying to wipe away the black circling flies.
    ‘More wine, Merach – pour it for us both.’
    When they were drinking again, Ashurnan said; ‘Kouros is a coward, for all his size. He has a good head, but he is thin-skinned as an ugly girl, and his mother’s venom has curdled something in him. Rakhsar, he is all scheming and planning, but all to his own back. He thinks nothing of larger things. These, Merach, are my sons. The ones whose voices have broken, at any rate.’
    ‘They are your sons: they are not King. Lord, there is yet time for one of your other children to grow into a man.’
    Ashurnan tilted his head to one side and smiled crookedly. ‘One reason I have always trusted you, old friend, is that you have all your life retained the simplicity of the soldier. And if truth were told, I kept you from this city so that it would remain that way. You know nothing of the workings of the Court and the Harem. These young boys who ran about under the trees this evening – they will all die before they become men.’
    Merach bared his teeth a second in a spasm of anger. ‘I should speak no more.’
    ‘You may say what you like – it is why Darios sent you.’
    Lord, forgive me.’ He looked down into his cup. ‘Is it the Queen?’
    ‘Who else?’ Ashurnan smiled again. ‘A marvellous woman, Orsana. She would have made a fine ruler of this empire in her own right, but she must work through her son, who is an inferior instrument.
    ‘She will tolerate no other. It is something I have become almost reconciled to, Merach. I have shielded Rakhsar this long because I thought there was promise