Roads of the Righteous and the Rotten (Order of Fire Book 1) by Kameron A. Williams Read Free Book Online

Daan!” the king shouted. “You come into my bedchamber— the king’s bedchamber —and ask me to read parchments?”
    “You will want to hear this news.”
    The king sat up in his bed, pulling himself from the embrace of his servants for a moment. A girl with curled hair stayed shyly at the corner of the bed; the other two kept themselves occupied. “If you weren’t my blood I’d have you killed,” said Tiomot.
    “None of your guards can best me, father.”
    Tiomot laughed. “Do you hear that, girls? His tongue’s as sharp as his sword!” A few giggles came from among the sheets. “I’d kill you myself,” the king went on. “Barging in here while I have guests—if you wanted to join us you could’ve at least brought another girl.” The king chuckled at his own words.
    “This is a letter from Dandil. He’s threatening a war,”
    Tharid announced.
    “I have here with me, uh, Laryl, Sania, and Viviin,” said Tiomot. “I’m not sure which is which, but you’re welcome to one.”
    “I don’t need the names of your whores!” the prince exclaimed. “Dandil will march upon us!” His voice rang throughout the large room. The servant girls looked on solemnly from the bed.
    Tiomot only smiled. “They are my concubines,” he said, chuckling. “If you don’t like them, convince your mother to bring me more sons.”
    “If we do not send this letter, Dandil wi ll send an army.” Tharid waved the letter in his hand. “What does he want?” the king asked.
    “He wants a letter of assurance—your sworn testimony that our men had nothing to do with his mine being raided.”
    Tiomot bellowed out in laughter. “But he knows it was us.”
    “Aye, father,” Tharid replied, “but kings have their pride. I’m sure yo u understand that . Permit me to send the letter. It’s a small matter. I’ll have a servant write it.”
    “Bah!” Tiomot roared. “I rather prefer the idea of war. And I rather prefer to rule an empire than a kingdom. Only Dandil stands in my way.”
    “Not yet, Father. We don’t want war with Dandil, not now.”
    “Not now? Then when?” Tiomot thundered. “You don’t think we can win?”
    “We can win,” Tharid replied, “but it would take everything we have! It would leave our kingdom so weak that a band of Turagols could take the castle!”
    “Bah, Turagols can’t breach my walls! No one can breach my walls!” Tiomot lay back in his silk sheets, turning to the girl who sat idly beside him, and grasped her breasts. “Give the old fool what he wants,” he said. “I’ll keep peace with Dandil for now.”
    The king gave his son a wave of dismissal, and Tharid took his leave. He headed back to the stairs where he ascended two floors, past the seventh floor where his chamber and that of his uncle, Kazakus, lay, and on to the eighth where there was the last royal bedchamber. It was as large as the king’s chamber, but two floors higher, sitting at the very top of the castle. It was refreshingly far enough from the king’s affairs, and therefore occupied by the queen. It was quiet and elegant and perfect for his mother.
    Tharid knew his father was a terrible creature. He had come down from the north, pillaging every land he passed, and established his kingdom in the west. His vast rule spread nearly all the way east, and his arm of power stretched so far across Krii that only Dandil’s land in the south was exempt. Tiomot was a conqueror, and while he handled all affairs of war, all other affairs of the kingdom were handled by the queen. She had been the land’s true ruler for years, and while Tiomot regarded Snowstone as his, craftiness and perspicacity.
    Tharid had always been close to his mother. He was just a small boy when he asked her why her and Father didn’t share the same bedchamber; and it was a few years later that he’d asked her if it made her upset when his father had other women. She told him that Tiomot the Bear was not a beast that could be tamed. He