Tangled Web by Crista McHugh Read Free Book Online Page B

advisors descended. Vultures, all of them. Ready to pick over his carcass the minute he made a mistake. Titus shooed them away and focused on the center of the room where the large, bronze globe sat, its three rings hovering in perfect balance around it, slowly rotating along the horizontal axis. A map of the empire covered its surface, encompassing almost the entire planet. A red line glowed along the borders, representing the magic barrier that protected the empire from alien invaders.
    His ancestors had arrived on this underdeveloped planet centuries ago, delighting in finding a planet so similar to the one they’d depleted decades earlier. The rich ore deposits were begging to be dug up and used to channel their magic. With their advanced technology, they easily defeated the Elymanians, a sentient race similar to them. The emperors who followed had added territory, stretching the borders with each generation. Their conquest culminated with the enslavement of the Alpirions, an ancient race that had resisted the Deizians for years until his grandfather defeated them by using the ore beneath their feet to devour their army. From there, he gained control of their vast lands to the south and brought the empire to its current size.
    But with every conquest, the borders were widened further to accommodate them. Had they finally stretched them too thin? He had no idea how thick the barrier had been when it was created, but he remembered all too clearly how it appeared to be little more than a simmering blue wall of light that separated him from the grey-skinned Barbarians on the other side.
    Titus squinted and studied the line for any flickers, any areas of dimness that would imply a weakness in the barrier. The fading light along the northern border matched the reports that had filtered from the frontier. He traced the area with his finger and focused his magic along the line. Sweat prickled along his forehead from the effort. How had his father made this look so easy? The barrier brightened, and he could almost hear the sigh of relief from the onlookers.
    Nausea boiled in his stomach, and his knees wobbled. He cast a quick glance to see if anyone noticed it. Their attention was still honed on the map, not him, and he forced a smile onto his face. “That should be enough for now. I will begin to hear your other concerns after breakfast.”
    Titus strode to the small room behind his throne as fast as he could. Footsteps fell behind his. A quick glance over his shoulder told him his closest friend, Marcus, stood between him and any noble that would enter uninvited. The two members of the Legion standing guard at the entrance stiffened at attention as he passed them. When the doors closed, he sank into a chair.
    “It’s harder than it looks, huh?” Marcus asked and sat across from him.
    “And getting harder every day.” He ran his fingers through his hair and rubbed his face. “At least the barrier seems to be holding for now.”
    “Any idea why it’s failing?”
    “None.” He took the glass of chilled juice offered to him by a slave. “It’s like I’m pushing a boulder up a hill.”
    Marcus leaned back and stroked his neatly trimmed beard. Although his blue eyes spoke of his Deizian blood, his friend flaunted his Elymanian heritage by adopting their manner of plain dress and drawing attention to his dark brown hair, keeping it longer than most Deizians considered acceptable. “Has it ever crossed your mind that the Barbarians might have found a way to attack it?”
    “How would they have gained command of magic? They’re Barbarians, after all.”
    “Barbarians who know how to negotiate and get what they want.”
    His thoughts immediately went to Pontus. Although Anicium stood on the southern realm of the empire, it sounded like something his ambitious cousin would sink to. He picked at the fresh fruit and bread on the plate before him. “Pontus left me an interesting coronation gift yesterday.”
    “So I’ve