The Scourge of God by William Dietrich Read Free Book Online Page A

as translator. You will receive enough gifts now that Attila will suspect nothing. Such talks take time, as you well know. You will become close to the tyrant once more. And to guarantee the Roman word, you will suggest that Bigilas slip away and bring back his son as a hostage for Roman honesty. He will not just fetch his boy but your gold. When you see it, and know my word is true, strike. Then come back here and live as a Roman.”
    The Hun considered. “It is risky.”
    “All reward requires risk.”
    He looked around. “And I can have a house like this one?”
    “You can have this house, if you like.”
    He laughed. “If I get this house, I will make a pasture for my horses!”
     
    Edeco slept in the palace of Chrysaphius two nights while the Roman embassy was organized and then purposely rode in a litter, like a woman, back out of the city. How wormlike to be carried! It was his joke for his Hun companions. Skilla and Onegesh had ignored the villa prepared for them outside the city walls and camped beside it. Now Edeco brought presents to share with them: rich brocades, intricately carved boxes, jars of spice and perfume, jeweled daggers, and coins of gold. The gifts would help buy each a personal retinue of followers back home.
    “What did the Romans say?” Onegesh asked.
    “Nothing,” Edeco replied. “They want us to take an embassy to Attila and conclude negotiations there.”
    Onegesh frowned. “He won’t be happy that we haven’t ended this in Constantinople. Or that we don’t bring back the tribute. He’ll think the Romans are stalling.”
    “The Romans are bringing more gifts. And I am bringing something even better.”
    “What is that?”
    Edeco winked at Skilla, the nephew and lieutenant who had been included in this mission in order to learn. “An assassination plot.”
    “What?”
    “They want me to kill our king. The girl man actually thinks I’d try it! As if I’d get a hundred paces before being boiled alive! Attila will be very amused by this and then very angry, and will use his outrage to squeeze even more gold out of them.”
    Onegesh smiled. “How much are they paying you?” 
    “Fifty pounds of gold, to start.”
    “Fifty pounds!A big haul, for one man. Perhaps you should whet your assassin’s knife, Edeco.”
    “Bah. I’ll make more with Attila and live to enjoy it.” 
    “Why do the Romans think you would betray your king?” Skilla asked.
    “Because they would betray theirs. They are maggots who believe in nothing but comfort. When the time comes, they will squish like bugs.”
    The turncoat Roman looked out at the high walls, not certain it would be quite so easy. “And the fifty pounds of gold?”
    “It is to be brought later, so Attila will not be suspicious. We will wait until it comes, melt it over a fire, and pour it down the Romans’ lying throats. Then we’ll send it back, in its new human sacks, to Chrysaphius.”
     

 
    IV
     
    A ROMAN EMBASSY
     
    A nd so this story comes to me. I could hardly believe my good fortune at being chosen to accompany the latest imperial embassy to the court of Attila, king of the Huns, in the distant land of Hunuguri. A life that had seemed over just one day before had been resurrected!
    At the callow age of twenty-two, I was certain that I had already experienced all the bitter disappointment that existence allows. My skill at letters and languages seemed to offer no useful future when our family business was faced with ruin after the loss of a trio of wine ships on the rocks of Cyprus. What good are the skills of a trader and scribe when there’s no capital to trade? My dull and stolid brother had won a coveted posting to the army for its Persian campaign, while my own boredom with martial skills robbed me of similar opportunity. Worst of all, the young woman I had given my heart to, lovely Olivia, had rejected me with vague excuses that, reduced to their essence, meant my own prospects were too poor—and her own