Guy Gavriel Kay - Lord of Emperors

Lord of Emperors

Book Two of The Sarantine Mosaic

GUY GAVRIEL KAY

Copyright

Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 77–85 Fulham Palace Road Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2000

Copyright © Guy Gavriel Kay 2000

Guy Gavriel Kay asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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Source ISBN: 9780007342099

Ebook Edition © 2011 ISBN: 9780007352074

Version: 2014-12-03

Dedication Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Map Part One: Kingdoms of Light and Dark Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Part Two: The Ninth Driver Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI Chapter XII Chapter XIII Chapter XIV Chapter XV Chapter XVI Epilogue Keep Reading Acknowledgments About the Author Also by the Author About the Publisher

For Sam and Matthew, ‘the singing-masters of my soul.’

This belongs to them, beginning and end.

Epigraph Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Map Part One: Kingdoms of Light and Dark Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Part Two: The Ninth Driver Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI Chapter XII Chapter XIII Chapter XIV Chapter XV Chapter XVI Epilogue Keep Reading Acknowledgments About the Author Also by the Author About the Publisher

Turning and turning in a widening gyre . . .

Contents

Cover

Title Page Lord of Emperors Book Two of The Sarantine Mosaic GUY GAVRIEL KAY

Copyright

Dedication Dedication Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Map Part One: Kingdoms of Light and Dark Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Part Two: The Ninth Driver Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI Chapter XII Chapter XIII Chapter XIV Chapter XV Chapter XVI Epilogue Keep Reading Acknowledgments About the Author Also by the Author About the Publisher For Sam and Matthew, ‘the singing-masters of my soul.’ This belongs to them, beginning and end.

Epigraph Epigraph Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Map Part One: Kingdoms of Light and Dark Chapter I Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Part Two: The Ninth Driver Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X Chapter XI Chapter XII Chapter XIII Chapter XIV Chapter XV Chapter XVI Epilogue Keep Reading Acknowledgments About the Author Also by the Author About the Publisher Turning and turning in a widening gyre . . .

Map

Part One: Kingdoms of Light and Dark

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Part Two: The Ninth Driver

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Chapter XII

Chapter XIII

Chapter XIV

Chapter XV

Chapter XVI

Epilogue

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Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by the Author

About the Publisher

Map

PART ONE

KINGDOMS OF LIGHT AND DARK

Chapter I

Amid the first hard winds of winter, the King of Kings of Bassania, Shirvan the Great, Brother to the Sun and Moons, Sword of Perun, Scourge of Black Azal, left his walled city of Kabadh and journeyed south and west with much of his court to examine the state of his fortifications in that part of the lands he ruled, to sacrifice at the ancient Holy Fire of the priestly caste, and to hunt lions in the desert. On the first morning of the first hunt he was shot just below the collarbone.

The arrow lodged deep and no man there among the sands dared try to pull it out. The King of Kings was taken by litter to the nearby fortress of Kerakek. It was feared that he would die.

Hunting accidents were common. The Bassanid court had its share of those enthusiastic and erratic with their bows. This truth made the possibility of undetected assassination high. Shirvan would not be the first king to have been murdered in the tumult of a royal hunt.

As a precaution, Mazendar, who was vizier to Shirvan, ordered the king’s three eldest sons, who had journeyed south with him, to be placed under observation. A useful phrase masking the truth: they were detained under guard in Kerakek. At the same time the vizier sent riders back to Kabadh to order the similar detention of their mothers in the palace. Great Shirvan had ruled Bassania for twenty-seven years that winter. His eagle’s gaze was clear, his plaited beard still black, no hint of grey age descending upon him. Impatience among grown sons was to be expected, as were lethal intrigues among the royal wives.

Ordinary men might look to find joy among their children, sustenance and comfort in their households. The existence of the King of Kings was not as that of other mortals. His were the burdens of godhood and lordship—and Azal the Enemy was never far away and always at work.

In Kerakek, the three royal physicians who had made the journey south with the court were summoned to the room where men had laid the Great King down upon his bed. One by one each of them examined the wound and the arrow. They touched the skin around the wound, tried to wiggle the embedded shaft. They paled at what they found. The arrows used to hunt lions were the heaviest known. If the feathers were now to be broken off and the shaft pushed down through the chest and out, the internal damage would be prodigious, deadly. And the arrow could not be pulled back, so deeply had it penetrated, so broad was the iron flange of the arrowhead. Whoever tried to pull it would rip through the king’s flesh, tearing the mortal life from him with his blood.