Assassin's Gambit: The Hearts and Thrones Series Read Free

he perceived as a useless, crippled boy?
    Lucien rubbed his forehead. His empire was fragile, precarious. He had problems to solve.
Real
problems. What his bodyguards thought of him should be the least of his concerns.
    Septian cleared his throat.
    Lucien raised his head and saw the man standing in the doorway. “Remus. Come.”
    The Legaciattus entered, bowed his obeisance, and sat in the chair across from him. The door guards shut him in.
    “What’s the schedule today?” asked Lucien.
    “You’re seeing Legatus Cassian Nikolaos this morning.”
    Lucien made a face. “Pox. Is he waiting outside?”
    “Yes, sir. And this afternoon, you were going to speak to the new recruits at the palaestra. Then there’s the meetings with your advisors.”
    Lucien nodded. The morning would be a harassment, but the afternoon wasn’t so bad. He liked public speaking, especially when the audience was young soldiers—it wasn’t long since he’d been one himself. He’d seen action on the battlefield, and frontline soldiers tended to respect that.
    Was there a gap in his schedule? His meeting with Cassian would not take all morning. “Remus, has that woman who won in Beryl arrived yet?”
    Remus smiled. “She arrived by ship yesterday, Your Imperial Majesty, and awaits your pleasure.”
    Lucien brightened. “Have her ready to play by midmorning.”
    “Very good, Your Imperial Majesty. Shall I send in Cassian?”
    “Yes.”
    Remus left, and the guards admitted Legatus Cassian Nikolaos, Lucien’s highest-ranking military officer. Cassian was a longtime friend of Lucien’s father, the former emperor, and he was everything Lucien wasn’t. Big, burly, whole—that is, possessed of all four limbs—and afraid of nothing. Middle-aged, he had decades of command experience behind him, and it rankled him to report to an emperor in his twenties. “Legatus,” said Lucien, granting the man permission to speak.
    “Your Imperial Majesty.” Cassian bowed.
    Lucien’s eyes narrowed. The bow wasn’t as low as it ought to be. It bordered on insolence, yet the slight was subtle. He would look foolish if he drew attention to it. “Have a seat.” He’d tried several strategies for winning Cassian’s respect. Flattery hadn’t worked. Neither had pointing out the patently obvious holes in the man’s proposed strategies. In the end, he’d given up and fallen back on the style he’d used with his equally intractable father, a tone of breezy, uncaring confidence. It didn’t work either.
    Cassian began, “Lucien, about the Riorcan rebels—”
    “That’s Sir or Your Imperial Majesty,” snapped Lucien. “And I’m not going to decimate the Riorcans.”
    Cassian stiffened. “Sir, you’ve let their crimes go unpunished far too long. They flaunt their disrespect in a hundred tiny ways every day, and their Obsidian Circle sabotages our supply lines and assassinates our officers.”
    “I have a battalion combing the hills in search of the Circle. It’s not easy to find. In the past year, we’ve found only two enclaves, neither of which had more than twenty people in it. And you know what my soldiers discovered when they broke in.”
    “Corpses,” said Cassian.
    “They killed themselves rather than risk interrogation. We know nothing about where their headquarters are or who’s in charge.”
    “Sir, this is why you have to decimate the Riorcan villages. We can’t find the Circle, but we
can
find the villagers who support them. Punish them, and that support will end.”
    “Cassian.” Lucien paused, considering his words carefully. “You are one of Kjall’s finest commanders, and I have a tremendous respect for your experience in the field. But you haven’t been in Riorca. I have—”
    “For two years!” spat Cassian.
    “Two years longer than you have, and those years opened my eyes. Most Riorcans want nothing more than to live their lives and raise their families in peace. The rebels are a minority. Your opinion is noted,