Blood on Bronze (Blood on Bronze Book 1) Read Free Page B

popular in Zakran, sat fresh on plates before them. Even
now, his restless son wanted to talk business.
    “My son, you are
too trusting of the honesty of that process. I do not have the… correct sort of
friends, and you vastly underestimate the true wealth of the Zash-Ulshad. They
have many hidden operations, some of them most repulsive, which earn them round
golden slaves beyond count.”
    “But father,
should we let them use corrupt means to keep us small and our horizons narrow?”
    “To build the
power to stop them would require means of my own that I am unwilling to acquire
or use, my son. For my part, I prefer to remain a maker and trader of bronze,
and one who honors Zamisphar of the Flame.”
    “Father,
Zamisphar gave mankind bronze and taught us how to create forge fires hot
enough to make and work it. He asked nothing of us but that we should use our
minds and free will, yet how was he rewarded by the other gods for his deeds?”
    “You know the
answer as well as I, my son.”
    “But therein is
my point, my father. The other gods either demand worship from us, or are so
wild and dangerous that we can but propitiate their wrath with offerings. In
either case, they profit, while Zamisphar was first tormented, then cast out,
and is even now held in suspicion by the other gods. Should we also work in
narrow bounds for little profit, while others exploit their power?”
    “We earn much
profit from our bronze-making and trade, my son”
    “My father, you
know I mean something more broad than coin.”
    “Be at peace, my
son. When you are master of dra Artashad, you may choose to join battle for the
freedom to do all that the white-hot fires of your imagination can conceive.
For now, let your horizons be those of a bronze maker of Zakran.”
    “Yes, my father”
    ~
    Ashur sat with
Bal-Shim iru Shulggi, in the latter’s richly, if tastelessly, paneled audience
hall. He had a look of grave concern on his face.
    “Bal-Shim, do
you understand what you are asking?”
    “Only that you
choose the right friends, Ashur. It is but the friendliest of advice, not a
request.”
    “Then I reply
with advice to you. In choosing a slaver for a friend, however rich, you choose
poorly.”
    Bal-Shim’s
ponderous cheeks rose and teeth bared in something that might appear to be a
smile, to one who had never seen the real thing. His left hand stroked the
gaudy colors of his robes, his right hand clenched a stylus, rather too
tightly.
    “Not all of us
benefit from old lineages, Ashur. Some of us have had to make our lives the
hard way, and must live in the real world, not the abstractions of philosophy
or theology.”
    “A philosophy
you gave oath before gods and men to follow, Bal-Shim, when you joined the
Brotherhood of the Flame. Do you renounce it now?” Ashur looked at him with a
piercing gaze. Both of them knew that, council or no, it would mean the other
bronze makers going out of their way to try to put Bal-Shim out of business.
    “Not at all,
Ashur! Don’t jump to unfounded conclusions. I merely state that such ideals
must be tempered with… compromise.”
    “Make those
compromises on your own, Bal-Shim. I will have nothing to do with them.”
    Bal-Shim
considered that reply, and then spoke again, “Your trade is a very profitable
one, perhaps instead of joining yours in alliance with my friends, you could
sell it to me.”
    “Have you gone
mad?”
    “I have the
wealth, or rather can get it with but a word. In fact, I happen to have
prepared a figure, if you will look at this tablet.”
    Bal-Shim handed
Ashur a clay tablet under seal. The latter eyed him with greater suspicion than
ever, but out of curiosity, lifted the seal.
    “Bal-Shim, this
is an offer so low as to be insulting, but even if it were twelve times as
much, I would not sell to you. By your seal you declare you make this offer in
earnest. Even so, from what I know of your operations, I do not see how you
have the means. And, son of Shulggi, I do