Swords of the Imperium (Dark Fantasy Novel) (The Polaris Chronicles Book 2) Read Free

let us bask in obscene incandescence!” she said as she skipped airily out the door and left her choking subordinates in a cloud of ash.
    “Wait, Captain,” Hadassah said. “If we don’t go with her, maybe she’ll get lost and die in a ditch. After all, she’s gone raving mad. We shouldn’t squander this opportunity to be rid of her!”
    Lotte cuffed the redhead gently across the cheek. “Idiot, this is a lucid moment for our tyrant. Now get your damned guns and off to the capital with you.”
     

     
    Taki chanced a breath through his nostrils and immediately wished he hadn’t. Effluvium coursed slowly down channels on either side of the boulevard he walked down and sent up an indescribable odor that cut his senses like a rusty shiv. Greenish-brown, the oily shit backed up everywhere and simply pooled on the cobblestones, making him step gingerly to avoid splashing it on his leggings.
    The Argead Dominion, to which all Polaris of the Temple pledged their lives, was now a country only in name. A month earlier, the Osterbrand Imperium had overrun the borders in a sudden, brutal conquest. The surviving peerage of the Dominion now numbered less than a dozen, having been slaughtered in battle or hanged in front of their keeps. The assassination of the childless Basileus Niketas Palailogos had further destabilized the faltering nation, and his successor had been forced to offer terms despite an improbable Dominion victory at the capital’s doorstep.
    Because of that narrow win, Athenaeum had been spared a siege and thus was exactly the same as Taki remembered it: the smell of human waste intermingled with roasting harspud. Hecaton traipsed gaily ahead, still clad in her sweaty prayer robes, which dragged on the cobbles and smeared dust and filth in her wake. Taki shook his head at the sight and glanced at Hadassah, who was busy playacting as a tourist and seemed indifferent to the smell.
    “What?” she asked.
    “Nothing,” Taki said. He scrunched his nose up. “Well, what do you think of it? The jewel in the Dominion crown?”
    “Disappointing. I expected more rubble and bodies falling from the rooftops. Or at least more fires. There hasn’t been a single screaming woman or roasting child. There’s nothing to loot, either.”
    “Why are you so preoccupied with looting? And with death and carnage?”
    “Because I love shiny things and I’m not afraid to kill for them. Aren’t I too perfect?”
    “You’re a criminal.”
    “We both are. Except I didn’t, you know, kill the last of the Palaiologoi or nothin’.” Hadassah slid a finger across her throat and let out a gruesome rattle.
    “I didn’t…” Taki began, but his words died in his throat. I didn’t what? Mean to do it?
    “Did you drown him in the tub? Or shank him on the shitter?”
    “Nothing of the sort! Just…just shut up! Please!”
    She wrapped an arm around his and squeezed. “Don’t get me wrong, Natalis. There are lots of people out there who had it in for the old basil. And maybe some who’d call you a hero or a savior. So don’t be glum. The rest of us don’t think ill of you, and even though you won’t fess up to it, we know.”
    Taki blinked and unclenched his jaw. He let out a breath and murmured his thanks. “I appreciate it. I really do. I just need time to figure out some things.”
    Hadassah smiled. “Did you put something up his bung?”
    Taki frowned and wormed his way out of her grasp. “Forget it! If you’re just going to jape at me, then I have no further words for you.”
    “Your problem is that you’re too damned uptight. You’re so focused on your own stupid virtue that you end up being an ass most of the time.” She took a too-large bite of a harspud ball impaled on a stick and started to pant.
    “I hope you get the shits from that.”
    “Speaking of which,” Hadassah said, “where’s old Mezeta gone to?”
    Taki swore and frantically looked around. The old woman was nowhere to be seen. He sprinted