The Stealers' War Read Free

future. Such a thrall would be useful to me, and of service, thereby, to the clans.’
    Kerge looked like he was going to say something, but didn’t. Cassandra guessed the gask was going to point out that he had lost his gift of prophetic vision, but on second thoughts had wisely decided to keep his loss quiet lest he end up with a far worse fate. Poor Kerge. If you could still see the future, you would have never come after me with Sheplar. You would have stayed safe in Rodal and gone back to your shaded city in the trees .
    ‘I must have something so you must have something,’ said the sorcerer.
    ‘As long as our clans grow stronger,’ said Kani Yargul. ‘So be it. Now bring me my feast. No more talk without action. I have a hunger and I have a thirst.’
    He waved away the foreigners and court supplicants. Cassandra was dragged through the crowded tent until Alexamir caught up with her and lifted the weight of her body from the two guards. Nurai manoeuvred through the crowd to make sure she was there too. A knowing look on the young witch rider’s face that Cassandra wished she could wipe off by breaking her proud nose. If I could just take the step towards you, I would .
    ‘You came back from the raid with three thralls,’ said Nurai. ‘And you leave the tent with just one.’
    ‘I leave the Great Krul having made two gifts to him,’ said Alexamir. ‘And the golden fox is the only prize I value.’
    Those words struck Nurai like a slap. ‘Fools’ gold for a fool,’ she growled and stalked off.
    ‘The witch rider is right,’ said Cassandra. ‘I am no prize worth possessing.’
    ‘Her words drip with envy,’ said Alexamir. ‘But then, what woman would not be envious? I am already a legend among the clans and my saga has only just begun.’
    While mine is doomed to end here, it seems. ‘And what of me?’
    ‘I gave you my word that you would be free to return to your people if that is what you wished.’
    ‘You gave your word to a different woman.’ One who could walk .
    ‘You shall be that woman again. I will talk to Temmell. Beg him to heal you. Offer him my life and loyalty if he heals you for me.’
    Cassandra felt her heart sink. This golden-skinned outsider, Temmell; he was clearly an itinerant medicine man whose wagon had been seized by the clans trying to cross the plains; an ex-clan slave who had used science and his canny knowledge of herbs and powders to bluff his way into a minor position of power. Not even the imperial surgeons attending the emperor and the imperial family could mend a broken spine. What chance did some travelling peddler who had landed on his feet here have? ‘You are wasting your time.’
    ‘It is my time to waste,’ said Alexamir. ‘Come, I shall take you to meet my family.’
    As if I have any choice in the matter . ‘I am sorry to hear your father is gone. Does your mother still live?’
    ‘She became one of the Great Krul’s wives and lives inside the palace. It is the way of our people. If your friend dies, you take in the wives of your fallen brother. My Aunt Nonna keeps my household. You will like her.’
    Cassandra suspected nothing would be further from the truth. Survival out here in the grasslands, cooking, cleaning, finding water, keeping the animals alive that helped feed mouths and give the clans their hides and wool for clothes, leather, saddles and tents . . . that was a full-time occupation. A pampered Vandian noblewoman, raised for power and made a cripple, that was only another burden.
    Cassandra glanced behind her to the palace. No sign of Kerge or Sheplar. It was strange, when that pair had been her captors, there hadn’t been a day as prisoner in Weyland when she hadn’t dreamt of escaping and making her way back to Vandia. But now the pair were thralls, slaves to the clan, she couldn’t help feeling sorry for them.
    She gazed out to the east, beyond the hills where acres of camouflage netting helped conceal the clans’ greatest