Traitors' Gate (Crossroads) Read Free Page B

Eliar had just been pointing to a different section of the arch.
    “There, the different officers of the court pay homage before the emperor’s throne.”
    “There’s no one sitting in the throne.”
    “He is holy, like the god, not to be pictured.”
    “How do you know?”
    “I read it! I know most of you in the Hundred don’t read—”
    “ ‘You in the Hundred’! I thought you Silvers keep claiming you are simply humble Hundred folk just like the rest of us.”
    “That’s not what I meant—”
    “If the emperor’s not to be pictured, then why is there a statue of the emperor in the marketplace?”
    “That’s not the emperor. It’s a statue of a male figure representing Commerce, richly clad and adorned with gilt paint to remind all those in the marketplace that through trade the empire becomes wealthy.”
    Kesh puzzled over the vacant throne. Sure enough, there were the officers of the court attended by an array of half-sized men, meant perhaps to represent their underlings, and certain animals that evidently had some significance to each officer’s mandate. At the height of the arch, above sun and moon and stars, was carved an elaborate crown ornamented by wavy lines most likely representing fire.
    Mounted soldiers clattered in and passed through the opengates. Their garments were splashed with blood, and they looked grim.
    “Did you really learn all this from books?” Kesh asked finally. “How can you know it’s true?”
    Deep in Eliar’s answering smile rose a glimpse of the sister, seen once and never ever to be forgotten: a reckless, bold spirit, unquenchable. “Of course I can’t know it’s true. Someone thought it was, but that doesn’t mean the one who wrote it was correct, does it? The person might have been wrong. Or might be right.”
    “How do you Silvers—” As Eliar’s mouth twisted in disapproval, Kesh caught himself and changed course. “How comes it that you Ri Amarah possess books with so much detail about the empire?”
    “Many of our houses—our clans—lived here for six generations, as it says in the prophecy, until they were driven out by the Beltak priests for not worshiping the empire’s god. It’s said in our histories that some among us renounced the Hidden One and stayed in the empire, because they prospered here, but I don’t believe that.”
    “You don’t believe they prospered here? That any foreigner could?”
    “I don’t believe they renounced the Hidden One. How is it possible to renounce the truth?”
    Keshad laughed. The guards turned, and he clamped his mouth shut.
    Eliar fulminated. “Are you laughing at me?”
    “You’ve never been a slave. People renounce the truth all the time if it will give them an advantage. Then they convince themselves that what they wish to be true is the truth. Think of Master Feden, who once owned my debt. How could he have allied himself with that cruel army out of the north? He told himself he was doing the right thing even when everything he saw must have told him otherwise. Olossi is fortunate he’s dead and that the army was driven away. Otherwise, where would you and I be?”
    As soon as the words left Kesh’s mouth, he was sorry he had spoken them, and yet not for Eliar’s sake. Where wouldhe be now? He and his sister Zubaidit would be somewhere in the north, starting over as free people unencumbered by debt slavery or obligation to the temple. If the defenders of Olossi had lost the battle, then they would not have been able to track down him and Bai and haul them back to stand before the Hieros of Ushara’s temple in Olossi. There, Kesh had been condemned for a theft he had committed without knowing what he was doing was a crime.
    Folk claimed a man could expect to be rewarded for good deeds and punished for bad ones if he made the proper offerings. The temples said so, and the Beltak priests said so, and no doubt the Hidden One said so. The only god he’d run into who didn’t seem to say so was