Free Rigante Series 02 - Midnight Falcon by David Gemmell Page B

city.'
    'Your mind, general?' Appius had asked.
    'If they call upon me it would be unpatriotic to refuse. Where do you stand, my old friend?'
    'As I always have, Scholar. By your side.'
    'I expected no less,' admitted Jasaray.
    The wagon lurched as a wheel hit a sunken stone. Appius backed up the horses, and moved round the obstacle. He could see the bridge up ahead now. It was a wooden structure no more than fifty feet across.
    Aye, he had supported Jasaray, watched him become emperor. But when his own family were in trouble . . . ?
    'Put not your faith in emperors,' he whispered.
    'Did you say something, Father?'
    'No, I was just thinking out loud.'
    'Will Barus get into trouble for loaning us his house?' asked Lia, suddenly.
    'No, there will be no trouble. We are not runaways, Lia. They did not serve the papers. We have committed no crime.'
    'But we knew they were coming when we fled.'
    'We did not flee,' he snapped. 'We sought the emperor's permission to remove ourselves from Stone. He granted it. That was the sum of his help. So we did not flee.'
    'You are bitter. It does not become you. Anyway, we left in the dead of night, while friends of ours were being taken to prison. It felt like flight.'
    'No friends of mine were arrested, Lia. I have never subscribed to their foolish ways. I never will.'
    'I do not think they were foolish,' she said. 'And I do not believe the Source would think them so.'
    'Aye, a god of real power, this Source. All who believe in him are put to death and he raises not a finger. But let us not argue it again. I had all this with Pirae.'
    Both fell silent at the mention of her name. Appius was not present when the Crimson Priests arrested her. He was serving on the eastern border, helping to put down a bloody revolt. He arrived in Stone the night after her trial, and missed her execution. Pirae had refused to recant, and had faced down her accusers, calling them 'small men with small dreams'.
    It seemed strange to him that a woman who had spent her life in the pursuit of every illicit pleasure should have come to her end with courage and dignity. He glanced at Lia. She was not his daughter. She had been sired by one of Pirae's many lovers. He doubted if even Pirae had known which one. Yet he loved Lia more than he had ever loved anything. She was sunlight upon his soul; cool clear water in the desert of his life.
    Pirae had betrayed him at every turn. Sullen and spoiled, she had spent much of his fortune on ludicrously expensive clothes, silks and satins, jewel-encrusted gowns, baubles of every kind. She had never shown the slightest interest in any worthy cause. And then, at the age of forty, had stood against the might of the priests and defied them, knowing they would kill her.
    'And all for a tree!' he said aloud.
    'Why does the thought of the Tree upset you so much?' asked Lia.
    'What?'
    'You mentioned the Tree again.'
    'I didn't realize I said it aloud.'
    'The Tree is merely a representation of the power of the Source; spirit that flows upward, outward, inward and downward, mirroring the seasons. It has nothing to do with tree worship. That is a silly lie put about by the priests.'
    'And why can you not understand?' he countered. 'The priests represent power in Stone. To go against them is wilful and dangerous. It has left us here, in this forsaken cesspit of a land.'
    'I was happy to stay,' she reminded him.
    To stay and die,' he pointed out.
    'Some things are worth dying for.'
    'Aye, but not trees,' he said.
    The team halted before the bridge. Appius stood and stared at the raging river as it gushed past the supports.
    The structure looked insubstantial and neglected. With a silent curse he sat down and cracked the whip. The horses moved out onto the wooden boards. Below, in the black churning water, the swollen body of a dead bull was swept along by the flood. It rammed against one of the supports, which buckled and fell away. The wagon lurched. Appius rose in his seat, cracking his whip