Free Tyrant: Destroyer of Cities by Christian Cameron

he had not ridden to the fight at Tanais River: he had no idea of how much power she and her brother had.
    Scopasis spoke from behind him. ‘The lady has the power of all the clans, and her brother has fifty ships and five thousand soldiers. And you two represent one small clan that behaves as if you were all the people.’
    ‘You may go,’ Melitta said. ‘I mean what I have said. If you refuse to serve – begone. If you try to choose a middle path, I will eliminate you. And frankly,’ she said, her temper getting the better of her, ‘I’m tempted to be rid of the pair of you now, as your actions suggest that neither of you is fit to lead one of my clans.’
    Scopasis drew his akinake. ‘Say the word, lady,’ he said.
    Kontarus glared around. ‘Kill an old man and a woman – murder in council! Bah. Empty threats. We are the greatest of the Assagetae clans – why will you not treat us with the respect we deserve? We have more wagons, more lodges, more horses—’
    ‘—and no warriors,’ Listra said. ‘The lady is right. Go – or stay. Your own warriors mutter against you because you shirked the fight at Tanais. Try to face us, and see what you get.’
    Saida looked around again, still blank-faced. ‘Very well,’ she said. She looked up at Scopasis. ‘Out of my way,’ she ordered.
    Scopasis looked at Melitta. ‘I have said they may go,’ Melitta agreed with a nod. When they were gone, she turned to the rest of her lords.
    ‘Those two have to go,’ she said. ‘I hadn’t realised how bad they were.’
    ‘It is just ignorance,’ Tuarn pleaded. ‘I, too was late for the Tanais battle. But I saw the forces on that field. Kontarus has no idea – he lives in the days of your grandfather’s father, lady. The Silent Wolves have not ridden to battle in many years. Not under their lords.’
    Melitta shrugged. ‘Let us deal with these issues one at a time. Are we all agreed in sending a force east?’
    All of the clan leaders agreed, although none of them was happy about it.
    ‘Can the Standing Horses send me twenty-five warriors?’ she asked Sindispharnax.
    He took a deep breath. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I can send fifty.’
    She smiled at him. ‘I do not want fifty. I’ll ask you to provide me with twenty-five young scouts. I’ll ask Thyrsis to provide the same – people who know the country. The rest of you I ask to provide fifty knights and a leader who can speak for your people, if I find that I need to negotiate.’
    Thyrsis grinned. ‘May we come ourselves?’ he asked.
    She nodded. ‘I hope that some of you will, and that others will stay. I will name a tanist of my own, to watch the people while I ride east.’ She forced a smile. ‘This will come between me and my son,’ she said. ‘But Tuarn speaks correctly. The last time we were threatened, we were slow to react.’
    They were not Greeks, who argued everything endlessly and then voted in slow-moving assemblies. The next day, she told the whole of the people who were assembled about the Parni, and that there would be an expedition to the east.
    They roared their approval. Three days later, Melitta discovered that Kontarus had ordered his people to pack and leave the Tanja, and he departed – but fewer than four hundred of them accompanied him.
    This was the way that politics happened on the plains. People didn’t meet in assemblies to vote – usually. Most of the time, they ‘voted’ by moving their tents and wagons to another clan. Suddenly, the Standing Horse clan was larger than it had been in five years. The Cruel Hands had to turn new adherents away – they had no more grazing land to share.
    ‘I didn’t like the look of Saida,’ Melitta commented to her captain of the guard. They were both mounted, having ridden out to review the warriors that each clan were contributing to the force for the east.
    ‘She means to trouble you,’ he agreed. ‘Shall I follow her and kill her?’ he asked.
    ‘No,’ Melitta said, but