Free The Heart of the Mirage by Glenda Larke Page A

legionnaires in quick attacks and ambushes and then they were more successful. In the end, though, it was treachery of one of the Kardi nobility that brought Kardi noses down into the dirt at the feet of Tyrans.’
    ‘One of the nobility? They had a royal line? A king?’
    ‘As far as I could find out from Brotherhood records, there used to be a kind of royal oligarchy with a hereditary leader. All administration was in the hands of this ruling group.’
    ‘It must surely have been quite large,’ Brand remarked, shifting stance with easy grace as the ship changed tack.
    ‘Yes. The nobles were scattered all over the country, but the highest rank lived mainly in Madrinya, the capital. It was impossible for an ordinary Kardi to move into the ruling class.’
    ‘The Exaltarchy has changed all that since, naturally,’ he said, his voice as bland as his expression. ‘Now anyone who proves his loyalty to Tyr can serve in a position of importance.’
    Although there was nothing to indicate he was mocking the Exaltarchy, I knew he was. The normal method of rewarding loyalty wasn’t successful in Kardiastan: no one there wanted to serve Tyrans. And Brand must have found that out. He smiled, a lazy smile in my direction. ‘Sailors,’ he explained, weaving a hand in the direction of one of the crew. ‘They gossip.’
    ‘What else have they told you?’
    ‘They say the ordinary Kardi was not even part of the army back before the Tyranian invasion. That it was only the highborn who fought. Is that true?’
    ‘Rathrox said as much, yes. He told me there were rumours saying the nobility possessed special powers that made them invincible, but that was all superstitious nonsense, of course. Still, the nobles must have been fine fighters, otherwise how could they have put whole legions on the run? Especially those led by a soldier like the Exaltarch? And later by my father, Gayed?’
    ‘What happened to this highborn traitor?’
    I shrugged. ‘I don’t know.’ I frowned again, remembering. It had been Rathrox who told me about the treachery leading to Kardiastan’s fall and he hadbeen deliberately vague. ‘The details don’t matter,’ he’d said. For once, I’d been puzzled by his reticence. I was going to be working alone, so I would need all the information I could get. Instead of giving it to me, Rathrox had been evasive, even contradictory. The idea of a traitor did not seem to fit with what he had earlier told me about the Kardis never betraying their own, thus making the work of the Brotherhood impossible in Kardiastan. I sighed and rubbed at my left palm with my thumb tip. ‘He probably committed suicide,’ I said, in answer to Brand’s question. ‘I’ve noticed such people often do. They can’t live with what they’ve done. And this man had done a lot—because of him, almost all the top stratum of nobility was slaughtered while they were unarmed, attending a feast.
    ‘Another full legion was sent from Tyrans after that, and General Gayed became High Commander for Kardiastan. A major battle took place, which Tyrans won this time. You see, with the death of so many of their highest nobility, the Kardis lost most of their military commanders and civil leadership. The war wasn’t entirely over, but Gayed and Rathrox went home to Tyr anyway. Fighting continued in Kardiastan for a further five years. Just skirmishes mainly.’ I turned to look out over the stern. A few seabirds with huge wingspans cruised effortlessly in our wake, clipping the wave crests with their wingtips. ‘You know, it’s strange—I hadn’t realised both Rathrox and my father spent so long in Kardiastan. They must have been there all of four years. Neither of them ever told me that.’
    Brand leant beside me as a small flotilla of fishing dhows dipped and wallowed their way out from the coast we had been following, their hide sails taut with the wind. The seabirds left us to follow them instead. ‘Where do you fit into all this