Blood Road by Amanda McCrina

Author:Amanda McCrina [McCrina, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: teen, YA, fantasy, ancient civilizations, Europe, Rome, historical
ISBN: 9781945107993
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC
Published: 2017-04-24T07:00:00+00:00

They buried Tarrega and Stratto in the morning, and the signi who had died at the ship. They buried Espere, too, because he had not been convicted before a court martial and could not by law be burned. They buried Tarrega and Stratto in full harness as officers of the Guard—Tarrega who was really Nico Briule, born on Epyris, who had taken the Tasso mission as his first command. Valle, in his own harness, spoke their names and the prayer for the dead. There was no one to speak the names of the signi, but Torien said the prayer for them, though by strict technicality they were not his soldiers and it was not his place.

Valle left afterward on a trade ship out of Kabira, bound for Modigne. From Modigne he would take ship for Salina, and from Salina he would go by riverboat up the Breche to Choiro. It was still early enough in the summer for the river passage. In another few weeks, the Breche would be shrunken back from wide, dusty banks and shallow enough to cross on foot, and in places dried to cracked brown clay under the Vareno sun. The privileged of Choiro would be gone up to their summer estates in the hills. The Emperor would be at Civiparro or perhaps at Ebre, on the Salino coast. Things went very slowly in Choiro in summertime. It would be a month at least before Torien had word again from Valle, and it might easily be two.

That day went very busily in the mundane work of command to which he must now accustom himself. He divided up Tarrega’s and Chareste’s duties among the remaining officers and wrote out a lieutenant’s commission for the corporal, Savio. On Savio’s recommendation, he sent for a man who trained animals for the games to come remove the spotted cat from Espere’s office.

In the evening, he dispatched a rider to the mines. Besides what he had written to the Asano, Aidar, he had written also briefly to Alluin and to the signo, saying none of the things he wanted to say—only that he had come safely to the fort and would write again when there was news and he had opportunity. He left intentionally vague that he was still here in Tasso. He might as well have said nothing at all. Alluin would sense that something had happened and that he was not being told. Perhaps Aidar would tell him in confidence, and he would understand why it could not be written. Even so, the letter seemed like a lie.

After he sent the rider, he went to see the young Espere in the infirmary.

He hung back in the doorway of the boy’s cell, at first, while one of the infirmary slaves did something with the dressings on the boy’s arm and at his side. The boy’s supper was on a tray beside the mat, and the slave, finishing with the dressings, tried first to push the bread into the boy’s mouth and then, failing at it, tried to slip a shallow spoonful of bean broth between his teeth.

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