Steelhaven 02 - The Shattered Crown by Richard Ford

Author:Richard Ford [Richard Ford]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Headline
Published: 2014-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-FIVE

Mandel Shakurian closed his eyes and listened to the sea crashing against the cliffs. It was a sound that usually filled him with peace and made his worries seem to fade. But today Mandel remained troubled.

He was a Prince of Keidro Bay, Third Lord of the Serpent Road, Master of Ghulrit Island and High Overseer of the Spice Web. By far the wealthiest of his peers he lived in a coastal manse that was all but unassailable. It sat on the easternmost promontory of the island, looking out towards Dravhistan, and was surrounded by walls reaching forty feet towards the sky. Sheer cliffs made it impossible to reach from the sea, and only a single gate, guarded day and night, allowed access from the land. Mandel Shakurian should have felt secure in his holdfast. But he did not.

His troubles had started weeks before with the news that Bolo Pavitas had been murdered in Steelhaven. Not surprising news in itself, Bolo had always been reckless and his early demise expected, but it had heralded a slaughter never before seen in Keidro Bay.

Five Lords of the Serpent Road lay dead. Five of Mandel’s fellows – all men of wealth and power. Pirate kings, surrounded by veritable armies, killed in their homes, on their ships or even in the street. And there was no pattern to the murders; two had been killed silently in the night, the others murdered along with dozens of their guards. The warlord Amon Tugha must have unleashed all the assassins of the Riverlands to cause such mayhem in Keidro Bay, the very place the Lords of the Serpent Road were supposed to be safest.

Curse Amon Tugha to the Underworld, and curse the day the Lords of the Serpent Road had ever entered into a bargain with him. It had seemed a good deal at the time – the pirates would provide a fleet of artillery ships and the men to sail them in return for a supply of prime Teutonian slaves, much sought after in the Eastern Lands since the abolition of the slave trade in the north. Naturally, after the death of Bolo and the loss of all those slaves, the bargain had been annulled … or so they had thought. Now it could not be clearer that Amon Tugha was still determined to have his ships.

‘No!’ said Mandel aloud, opening his eyes and looking out onto the turbulent sea.

He would never give in to the demands of some Elharim outcast. He was Mandel Shakurian, wealthiest of the Lords of the Serpent Road. He had not reached his dominant status by crumbling at every threat of assassination.

His manse was a virtual fortress, manned by forty of the most savage warriors in the known world. Many had been bought from the fighting pits of Mekkala, with a few from far-flung Kaer’Vahari. He had bolstered their number with enslaved tribesmen bought from the warlord beast-men of Equ’un – these warriors, though scarred and demoralised by their enslavement were yet formidable fighters, and they would obey his every whim.

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