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Back A Burning Sea
Chapters (54)
  1. CAST OF CHARACTERS
  2. PART ONE
  3. CHAPTER ONE
  4. CHAPTER TWO
  5. CHAPTER THREE
  6. CHAPTER FOUR
  7. CHAPTER FIVE
  8. CHAPTER SIX
  9. CHAPTER SEVEN
  10. CHAPTER EIGHT
  11. CHAPTER NINE
  12. CHAPTER TEN
  13. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  14. CHAPTER TWELVE
  15. PART TWO
  16. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  30. PART THREE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. PART FOUR
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  53. HISTORICAL NOTE
  54. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

And then he was shoving past people, guards, patricians, senators, caring nothing that he marked each one with his streaming blood. He fled headlong, leaving a trail of muttered outrage that he should dare to break the solemnity of the ritual. But he was gone, gone. . .

To the left, he glimpsed daylight streaming through a smaller doorway. Gasping with relief, he ploughed through the crowd of attendants standing behind the great men of the city and at last reached the door. The doorkeepers stood aside, their faces a welter of alarm and disgust. Erlan lurched past them and through the doorway out into the bright sunlight.

He saw a fountain, flung down his shield and spear and threw himself over its lip, burying his head in the cool water, his eyes wide with terror and confusion. For a few blessed seconds he saw nothing but the white stone fountain-bowl through the clear water. He stayed there staring as long as he could hold his breath. Then, hesitantly, he straightened up.

He looked around, hardly able to trust his own senses. Everything was quiet. There was the outer courtyard on the south side of the great temple – a shaded walkway, cobbled stones, pavings.

Was he mad then? Or was all of it only a fleeting bolt of madness escaped from some broken crack in his mind?

He shook the water from his hair and turned away from the fountain. Suddenly he froze, terrified that he really had lost his reason. Because there, not twenty paces from him, was Aska.

Erlan peered closer, afraid that the apparition would morph into something worse. But the dog sat calmly on his haunches in the shade. Erlan clicked his fingers. The dog didn’t move. ‘Come here, you mangy bastard,’ Erlan growled. Aska just sat there, watching, his one eye weighing on his master as heavy as a mountain.

From far away, a sound rolled down from the heights of the western hills, peals of metal thunder drawing ever closer in their race to reach the heart of the city. . . Bells.

Alarum bells.

The attack had begun.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Illustration

The Karisios Gate stood proudly atop the summit of the Sixth Hill of the city. It was one of the twin fortresses that overlooked the Lycus valley, the other being the Gate of St Romanus, standing on the Seventh Hill. The steep-sloped valley in between was reckoned to be the weakest point in the vast fortifications that protected the city’s landward flank.

Erlan and Einar stood on its high rampart, sweating under the swelter of the midsummer sun. ‘It’s hotter than a dragon’s arse-crack up here,’ grumbled Einar. ‘I could never get used to living in this damn heat.’

‘I don’t know.’ Erlan chuckled softly. ‘You’re starting to look like a Greek to me.’