‘Great King!’ A palace guard entered the throne room and bowed. ‘A small fleet is approaching the harbor. They’re flying Lord Agathon’s colors!’

Kargan and Javid exchanged glances.

‘They’re from Malakai. The gold,’ Kargan said, immediately spurred into action, taking long strides toward the exit.

‘But why a fleet?’ Javid muttered.

Lamara’s riverside harbor was quiet. It was late in the day and the sun was slowly setting, casting a rosy glow on the huge wooden warships lined up side by side. Kargan paced just in front of the mess hall, a long, thatched structure with smoke trickling from its chimney. His brow furrowed as he watched the brown waters of the great watercourse that led from Lamara to the sea. He peered downstream, clenching and unclenching his fists, willing the first ship to appear. Meanwhile Javid’s words stayed with him.

Why a fleet?

There should be one ship, or two at most if Agathon was sending a significant quantity of cargo. Two ships hardly constituted a fleet. He glanced at the long bank, seeing that even with dozens of biremes resting side by side, so close together they were almost touching, there was still enough space left over for twice their number.

But why a fleet?

Perhaps the message from the scouts had become muddled. It didn’t happen often, for all runners were trained to recall messages word for word, including inflections and pauses. Anyone who made mistakes didn’t last long at his job.

Kargan cursed under his breath, making sure he wasn’t heard by his guards. He glanced at Javid, standing nearby, his fingers hooked into his trousers as he gazed downriver along with everyone else. He was irrationally angry at Javid for planting the thought in his mind that something was wrong. There was obviously no danger, for the naval patrols would never let an enemy fleet come anywhere near the empire’s capital. Perhaps Agathon had simply decided to send some unneeded vessels home, or perhaps some foreign merchants had asked to travel in convoy.

A ship slowly slid into view.

It was a wide merchant galley, the same kind that always came to deliver gold and other goods from Malakai. Kargan, a man of the sea, even knew this particular vessel. Traveling on oars alone against the weak current, it gradually became larger and larger, until Kargan could see that it was indeed flying his cousin’s flag. A second ship soon appeared behind it, and then a third. Galleys trailed after the lead vessels, while a bireme brought up the rear. The light was fading quickly, but there was still enough to see that from bow to stern they appeared to be filled with men.