Empire of Avarice by Tony Roberts

are forced to kneel and watch with your hands bound behind your
back?” he shouted to the audience, but staring at the swallowing Vacan.
    “You think I exaggerate?” he went on, removing the sword
from the lawyer’s throat. “Well I can tell you that’s what happened to the
inhabitants of Imakum when it fell five years ago. I was there, and was lucky
to get out alive! Some of my men here saw the same. We were unable to hold onto
the city because we were outnumbered and had little in the way of supplies. And
why?” he swung round and returned to the dais. “Why? Because the nobility and
priests and lawyers had stolen the money from the treasury! And what happened
after the defeat? We had the High Cleric here…” he corrected himself. “The
former High Cleric of Kastan here, I apologise, preaching from his Temple that
the army was at fault for being godless and degenerate!” He stared at the
flinching priest. “I ought to have you hanged from the eastern gatehouse you
back stabbing thief!”
    He reached down and pulled Burnas up with one hand,
clenched in his robes. “You say I am evil? You hypocrite. You sanctimonious
two-faced lying, stealing hypocrite!” He threw the man off the dais and he
tumbled down to lie at the bottom, staring up in fear at the emperor. “There is
evil!” he pointed at Burnas. “And I banish evil from Kastan as of today! Take
him away, and hold him under arrest until I decide what to do with him!”
    Two of the palace guards advanced and pulled the stunned
priest up and dragged him off. Astiras placed the tip of his sword back on the
ground. “Now, lawyers, you will once more work for the empire instead of
against it. We are in a state of war, against the rebellions in Bragal and
Lodria. The disadvantageous peace treaties of the last five years are a
disgrace to Kastania and we must work together to overturn these. Anyone who
disagrees is a traitor and will be dealt with accordingly.”
    The assembly, suitably cowed, didn’t raise as much as a
mutter of protest.
    ____
    As night fell Astiras walked into the family room, a
place of refuge from the official chambers and rooms of functionality. It was
small but nicely decorated and had a rich rug that lay from wall to wall and
nicely cushioned chairs with wormspun covers. He threw himself into one of
these chairs and nodded to the servant hovering close by with a drinks tray. He
took a glass of spring water and sipped it appreciatively. All that talking and
shouting had dried his throat. Isbel and Amne were there, seated, having been
in deep discussion when he’d come in, and Argan and Istan were playing with
some cloth puppets in a corner, watched carefully by Rousa.
    “Well?” Astiras asked, throwing a leg over the arm of
his chair and slumping deeply into the cushions.
    “Well, what?” Isbel answered.
    “Did you think I did a reasonably good job of putting
them in their place?”
    “Oh, yes, and you made an army of enemies at the same
time. What were you thinking of, Astiras? We’ll have to watch our backs now!”
    “Of course; but emperors and their families always have
to, didn’t you know, Isbel? And you, Amne, is being a princess what you hoped
it to be?”
    Amne shook her head. “Why do we have to antagonise those
people? Couldn’t you be nice to them, father? We do need them, don’t we?”
    “We need people in their positions, but not necessarily
those particular people,” Astiras replied. “We need civil servants to collect
taxes and run the palace, to maintain the roads and buildings, to oversee the
supplies to the army, to supply diplomats and run our spy networks. The list of
tasks goes on but they’re the most important ones I can think of at the moment.
We need priests.”
    “So why turn on that man Burnas? He’s the High Cleric!”
Amne was still shocked at his treatment in the throne room. “Who will oversee
the imperial marriages if he’s banned and no other High Cleric is appointed in
his