Tyrant: Destroyer of Cities by Christian Cameron Page B

battle, clever in council. Too good to be true, really.
    Both of his parents had died preserving her kingdom; his mother in the battle, his father shortly after, and he had a special call on her attention. Many Assagetae felt that she should marry him.
    He and Scopasis hated each other, but both adored her.
    They glared at each other for a long moment.
    Melitta laughed. ‘Hey, stallions!’ Melitta called. ‘The mare is waiting.’
    That got a roar of approval from the crowd.
    Thyrsis stepped forward. ‘Lady, this woman is the daughter of Laxan, who served with the archers at the Battle of the Tanais. I have this word from the smith, Temerix, on her behalf. Her people settled the upper Tanais high ground, east of the Temple of the Hunting Goddess, and her father’s father held land by Crax’s fort.’
    Melitta nodded to the woman. ‘You are welcome, and doubly welcome for the service of your father.’
    ‘Thank you, lady. Temerix and Thyrsis both say you are the Lady of the Dirt People as well as the Sky People, and I pray this is true.’ Her eyes were slightly mad, and there was something flawed in her voice, as if she was afraid to talk and afraid to be silent.
    ‘I am here,’ Temerix said. He was a giant of a man, his shoulders as broad as the full length of a child, his arms heavy with muscle like the roots of a strong oak. He was a master smith, and his best work could rival that of the Aegyptian smith-priests or the best ironsmiths of Chaldike or Heraklea. He was another fixture of Melitta’s childhood, having served her father.
    This no-account Dirt People woman had two powerful advocates. That was interesting.
    ‘Speak, daughter of Laxan.’ Melitta smiled at her, trying to disarm the tension in her shoulders and the fear in her face.
    ‘Lady, raiders came to our farm and killed my family.’ She laughed – a terrible sound. ‘They took me and my sisters. I lived with them – almost a year.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Last autumn I took a horse and rode away. I would not be one of them. I ask that you … ride against them.’
    The broken nose and the odd motions of her face told that this was a woman who had been beaten – many times. ‘Who are they?’ Melitta asked.
    ‘Sauromatae?’ asked Scopasis. The Sauromatae had become the enemies of the Assagetae, but it had been three years since their defeat and now many of the beaten tribesmen had simply moved into the tribes of the victorious – as was always the way on the plains. Many of the men and women gathered around the assembly were Sauromatae, but they were no longer the ‘people of Upazan’, the leader who had ridden to defeat and death. Now they were her own people. Scopasis’ failure to understand these things was one of the reasons he could never be her consort.
    ‘They were not Sauromatae,’ Astis said. She gave her curious laugh again. ‘In the year of the War, Sauromatae came and burned our farm and my father took us and led us into the woods. I killed a Sauromatae. I know what a Sauromatae looks like. I know a Sauromatae horse from an Assagetae horse, although I am a farmer.’
    That provoked a growl from the assembly.
    ‘What clan would dare to breach the peace and kill your father?’ Melitta asked. This is bad , she thought, and inwardly she cursed Scopasis for not bringing her this in private – and Thyrsis for not bringing the matter to her attention before the assembly. If one of the clans had done this … so much for her pleasant spring progress.
    ‘No clan of Assagetae,’ Astis said.
    Now she had silence. Every ear was turned to her. Melitta found herself leaning forward.
    ‘They call themselves Parni ,’ she said. ‘Big men with yellow hair from the east. What they speak is like Sakje, but not Sakje. I heard them say that after they take Hyrkania, they will come here.’ She looked around. ‘I went with them, east of the Kaspian Sea. Twenty days east of the salt water.’ She raised her mad eyes and Melitta