"John Maddox Roberts - Stormlands 02- The Black Shield" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberts John Maddox)

"Excellent," she said. "This will work in your favor in a number of ways. First, the people who fled this
city will spread the terror of your name. Then the handless geldings will show enemy soldiers what
happens to those who refuse to join your army. Having seen that, they will then see the mainlanders
serving with your forces even though they had taken arms against you. This will make them even more
willing to capitulate and come over to your side."
"That is how I see it," Gasam said. "Thus, the enemy will be half defeated before he even sees us." Idly he
fondled one of the slave women. Uncertain of her new status, the woman looked back and forth between
the king and queen, but their faces told her nothing.

Larissa was pleased with Gasam's action with the Florian soldiers. Gasam's forces were fierce

and powerful, but numerically they were few compared with the forces mustered by the mainland kings.
Terror was an enhancement of their power. Subversion of the enemy soldiers was another. She knew
already that most of the soldiers maintained by the mainland kings were conscripts levied from subject
peoples, condemned for the most part to boring garrison duty. They had only the sketchiest loyalty to
their sovereigns and would be quick to join a glorious conqueror who could give them victories and great
plunder.

She was amused by her women's reactions to the king. Most of them showed the sort of uncertainty and
apprehension natural to women who were both beautiful and enslaved. Their lives depended upon the
good favor of the master, but it could be deadly to arouse the jealousy of the mistress. Larissa smiled to
herself. They had nothing to fear on that account, not that she was about to reassure them. Fear was
good for slaves. It made them more dutiful.

The king had only the most casual interest in women as such. Larissa attended to his peculiar personal
needs quite satisfactorily. Close since childhood, they shared a bond that no mere slave woman could
ever hope to alter. If, on a whim, he sought another woman, it was only as an object for his amusement.
Larissa was the queen and the only queen. The customs of the Shasinn allowed men to take multiple
wives, but Gasam had never shown any interest in marrying again.

What King Gasam craved was power. He felt that it was his destiny to conquer the world, and all other
considerations were trivial com-

pared to that. He enjoyed wealth and ownership of slaves primarily as manifestations of that power. In
the same way he loved to see his massed warriors and his armada of raiding ships, knowing that these
things were the instruments of his will.

And herself? She was forced to admit that she did not really know what part she played in Gasam's
mind. She was the partner of his conquests, but was she one of them herself ? It did not matter. What
mattered was that she was beside him on his path to ultimate power.

"How long, do you think, will it be before the king of Neva moves against you, my lord?"

"I will not wait for him," Gasam asserted. "I will move against him first."

"It would be wise to know something of his capabilities first," she cautioned.

"There is no rush. These kingdoms need much time to mobilize their forces. In the time before the end of
the sailing season, I shall bring the rest of my warriors across from the Islands. We will use the stormy
season to get them used to operating on the mainland and maneuvering together as a great army."