Ilario, the Stone Golem Read Online Free Page B

the
    baby, ‘I’d be telling Rodrigo Sanguerra that you came back from Castile
    with the express intent of talking his place as First Minister. I’d tell the King you’re in alliance with Carthage. That when Taraconensis gets
    legions sent in to keep the kingdom safe from crusading Franks, the
    military governor they put in place of the King will be Aldra Captain-
    General Honorius.’
    Honorius stared at me. Rekhmire’ too, I noted.
    ‘Rodrigo will be thinking that you planned to work with Carthage, to use me to get rid of Videric.’ I shook my head. ‘What? I was at court! I
    learned how all this works so that I could stay out of it!’
    ‘Goddamn!’ Honorius muttered in one of the northern Frankish
    dialects. ‘Bloody goddamn . . . I swear you’re right. Since the King
    doesn’t merely threaten his anger—’
    ‘What else?’ Rekhmire’ leaned forward on his stool, wincing at some
    pain in his knee-joint. ‘There’s more?’
    ‘Oh, there’s more . . . ’ Honorius’s lean body straightened, his hand
    closing around the remaining pages. Tendons and cartilege pulled taut
    under his skin; altered all the planes of light and shadow that made up his
    face.
    ‘King Rodrigo Sanguerra is generously pleased to write me a warning .’
    Honorius’s voice rasped. ‘You may read it here, on this second page. He
    writes to tell me he’s taken certain precautions for the safety of my new
    estates. In my absence.’
    Honorius’s forefinger tapped a tattoo on the paper.
    ‘He’s sent his royal troops in, to protect my lands against bandits – and
    against land-hungry nobles, who might jump in while I’m away. It seems
    that four hundred gentlemen and squires in the King’s service are
    billeted on my land, in my castle – for which my estate naturally has to
    pay bed and board.’
    His hand closed up, paper crumpling into a tight ball.
    ‘Four hundred royal men-at-arms eating their bellies full at my
    expense! And I get this favour because I’m so loyal to the Crown! Rodrigo
    Sanguerra’s doing me this favour because “is unwise to leave land
    unprotected in these uncertain times” . . . ’
    Rekhmire’ had the look he wore during mathematical calculation. ‘Will
    your estates support that many men? How many of your own are there?’
    17

    Honorius rubbed his brow hard. ‘Thirty, thirty-five knights, and their
    lances? Say six or eight men to a lance . . . Three hundred-odd came
    home from Castile with me to settle down; act as my stewards, overseers,
    and the like. Marry local girls. I left most there when I came to Rome.
    Now – they won’t dare disobey the King’s orders. And they can’t fight
    off four hundred men without a bloodbath on both sides.’
    He stared, for a long silent moment; the flames of the fire were within
    his view but I doubted he saw them.
    ‘And, no.’ Honorius looked up at Rekhmire’ as if he had only just
    remembered what he had been asked. ‘My lands can’t support four
    hundred extra men! They’ll eat their way through the storerooms and the
    granaries, their horses will empty my stables, my stewards will run the
    coffers dry attempting to fulfil this responsibility . . . I left no man with the authority to go into debt on my behalf, but I won’t be surprised to get
    back and find they’ve gone to the Etruscans or the Jews.’
    He dropped the ball of paper to the floor and ground it under the heel
    of his boot.
    ‘If Rodrigo’s men-at-arms are anything like mine, they’ll be living off
    the land inside a couple of months! That means the noblemen whose
    lands border mine won’t be friends or allies of mine. Not if their fodder
    and crops are being raided.’
    He glanced at me, with a sour smile containing admiration.
    ‘King Rodrigo notes that, if I were disloyal, he wouldn’t gift me this
    “small contingent” to protect my estates against insurrection from
    outside. And revolt from inside. Which means that if any of my lads protest, they’ll find