Golden Age (The Shifting Tides, #1)(60)
Passing through the main gate and heading out into the city, she wondered where the guards were taking her as they traveled with purpose through the narrow alleys and winding streets, passing through wealthy residential districts and following the steps down to the lower city.
She had come through the bazaar when she first arrived, but she now saw that she was heading in the opposite direction. Houses gave way to workshops and then to strangely deserted streets. Then, as they passed through a gate, Chloe saw that they were now in a district of temples.
Priests in yellow robes walked past with stately steps, never the type to hurry, something that was much the same in Lamara as it was in Phalesia. Columned entrances led into the dark interiors of temple after temple. They followed a broad boulevard until she saw a group assembled at the very end, where the ground dropped away in a cliff.
She saw Solon standing beside a priest in ornate white and yellow robes. A dozen soldiers stood a respectful distance away. He was gazing down from the cliff at the land below.
As she drew up to him and saw the object of his attention, Chloe’s eyes widened.
The golden pyramid was on a dusty plain, lower than the ground around it, so that it was even larger than she’d originally thought. Slaves now swarmed over it like flies on a piece of meat, scurrying under the direction of bare-chested overseers with whips. Scaffolding surrounded the stones close to the pyramid’s peak. Although the afternoon wasn’t bright, with gray clouds overhead, the golden slopes of each face nonetheless glistened. Chloe wondered how much gold she was looking at. She’d worked with gold foil before and knew it could be beaten until it was thin as a blade of grass. Regardless of the thickness, in the history of the world it was surely more gold than had ever been assembled in one place.
‘King of kings,’ one of the soldiers in Chloe’s escort said. ‘We have brought her.’
Solon turned as she bowed. He was so lean and tall that he towered over her. Up close, she could see that his eyes were sunken, with gray skin underneath.
‘Behold, Chloe of Phalesia,’ Solon said, gesturing to the pyramid. ‘This is the gateway to the afterlife. Helios has spoken. The pyramid must be completed before my death.’
‘Sun king,’ Chloe said hesitantly. ‘Could you not still enter without it? Don’t people enter paradise without a pyramid?’
‘Are you a devout person?’ he asked.
‘Yes, sun king. But I worship Aeris, goddess of music and healing. I don’t understand . . .’
‘There is one belief we share: when a man dies his deeds are weighed. I am the ruler of a great empire. I have taken Ilea into a new age. I have done good deeds and I have done things that may be considered cruel. I must never show weakness. It is no easy feat to unite five nations into a single empire.’
‘Perhaps if you atoned . . .’
‘Atoned?’ he asked, curious.
‘It means to make a change. To do good deeds in order to restore the balance of one’s life and gain entrance to heaven.’
He barked a laugh. ‘It is an interesting idea. But I prefer to deal with absolutes. This guarantees my entry and I can continue to be the ruler I must be, suppressing rebels and building a civilization that will stand the test of time. I have brought peace and wealth to almost all of Salesia. If I let that fall into chaos because of soft-heartedness and weakness, would that not weigh against me?’
Chloe gazed at the pyramid. She tried to count the bare stones, but soon gave up; all she could see was that, while there were more surfaces of gold than those unclad, there were still many remaining. ‘But will you ever have enough gold?’
‘There are nations in the east still unconquered. There are tributes I await. There are places across the Maltherean Sea, places like your Phalesia.’ He suddenly looked exhausted by so much speech. ‘Enough. The gods have spoken to me. Slaves!’
Chloe frowned as she saw slaves coming forward, each carrying an item in his or her hands. She realized what the items were as they placed instruments onto a mat on the ground nearby. She saw lyres and trumpets, tambourines and citharas, with an astonishing variety of each. Some were big and some small; there were instruments displaying fine workmanship while others were ancient relics.
‘The gods have revealed a way to test your skills and your training. You listed music as one of your talents. Take your instrument and play. If the sun god is angered here, in this place, we will know.’
Chloe knew she wasn’t being given a choice. She scanned the assortment until she found a copper flute, a little larger than she was used to, but not dissimilar to her own.
‘Play,’ Solon instructed as she crouched to pick it up.
Chloe straightened, swallowed, and put the mouthpiece to her lips. She began to play.
The first notes were uncertain and Solon frowned, but then she found her rhythm. As she had done so many times before, she made herself forget about where she was, playing for herself alone. Closing her eyes, her chest rose and fell as she played a song of her own devising, moving up the scale to find the key she felt most accustomed to with the unfamiliar instrument.
Each note bled into another as she used a breathing technique she had learned at the temple to make continuous sound without interruption. Her cheeks ballooned as she used a last puff of air at the end of each breath to inhale the next, evacuating the air in her cheeks to eke out the music while she expanded her chest.