Game of Queens Read Online Free

pulled a set of gambling pieces out of his belt pouch. “Care for a game?”
    â€œYes,” Daniel said, and held out his hand for the pur.
    By the time King Nebuchadnezzar finally left the Temple of Ishtar, Daniel and Arioch had each won and lost great, if illusory, fortunes. In the process, Daniel saw his own future, saw his life entwined with Arioch’s.
    Impossible. But to the end of his days, Daniel remembered his first sight of Arioch’s eyes. A lion’s eyes …
    Proud as a lion, too. And as lazy, sometimes. Arioch never saw the point of doing well what didn’t need doing at all—“Or at least not by me, Daniel. Not by me.”
    And then there had been Samamat. Samamat with her brilliant mind and her wide blue eyes, her sun-gold hair and loving heart. Impossible to think of Arioch and not of Samamat as well.
    She was a Chaldean, brought from the ancient city of Ur when Babylon’s king collected boys and girls as if they were gems. Samamat’s skill was astrology. As Daniel knew dreams, she knew the stars. She could read the heavens as easily as she could a scroll, and see futures written there.
    One of King Nebuchadnezzar’s ill-fated hunting trips bound the three of them together. Arioch was there because he was captain of the king’s guard. Samamat was there because the king needed someone to read the stars. Daniel—Daniel wasn’t sure why he’d been there, but he’d been ordered to come along, and so there he was, trying to stay on the back of a horse.
    The king’s hunting parties tended to resemble a rather eclectic army on the march. A mix of warriors, courtiers, courtesans, concubines, and even a few of the king’s huntsmen, the assemblage moved at the languid pace of the palanquins carrying the women and eunuchs. Except, of course, when Nebuchadnezzar lost what little patience he had and whipped his horse into a gallop, an action that caused the king’s guard to bolt after him and the rest of the horde to mill around aimlessly.
    Eventually the entire crowd came to the campsite, and after several hours of chaos, during which the Chief Eunuch announced no less than three times that he would fling himself under the feet of the king’s elephants if the women’s pavilion was not raised this instant and the Chief Huntsman complained that any animal that wasn’t deaf had long since fled, Daniel was able to find the tent assigned to him and collapse onto the bed. The next morning he rose early—the noise from the animals and the guards made that easy—and walked through the tents until he reached the edge of the camp. He stared at the vast forest that lay waiting, indifferent to the fate awaiting it and its inhabitants.
    â€œI wish I hadn’t come,” he muttered, and whipped around when a soft voice said,
    â€œI wish I hadn’t come either.”
    Daniel found himself staring into very blue eyes. She was nearly as tall as he, and wore a long vest over a tunic and trousers. Glittering silver stars were so thickly embroidered over the vest they almost hid its midnight-blue color. Her hair was cut unnaturally short; it was the color of sunlight and honey.
    â€œYou’re a woman.” Daniel realized it was an idiotic comment the moment the words left his mouth.
    â€œYes, I am.” Clearly she was used to such idiotic comments. “I’m Samamat. I’m an astrologer.”
    That explained the starred vest and her oddly shorn hair; Daniel supposed she’d left the astrologer’s elaborate headdress back in her tent. “I’m Daniel. I—well, I’m in attendance on the court. And the king. When he remembers who I am.”
    She glanced around. “Be careful. Words carry.”
    â€œNo one else is awake yet.”
    â€œThe guards are, and the grooms. It only takes one word, Daniel.”
    Daniel understood. King Nebuchadnezzar was half-mad at least half the time, and the