“What are you…?” Orodes squinted into the morning sun.
“Open your mouth again and I’ll cut your balls off,” Wakannh warned him. “Someone at the Compound wants you, so that’s where you’re going. They probably want to hang you by your puny prick for stinking up the city. Now clean yourself up or I’ll throw you down the well.”
The Compound, as anyone living in Akkad more than a day knew, referred to the residence of King Eskkar and Lady Trella.
The guards stood there, while Orodes splashed water over his face and chest again and again, until most of the dirt and stench had faded away. By the time he finished cleaning himself, Orodes appeared to have regained his senses.
“By Ishtar’s tits, I hope they do hang him by his prick,” the recruit said. “He still stinks.”
O rodes had never visited Lord Eskkar’s courtyard, but he had little time for more than a quick glance around. Wakannh had happily handed him over to the soldiers at the entrance, who enjoyed a good laugh at the naked man’s expense. But they found a cast-off garment for him to wear, and let him drink from the private well at the rear of the house. When he finished quenching his thirst, he washed his face and hands once again, this time more to help sober up than get clean. When he finished his ablutions, Orodes turned to find that the courtyard soldiers had departed and a woman taken their place. Even with his head feeling like it might split in two, he recognized Annok-sur’s tall frame.
“Do you have your wits about you?”
Orodes nodded, then grimaced at the movement. “What do you want? Why am I here?”
Annok-sur took a step toward him, examining him with care. “You’re here because Lady Trella wishes to speak with you. If you have some other important business to attend to, I’ll tell her so, and you can return to the tavern where they found you.”
Orodes ignored the jibe. Whatever the reason, few turned down an opportunity to speak with one of the rulers of Akkad. “I can talk.”
Annok-sur nodded agreement. “Good. Come with me.”
She led him into the house, pausing only to speak to one of the women servants, then led Orodes up the stairs and into the workroom.
“Sit down,” she said, pointing to the table. “Lady Trella will be here shortly.”
Orodes eased himself onto the bench, then looked up to see the servant approaching, carrying a tray in both her hands. It contained bread, a handful of dates, and a hunk of cheese only slightly past its best. Orodes realized he felt ravenous. He hadn’t eaten anything yesterday morning, before drinking himself into a stupor at the tavern. Two copper coins, stolen from a drunken patron, provided him with more than enough ale to drink himself unconscious.
By the time Orodes finished swallowing the first mouthful of bread, the serving woman returned with two cups. “Weak ale, and water.” She put them down and left the chamber.
He reached for the ale, then stopped. His hand shook, and for a moment he couldn’t control his muscles. Orodes closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and shifted his hand to the other cup. A meeting with Lady Trella was not the time to be drinking anything stronger than water.
When he finished eating, only crumbs from the bread and pits from the dates remained on the platter. Orodes allowed himself to take a small sip from the ale cup. His head had almost ceased throbbing.
The door to the inner room opened, and Lady Trella and Annok-sur came out. A child started crying in the background, but Annok-sur shut the door, and the sound faded. Remembering his manners, Orodes pushed himself to his feet and bowed.
“We’ve met before, Orodes,” Trella began. “Almost three years ago, when your father fashioned Eskkar’s new sword. You helped Asmar with the casting, as I recall.”
“I remember… Lady Trella. I’m surprised that you do.” Just before the barbarian invasion, Trella had visited Asmar’s shop. At first his father had tried to patronize the young slave girl dressed in a shabby garment. But by her third visit, Orodes realized that Trella not only knew exactly what she wanted, but how it should be made.
She sat across from him, and nodded for him to sit. “Since then, I’ve learned some things about you. Have you reconciled with your father?”
Master smith Asmar. Orodes clenched his teeth for a moment. So Lady Trella had spoken with his father. That meant she knew all about the family quarrel, and probably about the reasons for Orodes’s recent return to Akkad. He’d spent the last year and a half working at a mine in the eastern hill country operated by his uncle. Asmar and his brother both suffered from the same lack of imagination. Both believed the old ways were the best ways, and that the young should do as they were told. Orodes clashed so often with his uncle that he was finally ordered to leave. Otherwise he would still be there, slaving away for little more than his keep. He pushed those thoughts out of his mind.
“No. My father has ordered me never to return to his house.” If Lady Trella had summoned him to talk about his father, he would take his leave.
“Then I may have something that may interest you. As you may be aware, I know some of the mysteries of gold and the smelting of ores. I’ve learned of a place that may have a good quantity of gold. I need someone to examine the site, and report back to me. If there is sufficient ore of high quality, I may wish to establish a mine there, to extract the gold and anything else of value. Your father Asmar says you know much about such things.”
Orodes found it hard to believe that his father had said anything good about his wayward son. “There are several areas where copper can be found in the eastern foothills, Lady Trella,” Orodes said. “Even my father has laid claim to one such place with the Chief Judge.”
Copper, of course, was the most important metal. With copper and tin, combined in the right proportion, you could make bronze, and from bronze came tools and weapons. Where you found copper ores, you usually also found traces of gold, silver, lead, tin, and arsenic, as well as other useful metals. Each site would have these metals in varying qualities and quantities. But all the mines were in the far north at the base of the steppes, or the distant east, in the foothills of the Zargos Mountains.
Orodes shook his head. “There is little enough copper near here. You might find a few pockets of gold along the Tigris, but most of those have already been harvested.”
“Still, I would like someone to examine this place and determine its potential. If there is sufficient supply of the noble metals, I might need a skilled smith to establish the mining operation. I’m told that you have the necessary knowledge for such a task. Is this something you would consider?”
Orodes would indeed. His father had driven him from his house partly because Orodes, in his twenty-third season, had already mastered all the mysteries of gold, copper and bronze. He also wanted to change his father’s procedures for smelting the ores and refining the metals. Orodes believed that with some experimentation he could improve those procedures, and produce higher-quality metals in greater quantities.
Asmar, a capable and skillful metal worker, saw no reason to change anything in his craft, or try anything new. Father and son had disagreed often, until Asmar in his anger sent the disobedient son east to his brother’s mine, where Orodes was supposed to remain until he learned to be a dutiful son, obedient to his father and elder brothers. Or, as it happened, until the master smith at the mine grew so annoyed at Orodes’s constant and vexatious suggestions that he threw him out.
Of course, Trella would know all these embarrassing facts. Her spies, as everyone agreed, knew everything about every household in the city. And, of course, she knew about copper and where it was likely to be found. Telling her she might be wrong probably wasn’t a good idea. He focused his gaze on her eyes. She sat there patiently, letting him collect his thoughts, waiting for him to realize the full import of the conversation. He noticed that her eyes never left his face, always seeking to learn more about him. Those same eyes also hinted that she knew more than she said.
The silence lengthened, and he realized that he hadn’t answered her question. “Yes, Lady Trella, I can examine a prospective mining site, and tell you what’s worth digging for. With the proper resources, I can establish the smelters, kilns, crucibles and furnaces, and convert the ores into the required metals.”
Trella nodded. “All the gold and silver from the mine would come to Akkad, but the master smith in charge of the site would be well paid. How well paid would depend on what is found, and how much can be taken from the earth. Are you interested in such a task?”
Orodes opened his mouth, then closed it again. Those who oversaw a mine usually owned at least a part of
