Ilario: The Lion's Eye
A Story of the First History, Book One
Chapter One
We are so often a disappointment to the parents who abandon us.
A male voice interrupted my thoughts, speaking the language of Carthage. 'Papers, freeman—'
The man broke off as I turned to face him, as people sporadically do.
For a moment he stood staring at me in the flaring naphtha lights of the harbour hall.
'—freewoman?' he speculated.
People shoved past us, shouting at other harbour guards; keen to be free of the docks and away into the city of Carthage beyond. I had yet to become accustomed to the hissing chemical lights in this red and ivory stone hall, bright at what would be midday anywhere else but here. I blinked at the guard.
'Your documents, freeman,' he finished, more definitely.
The clothes decided him, I thought. Doublet and hose make the man.
The guard himself—one of many customs officers—wore a belted robe of undyed wool. It clung to him in a way that I could have used in painting, t ... read full excerpt from Ilario: The Lion's Eye ebook
