Read Online A Quiver Full of Arrows by Jeffrey Archer - Free Book Online Page B

because
I need you to go into the village and fetch some food for me.”
    “Yes, Mother, I’ll go at once,” the boy said
as he jumped off the window ledge.
    “Well, at least wait until you’ve heard what
I want.”
    “Sorry, Mother.”
    “Now listen, andlisten carefully.”
    She started counting on her fingers as she
spoke. “I need a chicken, some raisins, figs, dates and... ah yes, two
pomegranates.”
    The boy’s face reddened at the mention of
the pomegranates and he stared down at the stone Door, hoping she might have
forgotten. His mother put her hand into the leather purse that hung from her
waist and removed two small coins, but before she handed them over she made her
son repeat the instructions.
    “One chicken, raisins, figs, dates, and two
pomegranates,” he recited, as he might the modern poet, Virgil.
    “And be sure to see they give you the
correct change,” she added. “Never forget the locals are all thieves.”
    “Yes, Mother...” For a moment the boy
hesitated.
    “If you remember everything and bring back
the right amount of money, I might forget to tell your father about the broken
pitcher and the pomegranate.”
    The boy smiled, pocketed the two small
silver coins This tunic, and ran out of the house into the compound. The guard
who stood on duty at the gate removed the great wedge of wood which allowed the
massive door to swing open.
    The boy jumped through the hole in the gate
and grinned back at the guard.
    T;k Firs’ Mirack “Been in more trouble again
today?” the guard shouted after him.
    “No, not this time,” the boy replied.
    “I’m about to be saved.”
    He waved farewell to the guard and started
to walk briskly towards the village while humming a tune that reminded him of
home. He kept to the centre of the dusty winding path that the locals had the
nerve to call a road.
    He seemed to spend half his time removing
little stones from his sandals.
    If his father had been posted here for any
length of time he would have made some changes; then they would have had a real
road, straight and wide enough to take a chariot. But not before his mother had
sorted out the serving girls.
    Not one of them knew how to lay a table or
even prepare food so that it was at least clean. For the first time in his life
he had seen his mother in a kitchen, and he felt sure it would be the last, as
they would all be returning home now that his father was coming to the end of
his assignment.
    The evening sun shone down on him as he
walked; it was a very large red sun, the same red as his other’s tunic. The
heat it gave out made him sweat and long for something to drink. Perhaps there
would be enough money left over to buy himself a pomegranate. He couldn’t wait
to take one home and show his friends how large they were in this barbaric
land. Marcus, his best friend, would undoubtedly have seen one as big because his
father had commanded a whole army in these parts, but the rest of the class
would still be impressed.
    The village to which his mother had sent him
was only two miles from the compound and the dusty path ran alongside a hill
overlooking a large valley. The road was already crowded with travellers who
would be seeking shelter in the village. All of them had come down from the
hills at the express orders of his father, whose authority had been vested in
him by the Emperor himself. Once he was sixteen, he too would serve the
Emperor. His friend Marcus wanted to be a soldier and conquer the rest of the
world. But he was more interested in the law and teaching his country’s customs
to the heathens in strange lands.
    Marcus had said, “I’ll conquer them and then
you can govern them.”
    A sensible division between brains and brawn
he had told his friend, who didn’t seem impressed and had ducked him in the
nearest bath.
    The boy quickened his pace as he knew he had
to be back in the compound before the sun disappeared behind the hills. His
father had told him many times that he must