Chloe clasped her palms together and gave a small bow.
Solon glanced to his left, looking out the open windows at a clouded sky. ‘I must pray now. Leave me. All of you.’
The tall eunuch – Chloe had yet to learn his name – fetched her from the women’s quarters just a few hours later.
‘Dress for the city,’ he said. He nodded toward the clothing chest. ‘Cover yourself in a shawl.’
Throwing the thick material over her shoulders, she followed him to the curtained entrance to the women’s quarters, where he handed her over to two palace guards. Soon she was heading to the palace’s main entrance. Chloe tried to memorize the layout and locations of the guards as she followed her escort, in case she needed to come this way when she made her escape.
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?’