[Lord Stanley]

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Emperor Essir stacked the papers on his desk and shook his head. Ever since his guards had killed the famous gladiator Fangus Klot and thrown his body into the waste management facility to become something useful, more and more papers of complaint had come in from Vamps throughout the empire because he had terminated their favorite form of entertainment.

He folded his manicured fingers and set them on the desk, staring at his ever-present secretary. “I don’t want any more of these complaint letters to get through to me,” the emperor growled. “They’re becoming a nuisance. Don’t they realize that Klot was of no further use to anyone, since he had completed all his challenges? And he was just a slave!”

“He gave hope to other slaves,” his secretary said. “They’re working – ”

“That is something I cannot abide!” Essir shook his head. “We can’t have slaves with hope.”

The secretary looked bemused. “Why, my lord?”

“I can’t believe I’m not having you flogged for this.” The emperor tapped his fingertips against each other impatiently, adopting a reprimanding tone. “Any slave with hope for the future will try to escape from us. It is the law of slave and empire.”

“They’re working harder – ”

“Just because they think they’ll achieve some kind of freedom if they gain ranks in the slaves!” Essir pointed out. “There is no other reason.”

The secretary looked quite grim. “What is your command, my lord?”

Essir pounded the desk. “About what?”

“About the slaves. What shall we do about their hope?”

“That…” Essir rested his chin on his thumbs, pondering the question in his mind. It was an easy enough thing to recognize this hope as a threat, and completely another thing to know what to do about it. “On that case, I will have to ponder. Leave me.”

“Yes, my lord.” The secretary bowed and backed out of the room.

Emperor Essir sighed and leaned back in his chair. He had thought it would be an excellent idea to rid his people of Fangus Klot; the gladiator was too powerful and too strong-willed to be a good slave, and the people loved him almost as much as they did their emperor. It was all for Essir’s – and the empire’s – good that Klot had been put down.

But apparently the people didn’t think so…

Essir smiled. He knew just the way to remove hope from the slaves and raise his popularity with the people…and it was in perfect barbaric fashion, too.

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