“Come on,” I told Astrid.We turned and headed toward the center of the marching column, where the strategos's carriage was traveling with his daughter.As it turned out, Alexios regularly brought his daughter along on military campaigns so she could document everything in her biographical account of his life. The book didn't have an official title yet, but Anna had confided in me that she wanted to call it The Alexiad, modeled after the Iliad and the Odyssey.“Climb in,” Alexios called as he opened the carriage door.I hopped onto the step and climbed inside, followed by Astrid.It was worth mentioning that Alexios had already made a pass at Astrid. And not a subtle one, either. He'd been remarkably forward about it, even with another Alexios—namely, me—standing right there.Not that Astrid and I had anything going on between us, but it still felt a little awkward.Fortunately, Komnenos had received a very clear rejection and quickly backed off his advances toward the Nordic necroman

On the other hand, I could buy slaves and then effectively set them free, hoping they'd choose to keep working for me.But that was idiotic for an entirely different reason. It wouldn't solve the problem of slavery, and once freed, those people would have little reason to keep busting their backs for my benefit. Most would probably head straight back to wherever they'd been taken from.On the first bus out.Well, there wouldn't actually be any buses, but you get the idea.Anyway, I'd made up my mind. For now, we'd manage without slaves or servants. Once I'd repaired the house and got everything in order, we'd hire a couple of cooks and housekeepers to prepare meals and keep the place clean.There was a mountain of work ahead of me, and I couldn't afford to waste my time cooking and scrubbing floors.I also had plans for a radical overhaul of the heating system, provided I could find the right materials at the market. Fireplaces were horribly inefficient, and having one in nearly every

“Don’t buy that bread,” Astrid said, indicating a stall with a glance. “I’ve heard a lot about Rhomaioi bread, and that one is bottom of the barrel.”I examined the stall she’d pointed out. The loaves were round, like large country bread, but without any of the fancy decorative touches I was used to. Each had a simple cross-shaped cut on top. Their color was an unhealthy-looking gray, and some were burnt in places.I wouldn’t have bought that stuff either.“Let’s get ours from that stall instead,” Astrid said, pointing to the neighboring vendor.The loaves there were the same shape, but they looked much more like proper bread to me. They had golden-brown crusts and, generally speaking, looked a lot closer to what I considered edible.“How much?” I asked.“One keration per loaf,” the seller replied.And what the hell was a keration?At this rate, figuring out the Byzantine monetary system was going to give me a brain aneurysm.“That’s half a miliarisium,” Astrid helpfully explained.“G

We had more spells than an idiot had candy wrappers. Why was she being so stingy with them? These morons were doomed anyway. We could practically give them the location of the Holy Grail and it wouldn't make much difference!The goods we'd ordered were stacked in crates right inside the ritual circle.Now that was a laboratory in the making.With accurate scales and proper glassware, I'd be able to measure my ingredients precisely and get closer to creating albedo than anyone else in this world.But it was too early to count my chickens.The cult of morons had assembled in full force inside the artillery tower.Present were the Maiden, Lion, Ram, and Behemoth.Cat, Dog, Bull, and Goat were supposed to be there as well, but something had happened to them…Oh, right! They'd committed suicide after their encounter with Fate.Good riddance.“Mai apse pel karata hun, daanav!” the Maiden bellowed.Bull had previously been responsible for conducting the rituals, but he'd gone off to the Land