Videssos Besieged ttot-4 Read online

  Bagdasares bowed. «Your servant.»

  «You must tell me how you achieved such a perfect match of the script between the original and that which was written afterward,» the Makuraner mage said. «I do not slight my own skill, but I am far from certain I could do the like.»

  «I'd be delighted,» Bagdasares said, preening; he was never shy about receiving praise. «The method employs—»

  Maniakes coughed. Bagdasares checked himself. Had he not checked himself, Maniakes might have trodden on his toes. The Avtokrator said, «It might be better if the details remain private.» That seemed a politer way of putting it than, If our magic is better than theirs, let's keep it that way, since we've been at war with them for the last ten years or so.

  Abivard coughed in turn. That worried Maniakes. If the Makuraner marshal insisted that his wizard learn Bagdasares' document-altering technique, Maniakes would have an awkward time gainsaying him. But Abivard contented himself with remarking, «We have our secrets, too, which we would be well advised not to let you Videssians learn.»

  «Fair enough,» Maniakes said. Abivard was dead right in that, and the Empire of Videssos had almost died because Sharbaraz had kept his alliance with the Kubratoi secret so long.

  Bagdasares said, «The document does meet with full approval. then?»

  «Oh, yes,» Abivard answered. «It will serve in every particular.»

  Bozorg said, «It is the best forgery I have ever seen.» Bagdasares preened again. The Makuraner mage went on, «It will make me look at new techniques, it truly will, for nothing with which I am now familiar could produce such a fine linkage between two documents. The joining of new parchment to old is also quite good, but that I know I can equal.»

  Bagdasares bristled, offended at the notion any other mage was sure he could equal him at anything. Maniakes hid a smile. When he'd first met Bagdasares at the start of the uprising against Genesios, the Vaspurakaner mage had been a journeyman back in Opsikion, and, though proud of his skill, hadn't reckoned it extraordinary.

  He'd come a long way since. So had Maniakes. Rising with the Avtokrator had let—had sometimes made—Bagdasares deal with sorceries more elaborate than those he would have seen had he stayed in Opsikion. It had also let him largely discard Alvinos, the Videssian-sounding name he'd been in the habit of using then. Now he truly was a sorcerer as good as any in the world—and ever so aware of it.

  Maniakes sobered. Bagdasares' blind spot was easy enough for him to recognize. What of his own? He'd noted his habit of moving too soon and too hard in the direction he wanted to go. But if he didn't spot his own weaknesses, who would tell him about them? He was the Avtokrator, after all. And how could he hope to notice his own blind spots if he was blind to them?

  Lost in that unprofitable reverie, he realized he'd missed something Abivard had said. «I'm sorry?»

  «You were thinking hard about something there,» Abivard remarked with a smile. «I could tell. What I said was, I want to see the expression on Romezan's face when he looks at this letter.»

  «That will be interesting,» Maniakes agreed. «The other thing that will be… interesting is the expressions on the faces of all the other officers you've added to the list.» His attention suddenly sharpened. «Did you put Tzikas' name there, by any chance?»

  «Tzikas' name is on your list, your Majesty, and the God knows he's on my list, but he'd never, ever be on Sharbaraz's list, so I left him off,» Abivard said, real regret in his voice. «Sharbaraz trusts him, remember.»

  «You could tell that story as a joke in every tavern in the Empire of Videssos, and you'd get a laugh every time,» Maniakes said. «I'll tell you this: the notion of anyone trusting Tzikas is pretty funny to me.»

  «And to me,» Abivard said. «But, in some strange ways, it does make sense. As I said before, Sharbaraz is the one person in the whole world Tzikas can't hope to overthrow. Anyone below Sharbaraz—me, for instance—certainly. But not the King of Kings. Besides, Tzikas knew, or claimed he knew, something that would have given us a better chance to take Videssos the city.»

  «He did know something,» Maniakes said. «I can even tell you what it was.» He did, finishing, «It doesn't matter that you know, because the tunnel is filled in by now.»

  «It does sound like Likinios to have made such a thing.» Abivard said. «If Likinios had ever told me about it, I would have used it against you—and then, with Tzikas no longer useful to me…» He smiled again, this time as cynically as any Videssian might have done.

  «What we ought to do next,» Maniakes said, «is get Romezan over here as fast as may be. One of the things we don't know is how many copies of that letter Sharbaraz sent to him. If the authentic version falls into his lap before he's seen this one…»

  «Life gets difficult,» Abivard said. «All those years ago, when Sharbaraz and I came into Videssos, I wondered if we were going into exile. If Romezan sees the authentic letter, I know perfectly well I am.» His face clouded. «And my children are all on the far side of the Cattle Crossing.»

  «We'll attend to it,» Maniakes said.

  Isokasios rose from his prostration and said, «Your Majesty, Romezan won't come to this side of the Cattle Crossing. I asked him every way I could think of, and he flat-out won't do it.»

  Maniakes stared at his messenger in dismay. «What do you mean, he won't do it? Did he tell you why? Is it that he doesn't trust us?»

  «Your Majesty, that's exactly what it is,» Isokasios answered. «He said that, as far as he was concerned, we were just a pack of sneaky, oily Videssians trying to separate the Makuraner field army from its generals. Said he didn't like the chances of his coming back to Across in one piece, and so he'd stay where he was.»

  «To the ice with him!» Maniakes exclaimed. «I'm not the one who mistreats envoys from the other side—that's Sharbaraz.»

  Abivard coughed. «Your Majesty, what I've seen since we came into the Empire of Videssos is that there are two kinds of Makuraners. Some of us, like me—and like Roshnani more than me– have grown fond enough of your ways to ape some of them. The rest of us, though, keep all our old ideas, and cling to them harder than ever so we don't have to look at anything different. Romezan is in the second bunch. He's smoother about it than a lot of the other officers who think that way, but he is one.»

  «He would be,» Maniakes said, a complaint against the way the world worked, a complaint against the way the world had worked against him since he'd had the Avtokrator's crown set on his head.

  «What do we do now?» Rhegorios asked.

  Abivard said, «I will go back over to the western side of the Cattle Crossing and tell him that he needs to come here with me.»

  «That's—one idea,» Maniakes said. Romezan did not want to come to Videssos the city, for fear of what the Videssians might do to him and Abivard. Maniakes was less than keen on Abivard's return to the Makuraner field army, for fear of what he might do with it. He'd finally succeeded in splitting Abivard from Sharbaraz– or rather, Sharbaraz had done it for him—and he neither wanted the breach repaired nor for Abivard to go off on his own rather than acting in concert with him.

  He found no way to say any of that without offending Abivard, which was the last thing he wanted to do. He wondered if he could find any polite way to use Roshnani as a hostage against the Makuraner marshal's return. While he was casting about for one, Rhegorios said, «If Romezan will come here, I'll go there. That should convince them we're serious about this business.»

  «If he wants hostages, he has my children,» Abivard said, in a way anticipating Maniakes. He sounded serious, serious to the point of bleakness.

  «They don't matter,» Rhegorios said, and then, before Abivard could get angry, «As far as he knows, you and he are still on the same side. If he wants one of us over there while he's over here, I'll go.»

  «He doesn't need you, cousin of mine,» Maniakes said. «If he wants a hostage against Videssos, he has the westlands.»

  «That doesn't matter, either,» Rhego
rios insisted. «As far as he knows, the westlands belong to Makuran by right. You offered hostages when Abivard came here. Why not now?» Maniakes stared at him. «You want to do this.» His cousin nodded. «I do. Right now, it's the most useful thing I can do, and it's something only I can do: I'm a hostage Romezan has to take seriously. That means I'd better do it.»

  What he said wasn't strictly true. The elder Maniakes or Symvatios would have made as fitting a hostage. Maniakes, however, would not have sent his father or uncle into the hands of the Makuraners, not when they'd proved themselves liable to mistreat high-ranking Videssians. He would not have sent his cousin, either, but Rhegorios plainly thought the risk worth taking.

  Abivard said, «Romezan is a man of often fiery temper, but he is also, on the whole, a man of honor.»

  «On the whole?» Maniakes did not like the qualification. «What if he gets an order from Sharbaraz to execute every hostage he has? Wouldn't he be as likely to obey that order as the one that called for him to kill you?»

  Abivard coughed and looked down at his hands, which led Maniakes to draw his own conclusions. But Rhegorios laughed, saying, «What are the odds the King of Kings will send just that order at just this moment? It's a gamble, but I think it's a good one. Besides, as soon as Romezan sees what we've cooked up here—» He pointed to the augmented parchment. «—he's not on Sharbaraz' side any more, right? From then on, he's ours. By the good god, he'd better be ours from then on.»

  Maniakes hadn't even thought what might happen if Romezan read the altered documents and said something like, Well, if that's what Sharbaraz wants me to do, I'd better do it. Thrax might have done something like that, if faced with an order from Maniakes.

  But Abivard said, «Romezan might well carry out an order aimed at me alone. He will not try to carry out an order aimed at me and half the officers in the army. He is headstrong, but he is no fool. He could see for himself that in moments we would be fighting among ourselves harder than we ever fought you Videssians.»

  That did make sense, and went a long way toward easing Maniakes' mind—at least about the prospect of Romezan's turning once he saw the letter. About Rhegorios' going over to Across… he felt no easier about that, not even a little.

  With his cousin determined to go, though, the Avtokrator saw no way to stop him, not if his going made Romezan agree to come over the Cattle Crossing in return. «I'll send Isokasios back to Romezan,» Maniakes said. «If he agrees to cross…» He sighed. «If he agrees to cross, you may go over there.»

  Rhegorios looked surprised, as if needing Maniakes' permission had not occurred to him. It probably hadn't; Rhegorios was used to doing as he pleased. Evidently concluding this was not the moment to argue for his own freedom of action, he said, «Very well, your Majesty,» as if he were in the habit of obeying his cousin without question all the time.

  When Maniakes ordered Isokasios back to Across yet again, the messenger gave him an impudent grin. «You ought to pay me by the furlong, your Majesty,» he remarked.

  «I'll pay your tongue by the furlong,» Maniakes retorted. Back in his days of exile on the island of Kalavria, a messenger would have stuck out the organ in question after a crack like that. Maniakes watched Isokasios' eyes light up. He wanted to be difficult; Maniakes could see as much. But he didn't dare, not when he was dealing with the Avtokrator of the Videssians. Maniakes sighed to himself. The ceremonial upon which the Empire was founded made life less interesting in a multitude of ways.

  Traveling openly in the Renewal, Isokasios went off to visit Romezan the next morning. Rhegorios stood with Maniakes at the foot of the piers in the palace quarter, watching the imperial flagship glide over the waters of the Cattle Crossing, oars rising and falling in smooth unison.

  Rhegorios said, «When I get over there, I'll feel as if the reconquest of the westlands has started.»

  «You can feel any number of different things,» Maniakes replied. «If feeling them made them real, life would be easier.»

  «Ah, wouldn't it?» his cousin agreed. «And if what we felt about Tzikas could make him feel what we feel he ought to feel…»

  «I dare you to say that again,» Maniakes broke in. «In fact, I defy you to say that again.»

  Rhegorios started to, but tripped on his tongue before he made it through. Unlike Isokasios, he was of rank exalted enough to be rude to the Avtokrator. Both men laughed.

  Maniakes, though, soon grew serious. «If we do manage to drive a wedge between Sharbaraz and his field army, we also need to figure out how we can take best advantage of that.» He listened to his own words, then shook his head in bemusement. «By the good god, I sound like poor Likinios.» He sketched the sun-circle over his heart to avert any possible omen connecting his fate to that which his unfortunate predecessor had suffered.

  His cousin also made the sun-sign. «You're right,» he said. His eyes narrowed in thought. «Maybe I will be the first step in taking back the westlands—taking them back without losing a man.»

  «You're right with me,» Maniakes said. «I don't know if that will work; I don't know what Abivard will choose to do. But we have our best chance now. Which reminds me—I ought to have our army ready to move whenever it needs to. The Makuraners may take more convincing than words can give.»

  «They always have up till now, that's certain,» Rhegorios said.

  «That's another reason I need to go over to Across.» Maniakes grimaced, annoyed at his cousin for making a connection he hadn't seen himself.

  The Renewal brought Isokasios back, with the sun not far past noon. The messenger said, «Your Majesty, you and Romezan have a bargain. When I said his Highness—» He glanced over to Romezan. «—would come to Across to guarantee his safety, he looked at me as if I'd started speaking the Haloga language. I needed a little while to convince him I meant it.»

  Maniakes turned to Rhegorios. «There. You see? Romezan thinks you're crazy, too.» Rhegorios laughed at him.

  Isokasios went on, «Once Romezan understood you were serious, he swore by his heathen God that no harm would come to the Sevastos in Across, so long as no harm came to him in Videssos the city. And he said he'd sail back here on the Renewal as soon as the Sevastos got there.»

  «He won't wait long, then,» Rhegorios said. «I'm ready now, which means Romezan will be here this afternoon.» He grinned at Maniakes. «And won't he have himself a surprise when he gets here?»

  The Avtokrator embraced his cousin. «I still wish you weren't going. The lord with the great and good mind go with you.» He and Rhegorios—and Isokasios, too—sketched Phos' sun-circle above their hearts.

  Watching the Renewal glide west over the Cattle Crossing with Isokasios on board had been easy enough. Watching the dromon sail west with Rhegorios on board was something else entirely. Had Maniakes not had such a desperate need to see Romezan, he would not have let his cousin go. Had he not had desperate needs of one sort of another, he would not have done a lot of the things he had done since the ecumenical patriarch set the crown on his head. He was sick of acting from desperation rather than desire.

  When the Renewal came back toward the imperial city, Maniakes shaded his eyes with his hand, half hoping he would see Rhegorios in the bow, a sign Romezan had decided not to keep the bargain, after all. He didn't see his cousin. He did see a large caftan-clad man who did not look familiar, though the Avtokrator might nave seen him on one battlefield or another.

  Sailors made the Renewal fast to a wharf. Abivard came up beside Maniakes. «They're very quick and smooth at what they do,» he remarked. «They put me in mind of well-trained troops– which in their own way I suppose they are.»

  «Etzilios would think so,» Maniakes agreed absently. He waited for the sailors to run the gangplank out between the dromon and the shore. Romezan came across it first. When he did, Maniakes could see why his countrymen called him the wild boar of Makuran: he was not only tall but, unusual for a Makuraner, thick through the shoulders as well. He had a fierce, handsome, forward-thrusting face,
with his mustache and the tip of his beard waxed to sharp points.

  Politely, he prostrated himself before Maniakes, then kissed Abivard on the cheek, acknowledging the marshal's higher rank: no small concession for a noble of the Seven Clans to yield to a man raised over him from the lower nobility. «Lord,» he said to Abivard before turning to Maniakes, whom he addressed in the Makuraner tongue: «Majesty, you've made my curiosity itch as much as a flea in my drawers would do for my bum. What can be so important that you'd use your cousin as surety for my safe return? The sooner I know, the happier I'll be.»

  Having at last lured Romezan over the Cattle Crossing, the Avtokrator now temporized. «Come to my residence,» he said. «What you need to learn is there, and I have food and wine waiting, too.»

  «To the Void with food and wine,» growled Romezan, who would have been blunt-spoken as a Videssian and made a truly startling Makuraner. Had Maniakes' Haloga guardsmen understood his tongue, they would have reckoned him a kindred spirit.

  Once back at the residence, though, he did accept wine and honey cakes, and greeted Symvatios and the elder Maniakes with the respect their years deserved. To the latter, he said, «When I was first going to war, you taught me Videssians are enemies not to be despised.»

  «I wish you'd remembered the lesson better in later years,» Maniakes' father answered, at which Romezan loosed a deep, rolling chortle.

  The Makuraner general soon grew restless again. He prowled along the corridors of the residence nodding approval at the hunting mosaics on the floor and the trophies of victories past. Maniakes and Abivard accompanied him, the Avtokrator answering questions as they walked. When Maniakes judged the time ripe, he handed Romezan Sharbaraz' altered orders. «Here,» he said without preamble. «What do you plan to do about this?»

  IX

  Romezan read through the entire document with the headlong intensity he seemed to give to everything. He kept his face as still as he could, but the more he read, the higher his eyebrows rose. «By the God,» he said when he was through. He looked up at Maniakes. «Majesty, I crave pardon for doubting you. You were right. This is something I had to see.»