In the Heart of Darkness

will understand that she did not flee with Raghunath Rao. They will understand that Rao led the Malwa on a merry chase while the Empress herself was smuggled into your entourage. And that we have hidden her ever since.'

He sighed. 'And, most of all, they will now understand the reason why Kungas told them to pester our women these past weeks. Pester them, but not seriously. Just enough to trigger off phony brawls with our cataphracts and sarwen. Brawls which accidentally mangled some spies, and led the survivors to report that our escorts are every bit as salacious as Venandakatra had been led to believe.'

Garmat glanced at Belisarius, shrugged.

'As I said, the Kushans are not stupid. By now, they will have heard that the reason they were withdrawn as Shakuntala's guards was because Venandakatra feared their lustfulness. And so he replaced them with mahamimamsa. Who fell like sheep when Rao entered the palace and rescued the Empress.'

The adviser stroked his beard. 'So they will suspect that Belisarius engineered the entire thing from the very beginning. Although'-here he smiled-'they probably do not know that Belisarius gave Rao the very dagger which he used to carve up the torturers.'

'In other words,' grumbled Ousanas, 'they know everything.'

'Yes,' stated Belisarius. 'And, worst of all-it is obvious from looking at them-they know that their own commander must have been part of this scheme. In some sense, at least. They have no love for the Malwa, but they are still sworn to their service. Now they find they have been betrayed, by their own leader. If the Malwa discover the Empress now, their own lives will be forfeit.'

The general took a deep breath. 'Unless they immediately recapture her, and hand Shakuntala back to their overlords.'

'They would have to turn over Kungas as well!' protested Eon. 'The Malwa would never believe Kungas had not spotted Shakuntala.'

Belisarius nodded. 'Yes, I'm sure they understand that also. And that is why they hesitate.'

He glanced toward the pavilion entrance again.

'They will hesitate for a while. But not for all that long. Those men are soldiers. The best of soldiers. Accustomed to hard and quick decisions. And accustomed to stern necessity, and to the realities of a bitter world. So we must somehow figure out-'

Shakuntala interrupted.

'Bring them into the pavilion. All of them. Now.'

Belisarius started. Not even the Roman Emperor Justinian-not even the Empress Theodora-could match that tone of command. That incredibly imperial voice.

He stared at the girl. Shakuntala was very beautiful, in her exotic and dark-skinned way. But, at that moment, it was not a girl's beauty, but the beauty of an ancient statue.

And that's the key, he mused. Justinian and Theodora, for all their power, were lowborn. How many emperors of Rome, over the centuries, could trace their ancestry back to royalty more than a generation or two? None. Whereas the Satavahana dynasty which ruled Andhra-

'Great Andhra,' he said aloud. 'Broken Andhra, now. But even the fierce bedouin of the desert are awed by the broken sphinx.'

Shakuntala stared up at him. The general scratched his chin.

'Are you certain of this course, Empress?' he asked. He glanced at the others in the pavilion. From the puzzled frowns on their faces, it was obvious that only Belisarius had discerned Shakuntala's purpose. He was not surprised. Her proposed move was bold almost beyond belief.

She nodded firmly. 'There is no other course possible, Belisarius. And besides-'

She took a deep breath. Regality blazed.

'— it is the only course open to the honor of Andhra. Any other would be foulness.'

She made a short, chopping gesture. 'Let the Malwa rule so. I will not.'

The frowns surrounding the Empress and the general were deepening by the second. No others in the pavilion, it was obvious, had any understanding of what she was planning.

Belisarius smiled crookedly and bowed.

'As you command, Empress.'

He turned toward the entrance. Then, struck by a thought, turned back. His smile was now very crooked. 'And there is this much, also. We will learn if Rao's favorite saying is really true.'

A moment later Belisarius was pulling back the flap of the pavilion. As he stooped to make his exit, he caught sight of Ousanas. The tall African was gaping. Not to Belisarius' surprise, Ousanas was the first to deduce the truth. The gape disappeared; the familiar grin erupted.

'Truly, Greeks are mad!' exclaimed the dawazz. 'It is the inevitable result of too much time spent pondering on the soul.'

Belisarius grinned and exited the tent. As the flap closed behind him, he heard Ousanas' next words.

'Such foolish nonsense-this business about only the soul matters, in the end. Idiot mysticism from a crazed Maratha bandit. No, no, it's all quite otherwise, my good people, I assure you. As Plato so clearly explained, it is the eternal and unchanging Forms which-'

'Ousanas-shut up!' barked the Prince. 'What in hell is going on?'

When Belisarius reentered the pavilion, leading the Kushans, he saw that Shakuntala had taken firm command of the situation. Garmat and Eon were sitting on cushions placed to one side. Standing behind them were Ezana and Wahsi. The two sarwen were carrying their spears, but were carefully holding them in the position of formal rest. It was obvious, from their gloomy expressions, that all the Axumites thought Shakuntala's plan-agreed to by Belisarius! — was utterly insane. But events had moved too quickly for them, and they were hopelessly ensnared in her madness.

To the general's surprise, the Maratha women were not huddling in fear in a corner of the pavilion. They were kneeling in a row, on cushions placed just behind Shakuntala, who had positioned herself in the central and commanding position in the large pavilion.

Belisarius was struck by the calm composure of the Maratha girls. As much as anything, the confident serenity of those young faces, as they gazed upon their even younger Empress, brought Belisarius his own measure of confidence. He glanced at Ousanas, standing in the nearest corner of the pavilion, and saw by his faint smile that the hunter shared that confidence.

Not so many weeks ago, those girls had been slaves. Of lowborn caste and then, after the Malwa conquest of Andhra, forced into prostitution. The Roman and Axumite soldiers had purchased them in Bharakuccha, partly for the pleasure of their company, but mostly to advance Belisarius' scheme for rescuing Shakuntala.

At first, the girls had been timid. Over time, as they learned that the foreigners' brutal appearance was not matched by brutal behavior, the Maratha girls had relaxed. But, once they finally realized the full scope of the scheme into which they had been plunged, they had been practically paralyzed with terror. Until Shakuntala had rallied them, and pronounced them her new royal ladies-in-waiting, and pledged that she herself would share their fate, whatever that fate might be.

He glanced now at Dadaji Holkar. The Maratha was also seated near the Empress, just to her left. He was still clad in the simple loincloth of a slave, but there was nothing of the slave in his posture and his expression. The shrewd intelligence in his face, usually disguised by his stooped posture, was now evident for all to see. The man positively exuded the aura of a highly placed, trusted imperial adviser. And if the aura went poorly with the loincloth, so much the worse for the loincloth. Indians, too, like Romans, had a place in their culture for the ascetic sage.

Calm, confident, serene faces. The Kushans, as they filed into the tent, caught sight of those faces and found their eyes drawn toward them. As Shakuntala had planned, Belisarius knew. The young Empress had marshaled all her resources, few as they were, to project the image of a ruler rather than a refugee. It was a fiction, but-not a sham. Not a sham at all.

By the time all the Kushans filed in, even the huge pavilion was crowded. Then, when the cataphracts followed, Belisarius thought the pavilion might burst at the seams.

Shakuntala took charge.

'Sit,' she commanded. 'All of you except Ousanas.'

She looked at Ousanas. 'Search the woods. Make certain there are no spies.'

The dawazz grinned. The order was utterly redundant, of course. He had already seen to the task. But he