'Why? Who is there for me to use it on but myself?' Belisarius asked with a bitter laugh. 'Or is that Justinian's fear? Does he think I will deprive him of my shame?'
'It isn't wise to speak so to us, General,' Vlamos said stiffly. 'The Emperor has given his orders and we are his sworn officers. There is nothing—'
Belisarius held up his hand to stop this confession. 'I am also his sworn officer, little as he believes it.' He reached down and unbuckled his sword. 'Take it. It's only a symbol, but that is enough. The Emperor has already taken my personal guard, and he has restricted my movements.'
'General.' Vlamos held the sword as if he expected it to strike of its own accord.
'Well, he is Emperor and I am his General, no matter what he believes, and I will be his General unto death.'
He pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his eyes. 'I will do what I am able to, and I will strive to understand what it is that he wishes of me.'
'He wishes your loyalty, General,' said Vlamos, delivering this statement with the stiffness of one repeating a lesson by rote.
'Then he has his wish,' said Belisarius, suddenly weary and out of patience with the ceremony. 'I have always been loyal, and I will always be loyal. It sorrows me that the Emperor is not aware of this, but I can do little but protest. Those who have told the Emperor anything else of me lie. Those who have sought to have me removed from command for fear that I might use my position against Justinian do so without justification.' He folded his arms. 'Will you inform Justinian of this?'
'We are to give our report to Kimon Athanatadies, and he will present a report to the Emperor,' Vlamos said, being as meticulous as he could. 'I am only Captain of the Guard; I cannot address the Emperor directly.'
'That's new,' said Belisarius, surprised at the information. 'How long has this been the case?'
'A year.' He looked away from Belisarius, fixing his gaze on the murals of martyred saints. 'It has been determined that the Emperor requires… less interference from those who are not of true importance to the Empire.'
'That's a mistake, especially if the Censor thinks that the Captain of the Guard is not important to the Empire,' said Belisarius dryly. 'He could come to regret that decision one day.'
'Is that meant—' Vlamos started.
'As a word of caution, nothing more. If a man does not think those who guard him are important, he invites problems. I was thinking of the Caesars who were overthrown by the Praetorian Guard, who watched over them.'
'We are not Praetorians,' Vlamos pointed out uneasily.
'No, but Justinian might err as the Caesars did,' Belisarius said. 'It would grieve me if that were to happen.' He glanced at the other officers with Vlamos. 'Is that all, or is there something more we must do before this is over?'
'I must announce to your household what is and is not permitted here now that the Emperor has removed your command and your personal guard.' Vlamos coughed, the only display of emotion he permitted himself.
'Must it be the whole household, or can I limit it to the majordomo, who will give orders to the rest?' He thought it galling that he would have to face his slaves at this time; it was sufficiently degrading to be denounced before soldiers; to have the terms of his disgrace announced to his slaves was intolerable.
Although Vlamos had been told to give the orders to every member of the household, he said, 'The family and majordomo will suffice.' He would deal with his reprimand—and there would surely be one—later.
'Very well.' He clapped his hands. 'Simones! Arius!' The summons was sharp and loud as orders on a battlefield. 'Come here. Bring your mistress and her aunt. And my brother.' For the first time in his life, he was grateful that he had no children, and that as a bastard, he could not directly dishonor his father.
Vlamos and his men waited in silence while the summoned members of the household came to the vestibule and stood in front of the murals of the suffering holy men.
Simones and Arius stood apart from the rest, both attentive, both curious. They knew that Antonina was consumed with rage at the way Justinian was treating her husband, and both wondered if she would be able to contain her wrath during the proceedings. Both slaves waited as Captain Vlamos prepared to recite the Emperor's mandate.
'General Belisarius,' Vlamos declared with almost no inflection. 'You are required to give up your command and all claims to command. You are to surrender your personal guard and all personal support of those guards. You will be permitted to maintain your house and your fortune in the manner you wish as long as you do not have guards or the support of guards as part of it. You are not to receive any military officers without the presence of a pope or an officer of the Censor in attendance, and any defiance of this requirement will bring with it an assumption of treason on the part not only of General Belisarius but of the officer in question. If the General is as devoted to the Emperor as he insists, he will be at pains not to implicate his officers in any possible guilt. The members of General Belisarius' household may not consort with members of the households of other military officers but in the presence of a pope or an officer of the Censor. This restriction includes all female members of the household in their dealings with the females of other households.'
Antonina gave a short, stifled cry, but said nothing more. Her aunt, a little, wizened creature in a simple dark brown paenula, reached over and put her hand on Antonina's arm.
'There is not to be written communication of any kind between General Belisarius and any military officer,' Captain Vlamos went on, 'except if it has been read and copied by an officer of the Court Censor. Any communication that is clandestine will be assumed to be treasonous, and will result in imprisonment of the officer involved in the communication.'
'Is that all?' Belisarius asked when Vlamos fell silent.
'For the time being,' Vlamos answered. 'I'm sorry, General. I have to say it that way.'
'I'm sorry too, Captain,' said Belisarius heavily. 'All right, you may tell whomever-it-is you report to that I have heard Justinian's strictures and I will abide by them, though I maintain now, as I have from the first of this regrettable misunderstanding, that there is no need for the Emperor to take these precautions, and I will pray God every day that the Emperor will come to know this for himself.' He made a small reverence to Captain Vlamos. 'Thank you for discharging your duty.'
'You should curse me,' Vlamos said with feeling.
'What would be the point of that?' Belisarius asked. 'Take what you must take and leave me. I would like to spend some time alone with my family.' He nodded to Antonina and his brother.
'Of course,' said Captain Vlamos, and barked a command at his men. 'We must post a guard at your door, so that we may know who comes here, how often, and when.'
'Certainly,' said Belisarius, already turning away from the soldiers. 'Come into the private reception room, Lysandros; we must talk.'
Lysandros set his jaw and glared at his older brother. 'I have little to say to you, Belisarius.'
'But I have a great deal to say to you,' said Belisarius, his face darkened with sorrow. 'When I have done, you may say what you like.'
'And what of me?' demanded Antonina, who had contained herself as long as she could and was now filled with indignant fury.
'Let me have a short time with Lysandros, my delight. You and I have many hours to spend together; Lysandros returns to Nicaea in the morning, and who knows when we will speak face to face again?' He watched the door of his house as Captain Vlamos and the Guard soldiers left. 'Anus, Simones, one of you close that, will you?'
Arius busied himself with the door; Simones went to Antonina. 'Great lady, would you want a cup of honied wine?'
'I would want a cup of hemlock and gall,' she said in a hate-thickened voice. 'I want poison and acid and instruments of torture to exact vengeance.'
'My niece,' said her aunt in a small, distressed voice.
'To think that this could happen!' Antonina burst out, and then began to weep in great, angry sobs, refusing to be comforted. 'I am going to my quarters,' she informed the air, shrugging off the ineffective consolation of her aunt.
'Your wife is overwrought,' observed Lysandros as Belisarius closed the door.
