Krispos the Emperor

Avtokrator said.

He watched in some amusement as Phostis, obviously ready to argue more, deflated. 'Thank you,' the younger man said, his voice full of relief.

Krispos nodded, then called, 'Who among my soldiers knows the traitor and rebel Livanios by sight?'

The question ran rapidly through the army. Before long, several men sat their horses close by Krispos. Among them was Gainas, the officer who'd sent back to Videssos the city the dispatch warning of Livanios' defection to the gleaming path.

The prisoner himself took a while to arrive. When he did.

Krispos saw why: he was afoot, one of several captives with hands tied behind their backs so they could not even walk quickly. Phostis said, 'The one on the left there, Father, is the mage Artapan.'

'Very good,' Krispos said quietly. If Artapan was in this group, then Livanios probably was. too. Phostis had, in fact, all but said he was. Here, though, the all but was important. Krispos turned to the men he'd assembled. 'Which of them is Livanios?'

Without hesitation, they all pointed to the fellow two men away from Artapan. The captive straightened and glared at Krispos. He was doing his best to keep up a brave front. 'I am Livanios. Do as you please with my body. My soul will walk the gleaming path beyond the sun and dwell with Phos forever.'

'If you were so set on walking the gleaming path, why did you rob the mint at Kyzikos and not just burn it?' Phostis asked. 'You didn't despise material things enough to keep from dirtying your hands with them.'

'I do not claim to be the purest among the followers of the holy Thanasios,' Livanios said. 'Nevertheless, I follow the truth he preached.'

'The only place you'll follow him. I think, is to the ice,' Krispos said. 'And since I've beaten you and taken you in arms against me. I don't need to argue with you.' He turned to one of the Halogai. 'Trygve, you're still carrying your axe. Strike off his head and have done.'

'Aye, Majesty.' The big blond northerner strode over to Livanios and pushed him so he went to his knees. Trygve spoke with neither cruelty nor any great compassion, merely a sense of what needed doing: 'Bend your neck. you. It will be over soonest then.'

Livanios started to obey, but then his eyes found Phostis. With a quick glance toward Krispos, he asked, 'May I put a last question?'

Krispos thought he knew what that question would be. 'Be quick about it.'

'Yes, your Majesty.' Livanios did not sound sarcastic—but then, Krispos did not have to give him an easy end, and he knew it. He turned to Phostis. 'D'you have my daughter? Syagrios said he thought you did, but—'

'Yes, I have her,' Phostis said.

Livanios bowed his head. 'I die content. My blood goes on.'

Krispos did not want him having the last word. 'My father-in-law died in exile up in Prista, a traitor,' he said. 'My son's father-in-law will die before he even properly gains that title, also a traitor. Temptation, it seems, rides Emperors' fathers-in-law hard—too hard.' He gestured to Trygve.

The axe came down. It wasn't a broad-bladed, long-handled headsman's weapon, but the big man who wielded it was strong enough that that didn't matter. Krispos turned his head away from the convulsions of Livanios' corpse. Phostis, who had watched, looked green. Executions were harder to stomach than deaths in combat.

Unfortunately, they were also sometimes necessary. Krispos turned to Artapan. 'If your hands were free, sirrah, I daresay you'd be making magic from his death agony there.'

'I would try.' Artapan's mouth twisted. 'You have a strong mage at your side, Videssian Emperor. With him opposing, perhaps I'd not succeed.'

'Did Rubyab King of Kings know you were a death-drinker when he sent you forth to help our heretics?' Krispos asked.

'Oh, indeed.' The Makuraner magician's mouth twisted again, this time in a different way—wry amusement. 'I was under sentence of death from the Mobedham-mobedh—the high patriarch, you would say—when the King of Kings plucked me from my cell and told me what he required. I had nothing to lose by the arrangement. Nor did he.'

'True enough,' Krispos said. If Artapan had failed in the mission Rubyab set him, he would die—but he was condemned to die anyhow. And if he succeeded, he would do more good for Makuran than for himself. Rubyab had never been anything but a wily foe to Videssos, but this piece of double-dealing was as devious as any Krispos had ever imagined.

He nodded again to Trygve. Artapan jerked free of his captors and tried to run. With his hands bound behind him, with so many men chasing him, he didn't get more than a couple of paces. The meaty sound of the axe striking cut off his last scream.

'Foolishness,' Trygve said from where he cleaned the blade on the wizard's caftan. 'Better to die well, since die he would. Livanios did it properly.'

Katakolon pointed to the other two captive Thanasioi, who stood in glum and shaky silence. 'Will you take their heads, too, Father?'

Krispos started to ask if they would abandon their heresy, then remembered the answer meant little: the Thanasioi felt no shame at lying to save their skins, and might keep their beliefs in secret. Instead, the Avtokrator turned to Phostis and asked, 'How big are these fish we've caught?'

'Medium size,' Phostis answered. 'They're officers, but they weren't part of Livanios' inner circle.'

'Take them away and put them with the rest of the prisoners, then,' Krispos said to the guards who stood behind the captives. 'I'll figure out what to do with them later.'

'I've never seen—I've never imagined—so many captives.' Katakolon pointed toward long rows of Thanasiot prisoners, each bound to the man in front of him by a line that wrapped round his wrists and then his neck: any effort to flee would only choke those near him. Katakolon went on, 'What will you do with them all?'