Krispos the Emperor

without that, if I could. Better to let him die in quiet and disappear: the good god willing, folk will just forget about him.'

'You are wise and cruel,' Digenis said. 'Skotos speaks through your lips.'

'If I thought that were so, I'd step down from the throne and cast off my crown this instant,' Krispos said. 'My task is to rule the Empire as well as I can devise, and pass it on to my heir so he may do likewise. Having Videssos torn apart in religious strife doesn't seem to me to be part of that bargain.'

'Yield to the truth and there will be no strife.' Digenis began whispering hymns again in his dusty voice.

'This talk has no point,' Krispos said. 'I'd sooner build than destroy, and you Thanasioi feel the opposite. I don't want

the land burned over, nor do I want it vacant of Videssians who slew themselves for piety's sake. Other folk would simply steal what we've spent centuries building. I will not have that, not while I live.'

Digenis said, 'The lord with the great and good mind willing, Phostis will prove a man of better sense and truer piety.'

Krispos thought about that. Suppose he got his son back, but as a full-fledged fanatical Thanasiot? What then? If that's so, he told himself, it's as well I had three boys, not one. If Phostis came back a Thanasiot, he'd live out his days in a monastery, whether he went there of his own free will of not. Krispos promised himself that: he wouldn't turn the Empire over to someone more interesting in wrecking than maintaining it.

Time enough to worry about that if he ever saw Phostis again, though. He turned to Zaidas. 'You've done well, sorcerous sir. Knowing what you've learned now, you should have a better chance of pinpointing Phostis' whereabouts.'

'I'll bend every effort toward that end,' the mage promised.

Nodding, Krispos stepped out of Digenis' cell. The head gaoler came up to him and said, 'A question, your Majesty?' Krispos raised an eyebrow and waited. The gaoler said, 'That priest in there, he's getting on toward the end. What happens if he decides he doesn't care to starve himself to death and wants to start eating again?'

'I don't think that's likely to happen.' If nothing else, Krispos respected Digenis' sense of purpose. 'If it does, though, by all means let him eat; this refusal to take food is his affair, not mine. But notify me immediately.'

'You'll want to ask him more questions, your Majesty?' the gaoler said.

'No, no; you misunderstand. That priest is a condemned traitor. If he wants to carry out the sentence of death on himself in his own way, I am willing to permit it. But if his will falters, he'll meet the headsman on a full stomach.'

'Ah,' the gaoler said. 'The wind sits so, eh? Very well, your Majesty, it shall be as you say.'

In his younger days, Krispos would have come back with something harsh, like It had better be. More secure in his power now, he headed upstairs without a backward glance. As long as the gaoler felt no other result than the one he desired was possible, that result was what Krispos would get.

The Halogai who had waited outside the government office building took their places around Krispos and those who had gone down with him into the gaol. 'Is the word good. Majesty?' one of the northerners asked.

'Good enough, anyhow,' the Avtokrator answered. 'I know now Phostis was snatched, not killed, and I have a good notion of where he's been taken. As for getting him back—time will tell about that.' And about what sort of person he'll be when I do get him back, he added to himself.

The guardsmen cheered, their deep-voiced shouts making passersby's heads turn to find out what news was so gladsome. Some people exclaimed to see Krispos out and about without his retinue of parasol bearers. Others exclaimed at the Halogai. The men from the north—tall, fair, gloomy, and slow-spoken— never failed to fascinate the Videssians, whose opposites they were in almost every way.

Struck by sudden curiosity, Krispos turned to one of the northerners and said. 'Tell me, Trygve, what do you make of the folk of Videssos the city?'

Trygve pursed his lips and gave the matter some serious thought. At last, in his deliberate Videssian, he answered, 'Majesty, the wine here is very fine, the women looser than they are in Halogaland. But everyone, I t'ink, here talks too much.' Several other guardsmen nodded in solemn agreement. Since Krispos had the same opinion of the city folk, he nodded, too.

Back at the imperial residence, he gave the news from Digenis to Barsymes. The vestiarios' smile, unusually broad, filled his face full of fine wrinkles. He said, 'Phos be praised that the young Majesty is thought to be alive. The other palace chamberlains, I know, will be as delighted as I am.'

Down a side corridor, Krispos came upon Evripos and Katakolon arguing about something or other. He didn't ask what; when the mood struck them, they could argue over the way a lamp flame flickered. He'd had no brothers himself, only two sisters younger than he, both many years dead now. He supposed he should have been glad his sons kept their fights to words and occasional fists rather than hiring knifemen or poisoners or wizards.

Both youths glanced warily in his direction as he approached. Neither one looked conspicuously guilty, so each of them felt the righteousness of his own cause—though Evripos, these days, was developing the beginning of a pretty good stone face.

Krispos said, 'Digenis has cracked at last, thank the good god. By what he said, Phostis is held in some Thanasiot stronghold, but is alive and likely to stay that way.'

Now he studied Evripos and Katakolon rather than the other way round. Katakolon said, 'That's good news. By the time we're done smashing the Thanasioi next summer, we should have him back again.' His expression was open and happy; Krispos didn't think he was acting. He was sure he couldn't have done so well at Katakolon's age ... but then, he hadn't been raised at court, either.

Evripos' features revealed nothing whatever. His eyes were watchful and hooded. Krispos prodded to see what lay behind the mask. 'Aren't you glad to be sure your elder brother lives?'

'For blood's sake, aye, but should I rejoice to see my ambition thwarted?' Evripos said. 'Would you, in my boots?'