would soon learn—his job was to learn of such things, and Abivard had no doubt he was very good at it. When he did… Abivard had found out what being out of favor at court was like. He would not have recommended it to his friends.
Sharbaraz' expression was hooded, opaque. «Even if this be true, you should not say it,» he replied at last, and then fell silent again.
Abivard wondered how to take that nearly oracular pronouncement. Did the King of Kings mean he shouldn't publicly acknowledge Videssos' strength? Or did he mean he thought Maniakes would keep whatever Makuraner revenue he got his hands on? Or was he saying that it wasn't true, and even if it was, it wasn't? Abivard couldn't tell.
«I did what I thought best at the time,» he said. «I think it did help Maniakes decide he couldn't spend the winter between the Tutub and the Tib. We have till spring to prepare the land of the Thousand Cities against his return, which the God prevent.»
«So may it be,» Sharbaraz agreed. «My concern is, will he do the same thing twice running?»
«Always a good question, Majesty,» Abivard said. «Maniakes has a way of learning from his mistakes that many have said to be unusual.»
«So I have heard,» Sharbaraz said.
He said nothing about learning from his own mistakes. Was that because he was sure he learned or because he assumed he made no mistakes? Abivard suspected the latter, but some questions not even he had the nerve to put to the King of Kings.
He did press Sharbaraz a little, asking, «Majesty, will you grant me leave to return to the land of the Thousand Cities so I can go back to training the army I raised from the troops you had me gather together last year? I must say I am also anxious at being so far from them when one of my commanders does not enjoy my full confidence.»
«What?» Sharbaraz demanded. «Who is that?»
«Tzikas, Majesty—the Videssian,» Yeliif answered before Abivard could speak. «The one who helped alert you to unreliability before.» To Abivard's unreliability, he meant.
Sharbaraz said, «Ah, the Videssian. Yes, I remember now. No, he needs to remain in his place. He is one general who cannot plot against me.»
Abivard had had that same thought himself. «As you say, Majesty,» he replied. «I do not ask that he be removed. I want only to go and join him and make sure that the cavalry he leads is working well with the infantry from the city garrisons. And just as he keeps an eye on me, I want to keep an eye on him.»
«What you want is not my chiefest concern,» the King of Kings answered. «I think more of my safety and of the good of Makuran.»
In that order, Abivard noted. It wasn't anything he hadn't already understood. In a way, having Sharbaraz come right out and own up to it made things better rather than worse—no pretending now. Abivard said, «Letting the army go soft and its pieces grow apart from each other serves neither of those purposes, Majesty.»
Sharbaraz hadn't expected his army to amount to anything. The King of Kings had thrown him and the garrison soldiers at the Videssians in the way a man throws a handful of dirt on a fire when he has no water: in the hope it would do some good, knowing he'd lose little if it didn't. He hadn't expected them to turn into an army, and he hadn't expected the army to seem so important for the battles of the coming campaigning season.
What you expected, though, wasn't always what you got. With Videssian mastery of the sea, Maniakes was liable to land his armies anywhere when spring brought good weather. If he did strike again for the land of the Thousand Cities, that makeshift army Abivard had patched together would be the only force between the Videssians and Mashiz. At that, Sharbaraz would be better off than he had been, for he'd had no shield the year before.
When the King of Kings did not answer right away, Abivard grasped his dilemma. An army worth something as a shield was also worth something as a sword. Sharbaraz did not merely fear Maniakes and the Videssians; he also feared any army Abivard was able to make effective enough to confront the invaders. An army effective enough to do that could threaten Mashiz in its own right.
At last Sharbaraz King of Kings said, «I believe you have officers who know their business. If you did not, you could not have done what you did against the Videssians. They will hold your army together for you until spring comes and the general is needed in the field. So shall it be.»
«So shall it be,» Abivard echoed, bowing, acquiescing. Sharbaraz still did not trust him as far as he should have, but he did trust him more than he had the winter before. Abivard chose to look on that as progress—not least because looking on it any other way would have made him scream in frustration or despair or rage or maybe all three at once.
He expected the King of Kings to dismiss him after rendering his decision. Instead, after yet another hesitation Sharbaraz said, «Brother-in-law of mine, I am asked by Denak my principal wife—your sister—to tell you that she is with child. Her confinement should come in the spring.»
Abivard bowed again, this time in surprise and delight. From what Denak had said, Sharbaraz seldom summoned her to his bedchamber these days. One of those summonses, though, seemed to have borne fruit.
«May she give you a son, Majesty,» Abivard said—the usual thing, the polite thing, the customary thing to say.
But nothing was simple, not when he was dealing with Sharbaraz. The King of Kings sent him a hooded look, though what he said—'May the God grant your prayer'—was the appropriate response. Here, for once, Abivard needed no time to figure out how he had erred. The answer was simple: he hadn't.
But Denak's pregnancy complicated Sharbaraz' life. If his principal wife did bear a son, the boy automatically became the heir presumptive. And if Denak bore a boy, Abivard became uncle to the heir presumptive. Should Sharbaraz die, that would make Abivard uncle to the new King of Kings and a very important man, indeed. The prospect of becoming uncle to the new King of Kings might even—probably would in the eyes of the present King of Kings—give Abivard an incentive for wanting Sharbaraz dead.
Almost, Abivard wished Denak would present the King of Kings with another girl. Almost.
Now Sharbaraz dismissed Abivard from the audience. Abivard prostrated himself once more, then withdrew, Yeliif appearing at his side as if by magic as he did so. The beautiful eunuch stayed silent till they left the throne room, and that suited Abivard fine.
Afterward, in the hallway, Yeliif hissed, «You are luckier than you deserve, brother-in-law to the King of Kings.» He made Abivard's title, in most men's mouths one of respect, into a reproach.
Abivard had expected nothing better. Bowing politely, he said, «Yeliif, you may blame me for a great many things, and in some of them you will assuredly be right, but that my sister is with child is not my fault.»
By the way Yeliif glared at him, everything was his fault. The eunuch said, «It will cause Sharbaraz King of Kings, may his days be long and his realm increase, to forgive too readily your efforts to subvert his position on the throne.»
«What efforts?» Abivard demanded. «We went through this last winter, and no one, try as everybody here in Mashiz would, was able to show I've been anything but loyal to the King of Kings, the reason being that I am loyal.»
«So you say,» Yeliif answered venomously. «So you claim.»
Abivard wanted to pick him up and smash him against the stone of the wall as if he were an insect to crush underfoot. «Now you listen to me,» he snapped, as he might have at a soldier who hesitated to obey orders. «The way you have it set up in your mind is that, if I win victories for the King of Kings, I'm a traitor because I'm too successful and you think the victories are aggrandizing me instead of Sharbaraz, whereas if I lose, I'm a traitor because I've thrown victory away to the enemies of the King of Kings.»
«Exactly,» Yeliif said. «Precisely.»
«Drop me into the Void, then!» Abivard exclaimed. «How am I supposed to do anything right if everything I can possibly do is wrong before I try it?»
«You cannot,» the beautiful eunuch said. «The greatest service you could render Sharbaraz King of Kings would be, as you say, to drop into the Void and trouble the realm no more.»
«As far as I can tell, the next time I trouble the realm will be the first,» Abivard said stubbornly. «And if you ask me, there can be a difference between serving the King of Kings and serving the realm.»
«No one asked you,» Yeliif said. «That is as well, for you lie.»
«Do I?» Such an insult from a whole man would have made Abivard challenge him. Instead, he stopped
