walking and studied Yeliif. Eunuchs' ages were generally hard to judge, and Yeliif powdered his face, making matters harder yet, but Abivard thought he might be older than he seemed at first glance. Doing his best to sound innocent, he said, «Tell me, were you here in the palace to serve Peroz King of Kings?»
«Yes, I was.» Pride rang in Yeliif's voice.
«Ah. How lucky for you.» Abivard bowed again. «And tell me, when Smerdis usurped the throne after Peroz died, did you serve him, too, while he held Mashiz and kept Sharbaraz prisoner?»
Yeliif's eyes blazed hatred. He did not reply, which Abivard took to mean he had won the argument. As he realized a moment later, that might have done him more harm than good.
«It's not as bad as it could be,» Roshnani said one day about a week after Abivard's audience with the King of Kings.
«No, it's not,» Abivard agreed, «although I don't think our children would say that you're right.» Even though they could go though the corridors of the palace, the children still felt very much confined. Most of the time that would have been Abivard's chief concern. Now, though, he burst out, «What drives me mad is that it's so useless. Sharbaraz King of Kings, may his years be many and his realm increase—» He generally used the full honorific formula, for the benefit of any unseen listeners. «—has declared his trust in me and admits I did little wrong and much right during the campaigning season just past I wish he would let me go back to me army I built.»
«He trusts you—but he doesn't trust you,» Roshnani said with a rueful smile. «That's better than it was, too, but it's not good enough.» She raised her voice slightly. «You've shown your loyalty every way a man can.» Yes, she, too, was mindful of people who might not even be there but who were noting her words for the King of Kings if they were.
«The only good thing I can see about having to stay here,» Abivard said, also pitching his voice to an audience wider than one person, «is that, if the God is kind, I'll get the chance to see my sister and give her my hope for a safe confinement.»
«I'd like to see her, too,» Roshnani said. «It's been too long, and I didn't get the chance when we were here last winter.»
They smiled at each other, absurdly pleased with the game they were playing. It put Abivard in mind of the skits the Videssians performed during their Midwinter's Day festivals, when the players performed not only for themselves but also for the people watching them. Here, though, everything he and his principal wife said was true, only the intonation changing for added effect.
Roshnani went on, «It's not as if I couldn't go through the corridors to see her, either, in the women's quarters or outside them. Thanks to Sharbaraz King of Kings, may his days be long and his realm increase—» No, Roshnani didn't miss a trick, not one.'– women are no longer confined as straitly as they used to be.»
Take that, Abivard thought loudly at whatever listeners he and Roshnani had. If there were listeners, they probably would not take it gladly. From all he'd seen, people at the court of the King of Kings hated change of any sort more than anyone else in the world did. Abivard was not enthusiastic about change; what sensible man was? But he recognized that change for the better was possible. Sharbaraz' courtiers rejected that notion out of hand.
«To the Void with them,» he muttered, this time so quietly that Roshnani had to lean forward to catch his words. She nodded but said nothing; the unseen audience did not have to know everything that went on between the two principal players.
A couple of days later Yeliif came to the door. To Abivard's surprise, the beautiful eunuch wanted to speak not to him but to Roshnani. As always, Yeliif's manners were flawless, and that made the message he delivered all the more stinging. «Lady,» he said, bowing to Roshnani, «for you to be honored by an audience with Denak, principal wife to Sharbaraz King of Kings, is not, cannot be, and shall not be possible, for which reason such requests, being totally useless, should in future be dispensed with.»
«And why is that?» Roshnani asked, her voice dangerously calm. «Is it that my sister-in-law does not wish to see me? If she will tell me how I offended her, I will apologize or make any other compensation she requires. I will say, though, that she was not ashamed to stay with me in the women's quarters of Vek Rud domain after Sharbaraz King of Kings made her his principal wife.»
That shot went home; Yeliif's jaw tightened. The slight shift of muscle and bone was easily visible beneath his fine, beardless skin. The eunuch answered, «So far as I know, lady, you have not given offense. But we of the court do not deem it fitting for a lady of your quality to expose herself to the stares of the vulgar multitude in her traversal of the peopled corridors of the palace.»
Abivard started to explode—he thought Denak and Roshnani had put paid to that attitude, or at least its public expression, years before. But Roshnani's raised hand stopped him before he began. She said, «Am I to understand, then, that my requests to see Denak do not reach her?»
«You may understand whatever you like,» Yeliif replied.
«And so may you. Stand aside now, if you please.» Roshnani advanced on the beautiful eunuch. Yeliif did stand aside; had he not done so, she would have stamped on his feet and walked over or through him—that was quite plain. She opened the door and started out through it.
«Where are you going?» Yeliif demanded. «What are you doing?» For the first time his voice was less than perfectly controlled.
Roshnani took a step out into the hall, as if she'd decided not to answer. Then, at the last minute, she seemed to change her mind—or maybe, Abivard thought admiringly, she'd planned that hesitation beforehand. She said, «I am going to find Sharbaraz King of Kings, may his years be many and his realm increase, wherever he is, and I am going to put in his ear the tale of how his courtiers seek to play havoc with the new customs for noblewomen he himself, in his wisdom, chose to institute.»
«You can't do that!» Now Yeliif sounded not just imperfectly controlled but appalled.
«No? Why can't I? I abide by the customs the King of Kings began; don't you think he'd be interested to learn that you don't?»
«You cannot interrupt him! It is not permitted.»
«You cannot keep my messages from reaching Denak, but you do,» Roshnani said sweetly. «Why, then, can't I do what cannot be done?»
Yeliif gaped. Abivard felt like snickering. Roshnani's years of living among the Videssians had made her a dab hand at chopping logic into fine bits, as if it were mutton or beef to be made into sausage. The beautiful eunuch wasn't used to argument of that style and plainly had no idea how to respond.
Roshnani gave him little chance, in any case. When she said she would do something, she would do it She started into the hallway. Yeliif dashed out after her. «Stop her!» he shouted to the guards who were always posted outside the suite of rooms.
Abivard went out into the hall, too. The guards were armored and had spears to his knife. Even so, the only way he would let them lay hands on Roshnani was over his dead body.
But he needn't have worried. One of the soldiers said to Yeliif, «Sir, our orders say she is allowed to go out» He did his best to sound regretful—the eunuch was a powerful figure at court—but couldn't keep amusement from his voice.
Yeliif made as if to grab Roshnani himself but seemed to think better of it at the last minute. That was probably wise on his part; Roshnani made a habit of carrying a small, thin dagger somewhere about her person and might well have taken it into her head to use the knife on him.
He said, «Can we not reach agreement on this, thereby preventing an unseemly display bound to upset the King of Kings?»
Abivard had no trouble reading between the lines there: an unseemly display would leave Yeliif in trouble with Sharbaraz because the eunuch had permitted it to happen. Roshnani saw that, too. She said, «If I am allowed to see Denak today, then very well. If not, I go out searching for the King of Kings tomorrow.»
«I accept,» Yeliif said at once.
«Don't think to cheat by delaying and getting the guards' orders changed,» Roshnani told him, rubbing in her victory. «Do you know what will happen if you try? One way or another I'll manage to get out and go anyway, and when I do, you'll pay double.»
The threat was probably idle. The palace was Yeliif's domain, not Roshnani's. Nevertheless, the beautiful eunuch said, «I have made a bargain, and I shall abide by it,» and beat a hasty retreat.
