the Arandos valley,» Roshnani said.
«But he was doing that for himself more than for Genesios or Maniakes.» Abivard laughed. «Tzikas has done more for—and to—both sides here than anyone else in the whole war. Nobody can possibly trust him now, but that doesn't mean he has no value.»
«If you're going to use him against the Videssians, how do you propose to go about it?» Roshnani asked.
«I don't know that, either, not right now,» Abivard admitted. All I aim to do is keep him alive—however much I don't like the idea—keep him under my control, and wait and see what sorts of chances I get, if I get any. In my place, what would you do?»
«Kill him,» Roshnani said at once. «Kill him now and then write to tell the King of Kings what you've done. If Sharbaraz likes it—and after his latest letter he might—fine. If he doesn't like it, well, not even the King of Kings can order a man back from the dead.»
That was so. Abivard's chuckle came out wry. «I wonder what Maniakes would say if he found out the chief marshal of Makuran had a wife who was more ruthless than he.»
Roshnani smiled. «He might not be surprised. The Videssians give their women freer rein in more things than we do—why not in ruthlessness, too?» She looked thoughtful. «For that matter, who's to say Maniakes' wife who is also his cousin isn't more ruthless than he ever dreamed of being?»
«Now, there's an interesting idea,» Abivard said. «Maybe one day, if we're ever at peace with Videssos and if Maniakes is still on his throne, you and his Lysia can sit down and compare what the two of you did to make each other's lives miserable during the war.»
«Maybe we can,» Roshnani replied. Abivard had meant it as a joke, but she took him seriously. After a moment he decided she had—or might have had—reason to do so. She went on, «Speaking of ruthlessness, I meant what I said about the Videssian traitor. I'd sooner find a scorpion in my shoe than him on my side.»
Abivard spoke in sudden decision. «You're right, by the God. He's stung me too often, too. I've held back because I've thought of the use I could get from him, but I'll never feel safe with him still around to cook up schemes against me.»
«Checking you at the battle where you should have crushed Maniakes should weigh in the scales, too,» Roshnani said.
«Checking me? He came too close to killing me,» Abivard said. «That's the last time he'll thwart me, though, by the God.» He went to the door of the apartment and ordered the sentry to summon a couple of soldiers who had distinguished themselves in the summer's fighting. When they arrived, he gave them their orders. Their smiles were all glowing eyes and sharp teeth. They drew their swords and hurried away.
He had a servant fetch a jar of wine, with which he intended to celebrate Tzikas' premature but not untimely demise. But when the soldiers returned to give him their report, they had the look of dogs that had seen a meaty bone between the boards of a fence but hadn't been able to squeeze through and seize the morsel. One of them said, «We found out he has leave to go walking through the streets of Qostabash so long as he returns to his quarters by sunset. He's not quite an ordinary prisoner, the guards told me.» His expression said more clearly than words what he thought of that
«The guard is right, and the fault is mine,» Abivard said. «I give you leave to look for him in the city and kill him wherever you happen to find him. Or if that doesn't suit you, wait till sunset and put an end to him then.»
«If it's all the same to you, lord, we'll do that,» the soldier said. «I'm just a farm boy and not used to having so many people around all the time. I might kill the wrong one by mistake, and that would be a shame.» His comrade nodded. Abivard shrugged.
But Tzikas did not return to his quarters when the sun went down. When he didn't, Abivard sent soldiers— farm boys and others—through the bazaars and brothels of Qostabash looking for him. They did not find him. They did find a horse dealer who had sold him—or at least had sold someone who spoke the Makuraner language with a lisping accent—a horse.
«Drop me into the Void!» Abivard shouted when that news reached him. «The rascal saw his head going down on the block, and now he's gone and absconded—and he has most of the day's start on us, too.»
Romezan was there to hear the report, too. «Don't take it too hard, lord,» he said. «We'll run the son of a whore to earth; you see if we don't. Besides, where is he going to go?»
That was a good question. As Abivard thought about it, he began to calm down. «He can't very well run off to Maniakes' army, now, can he? Not anymore he can't, not with the Videssians gone to Lyssaion and probably back to Videssos the city by sea already. And if he doesn't run off to the Videssians, we'll hunt him down.»
«You see?» Romezan said. «It's not so bad.» He paused and fiddled with one spike of his mustache. «Pretty slick piece of work, though, wasn't it? Him figuring out the exact right time to slide away, I mean.»
«Slick is right,» Abivard said, angry at himself. «He never should have had the chance… but I did trust him, oh, a quarter of the way, because the warning he gave us was a real one.» He paused. «Or I thought it was a real one. Still, the magical screen the Videssians had set up was just that—a screen, nothing more But it delayed us almost as much as it would have if it had had deadly sorcery concealed behind it. We always thought Tzikas didn't know it was only a screen. But what if he did? What if Maniakes sent him out to make us waste as much time as he possibly could and help the Videssian army get away?»
«If he did that,» Romezan said, «if he did anything like that, we don't handle him ourselves when we catch him. We send him back to Mashiz in chains, under heavy guard, and let Sharbaraz' torturers take care of him a little at a time. That's what he pays them for.»
«Most of the time I'd fight shy of giving anyone over to the torturers,» Abivard said. «For Tzikas, especially if he did that, I'd make an exception.»
«I should hope so,» Romezan replied. «You're too soft sometimes, if you don't mind my saying so. If I had to bet, I'd say it came from hauling a woman all over the landscape. She probably thinks it's a shame to see blood spilled, doesn't she?»
Abivard didn't answer, convincing Romezan of his own right-ness. The reason Abivard didn't answer, though, was that he was having to do everything he could to keep from laughing in his lieutenant's face. Romezan's preconceptions had led him to a conclusion exactly opposite the truth.
But that wouldn't matter, either. However Abivard had reached his decision, he wanted Tzikas dead now. He offered a good-sized reward for the return of the renegade alive and an even larger one for his head, so long as it was in recognizable condition.
When morning came, he sent riders out to the south and east after Tzikas. He also had dogs brought into the Videssian's quarters to take his scent and then turned loose to hunt him down wherever he might be. The dogs, however, lost the trail after the time when Tzikas bought his horse; not enough of his scent had clung to the ground for them to follow it.
The human hunters had no better luck. «Why couldn't you have turned bloodthirsty a day earlier than you did?» Abivard demanded of Roshnani.
«Why couldn't you?» she returned, effectively shutting him up.
Every day that went by the searchers spread their nets wider. Tzikas did not get caught in those nets, though. Abivard hoped he'd perished from bandits or robbers or the rigor of his flight. If he ever did turn up in Videssos again, he was certain to be trouble.
XII
Mashiz grew nearer with every clop of the horses' hooves, with every squealing revolution of the wagon's wheels. «Summoned to the capital,» Abivard said to Roshnani. «Nice to hear that without fearing it's going to mean the end of your freedom, maybe the end of your life.»
«About time you've been summoned back to Mashiz to be praised for all the good things you've done, not blamed for things that mostly weren't your fault,» Roshnani said, loyal as a principal wife should be.
«Anything that goes wrong is your fault Anything that goes right is credited to the King of Kings.» Abivard
