them.
«Excellent,» the beautiful eunuch said, and bowed low, the first such acknowledgment of superiority he'd ever granted Abivard. «And rest assured I shall not forget to make arrangements for you to see your sister and nephew.» He slipped from the suite and was gone.
Abivard stared after him. «Was that really the Yeliif we've known and loathed the past couple of years?» he said to no one in particular.
«It really was,» Roshnani said, sounding as dazed as he was. «Do you know what I wish we could borrow right now?»
«What's that?» Abivard asked.
«Sharbaraz' food taster, if he has one,» his principal wife answered. «And he probably does.» Abivard thought about that, then nodded, agreeing with both the need and the likelihood.
Yeliif used a suave and tasteful gesture to point out the door through which Abivard was to enter. «Denak and young Peroz await you within,» he said. «I shall await you here in the hall and return with you to your chamber.»
«I can probably find my way back by myself,» Abivard said.
«It is the custom,» the eunuch answered, a sentence from which there could be no possible appeal.
Shrugging, Abivard opened the door and went inside. He didn't shut it in Yeliif's face, as he would have done before. Since the beautiful eunuch was not actively hostile, Abivard didn't want to turn him that way.
Inside the room waited not only his sister and her new baby but also the woman Ksorane. Not even her brother could be alone with the principal wife of the King of Kings, and tiny Peroz didn't count in such matters.
«Congratulations,» he said to Denak. He wanted to run to his sister and take her in his arms but knew the serving woman would interpret that as uncouth familiarity no matter how closely they were related. He did the next best thing by adding, «Let me see the baby, please.»
Denak smiled and nodded, but even that proved complicated. She could not simply hand Peroz to Abivard, for the two of them would touch each other if she did. Instead, she gave the baby to Ksorane, who in turn passed him to Abivard, asking as she did so, «You know how to hold them?»
«Oh, yes,» he assured her. «My eldest will start sprouting his beard before many years go by.» She nodded, satisfied. Abivard held Peroz in the crook of his elbow, making sure he kept the baby's head well supported. His nephew stared up at him with the confused look babies so often give the large, confusing world.
Their eyes met. Peroz' blank stare was swallowed by a large, enthusiastic, toothless smile. Abivard smiled back, and that made the baby's smile get even wider. Peroz jerked and waved his arms around, not seeming quite sure they belonged to him
«Don't let him grab your beard,» Denak warned. «He's already pulled my hair a couple of times.»
«I know about that, too,» Abivard said. He held the baby for a while, then handed it back to the serving woman, who returned it to his sister. «An heir to the throne,» he murmured, adding for Ksorane's benefit, «Though I hope Sharbaraz keeps it for many years to come.» He remained unsure whether the woman's first loyalty lay with Denak or with the King of Kings.
«As do I, of course,» Denak said; maybe she wasn't perfectly sure, either. But then she went on, «Yes, now I've had my foal. And now I'm put back in the stable again and forgotten.» She did not bother to disguise her bitterness.
«I'm sure the King of Kings gives you every honor,» Abivard said.
«Honor? Yes, though I'd be worse than forgotten if Peroz had turned out to be a girl.» Denak's mouth twisted. «I have everything I want—except about three quarters of my freedom.» She held up a hand to keep Abivard from saying anything. «I know, I know. If I'd stayed married to Pradtak, I'd still be stuck away in the women's quarters, but I would rule his domain in spite of that. Here I can go about more freely, which looks well, but no one listens to me—no one.» The lines new on her face these past few years grew deep and harsh.
«Do you want freedom,» Abivard asked, «or do you want influence?»
«Both,» Denak answered at once. «Why shouldn't I have both? If I were a man, I could easily have both. Because I'm not, I'm supposed to be amazed to have one. That's not the way I work.»
Abivard knew as much. It had never been the way his sister worked. He pointed to Peroz, who was falling asleep in her arms. «You have influence there—and you'll have more as time goes by.»
«Influence because I'm his mother,» Denak said, looking down at the baby. «Not influence because I am who I am. Influence through a baby, influence through a man. It's not enough. I have wit enough to be a counselor to the King of Kings or even to rule in my own right. Will I ever have the chance? You know the answer as well as I do.»
«What would you have me do?» Abivard said. «Shall I ask the God to remake the world so it pleases you better?'
«I've asked her that myself often enough,» Denak said, «but I don't think she'll ever grant my prayer. Maybe, in spite of what we women call her, the God is a man, after all. Otherwise, how could she treat women so badly?»
Sitting off in a corner of the room, the serving woman yawned. Denak's complaints meant nothing to her. In some ways she was freer than the principal wife of the King of Kings.
Changing the subject seemed a good idea to Abivard. «What did Sharbaraz say when he learned you'd had a son?» he asked.
«He said all the right things,» Denak answered: «that he was glad, that he was proud of me, that Peroz was a splendid little fellow and hung like a horse, to boot» She laughed at the expression on Abivard's face. «It was true at the time.»
«Yes, I suppose it would have been,» Abivard agreed, remembering how the genitals of his newborn sons had been disproportionately large for the first few days of their lives. «It surprised me.»
«It certainly did—you should have seen your jaw drop,» Denak said. She went on, «And how have you been? How has life been outside the walls of this palace?»
«I've been fairly well—not perfect but fairly well. We even beat the Videssians this year, not so thoroughly as I would have liked, but we beat them.» Abivard shrugged. «That's how life works. You don't get everything you want. If you can get most of it, you're ahead of the game. Maybe Sharbaraz is starting to see hat, too: I didn't know how he'd take it when we beat the Videssians without smashing them to bits, but he hardly complained about that.»
«He has some sort of scheme afoot,» Denak answered. «I don't know what it is.» The set of her jaw said what she thought about not knowing. «Whatever it is, he thought it up himself, and he's doubly proud of it on account of that. When he turns it loose he says, Videssos the city will tremble and fall.»
«That would be wonderful,» Abivard answered. «For a while there a couple of springs ago, I was afraid Mashiz would tremble and fall.»
«He says he's taken a lesson from the Videssians,» Denak added, «and they'll pay for having taught him.»
«What's that supposed to mean?» Abivard asked.
«I don't know,» Denak told him. «That's all he's said to me; that's all he will say to me.» Her thinned lips showed how much she cared for her husband's silence. «When he talks about this lesson, whatever it is, he has the look on his face he puts on when he thinks he's been clever.»
«Does he?» Abivard said. «All right.» He wouldn't say more with Ksorane listening. Sharbaraz was not stupid. He knew that. Sometimes the schemes the King of Kings thought up were very clever indeed. And sometimes the only person Sharbaraz' schemes fooled was Sharbaraz himself. Worst of all was the impossibility of figuring out in advance which was which.
«I'm glad he's—content with you,» Denak said. «That's much better than the way things have been.»
«Isn't it?» Abivard agreed. He smiled at his sister. «And I'm glad for you—and for little Peroz there.»
She looked down at the baby. Her expression softened. «I do love him,» she said quietly. «Babies are a lot of fun, especially with so many servants around to help when they're cranky or sick. But… it's hard sometimes to think of him as just a baby and not as a new piece of the palace puzzle, if you know what I mean. And that takes away from letting myself enjoy him.»
«Nothing is simple,» Abivard said with great conviction. «Nothing is ever simple. If living up by the nomads hadn't taught me that, the civil war would have, that or living among Videssians for a while.» He rolled his eyes.
