They also made a habit of ambushing Makuraner couriers whenever they could. That always had the potential of being useful, as it had in the Land of the Thousand Cities. A lot of the messages they captured and sent back to Videssos the city were in the Makuraner tongue. The healer-priest had no trouble making sense of them.
Most, unfortunately, were not worth having, once captured. «Your Majesty, how do you profit by learning the garrison commander at Aptos has asked the garrison commander of Vryetion for the loan of some hay?» Philetos asked after translating a captured dispatch wherein the commander at Aptos had done just that.
«I could make a fancy speech about how learning that any one Makuraner garrison is low on supplies might be important,» Maniakes replied. «I won't bother. The plain truth is, it doesn't do me any good I can see. They can't all be gems. When you're rolling dice, you don't get Phos' little suns—» Double ones counted as the winning throw in the Videssian game. «—every time out. But you never know what you'll get till you do throw the dice.»
«I suppose so, your Majesty.» Philetos sounded obedient but less than delighted. Whenever new messages from the westlands came into Videssos the city, he was called away from his sorcerous researches to translate them. «I might wish the Makuraners had the courtesy to write in Videssian.»
«It would make our lives easier, wouldn't it?» Maniakes grinned at the healer-priest. «It would certainly make your life easier.»
Every few days, one ship or another would bring in a dispatch or a handful of dispatches from out of the westlands. The hill country in the southeastern part of the peninsula had never been so firmly in Makuraner hands as the rest: it lay well away from the line of march toward Videssos the city. Makuraner commanders in the area were always howling about Videssian harassment and complaining to Abivard or to one another that they needed more men if they were not to be overwhelmed.
In the northern part of the westlands, Videssian land forces were weaker, but the fleet, now that pressure on the imperial city had eased, could swoop down and seize a port whenever it liked. The captured messages that came back to Videssos the city from that area were mostly warnings for Makuraner officers to remain ever alert and, again, unending and apparently unanswered pleas for reinforcements.
Studying Philetos' translations, the elder Maniakes said, «They haven't got enough men to do everything they have to do, not if they keep their field army at Across.»
«True, but if they split up, they'll have a hard time putting it back together again,» the Avtokrator said.
«The more I look at their position, the more I like ours,» his father remarked. «They're sinking a little at a time, and the only way they can plug one hole is to let another one leak.»
«And we've convinced them they don't dare bring any more troops forward out of the Land of the Thousand Cities,» Maniakes said. «If they try that, we will end up taking Mashiz, the way we could have this past campaigning season if Sharbaraz hadn't had his cursed clever idea.»
«Too late in the year to send the fleet out now, even if your omens hadn't all been bad,» the elder Maniakes said. «But there's next year, and the year after that if need be. The Kubratoi will leave us alone for a while. We can concentrate against Makuran.»
«Sooner or later, though, we'll have to go up against the Makuraner field army,» Maniakes said. «That's a lot of boiler boys to take on at once.»
«Maybe you can split them up so you won't have to,» his father answered. «And maybe you'll just beat them. Videssian armies can beat them, you know. If that weren't so, Makuran would have owned the westlands for hundreds of years by now.»
«I understand that,» Maniakes said. «But still—»
Throughout Genesios' unhappy reign, and throughout the opening years of his own, the Makuraners had regularly routed all the forces Videssos threw against them. The Makuraners had become convinced they could do it whenever they pleased—and so had the Videssians. Back in the Land of the Thousand Cities, Maniakes' troops had shown they could face the fearsome Makuraner heavy cavalry on something close to even terms. Facing the entire Makuraner field force, though, was different from facing a detachment from it. If something went wrong…
Kameas stuck his head into the chamber where the two Maniakai were talking and said, «Your Majesty, I beg pardon, but another handful of captured dispatches has just come in.»
«Thank you, esteemed sir,» Maniakes said. «Have them brought here and send someone to fetch Philetos, if you'd be so kind.»
«I have taken the liberty of doing that already,» the vestiarios said with the slightest hint of smugness.
Philetos arrived about a quarter of an hour later. After bowing to the elder Maniakes and prostrating himself before the younger, he went to work on the parchments Kameas had set on an alabaster tabletop. When he came to one of them, he stiffened and grew alert. «Your Majesty,» he said in a tightly controlled voice, «we have something of importance here. This is from Sharbaraz King of Kings to Romezan son of Bizhan.»
«Abivard's second-in-command,» Maniakes breathed. «You're right, holy sir; that is important. What does it say?»
Philetos read through the parchment. When he looked up again, his eyes were wide and wondering. He said, «The gist is, Sharbaraz blames Abivard for failing to capture Videssos the city. This letter orders Romezan to take Abivard's head, send it back to Mashiz, and assume command of the field army himself.»
VIII
Maniakes, his father, and Philetos stared at one another. The Avtokrator said, «I never imagined having anything so big fall into my lap. It's almost too big. How do we use it to best advantage?»
In a dry voice, the elder Maniakes said, «We've been looking for something that would pry Abivard loose from Sharbaraz. If an execution order won't do it, to the ice with me if I know what will.»
Philetos said, «Might it not be best to refrain from interfering? The natural course of events, so to speak, would then remove Abivard from matters concerning us.»
«And put Romezan in his place.» Maniakes shook his head. «I've fought against Romezan. He's very good, and the soldiers like him. The Makuraners would be as dangerous with him in command as they are now.»
«That's so,» the elder Maniakes agreed. «By what I've seen, this Romezan is as nasty as Abivard commanding troops in battle, maybe worse, because he presses harder. Abivard is better at seeing past the nose on his face, though.»
«Every word of that is true, Father, and it tells me what we need to do,» Maniakes said. «If Abivard gone hurts Makuran only a little, what we have to have is Abivard angry at Sharbaraz.»
«Like I say, showing him that letter ought to do the trick,» the elder Maniakes rumbled.
«Just what I intend to do,» the Avtokrator said. «I'll invite him into Videssos the city on the pretext of discussing a truce between his troops and mine. When he's in here—out comes the parchment.»
«Will he not fear to come into Videssos the city?» Philetos said, being worried lest you treat him as in fact his own sovereign intends to do?»
«I think he'll come,» Maniakes said. «No matter what Sharbaraz has done, Abivard and I have fought hard but fair: no treachery on either side I can think of. And he must know we know how good Romezan is, and how little we'd gain by murdering him.»
Philetos, still looking shaken at the magnitude of what he'd discovered, sketched Phos' sun-circle above his heart. «The good god grant that it prove as you desire.»
A shield of truce at her bow, the Renewal bobbed in the chop within hailing distance of the beach at Across. Before long, a Makuraner soldier came forward and hailed the dromon in accented Videssian: «Who are you, and what do you want?»
Maniakes, gorgeous in full imperial raiment, stepped forward to show himself to the Makuraner. «I am Maniakes son of Maniakes, Avtokrator of the Videssians. I would speak with Abivard son of Godarz, your commander here. I want to invite him into Videssos the city, that we may confer on ways to end the war between us.»
The Makuraner stared at him. «How do I know you're really Maniakes, not just some guy in a fancy
