residence. He dealt with them as best he could. Approving some and denying others made some people glad and others angry, but no one seemed to think the decisions he made especially idiotic.
Rhegorios bravely stuck his head into the chamber where Maniakes was passing his judgments. «I wondered if you could use some help,» he said, his voice a rasping croak.
«I'm managing,» Maniakes answered.
«I see you are,» his cousin said. «In that case—» He withdrew. Whatever he'd done to fight his hangover, the hangover had won the battle.
Zenonis and little Maniakes came into the chamber about halfway through the morning. They both prostrated themselves before the Avtokrator, even though he waved for them not to bother. In a way, that relieved his mind, as a sign that Zenonis took his sovereignty seriously… unless, of course, she was dissembling. Life, he decided with the mournful clarity the morning after a drunken night could bring, was never simple.
«Have you decided what you would like to do?» he asked after his sister-in-law and nephew had risen.
«Yes, your Majesty,» Zenonis said. «By your leave, we—» She put her arm around little Maniakes' shoulder. «—will travel to Videssos the city.» She hesitated. «Maybe, later on, we will sail across the sea to Prista. I still have to think on that.»
«Good enough,» Maniakes said. «I think you are wise not to go to Prista at once, but I wouldn't have stood in your way if that was what you wanted to do. I'll give you an escort to go to the city, and I'll send a courier ahead to let my father know you're coming and to ask him to show you every kindness. He would anyway, for your husband's sake.»
He watched Zenonis' eyes when he spoke of Parsmanios. As best he could tell, she looked sad, not angry. All the same, he'd also quietly ask his father to keep an eye on her while she was in the capital.
Zenonis said, «Your father is also Maniakes, not so?»
Maniakes nodded. «Yes. I suppose he's the one for whom your son is named, not me.»
«No,» Zenonis said, «or not altogether. When Maniakes—or little Maniakes, I should say—was born, my husband named him for the two of you. Now he's met one of his namesakes, and soon he'll meet the other.»
«What do you think of that?» Maniakes asked his nephew.
«I don't know,» little Maniakes answered. «It's all right, I guess, but I want to see my papa. That's what I really want to do.»
Beside him, Zenonis began, very quietly, to weep. Obviously, she hadn't told her son what Parsmanios had done. Maniakes found himself unable to blame her for that. Sooner or later, little Maniakes would have to find out. It didn't have to be right away, though. To him, Maniakes said, «Maybe you will, one of these days. You will meet your grandfather, though. Isn't that good?»
«I don't know,» his nephew said again. «Is he nicer than Gramps here in Vryetion?»
Maniakes hadn't even thought about Zenonis' father. Taken aback, he said, «Well, you can ask him for yourself when you get to Videssos the city. I'll bet he tells you yes.» His nephew gravely puzzled away at that. Though tears still streaked her face, Zenonis managed a smile.
More claims about collaboration and treason kept the Avtokrator busy the rest of the day. Vryetion hadn't been occupied so long as some of the other Videssian towns up on the plateau, and it had been fortunate in having a relatively decent Makuraner overlord. Maybe that was why so many people had, or were accused of having, collaborated with the occupiers. Maniakes fought through the cases, one by one.
As in other Videssian towns through which he'd passed in the wake of the retreating Makuraners, temple affairs were in turmoil here. Vryetion wasn't far from the border with Vaspurakan. Some of the locals had Vaspurakaner blood; even some of those who didn't had looked kindly on Vaspurakaner doctrines before those were imposed on them.
A priest named Salivas said, «Your Majesty, your own clan reveres Vaspur the Firstborn. How can you condemn us for doing the same?»
«I follow the orthodox creed of Videssos,» Maniakes answered, which was not a thorough denial of what the priest had said. He went on, «And you, holy sir, you were orthodox before the Makuraners ordered you to change the way you preached. You were happy enough then, not so? Why doesn't orthodoxy content you any more?»
«Because I believe with all my heart the doctrines I preach now are Phos' holy truth.» Salivas drew himself up to his full height. He was tall, and also thin, which made him look even taller. «I am ready to die to defend the truth of the dogma of Vaspur.»
«Nobody said anything about killing you, holy sir,» Maniakes replied, which seemed to surprise and disappoint the priest—not the first time the Avtokrator had seen that, either. He went on, «I have another question for you: if you're so bloody eager to martyr yourself for faith in Vaspur the Firstborn, why didn't you let the boiler boys slaughter you when they made you change, from orthodoxy?» Then I wouldn't have had to deal with you, he added to himself.
Salivas opened his mouth and closed it without saying anything. As far as Maniakes was concerned, that was a triumph almost as satisfying as holding the Kubratoi and Makuraners out of Videssos the city. Then, dashing it, Salivas tried again to speak, and succeeded. What he said, though, made the Avtokrator feel victorious after all: «Your Majesty, I don't know.»
«May I offer a suggestion?» asked Maniakes, who had observed this phenomenon a couple of times before, too. Since Salivas could hardly refuse his sovereign, the Avtokrator continued, «You were orthodox all your life. You took orthodoxy for granted, didn't you?» He waited for Salivas to nod, then pressed ahead: «The Vaspurakaner doctrines are new to you. They're exciting on account of that, I think, as a man will find a new mistress exciting even though there's nothing whatever wrong with his wife except that she's not new to him any more.»
Salivas flushed to the shaven crown of his head. «That is not a comparison I would have chosen to use,» he said stiffly. Reminding Videssian priests of the celibacy required of them was bad manners.
Maniakes didn't care about bad manners, except insofar as he preferred them to religious rioting and other civil strife. «Use whatever comparison you like, holy sir. But think hard on it. Remember that you'd been perfectly content while you were orthodox. Remember that the other priests here—» Most of them, anyhow, he qualified mentally, and the couple of others who still inclined to Vaspurakaner views were wavering. «—have gone back to orthodoxy now that the Makuraners have left.»
«But the Vaspurakaner views are—» Salivas began.
He was probably going to be stubborn. Maniakes didn't give him the chance. «Are imposed on you by foreigners who wanted to ruin Videssos,» he said firmly. «Do you want to help Sharbaraz King of Kings win this fight even after his soldiers have left the Empire?»
«No,» Salivas admitted, «but neither do I want to spend eternity in Skotos' ice for having misbelieved.»
What Maniakes wanted to do was punch the stubborn priest, or possibly hit him over the head with a large stone in the hope of creating an opening through which sense might enter. With more patience than he'd thought he owned, he asked, «Didn't you believe you would be bathed in Phos' holy light before the Makuraners made you change your preaching?»
«Yes, but I have changed my mind since then,» Salivas answered.
«If you changed it once, do you think you might change it again?» the Avtokrator said.
«I doubt that,» Salivas told him. «I doubt that very much.»
«Before the boiler boys made you reject orthodoxy, did you ever think you would change your mind about that?» Maniakes asked.
«No,» the cleric said.
«Well, then—» Maniakes waited for Salivas to make the connection. He waited, and waited, and waited some more. The connection remained unmade. Salivas remained convinced that what he believed now, he would believe forever. Maniakes became convinced the priest was a perfect blockhead, but the only thing he could do about that was hope the people of Vryetion would notice it, too.
Seeing his discontent without fully recognizing its source, Salivas said, «I shall pray for you, your Majesty.»
«For that much I thank you,» Maniakes said wearily. Vryetion was going to be a town with Vaspurakaner- style heretics in it for some time to come. There were a lot of towns like that in the westlands. The ecumenical
