Destiny's shield

'Me? You are no slouch yourself, Your Majesty.'

Holkar gave her a wry smile. 'Although there are times you petrify me with your boldness. I thought you were mad, to order Rao-'

'I told you Rome would enter the Persian war immediately,' the Empress stated. The satisfaction on the girl's face was obvious. It was not often that the nineteen-year-old Empress had been proven right in a disagreement with her canny, middle-aged peshwa. 'And I told you Belisarius would be leading their army.'

'Yes, you did,' agreed Holkar. 'That was why you overrode my protest at the insane idea of having Rao seize Deogiri immediately. I had thought to wait, until we were certain that Belisarius and the Romans had entered the war.'

The humor left Shakuntala's face. 'I had no choice, Dadaji,' she whispered. 'You were there when Rao's courier told us of Venandakatra's atrocities in the Majarashtra countryside. The beast was murdering ten villagers for every one of his soldiers lost to Rao's raiders.'

Holkar's own face was drawn. 'He will butcher even more, in retaliation for Deogiri.'

The Empress shook her head.

'I think you are wrong, Dadaji. With southern Majarashtra's largest city in our hands, Venandakatra will have no choice. His own status with the Malwa Emperor will depend on retaking Deogiri. He does not have so great an army that he can besiege Deogiri-you know how strong it is; the place is a fortress-and still send his cavalry on punitive rampages throughout the Deccan. Nor can he call for assistance from Emperor Skandagupta. You know as well as I do that the Malwa have been pressing him to release troops for the Persian campaign. With Rome-and Belisarius-now in the war, they will most certainly not send him reinforcements.'

Again, she shook her head. 'No, I am right here also-I am sure of it. The pressure on the Maratha country folk will ease, while the Vile One concentrates on Deogiri.'

'And what if he takes Deogiri?' demanded Holkar. 'What then? And what if the Malwa defeat the Persians and Romans quickly?'

Shakuntala laughed. 'Quickly? With Belisarius leading the Romans?'

Holkar smiled. 'I admit, the likelihood is not great.' He cocked an eye at her. 'You're counting on that, aren't you?'

She nodded-firmly, seriously. 'I never would have ordered Rao to take Deogiri, otherwise.'

The look she now gave her adviser was not that of an impetuous child. It was almost ancient in its cold calculation.

'He is using us, you know-Belisarius, I mean. That was why he freed me from captivity, and gave me most of the treasure he stole from the Malwa. To start a rebellion in their rear, draining forces which would otherwise be sent against him.'

Dadaji nodded. 'It is his way of thinking.' He studied her face. 'You do not seem indignant about the matter,' he commented.

The Empress shrugged. 'Why should I be? Belisarius was never dishonest about it. He told me what he was doing. And he also promised me that he would do what was in his power to aid us. Which'-she chuckled-'he is certainly doing.'

She urged her horse into a faster pace. 'You know the man well, Dadaji-better than I do, when it comes down to it. He is the most cunning man in the world, yes-unpredictable, in his tactics. But there is one thing about Belisarius which is as predictacle as the sunrise.'

'His honor.'

She nodded. 'He promised me. And he has not failed to keep that promise. He will batter the Malwa beasts in Persia, while we bleed them in the Deccan.'

She urged her mount into a trot. There was no reason for that, really, other than her irrepressible energy.

'I was right to order Rao to seize Deogiri,' she pronounced. 'Now, we must see to it that he can keep the city.'

Chapter 13

The Eastern Mediterranean

Summer, 531 A.D.

The expedition which set sail from Rhodes toward the end of summer was an impressive armada.

Antonina had brought a sizable fleet with her from Constantinople, to begin with. She had enough transport ships to carry her grenadiers, the five hundred bucellari under Ashot's command, and the infantrymen from the Army of Syria who would embark later at Seleuceia. The transports, all of them merchant sailing vessels, were escorted by two dromons, the oared warships favored by the Roman navy.

She had even requisitioned three of the great grain ships. The merchant combines which financed those ships had complained bitterly, despite Anto-nina's generous compensation, but the Empress Theodora had cowed them into submission. Quite easily. A simple frown, a purse of the lips, a glance at the Grand Justiciar. The merchants had suddenly discovered their compensation was quite ample, thank you.

The huge grain haulers slowed her fleet considerably, but Antonina had had no choice. At a great ceremony in the Forum of Constantine, five days before her departure from Constantinople, Michael of Macedonia had presented her with the Knights Hospitaler who had volunteered for the Egyptian expedition. Antonina had been expecting the monks from the new religious order-but not three thousand of them, proudly drawn up in their simple white tunics, marked by the distinctive red cross.

What she had conceived of, initially, as a lean military expedition, had grown by leaps and bounds. No sooner had she obtained the grain ships for the Knights Hospitaler than a small horde of officials and bureaucrats showed up at the docks. These were staffs-the typically bloated staffs-for the newly-appointed civil and canonical authorities of Egypt, clerks, and scribes, in the main, to serve the new Praetorian Prefect of Egypt and the Patriarch of Alexandria. Each and every one of whom, naturally, luxuriated in the grandiose titles with which those mundane occupations were invariably annointed by Roman official custom: tabularii, scrinarii, cornicula-rii, commentarienses, magister libellorum, magister studiorum, speculatores, beneficiarii. .

And so on and so forth.

They, too, wailed like lost sheep when presented with their crude shipboard accommodations-tents, for the most part, pitched on the decks of the small sailing ships which Antonina hastily rounded up, naturally over the wails of their owners. But they, too, like the disgruntled grain traders, reconciled themselves to their fate. Theodora's frown had almost magical capabilities, when it came to quelling indignant merchants and bureaucrats.

Then, the very day before departure, Michael had shown up to inform her, quite casually- insufferable saint! damnable prophet! — that many more Knights Hospitaler would be waiting in Seleuceia and Tyre and possibly other ports along the Levant, eager to join the crusade in Egypt.

Three more grain ships were seized-one of them overhauled by her dromons as it tried to flee the Golden Horn-emptied hurriedly of their cargoes and pressed into imperial service. Again, Theodora put her frown to work.

Finally, departure came. For a few days, Antonina luxuriated in the relative quiet of a sea voyage, until her arrival at Rhodes placed new demands upon her. John had been forewarned, by courier, of the imperial plan to transfer his armaments complex to Egypt. But, with his stubborn, mulish nature, he had made only half-hearted and lackadaisical efforts to organize the transfer. So, once again, the task had fallen on Antonina. She scrambled about, requisitioning ships on Rhodes itself-and then, coming up short, sending Ashot with the dromons to commandeer some of the vessels at Seleuceia-until the expedition was finally ready to sail.

But, in the end, sail it did. With the newest addition to the fleet proudly in the fore-John's new warship.