world at large. Krispos checked one last time to make sure all their gear was properly stowed on the packhorses' backs, then climbed onto his own beast.
Bolkanes came to bid his longtime guests farewell. He bowed to Iakovitzes. 'A pleasure to serve you, eminent sir.'
'I should hope so. I've made your fortune,' Iakovitzes answered, gracious to the end.
As the innkeeper beat a hasty retreat, Mavros rode up on a big bay gelding. He looked very young and jaunty, with two pheasant plumes sticking up from his broad-brimmed hat and his right hand on the hilt of his sword. He waved to Krispos and dipped his head in Iakovitzes' direction. 'You look like you were all set to take off without me.'
'I was,' Iakovitzes snapped.
If he thought to intimidate the youth, he failed. 'Well, no need for that now, seeing as I'm here,' Mavros said easily. He turned to Krispos. 'My mother said to be sure to tell you goodbye from her. Now I've done it.'
'Ah. That's kind of her,' Krispos said. Although he hadn't seen or heard from Tanilis in more than a month, she was in his thoughts every day, the memory of her as liable to sudden twinges as was Iakovitzes' leg. A limp in the heart, though, did not show on the outside.
'If you two are done nattering like washerwomen, shall we be off?' Iakovitzes said. Without waiting for an answer, he used knees and reins to urge his horse forward. Krispos and Mavros rode after him.
Opsikion's gate guards still had not learned to take any special notice of Iakovitzes, who, after all, had not come near the edge of the city since the summer before. But the feisty noble had no cause for complaint about the treatment he was afforded. Being with Mavros drew him such a flurry of salutes and guardsmen springing to attention that he said, not altogether in jest, 'Anthimos should come here, to see what respect is.'
'Oh, I expect he gets treated about as well in his hometown,' Mavros said. Iakovitzes had to look at him sharply to catch the twinkle in his eye. The noble allowed himself a wintry chuckle, the most he usually gave wit not his own.
That chuckle, Krispos thought, was the only thing wintry about the day. It was mild and fair. New bright green covered we ground to either side of the road. Bees buzzed among fresh-sprouted flowers. The sweet, moist air was full of the songs of birds just returned from their winter stay in warmer climes.
Though the road climbed swiftly into the mountains, this near
Opsikion it remained wide and easy to travel, if not always straight. Krispos was startled when, with the sun still nearer noon than its setting, Iakovitzes reined in and said, 'That's enough. We'll camp here till morning.' But when he watched his master dismount, he hardly needed to hear the noble go on, 'My thighs are as raw as a dockside whore's the night after the imperial fleet rows into port.'
'No wonder, excellent sir,' Krispos said. 'Flat on your back as you were for so long, you've lost your hardening.'
'I don't know about that,' Mavros said. 'I've had some lovely hardenings flat on my back.'
Again, Iakovitzes' basilisk glare failed to wilt him. The noble finally grunted and hobbled off into the bushes, unbuttoning his fly as he went. Watching that slow, spraddling gait, Krispos whistled softly. 'He is saddle-sore, isn't he? I guess he thought it couldn't happen to him.'
'Aye, looks like he'll have to get used to it all over again. He won't be back from watering the grass right away, either.' Mavros lowered his voice as he reached into a saddlebag. 'Which means now is as good a time as any to pass this on to you from my mother. A parting gift, you might say. She told me not to give it to you when anyone else could see.'
Krispos reached out to take the small wooden box Mavros held. He wondered what sort of last present Tanilis had for him and wondered even more, briefly alarmed, how much she'd told Mavros about what had passed between the two of them. Mavros as stepson, indeed, Krispos thought—she'd known how to cool him down, sure enough.
The second the box was in his hand, its weight told him Tanilis' gift was the more pragmatic one she'd promised. 'Gold?' he said.
'A pound and a half,' Mavros agreed. 'If you're going to be—what you're going to be—this will help. Money begets money, my mother says. And this will grow all the better since no one knows you have it.'
A pound and a half of gold—the box fit easily in the palm of Krispos' hand. For Tanilis, it was not enough money to be missed. Krispos knew that if he were to desert his master and Mavros and make his way back to his village, he would be far and away the richest man there. He could go home as something close to a hero: the lad who'd made good in the big city.
But his village, he realized after a moment, was not home any more, not really. He could no more go back now than he could have stayed in Opsikion. For better or worse, he was caught up in the faster life of Videssos the city. After a taste of it, nothing less could satisfy him.
Rustlings from the bushes announced Iakovitzes' return. Krispos hastily stowed away the box of coins. With a hundred and eight goldpieces in his hands, he thought, he did not need to keep working for Iakovitzes anymore, either. But if he stayed on, he wouldn't have to start spending them. He didn't need to decide anything about that right away, not when he was only a short day's journey out of Opsikion.
'I may live,' Iakovitzes said. He grimaced as he sat down on the ground and started pulling off his boots. 'Eventually, I may even want to. What have we for supper?'
'About what you'd expect,' Krispos answered. 'Twice-baked bread, sausage, hard cheese, and onions. We have a couple of wineskins, but it's a ways to the next town, so we ought to go easy if we want to make it last. I hear a stream off that way—we'll have plenty of water to wash things down.'
'Water. Twice-baked bread.' The petulant set of Iakovitzes' mouth showed what he thought of that. 'The next time Petronas wants me to go traveling for him, I'll ask if I can bring a chef along. He does, when he's out on campaign.'
'There ought to be crawfish in the stream, and trout, too,' Mavros said. 'I have a couple of hooks. Shall I go
