The chorus took up where the Sevastokrator left off: 'You have five chins, and a lard belly below them.'
Anthimos giggled again, louder. Ignoring all courtly etiquette, Skombros heaved his bulk out of his chair and stalked toward the door. 'Dear me,' Petronas exclaimed as the eunuch slammed it behind him. 'Do you think I said something wrong?'
IX
Mavros, as was his way, heard the news first. 'Skombros resigned his position last night.'
'What, the esteemed sir?' Krispos whistled the choral response.
'Aye, the very same.' Mavros laughed—that story had spread through the palace complex like wildfire. 'Not only that, he's had himself tonsured and fled into a monastery. So, they tell me, have his nephew Askyltos and his brother-in-law Evmolpos.'
'If I were wearing their robes, I'd flee to a monastery, too,' Krispos said. 'Petronas respects the good god's followers, so he might leave them there and not take their heads now that their protector's fallen.'
'So he might.' Mavros sound regretful. Then he brightened. 'Now that their protector's fallen, who's to be the new vestiarios?' Grinning, he pointed at Krispos.
'We'll see. It's the Avtokrator's choice, of course.' For all his own good times with Anthimos, for all Petronas' urging, he knew the Emperor might just choose another eunuch as his new chamberlain. That would be easiest, and Anthimos liked doing things the easiest way.
But a couple of hours later, while Krispos was making sure the new horseshoes on Petronas' favorite hunter were firmly nailed in place, Onorios came up to him and said, 'There's a eunuch outside who wants to talk with you.'
'Thanks. I'll see him in a minute.' Krispos had one more hoof to check. As he'd expected, the blacksmith had done a good job. Knowing was better than expecting, though. When he was through, he walked out to see the Emperor's servant.
It was the tall, thin eunuch who had taken Krispos to his first revel with Anthimos the summer before. Now the fellow made no snide remarks about the smell of the stables. Instead, he bowed low. 'Krispos, his Imperial Majesty bids you join his household as vestiarios, head of his domestic staff.'
'He honors me. Tell me your name, please, esteemed sir. If we are both of His Majesty's household, I should know you.'
The eunuch straighted. 'I am called Barsymes,' he said with the first approval Krispos had heard from him. 'Now if you will follow me, ah—' He stopped, frowning. 'Should I call you 'esteemed sir' or 'eminent sir'? You are vestiarios, a post traditionally held by an esteemed sir, and yet you—' He hesitated again, '—you have a beard. The proper protocol is a puzzlement. '
Krispos started to laugh, then realized he would be worrying about just such concerns himself in his new post. 'Either way is all right with me, Barsymes,' he said.
'I have it!' The eunuch looked as pleased as his doleful features would allow. 'Now if you will come with me, esteemed and eminent sir...'
Krispos obediently followed. If Barsymes had found a formula that satisfied him, well and good. They scuffed through snow together for a while before Krispos said, 'I hope you and your comrades will not be troubled, serving with ... serving with someone who has a beard.'
'It is the Avtokrator's will,' Barsymes said, which was no answer at all. He walked on, not looking at Krispos. After a while, he decided to continue. 'We do remember that you mocked Skombros for being a eunuch.'
'Only when he mocked me first for being a groom,' Krispos said.
'Yes, there is some truth in that,' Barsymes said judiciously, 'though by now you will have noted, esteemed and eminent sir, that your condition is rather easier to change than Skombros'.' Being without any better reply, Krispos could only nod. He felt a little easier when Barsymes went on, half to himself, 'Still, you may indeed be entitled to the benefit of the doubt.' They passed through a grove of cherry trees, bare-branched and skeletal with winter. Armed Halogai stood outside the entrance to the elegant little building in the center of the grove.
Krispos had seen some of them before, guarding Anthimos' revels. Most of them had been drunk then. Now they looked sober and reliable. He knew little of soldiers' ways, but the difference seemed remarkable.
As if reading his mind, Barsymes said, 'Any guard who fails of alertness while protecting their Majesty's residence is forthwith banished back to Halogaland, forfeiting all pay and benefactions earned here.'
'A good plan.' Krispos wondered why it didn't hold wherever the Emperor was. Knowing Anthimos, probably because when he was having a good time, he wanted everyone else to have one, too.
The Halogai nodded to Barsymes and gave Krispos curious looks as he walked up the stairs with the eunuch. One of the guards said something in his own language. The others laughed. Krispos had no trouble imagining several rough jokes, most of them at his expense. He sighed. However much it meant to him, this business of taking over a eunuch's post brought complications.
His eyes needed a moment to adjust to the dimmer light inside the imperial residence, and a moment more to notice that what light there was came neither from torches nor, for the most part, from windows. Instead, panes of alabaster scraped to translucent thinness were set into the ceiling.
The pale, clear light that filtered through them displayed to best advantage the treasures set along both sides of the central hallway. Barsymes pointed to some of them as he led Krispos past. 'Here is the battle helmet of a Makuraner King of Kings, taken centuries ago after a tremendous victory not far from Mashiz... . This is the chalice from which the assembled prelates of Phos drank together in ritual renunciation of Skotos at the great synod not long after the High Temple was built... • Here is a portrait of the Emperor Stavrakios, most often called the Conqueror. ...'
The portrait drew Krispos' eye. Stavrakios wore the red boots, the imperial crown, and a gilded mail shirt, but he did not look like an Emperor to Krispos. He looked like a veteran underofficer about to give his troops a hard time for a sloppy piece of drill.
'Come along,' Barsymes said when Krispos paused to study that tough face. He followed the eunuch down the
