«What, and let you find out who wins the Makuraner civil war a couple of weeks before I do?» Rhegorios exclaimed. «Not likely. Send Immodios. If he's not killing Makuraners himself, he hasn't got the imagination to worry about what happens to 'em.»
«All right, I'll do that,» Maniakes said with a laugh. «My father and yours will be jealous of both of us, because we'll know when they don't.»
«So they will.» Rhegorios' eyes twinkled. «And they'll both say it's the first time in the history of the world we ever knew anything they don't already, even for a little while. That's what fathers are for.»
«So it is,» Maniakes said. «And pretty soon I'll be able to treat my boys the same way. See how life goes on?»
As Rhegorios had predicted, Immodios made not the tiniest protest when Maniakes ordered him to take half the imperial army back toward Videssos the city. The Avtokrator had decided not to give him more than half, on the off chance that he might take whatever he had into rebellion with him. Maniakes trusted him further than anyone not of his own immediate family; but someone inside his own immediate family had conspired against him, so that said little.
And no sooner had Immodios led the detachment back toward Videssos the city than Maniakes wished the army reunited. That, though, had nothing to do with fears about Immodios' loyalty or lack of same. It had to do with news a messenger brought up from the south.
«I'm sorry to have to tell you this, your Majesty,» the fellow said, «but the Makuraner garrison in Serrhes hasn't pulled out of the town. They keep insisting they're loyal to Sharbaraz.»
«Oh, they do, do they?» Maniakes sounded half-angry, half-resigned. «Well, I suppose I should have expected that would happen somewhere. I wish it hadn't happened at Serrhes, though.»
The garrison town's main reason for existing was to plug that stretch of frontier between Makuran and the Empire of Videssos. He and his father had set out from Serrhes along with Abivard and Sharbaraz to return the latter to the Makuraner throne. That seemed a lot longer before than twelve or thirteen years.
«What will you do, your Majesty?» the messenger asked.
«What can I do?» Maniakes returned. «I'll go down to Serrhes and pry the Makuraners out of it.» He paused. «How big a Makuraner garrison does the place have in it?»
«About a thousand men, or so I hear,» the messenger said.
«I still have four times that many with me,» the Avtokrator mused aloud. Having sent Immodios' detachment back toward the capital, he did not want to recall those troops. «Maybe I can get away with just using what I've got.»
Intending to fry it, he moved south with his half of the army. They hadn't had to march quickly since they'd left the Land of the Thousand Cities; the journey through the westlands had been a parade. The roads down toward Serrhes weren't good, and had been little traveled during the Makuraner occupation. The Videssians pressed rapidly along them nonetheless.
Before they got to Serrhes, the corrugated central plateau of the westlands began to give way to the scrubby semidesert lying between Videssos' western border and the Tutub River. Back in the long-ago days of his reign, Likinios Avtokrator had complained about almost every expense he ever had to meet. Trying not to meet one, finally, had cost him his throne and his life. So far as Maniakes knew, he'd never complained about keeping Serrhes supplied.
Approaching the town, Maniakes wondered how—or if—the Makuraners had managed that. Had they fed Serrhes off the countryside? The countryside yielded little. A few cattle grazed it, but not enough grew nearby to support more than a few. Over the dry country from the Land of the Thousand Cities? If so, the supply line was either already broken or easily breakable.
Looking at Serrhes' thick walls, looking at the citadel on the high ground in the center of town, Maniakes quickly decided he did not want to try storming the place. He rode forward behind a shield of truce to parley with the garrison commander.
Tegin son of Gamash came to Serrhes' western gate and looked down at the Avtokrator of the Videssians. He was a solidly built man with a gray beard and an impressive nose. «You're wasting your time,» he called to Maniakes. «We won't yield to you.»
«If you don't, you'll be sorry after I break into Serrhes,» Maniakes said, threatening to do what he least wanted to do. «We outnumber you at least six to one. We'll show no mercy.» Assuming we're lucky enough to get onto or through those works, he thought. Serrhes had been built with admirable skill to hold the Makuraners at bay. Now it threatened to do the same to the folk who had built it in the first place.
«Come do your worst,» Tegin retorted. «We're ready for you.»
Maniakes concluded he was not the only one running a noisy bluff. «What do you propose to eat in there?» he demanded.
«Oh, I don't know,» Tegin said airily. «We have a deal of this and that. What do you propose to eat out there?»
It was, Maniakes had to admit, a good question. Supplying an army surrounding Serrhes had all the drawbacks of supplying the town itself. He wasn't about to let the Makuraner know he'd scored a hit, though. «We have all the westlands to draw on,» he said. «Yours is the last Makuraner garrison hereabouts.»
«All the more reason to hold it, then, wouldn't you say?» Tegin sounded as if he was enjoying himself. Maniakes wished he could say the same.
What he did say was, «By staying here, you violate the terms of the truce Abivard made with us.»
«Abivard is not King of Kings,» Tegin said. «My ruler is Sharbaraz King of Kings, may his years be many and his realm increase.»
«All the Makuraners in the westlands have renounced Sharbaraz,» Maniakes said.
Tegin shook his head. «Not all of them. This one hasn't, for instance.»
«A pestilence,» Maniakes muttered under his breath. He should have expected he'd come across a holdout or two. Things could have been worse; Romezan could have stayed resolutely loyal to Sharbaraz. But things could also have been better. The Avtokrator had no intention of letting Serrhes stay in Makuraner hands. He said, «You know Sharbaraz ordered Abivard and most of his generals slain when they failed to take Videssos the city.»
«I've heard it said,» the garrison commander answered. «I don't know it for a fact.»
«I have seen the captured dispatch with my own eyes.» Maniakes said. He had also seen the document transformed into one more useful for Videssian purposes, but forbore to mention that, such forbearance also being more useful for Videssian purposes.
Tegin remained difficult. «Majesty, begging your pardon, I don't much care what you've seen and what you haven't seen. You're the enemy. I expect you'd lie to me if you saw any profit in it. Videssians are like that.»
Since Maniakes not only would lie but to a certain degree was lying, he changed the subject: «I point out to you once more, excellent sir, that you are at the moment commanding the only Makuraner garrison left in the westlands.»
«So you say,» Tegin replied, still unimpressed.
«If there are others all around, how have I fought my way past them to come to you?» Maniakes asked.
«If they've all gone over to Abivard, you don't need to have done any fighting,» Tegin said.
«That's true, I suppose,» Maniakes said. «And what it means is, I can concentrate my entire army—» He did not think Tegin needed to know that Immodios was leading half of it back to Videssos the city. «—against you holdouts in Serrhes.» He waved back toward his encampment. It was as big as… an army. He did not think Tegin was in a position to estimate with any accuracy how many men were in it.
And, indeed, the garrison commander wavered for the first time. «I am surrounded by traitors,» he complained.
«No, you're surrounded by Videssians,» Maniakes answered. «This is part of the Empire, and we are taking it back. You've probably heard stories about what we've done to the walls of the Thousand Cities. Do you think we won't do the same to you?»
He knew perfectly well they couldn't do the same to Serrhes. The walls of the towns between
the Tutub and the Tib were made of brick, and not the strongest brick, either. Serrhes was fortified in stone. Breaking in wouldn't be so easy. If Tegin had time to think, he would realize that, too. Best not give him time to think, then.
Maniakes said, «Excellent sir, I don't care how brave you are. Your garrison is small. If we once get in among 'em, I'm afraid I can't answer for the consequences. You'll have made warnings of that sort yourself, I expect; you know how soldiers are.»
«Yes, I know how soldiers are,» Tegin said somberly. «If I had more men, Majesty. I would beat you.'»
«If I had feathers, I'd be a tall rooster,» Maniakes replied. «I don't. I'm not. You don't, either. You'd better remember it.» He started to turn away, then stopped. «I'll ask you again at this hour tomorrow. If you say yes, you may depart safely, with your weapons, like any other Makuraner soldiers during the truce. But if you say no, excellent sir, I wash my hands of you.» He did not give Tegin the last word, but walked off instead.
At his command, Videssian engineers began assembling siege engines from the timbers and ropes and specialized metal fittings they carried in the baggage train, as if they were intending to assault one of the hilltop towns in the Land of the Thousand Cities.
«We'd be able to run up more, your Majesty,» Ypsilantes said, «if the countryside had trees we could cut down and use. We can only carry so much lumber.»
«Do the best you can with what you have,» Maniakes told the chief engineer, who saluted and went back to his work.
From the walls of Serrhes, Makuraner soldiers watched dart-and stone-throwers spring up as if by magic, though Bagdasares had nothing whatever to do with them. They watched the Videssian engineers line up row upon row of jars near the catapults. They no doubt had their own store of incendiary liquid, but could not have been delighted at the prospect of having so much of it rained down on their heads.
Seeing all those jars, Maniakes summoned Ypsilantes again. «I didn't know we were that well supplied with the stuff,» he said, pointing.
Ypsilantes coughed modestly. «If you must know, your Majesty, most of those jars used to hold the wine we've served out to the troops when we weren't drawing supplies from a town. They're empty now. We know that. The Makuraners don't.»
«Isn't that interesting?» Maniakes said with a grin. «They fooled me, so I expect they'll fool Tegin, too.»
Ypsilantes also put ordinary soldiers to work dragging stones into piles. Those were perfectly genuine, though Maniakes wouldn't have put it past the chief engineer to have a few deceptive extras made of—what? stale bread, perhaps—lying around in case he needed them to befuddle an opponent.
A little before the appointed hour the next day, Tegin threw wide the gates of Serrhes. He came out and prostrated himself before Maniakes. «I would have fought you, Majesty. I wanted to fight you,» he said. «But when I looked at all the siege gear you have with you, my heart failed me. I knew we could not withstand your army.»
«You showed good sense.» Maniakes made a point of not glancing toward Ypsilantes. The veteran engineer had served him better in not fighting this siege than he had in fighting a good many others. «As I told you, you may depart in peace.»
Out filed the Makuraner garrison. Seeing it, Maniakes started to laugh. He wasn't the only one who'd done a good job of bluffing. If Tegin had even three hundred soldiers in Serrhes, he would have been astonished. He'd thought the garrison commander led three times that many, maybe more. Tegin might have fought an assault, but not for long.
Seriously, respecting the foe who had tricked him, Maniakes said, «If I were you, excellent sir, I'd keep my men out of the fight between Sharbaraz and Abivard. You can declare for whoever wins after he's won. Till then, find some little town or hilltop you can defend and stay there. That will keep you safe.»
«Did you find 'some little town or hilltop' during Videssos' civil wars?» Tegin's voice dripped scorn.
But Maniakes answered, «As a matter of fact, yes.» Tegin's jaw dropped. The Avtokrator went on, «My father was governor of the island of Kalavria, which is as far east as you can go without sailing out into the sea and never coming back. He sat tight there for six years. He would have thrown himself and his force away if he'd done anything else.»
«You and your father took the course you judged wise,» Tegin said tonelessly. «You will, I hope, forgive me if I say that this course goes straight against every Makuraner noble's notion of honor.»
«Makuraner notions of honor didn't stop you people from kicking Videssos when we were down,» Maniakes said.
«Of course not,» Tegin replied. «You are only Videssians. But I cannot sit idly by in a fight among my countrymen. The God would judge me a faintheart without the will to choose, and would surely drop my soul into the Void after I die.»
«There are times,» Maniakes said slowly, «when I have no trouble at all dealing with Makuraners. And there are other times when I think we and you don't speak the same language even if we do use the same words.»
«How interesting you should remark on that. Majesty,» Tegin said. «I have often had the same feeling when treating with you Videssians. At times, you seem sensible enough. At others—» He rolled his eyes. «You are not to be relied upon.» That sounded as if he were passing judgment.
«No, eh?» Maniakes knew his smile was not altogether pleasant. «I suppose that means nothing would stop me from ignoring the truce we agreed to and scooping up your men now that they're out from behind the walls of Serrhes.» Tegin looked appalled. Maniakes held up his hand. «Never mind, I think I have honor, whether you do or not.»
«Good,» Tegin said. «As I told you, sometimes Videssians are sensible folk. I am glad this is one of those times.»
At the head of his little army, the garrison commander rode off to the west. He had a jauntiness to him that Maniakes didn't usually associate with Makuraners. Maniakes hoped he wouldn't have to throw his small force into the fight between the King of Kings and his marshal.
Like many other provincial towns, Serrhes centered on a square with the city governor's residence and the chief temple to Phos on opposite sides. Maniakes settled down in the residence and, as he had in so many other towns, began sorting through the arguments left behind after Tegin and his troopers were gone.
Some of those quarrels were impressively complicated. «He cheated me, your Majesty!» one plump merchant exclaimed, pointing a finger at another. «By Phos, he diddled me prime, he did, and now he stands there smooth-faced as a eunuch and denies every word of it.»
«Liar,» the second merchant said. «They were going to make you a eunuch, but they cut off your brain instead, because it was smaller.»
«Ahem, gentlemen,» Maniakes said, giving both the benefit of a doubt neither seemed likely to deserve. «Suppose, instead of insulting each other, you tell me what the trouble is.»
«Actually,» Rhegorios murmured from beside him, «I wouldn't mind hearing them insult each other a while longer. It has to be more interesting than the case, don't you think?»
«Hush,» Maniakes said, and then, to the first merchant, «Go ahead. You say this other chap here cheated you. Tell me how.» The second merchant started to howl a protest before the first could begin to speak. Maniakes held up a hand. «You keep quiet. I promise, you'll have your turn.»
The first merchant said, «I sold this whipworthy wretch three hundred pounds of smoked mutton, and he promised to pay me ten and a half goldpieces for it. But when it came time for him to cough up the money, the son of a whore dumped a pile of trashy Makuraner arkets on me and said I could either take 'em or stick 'em up my arse, because they were all I'd ever see from him.»
Maniakes' head started to ache. He'd run into cases like this before. With many parts of the westlands in Makuraner hands for more than a decade, it was no wonder that silver coins stamped with the image of the King of Kings were in wide circulation thereabouts. The methodical Makuraners had even made some of the provincial mints turn out copies of their coins rather th
an those of Videssos.
«May I speak now, your Majesty?» the second merchant asked.
«Go ahead,» Maniakes said.
«Thank you,» the merchant said. «The first thing I want to tell you is that Broios here can give himself piles when he sneezes, his head is so far up his back passage. By the lord with the great and good mind, your Majesty, you must understand what money of account is. Am I right, or am I right?»
«Oh, yes,» Maniakes answered.
«Thank you,» the merchant said again. «When I told this chamberpot-sniffing jackal I'd give him ten and a half goldpieces, that was money of account. What else could it be? When was the last time anybody in Serrhes saw real goldpieces? Whoever has 'em, has 'em buried where the boiler boys couldn't find 'em. We all buy and sell with silver these days. We coin our silver at twenty-four to the goldpiece, so if I'd given Broios two hundred and fifty-two pieces of silver—Videssian silver, mind you—for his smoked mutton, that would have been right and proper. You see as much, don't you, your Majesty?»
Maniakes had a good education—for a soldier. He would sooner have given himself over to a torturer than multiplied twenty-four by ten and a half in his head. But, since Broios wasn't hopping up and down like a man who needed to visit the jakes, the Avtokrator supposed the other merchant—whose name he still didn't know– had made the calculation correctly.
«If Vetranios had given me two hundred and fifty-two of our silverpieces, I wouldn't be fussing now,» Broios said, thereby giving Maniakes the missing piece.
«I couldn't give you that many of our silver pieces, because I didn't have them, you ugly twit,» Vetranios said. «I gave you as many as I had, and paid the rest of the scot in Makuraner arkets– I had plenty of those.»
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