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Put headses up on big pointy stone prick what you call it?"
"The Milestone," Maniakes answered dryly. A couple of courtiers tittered and
then did their best to pretend they hadn't: it was a pretty good description.
"I'll do that with some, I think, and send the rest to Varna so the people
there know the raiders have been punished."
"Howsomever. They yourses now," Ghizat said. He prostrated himself again, to
show he had said everything he intended to say.
"You will stay in the city until Moundioukh confirms what you and Etzilios
have told me," Maniakes said; Ghizat knocked his head against the stone to
show he understood. Maniakes turned to Kameas. He pointed to Paghan's head.
"Take charge of that, eminent sir. Convey it first to Moundioukh with the
others and then to the Milestone."
"Er yes, your Majesty." Looking anything but delighted, the vestiarios
approached the head and picked it up by the very tip of its tangled beard with
his thumb and forefinger. If his expression was any guide, he would sooner
have handled it with a long pair of smith's tongs. He carried it away.
Ghizat rose, backed away from the throne till he had reached the distance
protocol prescribed, and then turned and left the Grand Courtroom. From
behind, his bowlegged swagger was amusing to watch.
After the audience ended, Maniakes returned to the imperial residence. Kameas,
looking a bit green, presently reported to him: "Your Majesty, Moundioukh
applies the same names to the Kubratoi or rather, the abridged selection from
the Kubratoi as Ghizat gave them. The distinguished barbarous gentleman
expressed forceful if ungrammatical surprise at discovering these individuals
in their present state."
"Did he?" Maniakes said. "Well, by the good god, that's something. I take it
to mean Etzilios will likely look for more tribute this year, and also to mean
he'll keep his men quiet if we pay him enough."
"May it be so." Kameas hesitated, then decided to go on: "And, may it please
your Majesty, I should be indebted to you if I were spared such, ah, grisly
duties in the future. Most, ah, disturbing."
Maniakes reminded himself that the vestiarios' sole experience of war and
battle had been Etzilios' assault on the imperial camp by Imbros. "I'll do
what I can to oblige you, eminent sir. I must remind you, though, that life
comes with no guarantee."
"I am aware of that, your Majesty, I assure you," Kameas answered tonelessly.
Maniakes' cheeks heated. A eunuch was aware of it in ways no entire man ever
could be.
Feeling foolish and flustered, Maniakes dismissed the vestiarios. He hoped
Kameas would go have a mug of wine, or maybe several. If he ordered him to do
something like that, though, Kameas was liable to be touchy enough to disobey
because he had just been commanded to do something else he didn't care for.
Sometimes you got better results with a loose rein.
Sometimes, of course, you didn't. The Makuraners were not going to leave the
westlands unless Videssos drove them out, not unless Triphylles worked a
miracle bigger than most of the ones accomplished through thaumaturgy. Keeping
peace with the Kubratoi would help with the fight against Makuran, but, as he
had told Kameas, life came with no guarantee. Pretty soon, Niphone would bear
their second child. If it was a boy, he would become heir to the throne.
Maniakes wanted to be sure he had an Empire left to inherit.
The soup was rich with mussels, tunny, crab meat, mushrooms, and onions.
Niphone paused with silver spoon halfway to her mouth, "I don't think I'd
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better eat any more," she said in a thoughtful voice.
Maniakes stared across the table at her. She sat some distance back from it;
her bulging belly made sure she could come no closer. "Do you mean what I
think you mean?" he asked.
He had spoken quietly. She didn't answer for a little while, so he wondered if
she had heard him. Her gaze was searching, inward. But then she nodded with
abrupt decision, as if she were a captain ordering troops forward into a
breach in enemy lines. "Yes, there's another pang," she said. "Once you've
known labor once, you don't confuse it with the tightenings you feel all
through the last part of your confinement. This baby will be born tonight or
tomorrow."
"We're ready," Maniakes said. "Everything will go exactly as it should, Phos
willing." He sketched the sun-circle over his heart, a shorthand prayer to the
lord with the great and good mind. Then, raising his voice, he called for
Kameas. When the vestiarios came into the dining room, he spoke one word:
"Now."
Kameas' eyes widened. As Maniakes had before him, he drew the sun-circle above
his left breast. "I shall send for the lady Zoïle directly," he declared, "and
make all other necessary preparations as well."
Those necessary preparations had nothing to do with the Red Room; the imperial
birthing chamber had been ready for months. What Kameas meant was that he
would summon, along with Zoïle, a healer-priest from the Sorcerers' Collegium
and a surgeon. Coming out and saying that in front of Niphone would have
reminded her of the risks she took; Maniakes was grateful for the vestiarios'
tact.
Kameas bowed and hurried away. Maniakes got up from his seat, went around the
table, and set his hands on Niphone's shoulders. "Everything will go
perfectly," he repeated, as if saying it could make it so.
"Of course it will," his wife answered. "Why " She paused as another labor
pain came and went. " shouldn't it?"
"No reason at all," Maniakes said heartily. "We'll have ourselves a fine boy
by this time tomorrow." He hesitated. "Are the pains bad yet?"
"No, not yet," Niphone said, "but I know what lies ahead." She shrugged. "I
endured it once. I can do it again."
Maniakes waited nervously for Zoïle to arrive. When Kameas escorted her into
the dining room, she did not bother prostrating herself before the Avtokrator:
She ruled the domain Niphone was reentering. She went over to the Empress,
looked into her eyes, felt her pulse, and finally nodded.
"How does she seem?" Maniakes asked.
"Pregnant," Zoïle snapped, whereupon the Avtokrator shut up. The midwife gave
her attention back to Niphone. Solicitude returned to her voice. "Can you
walk, your Majesty?"
"Of course I can," Niphone said indignantly. To prove it, she got to her feet
Zoïle beamed at her. "In that case, your Majesty, why don't you take yourself
to the Red Room, and get as comfortable as you can? I'll be along shortly; as
you'll remember, much of the first part of labor can be boring."
"I remember what comes afterward, too," Niphone said, the first sign of
apprehension she had shown in all her pregnancy. She turned back to Maniakes.
"I will give you a son."
"Come through safe, that's all," he told her. He might as well not have
spoken. Her head held high, she waddled out through the door and down the hall [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]