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«Put up your swords,» the guards' leader said as he had before. Abivard and Tzikas reluctantly obeyed. The guard went on, «Now, I'm go
«You wouldn't know about these ambassadors, would you?» Abivard asked him as they walked down the hallway.
«Who, me?» The fellow shook his head. «I don't know anything. That's not what I'm here for, knowing things. What I'm here for is to keep people from killing other people they're not supposed to kill. You know what I mean?»
«I suppose so,» Abivard said, wondering where Sharbaraz had found such a magnificently phlegmatic man. A court officer who did not want to know things surely ranked as a freak of nature.
When Abivard walked into the suite of rooms, the soldiers stayed out in the hallway, presumably to make certain he did not go out hunting Tzikas. Roshnani stared at them till he shut the door after himself; too often in the past couple of years soldiers had stood in the hallways outside their rooms. She pointed past Abivard to the guards and asked, «What are they in aid of?»
«Nothing of any great consequence,» he answered airily. «Tzikas and I had a go at settling our differences, that's all.»
«Settling your—» Roshnani scrambled to her feet and took great care in inspecting him from all sides. At last, having satisfied herself almost against her will, she said, «You're not bleeding anywhere.»
«No, I'm not. Neither is Tzikas, worse luck,» Abivard said. «And if we go after each other again, we face the displeasure of the King of Kings—so I've been told, at any rate.» He lowered his voice. «That and a silver arket will make me care an arket's worth.»
Roshnani nodded. «Sharbaraz would have done better to take Tzikas' head himself.» She tossed her own head in long-standing exasperation. «No plan of his could possibly be clever enough to justify keeping the renegade alive.»
«If you expect me to argue with you, you'll be disappointed,» Abivard said, to which they both laughed. He grew thoughtful. «Do you know anything about ambassadors returning?»
«I didn't know any ambassadors were out,» his principal wife answered, «so I could hardly know they've come back.» That was logical enough to satisfy the most exacting, finicky Videssian. Roshnani went on, «Where did you hear about them?»
«From Yeliif, after the guardsmen kept me from giving Tzikas everything he deserved. Whoever they are, wherever they went, however they came back here, they have something to do with Sharbaraz' precious plan.»
«Whatever that may be,» Roshnani said.
«Whatever that may be,» Abivard echoed.
«Whatever it is, when will you find out about it?' Roshnani asked.
«Whenever Sharbaraz King of Kings, may his days be long and his realm increase, finds a day long enough for him to have the time to give to me,» Abivard answered. «Maybe tomorrow, maybe next spring.» On that cheerful note conversation flagged.
Nine days after Abivard and Tzikas tried to kill each other, Yeliif knocked on the door to Abivard's suite. When Abivard opened the door to let him in, he stuck his head out and looked up and down the hall. The guardsmen had been gone for a couple of days. «How may I help you?» Abivard asked warily; Yeliif as anything other than inimical still struck him as curious.
The beautiful eunuch said, «You are bidden to an audience with Sharbaraz King of Kings, may his days be long and his realm increase. You shall come with me this moment.»
«I'm ready,» Abivard said, though he wasn't, not really. It was, he thought sadly, typical of the King of Kings to leave him on a shelf, as it were, for weeks at a time and then, when wanting him, to want him on the instant.
«I am also bidden to tell you that Tzikas shall be there,» Yeliif said. When Abivard did nothing more than nod, the eunuch also nodded thoughtfully, as if he'd passed a test. He said, «I can tell you—» Not I am bidden to tell you, Abivard noted. «—that Tus and Piran are attending the King of Kings.»
«I'm sorry, but I don't know those names nor the men attached to them,» Abivard said.
«They are the ambassadors whose recent return has provoked this audience,» Yeliif answered.
«Are they?» Abivard said, interest quickening in his voice. Now, at last, he would get to find out just how harebrained Sharbaraz' grandiose plan, whatever it was, would turn out to be. He had no great expectations for it, only the small one of having his curiosity satisfied. In aid of which… «Ambassadors to whom?» he asked. «I didn't know we'd sent an embassy to Maniakes, even if he has been closer to Mashiz lately than he usually gets.» He also remembered the Videssian ambassador Sharbaraz had imprisoned and let die but did not find mentioning him politic.
If Yeliif hadn't been born smiling that knowing, superior smile, he'd spent a lot of time practicing it, perhaps in front of a mirror of polished silver. «All will be made clear to you in due course,» he said, and would say no more. Abivard felt like booting him in the backside as they walked down the corridor.
Tzikas had indeed been bidden to the audience: he stood waiting at the rear of the throne room. Someone—very likely Yeliif—had taken the sensible precaution of posting some palace guards back there. Their dour expressions were as well schooled as Yeliif's smile.
Abivard glared at Tzikas but, with the guards there, did no more. Tzikas glared back. Yeliif said, «The two of you shall accompany me to the throne together and prostrate yourselves before the King of Kings at the same time. No lapses shall be tolerated, if I make myself clear.»
Without waiting to find out whether he did, he started down the aisle on the long walk toward the throne on which Sharbaraz sat. Abivard stayed by his right side; Tzikas quickly found a place on his left. It was as if each of them was using the eunuch to shield himself from the other. Under different circumstances the idea might have been fu
A pair of men stood to one side of the throne of the King of Kings. Abivard presumed they were the mysterious Tus and Piran. Yeliif explained nothing. Abivard had expected no more. Then, at the appropriate moment, the beautiful eunuch stepped away, leaving Abivard and Tzikas side by side before the King of Kings.
They prostrated themselves, acknowledging their insignificance in comparison to their sovereign. Out of the corner of his eye Abivard watched Tzikas, but he had already known that the ritual was almost the same among Videssians as among the folk of Makuran. The two men waited together, foreheads touching the polished marble floor, for Sharbaraz to give them leave to rise.
At last he did. «We are not pleased with the two of you,» he said when Abivard and Tzikas had regained their feet. Abivard already knew that from the length of time the King of Kings had required them to stay on their bellies. Sharbaraz went on, «By persisting in your headstrong feud, you have endangered the plan we have long been maturing, a plan which, to work to its fullest extent, requires the service of both of you.»
«Majesty, if we knew what this plan was, we would be able to serve you better,» Abivard answered. He was sick to death of Sharbaraz' notorious plan. Sharbaraz was full of big talk that usually ended up amounting to nothing—except trouble for Abivard.
When Sharbaraz spoke again, his words did not seem immediately to the point: «Abivard son of Godarz, brother-in-law of mine, you will remember how our father, Peroz King of Kings, departed this world for the company of the God?»
He hadn't publicly acknowledged Abivard as his brother-in-law for a long time. Abivard noted that as he answered, «Aye, Majesty I do: battling bravely against the Khamorth out on the Pardrayan' steppe.» Only the blind chance of his own horse's stepping in a hole and breaking a leg at the start of its charge had kept him out of the overwhelming disaster that had befallen the Makuraner army moments afterward.