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Lady Damodara laughed.
A few minutes later, hearing the soft laughter coming from the knot of soldiers in the corner of the stable, she frowned.
"My son's not over there, is he?" But, looking around, she spotted him playing with two of the other small boys in a different part of the stable. So, her frown faded.
Lady Sanga's frown, on the other hand, had deepened into a full scowl.
"No. But my son is."
"Only fifteen-to-one odds," said Khandik with satisfaction, "now that Ajatasutra's here."
Young Tarun shook his head. "Thirteen-to-one. Well. A bit more."
The glare bestowed upon him by the Ye-tai mercenary was a half-and-half business. On the one hand, it was unseemly for a mere stable-boy-a wretched Bengali, to boot-to correct his superior and elder. On the other hand…
"Thirteen-to-one," he said, with still greater satisfaction.
His two mates weren't even half-glaring. In fact, they were almost smiling.
Under normal circumstances, of course, thirteen-to-one odds would have been horrible. But those Ye-tai mercenaries were all veterans. The kind of fighting they were considering would not be the clash of huge armies on a great battlefield, where individual prowess usually got lost in the sheer mass of the conflict. No, this would be the sort of small-scale action out of which legends were made, because legends mattered.
The Mongoose was already a legend. His huge Roman companion wasn't, but they had no difficulty imagining him as such. "Bending horseshoes," with Anastasius in the vicinity, was not a phrase to express the impossible.
As for Ajatasutra…
"Some people think you're the best assassin in India," said one of the Ye-tai.
"Not any Marathas," came the immediate rejoinder. Smiling, Ajatasutra added: "But I think even Marathas might allow me the honor of second-best."
Chapter 29
The Iron Triangle
"It's just impossible," said A
Calopodius stroked her hair, listening to the ca
But he gave only a small part of his mind to that matter. He had much more pressing and immediate things to deal with.
"Have you given any thought as to what you'd like to do, after the war? With the rest of your life, I mean."
A
"And what did you decide?"
Now, her head lifted off his shoulder entirely. He knew she was looking at him sideways.
"Do you care?" she asked, still more softly.
He started to respond with "of course," but the words died before they were spoken. He'd spent quite a bit of time thinking about A
So, he simply said: "Yes. I do."
There was a pause for a few seconds. Then, A
Calopodius kissed her hair. It felt rich and luxurious to him; more so now, than when he'd been able to see it.
"All right," he said. "That shouldn't be too hard."
A
It was Calopodius' turn to hesitate. "Yes, I know. But… how would you feel about remaining here in India?"
"I wouldn't mind. But why India?"
"Lots of reasons. I've been thinking about our situation myself. But let's start with three. One that matters-I think-to you. One that matters to me. And one that would matter to my family. Perhaps more to the point, my family's coffers."
Her head came back off his shoulder and, a moment later, Calopodius could feel her shifting her weight entirely. Within a few seconds, she was no longer lying beside him on their pallet but was sitting on it cross-legged, facing him. He knew the sensation quite well. Whenever they had something to really talk about, A
"Explain."
"Let's start with you. You already know that if our world keeps the same historical pattern with regard to disease as the one we diverged from, a terrible plague is 'scheduled' to start in eight years or so. By the time it's over, millions of people in the Mediterranean world will be dead."
"It might have already started, in fact," A
Calopodius nodded. He wasn't surprised that she'd remembered that part of the future history that Belisarius had imparted to them.
"Yes. It'll enter the Roman Empire in Alexandria, in the year 541. But it almost certainly got transmitted through India."
He heard A
"Then I think you should start thinking about it. If you move fast enough-fast enough and with enough money and authority-between your Service and the Hospitalers in Alexandria, it might be possible to forestall the plague. Reduce its effects, anyway."
"There's no cure for it," she said. "And no… what's the word?"
"'Vaccine,'" Calopodius supplied.
"Yes. No vaccine. Not anything we could make in time, in sufficient quantities."
Calopodius shrugged. "True. But from what Belisarius told me Aide said to him, it wasn't really a medical 'cure' that defeated the plague in the future, anyway. It was mostly just extensive and thorough public health and sanitation. Stuff as simple and plebeian as good sewers and clean drinking water. That is within our technological capacity."
He listened to A
"Yes. It'd be a life's work. Are you willing?"
She laughed abruptly. " I'm willing. But is the money willing? And…" Her voice lowered. "I really don't want to do anything that you wouldn't be happy with."
He smiled. "Not to worry! What I want to do is write histories and public commentaries. But what do I write about, once the war is over?"
He moved right on to supply the answer: "Write about India, that's what. Just think of it, love. An entire continent. One that Rome knows almost nothing about and with a history even longer than Rome's."
Silence.
"Your life's work, then," A
His smile widened, becoming very close to a grin. "Well, we'll have to keep it hidden from your family. Even from mine, the rough details. But you and I are about to found a branch of the Saronites enterprises, here in India. Crude stuff, I'm afraid. Manufacturing, mostly."
He wasn't surprised at all that the woman his wife had become did not even stumble over the prospect. "Manufacturing what?"
"I thought we'd start with medical supplies and equipment. Also pharmaceuticals. Nothing fancy, though. Mostly soap, dyes and cosmetics, at the begi