And probably, she thought, eyeing Ousanas' tall and heavily muscled figure,just about as effective, if he decides he's tired of the rigmarole. Belisarius had told her once, after returning from India, that Ousanas was probably the strongest man he had ever met in his life. Even stronger, he suspected, than the giant Anastasius.
But Antonina's humor faded quickly enough. The chains and manacles might seem absurd, but there was nothing absurd-looking about the squad of soldiers who surrounded Ousanas. There were eight of them, and all were holding weapons in their hands. These were not the usual stabbing spears and heavy, cleaverlike swords with which Axumites went into battle, however. The soldiers were holding clubs, inlaid with iron studs.
Weapons to beat a slave who had failed in his duty. Beat him to death, easily enough, if he had failed badly.
Antonina, staring at those cruel implements, had no trouble with giggles. Not any longer. She knew the clubs were not ornaments. It had happened, over the past two centuries, that a regiment had beaten a dawazz savagely-fatally, on two occasions-because they judged that he had failed in his duty to educate his prince.
She tore her eyes away, and looked at Eon. The sight of the young royal's upright and square-shouldered stance reassured her. The calmness in his face, even more so.
Not today. Not that prince.
A minute later, the ceremony itself got underway.
Five minutes later, Antonina was fighting giggles again.
Ten minutes later, she stopped trying altogether, and joined in the general hilarity. She spent most of the day, in fact, laughing along with everyone else.
Antonina had forgotten. There was a serious core-deadly serious-at the heart of that ceremony. But Axumites, when all was said and done, did not hold solemnity in any great esteem. The best armor against self-aggrandizement and pomposity, after all, is always humor.
By and large, the ceremony proceeded chronologically. Eon's prepubescent follies were dismissed quickly enough. Everyone wanted to get to the next stage.
Antonina learned, then, the reason for the other women standing in her group. All of them, it seemed-except for three old crones whose testimony had to do with Eon's pranks in the royal kitchen-had been seduced by the young prince at one time or another.
It was quite a crowd. Antonina was rather impressed.
But she was more impressed,much more, by what followed. Most of the women were-or had been-servants in the royal compound, while Eon was in his teens. The kind of women, in every land, who were the natural prey of young male nobles feeling the first urges of budding sexuality.
But they were not there, it developed, to press any grievances against the prince. They simply recounted-either volunteering the information, or responding to one of the many questions shouted out by soldiers in the ranks-the ways in which Eon had finagled his way into their beds. Their statements were frank, open, usually jocular-and often at the expense of Eon himself. It became clear soon enough that, especially in his earlier years, the prince's skill at working his way into their beds had not been matched by any great skill once he got there.
Several of the tales were downright hilarious. Antonina was especially entertained by the account of a plump, older woman who had once been a cook in the royal compound. The woman-she must have been a good twenty years older than Eon-recounted in lavish detail her patient, frustrated attempts to instruct a headstrong fifteen-year-old prince in the basic principles of female anatomy. Not with any great success, it seemed, until she discovered the secret:slap the fool boy on his head!
That produced a gale of laughter, sweeping across the entire training field. The soldiers guarding Ousanas grinned at him with approval.
Unfortunately, Antonina could not follow all of the woman's tale. Her own knowledge of Ge'ez, the Axumite language, was still very poor. Menander, one of the cataphracts who had accompanied Belisarius on his trip to India, was serving as her translator. He had become good friends with Wahsi and Ezana during that long journey, and was quite fluent in the language.
Alas, Menander was also young, and he still bore the imprint of his conservative village upbringing. So, whenever the story got especially juicy, he fumbled and stumbled and-Antonina had no doubtwas guilty of excessive abridgement.
"And what wasthat about?" Antonina demanded, once the roaring laughter had subsided a bit.
Menander fumbled and stumbled. Abridged.
"Ah," said Antonina, nodding her head wisely. "Yes, of course. Itis difficult to teach a thick-headed male how to use his tongue for something more useful than boasting."
But, for all its salacious humor, there was still a deadly serious purpose to the business. As she listened to the questions which the soldiers asked of the women, Antonina understood that they were probing for something quite important.
The soldiers were not concerned-not in the least-with Eon's amatory habits. Young lads, of any rank in society, are always randy. A prince, because of his prestigious position and the self-confidence which that position gives him, will be much more successful than most teenage boys in the art of seduction. That much was inevitable, natural, and no concern of the soldiers. Rather the contrary, in factno one wanted a shy, self-effacing king in charge of a country, especially one who might have difficulty perpetuating the royal line.
And if a particular prince proved to be particularly adept at the skill-as Eon obviously was-so much the better. A glib tongue was a useful attribute for a good monarch.
What the soldierswere concerned about were Eon's methods. Charm is one thing; bullying is another. If Eon could use his prestige as a prince to sweet-talk his way into a hundred servant girls' beds, that was a source for nothing beyond amusement. But if he used that royal position in order to threaten his way to the goal, thatwas regimental business. A prince who would rape his servants would not hesitate, as a king, to rape his country.
But there was no trace of that in Eon's past. The questioning of the women went on as long as it did, Antonina decided, simply because everyone was enjoying the affair. Everyone except Eon, at least, although Antonina noticed that the prince himself was not reluctant to join in the laughter, even when he was the butt of the joke.
Soon enough, it was Antonina's turn to be a witness. Wahsi led the questioning, as he had since the beginning of the ceremony.
It did not take him more than a minute to clarify the issue involving Antonina. A randy prince was fine, so long as he could keep it under control. But a prince who would jeopardize important political affairs because of his unbridled lust would make a disastrous ruler.
Here, Wahsi glowered fiercely, leaning forward in his throne.
Isn't it true that during his trip to Constantinople, the fool boy prince could not stop ogling the wife of Rome's greatest general?
Antonina was not even tempted to deny the charge. Wahsi himself, along with Ezana, had been Eon's bodyguards during that time. But she managed to toss the thing off easily enough.
Well, yes, I suppose, for the first few days. But I was not offended. It's not as if I'm unaccustomed to it, after all Here, she drew herself erect, swelling her chest a bit. Antonina had deliberately worn the most revealing costume she had brought with her on this expedition. The outfit was not really very provocative, in all truth-nothing like the costumes she had worn in her days as a courtesan-but it didn't need to be. With her figure, she could attract men wearing a sackcloth.
An appreciative murmur rose from the ranks of the watching soldiers.
– and Eon was perfectly courteous in his actual conduct. A most proper young prince.
So much for that.
Menander was summoned next. The questioning here had no sexual overtone, but the issue was the same. Wasn't it true, during Eon's trip, that he behaved overbearingly toward Roman soldiers? Mention was made, in particular, of an arm-wrestling match in which the arrogant prince could not resist showing off his grotesque musculature.