We laughed and fell into each other’s arms.
Chapter 64
Holding hands, we lay together on the grass. Once more, the sky was the pitiless blue it has in the mountains. Now we’d finished with our lovers’ reunion, we were talking and talking, and still there was more to be said.
‘So, Shahin didn’t kill Timothy?’ I asked, cutting into a narrative that was nearly as disjointed as it was circular.
Antonia sat up and began picking at the few daisies within reach. ‘Simon just about kept the peace,’ she said. ‘But every time he drank from the silver cup, or simply held it to his chest, Shahin seemed to go a little madder. By the time I killed that guard and ran away, he was seeing ghosts every night. The days were worse, of course — he was accusing everyone of wanting to stab him in the back to get the cup for himself. He’d sometimes scream so much, I thought he’d go into fits.’
She stopped and began threading the daisies into a chain. The easiest part of her story to follow was after she’d got away. That was a straight adventure. There was the braining of her guard with a large pebble, followed by a half-hearted chase by men terrified of the dark. After this, she’d wandered through the low hills beyond Mount Larydia, before staggering into a village and raising the local militia. She was lucky that she hadn’t delayed her getaway — much longer and she’d have found herself in districts where the new law wasn’t in force. As it was, she’d pulled rank on everyone and put herself at the head of a small army. The rest you can gather for yourself.
I blinked at the sun until I sneezed twice with great force and lay back happily on the warm grass. ‘You don’t know how far they’ve got along the Larydia Pass?’ I asked.
Still pinching holes in the daisy stems, she shook her head. ‘I wish you wouldn’t do that silly thing with the sun,’ she said. ‘It makes your face look mad. Even Daddy laughs at you for it.’ I frowned but said nothing. I waited for her to hold up the long chain and put it about her neck. ‘We’ve been taking a short cut these past few days to try and head them off. Shahin has sixty armed men with him. I now have fifty. It’s not enough for fighting but we can pick them off with arrows. We’ll need to get a move on, though, before he can make contact with the big Persian army you saw.’
I sat up and kissed her. The daisy necklace suited her and I was reminded of how long we’d been apart. ‘I haven’t told you about the cup,’ I began. ‘It was only after you were taken that I discovered it was a gigantic fraud.’ Antonia looked sharply back at me. ‘It was always meant to fall into Shahin’s hands,’ I explained. ‘Within reason, the harder we made his job, the less doubt there would be of its real value.’ I stretched and gathered my thoughts. Best, I decided, to keep away from the details. Best too not to spell out that I’d come all this way for her alone. I knew I was only good at expressing passion when I wasn’t telling the truth. ‘The cup itself is worthless unless you believe in magic,’ I went on. ‘What matters is the alleged listing of military forces on the outside of its box.’ I got up and went over to where my saddlebags had been emptied. I fished about for the side of the box Theodore had left behind. I carried it back.
‘Don’t worry about the code,’ I explained. ‘But every block of characters is the name of a place in the Home Provinces, with a number after it to show the number of men stationed there. It shows preparations for an in-depth defence. Anyone looking at these numbers ought normally to be put off more than a spot of border raiding. However, I am the Lord Treasurer — and rather a good Lord Treasurer. I know every taxable unit in the Empire.’ I broke off and smiled. I thought again of the big map on my office floor — it should still be there as I’d left it. ‘Half a dozen of the fortified towns claimed here are heaps of overgrown ruins. Several other places would need to have more defenders than inhabitants. Taken generally, all the soldiers would need to be ghosts and their forts made from the morning mist. I’ve signed no orders to pay them or to maintain their defences. If the rest of the box is the same as this part of it, Shahin might as well be working for us. Timothy, by the way, is working for us.’ I decided not to talk about a silver coin that he’d almost certainly got from Priscus. ‘He’s come along to make sure the story gets believed. It wouldn’t be hard for me to think better of Timothy. But that takes nerve.’ I laughed. ‘In reality, the Home Provinces are without any regular forces at all. Everyone he hasn’t committed to holding back the Slavs, Nicetas has shipped off to Egypt. I’m told they have no kit for desert fighting and half are already dead of some local plague.’
Eboric coughed politely and looked over the edge of the gentle dip in which we’d taken shelter. ‘Rado’s taken a full muster of forces,’ he said.
I smiled at him and reached for my clothes. ‘Time for work,’ I said. I turned back suddenly and caught sight again of his face. A slight look of confusion there, I thought — perhaps too of jealousy. The bond between us could never be broken. He and Antonia had taken to each other from the start, and she’d welcomed him into the Imperial Family without so much as a raised eyebrow when told about the adoption. The bond could never be broken, but its nature was changed. Yes, so many changes, in so short a time — he’d need longer than he’d had to get used to them all.
Herself confused, Antonia had been thinking. She pulled at her daisy chain and crushed it in her hands. ‘If the cup is a fraud,’ she said slowly, ‘what work is there left to do? Don’t we just let Shahrbaraz scrape the paint off his parts of the box and wait for the Persians to withdraw?’
I shook my head. ‘You haven’t seen the size of the army he’s leading,’ I said. ‘Whoever prepared that box was expecting it to be carried off to Ctesiphon, where it would be looked at and argued over by men with some freedom of choice. So much care and plotting — so much killing and risk of death — and all for nothing. It won’t tip any balance now the invasion is under way. The army getting itself back in order on the other side of that mountain is big enough to roll over everything listed on the box — that and ten times more. Besides, you’ve got Chosroes nominally in charge — and he’s got the True Cross with him. The box really is as worthless a defence now as the cup would have been.’
I stood up. ‘We’re no longer looking at a quick jump on Shahin. I’m afraid the new plan has to be a direct attack on that army before it can get out of the mountains. The militia you’ve commandeered is the Empire’s only hope. If we fail, the road to Constantinople will be wide open.’
Antonia shut her eyes and thought. ‘I’m pregnant,’ she said with sudden annoyance. I looked at her and blinked. I sat down again beside her. ‘I’ve missed two periods. A woman in one of the villages we passed by said I was surely with child.’ More annoyed still, she threw away the remains of her daisy chain. ‘How am I supposed to lead my men into battle?’ she asked.
I waited till my voice was likely to be steady. ‘I trust you’ll not make any fuss when I send you off to Trebizond,’ I said. ‘Eboric will ride with you.’
No question of jealousy, or even confusion, for Rado. A command of Greek I’d assumed was too basic to bother with testing was easily good enough for taking charge of the militia. I found him pointing with a stick at one of his pebble diagrams. He was surrounded by about a dozen boys and very young men. Behind him, more young men were trying on the Persian armour.
He got up and saluted when he saw me approach. I suppressed a smile and saluted back. ‘What news, General Rado?’ I asked in Latin.’