For a moment, while Ousanas' grin faded away, he and Ezana stared at each other. It was not quite a contest of wills. Not quite.
Ousanas turned to the queen, sitting on the throne. "That said," he continued quietly, "I would not force this on Rukaiya. She has been very dear to me also, if not the same way she was to Eon."
The moment Antonina had spoken the name, she'd seen Rukaiya lower her head, as if she were solely concerned with her feeding infant. That was as good a way as any to bring herself under composure, of course.
Now, she looked up. Quickly, before lowering her head again to concentrate on Wahsi.
There might have been a hint of tears in her eyes. But all she said was: "I have no objection, Ousanas."
"It is done!" Ezana boomed. More forcefully than ever, the spearbutt slammed the stones. "It is done -and the royal regiments stand ready to enforce the decrees. As before. As always. As ever."
He glanced at Antonina. Seeing her little nod, he boomed: "All clear the chamber! There will be no further audience until the morrow."
At a small sign from Antonina, Garmat remained behind. No one would think that amiss. The old adviser's special relationship to the throne was well-established and accepted. In any event, most people in the room would already have realized that he would soon be the new aqabe tsentsen, to replace Ousanas.
She would have liked to have Rukaiya's father remain. Under the circumstances, however, that might give rise to certain resentments.
Ezana stayed, also. He'd begun to leave, but even before Antonina could signal him to stay, Ousanas ordered him to do so.
Ordered him, outright. The first time he'd ever done so, in the many years the two men had known each other and worked closely together training and nurturing and protecting a young prince named Eon.
To Antonina's relief, Ezana had not seemed to bridle at all. In fact, he seemed a bit relieved himself.
In the short time that it took to clear the chamber, Antonina studied Ousanas. The man had seemed majestic to her for several years. Never more so than now.
By God, this will work.
Once the room was empty except for the five key people-six, counting the infant-Ousanas smiled ruefully.
"I will admit-again-that you are a genius, Antonina. This will work, I think. But…"
He looked at Rukaiya. She, back at him. There was sadness in both faces.
"I am not ready for this. Not yet. Neither is she."
There were definitely tears in Rukaiya's eyes, now. She shook her head. "No, I am not. I have… no objection, as I said. Sooner or later, I would have had to marry again, and I can think of no one I'd prefer. But Eon is still too close."
Ezana cleared his throat. "Yes. Of course. But I think he would be pleased, Rukaiya. And I knew him as well as any man."
She smiled, slightly. "Oh, yes. His ghost will be pleased-but not yet."
"It doesn't matter," Antonina said firmly. "We need to hold the wedding soon, but there is no reason you need to consummate the marriage immediately. In fact-"
Garmat picked up the cue, seamlessly. "It would be a bad idea," he said firmly. "We will need children from this union- many children, to be blunt, to give Wahsi a host of half-brothers and sisters to help him rule, since he will have no full ones. But we don't need them right now. No one will even start thinking about opposition for at least two years."
"More likely five-or ten," Ezana grunted. The smile that followed was a very cold sort of thing. "I can guarantee that much."
Garmat nodded. "Actually, the danger would be for you to have a child too soon. Enough time must elapse for it to have been impossible for Eon to have been the father. Impossible. That means waiting at least a year after his death last summer."
The relief on the faces of both Rukaiya and Ousanas was almost comical.
"Of course," Ousanas said. "Stupid of me not to have seen it instantly. Or else-three generations from now-some over-ambitious and small-brained great-grandson of mine might start claiming he was actually the great-grandson of Eon."
Smiling very gently now, he stepped forward and placed his hand on the baby's head. "In my safe-keeping, also."
He straightened. "We should do more, I think. Make it impossible the other way, also. And do so in a way that is publicly obvious, even to bedouin."
Clearly enough, his brain was back to working as well as always.
"Yes," she said firmly. This was something that Antonina and Garmat had already decided upon. "There is no need for me to remain here, and I would very much like to see my husband again. Ousanas should go with me to India, leading whatever military force Axum can add to the war."
She gave a quick glance at Ezana. "Except the three royal regiments, of course."
"We'll leave two regiments in Arabia also," said Garmat. "That will be enough. The Arabs will have no problem with Antonina's decrees on the succession."
"That will be enough," Ezana agreed. "The kingdom will be stable, and Ousanas can squeeze whatever advantage he can get for Axum from our deepened participation in the war. By the time he gets back, at least a year will have elapsed from Eon's death."
"Rukaiya?" Antonina asked.
"Yes. I agree." She also, smiled gently. "And I will be ready, by then, for another husband."
"Done!" Ezana boomed. He did, however-just barely-manage to restrain himself from slamming the ferrule on the stones.
Ousanas scowled. "And, now-for the details! We'll have at least a week to squabble-more likely, two-before a suitable wedding can be organized. The first thing I want clearly established is that the royal regiments- not the otherwise-soon-to-be-impoverished mendicant family of the downtrodden angabo-has to pay for all the damage done to the floors by heavy-handed commanders."
"Ridiculous!" boomed Ezana. "The maintenance of the palace should clearly be paid for out of the angabo's coffers."
The spearbutt slammed the floor.
Chapter 11
Chabahari, in the Straits of Hormuz
Chabahari seemed like a nightmare to Anna. When she first arrived in the town-city, now-she was mainly struck by the chaos in the place. Not so long ago, Chabahari had been a sleepy fishing village. Since the great Roman-Persian expedition led by Belisarius to invade the Malwa homeland through the Indus valley had begun, Chabahari had been transformed almost overnight into a great military staging depot. The original fishing village was now buried somewhere within a sprawling and disorganized mass of tents, pavilions, jury-rigged shacks-and, of course, the beginnings of the inevitable grandiose palaces which Persians insisted on putting anywhere that their grandees resided.
Her first day was spent entirely in a search for the authorities in charge of the town. She had promised Dryopus she would report to those authorities as soon as she arrived.
But the search was futile. She found the official headquarters easily enough-one of the half-built palaces being erected by the Persians. But the interior of the edifice was nothing but confusion, a mass of workmen swarming all over, being overseen by a handful of harassed-looking supervisors. Not an official was to be found anywhere, neither Persian nor Roman.
"Try the docks," suggested the one foreman who spoke Greek and was prepared to give her a few minutes of his time. "The noble sirs complain about the noise here, and the smell everywhere else."