No one seemed to say anything bad about Phosia. People who disliked her father thought she was nice enough. People who liked her father—there were some—thought she was… nice enough.
Everyone agreed her mother talked too much. «If that's a vicious sin, Skotos' ice will be even more crowded than the gloomiest priests claim,» Lysia said.
«True enough,» Maniakes said. «Er, true.» His wife laughed at him for editing his own remarks.
Once he was back in Serrhes, he naturally started judging cases again. His first stay in the city had scratched the surface of what had gone on in better than a decade of Makuraner rule, but had not done much more than that. As he lingered in the westlands waiting for word from Abivard, he had time to look at cases he had not considered before. And, seeing him do that, others who had not presented matters to him in his earlier stay now hauled them out, dusted them off, and brought them to his notice.
Enough new cases and accusations and suits came before him to make him hand some of them over to Rhegorios. His cousin, instead of making his usual protests about doing anything resembling work, accepted the assignment with an alacrity Maniakes found surprising. After a little thought, it wasn't so surprising any more. When Rhegorios was fighting his way through the intricacies of a case involving fine points of both Videssian and Makuraner law, he wasn't thinking about Phosia.
His decisions were good, too: as thoughtful as the ones Maniakes handed down. As day followed day, the Avtokrator grew more and more pleased with the Sevastos. Rhegorios had been a good second man in the Empire even when he grumbled about having to do his job. Now that he was doing it without the grumbling, he was as fine a second man as anyone could have wanted.
As day followed day, he also grew more confident in his decisions and made ever more of them on his own, without checking with Maniakes till after the fact. Thus he startled the Avtokrator when he came in one afternoon and said, «Your Majesty, a matter has come to my notice that I think you should handle in my place.»
«It will have to wait a bit,» Maniakes said. «I'm in the middle of an argument here myself.» He nodded at the petitioner standing before him. «As soon as I'm done, I'll deal with whatever perplexes you. You ought to know, though, that I think you're up to fixing it, whatever it happens to be.»
«Your Majesty, it would be better in your hands,» Rhegorios said with unwonted firmness. Maniakes shrugged and spread those hands, palms up, in token of puzzled acquiescence.
Having disposed of the petitioner—and having annoyed him by denying his request for land that had belonged to a monastery till the Makuraners razed it to the ground and slaughtered most of the monks—Maniakes sent a secretary to Rhegorios to let him know he could bring his unusual case, whatever it was, up into the chamber the Avtokrator was using.
As soon as the Sevastos and the man who had come before him walked into the room, Maniakes understood. Broios walked up to the high-backed chair Maniakes was using as a throne and prostrated himself before his sovereign. «Rise,» the Avtokrator said, at the same time sending his cousin an apologetic look. Had he been assorted of Broios' daughter, he wouldn't have wanted to deal with a case involving the merchant, either. He asked Broios, «Well, sir, how may I help you today? Not more clipped arkets, I hope.»
«No, your Majesty,» Broios said. «I don't fancy another week with a sore fundament, thank you very kindly all the same.»
«Good,» Maniakes said. «What can I do for you, then?»
«Your Majesty, I beg your pardon if I give you great offense, but I hear from a lot of people that you've set men and women to asking questions about me and my family,» Broios said. «You can say whatever you like about me, Emperor; Phos knows you have the right. But if you're going to say I have treason in mind, it isn't so, and that's all there is to it. All the men and women you sent out won't find it when it's not there. Remember, your Majesty, Vetranios is the one who took a shine to that Tzikas item, not me.»
Maniakes turned to Rhegorios. «Well, cousin of mine, you had the right of it after alclass="underline" this one wasn't for you to judge.» He gave his attention back to Broios. «I wasn't trying to find out about you because I think you're a traitor. I'm trying to make certain you aren't.»
«I don't understand, your Majesty,» Broios said.
Sighing, Maniakes found himself explaining what he would rather have kept dark a while longer. «My cousin here, his highness the Sevastos Rhegorios, has… conceived an interest in your daughter, Phosia. I need to know if there are any scandals in your family that would keep it from being joined to mine.»
Broios wobbled on his feet. For a moment, Maniakes feared he would faint. The merchant coughed a couple of times, then found words: «Your Majesty. I crave your pardon in a different way. I know his Highness has seen my daughter, but—» His voice broke like that of a youth whose beard was beginning to sprout. What he was probably thinking was something like, I knew Rhegorios wanted to dally with her, but… «—I had no idea that—that—» He ran down again.
«Since you are here, since you have come to me,» Maniakes said, «I want you to tell me anything that might be an impediment to this union. If you tell me here and now, no penalty and no blame will come to you, even if we decide not to make the match. But if you conceal anything and I learn of it for myself, not only is the match forfeit, you will regret the day you were born for having lied to me. Do you understand, Broios?»
«Yes, your Majesty.» Broios drew himself to his full unimpressive height. «Your Majesty, to the ice with me if I can think of any reason—except the late kick in the arse, of course—for you not to take my tender chick under your wing.» His voice rang with sincerity.
His voice had also rung with sincerity when he denied having mixed in some arkets Vetranios hadn't given him before taking the coins to the Avtokrator. He'd been lying then. Was he lying now? Maniakes couldn't tell. A successful merchant got to the point where he could dissemble well enough to deceive anyone who didn't have a sorcerer at his side.
The Avtokrator wondered if he should summon Bagdasares. For the moment, he decided against it. He'd given Broios the warning. «Remember what I said,» he told the merchant. «If you don't speak now—»
«I have nothing to say,» Broios answered, a statement normally so improbable that Maniakes thought it stood some chance of being true.
He dismissed the merchant and then asked Rhegorios, «And what do you think of your prospective father-in-law?»
«Not bloody much,» his cousin replied at once. «But I'm not interested in marrying him, the lord with the great and good mind be praised. He's Zosime's problem, which suits me down to the ground.»
«Only shows you've never been married,» Maniakes said. «Your wife's family is your problem.» He grinned at Rhegorios. «Take my brother-in-law, for instance.»
«Who, him? He's a prince among men,» Rhegorios said, laughing. «Why, he's even a prince among princes.» The reference to the Vaspurakaner blood the two of them shared made Maniakes laugh, too.
But he did not laugh long. He said, «Do we really want Broios in the family with us?»
«No, that's not the question,» Rhegorios said. «The question is, is Broios so revolting, we can't stand to have him in the family no matter how much I want Phosia in it?»