Sanga nodded. "The whole campaign, to my mind, has Belisarius' signature written all over it. He always tries to force his enemy to attack him, so that he can have the advantage of the defensive. By stalling us for so many months here in the mountains, he's been able to create a defensive stronghold in Mesopotamia. It'll be pure murder, trying to storm Peroz-Shapur."
Narses stared at the two men sitting across the table from him. There seemed to be no expression at all on the eunuch's wizened, scaly face, but both Damodara and Sanga could sense the sarcasm lurking somewhere inside.
Neither man took offense. They were accustomed to Narses, and his ways, by now. There was a bitterness at the center of the eunuch's soul which was ineradicable. That bitterness colored his examination of the world, and gave scorn to his every thought.
Thoughts, however-and a capacity to examine-which they had come to respect deeply. And so a kinsman of the Malwa dynasty, and Rajputana's most noble monarch, listened carefully to the words of a lowborn Roman eunuch.
Narses leaned over and pointed with his finger to a location on the great map which covered the table.
"He will make his stand at Peroz-Shapur, not Ctesiphon," predicted Narses. "Belisarius is a Roman, when all is said and done. Ctesiphon is Persia's capital, but Peroz-Shapur is the gateway to the Roman Empire."
Damodara and Sanga both nodded. They had already come to the same conclusion.
Narses studied the map for a few seconds. Then:
"Tell me something. When the time comes, do you intend to hurl your soldiers at the walls of Peroz-Shapur?" He almost-not quitesneered. "You don't have too many Ye-tai left, either, so the soldiers you'll use up like sheep at a slaughterhouse will all be Rajput."
Rana Sanga didn't rise to the bait. He simply chuckled. Damodara laughed outright.
"Not likely!" exclaimed the Malwa lord. He leaned over the table himself. The months of arduous campaigning had shrunk Damodara's belly enough that the movement was almost graceful.
Damodara's finger traced the Tigris river, from Ctesiphon upstream toward Armenia.
"I won't go near Peroz-Shapur." Another laugh. "Any more than I'd enter a tiger's cage. I won't try to besiege Ctesiphon either. I'll simply use the Tigris to keep my army supplied and move north into Assyria. From there, I can strike into Anatolia-or Armenia-while most of Khusrau's army is tied up fighting our main force on the southern Euphrates."
He leaned back, exuding self-satisfaction. "Belisarius will have no choice," pronounced Damodara. "All that work he's done to fortify Peroz-Shapur will be wasted. He'll have to come out and face me, somewhere in the field."
Narses' eyes left Damodara and settled on Rana Sanga. The Rajput king nodded his agreement with Damodara's explication.
"Ah," said Narses. "An excellent strategy. I am enlightened.Except -why hasn't Belisarius figured the same thing out himself? The man has never, to put it mildly, been accused of stupidity."
Silence. Damodara squirmed a bit in his chair. Sanga maintained his usual stiff composure, but the very rigidity of the posture indicated his own discomfort.
Narses sneered. "Ah, yes. You've wondered that yourselves, haven't you? Now and again, at least."
The eunuch relinquished the sneer, within a few seconds. He was too canny to risk offending the two men across the table from him. And, if the truth be told, he had a genuine respect for them.
"Let's leave that broad problem, for a moment, and move on to some seemingly minor questions. Of these, there are three that stand out."
Narses held up a thumb. "First. Why has Belisarius, since the very beginning of this campaign in the Zagros, always been willing to let us move north?"
Narses nodded toward the Rajput. "As Rana Sanga was the first to point out, many weeks ago." He gave another nod, this time at Damodara. "As you yourself remarked at the time, Lord, that makes no sense. It should be the other way around. He should be fighting like a tiger when we move north, and put up only token resistance when we maneuver to the south. That way, he would be keeping us from threatening Assyria."
Silence.
Narses held up his forefinger alongside the thumb.
"The second small problem. In all the skirmishes we've fought over the past months-even during the battle at the pass when his situation was desperate-Belisarius has never used his mercenaries.Why? He's got two thousand of the Goth barbarians, but he handles them like they were the only jewels in his possession."
Sanga cleared his throat. "Doesn't trust them, I imagine." The Rajput king scowled. "I don't trust mercenaries either, Narses."
The eunuch snorted. "Of course you don't!" Narses slapped his hand down on the table. The sharp sound seemed to fill the confines of the tent.
"Belisarius has never trusted mercenaries," hissed Narses. The eunuch's eyes were fixed on Sanga like a serpent's on its prey. "He never has. He is well known for it, in the Roman army-which, as you know, is traditionally an army which uses mercenaries all the time. But Belisarius never uses them except when he has no choice, andthen he only uses mercenaries as auxiliaries. Hun light cavalry, for the most part."
Narses jabbed at the map. "So why would he bring two thousand Goth heavy cavalry with him, in a campaign like this one? There's nothing in this kind of campaign which would keep a mercenary's interest. No loot, no plunder. Nothing but weeks and weeks of arduous marches and countermarches, for nothing beyond a stipend."
The eunuch laughed sarcastically. "Belisarius never would have brought Goth mercenaries along with him for the good and simple reason, if no other, that he would have known they'd desert within two months. Which brings me-"
He held up a third finger.
"Point three. Whyhaven't those mercenaries deserted?" Another sarcastic, sneering laugh. "Goths are about as stupid as the horses they ride, but even horses aren't that stupid."
Narses planted both hands on the table and pushed himself against the back of his chair. For just an instant, in that posture, the small old eunuch seemed a more regal figure than the Malwa dynast and the Rajput king who faced him.
"So. Let's put it all together. We have one of history's most cunning generals-whoalways subordinates tactics to strategy-engaged in a campaign which, for all its tactical acumen, makes no sense at all strategically. In the course of this campaign, he drags along a bunch of mercenaries he has no use for, and which have no business being there on their own account. What does that all add up to?"
Silence.
Narses scowled. "What it adds up to, Lord and King, is-Belisarius. He's up to something. Something we aren't seeing."
"What?" demanded Damodara.
Narses shrugged. "I don't know, Lord. At the moment, I only have questions. But I urge you"-for just an instant, the eunuch's sarcastic, sneering voice was filled with nothing beyond earnest and respectful pleading-"to take my questions seriously. Or we will find ourselves, in the end, like so many of Belisarius' opponents. Lying in the dirt, bleeding to death, from a blow we never saw coming."
The silence which now filled the tent was not the silence of a breath, held in momentary suspense. It was a long, long silence. A thoughtful silence.
Damodara finally broke it.
"I think we should talk to him," he announced. "Arrange a parley."
His two companions stared at him. Both men were frowning.
Narses was frowning from puzzlement. "What do you hope to accomplish? He'll hardly tell you what he's planning!"
Damodara chuckled. "I didn't imagine he would." The Malwa lord shrugged. "The truth? I would simply like to meet the man, after all this time. I think it would be fascinating."
Damodara shifted his eyes to Rana Sanga. The Rajput king was still frowning.
Not from puzzlement, but "I am bound to your service by honor, Lord Damodara," rasped Sanga. "That same honor-"
Damodara raised a hand, forestalling the Rajput. "Please, Rana Sanga! I am not a fool. Practical, yes. But practical inall things." He chuckled. "I would hardly plan a treacherous ambush, in violation of all codes of honor, using Rajputs as my assassins.Any Rajputs, much lessyou."