She nodded. Kungas chuckled. "I never imagined Rome's finest spymaster would hold herself to such a rigid code of honor."
Irene made an inarticulate, sarcastic noise. "I hate to disillusion you, Kungas. I do this not from honor, but from simple-" She paused. When she spoke again, the acid-tinged sarcasm was gone from her voice.
"Some, yes. Some." She sighed. "It is difficult to manipulate Dadaji, even for someone like me. It's a bit too much like maneuvering against a damned saint."
She reached up and wiped her face, restoring the spymaster. "But that is still not my reason. My reason is cold-blooded statecraft. Whatever decision the empress makes will be irrevocable. You know Shakuntala, Kungas. She is as intelligent, I think, as Justinian."
She barked a laugh. "Shecertainly has the willpower of Theodora." Then, shaking her head: "But she is still a girl, in many ways. If she discovers, in the future, that one of her closest advisers-he is like a father to her, you know that-withheld his advice on such a critical matter-" The headshaking became vigorous. "No, no, no. That would shake her self-confidence to the very roots. Andthat we cannot afford. She may make the wrong decision. Rulers often do. But her confidence must never waver, or all will be lost."
Kungas eyed her, head aslant. "Have I ever told you that you were a very smart woman?"
"Several times," she replied, smiling. She cocked her own head, returning his look of amusement with questioning eyes.
"You still have not asked," she said softly. "What my opinion is. We have never discussed the matter, oddly enough."
He spread his hands. "Why is that odd? I know your opinion, just as surely as you know mine."
He dropped his hands and lifted his shoulders. "It is obvious. I even have hopes, once we explain, that Dadaji will be convinced."
Irene snorted. Kungas smiled, but shook his head.
"You are too skeptical, I think." The thick, heavy shoulders squared. "But we will know soon."
He began to move toward the door, his head turned away. "I think it would be best, Irene, if you spoke first."
"I agree. It will strike the harder, coming from an unexpected source. You will follow, of course, when the time is right."
He did not bother to reply. There was no need. For a moment, never speaking, the man and woman in the room reveled together in that knowledge.
Kungas had reached the door. But Irene spoke before he could open it.
"Kungas." He turned his head. Irene gestured at the writing table. "You can read, now. Kushan, rather well, and your Greek is becoming passable. Your writing is still very crude, but that is merely a matter of practice."
His eyes went to the table, lingering there for a moment. Then, closed shut.
"Why, Kungas?" she asked. Her voice was calm, but tinged with anxiety. And, yes, some pain and anger. "My bed has always been there for you. But you have never come. Not once, in the weeks since the battle."
Kungas reopened his eyes. When he looked at Irene, his gaze was calm. Calm, and resolute.
"Not yet."
Irene's own gaze was not so calm. "I am not a virgin, Kungas," she said. Angrily, perhaps-or simply pleading.
The Kushan's mask of a face broke in half. Irene almost gasped. She had never seen Kungas actuallygrin.
"I did not imagine you were!" he choked out. He lowered his head, shaking it back and forth like a bull. "Shocking news. Most distressing. I am chagrined beyond belief. Oh, what shall I do?"
As tense as she was, Irene couldn't restrain her laughter. Kungas raised his head, still grinning.
But the question remained in her eyes. He took a few steps forward, reached out his hand, and drew her head into his shoulder.
"I have this to do first, Irene," he said softly, stroking her hair. "I cannot-" Silence, while he sought the words. "I cannot tend to my own needs, while hers are still gaping. I have guarded her for too long, now. And this struggle, I think, is perhaps her most desperate. I must see her through it safely."
She felt his chest heave slightly, from soft laughter. "Call it my own dharma, if you will."
Irene nodded, her head still nestled in his shoulder. She reached up and caressed the back of his neck. Slender fingers danced on thick muscle.
"I understand," she murmured. "As long as I understand." She laughed once herself, very softly. "I may need reassurance, again, mind you. If this goes on and on."
She knew he was smiling. "Not long, I think," she heard him say. " The girlis decisive, you know."
Irene sighed, and ceased caressing Kungas' neck. A moment later, her hands placed firmly on his chest, she created a space between them.
"So she is," she murmured. "So she most certainly is."
Pushing him away, now. "Go, then. I will see you tonight, at the council meeting."
He bowed ceremoniously. "Prepare to do battle, Irene Macrembolitissa. The dragon of Indian prejudice awaits your Roman lance."
Gaiety returned in full force. "What a ridiculous metaphor! It's back to the books for you-barbarian oaf!"
Chapter 25
It was late in the night before Irene spoke. The council had already gone on for hours.
Irene craned her neck, twisting her head back and forth. To all outward appearance, it was the gesture of someone simply stretching in order to remain alert in a long, long imperial council.
In reality, she was just trying not to smile at the image which had come to her mind.
This isn't a "council." It's a-down, smile, down!-damned auction.
Her eyes, atop a rotating head, fell on the empress. Shakuntala was sitting, stiff and straight-backed, on a cushion placed on her throne. The throne itself was wide and low. In her lotus position, hands at her side, Shakuntala reminded Irene of the statue of a goddess resting on an altar. The girl had maintained that posture, and her stern countenance, throughout the session-with no effort at all, seemingly. That self-discipline, Irene knew, was another of Raghunath Rao's many gifts to the girl.
Irene's head twisting became a little shake.
Stop thinking of her as a "girl." That is a woman, now. Not more than twenty, yes, and still a virgin. But a woman nonetheless.
In the long months-almost a year, now-since Irene had come to India, she had grown very fond of Shakuntala. In private, Shakuntala's imperious demeanor was transmuted into something quite different. A will of iron, still, and self-assuredness that would shame an elephant. But there was also humor, and quick intelligence, and banter, and a willingness to listen, and a cheerful acceptance of human foibles. And that, too, was a legacy of Raghunath Rao.
Not one of Shakuntala's many advisers doubted for a moment that the empress, should she feel it necessary, could order the execution of a thousand men without blinking an eye. And not one of those advisers-not for instant-ever hesitated to speak his mind. And that, too, was a legacy of Rao.
Irene's eyes now fell on the large group of men sitting before the empress, on their own plush cushions resting on the carpeted floor.
The bidders at the auction.
The envoys from every kingdom in India still independent of Malwa were there. Tamraparni, the great island south of India which was sometimes called Ceylon, was there. And, in the past two weeks, plenipotentiaries from every realm in the vast Hindu world had arrived also. Most of those envoys had brought soldiers with them, to prove the sincerity of their offers. The Cholan and Tamraparni units were quite sizeable. Suppara was packed like a crate, with soldiers billeted everywhere.
Whether smuggled through the blockade of the coast, or, more often, marching overland from Kerala, they had come. Kerala, ruled by Shakuntala's grandfather, was there too, despite his treacherous connivance the year before with a Malwa assassination plot against her. Shakuntala had practically forced its representative Ganapati to grovel. But, in the end, she had allowed Kerala to join the bidding.