Darius nodded. “I’d still not have sacrificed the men.”
“Then you’d have lost the battle” interjected Athas. “He’s actually made plenty of mistakes, though no real Empire-threatening ones. Regina wasn’t one though.”
“Thanks,” Kiva added dryly.
The three went quiet again, gazing out of the window, wishing they could see through the walls of the palace buildings on the other side of the Ibis Courtyard and across the sea beyond. Kiva glanced at Darius again and gestured to the blade at his side.
“You know how to use that then?”
Darius nodded. “I’d kind of like someone new to spar with, but we can’t afford to be out in the open, so I just keep practicing myself.”
“Nice sword” commented the general. “Looks a lot like mine did, until it got taken away. Northern design.”
Darius nodded and smiled. “I used to use a straight bladed standard Imperial design, but Commander Sabian made me try this to vary my training. In actual fact, now that I’m getting used to it, it does seem to feel comfortable.”
The three were still watching out of the high window above the courtyard and discussing the tools and tactics of war half an hour later when the first man entered through the Gorgon Gate. Commander Sabian strode purposefully into the courtyard, in full armour with his red cloak billowing behind him and his helmet beneath his arm. Kiva strained to see the man’s face, but it wasn’t easy at this distance. Velutio’s personal guard then entered, four abreast and in three columns. There must have been a hundred and fifty of them all told, extremely impressive in their black and white with javelins shouldered and keeping perfect time. Not so impressive in Kiva’s head: they were show; all show and no fighting spirit, he could tell from here. No Velutio though, which was a pleasant surprise.
Two of the normal island guards came stomping down the stairs from the gate house, entered the courtyard and came to attention with a salute. Sabian returned the gesture and then trotted out a couple of orders to them, not loud enough for the watchers at the high window to hear, and Kiva grumbled.
“I’d give a lot to be able to hear what he’s saying from here.”
The other two nodded, but Darius smiled. “Don’t worry. If the commander’s alone here, I’ll get to see him shortly.”
Down below, the two men left through the arch into the Great Courtyard, just as sergeant Cialo and two of his veterans entered from the rooms far below Kiva’s very window. Again there was a round of saluting and Sabian and Cialo discussed something unheard above before another order was barked and a man stepped out of the file of guards. Until then he’d been indistinguishable from the rest, but now they noticed the harness of medals on his chest and the solid black crest on his helm. An officer of some sort, then. He and Cialo talked for a moment and then the sergeant led him off through the archway and the entire guard trooped after them, leaving Sabian alone in the courtyard.
Kiva watched the man remove his gauntlet and lean down to the fountain to dip his hand and wipe his brow and face. Then he straightened, turned and looked directly up at their window. Athas pulled the other two back instinctively and with a whimper Kiva crumpled to the floor. They helped the injured general back to his feet, keeping well out of the way of the window until they reached his bed where he gratefully collapsed once more.
Darius sighed. “If you don’t need me, I ought to go see what I can find out.”
The other two nodded and watched as the tall lad left the room. Athas smiled at Kiva. “That boy’s got a lot of strength.” He frowned, unsure as to the wisdom of bringing up the subject, but shrugged and did so anyway. “Better than Quintillian was, you know? He’s what the other lad might have been like with another year among us. A natural I’d say.”
Kiva snorted but left it at that.
Rounding the corner to the top of the flight of stairs, Darius almost barged into Sabian coming the other way and the Commander rocked back and forth over the open staircase for a precarious moment before regaining his balance. He gripped the corner and caught his breath, glaring at the young man who’d nearly toppled him.
“Darius, do your elders permit you to barrel around the island with no sense of decorum?”
The young man winced but then allowed himself to relax as he saw the smile creeping over Sabian’s face. He returned the gesture.
“I was trying to find minister Sarios to tell him you were here.”
Sabian nodded. “I was just on my way to his rooms.”
“He’s not there,” Darius blurted out, hoping it didn’t sound too defensive. Sabian had caught him off guard and he tried to force the most natural smile he could, gesturing past the commander to the stairs. “Shall we go find him?”
Sabian narrowed his eyes. “Actually, I wanted to speak to you as well, Darius. You half scared the life out of me just then. Let’s use the minister’s study to wait for him. I could do with a sit down.”
Darius fought with himself, trying to find a good, plain excuse to not do exactly that, but drew a blank and merely nodded uncomfortably. This could be perilous.
The two turned and walked back along the corridor to Sarios’ door. Since it was already open, Sabian strode in. Darius followed the commander, his eyes going straight to the connecting door into the bedroom. The door was ajar by quite some way. Trying to be as nonchalant as possible despite his heart beating out a military tattoo, Darius crossed to the minister’s drinks cabinet and poured two glasses of wine, taking advantage of the positioning to peer through the door. Sarios’ bed sat in full view, fully made. There was no sign of the two rebel officers or the other bed. Damn, these men must think fast; they must’ve shifted everything out of view the moment he’d left. He sighed and willed his heart to slow a little. Surely Sabian must be able to hear it from where he sat near the window. Forcing the smile back up, Darius delivered the wine to the table.
Kiva sat as still as he could, though he wasn’t used to being out of bed and mobile for such an enforced long period, and his muscles were starting to give. Athas had a huge meaty hand on one shoulder and was keeping the general as steady as possible. They couldn’t see Sabian of course, hidden as they were round the corner and behind the door, but they could hear everything. Darius sounded nervous; if he wasn’t careful he’d give the game away. They continued to listen as the young man gradually recovered his normal confidence.
“Why the guard, commander? We’ve not done anything you didn’t advise us to do.”
A smile crossed Kiva’s face unbidden. The lad did have a way of coming to the point. No preamble. It possibly took Sabian by as much surprise, given the brief pause before his reply.
“You’ll never make a politician, Darius. No, I’m not here to chastise anyone this time. In fact, I’m about to make things a lot easier for you. In the next few weeks Velutio, along with myself and the army, will be moving out and away from the city, dealing with a number of the other lords. I think you need to carry out the bulk of your evacuation in about three weeks’ time, and be entirely gone within a month. As long as his lordship and I are away east, you’ll only have to deal with the island garrison.”
The commander went silent again and the two eavesdroppers in the next room fretted silently, unable to identify what was going on without enough sound. Finally, there was the clink of crystal on a bronze tray and Sabian spoke again.
“That’s why I brought this guard. I’m taking Cialo and his companies away with me to do battle. Every man I leave here tomorrow, the captain included, is a selfish, treacherous, greedy or hateful bastard, or any combination of these. They were all Crosus’ men through and through and the longer they stay around me the more chance there is of me having an ‘accident’ if you get my drift.”