The Khazar Prince refused to sit and was pacing restlessly on the tiled floor. Nikos was sitting on the bed, his back against the wall, eating a pomegranate. Thyatis glared at him and the Illyrian stopped spitting the little pits behind the headboard. Thyatis looked up at the Khazar as he passed her again. She had taken the lone chair and was sharpening and oiling one of her daggers.
“And if you get caught?” she asked. “Everyone in the palace will know that you were plotting to get your niece out and she and the children will wind up in the pits under the palace.”
Nikos spit, the seed sailing through the open window.
“No pits,”, he said with a finger in his mouth to dig out another seed from between his teeth. “They put ‘em in a tower over by the river-they call it the Tower of Darkness-’cause once you go in, you never see the sun again. Grim-looking place, all dark stone and funny-looking stains.”
“Then who?” Jusuf snapped, turning back to face Thyatis. “You? Him? The same problem applies-if they question the servants, then they’ll know that we’re the guests of the Princess. We’re safe here only while no one knows we’re here!”
Thyatis smiled, her best shark-grin. “Silly boy. Of course not. We send an expert.”
Nikos looked up, his face pinched in surprise. He had expected to take care of it.
“I’ll send Anagathios. He came into the palace dressed as a woman, so no one will be able to match him up with •us, and they can’t really make him talk, can they?”
“An actor!” Jusuf fairly spit he was so angry. “You’ll send an actor to do a man’s job? This is ludicrous.”
Thyatis stood up, the long knife glittering naked in her hand. The look on her face brought Jusuf up short. “Listen, Prince, we do this kind of thing for a living, so why don’t you just let us carry on? And another thing, Anagathios is twice the man either of you are, and I should know. So until you can perform as well as he can, stay off the stage!”
Jusuf stepped back from the snap in her voice and the angry gleam in her eye. He raised his hands in surrender. “Pax! Enough, you want to send the pretty boy, send him. I’ll tell Shirin what we’re about.”
“No,” Thyatis said in a flat voice. “No one knows but the three of us.”
“Hey,” Nikos said, sitting up from the bed. “Anagathios is twice the man either of us is?”
“At least,” Thyatis said primly. There was a wicked gleam in her eye. Nikos held his thumbs up and looked at them, whistling. Jusuf stared from him to Thyatis and back again.
“What?” He sounded petulant.
Thyatis just laughed.
“You wanted to see me, Princess?”
Shirin looked up and smiled to see Thyatis at the door of her sewing room. The Princess put aside a piece of lace she had been working on and beckoned for the Roman woman to enter. Thyatis sat down on the end of the couch and clasped her hands in front of her.
“Yes. The Lord Zarmihr came to the city yesterday when I was summoned to the presence of the king of kings. I had never met this lord before; he is from the far eastern provinces of Tokharistan. He had been upon the field of Kerenos in the north, where the army gathered by Gundarnasp was broken by the Two Emperors.”
Thyatis perked up, her whole attention focusing on the princess. Shirin seemed oddly at peace, her features calm and her voice light.
“This was the first witness of the battle to reach the cap ital. He had ridden very hard, killing many horses. It was as had been rumored. The Boar was laid low and his standard captured. All of the great lords and captains were killed or taken by the enemy. Of the two hundred thousand men who marched north, only a few thousands escaped to the south. Gundarnasp fell, as did the Lord Rhazames and many others known to me.“
“And the Roman army?” Thyatis held her breath.
“Messengers came too from Nineveh in the north, on the Tigris. The Romans are only a few weeks away. They must have marched swiftly to reach the warm lands before winter closed the passes in the north. The governor of Nineveh has ordered the bridges over the rivers and canals destroyed.”
Shirin paused, staring at Thyatis with that same calm look.
“What else?” Thyatis asked, disturbed by the equanimity of the princess.
“No Khazars have come south with the Roman army. Zarmihr saw that many barbarians were in the army of the two Emperors but did not know their banners. The King of Kings questioned him closely as to the presence of my kinsmen, but Zarmihr saw none of them.”
Thyatis pursed her lips and considered the Princess, who looked down, her face lit from within by a smile, and resumed stitching. “You are free to leave the palace again?”
“No,” Shirin said, looking up briefly, her lips in a moue, “but soon I will be. My husband will soon be at ease. The magistrates and lords who whisper to him will have nothing to say. My children will be safe.”
“You see no reason,” Thyatis said slowly, considering her words carefully, “to leave the palace in secret, with your uncle and me?!‘
“Oh, no,” the Princess said. “Within the month things will as usual again.”
The Roman woman rubbed her nose, thinking, then rose. “My lady, this is excellent news. I will tell your uncle and we will make preparations to take our leave. I am sorry you had a fright.“
“Oh”-Shirin laughed-“it’s nothing! In a few days you’ll be able to leave peacefully.”
“Talk to me,” Thyatis said, her voice clipped, once more mewed up in her room with Nikos, Jusuf, and Anagathios. “What are the servants and slaves saying?”
Nikos frowned, his broad face grim. He exchanged looks with Anagathios. “It is very bad. ‘Gathios saw three of the lesser nobles leave today with their families. Those were the smart ones. More will be slipping out tonight. The word in the baths is that the King of Kings has slipped right over the edge. He declared that this disaster at the Kerenos is only a minor setback. He collared two of the remaining big hats here and sent them off to raise a new army from the citizens of the polis. He wants a hundred thousand men.”
Jusuf snorted, shaking his head. “If two hundred thousand men were slaughtered up north, there aren’t another hundred thousand fighting men in the whole empire. What is this King of nothing going to do, arm the slaves?”
Nikos face settled into grimmer lines. “Women and children is what I heard. Kitchen knives and sharpened poles. Whatever they can find in the city. Old men too, I’d imagine.”
“Will they do it?” Thyatis said, her fingers twitching on the hilt of her sword. “Are they afraid enough of Chrosoes to drive the citizens out into the fields to face Galen?”
Jusuf laughed at her, but his voice was trembling.
“Nikos, are the palace guards and city watch enough to do that?”
The Illyrian met her eyes and shook his head. “No, there are only a handful of guardsmen left-maybe a hundred- and the city watch isn’t going to drive their families out onto the swords of the legions. Besides”-and he smiled a little, his lip curling up-“the two nobles set to this task have already bolted. They left everything behind, concu Shadow of Ararat bines and all, and shot out of the city like a stone from a mangonel.“
“Good.” Thyatis stared out the window, her eyes distant. “I promised Shirin I would not kill her husband.” She turned to the Syrian. Anagathios, she signed, are you sure about this water gate in your hidden garden?
The actor shrugged, his hands languid as doves in the close air of her room.“
You didn’t ask the Princess? he replied.
No, I was going to ask her today, but now we’ll have to do it without her help.
Then I cannot say for sure. It seems that the garden is part of the King of Kings personal quarters and the lower gate must lead down to the water side. But without getting a boat and checking the bank, I cannot say.
Thyatis punched her thigh in frustration. Jusuf and Nikos, who had only caught a little of the.quick conversation, watched her in concern.
“Everything is a bad bet,” she snarled. “So we go for the Venus throw. Nikos, get everything and everyone ready- quietly-for a quick exit. Jusuf, you have to stick to Shirin like glue. When things finally come loose around here it’s going to be very ugly. We don’t want to lose her or the children in the confusion. ‘Gathios-you’ve got to find a better way into that garden. I don’t think Shirin is going to be able to climb down a drain like the rest of us.”