«Generals who are happy to settle for less than the most they can get mostly don't end up with much,» Romezan observed. That made Abivard bite his lip, for it was true.
Coming to a town in the middle of that rugged country was a surprise. The Videssians had burned the place in passing, but it had been little more than a village even before they had put it to the torch. They'd dumped dead animals into the wells that were probably the town's reason for being, too. After that, though, they seemed to have relented, for they stopped leaving caltrops in the roadway. That might, of course, have indicated a dearth of caltrops rather than a sudden surge in goodwill.
«Now we can make better time,» Romezan said, noting the absence of the freestanding spiked obstructions. He shouted for the vanguard to speed up, then turned to Abivard, saying, «We'll catch the bastards yet; see if we don't.»
«Maybe we will,» Abivard replied. «The God grant we do.» He scratched his head. «It's not like the Videssians to make things easy for us, though.»
«They can't do everything right all the time,» Romezan grunted. «When they squat over a slit trench, it's not rose petals that come out.» He shouted again for more speed. Abivard pondered his analogy.
As the day went on, Abivard began to think the noble from the Seven Clans might have had a point. The army hadn't moved so fast since it had gotten into the uplands, and the Videssians couldn't be very far ahead. One more engagement and Maniakes might not be able to get his army back to Lyssaion.
And then, not long before Abivard was going to order his forces out of their column and into a line of battle despite the rugged terrain, a rider came galloping up the path from the southeast, from the Videssian force toward the Makuraners. He was shouting something in the Makuraner tongue as he drew near. Before long Abivard, who was riding at the front of the column, could make out what it was: «Stop! Hold up! It's a trap!»
Abivard turned to the horn players. «Blow halt,» he commanded. «We have to find out what this means.»
As the call rang out and the horsemen obediently reined in, Abivard studied the approaching horseman, who kept yelling at the top of his lungs. Because the fellow was bawling so hoarsely, Abivard needed longer than he should have to realize he recognized that voice. His jaw fell.
Before he could speak the name, Romezan beat him to it: «That's Tzikas. It can't be, but it is.»
«It really is,» Abivard breathed. By then he could see the renegade's face; Videssians usually didn't go in for chain mail veils. «What is he doing here? Did he try killing Maniakes one more time and botch it again? If he did kill him, he'd do us a favor, but if he killed him, he'd be back with the Videssian army, not coming up to ours.»
Tzikas rode straight up to Abivard, as he had in battle a few days before. This time, though, he did not draw the sword that hung on his hip. «The God be praised,» he said in his lisping Videssian accent. «I've gotten to you before you rode into the trap.» The gelding on which he was mounted was blowing and foam-flecked; he'd come at a horse-killing pace.
«What are you talking about, Tzikas?» Abivard ground out. Nothing would have pleased him more man slaying the renegade. No one could stop him now, not with Tzikas coming alone to him in the midst of his army. But the Videssian never would have done such a thing without a pressing reason. Until Abivard found out what that reason was, Tzikas would keep breathing.
Tzikas wasn't breathing well now; gasping was more like it. «Trap,» he said, pointing over his shoulder. «Magic. Back there.»
«Why should I believe you?» Abivard said. «Why should I ever believe you?» He turned to the men of the vanguard, who were gaping at Tzikas as if he were a ghost walking among men. «Seize him! Drag him off his horse. Disarm him. The God alone knows what mischief he's plotting.»
«You're mad!» Tzikas shouted as the Makuraners carried out Abivard's orders. «Why would I stick my head in the lion's mouth if I didn't wish you and the King of Kings well?»
«Escaping from Maniakes comes to mind,» Abivard replied. «So does looking for another chance to drag my name through the dirt for Sharbaraz King of Kings, may his days be long and his realm increase.» For a despised foreigner like Tzikas, he appended Sharbaraz' honorific formula.
«Why should I want to escape Maniakes when you're just as eager to do me in?» Tzikas asked bitterly. «He gloated about that-by the God, how he gloated about it.»
«He gloated so hard and made you hate him so much that you commanded his rear guard, you rode out to challenge me to single combat, and your counterattack wrecked our last chance of beating him,» Abivard said. «You were swearing by Phos then, or at least your hand was, though your mouth didn't tell it everything. By the God, Tzikas-» He put into the oath all the contempt he had in him. «-what would you have done if you'd decided you liked the Avtokrator?
«My hand? I don't know what you're talking about,» Tzikas said sullenly. It might even have been true. He went on, «Go ahead-mock me, slay me, however you please. And go ahead, run right after the Videssian army. Maniakes will give you a kiss on the cheek for helping him along. See if he doesn't.»
He had, if not all the answers, enough of them to make Abivard doubt himself and his purpose. But then, Tzikas usually had a great store of answers, plenty to make you doubt yourself. Videssians bounced truth and lies back and forth, as if in mirrors, till you couldn't tell what you were seeing. Abivard sometimes wondered whether the imperials themselves could keep track.
One thing at a time, then. «What sort of magic is it, Tzikas?»
«I don't know,» the renegade answered. «Maniakes didn't tell me. All I know is, I saw his wizards hard at work back there after he and his wife-his cousin who is his wife-had been closeted with them for a couple of hours before they started doing whatever they were doing. I didn't think it was for your health and well-being. I was commanding the rear guard-he'd come to trust me that far again. When I saw my chance, I galloped here. And look at the thanks you give me for it, too.»
«You can check this, lord,» Romezan rumbled. He'd listened to Tzikas with the same mixture of fascination and doubt Abivard felt.
I know I can. I intend to,» Abivard said. He turned to his men and said to one of them, «Fetch Bozorg and Panteles up here. If there's any magic up ahead, they'll sniff it out. And if there's not, Tzikas here will wish he'd stayed to suffer Maniakes' tender mercy when he finds out what we end up doing to him.» As the soldier hurried off, Abivard shifted to the Videssian to ask a mocking question: «Do you follow that, eminent sir?»
«Perfectly well, thank you.» Tzikas had sangfroid, no two ways about it. But then, a man would hardly arrive at a position where he could commit treason-let alone repeated treason-without a goodly helping of sangfroid.
Abivard fretted and stewed. While he waited, Maniakes and his army were getting farther away every moment After what seemed an interminable delay, Bozorg and Panteles came trotting up behind the soldier Abivard had sent to bring them. He watched Tzikas watching the Videssian in his service and made up his mind not to let the two of them be alone together if he could help it.
No time to worry about that, though. Abivard spoke to the two mages: «This, as you know, is the famous and versatile Tzikas of the Videssian army, our army, the Videssians again, and now- maybe-ours once more.»
«One of those transfers was involuntary on my part,» Tzikas said. Yes, he had sangfroid and to spare.
As if he hadn't spoken, as if Bozorg and Panteles weren't staring wide-eyed at the famous and versatile Tzikas, whom they could not have expected to find returned to allegiance to the King of Kings-if he had returned to allegiance to the King of Kings- Abivard went on, «Tzikas says the Videssians are planning something unpleasantly sorcerous for us up ahead. I want you to find out whether that's so. If it is, I suppose Tzikas may have earned his life. If not, I promise he will keep it longer than he wants to but not long.»