«That is an outrage!» Khimillu said, which was probably true I shall write to Sharbaraz King of Kings, may his days be long and his realm increase, and inform him of what…»
His voice faded. Complaining to the King of Kings about what one of his generals was doing stood some chance of getting a city governor relief. Complaining to the King of Kings about what his brother-in-law was doing stood an excellent chance of getting a city governor transferred to some tiny village on the far side of the Sea of Salt, to the sort of place where no one cared if the taxes were five years in arrears because five years worth of taxes from it wouldn't have bought three mugs of wine at a decent tavern.
With the poorest of poor graces, Khimillu said, «Very well. Since I have no choice in the matter, let it be as you say.»
«The troops do have to stay somewhere,» Abivard said reasonably, «and Qostabash is the city that's suffered least in these parts.»
«And thus we shall suffer on account of your troops,» the governor returned. «I have trouble seeing the justice in that.» He threw his hands in the air, defeated. «But you are too strong for me. Aye, it shall be as you desire in all things, lord.»
Abivard rapidly discovered what he meant by that: not the wholehearted cooperation the words implied nor, really, cooperation of any sort. What Khimillu and the officials loyal to him did was stand aside and refrain from actively interfering with Abivard. Beyond that they did their best to pretend that neither he nor the soldiers existed. If that was how they viewed granting his desires in all things, he shuddered to think what would have happened had they opposed him.
«We should have loosed Khimillu against the Videssians,» Abivard told Roshnani after they and their children had been installed in some small, not very comfortable rooms a good distance from the city governor's palatial residence. «He would have made them flee by irking them too much for them to stay.» He chuckled at his own conceit.
«They've been irksome themselves lately,» she said, thumping at a lumpy cushion to try to beat it into some semblance of comfort. When she leaned back against it, she frowned and punched it some more. At last satisfied, she went on, «And speaking of irksome, what do you aim to do about Tzikas?»
«Drop me into the Void if I know what to do with him,» Abivard said, adding, «Or what to do to him,» a moment later. «That last letter from the King of Kings seems to give me free rein, but if the traitor hadn't escaped from Maniakes and come to us, who knows how long we might have been entangled with the Videssians' magic? I do need to remember that, I suppose.»
«But the Videssians' magic was only that screen, with nothing behind it,» Roshnani said.
«Tzikas couldn't have known that… I don't think.» Abivard drummed his fingers on his thigh. «The trouble is, if I leave Tzikas to his own devices, in two weeks' time he'll be writing to Sharbaraz, telling him what a wretch I am. Khimillu has a sense of restraint; Tzikas has never heard of one.»
«I can't say you're wrong about that, and I wouldn't try,» his principal wife said. «You still haven't answered my question: what are you going to do about him?»
«I don't know,» Abivard admitted. «On the one hand, I'd like to be rid of him once for all so I wouldn't have to worry about him anymore. But I keep thinking he might be useful against Maniakes, and so I hold off from killing him.»
«Maniakes evidently thought the same thing in reverse, or he would have killed Tzikas after you arranged to give him to the Avtokrator,» Roshnani said.
«Maniakes got some use out of the traitor,» Abivard said resentfully. «If it hadn't been for Tzikas, we would have crushed the Videssians in the battle on the ridge.» He checked himself. «But to be honest, we got a couple of years of decent use out of him before he decided to try to convince the King of Kings he could do everything better than I can.»
«And the Videssians got good use from him before that, when he sat at Amorion and held us away from the Arandos valley,» Roshnani said.
«But he was doing that for himself more than for Genesios or Maniakes.» Abivard laughed. «Tzikas has done more for—and to—both sides here than anyone else in the whole war. Nobody can possibly trust him now, but that doesn't mean he has no value.»
«If you're going to use him against the Videssians, how do you propose to go about it?» Roshnani asked.
«I don't know that, either, not right now,» Abivard admitted. All I aim to do is keep him alive—however much I don't like the idea—keep him under my control, and wait and see what sorts of chances I get, if I get any. In my place, what would you do?»
«Kill him,» Roshnani said at once. «Kill him now and then write to tell the King of Kings what you've done. If Sharbaraz likes it—and after his latest letter he might—fine. If he doesn't like it, well, not even the King of Kings can order a man back from the dead.»
That was so. Abivard's chuckle came out wry. «I wonder what Maniakes would say if he found out the chief marshal of Makuran had a wife who was more ruthless than he.»
Roshnani smiled. «He might not be surprised. The Videssians give their women freer rein in more things than we do—why not in ruthlessness, too?» She looked thoughtful. «For that matter, who's to say Maniakes' wife who is also his cousin isn't more ruthless than he ever dreamed of being?»
«Now, there's an interesting idea,» Abivard said. «Maybe one day, if we're ever at peace with Videssos and if Maniakes is still on his throne, you and his Lysia can sit down and compare what the two of you did to make each other's lives miserable during the war.»
«Maybe we can,» Roshnani replied. Abivard had meant it as a joke, but she took him seriously. After a moment he decided she had—or might have had—reason to do so. She went on, «Speaking of ruthlessness, I meant what I said about the Videssian traitor. I'd sooner find a scorpion in my shoe than him on my side.»
Abivard spoke in sudden decision. «You're right, by the God. He's stung me too often, too. I've held back because I've thought of the use I could get from him, but I'll never feel safe with him still around to cook up schemes against me.»
«Checking you at the battle where you should have crushed Maniakes should weigh in the scales, too,» Roshnani said.
«Checking me? He came too close to killing me,» Abivard said. «That's the last time he'll thwart me, though, by the God.» He went to the door of the apartment and ordered the sentry to summon a couple of soldiers who had distinguished themselves in the summer's fighting. When they arrived, he gave them their orders. Their smiles were all glowing eyes and sharp teeth. They drew their swords and hurried away.
He had a servant fetch a jar of wine, with which he intended to celebrate Tzikas' premature but not untimely demise. But when the soldiers returned to give him their report, they had the look of dogs that had seen a meaty bone between the boards of a fence but hadn't been able to squeeze through and seize the morsel. One of them said, «We found out he has leave to go walking through the streets of Qostabash so long as he returns to his quarters by sunset. He's not quite an ordinary prisoner, the guards told me.» His expression said more clearly than words what he thought of that
«The guard is right, and the fault is mine,» Abivard said. «I give you leave to look for him in the city and kill him wherever you happen to find him. Or if that doesn't suit you, wait till sunset and put an end to him then.»