Abivard greeted Romezan with a handclasp. «Good to see you,» he said. «Good to see anyone who's ever gone out into the field and has some idea of what fighting is all about.»
«Not many like that around the court, as I know better than I'd like,» Romezan answered. He paced up and down the central room of Abivard's suite like a trapped animal. «That's why I'd rather be out in the field if I had any choice about it.»
«Turan won't let the army fall into the Void while you're away from it,» Abivard answered, «and I need your help working out exactly how to put the King of Kings' plan into effect.»
«What exactly is the King of Kings' plan?» Romezan asked. «I've heard there is such a thing, but that's about all.»
When Abivard told him, Romezan stopped pacing and listened intently. When Abivard was through, the noble from the Seven Clans whistled once, a low, prolonged note. Abivard nodded. «That's how I felt the first time I heard it, too,» he said.
Romezan stared at him. «Do you mean to tell me you had nothing to do with this plan?» Abivard, truthfully enough, denied everything; even if he had once had the same idea, Sharbaraz was the one who'd made it real, or as real as it was thus far. Romezan whistled again. «Well, if he really did think of it all by his lonesome, more power to him. Splendid notion. Kills any number of birds with one stone.»
«I was thinking the same thing,» Abivard said. '"What worries me is timing the attack and coordinating it with the Kubratoi to make sure they're doing their part when we come calling. They can't take Videssos the city by themselves; I'm sure of that. And we can't take it if we can't get to it. Working together, though—»
«Oh, aye, I see what you're saying,» Romezan told him. «These are all the little things the King of Kings won't have bothered worrying about. They're also the sorts of things that make a plan go wrong if nobody bothers to think of them. And if that happens, it's not the fault of the King of Kings. It's the fault of whoever was in charge of the campaign.»
«Something like that, yes.» Abivard pointed to the walls and ceiling to remind Romezan that privacy was an illusion in the palace. Romezan tossed his head imperiously as if to answer that he did not care. Abivard went on, «We also want to make sure Maniakes is away from Videssos the city when we attack it preferably bogged down fighting in the land of the Thousand Cities the way he has been the last couple of years.»
«Aye, that would be good,» Romezan agreed. «But if we don't move for Videssos the city till he's moved against us, that cuts down the time we'll have to try to take the place.»
«I know,» Abivard said unhappily. «Anything that makes one thing better has a way of making something else worse.»
«True enough, true enough,» Romezan said. «Well, that's life. And you're right that we'd be better off waiting for Maniakes to be out of Videssos the city and far away before we try to take it; if he's leading the defense, it's the same as giving the Videssians an extra few thousand men. I've fought him often enough now that I don't want to do it again.»
«He is troublesome,» Abivard said, knowing what an understatement that was. He laughed nervously. «I wonder if he has a secret plan of his own, too, one that will let him take Mashiz. If he holds our capital while we capture his, can we trade them back when the war is over?»
«You're full of jolly notions today, aren't you?» Romezan said, but then he added, «I do see what you're saying, so don't get me wrong about that. If we figure out everything we're going to do but nothing of what Maniakes is liable to try, we end up in trouble.»
«Maniakes is liable to try almost anything, worse luck for us,» Abivard answered. «We thought we had him penned away from the westlands for good till he ran around us by sea.»
«Still doesn't seem right,» Romezan grumbled. Like most other Makuraner officers, he had trouble taking the sea seriously, even though, had it not been there, every elaborate scheme to capture Videssos the city would have been unnecessary. Then, thoughtfully, he went on, «What are they like? The Kubratoi, I mean.»
«How should I know?» Abivard answered almost indignantly. «I've never dealt with them, either. If we're going to ally with them, though, we probably could do worse than asking the ambassadors who made the arrangements in the first place.»
«That's sensible,» Romezan said, approval in his voice. He set a finger by the side of his nose. «Or, of course, we could always ask Tzikas.»
«Ho, ho!» Abivard said. «You are a funny fellow.» Both men laughed. Neither seemed much amused.
«We shall tell you whatever we can,» Piran said. Beside him Tus nodded. Both men sipped wine and ate roasted pistachios from a silver bowl a servant had brought them.
«The most important question is, What are they worth in a brawl?» Romezan said. «You've seen 'em; we haven't. By the God, I can't tell you three things about 'em.»
Romezan's mind reached no farther than the battlefield, but Abivard had longer mental vision: «What are they like? If they make a bargain, will they keep it?»
Piran snorted «They're just one band of cows in the huge Khamorth herd that stretches from the Degird River across the great Pardrayan plain to the Astris River and beyond—which means any one of 'em would sell his own grandmother to the village butcher if he thought her carcass would fetch two arkets.»
«Sounds like all the Khamorth I've ever known,» Romezan agreed.
Tus held up a finger like a village schoolmaster. «But,» he said, «against Videssos they will keep a bargain.»
«If they're of the Khamorth strain, they're liable to betray anyone for any reason or for no reason at all,» Abivard said.
«Were they fighting another clan of Khamorth, you would be right,» Tus said. «But Etzilios hates Maniakes for having beaten him and fears he will beat him again. With a choice between Videssos and Makuran, he will be a faithful ally for us.»
«Nothing like fear to keep an alliance healthy,» Romezan observed.
«If I were khagan of Kubrat—and the God be praised I'm not, nor likely to be—I'd look for allies against Videssos, too,» Abivard said. «The Videssians have long memories, and their neighbors had better remember it.»
«You sound as if you might mean us, not just the Kubratoi and the other barbarous nations of the farthermost east,» Piran said.
«Of course I mean us,» Abivard exploded. «Maniakes has spent the past two years trying to tear down the land of the Thousand Cities one mud brick at a time. He hasn't been doing that for his own amusement; he's been doing it to pay us back for having taken the westlands away from Videssos. If we can cut off the head by taking Videssos the city, the body—the Empire of Videssos—will die. If we can't, our grandchildren will be trying to figure out how to keep the Videssians from taking back everything Sharbaraz has won in his wars.»
«That is why the King of Kings sent us on our long, hard journey,» Tus said. «He agrees with you, lord, that we must uproot the Empire to keep it from growing back and troubling us again in later days.»
«Will the Kubratoi horsemen and single-trunk ships be enough toward helping us get done what needs doing?» Abivard asked.
Piran said, «Their soldiers are much like Khamorth anywhere. They have a lot of warriors because the grazing is good south of the Astris. A few of their fighting men wear mail shirts in place of boiled leather. Some are loot from the Videssians; some are made by smiths there.»
«What about the ships?» Romezan asked, beating Abivard to the question.