Videssians being the sort of people they were, the courier's arrival seemed a signal for officers of all ranks to converge on Maniakes, trying to learn what news the fellow had brought. «Cheeky as sparrows, the lot of them,» Rhegorios complained after he finally made it to Maniakes' side. «Haven't they got any patience?»

«Almost as much as you,» the Avtokrator said, earning himself a glare from his first cousin. He turned to the courier. «Give his highness the Sevastos your message, the same as you gave it to me.»

«Aye, your Majesty,» the man said, and repeated himself for Rhegorios.

Rhegorios listened intently, then nodded. «Isn't that interesting?» he said when the courier was done. He raised an eyebrow and asked Maniakes, «What do you intend to do about it?»

«By the good god, not one thing,» Maniakes answered. «Having the Kubratoi overrun the countryside, even if they do it all the way down to the walls of Videssos the city, isn't essential, because the city won't fall to them. What we're doing here is essential. If we take Mashiz, the Makuraners will have to pull troops out of the westlands to deal with that. So we'll go on doing exactly what we have been doing, and worry about Etzilios later.»

«Cousin, that is an excellent plan,» Rhegorios said. «For that matter, it's not only getting the Makuraners to commit troops from our westlands. Getting them to commit Abivard's force, wherever that is, has been hard enough.»

«If crossing the Tib won't do it, nothing will,» Maniakes predicted. He looked thoughtful. «I wonder if Abivard is hanging back on purpose, hoping we'll take out Sharbaraz and leave him a clear path to the throne. His sister is married to the King of Kings, after all, which gives him a claim of sorts.»

«My sister is married to the Avtokrator of the Videssians,» Rhegorios pointed out. «And I, I assure you, have no interest in claiming our throne.»

Maniakes nodded. As a courtier, Rhegorios had to say that. In his case, Maniakes was convinced it was true. How true it was for Abivard, though, was liable to be a different question. «From things I've heard, I don't think Sharbaraz trusts his brother-in-law as far as I trust mine.»

«Your Majesty is gracious.»

«My Majesty is stinking tired of distractions, is what my Majesty is,» Maniakes said, his scorn for his own title bringing a smile to Rhegorios' lips. «I am not going to let myself be distracted, not here, not now. I know where I need to go, I think I know how to get there from where I am, and I think I know what happens when I do. Stacked against all that, Etzilios is a small loaf of bread.»

«No doubt you're right,» Rhegorios said. «We're that close—» He held up thumb and forefinger, each almost touching the other. «—to paying back a decade of debt and more.»

«That close,» Maniakes echoed. He imitated his cousin's gesture and then, slowly and deliberately, brought thumb and forefinger together till they touched. Rhegorios smiled a hungry smile.

Maniakes stared across the Tib, a discontented expression on his face. The river ran strongly toward the north, blocking his way across it, blocking his way toward Mashiz. Beside him, Ypsilantes also looked unhappy. The engineer's earlier confidence now seemed misplaced. «The spring floods are strong and long this year,» he remarked.

«So they are,» Maniakes said. «It is as Phos wills.» Even as he spoke the words, he wondered why the good god would prevent Makuran from being chastised for all its people had done to Videssos and to Phos himself. Maybe the Makuraner God held some sway here, after all. Or maybe the God was in league with Skotos against the lord with the great and good mind.

Across the Tib, parties of Makuraner foot soldiers looked to be readying a warm reception for the Videssians. Back out of sight, back behind the imperial army, that infantry force Maniakes had evaded was still dogging his heels. Their general didn't have all the resources Abivard had enjoyed the year before, but he was making the most of what he did have.

He was on Ypsilantes' mind, too. The chief engineer said, «We haven't the time to sit down in one place and work out what all it will take to cross the river with it running the way it is. If we do sit down, we'll have a battle on our hands sooner than we'd like.»

«Yes.» Maniakes fixed him with a sour stare. «I thought you said you could come up with any number of expedients for getting over the Tib.»

«For one thing, your Majesty, like I say, I didn't figure it'd be running so high,» Ypsilantes replied with some dignity. «And, for another, I did expect more time to work. An army that's digging a canal to divert the Tib can't leave off and start fighting again at a moment's notice.»

«If you spoke so plain to Sharbaraz, he'd probably thank you by tearing out your tongue,» Maniakes said. «Sometimes what's true matters more than what sounds good at the moment, though. I try to remember that.»

«I know you do, your Majesty,» Ypsilantes answered. «That's why the only people who need fear you are the ones who have done wrong.»

«You're kinder than I deserve,» Maniakes said, «and, if you want to see how kindly I can be, find us a way to get over the Tib no matter how it's running.»

«I'll do everything I can,» the engineer said. «Right now, though. I haven't got any good ideas.»

«They have the bridges of boats that usually run across the river.» Maniakes pointed to the far bank of the Tib. «We won't see any of them. How do we substitute without using those palm trees you hate so much? How do we make sure we don't have to use the natives' horrible boats made of skins?»

«Common sense is plenty to make sure we don't want those boats,» Ypsilantes said. He looked unhappy again, now at the world rather than at Maniakes in particular. «What's left, then?» the Avtokrator asked. «We need boats of some sort or another, your Majesty,» Ypsilantes replied. «If we can't get anything better, those hide monstrosities will have to do. We need timber. If we can't get anything better, that will have to come from date palms. And if we have to use all those things I wish we didn't, we'll also need more time to get a bridge ready than we would otherwise.»

«What about using the timbers from the stone-throwers and dart-throwers as pieces of the bridge?» Maniakes said.

Ypsilantes shook his head. «We'll need at least some of those engines. When we get within a bowshot of the western bank of the Tib, we'll have to drive back the Makuraner archers so we can extend the bridge all the way out to the end.»

«You know best.» Maniakes took on some of the engineer's jaundiced approach to the topic. «I wish you hadn't told me we'll need more time than we might if we had better materials around here.» He held up a hasty hand. «No, I'm not blaming you. But I don't want to fight those Makuraner foot soldiers slogging after us somewhere back there, not if I can help it.» He turned back toward the east.

«I understand that, your Majesty,» Ypsilantes said. «I'll do everything I can to push the work ahead.» He rubbed his chin. «What I really worry about is Abivard coming out of whatever bushes he's using to hide himself and hitting us a lick when it hurts the most.»

«I'd be lying if I said that thought hadn't also occurred to me.» Maniakes looked east again. «I wish I knew where he was. Even if he were someplace where I couldn't do anything about him– the same way I can't do anything about the Kubratoi—knowing what he might be able to do to me would take a good-sized weight off my mind.»

«That's it, your Majesty,» Ypsilantes agreed. «You can't fight a campaign looking over your shoulder every hour of the day and night, waiting for him to pop up like a hand puppet in a show. Or rather, you can, but you'd be a lot better off if you didn't have to.»

«We'd be better off if a lot of things were different,» Maniakes said. «But they're not, so we're going to have to deal with them as they are.»