«But, your Majesty, publicly humiliating us will make us laughing-stocks in the city,» Vetranios protested. «Good,» Maniakes said. «Don't you think you deserve to be?» Neither merchant answered that. If they agreed, they humiliated themselves. If they disagreed, they contradicted the Avtokrator of the Videssians. Given those choices, silence was better.

Maniakes escorted them out of the room where Bagdasares had performed his sorcery. When he told the guardsmen outside about the sentence, they shouted approval and almost came to blows in their eagerness to be the two who would deliver the kicks.

The Avtokrator came back into the chamber. He found Bagdasares talking shop with Phosteinos and Sozomenos. That convinced him the wizards shared his view of the two merchants from Serrhes. To those two, he said, «I presume you were doing nothing to threaten me. Because of that, you may go.»

They thanked him and left in a hurry, giving him no chance to change his mind. «What was Tzikas doing here so recently?» Bagdasares asked again as soon as they were out of earshot.

«To the ice with me if I know,» Maniakes answered. «It makes no more sense to me now than it did when we first found out about it.» He scowled at Bagdasares even more fiercely than he had at Vetranios and Broios. «But I'm sure of one thing.» «What's that?» Bagdasares asked. «It makes sense to Tzikas.»

For as long as Maniakes stayed in Serrhes, he heard no more from his squabbling merchants. That suited him fine; it meant they were on their best behavior. The other alternative was that it meant they were cheating so well, no one was catching them and complaining. Maniakes supposed that was possible, but he didn't believe it: neither Broios nor Vetranios was likely to be that good a thief.

Rhegorios did keep sighing over Phosia. Maniakes kept threatening him with cold water. After a while, his cousin fell silent.

As long as Abivard had stayed in the Videssian westlands, he'd sent streams of messengers to Maniakes. Once he crossed back into territory long Makuraner, though, the stream shrank to a trickle. Maniakes worried that something had gone wrong.

«What's likely wrong,» Rhegorios said, one day when the Avtokrator had been fretting more than usual, «is that Tegin has got between us and Abivard. The little garrison force couldn't do anything much against Abivard, mind you, but it's big enough to pick off a courier or two.»

«You're right about that, of course,» Maniakes said. «And you're probably right that that's what's causing the trouble. I should have thought of it for myself.» Thinking of everything was part of what went with the Avtokrator's job. That it was impossible didn't make it any less necessary. Every time Maniakes missed a point, he felt bad for days.

He cheered up when a rider did come from out of the west. The fellow wore the full panoply of a Makuraner boiler boy; either he'd worried about running into Tegin's men or about running into Maniakes'. His armor clattered about him as he prostrated himself before the Avtokrator of the Videssians.

«Majesty,» he said, rising with noisy grace, «know that the forces led by Abivard the new sun of Makuran have encountered those foolishly loyal to Sharbaraz Pimp of Pimps in the Land of the Thousand Cities. Know further that Abivard's forces have the victory.»

«Good news!» Maniakes exclaimed. «I'm always glad to hear good news.»

The messenger nodded. His chain-mail veil rattled. Above that veil, all Maniakes could see of the man himself were his eyes. They snapped with excitement. «We have Sharbaraz on the run now, Majesty,» he said. «A good part of his army came over to ours, which made him flee back to Mashiz.»

«That's better than good news,» Maniakes said. «Press hard and he's yours. Once his forces start crumbling, they'll go like mud brick in the rain.»

«Even so, or so we hope,» the messenger said. «When I was detached to come east to you, the field force was making ready to follow Sharbaraz's fugitives to the capital.»

«Press hard,» Maniakes repeated. «If you don't, you give Sharbaraz a chance to recover.» From behind the messenger's veil came an unmistakable chuckle. «What's funny?» the Avtokrator asked. «Majesty, you speak my language well,» the messenger answered. Maniakes knew he was politely stretching a point, but let him do it. The fellow went on, «No one, though, would ever take you for a Makuraner, not by the way you say the name of the man Abivard will overthrow.»

Maniakes proved his command of the Makuraner tongue left something to be desired by needing a moment to sort through that and figure out what the messenger meant. «Did I say Sarbaraz again?» he demanded, and the man nodded. Maniakes snapped his fingers in chagrin. «Oh, a pestilence! I've spent a lot of time learning how to pronounce that strange sound you use. His name is… is… Sarbaraz.» He started to raise a hand in triumph, then realized he'd failed again. Really angry now, he concentrated hard. «Sar… Sar… Sharbaraz! There.»

«Well done!» the messenger said. «Most of you hissing, squeaking Videssians never do manage to get that one right, try as you will.»

«You can tell a Makuraner by the way he speaks Videssian, too,» Maniakes said, to which the messenger nodded. Maniakes went on, «You haven't—or Abivard hasn't—by any chance got word of where Tzikas is lurking these days?»

«The traitor? No, indeed, Majesty. I wish I did know, though I'd tell Abivard before I told you. He's offering a good-sized reward for word of him and a bigger one for his head.» «So am I,» Maniakes said.

«Are you?» The Makuraner's eyes widened. «How much?» His people claimed to scorn Videssians as a race of merchants and shopkeepers. Maniakes' experience was that the men of Makuran were no more immune to the lure of gold and silver than anyone else. And when Maniakes told him how much he might earn for finding Tzikas, he whistled softly. «If I hear anything, I'll tell you and not Abivard.»

«Tell whichever of us has the best chance of catching the renegade,» Maniakes said. «If he is caught thanks to you, get word to me and I'll make good the difference between Abivard's reward and mine, I promise. Tell all your friends, too, and tell them to tell their friends.»

«I'll do that,» the messenger promised.

«Good,» Maniakes said. «If I had to guess, I'd say he's somewhere not far from here, but I know that could be wildly wrong.» He explained what he'd learned from Vetranios and Phosteinos.

«He is more likely to be here than he is in the Land of the Thousand Cities or in Mashiz, I think,» the messenger said. «Here, at least, he can open his mouth without betraying himself every time he does it.»

«When Tzikas opens his mouth, he betrays other people, not himself,» Maniakes said, which made the messenger laugh. «You think I'm joking,» the Avtokrator told him. He was, but only to a degree. And the Makuraner's comments made him thoughtful. If Tzikas wanted to disappear in the westlands, he could. Maniakes had found it impossible to imagine a Tzikas who wanted to disappear. He admitted to himself he might have been wrong.

He gave the messenger a goldpiece, warned him about Tegin's small force of men still loyal to Sharbaraz, and sent him back to Abivard with congratulations. That done, he went outside the city governor's residence instead of getting on to the next order of business in Serrhes.

Everything looked normal. A few peasants from the surrounding countryside were selling sheep and pigs and ducks. Some other peasants, having made their sales, were buying pots and hatchets and other things they couldn't get on their farms. One of them was showing a harlot some money. The two went off together. If the peasant's wife ever found out about that, Maniakes could think of at least one thing the fellow wasn't likely to get on the farm.

So many people: tall, short, bald, hairy, young, old. And, if Tzikas had decided to disappear instead of trying to get his revenge, he might have been about one out of three of the men. The thought was disquieting, freighted as it was with a heavy burden of anticlimax.