Worry over Roshnani also made Abivard more likely to wallop Varaz than he would have been were he calm. Abivard, knowing that, tried to hold his temper in check. It wasn't easy, not when he trusted Yeliif not at all. But he could no more have kept Roshnani from going to see Denak than he could have held some impetuous young man out of battle. He sighed, wishing relations between husband and wife could be managed by orders given and received as they were on the battlefield.

Then he wished he hadn't thought of the battlefield. Time seemed elastic now, as it did in the middle of a hot fight An hour or two seemed to go by; then he looked at a shadow on the floor and realized that only a few minutes had passed. A little later an hour did slide past without his even noticing. Servants startled him when they brought in smoked meats and saffron rice for his luncheon; he'd thought it still midmorning. Roshnani came back not long after the servitors had cleared away the dishes. «I wouldn't have minded eating more, though they fed me there,» she said, and then, «Ah, they left the wine. Good. Pour me a cup, would you, while I use the pot. Not something you do in the company of the principal wife of the King of Kings, even if she is your sister-in-law.» She undid the buckles on her sandals and kicked the shoes across the room, then sighed with pleasure as her toes dug into the rug.

Abivard poured the wine and waited patiently till she got a chance to drink it. Along with wanting to ease herself, she also had to prove to her children that she hadn't fallen off the edge of the world while she had been gone. But finally, wine in hand, she sat down on the floor pillows and got the chance to talk with her husband.

«She looks well,» she said at once. «In fact, she looks better than well. She looks smug. The wizards have made the same test with her that Tanshar did with me. They think she'll bear a boy.»

«By the God,» Abivard said softly, and then, «May it be so.»

«May it be so, indeed,» Roshnani agreed, «though there are some here at court who would sing a different song. I name no names, mind you.»

«Names?» Abivard's voice was the definition of innocence. «I have no idea who you could mean.» Off in a corner of the room the children were quarreling again. Instead of shouting for them to keep quiet as he usually would have, Abivard was grateful. He used their racket to cover his own quiet question: «So her bitterness is salved, is it?»

«Some,» Roshnani answered. «Not all. She wishes—and who could blame her?—this moment had come years before.» She spoke so softly, Abivard had to bend so his head was close to hers.

«No one could blame her,» he said as softly. But he had a harder time than usual blaming Sharbaraz here. The King of Kings could pick and choose among the most beautiful women of Makuran. Given that chance, should anyone have been surprised he took advantage of it?

Roshnani might have been thinking along with him, for she said, «The King of Kings needs to get an heir for the realm on his principal wife if he can, just as a dihqan needs to get an heir for his domain. Failing in this is neglecting your plain duty.»

«It's more enjoyable carrying out some duties than others,» Abivard observed, which won him a snort from Roshnani. He went on, «What news besides that of the coming boy?» The wizards' predictions weren't always right, but maybe speaking as if they were would help persuade the God to let this one be.

«Denak notes she will have more influence over the King of Kings for the next few months than she has enjoyed lately,» Roshnani said; in her voice Abivard could hear echoes of his sister's weary, disappointed tones. «How long this lasts afterward will depend on how wise the wizards prove to be. May the lady Shivini prove them so.»

Now Abivard echoed her: «Aye, may that be so.» Then he remembered the six squabbling sorcerers he'd assembled in Nashvar. If he'd needed a curative for the notion that mages were always preternaturally wise and patient, they'd given him one.

Roshnani said, «Your sister thinks Sharbaraz will soon give you leave to go back to your command in the land of the Thousand Cities.»

«It's not really the command I want,» Abivard said. «I want to be back at the head of the field force and take it into the Videssian westlands again. If we're on the move there, maybe we can keep Maniakes from attacking the Thousand Cities this year.» He paused and laughed at himself. «I'm trying to spin moonshine into thread, aren't I? I'll be lucky to have any command at all; getting the one I particularly want is too much to ask.»

«You deserve it,» Roshnani said, her voice suddenly fierce.

«I know I do,» he answered without false modesty. «But that has only so much to do with the price of wine. What does Tzikas deserve? To have his mouth pried open and molten lead poured down his gullet by us and the Videssians both. What will he get? The way to bet is that he'll get to die old and happy and rich, even if nobody on whichever side of the border on which he ends up trusts him as far as I could throw him. Where's the justice there?»

«He will drop into the Void and be gone forever while you spend eternity in the bosom of the God,» Roshnani said.

«That's so—or I hope that's so,» Abivard said. It did give him some satisfaction, too; the God was as real to him as the pillow on which he sat. But– «I won't see him drop into the Void, and where's the justice there, after what he's done to me?»

«That I can't answer,» his principal wife said with a smile. She held up a forefinger. «But Denak said to tell you to remember your prophecy whenever you feel too downhearted.»

Abivard bowed low as he sat, bending almost double. He would never see a silver shield shining across a narrow sea if he remained commander in the land of the Thousand Cities. «I may have been wrong,» he said humbly. «There may be some use to foretelling, after all. Knowing I will see what was foretold lets me bear up under insults meanwhile.»

«Under some insults, for some time, certainly,» Roshnani replied. «But Tanshar didn't say when you would see these things. You're a young man still; it might be thirty years from now.»

«It might be,» Abivard agreed. «I don't think it is, though. I think it's connected to the war between Makuran and Videssos. That's what everything about it has seemed to mean. When it comes, whatever it ends up meaning, it will decide the war, one way or the other.» He held up a hand, palm out «I don't know that for a fact, but I think it's true even so.»

«All right,» Roshnani said. «You should also know you're going back to the land of the Thousand Cities for a while, because you didn't see the battle Bogorz' scrying showed you.»

«That's true; I didn't,» Abivard admitted. «Or I don't think I did, anyhow. I don't remember seeing it» The frown gave way to a sheepish laugh. «Is it a true prophecy if it happens but no one notices?»

«Take that one to the Videssians,» Roshnani said. «They'll spend so much time arguing over it, they won't be ready to invade us when the campaigning season starts.»

By her tone of voice, she was only half joking. From his time spent among the Videssians, Abivard thoroughly understood that If a problem admitted of two points of view, some Videssians would take the one and some the other, as far as he could tell for the sake of disputation. And if a problem admitted of only one point of view, some Videssians would take that and some the other, again for the sake of disputation.

Roshnani said, «If we understand the prophecies rightly, you'll beat Maniakes in the land of the Thousand Cities. If you don't beat him there, you won't have the chance to go back into the Videssian westlands and draw near Videssos the city, now, will you?»

«I don't see how I would, anyhow,» Abivard said. «But then, I don't see everything there is to see, either.»