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had to pay them for entertaining the people.
They certainly were entertaining Parsmanios. His brother laughed long and hard
until the elder Maniakes leaned over and said something to him in a low voice.
Parsmanios sobered after that, but the sullen looks he sent his father said
his mind had not been changed. No one spoke to Kourikos. Maniakes' former
father-in-law showed more enjoyment of the mimes' crude jokes than seemed
quite fitting in such a normally humorless man.
One troupe's lampoon was of the patriarch Agathios, for being too spineless to
do a proper job of condemning Maniakes and Lysia. The fellow playing him
raised an angry hand, drew it back in fright, raised it, drew it back.
Finally, a man dressed in an ordinary priest's robe gave him a kick in the
fundament that sent him leaping high in the air.
Tzikas guffawed at that skit. Agathios assumed what was probably meant to be
an expression of grave dignity, but looked more as if he had been sucking on a
lemon.
At last, the ordeal ended. The crowd in the Amphitheater didn't hiss and
scream curses at Maniakes when he rose to dismiss them. Not too many of them
laughed at him. He considered that a major triumph.
When he and Lysia got back to the imperial residence, it was as still and
quiet as it ever got: most of the servants and several members of his family
were off reveling in Videssos the city. Lysia looked down the empty corridors
and said, "Well, we got through it and we don't have to worry about it for
another year. The good god willing, the mime troupes will have something
besides us to give them ideas by then."
Maniakes caught her to him. "Have I told you anytime lately that I like the
way you think?"
"Yes," she answered, "but I always like to hear it."
"A message from Abivard, you say?" Maniakes asked Kameas. "By all means, let's
have it. If it's word Triphylles has been released, that'll be news good
enough to warm this miserably cold day."
"True, your Majesty," the vestiarios said. "The servitors are stoking the
furnace and the hot air is going through the hypocausts, but sometimes " He
shrugged. " the weather defeats us in spite of all we can do."
"A lot of things lately have defeated us in spite of all we can do," Maniakes
said wearily. "Sooner or later, the weather will get better. So will the
rest I hope. Send in the messenger."
After the fellow had prostrated himself, and while he was gratefully sipping
at a steaming cup of wine spiced with cinnamon and myrrh, Maniakes opened the
leather message tube he had given him. The Avtokrator was becoming all too
familiar with the lion of Makuran on scarlet wax that Abivard used to seal his
messages. He broke the wax, unrolled the parchment, and read the letter his
foe had commanded some poor Videssian to write for him:
Abivard general to Sharbaraz King of Kings, may his years be many and his
realm increase, to Maniakes styling himself Avtokrator of the Videssians:
Greetings. I regret to inform you that the man Triphylles, whom you sent as an
envoy to the glorious court of Sharbaraz King of Kings, and who was
subsequently imprisoned as just and fit punishment for undue and intolerable
insolence before his majesty, has suffered the common ultimate fate of all
mankind. I pray the God shall accept his spirit with compassion. In lieu of
returning his corpse to you, Sharbaraz King of Kings ordered it cremated,
which was of course accomplished before word of these events reached me so
that I might transmit them to you.
Maniakes read through the missive twice. He still could not and did
not believe Triphylles had acted insolently enough for any prince to find
reason to cast him into prison. The noble had begged not to be sent to the
Makuraner court at Mashiz, but Maniakes had overborne his objections. He had
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been confident Sharbaraz adhered to civilized standards of conduct. And now
Triphylles was dead after a long spell in gaol, and who was to blame for that?
Sharbaraz, certainly, but also Maniakes.
"Fetch me sealing wax and a lamp," he said to Kameas. As the eunuch hurried
away, Maniakes inked a pen and wrote his answer. "Maniakes Avtokrator of the
Videssians to Abivard slave to Sharbaraz Liar of Liars, Killer of Killers:
Greetings. I have received your word of the mistreatment and tragic death of
my emissary, the eminent Triphylles. Tell your master one thing from me, and
one thing only: he shall be avenged."
When Kameas returned with the stick of wax and a lighted lamp, he took one
look at Maniakes' face and said, "A misfortune has befallen the eminent
Triphylles." He sketched the sun-sign above his plump breast.
"It has indeed: a mortal misfortune," Maniakes answered grimly. He tied his
letter with ribbon and pressed his sunburst signet into hot wax. Then he
popped it into the tube and gave it to the messenger. "Deliver this into
Abivard's hands, or into those of his servants."
"I shall do as you say, of course, your Majesty." The messenger saluted with
clenched right fist laid over his heart.
"Very well." Maniakes shook his head in sad bewilderment. "When I fought
alongside them, Abivard and Sharbaraz seemed decent enough fellows." He
plucked at his beard. "For that matter, Abivard still seems decent enough. War
is a nasty business, no doubt of that, but he hasn't made it any filthier than
it has to be no great massacres in the towns he's taken, nothing of the sort.
But Sharbaraz, now . . . Sitting on the throne of Mashiz has gone to his head,
unless I'm sadly wrong."
The messenger stood mute. Quietly, Kameas said, "We have seen that in Videssos
the city, too, your Majesty. Likinios came to think that anything could be so,
simply because he ordered it; Genesios spilled an ocean of blood for the sport
of it and because he was afraid of his own shadow "
"And the more blood he spilled, the more reason he had to be afraid," Maniakes
broke in.
"That is nothing less than the truth, your Majesty," Kameas agreed. "We find
ourselves fortunate with you."
The vestiarios did not lay flattery on with a trowel, as if it were cement not
with Maniakes, at any rate, no matter what he might have done for Genesios. He
had seen the present wearer of the red boots did not care for such things. Now
Maniakes had a disheartening thought: he imagined all his servants watching
him, wondering if and how he would turn into a monster. So far, Kameas, at
least, seemed satisfied he hadn't. That was something.
He waved to the messenger. The man nodded and hurried off to do his bidding.
He would have been astonished and angry had the fellow done anything else. If
you expected absolute obedience all the time, who would warn you when you
started giving orders that did not deserve to be obeyed? If someone did warn
you, what were you liable to do to him? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]