“What you say involves not us alone, but those to whom we are responsible.”
“You want to touch the jewel yourself,” said Belisarius gently.
Garmat shook his head, smiling.
“Certainly not! At my age, terrible visions are the last thing I need. I’ve seen enough of those already.”
Belisarius shifted his gaze—and, subtly, his hand—to the Prince. “Eon, then.”
The prince stared at the jewel, his brow furrowed with thought. Thought only, however, not fear—so much was obvious to all who watched. Belisarius was not the only one present, then, who saw the adult majesty of the future in that dark young face.
“No,” said Eon, finally. “I do not trust myself yet.” He turned to Ousanas. “Take it.”
“Why me?”
“You are my dawazz. I trust you more than any man living. Take it.”
Ousanas stared at his charge. Then, without moving his eyes, extended his hand to Belisarius. The general placed the jewel on his palm.
A moment later, the dawazz closed his hand; and left the world, for a time.
When he returned, and opened his eyes, he seemed completely unchanged. The others present were a bit surprised. Belisarius was astonished.
When the dawazz spoke, however, the general thought he detected a slight tremor in his rich baritone.
His first words were to his Prince.
“Always dawazz wonders. And fears.”
He took a deep breath, and briefly looked away. “No longer. You were great prince. King, at the end.”
The dawazz fumbled for words.
“Oh, stop speaking pidgin!” snapped Eon.
Ousanas cast him an exasperated look.
“It was your silly idea in the first place.” The dawazz glanced at Garmat, unkindly. “And you backed him up.”
Garmat shrugged. Ousanas grinned at the Romans. (That much, at least, had not changed. Not the grin.)
“You must forgive my companions,” said the dawazz. His Greek was now perfect, mellifluous, and completely unaccented. Belisarius managed not to gape. His cataphracts failed.
“The boy has the excuse, at least, of tender years. His adviser, only the excuse of doddering old age. And, of course, the fact that he is half-Arab. A folk who would rather scheme than eat.”
Again, the unkind glance. But the glance fell away, softening. “Always an Arab, and a full one, at the end. After Kaleb died, Garmat, you returned to Arabia. You died well there, in the Nejed, leading your beloved bedouin against the Malwa.”
He shrugged. “You lost, of course. Not even the bedouin in their desert could withstand the Indian juggernaut. Not after the Malwa brought the Lakhmites under their rule, and broke the Beni Ghassan, and dispersed the Quraysh from Mecca.”
“You saw the future, then,” stated Garmat.
“Oh, yes. Yes, indeed. And it was just as terrible as foretold.” Ousanas’ eyes grew vacant. “I saw the future until the moment of my own death. I died somewhat ignominiously, I regret to say, from disease brought on by a wound. No glorious wound won in single combat with a champion, alas. Just one of those random missiles which are such a curse to bards and storytellers.”
He glanced at Menander and veered away from the subject of wound-produced diseases. Instead, he smiled at the prince.
“Your end, I do not know, Eon. I died in your arms, in the course of the trek which the surviving Ethiopians undertook under your leadership. South, to my homeland between the lakes, where you hoped to found a new realm which might still resist the Malwa. Although you had no great hope in success.”
He fell silent.
“You speak perfect Greek,” complained Valentinian.
Ousanas grimaced. “I suspect, my dear Valentinian, that I speak it considerably better than you do. With all respect, I am the best linguist that I know. It comes from being raised in the heart of Africa, I suspect, among savages. In the land between the great lakes, there are at least eighteen languages spoken. I knew seven of them by the time I was twelve, and learned most of the rest soon thereafter.”
The grin lit up the cabin. “At the age, that is, when the urge to seduction comes to vigorous lads. My own tribe, sad to say, was much opposed to fornication outside proper channels. Other tribes enjoyed more rational customs, but alas, spoke other tongues. So I became adept at learning languages, a habit I have found it useful to maintain.”