An Oblique Approach by David Drake and Eric Flint

Yes, they were clearly even more foreign than the Indians—in habits as well as in appearance, Belisarius guessed. He chuckled softly, seeing how poorly the young prince wore the strange Byzantine costume he found himself encumbered within.

“It is a bit funny,” agreed Irene quietly. “I think he’s used to wearing a whole lot less clothing, in his own climate.”

“Too bad he didn’t come here a couple of centuries ago,” added Antonina, “when Romans still wore togas. He’d have been a lot more comfortable, I think.”

“So would I,” muttered Sittas. He glanced down, with considerable disfavor, at the heavy knee-length embroidered coat which he was wearing. It felt almost as heavy as cataphract armor.

“How did we get saddled with these outfits?” he groused. “Instead of nice, comfortable togas?”

“We got them from the Huns,” whispered Irene. “Who, in turn, got them from the Chinese.”

Sittas goggled. “You’re kidding!” He glared down at his coat. “You mean to tell me I’m wearing a filthy damned Hunnish costume?”

Irene nodded, smiling. “Odd how civilization works, isn’t it? It’s your fault, you know—soldiers, I mean, not you personally. Once you got obsessed with cavalry you started insisting on wearing Hun trousers.” She smirked. “Why you insisted on including the coats into the bargain is a mystery.”

“How do you know so much, woman?” grumbled Sittas. “It’s unseemly.”

“I don’t spend all day drinking and complaining that there’s nothing else to do.”

Sittas glowered. “Damn intelligence in a woman, anyway. Should never have let them learn how to read. It’s the only good thing about Thracians, you know. They keep their women barefoot and ignorant.”

“It’s true,” whispered Antonina. “Belisarius only lets me wear shoes on special occasion like these.” She glanced down admiringly at the preposterous, rickety, high-heeled contraptions on her feet. “And when I’m dancing naked on his bare chest, of course, with my whip and my iced sherbet.”

“And that’s another thing,” groused Sittas. “Show me an intelligent woman, and I’ll show you one with a sense of humor. Aimed at men, naturally.” He glared around the huge room, singling out every single woman in it for a moment’s glower. Although, in truth, most of them seemed neither particularly intelligent nor quick-witted.

Belisarius ignored the byplay. He had long since reconciled himself to his wife’s sometimes outrageous jokes. He rather enjoyed them, actually. Although, glancing at the monstrosities on Antonina’s little feet, he almost shuddered to think of them tearing great wounds in his body.

He concentrated again on the Axumites. There were only five of them, which, he had heard, was the entirety of their embassy. He glanced back at the Indians and smiled. The Axumites had sent five for a full diplomatic mission, whereas the Indians—who presented themselves as a mere trade delegation—had sent upward of twenty.

The smile faded. Some of those twenty were purely decorative, but by no means all of them. Perhaps one or two were actually even interested in trade, but Belisarius had no doubt that at least ten of the Indian delegation were nothing more than outright spies.

As if reading his thoughts, Irene whispered:

“I’ve heard half of the Indians have announced plans to set up permanent residence. To foster and encourage trade, they say.”

“No doubt,” muttered the general. “There’s always a good traffic in treason, in this town.”

Irene leaned over and whispered even more softly:

“Do you see the one on the far left?” she asked. “And the heavyset one toward the middle, wearing a yellow coat with black embroidery?” She was not looking at them at all, Belisarius noticed. He avoided more than a quick glance in the direction of the Malwa envoys.

“Yes, I see them.”

“The one on the left is named Ajatasutra. The heavyset one is called Balban. I’m certain that Ajatasutra is one of the Malwa’s chief spies. About Balban I’m less confident, but I suspect him also. And if my suspicions about Balban are correct, he would be the probable spymaster.”

“Not Ajatasutra?”

Irene’s head-shake was so faint as to be almost unnoticeable.

“No, he’s too obvious. Too much in the forefront.”

Again, it was uncanny the way Irene read his thoughts.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *