“Take as much time as you need,” said Eon. The King rose from his throne. The faint murmurs in the room died away.
“As all of you know,” he said, speaking in a voice loud enough to be heard throughout the chamber, “Axum has formed an alliance with the Roman Empire against the Malwa.” Eon nodded imperiously toward Antonina. “This woman, Antonina, is the wife of the great general Belisarius. She is also an accomplished leader in her own right and is the head of the Roman Empire’s delegation.”
The room was silent. The absence of any whispers indicated the fact that everyone in the room was already quite familiar with Antonina’s position. Eon had suspected as much, but wanted to give emphasis to her importance.
“I wish to have her select my wife from among your daughters,” he announced. “There can be no suspicion of any favoritism, if the choice is made by Rome’s envoy. She will spend a few days in the harem, in order to meet the girls, before making her decision.”
Now, the room was filled with whispers. Antonina, listening carefully to the emotional undertone of the hubbub, decided that Eon’s announcement was meeting with general favor.
Since the negusa nagast was clearly prepared to let the crowd’s quiet little discussion continue for a bit, Antonina took the opportunity to inspect her surroundings. She had been rushed into the audience chamber the moment she arrived in Sana.
The viceroy’s palace, judging from the evidence, suffered more damage from Eon’s recapture of Sana than the city itself. The heavy stone architecture was still intact—Eon had used no gunpowder in his assault, simply the spears of the sarawit—but most of the walls were scorched. The palace walls had been adorned with tapestries, which were now nothing but ashes. Fortunately, the flames had been extinguished before they could do more than slightly char the heavy beams supporting the roof.
The rebel Abreha had made his last stand here. It hadn’t been much of a stand, from the reports Antonina received. Once his Arab auxiliaries had been drawn away from Sana by Antonina’s bait, Abreha’s two rebel regiments had been forced to face the loyal Ethiopian sarawit unaided. Even sheltered behind Sana’s walls, they had had no great stomach for the task.
When word came, from fleeing bedouin, that the Romans had shattered the Arab army at the oasis, most of Abreha’s troops had mutinied. Only two hundred men from his own Metin regiment had remained loyal to him. The rest, and the entire Falha sarwe, had negotiated surrender terms with Eon.
The negusa nagast, filled with youthful fury, had not been inclined to grant anything beyond their lives. But Garmat’s advice prevailed. The Falha sarwe had been reaccepted as a unit, with no repercussions. Even the men from Abreha’s regiment who surrendered had gone unpunished, except that new officers had been appointed. The old ones were cashiered in disgrace.
Abreha and his remaining two hundred rebels had forted up in the viceroy’s palace. The fighting had been ferocious, for about an hour, as spears flashed in rooms and corridors. But Abreha’s two hundred had been overwhelmed by the loyal sarwen pouring through the palace’s many entrances.
There had been no quarter given. Not even Garmat had recommended mercy, after the body of his friend, Sumyafa Ashwa, had been found. The former viceroy had been tortured by the Malwa agents who had advised Abreha in his rebellion. Whatever information the Malwa had extracted from the man had not come easily. Sumyafa had died under the knife.
The Malwa agents had been captured, along with Abreha himself, in the very audience chamber where Antonina was now standing. They had not been tortured, exactly. Ethiopians were not given to lingering forms of death-dealing. Still, the traditional Axumite way of punishing treason was savage enough. The traitors had been disemboweled and then strangled with their own guts. The latter was simply a gruesome flourish, since intestines are too soft to serve as a proper garrote.
Antonina wrinkled her nose. The stench had faded, but it was still powerful. Most of the stone floor, even after hours of scrubbing, was stained with brown marks. Flies were buzzing about everywhere. They seemed to cover every inch of floor where someone was not standing.