Kay, Guy Gavriel – Sarantine Mosaic 01 – Sailing to Sarantium

By the woman on the throne, certainly. The Emperor’s return to good humour was manifestly unfeigned. Crispin, looking at the two thrones, abruptly thought of Ilandra, with the queer inner twist, as of a blade, that still came whenever he did so. Had his wife made the same sort of openly provocative remark he, too, would have been relaxed enough to find it amusing, so sure had he been of her. Valerius was like that with his Empress. Crispin wondered-not for the first time-what it would have been like to be wed to a woman one could not trust. He glanced at the Strategos, Leontes. The tall man wasn’t laughing. Neither was his aristo­cratic bride. There might be many reasons for that, mind you.

‘The jewel,’ said the Emperor ‘is still on offer, until Scortius reveals his secret. A pity our Rhodian didn’t see the event, he seems to have so many answers for us.’

‘The racing today, my lord? I did see it. A magnificent spectacle.’ It occurred to Crispin, a little too late, that he might be making another mistake.

Valerius made a wry face. ‘Ah. You are a partisan of the track? We are surrounded by them, of course.’

Crispin shook his head. ‘Hardly a partisan, my lord. Today was the first time I was ever in a hippodrome. My escort, Carullus of the Fourth Sauradian, who is here to meet with the Supreme Strategos, was good enough to be my guide to the running of the chariots.’ It couldn’t hurt Carullus to have his name mentioned here, he thought.

‘Ah, well then. As a first-timer you wouldn’t be able to address the question in any case. Go ahead, Scortius. We await enlightenment.’

‘Oh, no. No, let us ask him, my lord,’ said Styliane Daleina. There really was malice in her cold beauty. ‘As our thrice-exalted Emperor says, the arti­san seems to know so much. Why should the chariots be beyond his grasp?’

‘There is much that lies beyond me, my lady,’ Crispin said, as mildly as he could. ‘But I shall endeavour to … satisfy you.’ He smiled in turn, briefly. He was paying a price for what he’d done inadvertently to her artisan, and for the deliberate reference to her pearl. He could only hope the price would stop at barbed innuendoes.

Alixana said, from her throne, ‘The question we debated at dinner, Rhodian, was this: how did Scortius know to surrender the inside track in the first race of the afternoon? He let the Green chariot come inside him, deliberately, and led poor Crescens straight into disaster.’

‘I recall it, my lady. It led the tribune of the Fourth Sauradian into a financial disaster, as well.’

A weak sally. The Empress did not smile. ‘How regrettable for him. But none of us has been able to offer an explanation that matches the answer our splendid charioteer is holding in reserve. He has promised to tell us. Do you wish to hazard a guess before he does?’

‘There is,’ Valerius added, ‘no shame attached to not knowing. Espe­cially if this was your first time at the Hippodrome.’

It never really occurred to him not to answer. Perhaps it should have. Perhaps a more careful man, judging nuances, would have demurred. Martinian would have been such a man, almost certainly.

Crispin said, ‘I have a thought, my lord, my lady. I may be very wrong, of course. I probably am.’

The charioteer beside him glanced over. His eyebrows were raised a little, but his brown-eyed, observant gaze was intrigued and courteous.

Crispin looked back at him, and smiled. ‘It is one thing to sit above the track and ponder how a thing was done, it is another to do it at speed on the sands. Whether I am right or not, permit me to salute you. I did not expect to be moved today, and I was.’

‘You do me too much honour,’ Scortius murmured.

‘What is it, then?’ said the Emperor. ‘Your thought, Rhodian? There is an Ispahani ruby to be claimed.’

Crispin looked at him and swallowed. He hadn’t known, of course, what was on offer. This was no trivial prize; it was wealth, from the far­thest east. He turned back to Scortius, clearing his throat. ‘Would it have to do with light and dark in the crowd?’

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