She had known few relaxed men in her life. After all that had happened since she and her sister were led into captivity, she found that prospect rather refreshing.
“I’ll bet he could hold a breadstick,” the man muttered. “You got any breadsticks in India?”
A general and an historian
“Let’s quit for the day,” said Belisarius. “Tomorrow we can start with the campaign into Mesopotamia. But I’ve got to get ready for the staff conference. Can’t forget, after all, that I’m waging a campaign now. Or will be, soon enough.”
Obediently, Calopodius leaned back in his chair, leaving unspoken the next question he had been about to ask. The scribe began putting away the writing equipment.
“How soon, do you think?” Technically, of course, an historian had no business asking such a question. But from their days of close association, Calopodius had become much bolder in the kind of questions he would ask his general.
“Too soon to tell,” replied Belisarius, shrugging. “As always, it depends mostly on logistics. Which is complicated enough on paper, much less in the real world. At a guess? Not more than a few weeks.”
He gestured with a thumb toward the north, where the sound of distant cannon fire was more or less constant, day and night. “I see no reason at all to give the Malwa any more of a breathing space than I absolutely must. Time is something which is entirely on that monster’s side, not mine.”
Calopodius hesitated. Then, boldly: “And what, would you say, is the factor which is most on your side?”
Belisarius stared at the young historian. Calopodius was so acute than Belisarius tended to forget about his blindness. But now, remembering, he let his crooked smile spread across his face in a manner so exaggerated that it would have brought down instant derision and sarcasm from Maurice and Sittas. Who, happily, were not present.
So he indulged himself in the smile. And indulged himself, as well, by speaking the plain and simple truth.
“The biggest factor in my favor is that I’m just a lot better at this than the monster is. Way better. War is an art, not a science. And for all that monster’s superhuman intelligence, it’s got about as much of an artistic streak as a carrot.”
He rose to his feet and stretched his arms, working out the stiffness of a two hour session sitting in a chair, recounting his history.
“There are times,” he said softly, “when I wish I could have been a blacksmith. But then there are other times when I’m glad I couldn’t. This time and place more than any other in my life. War is also an honorable trade, after all—or can be, at least. And I suspect I’m a lot better at it than I ever would have been as a blacksmith.”
He cocked his head a little, listening to the gunfire. “Soon, Calopodius. Soon I’ll put paid to that monster. And teach it, and its masters, that a professional craftsman at the top of his trade can’t possibly be matched by any know-it-all cocksure dilettante.”
Cast of Characters
From the future
Aide: A representative of a crystalline race from the far distant future, allied with Belisarius. Originally developed as an artificial intelligence by the Great Ones to combat the “DNA plague,” the crystals became instrumental in the formation of the Great Ones themselves. Aide is sent back in time to counter the efforts of the “new gods” to change the course of human history.
Great Ones: Originating out of humanity, the Great Ones are a completely transformed type of human life. They no longer bear any physical resemblance to their human ancestors. Indeed, they are not even based on protoplasmic biological principles.
Link: An artificial intelligence created by the “new gods” of the future and sent back in time to change the course of human history. It exists in the form of a cybernetic organism, transferring its mental capacity from one human host to another as each host dies.
New gods: A quasi-religious cult from the far future which is determined to prevent the various mutations and transformations which humanity has undergone during the millions of years of its spread through the galaxy. There being no way to overturn that present reality, the new gods decide to stop the process early in human history. They send Link back in time to create a world empire based in northern India, organized along rigid caste principles, which will serve as the basis for a eugenics program to create a race of “perfect” humans.