“If need be. But there is a way to avoid the entire problem. Simply give my nobles a different field of conquest. Or, it might be better to say, a vast new realm in which to exercise their energies and ambitions.” Khusrau shrugged. “Not even the Aryan azadan”—the term meant men of noble birth, and referred to the class of armored knights who formed the backbone of Persia’s military strength—”are enamored of war for its own sake, after all. Give them new lands, new wealth, new areas in which to exercise their authority and their talents . . .”
He let the thought trail off, certain that the two other people in the room would see the point.
Antonina, for one, did not. She saw not a trailing thought, but a vast leap of logic.
“You can’t be serious, Emperor! If you march into Central Asia, you will clash with the Kushans. Who, comes to it”—her jaws set—”are ultimately a more important ally for Rome than Persia. At least in the long run. And the same if you march into the Deccan against our Maratha allies. That leaves only the Ganges plain, and that would embroil you in an endless war with the Malwa successor state. In a land teeming with a multitude of people who have no reason—none!—to welcome another wave of conquerors from the west. The whole idea—”
“That’s not what he’s talking about, Antonina,” interrupted Belisarius. The Roman general had followed the trailing thought to its logical end point. “He’s talking about the Indus valley.”
Belisarius scratched his chin. “Whose political future, now that the subject is raised, we have never really decided. I assumed some sort of military occupation, in the interim, followed by—”
“Lengthy negotiations!” barked Khusrau. “With me bidding against Shakuntala and Kungas, and Rome acting as an ‘honest broker’!” He snorted. “And probably against someone else, too. As Antonina says, the Ganges will not remain unruled for long after Malwa’s fall. Even leaving aside those damned Rajputs perched on the border.”
He swept his hand in a firm gesture. “So let us forestall the whole process. The Indus will go to the Aryans. The delta, at the very least, and the valley itself to the edge of the Thar desert and as far north as the fork with the Chenab.”
“Sukkur and the gorge,” countered Antonina immediately. “Further north than that, you’ll simply have endless trouble with the Rajputs and the Kushans.” She smiled sweetly. “Let them bicker over control of the Punjab. You’ll have the whole of the Sind, which is more than enough to keep the azadan busy. Besides—”
“Enough!” snapped Belisarius. He glared at Antonina, and then transferred the glare to Khusrau.
“We are not going to get into this. Neither Antonina nor I have the authority to negotiate such things for the Roman Empire. And you can be quite certain that Theodora is going to have a tighter fist than”—another glare—”my idiot wife. Whose only purpose in agreeing with you—”
“Is because it makes her proposal workable,” concluded Khusrau forcefully. “It means your thrust into the central valley can be done by me, leading an army of dehgans, instead of requiring you to split your own forces. It simplifies your logistics enormously, and makes possible moving up the assault on Barbaricum and the seizure of the delta.”
Belisarius’ eyes almost bulged. “By you? That’s impossible, Khusrau! You’re needed here in Persia to—”
He broke off, choking a little.
Khusrau’s teeth were gleaming in his beard, now. “To keep the Empire of Iran and non-Iran stable? To keep the always restive azadan from their endless plots and schemes? So that Mesopotamia can continue to serve as the stable entrepot for the campaign in the Indus?”
Antonina was unable to suppress a giggle. “That’s one way to keep the azadan from being, ah, ‘restive.’ Take them off on a great plundering expedition. Like the Achaemenids of old!” Without rising from her chair, she gave Khusrau an exaggerated bow. “Hail, Cyrus reborn!”
Khusrau chuckled, and returned the bow with a nod. “Darius, at the very least.” He moved his eyes back to Belisarius. “You do have wide-ranging authority on anything that concerns military affairs. You can always present the thing to Empress Theodora—excuse me, Empress Regent Theodora—as a necessity for the success of the campaign against the Malwa.”