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  Holkar did not miss the sly smile.

  "Impudent child," he grumbled.

  "Impudent?" she demanded. "This-coming from you? Wait till the ruler of Tamraparni discovers that he has promised to aid me in my war against Malwa! And his son's hand in marriage!"

  "He has a son," replied Holkar, with dignity. "Several of them, in fact. And I have no doubt that he would have made the offer, if he listened carefully to his advisers."

  Shakuntala laughed. "You are an incorrigible schemer, Dadaji!"

  "Me? You are no slouch yourself, Your Majesty."

  Holkar gave her a wry smile. "Although there are times you petrify me with your boldness. I thought you were mad, to order Rao-"

  "I told you Rome would enter the Persian war immediately," the Empress stated. The satisfaction on the girl's face was obvious. It was not often that the nineteen-year-old Empress had been proven right in a disagreement with her canny, middle-aged peshwa. "And I told you Belisarius would be leading their army."

  "Yes, you did," agreed Holkar. "That was why you overrode my protest at the insane idea of having Rao seize Deogiri immediately. I had thought to wait, until we were certain that Belisarius and the Romans had entered the war."

  The humor left Shakuntala's face. "I had no choice, Dadaji," she whispered. "You were there when Rao's courier told us of Venandakatra's atrocities in the Majarashtra countryside. The beast was murdering ten villagers for every one of his soldiers lost to Rao's raiders."

  Holkar's own face was drawn. "He will butcher even more, in retaliation for Deogiri."

  The Empress shook her head.

  "I think you are wrong, Dadaji. With southern Majarashtra's largest city in our hands, Venandakatra will have no choice. His own status with the Malwa Emperor will depend on retaking Deogiri. He does not have so great an army that he can besiege Deogiri-you know how strong it is; the place is a fortress-and still send his cavalry on punitive rampages throughout the Deccan. Nor can he call for assistance from Emperor Skandagupta. You know as well as I do that the Malwa have been pressing him to release troops for the Persian campaign. With Rome-and Belisarius-now in the war, they will most certainly not send him reinforcements."

  Again, she shook her head. "No, I am right here also-I am sure of it. The pressure on the Maratha country folk will ease, while the Vile One concentrates on Deogiri."

  "And what if he takes Deogiri?" demanded Holkar. "What then? And what if the Malwa defeat the Persians and Romans quickly?"

  Shakuntala laughed. "Quickly? With Belisarius leading the Romans?"

  Holkar smiled. "I admit, the likelihood is not great." He cocked an eye at her. "You're counting on that, aren't you?"

  She nodded-firmly, seriously. "I never would have ordered Rao to take Deogiri, otherwise."

  The look she now gave her adviser was not that of an impetuous child. It was almost ancient in its cold calculation.

  "He is using us, you know-Belisarius, I mean. That was why he freed me from captivity, and gave me most of the treasure he stole from the Malwa. To start a rebellion in their rear, draining forces which would otherwise be sent against him."

  Dadaji nodded. "It is his way of thinking." He studied her face. "You do not seem indignant about the matter," he commented.

  The Empress shrugged. "Why should I be? Belisarius was never dishonest about it. He told me what he was doing. And he also promised me that he would do what was in his power to aid us. Which"-she chuckled-"he is certainly doing."

  She urged her horse into a faster pace. "You know the man well, Dadaji-better than I do, when it comes down to it. He is the most cunning man in the world, yes-unpredictable, in his tactics. But there is one thing about Belisarius which is as predictacle as the sunrise."

  "His honor."

  She nodded. "He promised me. And he has not failed to keep that promise. He will batter the Malwa beasts in Persia, while we bleed them in the Deccan."

  She urged her mount into a trot. There was no reason for that, really, other than her irrepressible energy.

  "I was right to order Rao to seize Deogiri," she pronounced. "Now, we must see to it that he can keep the city."

  Chapter 13

  The Eastern Mediterranean

  Summer, 531 A.D.

  The expedition which set sail from Rhodes toward the end of summer was an impressive armada.

  Antonina had brought a sizable fleet with her from Constantinople, to begin with. She had enough transport ships to carry her grenadiers, the five hundred bucellari under Ashot's command, and the infantrymen from the Army of Syria who would embark later at Seleuceia. The transports, all of them merchant sailing vessels, were escorted by two dromons, the oared warships favored by the Roman navy.

  She had even requisitioned three of the great grain ships. The merchant combines which financed those ships had complained bitterly, despite Anto-nina's generous compensation, but the Empress Theodora had cowed them into submission. Quite easily. A simple frown, a purse of the lips, a glance at the Grand Justiciar. The merchants had suddenly discovered their compensation was quite ample, thank you.

  The huge grain haulers slowed her fleet considerably, but Antonina had had no choice. At a great ceremony in the Forum of Constantine, five days before her departure from Constantinople, Michael of Macedonia had presented her with the Knights Hospitaler who had volunteered for the Egyptian expedition. Antonina had been expecting the monks from the new religious order-but not three thousand of them, proudly drawn up in their simple white tunics, marked by the distinctive red cross.

  What she had conceived of, initially, as a lean military expedition, had grown by leaps and bounds. No sooner had she obtained the grain ships for the Knights Hospitaler than a small horde of officials and bureaucrats showed up at the docks. These were staffs-the typically bloated staffs-for the newly-appointed civil and canonical authorities of Egypt, clerks, and scribes, in the main, to serve the new Praetorian Prefect of Egypt and the Patriarch of Alexandria. Each and every one of whom, naturally, luxuriated in the grandiose titles with which those mundane occupations were invariably annointed by Roman official custom: tabularii, scrinarii, cornicula-rii, commentarienses, magister libellorum, magister studiorum, speculatores, beneficiarii. .

  And so on and so forth.

  They, too, wailed like lost sheep when presented with their crude shipboard accommodations-tents, for the most part, pitched on the decks of the small sailing ships which Antonina hastily rounded up, naturally over the wails of their owners. But they, too, like the disgruntled grain traders, reconciled themselves to their fate. Theodora's frown had almost magical capabilities, when it came to quelling indignant merchants and bureaucrats.

  Then, the very day before departure, Michael had shown up to inform her, quite casually-insufferable saint! damnable prophet! — that many more Knights Hospitaler would be waiting in Seleuceia and Tyre and possibly other ports along the Levant, eager to join the crusade in Egypt.

  Three more grain ships were seized-one of them overhauled by her dromons as it tried to flee the Golden Horn-emptied hurriedly of their cargoes and pressed into imperial service. Again, Theodora put her frown to work.

  Finally, departure came. For a few days, Antonina luxuriated in the relative quiet of a sea voyage, until her arrival at Rhodes placed new demands upon her. John had been forewarned, by courier, of the imperial plan to transfer his armaments complex to Egypt. But, with his stubborn, mulish nature, he had made only half-hearted and lackadaisical efforts to organize the transfer. So, once again, the task had fallen on Antonina. She scrambled about, requisitioning ships on Rhodes itself-and then, coming up short, sending Ashot with the dromons to commandeer some of the vessels at Seleuceia-until the expedition was finally ready to sail.

  But, in the end, sail it did. With the newest addition to the fleet proudly in the fore-John's new warship.

  John took immense pride in the craft. It was the first warship in the history of the world, he announced, which was designed exclusively
for gunpowder tactics. Menander demurred, at first, on hearing that claim, pointing out that the Malwa had already developed rocket ships. But John had convinced the young cataphract otherwise. The Malwa rocket ships, he pointed out, were a bastard breed. Clumsy merchant ships, at bottom, with a few portable rocket troughs added on. Jury-rigged artillery platforms, nothing more.

  Menander, after seeing the ship for himself, had quickly changed his mind. Indeed, this was something new in the world.

  John's pride and joy was not completely new, of course. In the press of time, the Rhodian had not been able to build a ship from scratch. So he had started with the existing hull of an epaktrokeles-a larger version of the Roman Empire's courier vessels. He had then added gunwales and strengthened the ship's deck with bulwarks, so that the recoil of the cannons would not cave in the planking.

  In the end, he had a swift sailing craft armed with ten cast-bronze guns, arranged five on a side. The cannons were short-barreled, with five-inch bores which had been scraped and polished to near-uniform size. For solid shot, which they could fire with reasonable accuracy up to three hundred yards, John had selected marble cannon balls. The balls had been smoothed and polished to fit the bores properly. For cannister, the cannons were provided with lead drop-shot.

  "What did you decide to call her?" asked Menander.

  "The Theodora."

  "Good choice," said Menander, nodding his head vigorously.

  John grinned. "I am mulish, stubborn, contrary, pig-headed and irascible, Menander. I am not stupid."

  Had her fleet consisted purely of warships, Antonina could have made the voyage to Alexandria in less than a week; with favorable winds, three or four days.

  The winds, in fact, were favorable. Antonina learned, from John and Ashot, that the winds in the eastern Mediterranean were almost always favorable for southward travel during the summer months. Eight days out of ten, they could count on a steady breeze from the northwest.

  The slow grain ships, of course, set the pace for the armada. But even those ships, with favorable winds, could have made the passage in a week.

  Yet, she estimated the voyage would take at least a month, probably two. The reason was not nautical, but political and military.

  The immediate goal of her expedition was to stabilize the Empire's hold over Egypt and Alexandria. But Irene and Cassian had counseled-and Theodora had agreed-that Antonina should kill two birds with one stone. Or, to use a more apt metaphor, should intimidate the cubs on her way to bearding the lion.

  The religious turmoil had not spread-yet-to the Levant. But the same forces which were undermining the Empire in Egypt were equally at work in Syria and Palestine, and, in the person of Patriarch Ephraim, had an authoritative figure around which to coalesce.

  So Theodora had instructed her, as she sailed along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, to "show the standard."

  Antonina had been quite taken by that expression. When she mentioned it to Belisarius, her husband had smiled crookedly and said:

  "Catchy, isn't it? She got it from me, you know. From Aide, I should say-although the proper expression is 'show the flag.' "

  Antonina frowned, puzzled.

  "What's a 'flag'?"

  After Belisarius explained, Antonina shook her head.

  "Some of what they do in the future is just plain stupid. Why would anyone in their right mind replace a perfectly good imperial gold standard with a raggedy piece of cloth?"

  "Oh, I don't know. As a soldier, I have to say I approve. A flag's light. You try hauling around a great heavy gold standard in a battle someday. In Syria, in the summertime."

  Antonina brushed the problem aside, with great dignity.

  "Nonsense. I'm not a lowly foot soldier. I'm an admiral. My ships will damn well 'show the standard.' "

  And show it they did.

  At Seleuceia, first. They stayed in that great port for a full week. Two of those days were required to embark the hundreds of new Knights Hospitaler who came aboard. But most of the time was spent bearding Patriarch Ephraim in his den.

  Seleuceia was Antioch's outlet to the sea. Antioch was the Empire's third greatest city, after Con-stantinople and Alexandria. Antonina did not take her troops into Antioch itself, but she spent the week parading about the streets of Antioch's harbor. By the third day, most of the population-especially the Syrian commoners-were cheering her madly. Those who weren't were huddling in their villas and monasteries. Thinking dark thoughts, but saying nothing above the level of a mutter.

  On her seventh and last day in Seleuceia, a large contingent from the Army of Syria arrived from their fortress in Daras. Most of those soldiers boarded her ships. The rest-

  With great ceremony, Antonina turned over to their safe-keeping the large band of artisans who would erect the semaphore stations between Antioch and Seleuceia. Those stations would serve as the link between the coastal network she would create and the Anatolian-Mesopotamian leg which Belisarius was constructing.

  While Antonina engaged in public browbeating, Irene occupied herself with subterfuge. She traveled secretly to Antioch, and, by end of the week, had solidified the previously-shaky imperial spy network in Ephraim's domain.

  South, now, to Tyre. Stopping, if only for a few hours, at every port of any size along the way.

  Showing the standard.

  Tyre was a celebration. And a great, subtle victory.

  The population of the city was out in force, packed into the harbor, awaiting her arrival. She and her soldiers could hear the cheering from a mile away. Standing on the docks, proudly drawn up, were another thousand Knights Hospitaler.

  And, standing among them, the Bishop of Jeru-salem.

  Theodosius, the newly-designated Patriarch of Alexandria whom Antonina was taking to Egypt, pointed him out to her as soon as her flagship drew near the docks. He began to whisper urgently into her ear, explaining the significance of the Bishop's presence. On her other side, Irene was doing the same.

  Antonina stilled them both with a gesture. "I know quite well what it means, Theodosius-Irene. The Bishop of Jerusalem has decided to break from Patriarch Ephraim's authority and submit to that of the imperium's church."

  She chuckled drily. "Of course, he has his own fish to fry. The See of Jerusalem has been trying to get official recognition as a Patriarchate for-what is it, now? Three centuries?"

  Theodosius nodded.

  Antonina's chuckle turn into a little laugh. "Well, and why not? Isn't Jerusalem the holiest city in Christendom, when you come right down to it?"

  Theodosius stroked his beard furiously. "Well, yes, I suppose. But the Church councils have always ruled against Jerusalem's claim, on the grounds-"

  "— that it's a dinky little border town. Filled-or rather, not so filled-by a bunch of sleepy provincials."

  Theodosius winced. "That's putting it rather crudely. But-yes. In essence."

  "And what's wrong with sleepy provincials? You won't see them ruining a perfectly good afternoon nap by wrangling over the relationship between the prosopon and the hypostasis of Christ."

  She turned away from the rail, still smiling. "Patriarch of Jerusalem," she murmured. "Yes, yes. Has a nice sound to it."

  In the end, she actually went to Jerusalem. Suspending her voyage for a full month, while she and her Theodoran Cohort-and all of the Knights Hospitaler from Constantinople, eager to finally see the Holy Land for themselves-marched inland.

  A great, grand escort for the Bishop of Jerusalem in his triumphant return. Antonina found the bishop to be, in his person, a thoroughly obnoxious creature. Petty in his concerns, and petulant in his manner. But she took great delight in his persona. By the time she left Jerusalem, the Bishop-who was already calling himself the Patriarch-had given his complete and public blessing to her enterprise.

  By tradition and church rulings, the Patriarch of Antioch had always held authority over that great area of Syria and the Levant which Romans called Oriens. No longer. In a week at Sele
uceia, Antonina had undermined Ephraim's prestige. Now, in a month in Palestine, she had cut his ecclesiastical territory in half.

  A new council would have to be called, of course, to confirm-or, again, deny-Jerusalem's claim. Antonina did not begin to have the authority to do so. Not even the Emperor, without the approval of a council, could establish a new Patriarchate. But any such council was far in the future. Theodora would stall, stall, stall. For years to come, the Bishop of Jerusalem would defy Ephraim and cling as closely as possible to the Empress Regent's imperial robes.

  Show the standard, indeed. As her flagship sailed away from Tyre, Antonina gazed up admiringly at the great, gold imperial standard affixed to the mainmast.

  "A 'flag'!" she snorted. "How in the name of Christ could you intimidate anybody with a stupid rag?"

  But the best-the very best-came at a fishing village. Antonina was pleased, of course, by the welcome given to her by the small but enthusiastic population, who greeted her armada from their boats. But she was absolutely delighted by the welcome given by the men aboard the much bigger ship which sailed among those humble fishermen.

  A warship from Axum. Carrying Prince Eon and his dawazz, who bore official salutations from the negusa nagast to the new Roman Emperor. Along with a proposal for an alliance against Malwa.

  Her first words to Eon were: "How in the world did you get a warship into the Mediterranean from the Red Sea?"

  His, to her with a grimace. "We portaged. Don't ask me how. I can't remember."

  "Fool boy!" Ousanos said. "He can't remember because it's impossible. I told him so."

  Irene to Ousanas, grinning: "You must have slapped his head a thousand times."

  Ousanas groaned: "Couldn't. Was much too weary. Idiot Prince made me carry the stern. All by myself."

  Eon, proudly: "Ousanas is the strongest man in the world."

  Ousanas slapped the Prince atop his head. "Suckling babe! Strongest man in the world is resting somewhere in his bed. Conserving his strength for sane endeavors!"