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after he should have been in bed. But that was the price that came with the
return of Videssian authority, and he was Videssian authority personified.
The hardest and ugliest case involved a man named Pousaios and his family.
What made it even harder and uglier than it would have been otherwise was that
he was obviously the richest man in Patrodoton. By the standards of Videssos
the city, he would have been a small fish, but Patrodoton was farther from
Videssos the city than the few days' travel getting from one to the other
took. That had been true before the
Makuraners seized the village, and was all the truer now.
Everyone loudly insisted Pousaios had got his wealth by licking the occupiers'
boots or some other, more intimate, portions of their persons. As loudly, the
prosperous peasant denied it. "I didn't do anything the rest of you didn't,"
he insisted.
"No?" Gesios questioned. "What about those two troopers
our troopers who rode into town in the middle of the night six or eight years
ago? Who told the
Makuraners which house they were hiding in? Who's living in that house today,
because it's finer than the one he used to have?"
Pousaios said, "Blemmydes was my wife's cousin. Why shouldn't I have moved
into his house after he died?"
That produced fresh outcry. "He didn't just die," Gesios said shrilly. "A
boiler boy killed him, and nobody ever saw those two soldiers again."
"I don't know anything about it," Pousaios insisted. "By Phos the good god, I
swear I don't. Nobody ever proved a thing, and the reason's simple: nobody can
prove a thing, because there's nothing to prove. Your Majesty, you can't let
them do this to me!"
Maniakes bit his lip. The case cried out for slow, careful investigation, but
that was the last thing the people of Patrodoton wanted. They were out for
vengeance. The question was, did they deserve to get it?
Since he couldn't be sure, not on what he'd heard so far, he didn't give it to
them, saying, "I'll be gone from here tomorrow, but from this day forth the
land here is under Videssian rule once more. I swear by the good god " He
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
sketched the sun-
circle over his heart. " to send in a team of mages to learn the truth here by
sorcery.
When they do, I shall act as their findings dictate, with double punishment
for the side that turns out to have been lying to me."
Both Gesios and Pousaios complained about that, loud and long. At last,
Maniakes had to turn his back on them, a bit of dramatic rudeness that
silenced them where nothing else had.
When he got up the next morning, one of his guardsmen, a Videssian named
Evethios, said, "Your Majesty, half the people from this little pisspot of a
town have been trying to wake you up since a couple of hours before sunrise.
Finally had to tell
'em I'd shoot arrows into 'em if they didn't shut up and go away and leave you
alone till you decided all by your lonesome to get out of bed. Nothing " He
spoke with great conviction. "
nothing that happens here is worth getting you out of bed two hours before
sunrise."
"You're probably right, but don't tell the Patrodotoi I said so," Maniakes
answered. Through Evethios' laughter, he went on, "I'm up now, so bring them
on. I
expect the army can get ready to move out without my looking at everything
every moment."
"If we can't, we're in trouble, your Majesty, and not just with you," Evethios
said, the last few words delivered over his shoulder as he went off to fetch
the contingent from Patrodoton.
They came on at a dead run, almost as if they were so many Makuraner boiler
boys charging with leveled lances. As soon as Maniakes saw Gesios baying in
the van, he knew what must have happened. He could have delivered the village
headman's speech for him, idea for idea if not word for word. He tried to tell
that to the local, but Gesios was in no mood to listen.
"Your Majesty, Pousaios has run off, the son of a whore!" the headman cried.
"Run off!" the villagers behind him echoed, as if he were soloist and they
chorus.
"His house is empty, and his stable's empty, too." "Empty," the villagers
agreed.
"He's fled to the Makuraners, may the ice take them, him, and all his
worthless clan." "Fled to the Makuraners."
"That proves what I was telling you last night was so, don't it?" "Don't it?"
The choral arrangement got disconcerting in a hurry. Maniakes' head kept
whipping back and forth between Gesios and his followers. But the message,
delivery aside, was clear enough. He didn't even have to turn his back to get
Gesios to stop;
holding up a hand sufficed.
"By his own actions, Pousaios has proved himself a traitor," he said. "Let his
lands and house and other property be divided equally among all those who have
plots adjoining his, with no tax on those lands for two years."
"You can catch him now!" Gesios exclaimed, clenching his fists with
bloodthirsty glee. "Catch him and kill him!" The chorus broke down. Instead of
speaking as one, the villagers each suggested some new and different way to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]