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he could do to help the merchants the best thing he could do to help the
Empire would be to drive the Makuraners out of Videssian territory once and
for all. He had never had any trouble figuring out what wanted doing. How to
do it was something else again.
After a couple of days' rest and resupply, Maniakes and his little army made
for Amorion. Once they were up on the plateau, the weather got less muggy,
though it continued blazing hot. Grain and fruit trees grew close by the
Arandos and along the banks of its small tributaries. Away from water, the
land was baked dusty, with only scrubby grass and brush growing on it. Cattle
and sheep grazed on the scrub.
"We'll be able to keep the army fed and watered, even if the supply lines
fail," Parsmanios observed at camp one evening. "My little force in Vryetion
lived off the local herds a good deal of the time."
"I'd like to be able to pay for any animals I end up having to take," Maniakes
said. "Of course, what I'd like to do and what I can do are liable to be two
different beasts. Wearing the red boots has taught me that."
"Any command will," Parsmanios agreed. "The bigger the command, I suppose, the
harder the lesson."
Maniakes listened carefully to his brother's tone. Another thing sitting on
the imperial throne had taught him was that you couldn't trust anybody. He
hated having to try to gauge how sour Parsmanios sounded at any given moment,
but couldn't see what choice he had.
He said, "Another three or four days and we'll be in Amorion. Then we can stop
worrying about our supply lines for a while and start worrying about whether
Abivard is going to try storming the place with us inside it." His laugh was
anything but jolly. "Another thing you learn is that you're always worrying
about something. The day you think everything is fine is the day you haven't
noticed the plot against you just starting to bubble."
"I expect you're right." Parsmanios rose and sketched a salute. "I'm going to
see to my men and then turn in."
"Good enough, brother of mine." Maniakes liked the way Parsmanios assumed the
responsibility that went with commanding the vanguard. It was a far bigger
command than he had ever had before, but he was shaping well in it Maniakes
had not had any complaints about his diligence since that evening outside of
Kyzikos. If he ever scraped together enough troops to operate with two armies
at the same time, Parsmanios might well make a capable commander for one of
them. The Avtokrator rubbed his chin. Tzikas was already commanding an army,
and had been doing so as a virtually independent lord for several years now.
Promoting Parsmanios over his head would not please him. Would it touch off a
revolt? Maniakes would have to think about that, too.
"Wearing the red boots also teaches you life is much more complicated than
you'd ever imagined," he told the silk walls of his tent. Unlike his livelier
subjects, they did not argue with him.
The scout who came galloping back to Maniakes kicked up a plume of dust.
Maniakes spied it long before the scout himself became visible. The fellow
reined in; his horse was lathered and blowing. After saluting Maniakes with
clenched right fist over his heart, he said, "We've spotted dust ahead, your
Majesty lots of it, and getting closer fast."
Maniakes frowned. "Any idea who's kicking it up?"
"No, your Majesty," the scout said.
"Could be reinforcements," Maniakes said hopefully. But even he didn't think
that was likely. "Reinforcements hereabouts should be heading straight for
Amorion, not for us."
"That's so, your Majesty," the rider agreed. "Whatever that is, it's heading
dead away from Amorion, no two ways about it."
"No." Maniakes shaded his eyes with his left hand and peered westward. He
clicked his tongue between his teeth. "I don't see anything yet. But if a lot
of men are coming from Amorion, odds are they're either our troopers fleeing
the place or Makuraners who've taken it. Ride back to your place; be ready if
Parsmanios needs you to carry more messages."
"Aye." The horseman saluted again and set spurs to his mount, urging the
animal up into a gallop as fast as he could.
Maniakes turned to the trumpeters who were never far from his person on
campaign. "Order the army into battle array," he said. The musicians saluted,
raised the long, straight brass horns to their lips, and blared out the signal
that would take Maniakes' little force out of column and into line. "We'll
anchor our left on the Arandos," he shouted.
Each regiment broke in two. Half of one regiment stayed back to protect the
baggage train and form a reserve. The other half and the whole regiment
deployed in three elements, the center one the one Maniakes led forward. It
was a flexible formation, well prepared to deal with anything . . . except
overwhelming numbers.
The force had practiced going from column into line of battle many times and
moved now without undue fuss or wasted motion. Even so, by the time they were
ready to fight, Maniakes could clearly see the dust the men of the vanguard
had already spotted. He clamped his jaw down hard to help keep from showing
his worry. As the scout had said, somebody out there was kicking up a lot of
dust.
Then horsemen in mail shirts emerged from out of the dust. He recognized some
of their surcoats and banners his own vanguard was mixed in among them. A
shout rose above the drumming of the horses' hooves: "Amorion is fallen!"
When he understood that cry, he grunted as if he had taken a blow to the
belly. In truth, the Empire of Videssos had taken the blow. For years, the
fortress at Amorion had kept the Makuraners from overrunning the Arandos
valley and perhaps from reaching the Sailors' Sea. If Abivard had at last
forced his way into Amorion
"You, there!" Maniakes shouted, pointing to a fleeing horseman who did not
belong to his own vanguard. "Tell me at once what happened off to the west."
For a moment, he thought the soldier would ride on by without stopping or
answering. He hadn't been part of a rout till Etzilios ambushed him outside
Imbros, but now he knew how to recognize one. At the last instant, though, the
fellow reined in and shouted, "Amorion is fallen!"
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