FALSE EMPEROR OVERTHROWN STOP TRUE EMPEROR DAMODARA SITS ON THRONE
IN KAUSAMBI STOP YOU WILL OBEY HIM LORD SAMUDRA STOP WAR IS OVER STOP
ESTABLISH LIASON WITH MAURICE OF THRACE TO NEGOTIATE CEASE FIRE WITH
ROMAN AND PERSIAN ARMIES IN PUNJAB STOP
"What are you going to do?" asked one of his aides.
Samudra let the message fall to the table in the bunker. "What do you think? I'm going to do exactly as I'm told. The Romans will have received the same message. By now, they've got us outnumbered. Between them and the Persians, we're facing something like two hundred thousand men."
"And we're losing soldiers by the droves every day," said a different aide, gloomily. "As much by desertion as disease."
There was silence, for a time. Then Samudra said: "You want to know the truth? I know Damodara pretty well. We're cousins, after all. He's about ten times more capable than Skandagupta and-best of all-he's even-tempered."
There was further silence, finally broken by one of the aides.
"Long live the new emperor, then."
"Idiot," said Samudra tonelessly. "Long live the true emperor. The greatest army of the Malwa empire does not obey rebels, after all."
It was several days before Belisarius learned the war was over. The news was brought to him by a special courier sent by Damodara.
A Rajput cavalryman, naturally. The man was exceptionally proud-as well he might be-that he'd made the ride as fast as he had, without killing a single horse.
"So, that's it," said Belisarius, rising from his squat across from Kungas.
The two of them emerged from the hut and studied the Malwa army they'd trapped on the Ganges.
There's been little fighting, and none at all for the past four days.
"You were right, I think," said Kungas. "The bitch did kill herself, days ago."
"Most likely. We'll know soon enough. That army's looking at starvation, before too long. They slaughtered their last horses two days ago."
"I'll send an envoy to them. Once they get the news, they'll surrender."
The Kushan king eyed Belisarius. "You know, I don't think I've ever seen that crooked a smile on your face. What amuses you so?"
"I've got a reputation to maintain. You do realize, don't you, that in the days when the final battle was fought and won in the greatest war in history, Belisarius spent his time doing nothing more than drinking lousy wine and gambling with dice?"
Kungas chuckled. "You lost, too. By now, you owe me a small chest of gold."
"Not all that small, really."
But Kungas had stopped chuckling. Another thought had come to him, that caused his notoriously expressionless face to twist into a grimace.
"Oh. You'll never stop crowing about it, will you?"
When Maurice heard, it put him in a foul mood for a full day.
Calopodius' mood was not much better. "How in the name of God am I supposed to put that in my history? You can only do so much with classical allusions, you know. Grammar and rhetoric collapse under that crude a reality."
"Who gives a damn?" snarled Maurice. "You think you've got problems? I'm still in good health, and I'm only twenty years older than the bastard. Years and years, I'll have to listen to him bragging."
"He's not really a boastful man," pointed out Calopodius.
"Not usually, no. But with something like this? Ha! You watch, youngster. Years and years and years."
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Framed
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