Harry Turtledove - Justinian

This one struck me as particularly apt. "Yes, he does," I replied with a certain amount of anticipation. "How shall we requite him for trying to have me killed in Phanagoria?"

Theodora looked troubled. "He let you live before," she said. "He wed me to you. When you killed his men and fled to the Bulgars, he cared for me and for Tiberius. He has treated you badly, but also well. And," she added, "he is my brother."

I sighed. "For your sake, then, you want me to let him come and to treat him well? I love you, but God will turn away from me if I do not avenge myself on all my enemies."

"If my brother were truly your enemy, you would be dead now, and I would be back at Atil." Theodora looked a challenge at me, as if daring me to deny her words. Seeing I could not, she went on, "And the saddlebags- no, you would say the scales- are even on both sides. He has done you well and harm both. It is a balance. God will forgive you."

What she was also saying was that she would not forgive me if, having invited Ibouzeros Gliabanos to the imperial city, I then turned on him. I sighed again, having feared that would be her response. "Very well. He may come. I will remember the good he has done me, especially since you are the biggest part of that good."

"Thank you!" she exclaimed, and, casting her arms around my neck, kissed me until I could hardly breathe. Shortly thereafter, we adjourned to the bedchamber, where she threw herself on me and rode me as a jockey rides a racehorse. Such immodest and unfeminine aggression was on occasion extremely enjoyable and even complimentary, she having learned from me everything she knew of love between men and women.

Having been thus persuaded both intellectually and lectually, I summoned the ship captain when morning came and told him Ibouzeros Gliabanos was welcome to visit the imperial city. "And I swear by God and His Son that no harm will come to the khagan of the Khazars through any action on my part or on the part of my servants," I added.

"I shall tell him you have taken this oath, Emperor," the seaman said. "He did not insist on it as a condition for coming, but wanted to learn whether you would offer it of your own free will."

Had I not already known Ibouzeros Gliabanos was a canny, cautious man, his behavior in this regard would have instructed me. He did not demand the oath, which would have implied he failed to trust me. He did not even mention it, which proved the best way to extract it from me. Though a pagan and a barbarian, the khagan of the Khazars was no fool.

The ship bearing the khagan and his retinue sailed into Constantinople a bit more than a month later. I greeted him at the Golden Horn, as I had his sister on her arrival, and, as I had done with her, brought a troop of excubitores both to protect myself and for the sake of pomp. Having made the acquaintance of the khagan in Khazaria, Myakes was the logical choice to head the troop.

Ibouzeros Gliabanos strode up the quay toward the excubitores, Theodora, and me. A little man I correctly assumed to be an interpreter walked a pace behind him and to his left. The rest of the Khazars followed. All of them, the khagan included, kept looking this way and that, as if having trouble believing what they saw.

Having bowed to me and embraced his sister, Ibouzeros Gliabanos spoke in his own language, the interpreter rendering his words into Greek for me: "I thought I knew what a city was, but I see I was wrong."

Theodora clapped her hands together. "I said the same thing when I came here," she exclaimed- in Greek.

The interpreter having performed his office, the khagan spoke with a hint of sadness perceptible even though I did not grasp his words until they were translated: "You have become a Roman, my sister."

"I have," Theodora said in Greek, and then went on in the Khazars' tongue. She translated for me: "I told my brother he gave me to a Roman as a wife, and that I have become of my husband's people, as a wife should."

"I knew that already," Ibouzeros Gliabanos answered, and Theodora nodded proudly. Had she not warned me against her brothe r's myrmidons, I should not have survived to return to this God-guarded city. The khagan then spoke to me, saying, "Now I understand why you wanted so much to come back."

"For the sake of the city, do you mean?" I asked, and he nodded- I shall henceforth omit mention of the interpreter, a man scarcely memorable. I said, "Yes, I am glad to live here again, but I came back because it is mine."

"You are a king," he said, and it was my turn to nod. Turning to the excubitores, he recognized Myakes. "A king who is a good king will have good subjects. Is it well with you, Myakes, who traveled with your king when only you thought he was one?"

"It is very well with me, Ibouzeros Gliabanos," Myakes answered, with a bow for the khagan.

"Do I guess rightly that you had somewhat to do with the passing of Balgitzin and Papatzun?" Ibouzeros Gliabanos asked.

Myakes shrugged, his gilded scalemail jingling slightly at the motion. "They obeyed their rulers. I obeyed mine." Had I known he could give answers as diplomatic as that, I might have sent him to Damascus to dicker with the miscalled commander of the faithful.

Ibouzeros Gliabanos dipped his head, also appreciating the reply. To me, he said, "While I waited to hear if you would receive me, I had word of another of your servants. Because he knew you and some of your followers had spent time with me, the prince of the Abasgians sent to me, asking if I knew a Roman spatharios named Leo. But he was not with you then."

"No, he wasn't," I agreed. "What did the Abasgian say of him?"

To my surprise, the Khazar grinned at me. "He said you did not have anyone else in the whole Empire who was as big a liar as this Leo."

"Did he, by God?" I said. "Well, he wasn't far wrong."

"He said this Leo was still leading the Alans in war against his people, even though he had no money to pay the Alans, as he'd been claiming. The prince said he'd captured this Leo-"

"Good!" I exclaimed.

This seemed to disconcert Ibouzeros Gliabanos, but he went on, "But the Alans rescued him and they're still fighting the Abasgians. The prince's messenger was confused, which means the prince was likely confused, too."

"I'm rather confused myself," I told the khagan, and then, in a low voice, I said to Theodora, "It is as well that I sent Leo to the edge of the world. Were he closer to the imperial city, he would be too dangerous to trust. In the Caucasus, at least, I have some use from him."

"Yes," she said. "His eyes look every which way at the same time."

Ibouzeros Gliabanos said, "You must show me this city, Justinian. I have heard so much of it. Now I see I did not hear enough."

"Tervel the Bulgar said the same thing," I answered. "So did your sister. So does everyone who has heard of the marvels of Constantinople without having seen them."

"Ah, Tervel the Bulgar," the khagan of the Khazars said. "We do not always get on well with the Bulgars, either those to our north or those to our west. How do you like Tervel as a neighbor?"

"Without him, I'd not be here talking with you today," I said, "but that does not mean he has not been difficult sometimes." Bulgar raiders had begun harassing Thrace in larger numbers lately. The embassy I sent to Tervel to complain of that had, for the first time, returned without obtaining satisfaction of any sort.

"Maybe we could both fight him at the same time," Ibouzeros Gliabanos said, "and squeeze him between us like a seed between thumb and forefinger."

"Maybe," I said unenthusiastically. Having the Khazars on the northern border of the Roman Empire struck me as being no more desirable than having the Bulgars there. My preference would have been for all the steppe nomads to vanish off the face of the earth and, in so doing, to take the Arabs with them.