The rest of the men from the Anatolian military districts dispersed more readily than I had dared hope. We had heard them; we had spoken to them; they were satisfied. And, being satisfied, they streamed out of the Forum of Constantine toward the wharfs on the Golden Horn for the trip back across it to Sykai.

"Tomorrow," I told Theodore, "we must give orders that no ferries are to cross from Sykai to the imperial city."

"Prince, I have already made those arrangements." Theodore paused, studied me, and slowly nodded. I walked straighter. I felt I had passed a test.

We took the self-styled leaders of those who favored restoring imperial rank to Herakleios and Tiberius back toward the great palace. As we marched east along the Mese, the excubitores surrounded these men more and more closely. Taking alarm at last, one of them cried, "Are we ambassadors or prisoners?"

"I promised you would see my father," I answered, "and so you shall." That kept the leaders quiet as we hustled them along toward the palace.

See my father they did. As soon as they were inside the palace, the excubitores laid hold of them and stripped them of their weapons. Then, with Theodore of Koloneia and me leading the way, they frog-marched the wretches into the throne room.

"So," my father said, fixing them with a glare that had chilled my blood often enough, "you are the traitors who want to give my worthless brothers their crowns back, are you?"

The fellow who had asked if they were prisoners- an officer named Theophylaktos- repeated the senseless jingle they had been bawling all along: "We believe in a Trinity- let us crown all three brothers."