«May it not come to pass.» Abivard twisted his left hand in a sign intended to avert any evil omen.

«When do we get to fight the Videssians again, Father?» Varaz asked, once more setting hand to sword hilt.

«That's up to Maniakes Avtokrator more than it is up to me,» Abivard answered. «We can't get at his soldiers right now-» However much Sharbaraz doesn't care for the notion, he added to himself."-and he won't come to us. What does that leave?»

Varaz frowned, seriously considering the question. The past couple of years Abivard had taken to asking him more and more questions of that sort to get him used to thinking like an officer. Some of his answers had been very good. Once or twice Abivard thought they were probably better than the ones the officer facing the real situation had come up with.

Now Varaz said, «If we can't go over the Cattle Crossing and Maniakes won't cross over here to fight us, we have to find some other way to get at his army and beat it.»

«Wishing for something you can't reach doesn't make it fall into your lap,» Abivard answered, reminded that his eldest son was still a boy, after all. «There is another way for us to get to Videssos the city, but it's not one we can take. It would mean bringing an army over the Pardrayan steppe, all the way around the Videssian sea, and then down into Videssos from the north. How would we defend ourselves from the nomads if we tried that, or keep the army supplied on the long journey it would have to take?»

«We keep our armies supplied here in Videssos,» Varaz said, reluctant to abandon his notion.

«Yes, but here in Videssos they grow all sorts of things,» Abivard said patiently. «This coastal lowland is as rich as the soil of the Thousand Cities between the Tutub and the Tib, I think. And they have towns here, with artisans to make every kind of thing an army needs. It's different on the steppe.»