The Walls of Byzantium tmc-1

by James Heneage

  ‘By Luke?’ asked Zoe, a little too quickly.

  Damian nodded. ‘He’s the only one who can ride it. And Richard said that there was a man with her.’

  ‘Perhaps it’s time for the horse to go,’ she said.

  His father frowned. ‘Killed?’

  ‘No, sold. It will fetch a good price from the Turk. They need destriers.’

  Damian smiled. ‘He’ll not like that.’

  ‘Nor will she,’ said Zoe quietly, and she rose to leave.

  A little later, in the basement of the palace, the guard sitting outside Anna’s room saw Zoe approach. She was holding a tray with food and had clean sheets over one arm.

  ‘Open the door.’

  The guard took the key from his belt and turned it in the lock. Zoe walked in and stared at the girl on the bed. She put down the tray and sat down next to Anna. She seemed shocked.

  ‘What have they done to you?’ she whispered. ‘What in mercy’s name have they done to you?’

  Anna looked surprised. ‘Why, nothing, Zoe. They care for me well. See for yourself the food on your tray.’

  ‘But you’re not eating it. Look at you!’ She took Anna in her arms, stroking her filthy hair. ‘And you smell,’ she said gently, drawing back and looking into Anna’s eyes. ‘When did you last have a bath?’

  Anna was embarrassed. ‘I …’

  ‘Well, you’ll have one now.’ She let go of Anna, walked to the door and banged on it.

  When the guard appeared, Zoe asked for a copper bath to be brought, filled with hot water, and soap and towels. Then she busied herself remaking Anna’s bed.

  The bath arrived and the door was locked behind it. Zoe asked Anna to lift her arms so that she could take off her nightdress. She tried hard not to look at the body that emerged. Anna’s ribcage protruded from her sides and her hip bones shone like pale cheese in the light of the oil lamp. Zoe helped her gently to stand in the bath and began to soap her body. Steam rose around them.

  ‘Am I very thin?’ asked Anna.

  Zoe stopped soaping and wiped her eyes with the back of her hands. She tucked a stray hair behind her ear and got to her feet. ‘Yes, you are very thin.’ She paused. ‘I heard about Alexis. I’m sorry.’

  Anna looked away. In spite of the steam, she shivered. ‘I miss him. I dream.’

  ‘Dream? Dream of what?’

  ‘Of a hole. A grave. It frightens me,’ she said softly.

  ‘You are scared of being buried?’

  ‘Something like that.’

  Zoe took this in. Then she said, ‘It was an accident.’

  ‘Was it?’ asked Anna, turning back. ‘Perhaps the arrow, but not the journey back in the wagon. That’s what killed him. Who was Richard Mamonas obeying?’

  Zoe looked down at her hands. ‘Nobody,’ she said quietly. ‘My father is as distressed by this as anyone.’

  ‘And the cannon?’ asked Anna. ‘Might this have anything to do with the cannon my brother saw at Geraki? The cannon that the Despot doesn’t know about?’

  Zoe was silent. Anna had stepped from the bath and covered herself with the towel. She was watching Zoe carefully.

  ‘Your family are still helping our enemies, Zoe,’ Anna said evenly. ‘What I don’t know is how much you are helping them too. Suleyman was at the wedding. I saw you talking to him.’

  Zoe stared at her. She seemed to be considering something. Then she turned away. ‘I hate Suleyman,’ she said softly.

  ‘Why?’

  When Zoe turned back, her eyes were wet. ‘Can’t you guess?’

  Anna could guess. She looked down at her hands.

  ‘So we are allies, of a sort,’ continued Zoe. She paused. ‘If I helped you escape, would you trust me then?’

  ‘Where would I go?’

  Zoe pretended to consider this. She needed Luke in Mistra where he might lead her to something she very much wanted. And she needed this girl’s trust. ‘Luke Magoris. That’s whom you should go to. After all, he saved your life.’

  ‘And you’d take me to him?’

  ‘Not take you, no. But I can get you past the guard and out of the palace. And I can tell you where he lives.’ She smiled. ‘Then perhaps you might trust me.’

  Two hours later, Luke was sitting at a table on which his dinner lay untouched beside him and his wine undrunk. Next to him, with her arm around him, was his mother.

  Luke had returned a short while ago from the Mamonas stable where he went every evening to bid Eskalon goodnight. Except this time his stall had been empty. He’d guessed immediately what had happened and run to the nearest guard.

  ‘Where is he?’ he’d shouted at the soldier, grabbing the neck of his aventail. ‘Where is my horse?’

  And the man had told him. Damian himself had come to the stable to oversee the removal of Eskalon. The stallion had not wanted to leave without Luke and it had taken four men to drag it through the stable door and on to a waiting cart. And Damian had watched all this with a grin on his face and a whip in his hand.

  Luke shook his head in bewilderment. He loved Eskalon. He’d talked to him every day for the past two years and had gone to sleep every night with that giant head, those intelligent eyes, in his thoughts. The prospect of a world without him was unthinkable.

  ‘Luke,’ Rachel said, taking his face. ‘Look at me.’

  Luke turned.

  ‘What was always going to happen to that horse?’ she asked softly. ‘What happens to every horse from the Mamonas stud? What is the point of that stud, Luke?’

  Luke said nothing.

  His father sat down beside him and put his hand on his shoulder. ‘I plan to ask the Archon to reinstate you as a Varangian,’ he said. ‘His mood is changed these days.’

  His son looked at him in disbelief. ‘A Varangian?’ he said in a tone that Joseph had never heard before. ‘Do you think, Father, that with all that’s happened I could ever serve that family?’

  His father looked as if he’d been hit. He took a step backwards.

  ‘Who do you think was there when they took Eskalon away?’ Luke continued, hitting the table with his fist. ‘Who do you think was there with a whip in his hand?’ He was breathing hard and his voice had risen to a shout. ‘It was Damian, Father! Don’t you see that he hates every nerve in my body for what happened to him? How could I serve him?’

  There was silence as father and son stared at each other. Luke looked at his mother. She looked stricken.

  ‘Oh God, what have I said?’ Luke groaned.

  His father was shaking his head slowly, his great beard swaying above his tunic, a look of inexpressible sadness in his old eyes.

  ‘Luke, we are Varangians-’ he was beginning when Luke cut him short, something he’d never done before.

  ‘And I will be a Varangian, just not one that serves this archon. Our empire, that same Empire that made the Varangian Guard, is in its death throes. And our archon is giving the knife to its assassin! Father, haven’t you been listening to what I’ve told you about the cannon?’

  ‘That was Alexis Laskaris’s word-’

  ‘Word? Alexis Laskaris died because of those cannon!’ shouted Luke. But he’d gone too far. His father slapped him hard across his face.

  There was a knock on the door.

  All three of them froze. No one ever visited at this time of night. The knock came again, more urgently.

  Luke went over to the door and opened it.

  Anna was standing in the doorway wearing a dark hooded cloak that Luke recognised as Zoe’s. She was breathing hard and her shoulders were rising and falling beneath the cloak. There was a sheen of sweat on her brow and her eyes were dull and had dark rings around them. Her eyelids were flickering, either from illness or fatigue.

  ‘Anna!’ he gasped. ‘What …?’

  But before he could finish the question, she had pitched forward into the room, landing on her knees. Rachel rushed to her side and gently lifted her up. Then she took her cloak and guided her to
a chair.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said Anna, sitting down. ‘I heard voices and didn’t think I’d found the right house, so I waited in the alleyway.’ She looked bewildered, turning to Luke. ‘Then I recognised Luke’s voice. So I knocked.’ She stopped, still looking at Luke. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said again. ‘But I have nowhere else to go.’

  Then Luke found his voice. ‘Anna … you’re so thin, your arms … What have they done to you?’

  ‘They locked me in a room in the basement. They had to. I know about the cannon.’

  Luke went over to the chair. He knelt and took her hand. ‘Anna, how did you get like this? Have they been starving you?’

  ‘No … no. It’s not like that. I haven’t wanted to eat.’ Her eyes filled with tears and she buried her head in his shoulder. ‘I miss him so much!’ she whispered.

  ‘Hush,’ said Luke softly, stroking her hair. He looked up at Rachel. ‘Mother, can you pour some wine?’ When it had been passed to him, he gently lifted Anna’s head and guided the cup to her lips. ‘Drink this,’ he said. ‘It will help. How did you get away?’

  Anna sipped the wine. ‘It was Zoe. It’s the second time she’s helped me to escape. I owe her a lot.’

  Luke got to his feet and took the chair opposite her across the table. ‘Why would she do that?’ he asked, almost to himself.

  Anna shrugged. It was half a shiver. The wine was doing some good. ‘She told me once that she wanted to make amends. For things she’d done to you.’

  Luke shook his head, unconvinced. ‘Well, it hardly matters now. We’ve got to get you away from here, back to Mistra. I will help you, of course — but my father can’t.’ He glanced at Joseph who was watching them, confusion in every part of his face. ‘He is sworn to the Archon.’ He took Anna’s hand, searching the thin face before him. Was she even hearing him? ‘So we have to leave. I don’t know where we’ll go, but we’ll find somewhere. And we have to go now. This is the first place they’ll search.’

  He got up and picked up her cloak from the back of a chair. She stood unsteadily to put it on. Then he guided her to the door.

  ‘Luke,’ said Joseph from behind him.

  Luke turned. Joseph took his son in his arms and hugged him fiercely.

  ‘Listen to me,’ said Joseph. ‘You’re right — you must leave, but only because they will come here to search.’

  Luke nodded.

  ‘So,’ said Joseph, ‘find your three friends and take her somewhere you can all look after her until it’s safe to leave. I will tell you where to go.’

  By now the hour was late, Monemvasia was abed and only the cats prowled the streets. Both dressed in dark cloaks, Luke and Anna hurried through the maze of alleyways until they reached Matthew’s house. Luke put two fingers to his mouth and gave a low whistle.

  Once Matthew was dressed and had climbed through his window and from there to the ground, he set off with Luke and Anna to the next house. The moon was on the wane and they needed the flickering lights of the street lamps to guide their way.

  Fifteen minutes later, the five of them were sitting in the pews of the little church of St Andreas, hard by the city’s sea walls. They could hear the sound of the waves on the rocks outside. Anna was sitting a little apart, looking up at a mural painted on the ceiling above the altar. From the lights of two suspended lamps, she could see an angel of the Last Judgement reading from a lectern, while all around were the damned in torment. Serpents were writhing through the limbs of sinners waiting to be pitched into hellfire while far above floated the saved, smugly processing across the ceiling to join God the Father enthroned. Anna found herself looking for the face of her brother amongst them.

  Alexis.

  ‘Anna, have you heard anything we’ve said?’

  ‘No … I’m sorry …’

  ‘We’re going to take you to a cave we know of on the other side of the Goulas,’ said Luke. ‘It’s a climb up the rock but you can make it with our help. It’s hidden from view by bushes and you’ll be safe there.’

  Anna nodded.

  ‘But it means getting you through the city gate,’ said Matthew. ‘So one of us will stay behind and you’ll wear his cloak. The guards are used to seeing four of us leave together.’

  In a moment Anna was wearing Nikolas’s cloak. It smelt of sea and fish.

  Nikolas grinned. ‘They’ll know it’s me from the smell. Just keep the hood up.’

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  MONEMVASIA, SUMMER 1394

  The cave was bigger than Anna imagined it would be, and much lighter. Both were a great relief.

  It had been a difficult climb and the five of them had waited in the church until dawn before attempting it. Now, it was her fourth dawn there and Anna sat at its entrance, wrapped in a blanket against the early morning chill, staring out across the bay of Monemvasia. The mountains skirting its edge were slowly taking shape beneath a changing sky and a low mist hung over the sea. Around her, hundreds of birds had begun their noisy tribute to the new day and Anna could hear the screams of cats, far below, as they fought over scraps washed on to the rocks overnight.

  The shore on this north side of the Goulas was almost nonexistent. The cliff walls rose straight from the sea and the rocks at its base were jagged and lashed by waves in all weathers so that it was impossible for boats to put in. Even if they had, they’d not have seen the mouth of the cave since it was covered by the branches of a laurel bush that grew out of the rock. It was the perfect hiding place.

  Anna wondered who’d lived here in the past. There were letters etched into the walls and she felt the presence of past habitation. She’d heard of hermits escaping the world to live in caves and wondered if that meant God remained in the place after they’d gone. She thought that God was perhaps in this cave with her, for she felt happier than she had in weeks.

  She’d even managed to stop thinking about Alexis.

  Anna looked out of the cave. The sun had crested the horizon behind her and stretched out across the waves like a ladder to heaven. The sky was becoming lighter and birds rose from the rocks around to warm their wings and chase away the last of the night.

  Then Anna heard something unexpected below her, the neigh of a horse. It was coming from the direction of the port of Gefira, hidden from view to her left. But the port was too far away for the sound to have come from there. The animal must be on the rocks below. Or out at sea.

  She strained her eyes to see into the mist. She heard the neigh again, closer she thought, and definitely coming from the sea. How was that possible?

  A moment later, she understood. Coming around the edge of the rock, and quite far out, was a small merchantman lying low in the water flying the Mamonas flag. On its deck, tethered to the mast and moving with the roll of the ship, stood a horse.

  Eskalon.

  Anna’s mind raced. If Eskalon was on a ship then he was leaving to be sold. He was leaving Luke. If Eskalon was being sold, it could only be Damian’s work. Could he have found out about Luke’s part in her ride to find Alexis? Was this Luke’s punishment?

  Anna pressed her head against the laurel, pushing aside the leaves to get a better view. It was undoubtedly Eskalon and he looked frightened. He was leaving to be sold to some Norman knight to brutalise into submission. And if he didn’t submit, as Anna feared he would not, then he would be killed. She felt sick at the thought.

  Anna looked around at the contents of her cave, at everything Luke had brought for her. She had blankets, a pillow, food, water, towels and an oil lamp with enough spare oil to keep it burning. All she could need, in fact, except company. Then she looked at the last object, a small crossbow that Joseph had given Luke to shoot squirrels with. She remembered how Luke had knelt behind her in the cave, his hands on hers, as he’d shown her how to use it.

  Another memory came to her. They’d been at the gate on the night of her escape, four of them in cloaks and hers smelling of fish. She remembered how Luke had stopped to face her in the dark and then
gently lifted the hood to cover her head. She remembered how he’d put his arm around her shoulders, shouting to the guards that Nikolas was sick and in need of the old Jew’s remedy. She remembered how he’d squeezed her shoulder to reassure her that it would work. And she’d known that it would; that he was strong enough to protect her.

  Later, Anna was asleep when she heard a rockfall outside. She rose to her knees and moved the laurel to look down. Someone was climbing up to the cave. She was surprised at how much she wanted it to be Luke.

  It was Luke.

  She saw his hair, the colour of straw, moving with his shoulders as he climbed, and the fair down that shivered on his forearms as he reached out for a handhold. A brown hessian sack was slung from his shoulders. He paused and glanced up to the cave.

  ‘Help me up,’ he panted as his head drew level with the cave’s entrance. Anna took his hand and leant back with all her weight to help him in. Then he was there, sitting on the floor in front of her and lifting the sack from his shoulders.

  ‘I have food and more oil and another blanket. I thought it might be cold at night. And I brought you a book.’

  Anna’s heart lifted. A book was a luxury.

  ‘Where did you get it?’

  ‘Zoe gave it to me to give to you. It’s written by Anna Komnene about the reign of her father the Emperor Alexios. She said you’d find it interesting.’

  ‘Anna Komnene?’ Anna smiled. ‘I was named for her. But where did you see Zoe?’

  ‘I met her in the mesi odos, buying something. She was anxious to know where you were. I told her only that you were safe. Then she gave me the book.’

  ‘She’s kind,’ said Anna.

  Luke considered this. ‘It wasn’t always so. Anyway she’s suggested you leave by sea since the bridge is heavily guarded. It would seem to make sense.’

  ‘But surely we just need to wait for the Archon and Damian to leave?’ asked Anna.

  Luke shook his head. ‘The Archon will only leave when he has to. He’s worried that his estates will be confiscated if he goes.’