The Mosaic of Shadows

by Tom Harper

  I woke again to a tugging on my arm, and opened my eyes to see Domenico peering down on me.

  ‘It is dusk,’ he said. ‘In half an hour, when it is dark, we will go.’

  I rubbed the grit from my eyes, and took a sip of the water he had brought. ‘Have the barbarians gone?’

  ‘Their army left many hours ago, but the rest of their camp are still in the streets seeking out what little plunder remains. It will still be dangerous to venture among them.’

  ‘Not so dangerous as when we came here,’ I said. ‘You have saved our lives today, and I will not forget it.’

  The merchant sat down opposite me, the chair creaking under his weight. ‘In truth, my friend, I do not do this because of my love for your people, though I bear them no grudges.’ He peered nervously behind him, where I could see the dim figure of Sigurd sleeping on a bench. ‘The Emperor’s blockade has all but ruined me, while every day from my window I see the ships of my rivals unloading across the bay.’

  ‘If I reach the palace alive,’ I told him, ‘and if there is a single man in the palace who will listen to me, you will have the grandest mansion which stands in the shadow of the old acropolis.’

  ‘I hope so, my friend. I hope so. My father in Pisa will be unhappy if I return a beggar.’

  We sat there in silence and darkness a few moments, the only sound Sigurd snoring in his corner.

  ‘Tell me what else you know of Baldwin,’ I said. I was too alert to sleep again, and Domenico was not so well known to me that silences were comfortable.

  He shrugged, sucking on a dried fig. ‘Little things, pieces of gossip and hearsay. He has brought his wife and children – did you know that?’

  ‘I did not,’ I admitted. ‘Does our climate agree with their health?’

  Domenico chuckled. ‘It will do, when they are queen and princes in his new kingdom.’

  ‘He has no lands in the west? In Frankia?’ It was half a question, half a statement, for I remembered the Count Hugh taunting him to such effect in his tent.

  ‘None. His father was a count, and his mother heir to a duchy, but he was the third son and so got neither. According to rumour, they intended him for the church, but you have seen the temper of his soul. I do not think he was long in the great cathedral school at Rheims. After that . . .’

  Domenico was never a man to diminish a tale which could be expanded, but he broke off in confusion at my shout of astonishment.

  ‘Rheims? Baldwin was at Rheims? The barbarian town, where they keep the shrine of their Saint Remigius?’

  ‘I believe so.’ Domenico was looking up at me in alarm, while behind him Sigurd stirred from his sleep. ‘I have never been there. Why?’

  ‘Because the monk was at Rheims – that was where he joined his order, and was turned against the Romans. Where Baldwin must have found him.’ I remembered the monk’s brother describing his cruelty. ‘I imagine they found much in common. So when Baldwin came east, and needed a man who could pass for a Roman yet had the barbarian faith in his heart, he chose the monk, Odo.’

  Domenico watched me in puzzlement. ‘You believe this monk – the man who once approached me to fund his scheming – is Baldwin’s assassin.’

  ‘I do. You said he had brought his wife and children, that he wanted to claim a kingdom in the east because he had none in the west. What richer prize than Byzantium itself?’

  Much of this I had suspected, or believed, but finally to have a definite connection between Baldwin and the monk made me course with triumph. Though there was no triumph yet, I reminded myself, while the monk walked free and the barbarians were in arms.

  ‘We must go and tell the Emperor,’ I said.

  Domenico edged open the door. It must have been as dark outside as within, for it admitted no light.

  ‘We can go,’ he announced.

  ‘Then we had better move quickly.’

  Armed with long knives which Domenico gave us, we hurried out of his courtyard and down the hill. His house was unscathed, but barely fifty yards away the devastation began. You could almost see where the crowd had stopped, the high-water mark of their destructive flood: one moment the houses we passed were intact and unharmed, the next they were roofless ruins, their doors beaten from their hinges and every window shattered. Smoke filled the air, the acrid fumes of human misery, and I had to hold my sleeve over my face to keep from choking. Domenico had spoken of a mob, but there must have been a method to their savagery for not a single building had been bypassed or forgotten. Even now, the dull wind brought more shouts of havoc and spoliation to my ears.

  I shivered. ‘The Lord God help us if they get inside the city. He Himself could not have visited greater destruction here.’

  We descended lower, Domenico leading us uncertainly through smouldering streets and rubble-strewn alleys. We saw no-one, living or dying, and fear whetted our ears such that we were quick to hear if any approached. Several times we crouched in the ruins until we were sure that danger had passed, and our progress was fitful until at last the slope tailed away onto the flat ground by the shore. We came onto a broad street – the same, I realised, that we had trodden that morning. We had felt strong then, invulnerable, but how many from that column were alive now?

  Domenico scuttled across the road, into the shadow of a warehouse, and beckoned us after him. It had probably been empty even before the looters reached it, and though it was scorched black, the new bricks of its walls had saved it from the worst effects of the flames. Its door had not been so fortunate, but that was to our advantage as we followed Domenico under the charred lintel.

  He swept an arm about him in melancholy. ‘Once, this was to be the cradle of my fortune; now it is its tomb. But in this week of all weeks, we should remember that salvation also can come from the grave. Help me raise the floor.’

  We crouched on our knees, and pressed our fingers into a groove where he directed. When we tugged, a broad square of planking came up in our hands, opening a shallow pit to our view. On the packed earth within lay a small boat.

  ‘The wise merchant guards against every risk,’ said Domenico proudly. ‘And thus never loses everything.’

  ‘If you can get us across the Horn, you will gain a great deal more.’

  We bent over the hole and lifted out the boat by its prow. I was glad of Sigurd’s strength, for Domenico did little but fuss: together we managed to haul the craft across to the door by the wharf. The hull rasped and grated horribly as we dragged it over the floor, the noise redoubled by the towering walls, but the barbarians must have exhausted their appetite for plunder, or indulged it elsewhere, for none came to trouble us.

  With a final push, Sigurd heaved the boat over the edge of the wharf and watched it splash into the black waters of the Horn. There was a ladder bolted to one of the pilings which even the Franks had not bothered to destroy: we slid down it, and soon we were splashing away from the dock, away from danger, away from the horror that had once been Galata. Though looking across to the far side of the Horn was no comfort, for by some unknown devilry there seemed to be flames there as well. I lay back against the thwart and stared at the sky, floating between the shores of a world on fire.

  κ ς

  It was like some vision of the apocalypse, for around the entire sweep of the bay flames licked into the night. In Galata they were burning out, dying slowly, but along the coast the barbarian’s progress could be measured by the heights to which the fires still rose in every village and settlement. To my horror, they did not stop at the bridge, but continued back along the southern shore even into the city itself. I stared out through the darkness, trying to judge if any were near my own home, but it was hidden in the hills. Where were the barbarians now? Had they entered the city, as Baldwin had promised they would, as the flames seemed to herald? Was the empire betrayed into slavery? I wanted to weep, but tears would not come. The last time there had been violence in the city I had spent three days and nights at my door, sword in hand, refusing
to sleep lest the mob come for my family. There would be no consolation if I had failed them now.

  Sigurd made a crude boatman, but he managed to bring us across the Horn, between the moored ships, and towards the walls. They were clear to see, for on that night even the waves burned: sea-fire had been spread over them, to deter all who might approach and illuminate any who did. I could smell the oily smoke, hear the spitting as the flames danced and swayed on the water.

  ‘Where are you going?’ I asked Sigurd. We seemed to be heading north-west, towards the headwaters. ‘Take me to the gate of Saint Theodosia, so I can return to my house and find my children.’

  Sigurd never looked back. ‘We’re going to the new palace. The Emperor will be there, unless he has changed his ways. We need to warn him of the danger he faces.’

  I almost laughed. ‘Look around you – he can guess at the danger, if he still lives. I must see to my family.’

  ‘We all have families, Demetrios. But if the empire falls to the Franks, we will wish they had never been saved.’

  I was too feeble to argue, and I said nothing more as Sigurd sculled the boat to the stone pier by the new palace. We were close to the barrage of sea-fire now, and I sat up in the terror that the current would carry us into it, but a small opening had been left and Sigurd deftly worked us through it. Guards came running, and I saw with relief that here at least Romans still held the walls. Their faces glowed orange in the firelight, as indeed did the stones, the water and even the air about us, but there was mercifully little panic in their faces.

  ‘Who approaches?’ they challenged. ‘Declare yourselves, or we will burn you into the sea.’

  ‘Sigurd, captain of Varangians, with news for the Emperor. Is he here?’

  ‘He is. He directs the war on the barbarians from his throne.’

  ‘War?’ I echoed. ‘Is there now a war between us. Have they entered the city?’

  The guard laughed. ‘They have sacked the outer villages, and paraded before the walls, but it will take more than a rabble of men and horses to force our defences. The city is safe enough – for the moment.’

  ‘But what of the fires?’

  ‘Our own mob. They came into the streets this afternoon, demanding that the Emperor unleash his full might on the barbarians and make the Lycus red with their blood. When he refused there was violence, and some set fire to the tax collector’s office. But the Watch have the ringleaders now, and the streets are under strict curfew.’

  ‘Thank Christ for that,’ I breathed.

  ‘Thank Him when it is finished,’ reproved the guard. ‘There are still barbarians beyond our walls, and great anger within. But for now, I will take you to the court.’

  We scrambled out of the boat and came through the water-gate into the new palace. Everywhere was in turmoil: companies of soldiers hurried between the walls, and in the courtyards whetting wheels scraped plumes of sparks from steel blades. Spears and shields were stacked all about, while serving boys from the kitchen laboured under baskets of arrows. We climbed many stairs, often pausing to let files of guards push past, until at last we came to the great bronze doors. A dozen Patzinaks, armed and helmed and with spears in their hands, barred the way.

  ‘The Emperor is in council,’ their sergeant growled. ‘He will not see petitioners. The secretary . . .’

  I cut him short. ‘Is the chamberlain within? Tell him that Demetrios Askiates and Sigurd the Varangian have returned from Galata. Tell him we have news which must be told.’

  Whether from the surprise of being countermanded, or the flat certainty in my voice, the sergeant disappeared through the door, and emerged humbly ten minutes later to confirm that the chamberlain would see me immediately.

  It was probably the most exalted gathering I would ever witness, I thought, as the bronze doors closed behind me. I had entered the room where I had once met the Sebastokrator, the broad chamber built atop the walls overlooking the plain. It was filled with the light of many candles, and with the glittering array of more generals, counsellors and their retinues than I could count. Apart from Isaak and Krysaphios, I recognised the Caesar Bryennios, the Emperor’s first son-in-law; the great eunuch general Tatikios whom I remembered from his triumph against the Cumans; and myriad others in gilded armour and the regalia of their offices. All stood save the Emperor himself, who sat on his golden throne in the centre of the room and inclined his head to the arguments which flowed about him. On the marble floor, between the pointed shoes of his courtiers, I thought I saw blood.

  I was too shabby to be noticed by that shimmering assembly, but Krysaphios noted my arrival and gradually slipped around the edge of the throng to greet me in a corner.

  ‘You have returned,’ he said calmly. ‘When we saw the barbarians marching from their camp, we feared the worst. Particularly when we received reports that some of our soldiers had been executed.’

  I stared into his shifting eyes. ‘It was a trap. If the monk was ever there, he was not in the house when we arrived. Instead we found barbarians, hundreds of them, waiting for us. They cut down many of our force and took the rest captive. When they started murdering prisoners for the sport of their crowd, we escaped. They know that the Normans will come, and they are eager to seize the spoils for themselves before that day.’ I leaned closer. ‘When the barbarian captain Baldwin addressed his army, he told them he had an agent in the city who would see to it that the gates were open to them. I have discovered that he was taught at the same school where the monk learned to hate Byzantium. He and the monk must be in league.’

  To my surprise and chagrin, Krysaphios laughed openly at this news. ‘Your effort does you credit, Demetrios,’ he told me, immaculate condescension in his voice. ‘But you are tardy with it. The Emperor’s enemies have already revealed themselves.’

  I stared about the room. The Emperor Alexios still lived and breathed – so much was obvious. ‘Was the blood on the floor . . . ?’

  ‘The monk’s doing? No. Those windows through which the Emperor surveyed the battle make an inviting target from without. Many Franks tried their aim with arrows, and one struck the man who stood beside the throne.’

  ‘I winced to think how nearly we had been undone. What was this battle you speak of?’

  Krysaphios glanced back to the middle of the room, where a stout general was making an impassioned oration against the barbarians, recapitulating their historic offences. ‘I told you that the barbarians had revealed themselves as our enemies: so much was obvious, as soon as they had ambushed your expedition. After they left Galata, they pillaged their way around the Golden Horn until they arrived at the walls. The palace by the Silver Lake is entirely destroyed.’

  ‘They left little untouched in Galata either.’

  ‘Then they drew up their army over there’ – Krysaphios pointed through the windows – ‘and began an assault on the palace gate, trying to burn it open. All afternoon they launched themselves at our defences, while within our walls the mob rioted and demanded war.’

  ‘But the Emperor did not succumb?’ I said, remembering the words of the guard by the sea gate.

  Krysaphios’ eyes narrowed. ‘Not yet. Invoking the sanctity of the day, he ordered the archers to keep to the walls and fire over the barbarians’ heads, or at their horses if they pressed too close. Even now, when they hammer at our gates, he holds out hope that there can be peace and does not admit his folly. But fortune will desert them tomorrow. Even the Emperor cannot defy the howl of the mob forever, and when the barbarians attack again he will have no choice but to destroy them. As many have long demanded.’

  ‘But what if he commits to battle and does not destroy them? What if they pierce our defences and break in?’ I saw scorn rising on Krysaphios’ lips, and hurried on. ‘What of the monk? Surely tomorrow will be the day he strikes.’

  Unexpectedly, Krysaphios chuckled. ‘The Great Friday of Easter – a good day for martyrdom. But the Emperor will never be alone; his guards, family and commande
rs will attend him constantly. And it would need more than one man to open our gates, against the will of all who manned them. If even that concerns you, then stay and keep watch. Unless you again prefer the familiarity of your own bed.’

  ‘There is enough of the soldier left in me that I can sleep where I am needed. But I fear for my daughters. If the mob riot again tomorrow and they are caught up in it, I will not forgive myself.’

  Krysaphios’ lip turned a fraction upward. ‘Every man in this palace has a family, Demetrios, and all those wives and sons and daughters must wait in their own homes with the rest of our people. Do you really struggle between your obligations to two girls, and your duty to the millions in the empire?’

  I had no patience for such contempt. ‘If the empire cannot protect my family then I have no use for it; my duty is to my kin. You yourself might understand if you had more than a mule’s seed.’

  I regretted those words even as I spoke them, but the toil of the day had crushed my patience and loosed my wits. I saw anger sear Krysaphios’ cheeks and did not bother to wait for its eruption.

  ‘I will go and guard my family. If I were you, Krysaphios, I would not stand too near the windows tomorrow.’

  I turned on my heels and walked stiffly from the room, invisible to the gilded company who still threw the same arguments between each other. Neither Krysaphios nor the guards tried to stop me, and once I was past the bronze doors there was too much confusion for any to notice. I descended the stairs in a daze of bitter misery, and had just gained the second courtyard when I heard running steps behind me, and felt a hand on my arm.

  I turned, to see a handsome, apologetic-looking young man. His dalmatica was of the finest fabric, fastened with a brooch in the shape of a lion, while the ornament on his tablion betold a rank far above his years.

  ‘My apologies, Master Askiates.’ His voice was light, and his manner friendly. ‘My lord Alexios the Emperor saw your departure and begs you to stay. He fears he may need you tomorrow.’