Scramasax (25 page)

For some while Solveig padded and stalked around the chamber, and then she realised another reason she felt so uneasy was because she hadn't been on her own like this – not for weeks and weeks, not since she had walked
up into the hills in Sicily. But at length she unpeeled her filthy clothing. She stepped into the trough, scrubbed herself from top to toe and washed her hair, as well as splashing a fair amount of water over the marble floor.

Then Solveig stepped out, naked as a needle, and unsheathed her scramasax. She stared at it and turned it over and over between her hands. Then she laid it into the shallow water.

Christians say Jesus died for them, she thought, and if they truly repent He forgives all their sins. Is that true? Is it as easy as that? Can you really wash guilt away?

Just as Solveig was securing the last hook on the front of her dress – the one across her throat – Maria's servants knocked on the door and entered the chamber.

They walked in just like this before, she thought. There must be a spyhole in the wall. I'm sure there is. In this palace, everyone's watching each other, and watching out for themselves.

The servants led Solveig to Maria's chamber, and the moment she saw her, Maria gave a little cry, stood up and embraced her. And then, still keeping her hands on Solveig's shoulders, she took one step back and inspected her.

‘The same,' Solveig told her. ‘Not the same.'

‘Your hair.'

‘I know. I was going to tell you.'

Maria looked puzzled. ‘One side, not the other side.'

‘Oh, Maria. So much. There's so much to ask and tell.'

Both girls were quite breathless, almost nervous, as if each feared the person standing in front of her might not quite measure up to the one she remembered and had so often thought of. Maria's eyes were shining, but Solveig could see the muscles in her neck were twitching, and could feel how she was slightly trembling herself.

‘Man?' Maria asked bluntly.

Solveig lowered her eyes. She slowly nodded.

Without asking any more than that, Maria somehow understood. She embraced Solveig again, and didn't let go, and Solveig felt as if she'd stepped into a richly perfumed garden.

‘I'll explain everything,' she whispered. ‘I will. Your father – is he … ?'

Maria shrugged. ‘Still in that stone house,' she replied. ‘Damp.'

‘Alive!' said Solveig, her eyes shining.

Maria held out both hands, and then lowered them degree by degree.

‘Monster!' said Solveig indignantly.

‘Shhh!'

‘A dying man.'

‘Just as she plans,' said Maria under her breath. ‘I should be looking after him.'

‘I should look after my father too,' Solveig said, ‘but I don't even know what's wrong with him, and he doesn't want to talk about it.'

‘Same,' said Maria.

‘Anyhow,' Solveig went on, ‘I hope I can visit your father again.'

Maria smiled. ‘He hopes,' she replied.

Solveig gazed at Maria. ‘Harald …'

Maria's lips slightly parted; her dark eyes were dancing.

‘Harald wants to see you,' Solveig told her. ‘We talked about you last night, and when we were in Sicily. I told him how I was longing to see you, and I know he is too.'

Maria slowly ran her fingertips through her luscious dark hair.

‘Oh, Maria! Wait until he sees you.'

‘Solveig,' whispered Maria, and then she took Solveig
into her arms so there was no chance whatsoever of anyone else being able to hear her, ‘I've seen him.'

‘What?' cried Solveig.

Maria nodded.

‘Harald?'

Maria drew back and put her right hand over her heart. ‘He came straight here.'

Solveig felt quite breathless. Then hot tears welled up behind her eyes.

‘He says he'll come back this evening.'

‘Oh, Maria!'

The two girls embraced again.

‘But what about the Empress?' Solveig asked. ‘Harald's first duty is to report to her.'

‘“She can wait.” That's what Harald said. “Duty, duty, nothing but duty for day after day and month after month. Duty and hardship. Hardship. Maria, the hardship of our separation!”'

‘Harald said that?' exclaimed Solveig.

She remembered how brusquely Harald had told her that Maria carried her heart around on a platter and kept offering it to him; she recalled how he had refused to answer whether he meant to marry her.

Maria pushed out her puffy lower lip. ‘What are you thinking?'

Solveig slowly shook her head. ‘Sometimes,' she said, ‘Harald's my almost-brother. Sometimes he's … a sungod.'

‘Sun-god,' Maria repeated happily.

‘He believed he would be a leader when he was only three,' Solveig told her. ‘When they were little boys, one of his elder brothers wanted more cattle than anyone else, and the other more corn, but Harald wanted warships. Warships and warriors.'

Maria smiled.

‘He looks like a leader. When he says something, he expects people to listen to him. And they do. They believe in him.'

‘Me,' said Maria.

‘I know,' Solveig replied. ‘You told me once that “Harald is most man,” and that's true. And then you said, “His heart batters in his chest.” That's true as well.'

‘Very brave,' added Maria.

‘Very brave,' agreed Solveig, ‘very quick to decide. He knows who his henchmen are and keeps faith with them. He's been loyal to my father. Without Harald, the Varangians would never have won those three towns in Sicily. But, Maria …'

Maria could hear the caution in Solveig's voice.

‘He's greedy. Very greedy. And he –' Solveig hesitated – ‘he's brutal. He's cruel.'

Solveig spoke with such force that Maria opened her cinnamon eyes and looked quite startled.

‘I know there's good and bad in each of us, and maybe more of each in great men and women. But please be careful.'

‘Careful?'

‘Harald's … dangerous.'

‘No,' said Maria flatly.

‘Yes. He's cunning. He's a deceiver.'

Maria shook her head. ‘I know Harald.'

‘He is. I saw how he tricked Georgios Maniakes, his own ally. And then three times he tricked the Saracens.'

Maria shrugged. ‘Normal,' she said.

‘He deceived me,' Solveig insisted. ‘He used me and my feelings. If it's his fate, Harald will be a great king, I know that. But when it suits him, he uses people … and then disposes of them.'

Maria sighed, and turned away from Solveig.

‘Oh, Maria!' persisted Solveig. ‘I scarcely know what
to say – I want to be true to Harald and I want to be true to you. Please be very careful.'

‘The Divine Empress!' scoffed Skarp, and the other guards accompanying Harald brayed.

‘What was it she said in Hagia Sophia?' Snorri asked Harald. ‘Just remind me.'

‘“Harald,”' said Skarp, aping the Empress's voice, clipped but quite soft-spoken, ‘“Harald, I'll give you my treasures … and grant you favours …”'

The guards laughed.

‘Her treasures,' jeered Skarp. ‘Her favours, Harald. What kind of favours would they be?'

‘I saw how her thin lips stretched and her grey face crinkled,' Snorri told Harald. ‘And how you lowered your eyes.'

‘We all did,' said Grimizo. ‘In disgust.'

Harald Sigurdsson said nothing. He ignored the lot of them and on stiff legs stalked towards the golden chamber.

‘Don't forget your hood,' Snorri told him. ‘Otherwise … chop-chop. The Divine Empress will cut off your head.'

Dressed in royal purple from their heads to their heels, Empress Zoe and Emperor Michael were already ensconced on their high-backed seats on the stone dais, ready to receive Harald and his shoulder-companions. As soon as the Varangians entered the hall – led in by the same boy as before, in his baggy yellow trousers – the seats of the Emperor and Empress began to ascend on their stout marble columns.

Harald Sigurdsson and his henchmen bowed and got down on to their knees. They pressed their foreheads against the cold marble floor.

‘Rise!' the Empress instructed them.

The Vikings got to their feet, and bowed again.

Harald glanced around him at all the courtiers and pageboys and servants, the priests, petitioners and the like in the great hall, and he picked out Solveig and Maria, fair and dark, standing side by side.

Maria sighed. Her lips parted.

Then the Empress showed Harald Sigurdsson the palms of her misshapen hands by way of inviting him to speak.

‘We are grateful to you for your audience,' Harald Sigurdsson began in a very formal manner. ‘We are thankful to set foot again in Miklagard.'

‘More thankful than I am,' the Empress called out. ‘I instructed you to clean the whole island of filth. All the filthy Saracens who've swarmed in from north Africa. I ordered you to drive them out, or, better, put them to death. I scarcely expected to see you again within three months.'

‘Lady …' began Harald, and then he corrected himself. ‘Empress! On our way to Sicily, we lost three galleys. Three tubs!'

‘Lost?'

‘To storms,' said Harald calmly. ‘And two of them were carrying our best siege engines.'

‘Only a bad workman blames his tools,' Emperor Michael observed, ‘and only a bad mercenary blames his weapons.'

‘You can scarcely blame weapons you do not have,' Harald replied sharply.

Solveig stared at Emperor Michael. He looks even younger than he did before, she thought. Less than half as old as the Empress. His moustache and beard, they were just sprouting, and they've scarcely grown since I last saw him.

‘But we locked horns with two dhows,' Harald continued. ‘West of Chios.'

‘Booty?' asked the Empress.

Harald shook his head. ‘We rammed one, but she sank before we could board her. Then we fought the pirates on the other dhow. Hand to hand. We lost three men. No, we had to sail on, and when we reached Sicily, my carpenters had to make new siege engines. Empress, we laid siege to three Saracen towns. For you and your empire, we've already won three great towns.'

Empress Zoe nodded. ‘And you've brought back a hoard of gold, silver, treasures?'

‘Lady—' Harald began.

‘Empress!'

‘Empress,' repeated Harald in a measured voice, ‘not as much as I'd wish, and not as much as you'd wish.'

Solveig saw Empress Zoe draw herself up in her seat as if she were a snake about to strike. She glowered at Harald from under her hooded eyelids. ‘That's not what I've been told,' she said in her soft-spoken voice.

Harald didn't reply.

‘My commander-in-chief,' the Empress continued, ‘Georgios Maniakes, he has informed me there were huge riches in the first town – the one you besieged together.'

‘His men were encamped outside the gates. Right outside them. They were first in.' Harald balled his right hand into a fist and punched his left palm. ‘They ran riot, they rifled the place and left us very poor pickings.'

‘Is that so?' Empress Zoe replied. ‘Maniakes informs me that you divided the booty equally. One-quarter for him and his men, one-quarter for you and your greedy Varangians, one half for my treasury.'

‘That's a lie!' Harald Sigurdsson retorted. His voice bounced off the arched roof of the golden hall.

‘A lie?' said Empress Zoe in a measured voice. ‘You're calling Georgios Maniakes a liar.'

‘A hog!' shouted Harald. ‘A Turkish troll! Nothing but a baggage-man!'

‘And you, Harald,' the Empress continued calmly, ‘Maniakes says you tricked him. He says you deceived him.'

Solveig half turned to Maria, but Maria stared straight ahead. Then she blinked and swallowed noisily.

Harald raised both arms and looked to left and right at his shoulder-companions. ‘He insulted me in front of my men. I told him, “I take orders from no one except Empress Zoe and Emperor Michael.”'

‘Deceived him,' the Empress repeated, ‘so your ships would always put in first, and your horses would be fed first, so you'd have first choice as to where to pitch your tents … Harald Sigurdsson, I warned you to be even-handed in your dealings with each other. I told you misfortune always follows on the heels of too much greed.'

‘He got his deserts,' Harald said gruffly.

Empress Zoe raised her claw of a right hand and pointed at Harald with her hooked forefinger. ‘Georgios Maniakes,' she stated in an unhurried, deliberate voice, ‘accuses you of deceit and theft.'

‘Where is he?' growled Harald like a wild boar.

‘And I accuse you, Harald Sigurdsson, of defrauding the Empire of Byzantium.'

For a moment, everyone in the golden hall held their breath. The canaries in their cages stopped singing. Time itself held its breath, and listened.

Solveig took Maria's right arm.

‘I sentence you to imprisonment.'

‘In which case …' Harald replied, and for a moment he paused. ‘In which case, Empress, I will no longer
serve you or fight for you. Here and now …' His voice was rising. ‘Here and now I stand down as leader of your Varangian guard.'

‘Take him away!' screeched Empress Zoe.

At once half a dozen of the Byzantine guards surrounded Harald Sigurdsson and his henchmen, but not one of them dared touch Harald.

Harald glared at them disdainfully. ‘Which one of you,' he challenged them, ‘will lay a single finger on me?'

Then the Viking gazed up at the Empress and the Emperor. He bared his teeth, and his piercing blue eyes drilled through them like augers.

‘Take him away!' the Empress screeched again.

Harald bestowed a grim smile on her. He didn't bow, let alone prostrate himself; he didn't back away. He glanced towards Solveig and Maria and then swung on his right heel. Followed by Snorri and Skarp, Halfdan and Grimizo, he strode out of the golden hall.