The Dispensator was still questioning me about probable events in Constantinople when I stepped, right behind him, into the residency cellar and came face to face with Martin.
There was still a tremor in his voice. But he did manage to control himself. He looked at the Dispensator. ‘The Lord Priscus sends greetings, and begs that you may join him on the walls to discuss a matter of some delicacy.’ He gave me a despairing look, before handing me a stack of documents for my immediate attention. The top one was an order for looters to be summarily hanged. I’d seal this in my office. Together, we’d all of us hold the walls somehow. What happened after that could be faced as and when.
I lay back and waited for the long and luxuriant glow of another orgasm to reach its end. At last, I sat up and pulled Euphemia towards me. I tried to look into the faint outline of her face. ‘I can hide you for the time being,’ I said with slow emphasis. ‘Tomorrow, or the next day, however, I must insist on your reappearance in this building. Then, we will go together out into the sunlight, and you’ll stop behaving like some Syrian monk who’s been too long on the top of his pillar.’ I shut off her objections with a gentle slap to the face. As agreed, she had slipped away the moment I was through that doorway. Where she’d hidden herself I didn’t think to ask. But I had to stop a lunacy that was sending even the Dispensator into holy terrors. It would get her killed. It would bring me into scandal.
‘Your name is Euphemia of Tarsus,’ I went on. ‘You arrived here at the invitation of Nicephorus. You have a child to look after. If you want to see Constantinople, you’ll be well advised to put all these childish fancies aside. Do you understand me?’
‘And is My Lord proposing to make me his wife?’ she asked with an apparent burst of sanity.
I looked harder at her in the gloom. I’d not answer that I had higher ambitions, when I eventually did marry, than a provincial widow – even if the sex was heavenly. But it was a reassuringly female question. I was thinking of what answer to give when I heard another long and muffled roar of collective anger from somewhere outside the building.
‘I think it is the common people again,’ Euphemia said. ‘They spent all night trying to burn down the houses of everyone who is defending the walls. It may be that they have again found someone to kill.’
I reached out for where I’d left my wine cup and took a long sip. I got on to my knees and pulled her towards me again. There was time yet before she had to go back into hiding, and I was uneasy from thoughts of what might so easily have already been my fate before the walls of Athens.
Chapter 57
As the sun rose on my eighth day since stepping ashore at Piraeus, I made my way to a resumed council through streets that were littered with uncollected bodies. If it hadn’t been for the grim-faced monks and the few armed civilians who’d been taken away from holding the walls, I might have thought Athens had already fallen to the barbarians. But I’d just walked the whole circuit of the walls with Martin, and watched the masses of armed men who were now coming together in loose formations outside the range of our arrows.
‘The Lord Priscus expects an attack before noon,’ the Dispensator had said when he could spare time from fussing over the placing of an aged catapult that might have done us better service by being set alight and thrown on to the heads of any attackers. ‘We can agree that there will be no attempt at a parley by Kutbayan. His instructions are to break in and destroy us all. But, so long as we can keep the barbarians from setting hands on this stretch of the wall, Priscus believes we may be able to repel an attack in not more than two other places.’ The Dispensator had then allowed himself a long inspection of the gathering masses, before changing the subject to a reminder of the Pope’s right to his title.
That had been right after the dawn. I now stood with Martin in the shadow of an equestrian statue, and waited for the monks to pull away the bodies that choked the entrance to the narrow street we had to enter. Every one of them clubbed to death in a manner that avoided any shedding of blood, there were enough bodies for the smell of corruption that already came from each to justify a napkin soaked in my strongest perfume.
‘I’ve counted a hundred and fifty,’ I said with a wave at the handcart that had now been produced. ‘Assuming an even distribution of bodies across the city, it looks as if Athens will be in need of a new lower class.’ It was a feeble and a wasted joke.
Martin swallowed and looked without answer at the two armed slaves I’d brought with us. ‘The Bishop of Athens told me many things yesterday morning,’ he said in a nervous whisper. ‘He said the common people are persuaded that any breach of the city walls will bring all the statues in Athens to life. These will then repel the attack without any effort on their part.’
There was no answer needed to that. I waited for the handcart to be pushed aside, and led the way in silence.
Except for the shouted acclamations in two languages, my two-day horror among the barbarians might have been a dream. There was the minute clerk with his stack of waxed tablets, there the assembled churchmen, each in his accustomed place. In my absence, the Dispensator had taken charge of the council, only to adjourn it till further notice. Now it was back to business. I held up my hands for silence and looked again at the list of questions that had been written in many hands on the sheet of papyrus Martin had given me.
‘Reverend Fathers,’ I cried in Greek – and Martin was now interpreting – ‘let me begin with the question of Nature and Persons and Will and Substance.’ I looked about the room. There was the buzz of just one fly in the still air. Sooner or later, this too would go out for the richer pickings to be had in the streets. I smiled easily and fixed a look on the pale and very troubled face of old Gundovald. He was still fussing over his lost boy, and looked set to start another burst of weeping. I looked instead at Simeon. After his first day of terror, he’d settled down rather well. So far as I could tell, he’d made no further trouble of any kind. There’s much to be said for a barbarian siege when you have a Church council to manage. I took a deep breath and prepared to outdo all my previous addresses to the council.
What I said is of little importance. Indeed, I said nothing I hadn’t said once or twice already. What was important was that I was back, and that I was now making every effort to keep my well-trained flock from straying.
I’d got to the second refill of the water clock when the sounds of battle that came through the high windows from all about suddenly rose in volume. I stopped in mid-sentence and glared at the Bishop of Ephesus as he got up from his place and hurried from the room. I’d barely resumed the thread of my argument than he was back.
‘The barbarians are within the walls!’ he cried. He fell down beside the minute clerk and pulled his robe over his head. Though it had been in Greek, the Dispensator had followed that meaning well enough. He sighed and put his stylus down.
I stepped forward into the space before the semicircle of seats and held up both hands for attention. ‘Reverend Fathers,’ I cried. The screams and clash of arms were undeniably coming closer, and I had to shout again for attention. ‘Reverend Fathers!’ I roared. This time, every face in the room turned back to me. I smiled weakly and cleared my throat. ‘Keep interpreting a phrase at a time,’ I whispered to Martin, who had covered both his eyes and was beginning to rock back and forth. ‘The residency slaves have their orders. The most we can do here is our duty.’ I stepped closer to the four dozen scared churchmen and continued in Greek.
‘You will all have read in your schooldays of how, in ancient times, when Rome was still a republic, its days of empire still in the future, the Gauls burst into the Senate House. Remember, then, how the Conscript Fathers faced the barbarians – sitting calmly, like statues, despising the violation of their proceedings.’ You can be sure I added nothing about the massacre that followed this. The Latins mostly scowled back at me. They might have blamed me as representative of an Emperor who’d called them into danger. But this sort of thing was, for most of them, a
n occupational hazard. To do them justice, the Greeks at least stayed in their seats.
Trying not to look at the closed door, I listened as the sounds of desperate battle came closer and closer. Then, as I took up my speech again – this time in a shout that would, before long, give me a sore throat – the noise began to recede.
This might have been the end of the scare. Even Martin was getting his voice in order as I elaborated on one of the supplemental decrees of the Council of Chalcedon. But, as I paused to unpick the tangled syntax of an unexpectedly long sentence, the door flew open, and an enormous barbarian swaggered into the room. He was followed by another who was nowhere near his size. He lowered his sword and looked about the now absolutely still and silent room.
‘Well, well, fucking well!’ he roared in Slavic. ‘What have we here?’ He tipped his great bearded face back and roared with laughter.
Over on my left, I saw the Dispensator tighten his grip on his stylus. Whatever his clerical vows, he’d not go down without a fight. But I was completely unarmed. I’d left my sword hanging in the room outside with my cloak and outer shoes. I looked quickly at the open door. For the moment, it was just these two.
I stood up and pointed calmly at the big man. ‘Get out of here!’ I said quietly in Slavic. ‘You are interrupting a council of Holy Mother Church.’ For a moment, I thought I’d got the man by surprise, and that he might even go away.
But Simeon broke the long silence that followed my words with a cry that fell somewhere between a squawk and a babble and pointed at the two armed men. And now the spell was broken. The big man laughed again, and waved his sword at Simeon, who threw himself forward on his hands and knees and tried to crawl under his chair.
I looked desperately about for anything I could use as a weapon. The jewelled crucifix set up behind me would never do. All else I could see was my big silver inkstand. I looked about once more – anything but this object of great beauty and great value. But it really was – unless I fancied going at two armed men with my own stylus – the only object readily to hand. While the big man was still teasing Simeon with his sword, I jumped forward from my chair and grabbed the inkstand with my right hand. I staggered from its weight, but managed to swing its yard length over my head. The big man saw me too late. He tried to move out of my path, but only fell against one of the more solid chairs. I nearly toppled sideways as the big end of the inkstand made contact with his right shoulder. With a shout of pain and surprise, he went down like a stricken beast. Not bothering to see if he could get up again, I bent and took his sword from where it had fallen. Before he could get out of the way, I lunged at the smaller man and got him straight in the belly. It was hardly an elegant blow. But I silenced his long scream with a kick to the head that broke his neck.
The room was silent again. Every face was turned in my direction. I saw that Martin had taken young Theodore by the shoulder, and got him safe behind the water clock. The bishops remained mostly in their places.
‘No others,’ the Dispensator said in a voice that even he couldn’t keep from shaking. He’d kept enough presence of mind to hurry over to the door and look out into the entrance hall. ‘It looks as if they were strays.’
Not answering, I pushed past him and we went together out into the hot sunshine. He was right. I could see that the tide of battle had rolled forward through Athens, all the way to the foot of the Areopagus. Now, it had receded, leaving a few bloody corpses. Apart from those still heaps, it might now have been business as usual. I looked around carefully. Somewhere, behind the shabby buildings that blocked my view, the battle was still raging with terrible intensity, and I felt a stab of shame that I’d left its conduct to others. I looked briefly at my bloody sword, and then at the Dispensator’s drawn face, and hurried back into the main hall.
The shock had now passed, and men were on their feet. A crowd of bishops had gathered about the fallen barbarian, and they were doing their best to kick him to death. Everyone fell back as I approached.
I stared down at the man. He’d landed badly on the floor, and looked as if he’d broken his left arm. His right shoulder I’d smashed beyond healing with my inkstand. ‘You can get outside and die like the others,’ I snarled in Slavic. ‘Show some respect for your betters!’ I gave the fallen man a vicious kick of my own, and watched as he began to push himself obediently towards the door. I glanced down at my velvet shoe. The man was leaving a trail of blood as he moved. But there was no stain on the bright yellow of my shoes.
I looked up at the high ceiling and tried to think if there was anything still to be said about the relationship between Nature and Substance. There must have been plenty. But none of it came to mind, and there were no questions from my little senate. I bowed to Simeon, who was clutching the back of his chair, and returned to my own place. The sounds of battle really had receded, and we could try to go back to our own work. The main sound in the hall was the clatter of wood as the minute clerk finished covering one of his waxed tablets and reached behind him for another. Now, almost as if it had been no more than notice of refreshments that had interrupted the proceedings, Martin even managed to interpret the last part of my previous sentence.
We might actually have gone back to work. Since I hadn’t run off in search of the battle, I could think of nothing else to do. I looked away from the corpse that no one had thought to clear away, and thought of a point arising from one of my earlier definitions. But, as I leaned forward to clear my throat and start another speech, the door opened again, and one of the militia leaders ran in.
He bowed to me and then to the assembly. He realised he was standing in the pool of blood that had oozed from the smaller barbarian, and stepped back with another bow. ‘My Lord,’ he cried in a strangled voice, ‘I must inform you that Priscus is dying, and he asks that you and the Lord Fortunatus of Rome should take over the defence of Athens.’
I got up and swallowed. I raised my hands again for silence. This time, no one paid attention. Everyone was on his feet and running about as if the building were on fire.
A grim look on his face, the Dispensator was beside me. ‘I think I got the meaning of that,’ he whispered into my ear. I nodded. ‘If it hasn’t been done already, we really must get the western gate closed. The plan is to concentrate forces where the main street is narrowed by the big statue of Hadrian. If we can hold the line there, the rooftop archers should be able to . . .’
He trailed off as the Bishop of Iconium pushed his way between us and screamed something about getting ourselves over to the Acropolis. I reached forward and slapped his face twice. He stopped screaming, and it gave me time to get my own thoughts properly in order. I took the Dispensator by the sleeve and began to shove people out of the way as we made for the door.
‘It may already be too late,’ he shouted. ‘But we can still do our best.’ I waited by the door while he pushed his way back into the wild panic to get the little barbarian’s sword.
As I waited, I saw Martin and Theodore at the far end of the room. The Bishop of Athens was beside them. If I’d known more about the barbarian thrust into Athens, I’d have sent them back to the residency. As it was, I’d have to trust in the judgement of His Grace of Athens.
Chapter 58
Priscus opened his eyes and focused dreamily on my face. The doctor had now taken a candle to both his arms, and the room was filled with the smell of scorched flesh as well as vomit and other bodily excretions. I watched as, from both wrists right up to the elbow, the doctor set about scraping away the blistered skin and painting on still more opium juice to quell the pain in that drug-hardened body. It needed a double coat of the dark and oily liquid before Priscus came out of his latest spasm and was able to look up at me. I stared back into the now tiny black dots within his eyes.
‘So, you repelled the attack?’ he was finally able to gasp.
‘Yes,’ I said. I fell silent again.
And we had got through it. Somehow, with me to lead men into the actual fightin
g, and the Dispensator to direct movement of our catapult from one part of the fray to another, we’d held the city. Without him there to manage it, the plan that Priscus had laid a few days earlier had almost gone wrong. As thousands of men were thrown against the wall, the weakest gate had been opened, and, as expected, the main attack was then diverted. It was now, though, that Priscus had gone down – not wounded by the enemy, mind you, but floored by a fit of internal spasms that not even his iron will had been able to bring under control. It had been almost too late to tighten the noose – thousands more than expected had swarmed through the opened gate, and their assault had reached even to where we debated on the Areopagus. But almost too late wasn’t the same as too late. The Dispensator and I had been just in time to close the gate and seal off the multitude in the streets, and then stamp on the trapped men as if they’d been ants. We’d done it, and the main attack had collapsed into a chaotic retreat from the walls that our own archers were able to make still more utterly humiliating to the enemy.
Priscus was still looking up at me. I suppose he expected a better explanation of what we’d managed than ‘Yes.’ At the least, he was probably expecting me to tell him whether any of the blood that was still splashed all over me was my own. But I said nothing. He drew his tongue over parched lips and tried for a laugh. ‘Don’t try telling me otherwise, dearest Alaric,’ he now said in a distant, vastly weary Latin. ‘But I know that you’ve got her hidden away in this building. And don’t tell me that you still deny the evidence of your senses.’ He looked past me at the lamp that hung over his bed and swallowed a few times.
I looked at the doctor, who shook his head and moved the water jug out of sight.
Priscus managed a weak smile. ‘Oh, but you do deny it, don’t you?’ he went on. ‘If you want to believe that she’s just barking mad from having to share this place with Nicephorus, you really are a fool. Even I gave up on seducing her once I realised what she really was.’ He now did manage a wheezing laugh and fell silent.
The Ghosts of Athens (Aelric) Page 42