Hereward 04 - Wolves of New Rome (38 page)

Simonis forced a smile. ‘There was never any doubt you had the strength to succeed.’

Victor laughed. ‘How different the world would be if you had had the strength to defeat me, eh, Kalamdios?’ He glanced at the hunched master of the house. ‘Your weakness has cost you everything you built. In the end, it has cost you the greatest prize of all, the thing you wanted as much as I did. Your weakness, Kalamdios. Never forget that as you sit there, wishing that you had died that day when I plunged the blade into your head.’

When Kalamdios’ mewling became reedy, Victor only laughed. He turned back to the women.

‘Now I can take whatever I want.’

Simonis gave a hesitant nod.

‘And I want you,’ he continued, looking down at Juliana. ‘You must watch this, Kalamdios, and watch carefully. I am taking your daughter from you as I have taken everything else.’ He nodded to the mistress of the house.

With trembling fingers, Simonis eased the dress from her shoulders. It slipped to the floor and she stepped out of it, naked. Rowena could see no shame in her face. She must have suffered this hardship so many times it had become little more than any other chore.

Stepping forward, the mother hooked her fingers under the shoulders of Juliana’s dress and let it fall away. She too was naked beneath. She lowered her eyes. ‘Do you like what you see?’

Victor could not contain his grin. Reaching out with his large hands, he squeezed her right breast and thumbed the nipple. With unnecessary roughness, he pawed down across her belly to the soft hair, and then slid his hand between her legs. Juliana flinched.

Rowena turned away, unable to watch this grotesque display a moment longer. But then she heard the Stallion say, ‘Before the dawn, the emperor will be dead, and I will leave here to control an empire. Does that excite you?’ Only the hope that he might reveal more of his plans drew her back. She had to be strong, as strong as Victor claimed to be.

She watched him raise Juliana’s chin so she would look into his eyes. ‘You give yourself freely?’ he asked. ‘I do not rape women. Only the weak have to seize by force what the strong take by will alone.’

‘I do,’ Juliana replied, ‘in recognition of the power you wield. Do you give yourself freely?’

Victor threw his head back and laughed. ‘You have some fire in you. I knew you would not disappoint me.’

With a shrug of his shoulders, his tunic fell to the ground. Then he grasped his member and worked it erect. He displayed himself for a moment, smiling, before he placed his hand on Juliana’s head and forced her down.

Rowena felt sickened. What would Wulfrun do if he knew the woman he loved was being stripped of her innocence by this monster? But then, as she watched, she began to frown. Juliana curled both hands around Victor’s cock and pushed it into her mouth. Deeper, and deeper still, she went, until Rowena winced, unable to comprehend how the girl did not choke. Victor closed his eyes in ecstasy. Simonis watched, impassive. Kalamdios twitched and puled.

But all Rowena could think was that this was no chaste child. Whatever Juliana may have pretended to Wulfrun, she was exhibiting all the skills of a Frankish whore, and ones that only came with long experience.

The monastery was still. Only the sighing of the wind in the roof broke the silence as Neophytos hauled his bulk along the corridor. At the door to Nathaniel’s chamber, he pressed his ear to the wood and listened. Soon the sacrist would be required in the church, where the emperor would be praying for all those who lost their lives at Manzikert, and no doubt for the old emperor who had lost his head. But there was still time. With chubby fingers, the eunuch wiped the sweat from his brow and pushed the door open.

Nathaniel sprawled on his bed, naked. His eyes were wide and staring, but he still breathed, though shallowly. The boy sitting beside him jerked alert and smiled.

‘Here, boy. Now leave us,’ Neophytos said, pressing a coin into the lad’s palm. Once the young one had slipped out, the eunuch picked up the fallen goblet from the pool of wine. He sniffed it, wrinkling his nose at the bitter edge to the scent, then nodded.

‘Our appetites destroy us, Nathaniel, one way or another,’ he said in his sing-song voice. From his pouch, he removed a lump of grey metal and set it to heat in a spoon upon a lantern flame.

The door opened and a hooded figure slipped in. He sat upon a stool in one corner, keeping his head down.

‘Pay no heed to him,’ Neophytos said with a smile. He leaned over the sacrist and pressed two fingers against the pulse in the older man’s neck. ‘You live,’ he said with a nod. ‘You can hear. You can see. You can taste and smell. But you cannot speak and you cannot move. Why, you are quite like my uncle Kalamdios.’ Neophytos allowed himself a satisfied smile. These days, he took his pleasures where he could.

Once the lead had melted, he took the spoon and dribbled the contents into Nathaniel’s ear. There was no scream, of course, and no widening of those staring eyes, but Neophytos thought he saw an odd light in them. He enjoyed that too. Leaning down, he kissed Nathaniel on the forehead, and said, ‘And so, for you, the night draws in.’

‘You will know soon enough when the emperor has fallen,’ Ragener said as he paced the chamber. No sounds drifted through the monastery at that hour. They might have been alone in the world. He eyed the moon-faced boy, Justin, as he perched on the edge of the small bed. He looked as calm as if he were just awaking from a deep sleep, not someone who was about to take on the burden of the crown.

The sea wolf opened the door a crack and listened. How long until the blood flowed? His heart thumped in anticipation, but his elation was tinged with anxiety. This was the night when his life changed. The misfortune that had dogged him from when he was a boy would lie behind him. He would be raised up.

‘Will my father come to me?’ the boy asked in his dreamy voice.

‘When all who stand against him have fallen, and not before. He will come to save Constantinople from anarchy, not be seen as the man who caused it.’

The boy nodded, staring blankly at the wall. Ragener knew there were some who found Justin unsettling, but he had always felt he had much in common with the lad. Perhaps they could be friends. The emperor and his chief counsel.

As he turned back into the chamber, the door slammed against his back. The Hawk stumbled forward. Before he could steady himself, the flat of a blade clattered against the base of his skull. Stars flashed, then darkness.

When Ragener came round a moment later, he saw another boy looming over his charge. It was Leo Nepos, scion of that family which Victor always spoke of with contempt. He wielded a blade almost as big as himself, its tip pressed against Justin’s neck.

‘You shall never be emperor,’ Leo was saying. ‘I will take your head first.’

The Hawk tried to scramble to his feet, but his head still spun from the blow. As he pitched forward again, he saw Justin grip the blade with both hands, pressing it away. Though the other lad dragged the sword back, carving through soft palms, Justin showed not a glimmer of pain. His face remained as still as a mill-pond.

Shocked by what he saw, Leo hesitated, and that was enough. In an instant, Justin transformed into a wild beast. Snarling and spitting, his features contorted. Throwing aside the blade, he leapt on the other boy, tearing wildly with clawed fingers. Red lines ripped across Leo Nepos’ face.

When the boy had been sent to end Justin’s days, no one could have guessed what would be unleashed, Ragener thought as he staggered to his feet. He could not have guessed himself.

Before he could draw himself up, the girl, Ariadne, darted in. A knife shimmered in her hand. Throwing herself upon her brother’s back, she cuffed him across the back of the head with the hilt of her blade. Dazed, the fire went out of him.

‘You are your father’s daughter,’ Ragener slurred.

But Ariadne turned to him, her eyes blazing. ‘I am not,’ she spat. ‘I am al-Kahina, slayer of devils. This night you will live. But know that one day, when you least expect it, I will come for you. And then I will take your other eye, and your hand, and your feet as well, and I will leave you in the filth of the street where you belong.’

Ragener shivered. Those very words had been uttered by Meghigda in the cell in the catacombs. How could this girl have known that – unless the spirit of the Imazighen queen now possessed her? He staggered back, crossing himself.

Hauling Leo to his feet, Ariadne thrust him into the corner. ‘For all that he has done, he is still my brother,’ she said, waving her knife towards Justin. ‘I cannot stand by and let you end his days.’

Leo lowered his blade. ‘If he leaves here … if he leaves Constantinople … he can live.’

For the briefest moment, Ariadne’s face softened. Ragener thought he saw something pass between her and the Nepos boy, but then she whirled and thrust Justin towards the door. ‘Take him away from here,’ she said to the Hawk, her voice and her eyes cold. ‘Take him to my uncle in the east. Karas will care for him – they are of a kind. Take him … and wait for me.’

Ragener felt gripped by a terrible fear. Grabbing Justin, he dragged the boy out into the silent corridor. ‘Run,’ he urged. ‘Run. This night is going to hell.’

The candles flickered. Shadows danced across the chamber as Victor threw his head back in ecstasy. Kalamdios whined like a sick dog. The naked women were silent.

Rowena crouched in the shadows. She could barely bring herself to spy any longer, but she still hoped that Victor might utter something, just a word or two, that would give her information she could use to save her husband.

While her daughter worked upon her knees, Simonis crossed behind him. Pressing her breasts against his skin, she kissed him upon his shoulders and his neck and caressed his broad chest with her slender fingers. When he moaned a little, she lifted a goblet from a table beside Kalamdios.

‘Let us give you more pleasure than you can bear,’ she whispered in the Stallion’s ear.

Reaching around him, she eased the goblet to Victor’s lips. He slurped the wine, the red liquid cascading down his chest, soaking Juliana’s hair. When he had had his fill, he smacked his lips. With another kiss upon his neck, Simonis tossed the goblet aside.

Rowena could not understand how the women could give themselves willingly to such a beast. She knew full well the price that had to be paid when such sacrifices were made, whatever the end.

Linking her arms with Victor’s, Simonis pulled her hands behind his back and locked them. At first she was gentle, but then she yanked them tight. Rowena could see that Victor enjoyed the restraint. His smile became a grin of pure pleasure.

But then a shadow crossed his face. Rowena leaned forward, puzzled. The Stallion’s eyes opened, and he moved his lips as if trying to speak, but no sound came forth. When he staggered a step, Simonis supported him.

‘The wine is strong,’ she breathed in his ear.

Juliana looked up at her mother, Victor’s cock still deep in her throat. Those wide eyes, those once innocent eyes, smiled, Rowena thought. And then Juliana bit down.

Rowena recoiled, her hand flying to her mouth. She might well have cried out, but if so it was lost beneath Kalamdios’ wild mewlings, which had whipped up to fever pitch. And now Victor did make a sound, but it was only a long, terrible groan like the closing of a tomb.

Sickened, Rowena pulled back. She could not bear to watch, but hearing the noises that issued from that bloody chamber was just as bad. Soles flapped upon the marble floor; a convulsion. A grunt from Simonis as she held her prisoner fast. And then a sound like tearing silk. Rowena tried to smother the vision that flashed across her mind but she could not deny it: Victor Verinus was a stallion no more.

She listened to the sound of a large form slumping down, and then Juliana coughing and spluttering as she spat out the contents of her mouth. Mother and daughter laughed. Kalamdios made a wheezing, barking noise that seemed almost joyful.

‘And so we have taken from you all that you valued.’ Rowena glanced back into the chamber. Victor lay with his head in Kalamdios’ lap. Simonis was kneeling beside him, whispering in his ear. ‘You are dying now. Soon your blood will have drained away. You cannot speak, but you can hear, man who is no longer a man. And you should know how badly you have failed. You thought yourself so clever with your plots and your plans, your taunts and your torments. But you underestimated the Nepotes.’

‘Poor Victor. You never guessed, did you, nor even suspected?’ Juliana breathed, running her fingers through the general’s lank hair.

‘Maximos murdered your son, not that queen. She witnessed his crime, but through love she never spoke out. And now she too is dead,’ Simonis murmured, enjoying twisting the knife even at the last. ‘That was always the first part of our plan. To take away your best hope for emperor so you would be forced to rely upon that boy … that monster, Justin.’

Victor shook as if he had a fever. Rowena watched the pool of blood around him gleam in the candlelight.

‘And Maximos killed the English warrior in the street outside this house, so they would join us in the fight against you,’ Simonis continued. ‘From that moment, all that you hoped for was slipping through your fingers. Then we only had to wait for you to do our work for us. Murdering the emperor’s closest advisers, who could be replaced by our own. And then murdering the emperor himself. When he dies at the hands of your men tonight, it will not be Justin who seizes the crown, it will be Maximos. He will be the hero of this night, and he will be the new emperor. And the Nepotes will rule Constantinople, and the Verini will fade away, never to be remembered.’

‘He goes now, Mother,’ Juliana said. ‘Quickly.’

As Simonis clamped her hands on Victor’s head and forced his mouth wide, Juliana pressed something into her father’s hand. His fingers twitched and spasmed, but she held them tight and manipulated them towards their dying tormentor’s mouth.

Rowena heard his groans become stifled. She winced at the grunts and gasps as he choked upon his own flesh. But after a moment they grew weaker and weaker, and finally they were done.