Lord of Slaughter (31 page)

Loys smiled. ‘Not everything is an enchantment. Those who God made gentle cannot be unmade and reformed.’

‘I was not born gentle,’ said Snake in the Eye with a conviction that Loys found unpleasantly convincing. ‘I have a wolf inside me but he cannot get out.’

‘Perhaps he is content to stay where he is.’

Snake in the Eye clenched his fist and for a moment Loys thought the boy was going to hit him.

Loys put up his hands. ‘I cannot help you. I have never heard of this condition before.’

‘Then what of other afflictions? How do you remove a curse of the smallpox or of bad luck?’

‘The way to salvation of all sorts is through Christ,’ said Loys. ‘If you meddle with devils then devils will meddle with you. What is it you wear at your neck?’

‘A gift from my father, and to him from his father. It is a magical stone.’

‘What magic does it hold?’

‘Luck and defence from witches.’

‘To put your faith in such things is to put your faith in demons,’ said Loys.

‘It is a gift. A birthright. I cannot relinquish it.’

‘Then you have had my advice and rejected it,’ said Loys. ‘When you turn to Christ you will find all enchantments fall away. Magic, true magic, has no power against true faith.’

‘Then what of the emperor,’ said Snake in the Eye, ‘and the powerful men who fear this sky? What of this city under a curse of black heavens? It has built the greatest houses to your God the world has ever seen and yet it labours under this. Fimbulwinter. Fimbulwinter!’

‘What is Fimbulwinter?’

‘The barren and frozen time before Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods. The end of the gods is happening here, so the men say, and the city will fall when it does.’

Loys thought deeply.
Enchantment could not touch the true man of faith. Christ drives out all demons
. Yet the emperor was afflicted; the chamberlain had indicated he was suffering too. He tried to recall precedents of truly holy men who had been plagued by demons. Job, who God had set Satan upon? But demons always failed before the power of God. James 2:19 was the obvious reference: ‘Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.’

He considered the boy’s medallion, the one marking him as a servant of the emperor. This strange boy could be a useful source of information. It would not hurt for it to be known Loys had direct contact with the emperor’s man, though he couldn’t have too close an association with a pagan. That was permissible for the emperor because no one would question him. For Loys it was a more perilous course. If he brought the boy to Jesus it would look very good for him. He knew how to appeal to these people. The Norsemen in Rouen were impressed not by learning or cleverness but by gold, weapons and fine buildings.

‘You have a distressing and intriguing malady,’ said Loys. ‘It’s not right a warrior should suffer so. Boy, I tell you this. While you put your faith in idols, you will never be cured. Look at your people in their huts and their hovels. Even your greatest lords live less grandly than the merchants of the Middle Way here. Look at the church of Hagia Sofia. Did Odin ever raise something so magnificent? Look at the riches of our emperor and priests, the triumphs of our armies. When the rebel fell at Abydos it was God who struck him down, for God hates rebels – rebellion is Lucifer’s sin. Relinquish your idol and come to Christ.’

‘Bollason and his army do well enough following Odin.’

‘They will never be allowed into the city, never allowed to serve the emperor as they might, if they persist in idolatry. You are an ambitious man. Give up the stone and your troubles will end.’

Snake in the Eye put his hand up to the pendant. He tried to remove it, or rather his hand lifted the stone and then put it down again.

‘I have never taken it off,’ he said, ‘or only for a moment when the leather rots and the cord breaks. I think it bad luck to cut it away. It has been off my neck twice since I was a child and not for long. It is a blessing against magic, so all my kinsmen have said.’

‘Yet you consider yourself afflicted by a curse.’

Snake in the Eye cast down his head. The light in the garden was dropping, the quick dusk of the grey skies. Loys glanced back towards his chamber. He needed to get to Azémar.

‘I will cut it free – if you like,’ said Loys.

The boy said nothing, just stood with bowed head.

Loys drew the boy’s knife from his belt. ‘Here,’ he said. ‘I will set you free.’

The boy tensed for an instant, as if he would resist.

‘I’m tired,’ said Snake in the Eye. ‘I’m tired of the scorn and my own cowardice. I’m tired of not being a man. Why should other fellows get fame and glory while I stand fettered and mocked, unable to prove myself? If Jesus can give me release, if he can make me a killer, then I will follow him.’

Loys was tired too. It wasn’t important this man understood Christ; it was just important he honoured him. The messages of the Bible could be imparted by others with more patience and more time.

‘You must be baptised,’ said Loys. ‘And be sure to tell the emperor it was me who brought you to God. Here, you are free.’ He cut the cord at the boy’s neck and took the pebble.

Snake in the Eye stood tall and stretched out his arms like a man who had been a long time sitting. ‘I feel no different,’ he said.

‘Then go to the cathedral and pray,’ said Loys. ‘Ask for forgiveness for your pagan ways. Seek baptism there.’ Loys went to leave but Snake in the Eye took his arm.

‘What is baptism?’

‘They will wash you of your sins, wash you of all curses. Only then will you know if you are the victim of an enchantment or …’

Snake in the Eye pointed up into the filthy clouds.

‘You should wash the sky,’ he said.

‘I wish I could.’

‘I would wash the streets in blood,’ said Snake in the Eye.

‘Perhaps when you become a man you will feel differently,’ said Loys.

Snake in the Eye stared directly at him. ‘When I become a man, I will do it,’ he said.

Loys was suddenly scared by this odd young man. ‘I have to go back to my friends.’

‘Give me my stone.’

‘You abandon paganism, you abandon this,’ said Loys. ‘Don’t go forward to Christ looking back to Satan.’

Snake in the Eye rocked on his feet for a moment.

‘I would thank you, scholar. If my curse lifts then you may ask a service of me.’

‘I may do that,’ said Loys.

‘Come to the Varangian camp. I am Snake in the Eye. My fame is great there. I will find you your tracker.’

He leaned on the rail of the garden. The boy seemed about to faint.

‘Are you all right?’

‘I am not feeling well,’ said Snake in the Eye, ‘are there birds in the garden?’

‘There are no birds.’

‘Then what are those things floating up there. You’re mistaken, scholar, they are birds. You should look up from your books and see the world sometime.’

‘I’m going to leave you now,’ said Loys, ‘because I have the emperor’s work to do.’

Snake in the Eye seemed not to hear him.

At another time Loys might have laughed at the boy’s odd behaviour and gone back to Beatrice to tell her the emperor was employing lunatics. He was too concerned for Azémar. He headed inside, out of the garden. As he reached the door, the boy called after him.

‘I’ll go to the church!’

‘You do that.’

Loys found the physician gone, Azémar sleeping on the bed and Beatrice sitting on the couch watching him. Loys put the pebble down on his desk. It had a crude etched image of a wolf’s head on it.
These people are obsessed with wolves
.

‘How is he?’

‘He drank, though he wouldn’t eat.’ Beatrice pursed her lips, deeply troubled. Loys embraced her. He didn’t have to ask her what was wrong – the state of Azémar was enough to disturb anyone.

‘Well, he’s had a terrible ordeal. Maybe he just needs rest.’

‘Yes. And you need a wash. Get out of your clothes.’ Beatrice was talking to Loys but her eyes did not leave Azémar.

‘I only have the one set.’

‘I can send for some more, sir,’ said the servant.

‘That would be kind,’ said Loys.

Something made him look harder at his servant. For some reason he hadn’t quite registered what an odd fellow he was – extraordinarily tall with skin the colour of ivory and bright red hair that stood up in a shock. He had noticed these things before but they had seemed unremarkable. Now the true strangeness of the fellow struck him.

Then the feeling passed; the man was gone from the room, and Beatrice was at his side.

Loys went to his friend. He had certainly suffered badly. The starvation he’d endured in the Numera had shrunk the flesh of his face, leaving it bloodless and lean. His lips were drawn back as he slept and his teeth seemed very white and prominent.

‘He is so much changed,’ said Loys. ‘I hate to see him like this. He is a brother to me. You are the only secret I never shared with him.’

‘Why?’

‘He would have told me not to risk everything on a fancy.’

‘Am I a fancy?’

‘No. You are everything, and besides you the world is a fancy.’

‘I know him,’ said Beatrice.

‘Very likely. He worked the fields around your father’s hall. Though he is a scholar. His toil was a symbol of dedication rather than a full-time occupation.’

‘Fine ladies do not look too long at such men.’ She smiled, trying to keep her manner light. ‘Or so the Frankish maid my father bought to teach me manners told me.’

‘They do in my experience.’

‘Of course they do. That is not where I have seen him.’

‘Where have you seen him?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Beatrice, but she did. From the place where the moon made a silver road of the river, by the edge of the wood where unseen shapes snuffled and blundered, from the little wall that bore tiny lights upon it, lights that seemed so easily blown out, so in need of shielding and protection. He had come from her nightmares.

31
Lord of Slaughter

Snake in the Eye left the palace, picking up his sword at the Room of Nineteen Couches. He walked down the steps and around the Numera towards the towering church of Hagia Sophia.

His debt to Mauger could wait. He felt very odd, half drunk, and had the great desire to test his sword arm. Figures moved through the gloom ahead of him. This was the time to see if the scholar had truly removed his curse. He felt no different. His aggression was still like a lump stuck in his throat, something he needed to vomit forth.

He would try, he thought. An alley curled through some houses at the end of the Middle Way. It seemed a good place to wait for a discreet kill – dark as a cellar. His victim would provide the light. He had no lamp to guide him so he went in trailing one hand on the wall, the other in front of his face in case he walked into something. Nothing. Then a light.

Someone came down the alley carrying a lamp. Two boys, around ten years old, slaves of some sort by their dress.

‘Foul night,’ said one, nodding as he came by.

Snake in the Eye nodded back. When the boys had their backs to him he put his hand to his sword. No, he couldn’t draw it. The light they carried shrank. Snake in the Eye was at the rear of some warehouses which supplied the markets. There were no doors and the place stank of piss, shit and rubbish blown in from the Bull Market. Four paces to his right was an even tighter alley between two buildings – not even an alley. The warehouses leaned and sagged so much even a relatively small person like Snake in the Eye had to wriggle his way in. He did so.

After ten minutes another lamp. This time a soldier. He set the lamp on the ground not six paces from where Snake in the Eye was hiding and took a heavy piss. Snake in the Eye’s hand tightened on the sword.
Relax, relax
. He remembered what the warriors at Birka had told him when he asked for tips.

He loosened his grip on the weapon and reapplied his hand. He brought the sword free.

‘Who’s there?’

The Greek let down his soldier’s skirt and wheeled around.

This was what Snake in the Eye had dreamed of.

‘Only me.’

He stepped forward, his sword catching the glow of the lamp.

‘You’ve picked the wrong man to rob, kid,’ said the Greek. His speech was slurred and it was clear he was slightly drunk. ‘You’ve—’

Snake in the Eye was on him, swinging his sword high and hard towards the soldier’s head.

The man caught Snake in the Eye’s sword arm at the wrist and drove a kick into his guts. The boy crashed back into a wall, his sword flying from his hand. The man drew his own sword and smacked Snake in the Eye hard on the head with the flat of his blade.

‘You’re lucky you find me in a good mood, you little shit,’ he said. ‘If you were a man I’d have put this through you by now.’ He sank another heavy kick into Snake in the Eye’s balls. The boy rolled forward into the dirt, coughing and retching. ‘Take that as a lesson,’ the soldier said, ‘and I’ll take your weapon as a forfeit.’ He walked across to pick up Snake in the Eye’s sword.