Lord of Slaughter

3

The emperor picked up the sword. The wolfman went down onto his haunches while the boy lay limp on the ground. The sound of the rain and the singing of soldiers filled the tent. The emperor turned to his right. The back of his guard was just visible through the slit in the tent flap.

Basileios walked to it and opened it. The man jerked around, his soaking face staring up in surprise at the emperor’s sudden appearance. He shook with cold. The emperor beheaded him.

Then he turned back inside the tent.

‘It’s a fine slave who tells the Roman ruler what to do,’ he said to the crouching figure. ‘Look at you, in your mud and your dye. Why should I do anything you ask me?’

‘Kill me,’ said the wolfman, ‘or kill you.’

The man’s Greek was appalling and Basileios hardly understood what he was trying to say. On the floor the boy coughed and hacked, sucking breath back into his lungs.

‘How did you get in here?’

The wolfman’s face was uncomprehending.

The emperor studied the wolfman in the glow of the weak coals. He was gaunt, almost starved in appearance, but wiry and strong-looking, smeared with mud on his belly, chest and knees from where he had crawled through the night. Matted black hair stuck wet to his face and a soaking wolfskin lay across his shoulders, its head sitting on top of his.

‘Kill me. Kill you.’

A shout from outside. The Hetaereia had found the head of their companion. A man poked his head into the tent. He had the smooth skin and delicate features of a eunuch. His short sword was free in his hand.

‘Alarm!’

‘Stand down, soldier,’ said the emperor. ‘The moment for alarm is long past. Remain at the entrance to prevent people coming in: I don’t want the tent demolished by men rushing to make themselves my protector. On your present showing it would be better if I guarded you.’

‘You know this foreigner, sir?’

‘No, but I intend to, and the task will be made much harder if your men kill him.’

‘One of us is dead here already, sir. I-’

‘By my hand. If you are more vigilant you will not suffer the same fate, now do as I say!’

The man disappeared outside. Shouting, footsteps nearly indistinguishable from the fall of the mighty rain. The wolfman stood and the emperor backed away.

‘Kill me. Kill you,’ he said again.

Snake in the Eye sat up. He said several words, separate, staccato. Basileios heard Greek, Roman and some in a language he didn’t recognise. The boy was saying one word in different tongues — ‘brother’. He was appealing to the wolfman, trying to become his friend.

The wolfman spoke slowly to the boy.

Snake in the Eye translated. ‘He is a wildman of the Varangian people. He says you have to kill him. He is deadly bad luck to you. Use that sword. It is poisoned with the dreams of witches and can end your trouble.’

‘Is he Bollason’s man?’

Bollason was chief of the Varangians. Snake in the Eye wanted to make himself important to the emperor for the moment so he thought not to involve Bollason. He just asked the wolfman if he could speak Greek any better. The man shook his head and waved his arms.

‘He is working alone, sir, and despises Bollason.’

‘Ask him when wildmen became so interested in the emperor’s health. Why does he value my life above his own? Ask him why.’

The man spoke again.

‘A wolf is coming for you. You are a god but a wolf is coming to kill you.’

The boy translated, his voice hoarse.

‘Well, it’s a tame wolf who bends down and asks you to chop off his head,’ said the emperor.

‘You are part of a great magic. A very great magic. Your part in the spell is to kill him. He must die, and by your hand. Otherwise you are in mortal peril.’

The emperor paled when he heard this translation and his lips pursed in anger, not fear.

‘I’ve had enough of sorceries and witch work,’ he said, ‘and I will take part in no spell, nor be a conjurer’s fool. Is this the price, Satan, of what happened today, the death of my enemy, a human sacrifice? Is this some trick to obtain my soul?’

‘He says he will kill you if you do not strike him down,’ said Snake in the Eye.

Basileios sneered at the wolfman then threw the strange curved sword so it landed flat beside him.

‘Tell him to go on then,’ said the emperor. ‘He had the chance while I was lying asleep. Tell him to do it.’

The boy repeated the words to the wolfman, who trembled, violently shaking his head. ‘Kill me! Kill me!’

‘Guardsmen!’ shouted the emperor.

Eight men crashed inside the tent, crowding around the emperor, threatening to knock down the whole sodden structure.

‘Take the pagan. Don’t harm him. I need to get more learned men than me to speak to him and I want to have him in a fit state to answer their questions. Those scholars sit on their arses all day doing nothing; let them earn their keep for once and get to the bottom of this. Tie him, watch him and, when we get back to that stinking shit hole of a capital city of ours, chuck him in the Numera and await further instructions. Take him, go on!’

The men advanced on the wolfman, who offered no resistance as they dragged him outside.

The emperor dismissed his guards and again only Snake in the Eye remained.

‘The guards are incompetent,’ said the Emperor, ‘or rather treacherous. They must have let him in. I cannot trust my own people any more, nor any Greek because all of them are eligible to take my throne if they can get the army’s backing. Yet, if I move against the Hetaereians it may spark them into rebellion.’

Snake in the Eye said nothing. He looked out of the tent. A weak dawn — the damp light of a hidden sun. The rain had stopped. No more singing but the cries of the untended wounded, the squabbling of the soldiers as they looted.

‘What would you do?’ the emperor asked the boy.

‘You got your answer on the battlefield today — kill the leaders and their men will not oppose you. Cut off the head and the snake cannot bite.’

The emperor stretched out his neck.

‘No need to send for the chamberlain when you’re here, eh?’

‘Shall I send for him?’

‘He’s going ahead of the army and very likely moving already. He doesn’t like life in the field, that one. He mourns a week without a bath in the way most men do the loss of a limb.’

‘Then how shall I serve you?’

‘Send for your Bollason. Alert him that the Hetaereian generals will be brought here. When they enter the tent, his men should surround it and he should come to me. Your counsel is apt.’

‘Yes.’

‘Good. Then after that you can take a message to the chamberlain. Take my banner and fly it from one of your ships. You’ll bring news of the victory. It’s important you Varangians do so; you must take the credit.’

Heat came to Snake in the Eye’s cheeks. Here was his chance. ‘Will you need a man to kill for you? I could do that work if you require it.’

‘You truly do have a snake in your eye, don’t you, boy? You are a venomous creature.’

‘So my mother told me. Men like me are useful to kings, are we not?’

The emperor nodded. ‘Very useful. Though do not fool yourself into thinking you are in short supply. All men can do all things if required. The only difference is the level of enthusiasm they bring to each task. Do not take pride when I confide in you. I only speak to you as I would speak to a monkey, no more. You are too young to scheme and plot, too naive and foreign and stupid. You imagine yourself subtle, Snake in the Eye — I read it in your face — but you are not. That is why your company is pleasant to me. I tire of subtle men.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Get Bollason, and when you’ve brought him here you can sail on after the chamberlain. There are too many odd doings for my liking and I want them stopped. Tell him I’ll brook no resistance this time: these things are to be investigated and investigated properly, no matter the stir it causes. I want him to look into them in person. Fireballs, unexplained deaths, wolfmen babbling of prophecies — I want to know what it’s about and I want an end to it, you tell him that. Speak no word of this man coming to the tent tonight to anyone but the chamberlain. I don’t want people thinking they can walk in here as easy as into a church on a Sunday. Here.’ The emperor took something from a bag at his side. He passed it to Snake in the Eye. It was a small medal marked with the emperor’s head and some writing. It meant nothing to the boy. He could speak many languages but read none.

‘This will give you safe passage if you are questioned more closely. The chamberlain, as quick as you can.’

‘Yes, sir.’

Snake in the Eye left the tent. The guard outside the flap gave him a simmering stare. Snake in the Eye ignored it and ran to bring the Viking chief to a profitable murder.