Byzantium's Crown (25 page)

"When I have my throne," Marric said bluntly. "Help me gain what is mine, and you'll have it that much sooner."

"Fellow trader!" Audun bellowed his huge laugh.

He led them all within his shelter. A woman almost as old and large as the bearmaster served them ale, boiled grain, meat, bread, and honey.

Marric tore at the food with gusto and matched Audun horn for horn of the strong ale. Finally both men leaned back and grinned.

"You will be wanting to know about your sister, won't you?" Audun asked. He set his horn down and wiped his lips with the gold-furred back of his hand. "Her wounds were messy, not deep, and she healed rapidly. Except—" He looked closely at Marric.

The prince felt his food turn to lead in his belly. Was Alexa disfigured or so damaged in mind that she had less wit than a child?

"I last saw that look—conscience-stricken, I suppose you'd call it—on the princess herself," said Audun. "Oh, never fear, prince, the lady is well enough now. In our first days out of the city, she had some fever. She tossed and wept in her blankets and cried out that she had turned on you when you'd meant her only good. I left a much daunted lady with Queen Olwen, that let me tell you."

"But she is well!" Marric raised glowing eyes to the Bearmaster. "Stephana said so, but to have actual word of her—that is all that matters." Tears scalded down his face, and he was unashamed of them. Imhotep's rebuke, "Master of no man, least of yourself," could not apply at such a moment.

"We will get her back," he said, his face lighting up. Then he turned to Stephana and took her hand. "You and she," he said. "I know how it is when women live too closely together, but she will come to love you."

The seeress raised Marric's hand to her cheek.

Audun's face was somber as he looked at them.

"Time to think of this later." Marric regained his composure. "Were Alexa here, she would share my counsel. I have a throne to win, Audun. Let me ask you once more: do you come here for compensation?"

"No," said the bearmaster, "but I shall be glad of it. I came here, as I said, for law. One land, one lord." His voice took on the chanting tone of an Aescir harpist. "Otherwise the land fails, as even now the empire wanes.

"Irene stretches her nets wide, Prince. About the East you have heard from Ellac and Uldin. The news from the West is graver. Irene has proposed to the reaver-jarl in his island fortress that they ally and offers him marriage."

If the Jomsborgers entered Byzantium, the Varangian guard would never declare for Marric against distant kin. "And the reaver's answer?"

"Grettir can return no answer yet. The northern seas are full of fogs. Winter approaches. Irene can expect no word for months."

"Jomsborg has attempted the city before," Marric said. "But they have no high opinion of women there. By spring, then, I will wear the Horus crown or my grave wrappings."

Audun watched Marric, the older man's candid blue eyes turning deep and thoughtful. Once again Marric thought of Imhotep, of all the other priests who examined him, who demanded things of him, and who so often found him deficient. Finally Audun nodded. "What would you have of me, Prince?"

"Your vow not to move against the city. Let Irene fear attack, but receive none. Once I rule, though, I shall bargain for shipwrights. I must teach the pirates a strong lesson. Will you aid me?"

"Many of my folk will," said the bearmaster. "But I am old. I will stay at home and nourish my bears. Would you see the one I have reared for you?"

Loving his bears, Audun would not make this offer if he still had doubts of Marric. Nicephorus caught his eye and made a small victory sign.

Audun rose. Out of respect the others rose with him.

"What does this mean, lord?" the dekarch asked.

"It means acceptance," said Marric. "You heard the bearmaster: one land, one lord. Audun only gives bears to such men or women. Irene failed his test, but I will not."

"Don't misjudge Audun Bearmaster," warned Nicephorus. "That bluff manner of his is largely a mask. Stephana, do you read aught of him?"

"He called me 'daughter of fate,'" she said, "but he himself is one of its agents." She huddled into her cloak and drew nearer the fire.

She is a priestess, not a warrior, Marric thought. This life taxes her strength too greatly. But she will continue because she loves me, long after her strength is gone. I must protect her even from her love—and I will!

Scrabblings broke in upon his thoughts.

"Now then, brother mine, no need, no need. You go to greet a prince. Remember your manners." A coughing bark answered Audun. He entered, followed by the bear.

It was a male in magnificent condition, large but without the massiveness characterizing a fully grown beast. Its fur was white, of course, and incredibly thick. About its neck shone a necklace of ancient gold coins. This Audun flipped off, his hand inches from the bear's gleaming muzzle and sharp fangs. He tossed the necklace over Marric's head. It clattered against his armor.

"My guest gift to you, Prince. When you have housing for your bear, summon me, and I shall bring him to you."

Intelligence gleamed in the bear's eyes. Fascinated by the beast, Marric rose to his feet. As a child he had always imagined that his father's white bear understood human speech.

Knowing that the Aescir watched him, Marric moved slowly toward the bear. He extended one hand to touch jaws that could easily bite it off. The beast's head wagged as it surveyed Marric with equal curiosity.

"Friend?" Marric asked tentatively.

With a joyous bellow the bear knocked Marric's hand aside. He exclaimed in shock at the coldness of its nose before he was engulfed in the most powerful hug of his life. It was like being awash in white fur, or wrestling with the tide. The bear's great paws rested on his shoulders.

He found himself doing an absurd dance merely to keep his balance, so he flung both arms about the bear and hung on for support.

Audun calls this creature my bear? As well say that I am its man! Marric laughed. The sound of his laughter, with slightly wild overtones as if tension too suddenly had snapped, made him laugh even harder.

"Back, brother," commanded Audun. "Back! You will join your master soon enough."

With immense strength he pried the bear away from Marric. The prince stood laughing and trying to regain his breath. Groaning mournfully at being deprived, the bear shambled outside. "Quiet, brother, quiet," they heard its keepers say.

"Love at first sight, my prince?" Nicephorus asked.

"Something like that." Marric shook himself. Bears that size could snap spines, crush flesh, hurl grown men across clearings. This bear had merely—merely!—hugged him until his ribs had almost cracked. As well for me that I wear armor, thought Marric.

Stephana turned to him when he sat down once more. "Would you like me to hold you that tightly?"

"I wish you could." She looked better than she had, but he knew how tired she was. She seemed to like the bearmaster and he, her. Good. By the time Audun returned, Marric had made his plans.

"Was my father's bear as fine a fellow?"

"Almost," said Audun. "What was it you really wished to say?"

"About Stephana, here." Marric touched her hair. "This life of mine—hiding, plotting, riding into danger—is no good for her. Could you give her safe haven here?"

"Marric, no!"

"But yes," Marric told her, and clasped her hands. "You are exhausted. How often you will have to endure this . . . It is only for a while, Stephana. I will return for you."

She shook her head. "I want to stay with you."

"But I want you safe. Audun, will you grant my lady hospitality?"

"The lady has a voice, remember?" asked Audun. "She can well judge for herself. Let her."

"You know what I am," Stephana said to Audun. "And you know that I do what I must do. I will stay with my lord."

Audun bent his head in acquiescence and deep respect. "You are answered, prince."

"I would have you safe, cherished," Marric pleaded with her. "How can I make you reconsider?"

"You cannot," Stephana said. She stood close to him, her hands enfolded in his against his chest. "But ask me anything else. Please. I am cherished. And I don't want to be safe if it means leaving you!" Her voice rose. Then she calmed herself and went on. "You trust my visions now, don't you? Trust them one more time, my heart. I have seen you enthroned, and I know—I know—that my presence has helped place you there."

"The thing is fated," Nicephorus broke in softly.

Who asked you? Marric all but turned on his friend.

"If I thought I could, I would leave you among allies too," he told Nicephorus. "You protect your own family by staying away from them."

"As you well know, the priests guard them for me better than I can. And my wife is a woman of sense, like Stephana. You do not suggest I skulk here because I am a man. And I would not consent to." Nicephorus walked over to Marric. "Let me call you Mor right now, my friend. You must permit your friends to choose to follow you. Taran warned you: you have the gift of drawing hearts and minds. Accept it, Mor. What must be, will be."

Finally the tears coursing down Stephana's face persuaded Marric. He brushed them away with a tender hand. "Isis protect you, Stephana, if you will not yield to me on this."

"Ask me something else," she said again, beginning to smile. "Anything except this."

"I am answered," Marric told Audun. "Bearmaster, I thank you, not least of all for your understanding and friendship. I only regret I have no gifts to bestow in return for yours—except for my friendship. You possess that already."

"Send me word as you can," said Audun. "We are allies under law."

Marric embraced the older man and met a strength almost as great as that of his bear. For one precious moment he was a boy again, impulsively flinging his arms around his father. Even for so brief a time, it felt good to be a child again. But even such a short return to boyhood was too long an indulgence for a would-be emperor.

Marric broke away. Without looking back he walked toward the horses. The necklace of gold coins clinked against his harness, and he raised a hand to touch it. In the coins lingered some of the incredible vitality of their last wearer.

What was Audun? he wondered. He had rescued Alexa, recognized Stephana immediately for what she was—and then, those bears . . . Marric decided he was too tired to search for answers. He had a long ride back.

They reached Byzantium at dusk. Drizzle had begun to fall, and the sky had turned somber, foggy, heavy with a smell of rotting shellfish. The gates, closed behind them, seemed to shut them away from the freedom of the plains. The whole city seemed to be one great snare. Marric felt as heavily burdened as Mor the slave. The necklace he wore might as well read "Property of Empire."

In the safe house a welcome had been prepared. Fires scented with delicate incenses burned in finely chased braziers. The polycandela reflected their torches. No one besides servants awaited them. It was just as well. Marric knew that he and his friends were too near exhaustion to do more than rest. Daphne set out wine and food. When Marric thanked her, she flushed and fled.

Typical Daphne behavior, Marric thought. She was really at ease only around Stephana and, to a degree, around Nicephorus. A message awaited him, reporting on his young son's recovery from a broken collarbone. His relief cut Marric off further from the cozy world of children, small ailments, and shy servants. He wanted only to sleep. Then Merikare, muffled in a cloak, was admitted by the guards. He brought Marric word that several of the prefects of the city wanted to meet with him.

Stephana withdrew. The prefects and priests came and left. Marric and Nicephorus coughed over dusty records in poor light until Marric took pity on his friend's jaw-stretching yawns and ordered him to go and sleep. Sighing heavily, Marric drew out old maps and his grandfather's Strategikon. No more wine for tonight, he decided. He sorted through his welter of documents once again, found the ones he wanted, and rubbed his temples where a headache was beginning. He had a night's work to do.

Wearing the plain wool garments of merchants (with army swords concealed beneath their cloaks), Marric and two of the house guards strode from the Mangana at sunset. As quickly as they might, without attracting attention, they turned from the main streets to the safer back ways.

As they rounded a corner, a noblewoman's litter swung toward them. Just in time, Marric remembered to give place to it on the crowded side street and not to look at its occupant. Noting that the woman was guarded, he pulled up his hood. There had been far too many hired swords about recently. Nervous at the presence of enemies outside the city and of rumors within it, Irene had tightened security until—as the market gossip pungently remarked—cataphracts outnumbered catamites in the brothels.

Market gossip was also buzzing about the Dionysia to be held early in the spring.

In the crowded market Nicephorus intercepted Marric and his escort. He had been watching the children who raced among the stalls and, Marric suspected, wishing he could see his own children. Marric had offered to have them brought to join him in the safe house—as safe as anyplace in the city could be for him—but Nico had refused. A pity, his wife Ariadne would have been company for Stephana. Recently Marric had become concerned for her safety, given the increased security and a new outbreak of robberies and stabbings in the city. Perhaps Stephana had threatened the overseer with a lance. Marric privately believed that she never could have killed him. She rarely even wore a dagger.

Men loitering in the streets nodded as they passed: more temple guards. As they entered the safe house, Marric flung off his cape and looked around. Usually Stephana was waiting for him. But he saw only the two guards he had told to protect her.

They rose and faced him uneasily.

"Your lady is upstairs," one said.

"What's wrong?"

"No lord, she is not ill," said the second. "This is what happened: at noon, she told us that she wished to go to the Temple of Isis to meditate. Preferably accompanied only by her maid."