The Warring States (The Wave Trilogy) (54 page)

‘I bet.’

He saw Sofia’s look and shook his head. ‘Unlucky, because they could not voluntarily make the sacrifice that ennobles our souls even as it corrupts our bodies.’

‘That’s crazy!’

‘Chivalry must be dead in Etruria. A knight’s life is his lord’s, to spend at his discretion.’

Sofia remembered Arik’s dismissal of chivalry and snapped, ‘You call that living?’

‘We live through Purgatory,’ Fulk said calmly, ‘that we may reach Heaven sooner.’

The knight Sofia had been watching laid down his tools and called for another brother’s assistance, and as they lifted the coffin to the edge of the trapdoor, Sofia saw there was a slanted chute down into the fast-running water. The sick knight climbed in, lay back and crossed his arms over his chest. The other brother placed the lid on top, painted a black Herod’s Sword on it, then hammered it shut and pushed the coffin off.

The coffin slid neatly down into the darkness. A soft splash, and it was gone.

‘Where does it go?’

‘Out to sea.’

Sofia wanted to ask Fulk if he was a volunteer or a conscript, but the question seemed horribly indiscreet. Instead she said, ‘Aren’t you afraid?’

Under his big cloak, Fulk shrugged. ‘Death is the one journey all must take. As the Ebionites say, God wills it.’

When she returned to the palace Sofia found the queen conversing with Levi on the balcony. He was complimenting Akka’s defences.

‘And you, Contessa, how did you enjoy the market?’ the queen asked, sharing a look of amusement with her smiling retinue. Sofia decided to say nothing of the fracas, and instead remarked that she was surprised that Ebionite merchants were allowed access to the market.

‘Alas, Contessa, when the West abandoned us, we abandoned ourselves to the East.’

‘So that’s why there were no pigs in the butchers’ quarter?’

Levi looked at Sofia with reproach, but she was unapologetic; she was rattled, and she wanted to probe the queen’s controlled veneer.

But the queen gestured to the priestly figure hovering beside her. ‘Allow me to introduce the venerable Patriarch Chrysoberges. Perhaps you’ll enlighten our guest, your Beatitude?’

The patriarch was a ponderous specimen. His beard, a rusty column flecked with grey, was carved with straight edges like a topiary block. His sacerdotal vestments were an elegant but sun-faded black, and the tight layers wrapped around him like ivy. He was tall, but somewhat hunched, and Sofia thought that with his long sleeves, he made a great lugubrious T that might have slotted perfectly into the patterned wall behind him. His circular flat-topped hat trailed a flowing cloth that covered the sides of his head and reached to his shoulders. His face was a small, pale island where nervous eyes hid under cover of bushy eyebrows.

To hear him talk was as surprising as spring growth on an ancient tree – but talk he did, holding his psalter tightly with the white-knuckle grip of a strangler as he launched into a tedious account of their adoption of Ebionite dietary strictures: ‘Although the schismatics obviously miss the larger truth concerning the Virgin’s nature, they did preserve some salutary traditions that the Etrurian Curia, in its arrogance, has forgotten. With the light of truth to guide us, the Oltremarine Church has perfected the Marian Faith. In time …’

Levi’s polite smile concealed his boredom, but Sofia didn’t even bother to feign interest. Her eyes wandered out to the children, still diving from the walls. She knew why they never tired of the danger; she had once played similar games.

The queen noticed her indifference and interjected, ‘To put it simply, Contessa, we were outcasts when we came here. If our children ever returned to Etruria, they would be outcasts again.’

‘Are all those children Oltremarine?’ asked Sofia.

‘Of course,’ the queen laughed. ‘No Ebionites would dream of diving in.’

‘Some Ebionites have the courage of lions,’ Sofia said.

‘Or any other beast, I’m sure,’ the patriarch said coldly, annoyed at being interrupted mid-sermon.

‘It’s not for lack for courage,’ the queen said. ‘The Ebionites believe it would defile them. They call it
Lordemare
, the Sea of Filth. Admittedly, it is polluted from the royal slaughterhouse, the fish market and the refuse of the citadel’ – her eyes flashed – ‘but our children are made of sterner stuff.’

‘Besides,’ the patriarch said, ‘we don’t permit our children to play with slaves.’

The queen dismissed Chrysoberges and said, ‘You mustn’t think that all our prohibitions mean we don’t know how to put on a feast. You’ll see what we’re capable of tonight.’

Levi bowed. ‘You honour us, your Majesty.’

The queen’s ladies tittered and she hushed them. ‘Forgive me; it’s not for you. My Uncle Andronikos, Prince of Byzant, is coming to visit.’

After the queen retired, ‘to let them rest’, Levi turned to Sofia. ‘That’s why she didn’t want to talk. She was stalling.’

The Land across the Water
DEGENERATION

After Jerusalem’s capture, most Crusaders left for home on the next available galley, sick of the desert, the violence, the faction. Those who stayed were either especially devout or especially quarrelsome
.
³⁶

While Oltremare’s self-styled nobility frittered away their initiative with internecine power struggles, the ruptured Radinate slowly recovered from the first body blow.
³⁷
The Rabbis anathematised any Melic who traded with the interlopers and, inspiring their shaken people with the example of the Maccabees and the Sicarii, they preached Holy War.
³⁸
It took a century, but finally Jerusalem was retaken. Oltremare, crushed between the southern and northern Radinate eager to recombine, sought aid from the Mother Country
.

Etruria responded by launching a new Crusade.
³⁹
This time most of the ‘knights’ were criminals sentenced to ‘Pilgrimages of Atonement’, a sentence that ill-disposed them towards their Motherland. The land across the Water was now Etruria. As Crusade followed Crusade, these exiles created the polity full of dangerous innovation.
⁴⁰
The king’s power was limited by a parliament in which he was obliged to listen to talk of Rights and Privileges from self-styled ‘Barons’, men who had been little better than serfs in Europa
.

Some familial dynamics are a mystery to an only child or orphan, and Sofia was both. Even so, she marvelled that the queen tolerated her uncle’s overbearing manner.

The patriarch’s eyes followed Andronikos with patent alarm, as if expecting the prince to assault his beloved mistress any moment. The queen lay back on her cushions, playing with her infant cousin – Andronikos’ daughter was a spirited baby – while her uncle stalked back and forth like a great cat. His long purple cape was fastened around his bull-like neck with a gaudy brooch; like his loud manner, it ill-fitted the sluggish, decorous ambience of Catrina’s court. With his barbaric matted moustache and dirty spurs, Andronikos might have just come from the field of battle – in fact, he practically had, as he spent the previous night’s feast proudly recounting how he had destroyed Concord’s Ninth. The party had been quite ruined by the behaviour of the prince’s retinue. Instead of using Lazarus Knights as bodyguards, he retained a gang of axemen from the ice-burdened lands across the northern seas. Sofia was unsurprised that Andronikos failed to discipline them – he was no less boorish than they, dressing in their furs and matching them drink for drink – but she found it odd that the queen did not protest.

Catrina was more interested in how Andronikos could absent himself from Byzant. ‘However did you find someone suitable to leave in charge?’ she asked.

‘Don’t worry. Prince Jorge may be very young, but he is quite capable. Popular with the men, too.’

‘A popular prince!
Madonna
, now I am worried. Do you
really
think you’ll have a city to return to?’

Andronikos laughed heartily at this. ‘Jorge doesn’t have the lineage to be considered a rival. Everyone calls him “Prince” but he wasn’t born to the purple. Oh, he has a drop or two of decent blood, but he won his fame and his title racing chariots in the Hippodrome.’

‘I see,’ said Catrina. It was clear that she found Byzantine manners as strange as Sofia did.

‘But come, Catrina, this is dry stuff. Where’s the light-hearted niece I used to play with?’

‘Alas, Uncle, she grew up. But you know how glad I am to see you. I have need of wise counsel; tell me, what do you make of our guests’ request for assistance?’

Sofia was surprised: Catrina was shrewd, and whatever the prince’s qualities, wisdom was obviously not amongst them.

Andronikos didn’t pause to consider his response. ‘Bah! What concerns us Etruria? In our hour of need, their assistance was niggardly. Now that they need help, the ambassadors they send reveal the contempt in which they hold us.’

‘Ouch!’ said Levi, pulling an imaginary dart from his chest. ‘Hard not to take that personally.’

‘Come, Podesta. Condottieri are men of the world. The princes of Europa use Oltremare as a dumping ground for their family scandals.’

‘I’m not sure I follow,’ said Levi, less equably.

‘Then I’ll explain as I would to a child. In the desert, gardens must be protected by walls or the Sands eat them. Someone scaled this
lady’s
walls. Only she can say if it was trespasser or guest.’

Levi’s sword would have taken the prince’s head off had Fulk not parried it. The prince’s axemen looked on stupidly.

‘Back up,’ Fulk said with deadly calm.

‘Tranquillo
, Levi,’ Sofia said.

Levi put away his sword, and the prince backed away with a scared laugh.

The queen was merely annoyed. ‘Uncle, don’t be so rude! The Contessa came a great distance at great personal danger to warn us,’ she said, coaxingly. ‘Our fathers won this land from infidels – and what are Concord’s Godless engineers if not infidels? If they gain control of Etruria, and the Contessa says they will, our duty is clear: our fathers answered the call. How can we do less?’

‘Because the Old World is far from here. You don’t understand their politics, Catrina. It’s foolish to let ourselves be entangled in their quarrels just when our kingdom is on a firm footing.’

Sofia noticed how the ‘our’ made the queen’s nostrils flair, but Andronikos carried on blithely, ‘If we turn our back on the Radinate—’

The patriarch snorted, ‘We’ve nothing to fear from those gerbil-eaters. Their government is a thing without structure or foundation, like the tents they live in. Abraham’s children have become children once more.’

‘And any one of those children will cut the other’s throat for a few pieces of silver,’ the queen finished.

‘Fine,’ said Andronikos, ‘but the Concordians – the men you call infidels – were enemies of the Ariminumese until this summit drove them together. That makes them potential allies, as far as I’m concerned.’

‘Allies!’ Sofia interrupted. ‘Last night, you treated us to a vivid description of a Concordian legion marching to the walls of Byzant.’

‘Perhaps you slept through the end of the story, child: we saw them speedily off. Geography is the reason no Europan State can threaten us militarily – the Ariminumese plague us
in other ways, stealing our markets, under-pricing us. They’ve made a pirate into their admiral. Need more be said? Let the Etrurians fight between themselves. Why search for infidels abroad?’ he asked, glancing at the slave fanning the queen. ‘We have enough of those at home.’

‘You’re right about one thing, Prince,’ said Sofia. ‘You
don’t
understand Etrurian politics. The Concordians covet territory like the Ariminumese covet gold. If the Concordians get access to the Ariminumese navy, Oltremare will be faced with a new Crusade, a Crusade that will supplant you.’

The prince’s child shrieked in delight and the queen looked up with a smile. ‘
My
kingdom’s strong enough to see off
any
pretenders.’ Sofia knew that this boast was for her uncle’s ears – and so did he. Embarrassed, he made his excuses and stalked out.

Unperturbed, the queen kissed the giggling baby’s stomach. ‘Where’s Papa gone? Where’s he gone?’ After the last of Andronikos’ retinue filed out, followed by Fulk and his men, she turned lazily to the patriarch. ‘Your Beatitude, what say you?’

Chrysoberges pursed his lips with great solemnity. ‘Since we have subjugated heresy so thoroughly here, the Evil One is trying to flank us. Our duty is clear: Etruria and Oltremare are one. Your uncle talks of commerce’ – a shudder shook the old tree – ‘and makes arguments of expedience, but there can be no compromise with apostasy! Evil must be vanquished wherever it manifests itself. The engineers of Concord deserve harsher treatment than the Ebionites. Abraham’s children languish in the old dispensation, but at least they fear God. The engineers worship an idol called Reason.’ He added mournfully, ‘If that poison were to gain purchase in people’s hearts, where might it end? What beastliness could not be justified in Reason’s name?’