‘Could you make love to me again?’
‘Majesty, I am in love with Maria. . . .’
‘You will never marry Maria.’ Zoe’s eyes were glacial.
‘Majesty . . .’
‘Do you know what my skin feels like in this heat?’ With magical grace Zoe slipped her scaramangium over her head and stood as naked as Eve. Her vast white bosom, set off by erect lilac nipples, was as astonishing as ever. Her pubic triangle was flossed with gold. She cupped her breasts in her hands, and approached Haraldr. ‘Think what these would feel like hot and wet on your thighs.’ She pinched her nipples and ran the tip of her tongue over her crimson lips. ‘Perhaps you could kill my husband and add Emperor to your titles.’
Haraldr stepped back and looked up. ‘Majesty, I have come humbly and respectfully to beg your leave. I have served you and your Empire with as much loyalty and devotion . . .’
Zoe sat on the end of her sleeping couch and spread her legs so that the pink lips between them were visible in every detail. ‘You will make love to me before you leave Rome,’ she growled. ‘It is the duty you pay on exiting Rome.’
Haraldr laughed. ‘Majesty, I can think of scarcely anything more appealing at this moment. I would have my pleasure, tell Maria what I did and why, and she would forgive me. But my enjoyment would damage what she holds in her heart for you, and I would never subject her to that hurt. So I will exit without paying you your customs exaction.’
Zoe’s legs lolled obscenely. ‘You won’t exit without my permission.’
‘These walls can keep an invader out. But I don’t believe they could keep a simple beggar in. I will leave with or without your blessing.’
‘Then you will leave without Maria.’
‘I will let Maria decide that.’
Zoe leaned forward and leered with a blade-sharp gaze. ‘You had better think before you challenge me on this, King Haraldr. The last king to challenge me to a contest of love lost dearly.’
‘Maria loves you, I grant that. But I would stake my life on her love for me.’
Zoe laughed wildly, setting her great breasts in frantic motion. ‘You think you hold her with your love?’ she shrieked. ‘I hold her with a love so powerful, she will never deny it.’
Haraldr allowed Zoe’s fierce laughter to subside. ‘I know she is of your blood.’
Zoe’s head snapped and her eyes were like adders. ‘You don’t know what you know, King Haraldr,’ she said with teeth-gritting malice. ‘You have my permission to leave Rome. Maria does not.’
Haraldr made his decision. ‘Majesty,’ he said as he crossed his arms over his breast, ‘might I humbly suggest that you open your shutters? I believe that the cool sea air would have a most salutary effect on your demeanour.’
Halldor stuck his fingernail into the pitch. ‘It’s still pliable,’ he said, slapping the hard wooden strakes of the ousiai-class galley. ‘They build these hulls so stiff that they hardly need to caulk them. Of course they wouldn’t last a week in the western sea. A hull needs flexibility to handle the big waves.’ Halldor straightened up and looked out over the other two ousiai tied up at the St Mama’s Quarter docks. ‘No, a summer in the water hasn’t hurt these hulls. But they’ll need to be retarred in the spring. Of course, that won’t be our worry.’
‘I wish we weren’t leaving like fugitives in the night,’ said Ulfr. ‘After all we have done for Rome, we should have a fleet of dhromons leading us out of the harbour instead of having to worry about them chasing us through the Bosporus.’ Ulfr turned to Haraldr. ‘I hope your plan for getting over the harbour boom works.’
‘These stiff hulls will make it work,’ said Haraldr. ‘Just make certain that no one straps any gear down. Particularly the chests of gold. Anyway, I will be down here tomorrow night to rehearse the drill with the men. We won’t have time for mistakes.’
‘If we are drilling at night,’ said Halldor, ‘how are we going to provision the ships during the day without arousing suspicion?’
‘I made a deal with Argyrus when I sold him my estates and tax privileges,’ said Haraldr. ‘His men are going to load the ships and tell any of the Prefect’s meddlers that the vessels are being outfitted for one of Argyrus’s ventures. We even had papers forged.’
‘So Argyrus has turned out to be a true comrade, after all,’ said Ulfr.
‘I would trust him with my back,’ said Haraldr. ‘Of course, I would keep my purse attached to my belt in front. We won’t be out of the Bosporus before he has doubled his money on the resale of my properties. But I am certain he will keep his mouth shut until we are away.’
The three Norsemen looked towards the sprawling ring of lights around the Golden Horn and the great massed clusters of Galatea and Constantinople. ‘I wonder if we will ever see this heaven bound to earth again,’ said Ulfr softly.
‘Nidaros will seem like a sleeping closet,’ said Haraldr.
‘But it will be your land and your people,’ said Halldor.
‘It will be your people as well. You and Ulfr will no longer be guardsmen to a king. You will be Marshal and Counsellor to the King of Norway.’
‘I look forward to fighting for Norway,’ said Halldor. ‘I also look forward to a tall, silk-thatched, northern woman. The hair on her thighs so pale that it is almost transparent. Legs like a colt. The kind that likes to drain a mead horn at your side and keep you up all night.’
Ulfr gazed off at the lights of the city and Haraldr pulled Halldor aside. He kicked at the wooden planks of the wharf for a moment. ‘Halldor,’ he said secretively, ‘are you attracted to Maria?’
For once Halldor seemed startled. ‘I have no intention of cuckolding you, if that’s what you mean. But … I would worship that woman.’ Halldor sounded rapt. ‘She would chain me with desire. My career would be finished. But as I say--’
‘No, no. That is excellent. Now, I want you to make me a promise.’ Halldor nodded unconditionally. ‘I do not believe that anything can stop us from wresting the throne of Norway from King Sven. With my money and our pledge-men, ultimately nothing will prevent that conquest. Not even my death. If I were by some chance killed trying to regain my throne, I want you and Ulfr to carry on and rule in my stead. Rule jointly, or one take the north and one the south, as was done in my father’s time . . . whatever. That is between you two.’
‘Of course,’ said Halldor, ‘but I don’t think--’
Haraldr jabbed his finger in Halldor’s chest. ‘Here is the important pledge. I want you to promise that if I die, you will marry Maria and love her for me.’
‘I will promise, but I don’t really . . .’
‘Just make your pledge.’
Halldor shrugged. ‘I hope circumstances will never compel me to keep this pledge, but if they do, I will not find it difficult. I pledge it on my honour as a Norseman.’
Haraldr surprised Halldor with an embrace. ‘Thank you, my friend. Now I have been freed to go north.’
‘I had no idea I actually possessed so little,’ said Maria. ‘Growing up in the palace, I simply assumed that all of those things were mine. Now I see that all I have are these two chests full of robes and jewellery.’ She watched somewhat anxiously as Argyrus’s porters hefted the two large wooden caskets and carried them out into the courtyard.
Haraldr locked his arms around her waist. ‘In six months you will own Norway. In eighteen months you will hold a Prince of Norway to your breast.’
Maria turned and placed her hands flat on his chest. ‘Are you certain you will still desire me when you once again behold the fair-haired maidens of Thule? When my breasts and stomach sag with childbirth?’
‘Certainly. Who else will love me when I grow fat from the labours of the ale halls? The King of Norway is expected to drain the mead trench with his court men almost every night. Olaf looked like a pregnant cow. They even called him Olaf the Fat. That is what you will have to sleep with.’