The Walls of Byzantium (19 page)

Luke didn’t know if Anna was asleep for she hadn’t spoken for a long time and the rhythm of her breathing was soft and even. He hoped that she was, that whatever demons had been with her in the cave had been chased away. She deserved peace.

He knew that he was in love with her, that he’d loved her from the moment he’d seen her on the journey from Mistra. He knew, too, that it was a love without a future. Anna was daughter to the most important man in the despotate, save the Despot himself, and he was the son of a Varangian Guard. Whatever had happened in this cave, however right it had been, it would never, could never, happen again. It would remain locked in his heart as the most beautiful of memories.

But he would not sleep now. No, he would stretch this moment of pure happiness for as long as it would stretch, and when Anna awoke to tell him that they could never be together, he would smile, would understand, would leave.

But Anna was not asleep. Anna was lying as still as she could, keeping her breathing even, because she wanted Luke to think her asleep. She wanted him to know that the joy he’d given her had been so complete that its only consequence could be the peace of sleep.

But she also wanted to think.

In one way, things were much clearer now. She had no doubt that she loved Luke and that, whatever it took, she would find a way to be with him. She supposed that if they managed to
escape to Mistra, Luke would make a new home there. Perhaps he would find his treasure and be rich. But what if he didn’t? Surely he could be found some employment with the Despot or her father and they could remain lovers, secret lovers but lovers nonetheless? She felt suddenly light-headed.

Anna very slowly turned to face Luke, bringing her hands up to feel his face. His eyes were open and she could feel the stretch of his smile as she ran her fingers through the light stubble of his jawline.

‘Do you love me, Luke?’ she whispered.

‘Yes,’ he answered. ‘I have loved you from the moment I saw you.’

‘More than Eskalon?’

‘More than Eskalon.’

‘And what if I could not be with you? Like Eskalon?’

‘Then I will love you from afar. I will love you wherever you are and wherever I am.’

Anna was silent for a while, gently stroking his face. The first light of the new day was eking its way into the cave and the wind had dropped. Anna wanted the dawn to come, for the sun to rise quickly above the rim of the eastern sea so that she could properly see this man who had given her so much.

‘Will you light the lamp now?’

Luke rolled over to find the flint that he’d brought with him. He lit the lamp and placed it on the blanket between them. The little shadows cast by the dancing flame made their features sharper, their eyes brighter but also moved to the beat of a happiness in the air between them.

At last Luke spoke. ‘We will have to get off the island soon. Perhaps tomorrow.’

‘Good,’ said Anna. ‘I want to go. But why tomorrow?’

‘Because Damian has searched the city and found nothing. His men are searching the outer town now and I fear they’ll come here. The Despot’s army is marching on Monemvasia and the Archon is getting ready to leave … They seem determined not to leave without you.’

‘I see. So how will we get away?’

‘We’ll do as Zoe suggested, leave by sea. Matthew and the others have gone fishing at dusk for the past week, leaving from the jetty at the sea wall. They always take a box full of nets and bait. Tomorrow you’ll be in that box.’

‘Will that work?’ asked Anna, shuddering at the thought.

‘Yes. The guards have got used to seeing them and will suspect nothing.’

Anna thought about this. A small, dark place. She breathed deeply. She didn’t like it but could think of no alternative. And he would be with her.

‘All right, Luke,’ she said softly. ‘I’ll do whatever you want.’ She reached out her arms to him and smiled. ‘But only if you kiss me again.’

CHAPTER NINE

MONEMVASIA, SUMMER 1394

Late the following afternoon Luke was upstairs at the Magoris home, surveying the wreckage of his bed. The soldiers had come on the previous evening to search the house and, in their enthusiasm, had broken one of its sides. With luck he wouldn’t need it again.

For the hundredth time that day, he smiled.

His parents hadn’t asked him where he had passed the night but his look needed little explanation. He’d spent the day going about his everyday business, helping his mother and visiting the stables to check on the horses. But it had all been done in a mood of such blissful abstraction that Rachel had twice had to repeat herself to be understood.

It was as if time had stopped during the hours he’d spent with Anna in the cave. He could think of nothing else. He’d never experienced such happiness and it still suffused every fibre of his being. For the first time in his life, anything seemed possible and he had one single purpose to his life: to take Anna away from Monemvasia that night. What the future would bring afterwards, God only knew.

Now he was getting ready for the task ahead. He’d dressed
himself in tough leather breeches and a woollen smock since the wind was rising again and the sea might be rough. He’d packed a small bundle of extra clothes and taken from beneath his mattress what little money he’d saved over the years. He would have to ask his mother for food.

That was going to be the hardest part. He assumed that his parents had no idea of his plans but they would have to be told now. He could hardly bear to think of how they would take the news.

‘Luke?’ It was his mother’s voice from downstairs. It sounded unsteady.

It had to be done now.

Luke descended the staircase and found both his parents waiting for him.

Luke tried: ‘Mother, Father, I should tell you—’ he began, but his father cut him short.

‘Luke,’ said Joseph quietly. ‘We know where you’re going.’

Luke looked at these two people who’d given him all of their love and asked for so little in return. These people whose love he was repaying by running away. They suddenly looked old and vulnerable.

‘Do you love her, Luke?’ Rachel asked.

He looked into those brown eyes searching his face to understand. ‘Yes, I love her.’

‘But she’s …’

‘Yes, Mother, I know who she is. But she’s also someone who needs my help. If she stays here, she will be taken to the Turks. I have to help her.’

His mother nodded slowly, knowing that, whatever she said, he would go. She went over to the table and began to wrap some food in a napkin, a tear staining a fold in the white cloth.
Joseph watched his wife for a moment, then cleared his throat and came over to stand in front of his son, putting his hands on Luke’s shoulders.

‘There are some things I need to say to you, Luke,’ he said quietly. ‘First of all, you will need money and I’ll give you what I have.’

Luke began to protest. ‘I—’

‘No,’ his father interrupted. ‘You will take it. If not for you, then for her.’ Joseph went over to the table and picked up a small leather bag of coins, which he put into Luke’s bundle. Then he led Luke over to the box against the wall and unlocked it. He brought out the sword.

‘I was to give this to you on your sixteenth birthday, but you gave it to yourself instead and I took it back. I want you to take it now. Through the years I’ve done my best to teach you how to use it and you’ve learnt well. Now you must use it to defend yourself. And Anna.’

Luke took the sword. He walked over to the candle and lifted the dragon-head pommel to its light. There was no object in the world he thought more precious than this sword. It had been Siward’s, given to him by the Emperor Alexios, and had been all that he’d taken when he’d fled the burning city of Constantinople.

He turned. ‘Thank you, Father. I …’

Joseph shook his head. ‘We don’t have much time, Luke. Let me talk. You are taking Anna back to Mistra. That is good. I was going to take you there one day, to find something.’

‘The treasure?’

Joseph dipped his head.

‘So it wasn’t myth.’

‘No, and it may not be treasure, it may be something else. I don’t know.’ He paused again. ‘There are things I haven’t told you, things I was going to tell you when you were older.’

Luke waited, watching his father closely. The sadness that was never far from his eyes was deeper now, his brows creased beneath its weight.

‘Your grandfather, my father, was called Siward, as were all Akolouthoi before him. Have you never wondered why I don’t bear that name? Or you?’

Luke had wondered. Now he would know. He’d stopped breathing.

‘Have you never wondered how he died?’

‘You told me. He died from the plague.’

‘He didn’t. Your grandfather left Monemvasia just after you were born. It was said that he went to Mistra, took the treasure and went abroad.’

Luke felt numb. ‘He stole it?’

Joseph nodded. ‘So it is said.’

‘And that’s why you changed your name?’

Joseph sat down. ‘I was forced to by the others. It was the agreement. We’d not talk of the past if I erased it from my name. I did it for you, so that you could grow up without the shame.’ He paused. ‘That’s why the treasure became myth.’

Luke was slowly nodding his head. A veil had been lifted. Now he understood the sadness that never left his father’s eyes, the things that were said and unsaid between the older Varangians.

‘I believed the myth.’

‘And you were right to.’

‘So you think it’s still in Mistra?’

Joseph nodded. ‘Possibly. Or he may have taken it somewhere else. For safekeeping.’

‘Why are you so sure?’

‘Because he would never have stolen it, Luke. I knew him.’

‘But why did he leave then?’

Joseph shrugged. ‘I don’t know. All I know is that he left behind the sword that you now have. He did that for a reason.’

They were both silent for a while and the only sound in the room was the wind outside. Then Joseph rose.

‘Now you must go. Take the sword and go to Mistra with Anna. We’ll join you there when this Archon has fled and I’m released from my oath.’

Luke moved forward to hug the big man, the sword still in his hand. Rachel joined them and for many minutes father, mother and son stood in the little room, locked in silent embrace.

At last Joseph pulled away. ‘You must go, Luke,’ he said again, picking up the bundle to give to him. But Rachel clung on for a moment longer, pressing herself to her son’s chest and warming his smock with her tears. At last she let him go.

‘Take care, Luke,’ she said, and kissed him.

When Luke finally left the house with his sword and bundle, Nikolas was already waiting for him in the street outside. There were still a few hours of light left in the day but they couldn’t waste any more time; they hurried to the city gate.

Once there, they realised that time was even scarcer, for there was a long queue of people waiting to go to their homes outside the city. Everybody was being stopped and there was a company of soldiers marching down the
mesi odo
s to continue the search of houses beyond the city walls.

Luke cursed and looked at the head of the line. Luckily, he knew one of the soldiers. They walked to the front of the queue, ignoring the grumblings behind them.

‘Michael,’ Luke shouted loudly at the guard, ‘you were here the other night when I had to take Nikolas to the old Jew? Well, he’s got it worse this time. Let us through.’

The people at the front of the line backed away and the guard hurriedly waved them on. Then they were out of the city and the road to the bridge stretched away down the hill, the houses of the Jewish quarter climbing to their right. Luke gave his sword and bundle to Nikolas while his friend handed him his cloak.

‘He gave you his sword,’ said Nikolas with a low whistle.

‘Yes,’ said Luke. ‘I hope I don’t have to use it tonight.’

When Nikolas had left, Luke set off down the main road, past the cemetery and the warehouses to the Monastery of St Lazarus at the bottom of the hill. He turned right and skirted its wall until he reached the rocky ground beneath the Goulas. Looking around to check that he wasn’t being followed, he picked his way over the rocks, hugging the bottom of the cliff, until he came to the cave. He gave a low whistle and looked up to see Anna parting the laurel bush above.

‘Ready?’ he called, as quietly as he could.

The next moment Anna had thrown a small bundle down to him and climbed out of the cave. Her toes had barely touched the ground before she was in Luke’s arms.

He looked down at her uncertainly. ‘Are you angry with me?’

She kissed him hard on his lips. ‘No,’ she whispered. ‘I’m not angry with you. I love you.’

Luke lifted her chin so that they could see each other’s eyes.
‘Anna, last night was enough. When we get to Mistra, you’ll never have to see me again.’

She began to say something but he put a finger to her lips. ‘Shhh. Later. Now, take this.’

Luke gave her Nikolas’s cloak and she put it over her shoulders, fastening the clasp at her neck. They set off across the rocks, Luke holding her hand.