Memoirs of a Byzantine Eunuch E-Book

Christopher Harris

• Herausgeber: Dedalus
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Serie: Original Fiction In Paperback
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 589

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

The memoirs of a court Eunuch at the byzantine court in the 7th century. Memoirs of a Byzantine Eunuch is an archetypal Dedalus novel and bears comparison with David Madsen's masterpiece: Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf. Memoirs of a Byzantine Eunuch is very good on unusual Christian sects, Byzantine intrigue and the clash with Islam. It will appeal to readers who like battles, court politics, depravity, ideas and colour in their historical fiction.

Leseprobe

Dedalus Original Fiction in Paperback

MEMOIRS OF A BYZANTINE EUNUCH

Christopher Harris was born in London in 1951. After studying art he had a vast array of different jobs before returning to university to take a degree in biology and teach science. He now lives in Birmingham with his wife, a university lecturer, and writes full-time.

Christopher Harris is the author of two acclaimed novels Theodore (2000) and False Ambassador (2001), and is currently currently writing a novel on science, art and reptiles called Brute Art.

For further information about Christopher Harris please visit his website www.christopher-harris.co.uk.

And blessed is the eunuch, which with his hands hath wrought no iniquity, nor imagined wicked things against God: for unto him shall be given the special gift of faith.

Wisdom of Solomon

A eunuch is a debased creature, weak, devious, beardless, soft-skinned, ungainly, credulous, untrustworthy, jealous, cowardly, prone to anger, gluttony, obesity and incontinence.

Agapios of Alexandria,

Infirmities and Defects of the Nether Regions

Contents

Title

Dedalus Original Fiction in Paperback

Quote

A ceremony

The Rus

Sacrifice

The tavern

Constantine

The scholars

A question

An investigation

Heresy

A sermon

A contest

The Chaldean Oracle

Reversals

Games

Power

Gog & Magog

A vote

Deplorable follies

The Labyrinth

A Triumph

Marriage

A procession

A nightmare

Questions

Underground

The Divine Member

A dinner party

Downfall

The Paulicians

The castle

Escape

Restoration

A necessary act

The twelve guises of evil

Postscript

Historical Note

Copyright

A ceremony

[AD 865]

“If you still had your balls,” the charioteer muttered, “I’d cut them off.”

How often I have heard that said! Whole men think it witty and original, and the fact that it is so often repeated tells us what low esteem eunuchs are held in. But the man who stood before me was not joking. He was quivering with fear, and so was I. My knife trembled like a leaf, its blade flickering in the dim light. The chalice I held in my other hand, an elaborate jewelled vessel obviously taken from some church or other, also shook, and I feared that I would never be able to carry out the task I had been entrusted with.

I stood as still and straight as I could, hoping my borrowed chasuble would make me look more dignified than I felt. Michael and his cronies, who could not hear what the charioteer had muttered, looked impatient. The emperor was dressed in more elaborate vestments than usual. The others, following his example, were dressed as bishops or as various sorts of priests, though their manner was far from reverent. They lounged in their finery, not caring that their snowy tunics and gold-hemmed capes were dragging in the dirt. Lamps and candles had been set up all over the room. Without providing much light, they risked setting fire to heaps of straw and fodder that lay all over the uneven floor. However, the lighting, faintly revealing the vaulted ceiling, as well as picking out odd details of our assorted costumes, did its job. It made the stable look like a church, albeit a church of filth and disorder.

A groom dressed as an acolyte held a silver dish bearing a mound of horse dung. It had been selected for its neat shape and resemblance to a small loaf, and the groom who carried it smirked at his burden, lifting the silk cloth that covered the dung, sniffing it with apparent pleasure, as though it really was freshly baked bread. No one else shared his joke, though a few courtiers, dressed in their own clothes, hanging back and glancing at each other nervously, tried to give the impression they were enjoying themselves.

I wished, as I stood there with the knife, that I had not pursued the emperor’s scholarly enquiry quite so vigorously. How was I to know that half-remembered superstitions about the potency of gladiator’s blood could have any relevance to me? There are no gladiators in Constantinople, and it is centuries since there were any at Rome. When Michael asked about those ancient beliefs, I could have admitted that I knew nothing, and left it at that. But I suppose I must have absorbed something of my master’s habits. Photius seldom admitted ignorance, except of things he thought beneath contempt, such as racing, or court gossip. When asked something he did not know, he prevaricated, then went and found out, usually consulting Leo or Theodore, or some other scholar with more time to investigate than he had. I followed his example, consulting Theodore, who produced an ancient book which, when interpreted by him, confirmed what Michael hoped, that the blood of a gladiator, if drunk fresh, imparts strength, vigour and dexterity. It was the emperor’s idea to use a charioteer instead of a gladiator, and to offer the blood in a mockery of the Eucharist.

“Get on with it,” Michael said. “How can we have the ceremony without blood?”

A horse pissed noisily, filling the air with foul steam. Hoping that the horse would not give Michael ideas, I pressed the blade against the charioteer’s skin, then cut very gently, just below the ear. I would much rather have cut somewhere else, a finger for instance, but that was not deemed dignified. For the rite to be solemn, the cut must be dangerous. My victim held himself rigid, giving me a sideways glare, and I knew that if he ever caught me alone, my life would be over. I allowed his blood to flow into the jewelled chalice. Each drop gleamed as it trickled down the bright silver, joining the dark pool at the bottom of the bowl. When the chalice was almost full I drew it back, allowing the charioteer, pale and trembling, to raise a hand and staunch the flow.

“You may go,” Michael said to him. “And it’s no good looking at me like that! It serves you right for losing.”

The charioteer slunk away, holding tightly onto his neck with bloodstained fingers. Michael waved a hand and a couple of thurifers leapt forward, brushing the straw from their silk cassocks. They were guttersnipes, recruited for the occasion, and not at all sure who we were or what was expected of them. On Michael’s command they threw grains of asafoetida into their thuribles and began to swing them enthusiastically, filling the air with acrid vapour. It might have been worse. The emperor’s first idea was to use brimstone, but he had abandoned it when Basiliscianus, who had been a sailor and claimed to know about such things, pointed out that in the confined space of the stable the fumes would have killed us. I disliked Basiliscianus, who was a pretty, simpering sort of youth, who always demanded more attention than anyone else. It was hard to imagine him lasting long as an oarsman, though it was easy enough to picture him drawing attention to himself, flaunting his oiled body and being plucked from the rowers’ ranks by an indulgent emperor. Whatever his past, we all had cause to be grateful to him then, as no one else could have contradicted the emperor and been listened to.

When the charioteer was out of sight and the air was full enough of fumes, Michael began to intone. He, of course, had the emperor’s privilege of entering the sanctuary at Hagia Sophia and witnessing the Mystery. He knew the appropriate words, and could repeat them accurately, but on that occasion Michael did not repeat the formulas used by his patriarch. He uttered words of his own, improvising and elaborating as he went on.

When he had gone on for long enough Michael held out his little finger, reached beneath the silk cloth and scooped up a small lump of the horse dung. He held it beneath his nose, sniffing it for a moment before popping it into his mouth. The others held back, watching their emperor rolling dung round his mouth like sturgeon’s roe, knowing that they would be required to do the same. He swallowed the dung with a loud gulp, smacking his lips for effect. “Delicious,” Michael said. “It reminds me of tripe. However well they clean tripe, it always retains an odour of the farmyard. That is one of its charms, don’t you agree?”

A few of the courtiers agreed nervously, recalling banquets of offal they had been obliged to eat, while others continued their efforts to shuffle backwards unobtrusively.

“Come forward my flock,” Michael said, “and receive the Sacrament.”

No one moved.

“Who will be first?” For a moment Michael looked vulnerable. His eyes filled with fear and his lip trembled until he looked like small boy who had been denied something he longed for.

“It was a good idea, wasn’t it?” Michael said, his voice almost inaudible.

There was a chorus of inarticulate sounds that might have been interpreted as agreement. Michael looked a little happier. “Who will join me in the Paulician mass?” he asked.

The courtiers and grooms looked at each other apprehensively. What would happen if no one obeyed him? Would they all be horribly punished? Or was the whole business so embarrassing that Michael would not dare to do or say anything?

“Who will partake in this unholy meal?” Michael asked. “Who will join the community of sinners?”

Worshipping the devil did not, in itself, seem such a bad idea. What repelled me was the silly ritual, devised by an emperor who knew nothing of Paulicianism, and was known to dislike ceremony. As for the devil, he was as good as any other god. Perhaps I should have prayed to him, rather than to God, when they sliced off my balls. The Evil One might have kept me whole. The genital organs are the devil’s favourites, being the source of all temptation and most pleasure.

Basiliscianus stepped forward, smiling and looking back at the others. “I will be first,” he said, kneeling at Michael’s feet, a posture he was rumoured to adopt often. He looked up expectantly, parting his lips slightly. Michael broke off a little of the dung and placed it on his friend’s lips. Basiliscianus turned to the others and swallowed it ostentatiously. Then Michael held out the jewelled chalice and allowed Basiliscianus to sip the charioteer’s blood, muttering a few words as he did so.

One by one, the others all came forward and knelt to receive the flesh and blood of the devil. I held back, hoping that my role as an assistant celebrant might somehow make my participation unnecessary. But it did not. Like the others, I was obliged to ingest a little of the dung and drink some of the charioteer’s blood, joining, not the community of sinners, but a company of dissemblers and sycophants.

How did I, Zeno of Tmutorokan, a eunuch, come to be serving the Emperor Michael III at a heretical mass held in the Hippodrome stables of Constantinople, while dressed in the cast-off vestments of a Metropolitan of Thessalonica? It is a question I have often asked myself. I suppose that my life, that any life, could be represented as a series of accidents. But that is not entirely true. We make plans, and so do others. The gods watch over us, and use us for purposes of their own. Demons lie in wait for us, eager to lead us astray. And the result, which no one will deny, is that things seldom turn out as expected.

Perhaps you doubt that the gods take any interest in creatures like me? Well, here is a fact that will make you think again: the most significant event in my life happened in the year of Our Lord 837. And that was the year the Great Comet blazed in the sky, lighting the darkness with its portentous tail. If that is not enough for you, there were omens on the Earth, as well as above it. I became a eunuch, and thus began my adventures, because my attention was distracted by a talking bird. And birds, as the Paulician heretics assert, are creatures of the devil.

The Rus

[AD 837]

The magpie spoke harshly, but its words were clear. “Mary was no virgin,” it croaked. “God fucked her.”

The sailors sniggered. “God’s a spirit,” one of them said. “How’d he do that?”

I barely understood the words I heard. I was only seven years old. I had defied my father’s orders and crept away from school to mingle with the marketplace crowds. They were all around me, foreigners, sailors, barbarians, nomads from the steppes.

“God’s prick,” the magpie croaked. “God’s prick.”

I had pushed through the crowd, breathing strange smells, looking at the gaudy clothes of the foreigners, hearing the babble of their speech. Who, in mud-bound Tmutorokan, could understand all those languages? There were Armenian merchants, Persians and Arabs, Jews from Itil, as well as humble peasants squatting on the ground by heaps of vegetables or stinking cheeses. Trappers came from the Far North with bundles of furs and skins, sailors from South, with ships full of wine, grain and oil, and fishermen with glistening hauls of herrings and anchovies. Sometimes there were grave-robbers selling antique trinkets and Scythian gold.

A tethered peacock shrieked. In the pale spring sunlight the caged birds gleamed like jewels, their feathers fluttering against bars of green willow. They were all for sale: pheasants, white doves, quails, linnets and nightingales, brightly coloured bullfinches, and rare parrots from the distant East. And there was the magpie, hopping and strutting, twitching its long tail, spouting blasphemy while Greek sailors laughed.

I did not really notice the shouting at first. I thought it was the traders crying their wares, or buyers arguing over a price. Then I heard the thunder of heavy-booted feet, followed by a terrible scream. It rose somewhere behind me, shrill and harsh, ending with a sudden thud.

The magpie fell silent.

The sailors looked up.

“God’s prick!” one of them muttered. There was a look of horror on his weather-beaten face. The marketplace had filled with armed men. I stared at them, amazed. They were huge, built like oxen, with broad chests and powerful arms. Their bodies were clad in gleaming chain mail, their heads topped by steel helmets. They had hair the colour of straw, faces reddened by the sun, and long beards hanging halfway down their chests. The earth shook beneath their feet, and their wolfskin cloaks flapped as though driven by a storm.

They were giants.

The sailors leapt to their feet, knocking me roughly aside. I fell backwards among the cages, bursting them open, sending up a covey of mixed birds. Snapped willow dug sharply in my back, but I dared not move. Through a cloud of fluttering feathers I saw a red-faced giant launch a huge axe at an old man. The long shaft whistled through the air. The blade buried itself the old man’s head. He toppled like tree, falling his full length, coming down beside me. His head cracked open like a ripe pomegranate, splashing me with blood, dappling the doves’ white feathers with crimson.

I screamed and ran blindly away from the dead man. But the giants were everywhere, swinging long swords and heavy axes, knocking men to the ground, kicking at pots and baskets, trampling fruit and vegetables. They took pleasure in their own strength, shouting gleefully with voices like thunder.

People ran wildly in every direction. Even the nomads ran, heading for their horses and escape. I saw hands raised in fear and hacked off, blood gush from sword-slit throats, severed heads rolling in the dust. I covered my eyes and tried to flee, but ran straight into one of the giants. I bounced off the skirts of his mailcoat and fell to the ground. He looked down at me. His eyes were clearest blue, and his hair was like shining gold. There was a faint smile on his red lips. He hefted his sword. Its tip hung above me, glinting in the sun. That bright point of light was all I saw. Everything else, the lumbering giants, their victims, the chaos in the market, disappeared.

But the sword did not fall. Instead, the giant reached down and grabbed me. His huge hand gripped my ankle, then he swung me up into the air and over his shoulder. He did it so easily I might have been a rabbit. I jerked and swung on his back. I hammered at him with my fists and kicked with my free leg, but it made no difference. He was so strong that he carried me dangling over his shoulder while he swaggered through the market.

Men and women lay on the ground, dead or afraid to move, and I feared that I would soon be lying among them, that I would be dashed to the ground and trampled by the giants. They were all around me, their faces streaming with sweat, their blades dripping blood. I saw the world turned upside-down and spinning around me. I was tumbled off the giant’s shoulder. I felt rough cloth against my skin. Then I saw nothing. I had been thrust into a sack like a pig. The giants were going to eat me. Was that my punishment for listening to a blaspheming bird?

The first thing I saw when the sack opened was a twisted leg. It was bound up with thick cloth and webbing, but I could see that it was weak and malformed, not the limb of a gigantic warrior. Hands tugged at the sack, raising its mouth. A face appeared. The owner of the crooked leg was staring at me, looking at me curiously.

“You hurt?” he said. I was surprised to hear him speak Greek. It sounded odd, like the talking birds in the market. He poked me in the ribs. “Get out,” he said, pulling at the sack.

I struggled out, and fell onto rough timbers. I was on a ship, a long narrow one manned by two dozen giants. Most of them rowed, while the rest slept. Beyond the oarsmen was a post topped with a carved bear’s head, its wooden fangs bared in a snarl. A red sail hung slackly from the mast, flapping occasionally in the feeble breeze. The giants were rowing, slowly and steadily, as though they had been at it for hours. Their mailcoats and weapons lay at their feet. Some of them had taken their shirts off, letting shaggy beards fall over bare chests. Though their arms and faces were red, their bodies were as white as fresh cheese, and stank almost as bad. The deck was strewn with sacks and bundles, with barrels of wine and trussed pigs and chickens. They had emptied the market-place into their ship.

The man with the crooked leg was not a giant like the others. He had the same fair hair and pale skin, but he lacked their strength and calm. His face scared me. Perhaps it was his eyes, which were bluer than any I had seen. They were like gaps in his face, holes through which the sky shone, as though his face was an empty mask.

“Stand up,” the cripple said.

I stood, steadying myself on the rail, looking out to sea. All I could see was a few sleek ships, their oars rising and falling in unison. There was no land in sight. Before I could panic the cripple poked me again, touching the bloodstains on my tunic. “You hurt?” he repeated.

I did not know what to say. I ached, and was bruised and bewildered. There were too many things to be scared of: the cripple, the giants, being eaten, the open sea. I longed for home, and my mother and father.

“Undo,” he said, tugging at my belt. “Let me look.”

“Don’t feed me to the giants!” I cried.

“Giants?” The cripple laughed. “We are the Rus.”

“Don’t let them eat me!”

He laughed again. Some of the giants looked to see what amused him. The cripple grabbed my belt and pulled me towards him. I struggled and screamed, but he slapped my face. “Keep still,” he hissed. I stopped struggling and let him unfasten my belt. He reached up and felt beneath my clothes, running his hands over my chest, back and belly. Then he raised the hem of my tunic high, and leaned forward, staring at my private parts. Gently, with a finger and thumb, he lifted my penis. Then he tugged at my balls. His smile told me he was pleased by what he had seen. He let my tunic drop, then sat back against the side of the boat, pulling his red cloak around him.

“What is your name?”

“Zeno.”

“There’s no meat on you, Zeno,” he said. “We not eat you.”

I did not believe him. He was a trickster: I could see it in his face. I watched him carefully, fearing his cold stare, his narrow lips and sharp teeth, waiting while his eyes slid shut, hiding those patches of cruel sky.

The world jolted and lurched. I fell against hard timber. The ship had run aground. I stood up and rubbed my eyes. Some of the giants vaulted over the side. Nearby, other ships had already beached. The giants were jumping into the shallow water, scrambling ashore, securing ropes, shouting instructions and throwing sacks and bundles. For a moment I forgot my fear. Then I saw the giants driving captives ashore from the other boats. There were cowed nomads, sobbing peasant women, a few children like me. I did not recognise any of them. The cripple gave me a sack to carry and shoved me forward. He stumbled along beside me, gripping my shoulder, as much for support as to stop me getting away. The sharp smell of wormwood scented the air. The place looked like an island, but it was hard to tell. I trudged forward, up the shore and into the ruins of a town, its walls and pillars reddened by the setting sun.

The cripple was watching me when I awoke. He was sitting on a rock, rubbing grease into a long, curved oxhorn, polishing it to bring out the colour. The giants were asleep. The Rus, the cripple had called them. Were they really men? They sprawled on the ground as though felled by a wizard’s magic. I had heard of such things, while lurking in the market at Tmutorokan. It was not a very Christian place. All gods, and a good many demons, were worshipped there. It was common knowledge that a wise man could defeat a strong one, if he knew the right spells. But it was not magic that had laid the Rus low.

They had drunk all night, feasting among the ruins, gorging on roasted pork, tearing at the meat with the same knives they used for fighting. And while they feasted, the night sky was lit by the comet. It hung above us, still, yet seeming to rush, its long tail, stretching to the East. It had brought the Rus to Tmutorokan, and they had carried me away across the sea. What further evil might it bring? What would happen when they had eaten all the pigs and chickens they had stolen? Would they eat me, and the other captives? Would I end up killed and spitted, cut to pieces with daggers?

The Rus giants lay for hours in the shade, sometimes waking to scratch themselves or pick lice from their beards. Then, late in the afternoon, the cripple summoned them. He hopped onto the stump of a pillar, raised the oxhorn to his lips and blew, filling the island’s air with a discordant, bellowing blast. He took breath and blew again, varying the sound, making it high or low, but always harsh. Then he lowered the horn and called out, his voice not loud and commanding, but soft and insinuating. Only a few of the Rus noticed him at first. They nudged their fellows, and pointed at the cripple, and scrambled up to hear him clearly. The rest roused themselves and gathered round. There must have been over a hundred of them, all watching and waiting, tugging at their stained and crumpled clothes, running rough hands through tousled hair.

The cripple began his speech, softly at first, so that the Rus shuffled forward to hear him better, then raising his voice to a shout. Though his limbs were weak, his voice was strong. The rise and fall of his words was like the sea, and he carried the Rus along, just as the sea carries ships. He gestured, reaching his arms upwards, pointing suddenly at one or other of the men, putting his hands on his hips and leaning forward, then rocking back and puffing out his skinny chest.

The Rus listened, nodding at some of the things the cripple said, frowning at others. Then, when he had finished, they sent up a great cheer and stamped their feet. While the sun dropped behind the abandoned town the Rus went to their tasks. They gathered wood and lit a circle of fires. They rolled barrels from the ships and broached them. They slaughtered squealing beasts, then set the carcasses to roast. Or were they beasts? In the half-light I could not tell. They might have been children like me.

A gang of giants dragged a large log into the encampment. They followed with another, then with a collection of poles and curved branches, all of which they dumped in the middle of the ring of fires. Under the cripple’s direction, they cut and shaped the timbers with knives and axes, lashing them together into a structure that rose high into the darkening sky.

I backed away into the shadows. There were plenty of places to hide. The town was full of roofless buildings, collapsed cellars and patches of dense undergrowth. The camp only occupied a small part of it, and beyond the town was a wilderness of low trees and scrub. But it was city of the dead, inhabited only by ghosts and bones. With night falling, and the comet hanging overhead, the place terrified me. I slipped into the shelter of a ruined house, stepping carefully over toppled stones and broken tiles, hoping no one would see or hear me.

Sacrifice

[AD 837]

There was another blast of the cripple’s oxhorn. The Rus advanced with drawn swords, goading a captive before them. He looked like a nomad, small, wiry, and bow-legged. They drove him towards the fires, feinting at him with sharp blades and flaming torches. Would they slaughter and roast him? Would we all die that night?

The Rus stopped before they reached the fires. One of them filled a drinking horn from a wineskin and offered it to the captive. The nomad looked scared, but he took the horn and drained it, holding it out again hopefully. The Rus looked at the cripple. The cripple nodded. The drinking horn was refilled and emptied, then the nomad was led to centre of the fire ring. He stood by the wooden framework, swaying slightly, blinking in the firelight, while the cripple addressed the crowd. His voice was soft and musical, but the Rus answered him with a clamour, their voices deep and rumbling, echoing from the ruins. When the cripple finished, nine of the Rus stepped forward, carrying with them a length of ship’s rope. They circled the nomad, chanting savagely, ringing him with rope, closing in on him until I could see nothing but their broad backs.

The nine men bent over the nomad. There was a cry. They flung the rope over the wooden framework, caught its end, then yanked it down. Strong arms heaved on the rope until the nomad rose high into the air, his twitching body lit by the flickering fires. The nine men stepped back, then one of them thrust a spear at the victim, piercing his side. The others raised their hands in salutation, then turned away, leaving the dying man to swing.

The Rus sat and feasted. Lit by flaring fires, their faces glistening with grease and spittle, their clothes stained with wine and blood, they shoved the meat into their huge mouths, gulping it greedily, throwing it down their throats like starving dogs. Despite what I had just witnessed, my guts rumbled as I smelled roasted meat. I wanted to eat, and I wanted to get away. I was afraid of the Rus, and of the dark, and of the empty city and the wilderness that stretched out all around it. The whole island was filled with things that scared me. Even the star-flecked darkness above was troubled by a glowing portent. I pressed myself against a wall, comforted at least by the rough solidity of its stones. No one could creep up behind me.

When they had filled their bellies, the Rus sang. Their voices were loud enough to drive away any lingering beasts or ghosts. I was hungry enough to risk leaving the wall to search for something to eat or drink. I scanned the fires, looking for a discarded loaf, an untended wineskin, a carcass that had not been picked clean. But the only carcass I could see was the one that swung at the centre of the fires. I gazed at it, watching it gently rotate in the firelight. The nomad’s face, contorted by pain, pulled awry by the rope, frozen by death, glared at me like a Gorgon.

Faced by that horror, I dared not move.

The song of the Rus was faltering. As the last ragged verses died into silence I heard a footstep nearby, and the sound of a pebble skittering over dry ground. A voice came out of the night, soft and wheedling. How did the cripple know where I was? Could he see in the dark?

“Zeno?” he called. “Zeno? You are there?”

Without really meaning to, I answered him.

I heard footsteps again, pressed myself harder against the wall. I wished I could slip through the stones like a spirit, that I could fly through the sky like a comet, that I was not made of flesh that could be roasted and eaten. Something bobbed and twisted in the dark. I raised an arm to shield my eyes against the fire-glare.

A moment later a hand lunged out of the darkness and grabbed my wrist.

“Got you!” the cripple said, jerking me away from the wall. Ignoring my cries, he dragged me over the rubble-strewn floor, out of the ruined house, towards the drunken, gluttonous giants.

When we were near the fires the cripple called out to one of the Rus, who brought a horn of wine. The cripple smiled at me in his cold, cruel way, then handed me the drinking horn. It was a heavy burden for a young boy. I felt the slick horn slide between my hands. It almost fell, nearly plunged its point into the ground, or into me. I steadied my grip, hugging the horn against my body, feeling its contents trickle down my tunic.

“Drink,” the cripple said

I hesitated. I was very thirsty, and would have drunk gladly. But I had seen what they did to the nomad after giving him wine.

“Go on,” he said. “It will make you brave.”

Holding it firmly, I raised the horn to my mouth and drank a little of the wine. It tasted sour.

“Drink more,” the cripple said. “You will need it.”

I obeyed him, taking a deeper draught, then another, feeling the wine sear my dry throat. The cripple took the horn back, then pushed me down to ground, making me sit on the damp grass. The fire warmed me, and so did the wine. It fuddled me too, and made me malleable, as the cripple knew it would.

When he judged that enough time had passed, the cripple called out. Two Rus appeared, and stood on either side of him. They loomed over me, black shapes that blocked out the stars. When they reached out and pressed me down, there was nothing I could do. I struggled, but it made no difference. I cried out, but they ignored me. They pressed me flat against the ground and knelt beside me, gripping my wrists and ankles in their huge hands. The cripple also knelt, settling himself between my open legs. He felt under my tunic, found my penis and tweaked it. Then he held my balls in his warm fingers, rolling them like dice.

I was full of wine and fear. I pissed over the cripple’s hands. He pulled them away and wiped them on his cloak, then reached into his pouch and pulled out a length of cord. The two Rus tightened their grip, pulling my legs wider. The cripple bent over me again. With a sudden pounce he looped the cord over my balls and pulled it tight. I cried out with pain, but he kept a grip on the cord. I feared he would pull so hard that my balls would drop off. But he did not. Instead, he spoke softly to one of the Rus, who reached to his belt and handed the cripple a dagger. It glinted as it passed from one hand to another, catching the firelight on its honed edge.

I made a last, desperate effort to break free, but the Rus pressed me against the earth so firmly that I might have been lying under a tree trunk. The cripple looped the cord a few more times and tugged on it, drawing my balls away from my body.

I prayed then for God to save me from that knife. But He did not save me. The Rus gods prevailed. The blade sliced below the cord and cut off my balls. I felt a sudden shock of pain. The cripple held the bits of my flesh in his hand for a moment, smiled grimly, then tossed them into the air. They streaked briefly through the night sky, rolling, tumbling, falling into the fire.

For days afterwards I could hardly move. The cripple inspected me regularly, poking at the swelling wound, dressing it with a stinging poultice of green herbs. He fed me too, bringing me bowls of broth and chunks of tender meat. His knife had made me valuable. He would not let me die.

I must have been on the island for months. I did not count the days, but knew the changing of the seasons. When I grew strong enough the cripple took me to Inger, the Rus who caught me in the market. He was my master and I had to serve him. I took him his food and drink, and his wine. I took him water, too, when he wanted it, but that was not often. I soon learned the Norse words for the things he wanted, and for the things he would do to me if I was not quick enough. But I also learned that he was kind, in his rough way, and would protect me if I served him well.

Once Inger went to the shore to wash, throwing his clothes off and wading into the water. He was huge and strong, his red face framed by fat plaits of blond hair and a bushy beard the colour of straw. His pale skin was matted with reddish hair. He was like a bear, like the shaggy beasts brought down from the mountains and made to dance in the marketplace of Tmutorokan. I had seen them goaded by their masters until they rose up on their hind legs and capered clumsily like men, poked and prodded with sticks to make their antics more comic. But Inger was like a bear that had not been caught and tamed, a man-beast who would submit to no one.

All that summer, ships came and went, discharging more loot and captives. The Rus feasted, drinking all they could, singing and arguing, dragging their female slaves into the bushes and doing things to them I did not understand. There was talk, as the days grew shorter, of what to do next, whether to go back up the great rivers to the North, or to go south to the famous city of Micklegard.

One night, the last I spent on the island, the question was decided.

The cripple wandered among the drunken warriors, sitting down here and there, whispering to one group, then moving on to another. He was like a beekeeper lifting hives, and wherever he went he left a buzz of anger. Men strode from one fire to another and confronted each other. Shouts filled the abandoned city, and hostile gestures, magnified by the flames, were shadowed on crumbling walls. One of the Rus, taller than the others, stood before Inger and challenged him. Inger rose, touched the small silver hammer that hung round his neck, then lunged. The two men did not use their weapons, but fought each other with fists and feet. They gouged, and boxed, and kicked, and rammed with knees and elbows. I was outside the ring, and could only catch glimpses of the fight. The tall man got Inger’s thick neck in the crook of his arm and would not let him stand. The two grappled and swayed in the firelight. I feared that my master and only protector would be killed. But when the ring broke up it was Inger who was hailed as victor, and the other man who lay glaring on the ground.

Other fights broke out, and soon knives were drawn. As night deepened the island turned into a battlefield, with gangs of Rus stalking each other, lying in wait, rushing from the undergrowth and attacking their fellows. Terrified, I crept away and hid in the undergrowth, hearing shouts and screams all around me in the darkness. But I did not stay long, as men crashed into my hiding place. Driven by fear and confusion I crawled on all fours from one thicket to another until I found myself on the shore.

Behind me the sky grew red. The breeze carried the sounds and smells of burning. The brushwood was alight. The blood-coloured glow revealed the carved bear’s head of Inger’s ship. I climbed over the side, curled up among sacks and ropes, tried to make myself as small as possible. It was not long before I heard Rus voices, and felt the ship rock as men heaved it down the shore. I stayed where I was, pressing myself against the deck until I was sure we were out at sea. Then I crept out and looked back. The whole island was burning, a whirlwind of smoke, flames and sparks rising high into the night sky.

The tavern

[AD 838–845]

“You’re a pretty young thing,” she said, lifting my chin with a crooked finger. “You’ve got lovely eyes, and a smooth skin. Just like a girl.” She put a hand under my tunic and felt my ribs. “But you’re half starved. Sit there in the corner, and I’ll make sure you get something to eat.”

The tavern-keeper, a buxom widow with coarse straw-coloured hair, did as she promised. While the Rus wolfed watery stew and guzzled weak wine, I supped on good meat and soft bread. And while the Rus went on drinking, I curled up on the floor and slept. I had lost my freedom, my family, and my balls. But I was warm, dry and well fed, and in the care of a kind woman. After all that had happened to me, what more could I have hoped for?

The Rus were disappointed. The tavern, a big, low, wooden building with an overhanging roof, that stood in the shelter of a grove of towering planes, was no substitute for the fabled city of Micklegard. They had washed their pale bodies, combed their tangled hair and salt-crusted beards, put on their cleanest clothes and brightest jewels, yet they were still considered too barbarous to be allowed into Constantinople. Instead, the pilot-boat led their ship up the Golden Horn, an inlet that runs to the north of the city and beyond. And the prefect’s men told them to wait. Or rather, they told me, and I did my best to explain things to Inger. They had left the cripple behind, and only I could translate for them.

Inger and his crew went to the tavern every day, passing the time by drinking and telling stories, gambling away their loot, wondering whether permission to enter the city would ever come. Because each day was the same, that time seemed to last forever. But in truth, the Rus were soon enough gone. All of them except for Inger. He had drunk so much the night before that he was unable to stand up. He lay on the tavern floor, wrapped in woollen blankets, his head propped up on a feather pillow. The other Rus jeered at him, saying that the mere sight of a great city had turned him soft. Inger groaned and rolled over, and muttered that he would see them in Hell.

They gathered up their possessions, and were about to set off for the city, then one of them tried to grab me. I knew why. I had heard them talk of the good price they would get for a gelded boy like me. I dashed to the widow and took shelter behind her skirts.

“You leave him alone!” she shouted. “I know what you’ve got in mind. You’ll sell him in the slave market. Well I’m not having it. You can leave him here or I’ll have the prefect’s men on you!”

Meekly, knowing that they were in a strange land and under foreign laws, they went. The widow set me to watch over Inger, to mop his brow and bring him water. By the evening he was well enough to call for more wine. By the time he had finished it he was too drunk to notice that his comrades had not returned.

One by one, hearing that most of the Rus had gone, the widow’s regular customers crept back. They came to drink, and to look at her two nieces, whose job it was to tease them, to lead them on, to get them to drink more than they might otherwise have done. The regulars were afraid of Inger, of his huge size and drunken ranting, but they gradually got used to him. His antics even became an attraction, something the regulars could remember and recount, laughing at what had scared them at the time. And Inger discovered that he had a talent. He was even better than the nieces at getting men to drink more than they meant to. He became very useful to the widow, and so did I. She showed me how to pour wine and serve it to the drinkers, how to get tips out them by smiling and chatting, and how to sweep the floors and wash the dishes when all the customers had gone home.

I tried to explain to the widow that there had been a mistake, that I should not be made to work, that I could read and write, that my parents were Roman citizens who had owned slaves in Tmutorokan.

“Never heard of the place,” she said. “Whatever you were there, you’re a slave here. But it’s not so bad. There’s people half-starved in the city, with nothing but the bread-dole to keep them alive. You’ll do better than that here, if you’re good.”

Sometimes, when the tavern was empty, Inger would take me down to the waterside to look at the ship. There was not much left of it. The mast and tackle were stolen first, then the nails were prised out. The strakes fell to the ground or were carried away piecemeal, until only the ribs and keel were left lying on the shore like the bones of a beached whale. Inger would gaze sadly at the wreckage, blaming his comrades for leaving him stranded in a foreign land. On those melancholy afternoons, he talked of the far North, of endless night, of blinding ice-fields, and bears as white as snow. He told tales of Asgard and the gods, of Valhalla where the heroes dwell, of the World’s beginning, and its end. In those days I knew more of the Rus and their ways than I did of the city that lay just a mile away.

Eventually, the widow took pity on Inger and let him marry her. I thought she loved him. Perhaps Inger did too. He was handsome when he was cleaned up, and could be kind and gentle when he was sober. But it turned out that the widow was being pressed by the guild of tavern-keepers, who wanted to put a man in her place, and were claiming that her house was disorderly. I can assure you that it was not. There are places like that in the city, as I will tell later, but they hide their low trade in back rooms and bribe the prefect’s men to look the other way. Out in the suburbs, tavern-keepers must stick to the rules. A new husband was the widow’s answer to the guild, and Inger was a man no one would risk provoking.

Inger became a Christian to be married, but I never knew him to go to church afterwards. He always wore Mjollnir, his silver hammer talisman, which looked enough like a cross not to be remarked upon. And he set up a little idol of Thor, carved from narwhal ivory. What an unlikely beast the narwhal is. Who could believe in a fish with a tusk like a unicorn’s horn? I have never read of such a creature in the accounts of those who claim to have travelled beyond Thule. I have only Inger’s word that the narwhal exists. Yet there are no elephants in the icy North, and the idol is undoubtedly made of ivory. I have it before me as I write. Inger prayed to the idol in his way, pouring it libations of best Monemvasian wine. It is still stained with the wine he poured.

After a year or so the widow gave birth to a girl. She was blonde, blue-eyed, and too beautiful for such a humble and squalid place as the tavern. She was like an infant goddess hiding among mortals. Inger wanted to call her Gerda, but the widow named her Eudocia. The nieces were jealous, and could not be trusted to look after her. When the widow was busy it fell to me to care for little Eudocia. I did everything but suckle her, and she came to love me as much as I loved her. She had no reason to despise me, did not even understand what I was.

Though he sometimes dandled her in his clumsy way, a daughter was no use to Inger. He salvaged a piece of oak from the wreck of his ship and carved another idol. I watched him work, saw huge-phallused Frey emerge from the weathered wood, and helped pour libations to the god. A god you can see was more real to me than a god you only hear about, and in those days I had not heard much about God. Frey mocked me, flaunting an organ that in my case remained small. He mocked Inger too, refusing to grant his wishes. He sacrificed a pig to it once, hoping the god of fertility would give him sons who would rebuild his ship and carry him back north. But no sons came.

Sometimes the widow took me into her bed. That was in the cold winter, when fog rose up from the Golden Horn as thick as blood soup, and wrapped the tavern in silence. Inger drank more in the winter. The short days and long nights reminded him of the icy North. Dragged down into drunken melancholy, he was seldom ready to do his duty.

“Why did I marry him?” she would say. “What’s he good for, apart from drinking? That’s all he does. He gets up, drinks, then falls asleep. I suppose he gets the others to drink, too. There is that. We sell more wine when he’s drinking. But what’s the use of him carving idols and pouring wine over them? If he wants sons he should be here in bed with me.”

She used to hold me to her, ruffling my hair, pressing me against her soft flesh, enfolding me in her plump arms. She smelled of sweat, and onions, and stale wine. I had to lie with her all night, my head between her breasts, keeping her warm and comforting her. Even a eunuch can please a woman. He can do with his hand what he cannot do with his member. The widow showed me how, taking my hand in hers, guiding it downwards, pushing it between her fat thighs, pressing my fingers into a moist cleft that swallowed them eagerly. She writhed against me, moaning like the howling wind, quivering like the timbers of a beaching ship. The bed rocked, the floorboards creaked, the whole house shook as though battered by an earthquake. When the moment of pleasure came, her cry of triumph was loud enough to raise the roof. Dead drunk though he was, I do not know how Inger slept through it. But he did, and when he woke he never suspected that I had pleasured his wife, that I, a boy and a eunuch, had achieved what he could not.

I got no joy from that caressing. How could I? But it was my task at the tavern to please people.

When the widow did not want me I slept with the nieces. They dressed and undressed before me, and they washed in my presence, not concealing their most private parts, washing me too, provoking my little manhood, and taunting me with what I lacked. When they found that they could not arouse me they tried to convince me that I was like them. They dressed me in their old clothes, painted my face, plaited my hair like a girl’s. But Inger soon put a stop to that. His rage showed what he thought of boys who dressed as girls. Loki could turn himself into a woman, but he was a god and a trickster, and not to be trusted.

When I grew bigger the nieces talked of places in the city where a creature like me could be sold for a handful of gold coins. They described the filthy old men who would pay to paw my body, and the indignities I would be forced to undergo. I do not suppose they would really have sold me. They would have had to do their own work then. But they made my life as miserable as they could, criticising my work, and stealing my tips.

I reached the age when uncut boys turn in to men. But I did not change. I knew the ways of women well, and might have become a sort of woman myself, mothering Eudocia, doing women’s work, despising men’s weakness, gossiping with the customers and bickering with the nieces.

Then, by chance, I was taken away, and began a new life among men.

Constantine

[AD 846]

“Cretan?” I asked. “Theban? Chian? Attic? Monemvasia?”

The young man looked puzzled. He was a gentleman, that was obvious, but not a type I had seen before. He was not like the young roisterers who sometimes ventured out from the city. They liked to do their drinking unobserved, among people who did not know them, and did not care if they drove away the regular customers with their shouting and horseplay.

The man who sat before me was younger, and less self-assured than those other gentlemen. He was, I thought, no more than twenty years old. His clothes were well-made and of fine material, but they were shabby and uncared-for. His hair and beard were unkempt. He was not proud or haughty, nor was he attended by any servants, unless he had left them outside.

“What?” he said, looking up at me vaguely.

“What wine would you like? Theban, Cyprian …”

“Wine?”

“Most of the customers drink something while they are here.”

“Then I had better have some wine. Just the regular sort.”

“Resinated, or not?”

“I don’t mind.”

“I’ll bring you a cup of Monemvasia, sir. Or would you like a jug?”

“A cup will be enough.”

While I went to get the wine, he looked around anxiously. It was obvious that he did not often visit taverns. Some of the other drinkers looked at him, no doubt wondering whether he was one of the prefect’s men, or some other official sent out from the city to spy on us. One of the nieces was eyeing him up, and I could see he was not the man for that. If I was not careful, she would drive him away before I had got any money out of him.

I poured him a cup of Monemvasia. It was the most expensive wine we kept. He tasted it warily, then he looked around the room.

“What languages do these men speak?” he asked.

“They all speak Greek, of a sort.”

“No other languages?”

“Maybe. They are all sailors and fishermen.”

“Our Lord did not disdain fishermen.” He spoke rather stiffly, as though trying to reassure himself. Then he raised the cup delicately to his lips, sipped, then set it down again, muttering something under his breath.

“Are you a priest?” I asked. The widow always feared that someone would find out about Inger’s idols. The worship of icons had only just been restored, and there were many who still disapproved of Christian images. Pagan ones would have been unthinkable abominations.

“No. I am a scholar.”

“What is your name, boy?”

“Zeno, sir.”

“I am Constantine.” He paused awkwardly, unsure how to proceed. I knew nothing of scholars. People of that sort never visited the tavern. But I could see that he was kind, and kindness was something that was lacking from my life in those days.

“Sir,” I said. “What do you want here?”

“I’ve heard there’s a Rus here … ”

“Inger? He owns the place.”

“I want to talk to him.”

“You’ll have a job. He’s sleeping off last night’s wine. You could wait, I suppose.” Constantine looked uncomfortable. “You could come back in the evening,” I said, “but the chances are he’d be far too drunk to talk, even if you could understand a word he said.”

“When might I find him sober?”

“First thing in the morning, maybe, but he’s always in a terrible temper then. The truth is there aren’t many times when he’s fit to talk. Not sense, anyway.”

“I wanted to find out about his language.”

“It’s rough enough,” I said. “But you’ll find plenty here that speak just as roughly, if that’s what you like.”

“I don’t mean sailor’s talk. I mean his native language.”

“It’s like I said. When he’s not asleep, he’s too drunk.”

Looking disappointed, Constantine drank some more of the wine.

“I know a few words,” I said

The scholar’s face brightened. “Tell me some.”

“I’m busy,” I said.

“It’s all right,” he said, scattering a handful of coins on the counter. “I’ll buy another drink.”

I scooped up the scholar’s money, poured more wine, then sat down on the bench opposite him. I would not normally have done that with a gentleman, but I could see that he was ill at ease, and that the other drinkers were growing quieter, paying him more attention.

“What about these words,” he said. “These words of Rus-speak.”

“Norse, Inger calls it.”

He leaned forward, his face full of interest. “Tell me as many words of Norse as you can.”

I decided to make him feel sorry for me. He had overpaid for his drink, and might give me a good tip. “I only know bad words,” I said. “Ones you wouldn’t want to hear.”

“Try me.”

Looking around carefully to make sure Inger had not staggered in, I leaned across the table and whispered a phrase.

“What does it mean?”

“It means that Inger is going to hit me.” That was not quite true. Inger never hit me. Hitting a boy, and a gelded one at that, would have been beneath his dignity. But he sometimes threatened it, and I had repeated his words accurately.

Constantine frowned. “He sounds a rough fellow. Perhaps it is just as well he can’t speak to me. But don’t you know any other words?”

“A few.” I told him the words for bread, and meat, and wine, and how to say “come here” and “get out” and “pour me a drink”.

I realised that the scholar was keen to listen. Words and phrases came back to me, from Inger’s stories, from my time on the island and at sea, and I went on, telling Constantine what I knew. Seeing his interest, I even exaggerated, telling him things I did not know, making myself seem more of an expert than I was.

The shy young scholar sipped his wine slowly and asked me endless questions. He wanted to know what the Rus meant by their words, what they believed, and about their way of life. He asked where I had come from, and how I came to be captured. I could see that Constantine was quite impressed. Though a few years older than me, he clearly knew less of life.

“This Inger,” Constantine said when I had told him everything I could remember. “He is your master?”

“Yes. But he is a drunken ruffian. He would be no use to you.”

“Would he sell you?”

“He’d sell anything if you showed him gold.”

“I cannot show him gold, but I could promise it.”

The scholars

[AD 846]

The first thing we saw as we passed through the gates was a gang of shaven-headed men shuffling grimly towards us. They were chained together at the wrists and ankles, their heads hung low with shame. Constantine leaped aside to let them pass, dragging me with him into an empty doorway. As they trudged to the gates, the guards lashed the prisoners with barbed scourges, making them skip over the cobbles and rattle their chains. Blood dribbled from the gashes on their bare backs, splashing onto the dusty cobbles.

“Criminals,” Constantine said. “May God have mercy on them.”

“What did they do?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but it must have been something terrible to deserve that punishment.”

We watched the criminals being driven out of the city. Constantine muttered a prayer, then led me on, towards the main street.

“Does your friend live near here?” I asked.

“He lives at the other end of the city, near the palace and the cathedral.”

I had never been to that part of the city before, as tavern business had only taken me to the suburbs.

“This friend,” I said. “Will he give Inger the money?”

“I am sure he will.” Constantine looked worried. “I hope so, I have promised it.”

“And he’s a scholar like you?”

“A great and famous one. He will be delighted to hear your tales of the Rus.”

I could hardly believe it: a great and famous man would be delighted to listen to me! For years I had had to listen to others and do their bidding. Now Constantine was taking me to a place where I would be welcome and respected. I skipped along beside him, delighted by everything I saw. Shops lined the avenue and the streets that led off it. They sold everything imaginable, and their goods spilled out onto the pavement in extravagant displays, guarded by stern and cruel-looking slaves. Some of the guards were so black that I could hardly make out their features, others were as pale as any Rus.