Harald removed his foot from the quaestor's neck, and placed the edge of the sharpened sword against the soft flesh; the tender skin parted and a few large drops of blood trailed down the doomed man's neck and splashed onto the deck.
'Does he know who I am?' the captive shrieked.
'He believes you to be the man who made him a fool before his men and stole his silver,' I replied.
'You are making a mistake!' wailed the captive.
Harald put his foot on the man's back and raised the sword above his head, preparing to strike.
'No! No!' shrieked the quaestor. 'Wait! Listen to me! I am an important man, a wealthy man. You can ransom me!'
'What does he say now?' wondered Harald, squinting his eye as he judged where the blade would fall.
'He is saying he is a man of some importance and that you might consider holding him for ransom.'
Harald cocked an eyebrow at this. 'Who would pay?'
I relayed the king's question to the captive, who said, 'The emperor! I am the emperor's man, and he would pay for my release.' Tears fell from the wretch's bloated, red face and the smell of fear wafted from him like a rank perfume.
King Harald listened intently while I translated the tax collector's words, and considered the new possibility presented to him. 'How much?'
'The king wants to know how much he might expect in ransom,' I told the quaestor, who was now sweating so much that the rivulets formed a puddle beneath his head.
'Twice as much as I took from him,' the captive said.
King Harald shook his head firmly as I gave him the harbour master's words. 'Tell this ignorant fellow that I have slaves worth more than that. Besides, I will get all the silver I can carry when I plunder the city. Nay,' he said dismissing the opportunity, 'I will have his head on my mast, and this will be a warning to all who think to plunder Harald Bull-Roar's silver.'
This I told the Quaestor of Hormisdas Harbour, who sputtered with rage and frustration. 'It is impossible! Do you understand what I am saying? No barbarian has ever plundered this city. You will all be killed before you set foot inside the gate. Release us at once, and I will plead clemency before the emperor.'
'Plead mercy for your men instead,' I told him. 'For unless this Daneman hears a better reason than you have given, you and all your men will be dead before the emperor's fleet can stir an oar.' The quaestor's men shifted uneasily and muttered imprecations to their superior. Still I could see that my speech fell somewhat short of persuasion, so I added, 'Trust me; I speak the truth. I am a slave, and I shall die in this city anyway. My life is in God's hands; I am content. But you-you have it in your power to save yourself and the lives of your men.'
The harbour master squeezed shut his eyes. 'The emperor will pay, I tell you! He will grant you whatever you ask. Spare me!'
I told Harald what the desperate man had said, and added, 'Think of it, jarl, the emperor himself paying tribute to Harald, King of the Danes-that would be a wonder, would it not?'
A smile appeared on the king's face and he agreed that, yes, it would be a wonderful thing to have the emperor bowing to him with the ransom in his hands. He made up his mind at once. 'I will do it.'
Taking his foot from the man's neck, he yanked the quaestor to his feet and stripped him of his belt and boots, and took the ring off his finger; he then gathered his horse-tail helmet and bronze-knobbed rod of office. All these items were tied up together in the quaestor's red cloak, whereupon the king gave orders that if he did not return before the sun had set, the captives were to have their throats slit, their heads nailed to the mast, and their corpses thrown into the harbour. He then chose twelve men to accompany him ashore-Hnefi, Orm, and Gunnar, who had been ashore the previous day, and myself as interpreter, were foremost in the landing party. As the king made ready his departure, I turned to the quaestor. 'Is it true that you answer to the emperor?'
'That is true,' he muttered sullenly.
'Then pray the emperor considers your life worth saving.'
30
Harald exulted in his triumph. The very thought of obligating the emperor delighted him; it appealed equally to Harald's sense of fairness and to his vanity, for he imagined catching one of the emperor's minions in theft granted him a hold over the great ruler, who would be honour-bound to redress the injustice.
That Harald and his Sea Wolves had come to Constantinople with the sole purpose of robbing the emperor and as many of his subjects as possible was a detail which failed to impose itself on the barbarian mind. Even so, the Danes possessed a powerful, if peculiar, sense of honour; I had seen it amply demonstrated before. In truth, I had no idea what would flow from this action, but considered that if it prevented bloodshed, it would be no bad thing.
The Sea King commanded his three other vessels to come alongside and shield the dragonship in case anyone should try to interfere; he brought men from the other ships to help keep watch over the hostages, and charged his Sea Wolves to arm themselves for battle and await his return with utmost vigilance.
'I go to collect the honour-debt,' Harald proclaimed as he prepared to depart. 'Thus will I be the first king of the Danefolk to receive tribute from the emperor of Miklagard.' Truly, the man was drunk with arrogance.
The king, having arrayed himself in his finest clothing, took his place in the quaestor's boat and commanded his men to row. The Sea Wolves made short work of driving the small boat through the crowded harbour, and we soon made landing at the steps below the Magnaura Gate and proceeded through that great portal. Our mission was almost thwarted before we had set foot in the city, for upon seeing the barbarians the prefect of law leapt from his table and demanded to see our disci. Harald, on his way to collect a ransom, was not in a humour to pay anything for the privilege of entering the city, and refused.
When the king continued on his way, the prefect called the guards, shouting, 'Stop them! Stop them!' until the gatemen appeared, weapons ready, and blocked our way with their spears. Harald was of a mind to fight them, but seeing the young guardsman who had helped us the previous day, I begged the king to stay his hand while I explained the matter to this official.
'So, it is you again,' the guard said. 'I thought you might have learned your manners yesterday.'
'It is more serious this time,' I said, and told him as quickly as I could that the quaestor and his men had been taken hostage.
'You can prove this?' he inquired. I motioned to Gunnar to bring the bundle; under the king's watchful eye he untied it and allowed the guardsman to look inside. Upon seeing the harbour master's belongings, he said, 'So, you have taken him. Do you wish to tell me why you have done this?'
'That is a matter for the emperor alone,' I replied. Having experienced something of the ways of the city, I reckoned that our best hope of gaining the emperor's ear lay in saying as little as possible to anyone else, for men are curious by nature and like to see a mystery resolved.
'Aeddan!' thundered Harald, who was, I observed, quickly losing patience with the trivial restrictions the city contrived to throw in his path. I bowed before the king and begged the chance to negotiate safe passage to the emperor's palace, asking only for the luxury of a few moments to do so. The king grunted gruff approval to this plan, so, bowing once more to my barbarian master, I turned to the guard.
'The king is growing impatient. It is in his mind to collect a ransom in exchange for the quaestor and his men; to this end, he means to see the emperor at once.'
'You will never succeed,' the guardsman informed me. 'The palace guards will not allow you into the palace precinct. Should you attempt to force your way in, they will kill you.'
'Please, help us,' I said.
'Me!' he protested. 'It is none of my concern.'
'If you do not help us, the quaestor and eight of his men will die before the sun has set. Harald Bull-Roar has decreed that the captives' heads will adorn his mast if he does not return with the ransom; he has four ships of fighting men waiting to carry out this vile deed. Although your soldiers may try to prevent it, much blood will be shed on both sides and the harbour master will die anyway.'
'So that is the way of it,' he said, regarding the barbarians carefully. He weighed the situation in his mind for
