‘Has anyone ridden close enough to count?’ Sigurd muttered.
Raymond glared at him. ‘My marshal has seen the army. He guesses it to be three times our size. Perhaps more.’
‘Christ preserve us,’ whispered Hugh. Had his skin been any paler I might have seen the bone beneath.
‘We will commit ourselves to the Lord’s mercy.’ Adhemar looked around the square, his face severe. ‘As for where we commit ourselves to battle, I propose we tempt them over the Iron Bridge and meet them on the near bank. With the river on our left and the arm of the mountain to our right, we will keep them from using their numbers to encircle us. What do you say, Count Raymond?’
Raymond nodded. ‘It will serve. What does the lord Bohemond think?’
He looked across the tent to Bohemond, who in his silken robe seemed dressed more for a banquet than a battle. Perhaps that was why he had spoken barely a word all evening.
‘It is a wise plan. I can think of nothing to improve it.’
‘Truly?’ Raymond’s face hardened with suspicion, while every other man in the room watched Bohemond intently.
‘Truly. It is, after all, the same tactic by which I defeated the army of Aleppo.’
‘The army of Aleppo was a quarter of the size of Kerbogha’s. And you would have been crushed had I not remained at the city to guard your back. We will not be able to divide ourselves this time.’
‘Are you trying to persuade me against your own plan?’ Bohemond furrowed his brow in mock surprise.
‘I am wondering that you do not try and unpick its defects.’
‘You have just done so yourself. It is the same problem which stifles all our plans. The city.’ Bohemond stood, a strangely confident smirk on his face. ‘I look at the city and all I see is a millstone. A millstone about our necks, one that we cannot shake off. A millstone that will grind us to powder against Kerbogha’s army if we do not break it.’
‘You have said this before,’ said Raymond, his contempt evident. ‘It is not relevant.’
Bohemond laughed. ‘Not relevant? My lord Count, it is more relevant than anything that you have said this evening. To my mind, indeed, it is
‘It is too late to consider such paths,’ said Adhemar. ‘In three days Kerbogha will be here.’
‘Is your faith so weak? Three days is more than enough time for a miracle. As for my tardiness, I have urged this course on the council for months. In this wilderness I have been a lone voice crying out for reason. You have denied me, and the siege has faltered. Will you deny me now, when the only alternative is defeat?’
‘What do you ask?’ Adhemar’s face made it plain that he knew.
‘I ask the council to relinquish its claim to Antioch. To grant its possession to whoever takes it first, that by the triumph of one man we may be spared the destruction of all.’
Before Adhemar could answer, Sigurd was on his feet. ‘It is not the council’s to give. You – we – are all sworn to yield it to the Emperor Alexios. No man can dispose of it save he.’
It was a true claim, and one that might once have weighed with the princes, but it was a poor moment for Sigurd to raise it. Even as he seated himself, I saw the wolfish smile spreading across Bohemond’s face.
‘If your king comes to claim it, I will be the first to kneel before him and surrender it. Until then, I say it is the one prize that may spur us to salvation before Kerbogha comes. I ask the council to give its judgement.’
He took his seat, serene amid the consternation and doubt that he had stirred. All around me I could see counts and dukes testing his words in their minds, probing his devices. All looked troubled.
‘If the city is to be surrendered to the Emperor, I will not object to one of our number holding it in stewardship for his coming,’ said Godfrey. Murmurs of approval sounded around the room. ‘And if one man distinguishes himself in its capture, he will be the rightful steward.’
‘And what if he does not surrender it when the Emperor comes?’ growled Raymond.
‘Then he will be judged a liar and a thief by the council, and punished accordingly.’ Bohemond’s voice rang with honest confidence, though I saw his fingers tapping feverishly on the bench beside him. ‘Besides, who would content himself with Antioch while the holy city itself remained to be conquered? Will the council allow this, or are we to face Kerbogha without hope of victory?’
No one spoke. At last, Adhemar tapped his staff on the floor. There was little strength in the sound. ‘What does the council say? Shall we grant Antioch to the wardship of its conqueror, until such time as the Emperor comes?’
‘I say yes,’ said the Duke of Normandy. ‘If we gain the city, it is a small price to pay.’
‘As long as it is understood that we still honour our oath to the Emperor,’ said Godfrey.
Raymond blew air between his lips, making a noise like wind. ‘I say Bohemond has wasted too much of our time on this matter. If he can conquer the city, by all means let him enjoy it for a short while. For my part, I will concentrate on defeating Kerbogha.’
Adhemar let his stare drift deliberately over the gathering. ‘Does anyone oppose this?’
None did.
‘Then it is decided.’
? ?
I struggled under a heavy burden of dreams that night. In one, I was back on the high tower of the palace in Constantinople, looking out over a blood-drenched field as flocks of eagles wheeled overhead. In another, I was in the culvert by the orchard, looking at Rainauld’s body, except that when I touched him he was not dead. He spoke to me in words that I could not afterwards remember, warning me of some tremendous evil, and when I turned away it was only to see a black bull charging towards me. It chased me through fields and hills, over streams and across rivers, and every time I looked behind me it seemed that one more stride would bring its horns goring into my back. I ran on; suddenly I saw that I had climbed to a great height, and that the ridge ahead was in fact the brink of an enormous cliff. I slowed, but immediately the thunder of hooves overwhelmed me. Helpless, I ran faster, my whole being throbbing with my heart, until with a soundless scream I hurtled over the cliff, felt my body drop away beneath me, and awoke with a cry in my tent. It was still dark, and I recoiled as I realised that there were yet more hours of the night to endure. I reached out for Anna to comfort me, but propriety had led her to her own tent and I felt only earth.
Next morning, Sigurd and our company were ordered to begin dismantling the boat bridge. It was claimed that Kerbogha might use it to attack our flank, though I guessed the princes feared equally that it might become the path of a rout if the army panicked. With the bridge removed, the east bank of the Orontes where we were camped became a closed sack, squeezed between the river and the walls. Whether that would firm our hearts or condemn us to slaughter, none could tell.
‘Do they suppose that because Varangians wield axes, we must be foresters or woodcutters?’
Sigurd, who would have frozen to death before ever using his battleaxe on firewood, swung a carpenter’s axe into a mouldering length of rope. The fibres sprang apart, unravelling where they had broken, and I gripped the side of the boat we stood in as its prow swung downstream. Its dank timber was spongy under my hand.
‘We should leave this in place,’ I grumbled, scrambling back onto the portion of the bridge which remained intact. It swayed under my weight, and from beneath the planks I heard a rumbling as the hulls shifted and knocked together. ‘It’s so rotten that Kerbogha’s army would sink through before they were halfway across.’
Sigurd swung his axe again, and the rope that had held the stern of the boat in place parted. For a moment it stayed nestled against the bridge; then the current took it, and it began to drift away towards the sea. Long strands of weed trailed behind it.
A gap-toothed peasant, one of the labourers who had been assigned to carry away the planks we tore up, wandered over. With the morning sun already heavy on our backs, he was in little hurry. ‘It will be well to break this,’ he said, his words thick with foreign sounds. ‘Already the Turks lurk on the far bank.’
‘How can they?’ I paid him little attention, for I was trying to prise up the next section of the decking. ‘All their gates are guarded by our towers. They are stopped up like wine in a bottle.’
