CHAPTER 80
The queen stood on the south wall facing the empty immensity. ‘The patriarch says the Sands must consume Akka one day. I don’t believe it. God would not allow it. We’re meant to be here.’ Behind her, Sofia looked silently on that unlimited desolation, hearing again the threat: Wherever you run, he’ll find you. There was no sanctuary then, even here.
Catrina assumed Sofia was brooding on other things and praised her mothering abilities. ‘I’ve never seen such a natural.’
Sofia demurred, ‘I’ve never been very feminine.’
‘Feminine. Bah! A word describing the ideal slave. Obedient is what they mean. Weeping, fainting, mooning over idiotic men, laughing at idiotic jokes, marvelling at idiotic deeds. We are queens, Contessa. We have frail bodies, but we must have manly hearts to win men’s hearts, and to do what must be done.’
Sofia cupped the back of the baby’s head, feeling its downy warmth and the small chest moving against hers.
‘There!’ the queen cried triumphantly.
Sofia saw only a dust cloud on the horizon. ‘Could be a Jinni.’
She shook her head. ‘It’s getting larger, and staying in one place. That’s riders coming towards us – two, I’d wager. Must have him bound. Oh, Papa’s coming back home, isn’t he?’ She clapped her hands, then reached over to pinch the baby’s cheek. In her enthusiasm, she made her howl.
Down in the courtyard, Fulk and his men helped Levi and Arik tie up their camels. As they began to climb the stairway, Catrina said, ‘Contessa, give me the child. I want to show my uncle how well I treat his child despite the way he treated me.’ She eagerly shouted down, ‘Well, where is he? You did find him?’
Arik exchanged a look with Levi. ‘His body.’
The queen’s face reddened with fury. ‘I told you I wanted him alive!’
The baby started crying and Sofia offered to take her again, but the queen ignored her, demanding explanation.
‘He was dead when we found him, Majesty. He must have panicked. He’d entered Sicarii territory.’
‘Nonsense! Andronikos grew up in this land – he knew where he was going. The scoundrel made a deal with them.’
Arik was sceptical. ‘To what end?’
‘To my throne, of course. Lord knows what concessions he promised them – as long as those bandits exist, my throne is not safe. Your father was a real idiot, wasn’t he, little one?’
‘He was desperate. He thought he’d be executed,’ Sofia said.
‘He wasn’t wrong.’ Catrina laughed. ‘I just wish he’d lived to see this.’
She cast the baby over the wall before Sofia knew what was happening. The child screamed all the way down. Levi, stunned though he was, managed to restrain Sofia before she assaulted the queen. Fulk and his men surrounded Catrina and stood facing them.
‘How – how could you?’
Catrina was implacable. ‘It was self-defence. Nothing threatens a queen more than a princess – Andronikos should have known better. He always did underestimate me.’
‘Monster!’ Sofia cried.
‘Silence! I don’t owe you an explanation. Would it have been better if the Grand Master had done it? I’m no hypocrite.’
Sofia looked at Fulk. ‘He wouldn’t!’
‘I know my men.’ Catrina’s lip curled. ‘Better at least than a foreign whore.’
Levi looked at the Lazars surrounding the queen. ‘Sofia, leave it.’
But Sofia couldn’t. ‘You never intended to help us, did you? You just used us to draw Andronikos into rebellion.’
‘Child, this is what it means to be queen. Your people abandoned us to our struggle and it made us strong. I return the favour.’
Weeping, Sofia broke away from Levi. Fulk caught hold of her, but she flung him off too. ‘Don’t touch me, Leper!’
‘Sofia, come back!’
There was nowhere to flee but the palace.
On her way to her chamber, Sofia passed the patriarch, standing alone in the Ancestor Room. He was staring lovelorn at a particular mask and he started away guiltily at the sound of her feet. ‘Contessa! I was just – that is—’
‘You know what your mistress did?’
‘Ah. Done, is it?’ he said quietly. ‘Unfortunate business.’
‘You too,’ Sofia said numbly.
‘Contessa, be fair. Queen Catrina cannot allow rebellion to tear apart her kingdom. Andronikos was a viper.’
‘But the child – how could she?’
‘How could she not? Anyone close to the throne is close enough to be tempted: guards, courtiers, family. That’s what makes the Lazars perfect praetorians. They die young and cannot reproduce – even if one persuaded a woman to sell herself, the disease makes them sterile. Don’t judge Catrina too harshly; you don’t know the wars she has survived.’
‘So others should suffer?’
The patriarch looked at Sofia sadly. ‘She suffers too. The queen is God’s anointed, and as He gave His only son, so Catrina gave Fulk to a leper wet nurse. With the milk, the child consumed death.’
Sofia stared at the patriarch. ‘He’s her son?’
‘Etruria left us to die. To survive this merciless land we had to become merciless too.’
Sofia looked around hopelessly at the imperturbable cruel masks. Beneath his scars, Fulk looked like them.
Later that evening, Sofia found Fulk and Arik talking on the wall. Fulk stood. ‘Perhaps I should go.’
‘Please, don’t. I’m sorry for what I said. You didn’t have a choice. She condemned you.’
‘We’re all condemned, Contessa. A knight’s life is not measured in years.’ In the darkness behind the mask, Fulk’s soft eyes shone with the loyalty of a hound.
‘Why do you still defend her?’
‘There’s no greater joy than to know one’s duty in life.’ He bowed to her. ‘I understand you’re upset, but I will not blacken my queen’s name.’
‘She blackens her own name!’ Sofia shouted as Fulk walked away.
‘Nice apology,’ Arik said.
She turned on him. ‘Did you know what she planned?’
‘No, but the crimes of the Franj have long ceased to surprise me. The queen’s actions, repugnant as they were, were logical. Your title, Contessa – did many siblings aspire for it also?’
When Sofia admitted that she had none, Arik said, ‘That follows. Familial bonds are helpful when a family is striving to rise, but when it reaches the summit, the competition does not cease but intensifies. Your sister, your brother, formerly your closest allies, become your closest rivals.’ He paused. ‘I speak, as you know, from experience.’
‘You never told me how you escaped.’
‘When I was very young my father made me a hostage to the queen’s grandfather. That’s when Fulk and I became friends. My father wanted me to learn the ways of the Franj and I cursed him for it. Now I know he was giving me an escape route. When I saw Yusuf sharpening his knife, where else could I go? One man in the desert is a dead man. I fled to Akka and offered Catrina my dagger.’ He smiled with embarrassment. ‘I know the land as well as any Ebionite, better than any of her men. I see how you look at me, Sofia. You are thinking, you are thinking, “This scoundrel betrayed his people.” I will tell you the manner of men I betrayed. The Prophetess led a righteous rebellion against foreign oppressors. My brother’s running dogs dishonour the name of Sicarii. Freedom fighters – ha! They prey on the baggage trains that cross the desert, murdering Oltremarines and extorting Ebionites. What courage. What folly. The last hope of overthrowing the Franj vanished with the Old Man of the Mountain. My brother knows that, as do the other Ebionite tribes. Individually you will find no men stronger, but they value their freedom too much to submit to a king and that’s what keeps them weak.’
‘Do all Ebionites think their cause so hopeless?’
‘The Sicarii believe there is hope, but what does their sincerity count for? They are misguided. My brother – a black year on him – is no patriot.’
Sofia was sickened by this compromised, hedging world. ‘And you are a slave!’
Arik’s hand went quickly to his dagger, but there he stopped. ‘Perhaps,’ he said at last. ‘And what are you, Contessa?’
She could no longer deny it. ‘A prisoner.’