The Sheen of the Silk

chapter 7-8
Seven

IN EARLY OCTOBER, ZOE SENT A MESSENGER TO ANNA, REQUESTING that she attend her immediately. Zoe drew her like a flame that was dangerous, unpredictable, at times destructive, but above all a blazing light, and Anna was in urgent need of more information.

When she arrived Zoe received her at once, which was in itself a compliment. Today she was dressed in a wine red tunic with a lighter red dalmatica over it, clasped at the shoulder with an enormous gold-and-amber jewel. More gold and amber hung on her ears and around her neck and was echoed at the embroidered hems of her garments. With her topaz eyes and deep bronze hair, Zoe was breathtaking.

"Ah! Anastasius," she said eagerly, walking toward Anna, smiling. "How is your business? I hear good reports of you from my friends." It was a courteous question and asked with enthusiasm. It was also a reminder that most of Anna's best patients-the ones with money who paid on time and recommended her further-had come because of Zoe.

"Good, and getting better all the time," Anna answered. "I thank you for your recommendations."

"I am happy they have been useful." Zoe waved one elegant hand, sharp-nailed and decorated with rings, indicating the table with a jug of wine, several goblets, and a green glass bowl of almonds.

"Thank you," Anna said, as if accepting, but she made no move toward it. She was too tense with expectation as to what Zoe wanted. She looked in good health, even if some of it was achieved with her own salves and potions and a great deal of willpower.

"How can I be of service?" Anna asked. She had learned not to compliment women as if she were a whole man or to commiserate as if she were another woman.

Zoe smiled, amused. "Quick to the point, Anastasius. Have I drawn you away from another patient?" She was probing, seeing how Anastasius would walk the razor's edge between flattery and truth, keeping his own dignity, maintaining the respect for his skill, yet also being available to do whatever Zoe wished. He could not yet afford to refuse, and they both knew it. Zoe was not a patient in this instance, yet it would be absurdly arrogant for Anastasius ever to imagine they were social acquaintances. He was a eunuch from the provinces who earned his own living; Zoe was of an aristocratic family and not just a native of the city, but almost an embodiment of its soul.

Anna measured her words, smiling a little. "Is this not business?"

Zoe's golden eyes flashed with laughter. "Of course. It is a friend, a young woman named Euphrosane Dalassena. She has a disease of the skin, and it is somewhat embarrassing to her. You seem to be skilled in such things. I have told her you will come."

Anna swallowed the sting of arrogance at being so taken for granted. Even so, Zoe saw the flicker and knew what it meant. It pleased her.

"If you tell me where I may find her, I shall call," Anna answered.

Zoe nodded slowly, satisfied, and named the house and the street. "Urgently, if you please. Study her carefully, consider her mind as well as her body. It is of concern to me how she progresses. Do you understand?"

"I shall be happy to tell you that she is doing well, or not so well," she replied.

"I don't care about her skin!" Zoe snapped. "You can take care of that, I have no doubt. She is recently widowed. I am interested in her state of mind, the strength of her character."

Anna hesitated on the brink of further restrictions on what she felt free to say, then decided it would be pointless. It would anger Zoe for no reason. She would decide how much to tell her later.

"I'll go straight away," she said graciously.

Zoe smiled. "Thank you."

* * *

Euphrosane Dalassena was in her late twenties, but at first she seemed younger. Her features were excellent and she should have been lovely, but there was a certain insipidity about her, and Anna wondered if it were due to illness. She lay on a couch, her light brown hair unadorned, her skin a little waxy. Anna had been shown in by a serving woman, who remained in the unimaginatively ornamented room, standing by the doorway.

Anna introduced herself and asked all the usual questions about symptoms. Then she examined the painful rash that spread across Euphrosane's back and lower abdomen. She seemed to have a slight temperature and was clearly both embarrassed and distressed by her condition. Her eyes never left Anna's face, always waiting for the verdict, trying to interpret every expression.

Finally she could bear it no longer. "I go to confession every other day, and I know of no sin of which I have not repented," she exclaimed. "I've fasted and prayed, but nothing comes to my mind. Please help me!"

"God does not punish you for what you can't help," Anna said quickly, then immediately wondered at her daring. That was her own conviction, but was it the doctrine of the Church? She felt the blood burn up her face.

Euphrosane's logic was perfect. "Then I must be able to help it," she said plaintively. "What haven't I done? I have prayed to Saint George, who is the patron saint of skin diseases, but he is patron saint of a lot of things. So I have also prayed to Saint Anthony the Abbot, just in case I should be more specific. I attend Mass every day, I go to confession, I give alms to the poor and offerings to the Church. Where have I fallen so far short that this has happened to me? I don't understand." She lay back on the couch.

Anna drew in her breath to say that it was nothing to do with sin of any kind, omission or commission, but realized that that might be viewed as heresy.

Euphrosane was still watching her, the sweat dampening her skin and making her hair lank. Anna must answer or lose Euphrosane's faith in her.

"Could it be that your sin lies in not trusting God's love enough?" she said, shocked at her own words. "I will give you medicine to take, and ointment to have your maid put on the blisters. Each time you do so, pray, and believe that God loves you, personally."

"How could He?" Euphrosane said wretchedly. "My husband died young, before he had achieved half the things he could have, and I did not even bear a child! Now I am afflicted with an illness so ugly no other man will want me. How could God love me? I am doing something terribly wrong, and I don't even know what it is."

"Yes, you are," Anna said vehemently. "How dare you dismiss yourself as useless or ugly? God does not need you to get everything right, because nobody is going to do that, but He does expect you to try, and to trust Him."

Euphrosane stared at her in wonder. "I understand," she said, the confusion gone. "I shall repent, immediately."

"And use the medicine as well," Anna warned. "He gave us herbs and oils, and intelligence to understand their purpose. Don't throw His gift back at Him. That would be ingratitude, which is also a very serious sin indeed." And it would make the whole exercise pointless, but she could not tell her that.

"I will! I will!" Euphrosane promised.

A week later, Euphrosane was completely healed, which made Anna wonder if perhaps much of her fever had been due to fear of an imagined guilt.

She went to report to Zoe, as asked, and this time she had to wait nearly half an hour before being admitted. She knew the moment she saw Zoe's face that she was already aware of Euphrosane's recovery. Quite probably she also knew how much Anna had been paid, but she could not afford to let her irritation show. She thanked Zoe again for the referral.

"What did you think of her?" Zoe asked casually. Today she wore dark blue and gold. With her warm hair and eyes, the effect was superb. There were times when Anna longed, with almost physical pain, to dress as a woman again herself and to ornament her hair. Then she could face Zoe on an even footing. She forced herself to remember Justinian somewhere in the sterility of the Judean desert, possibly even wearing sackcloth, and the reason she was here posing as a eunuch. Did he imagine she had forgotten him?

Zoe was waiting, her expression impatient. "Is your opinion of Euphrosane so bad you cannot answer me honestly? You owe me that, Anastasius."

"Gullible," Anna replied. "A sweet young woman, painfully honest, but easily persuaded. Obedient. Too fearful not to be."

Zoe's golden eyes opened wide. "So you bite," she said with amusement. "Be careful. You cannot afford to nip the wrong person."

The sweat broke out on Anna's skin, but she did not look away. She knew never to let Zoe sense weakness. "You asked for the truth. Should I tell you less?"

"Never," Zoe replied, her eyes bright as faceted gems. "Or if you lie, then do it so well that I never find out."

Anna smiled. "I doubt I could do that."

"Interesting that you are wise enough to say so," Zoe replied softly, almost a purr. "There is something I would like you to do for me. If a merchant named Cosmas Kantakouzenos should ask your opinion of Euphrosane's character, as he might, would you be as candid with him? Tell him she is honest, guileless, and obedient."

"Of course," Anna replied. "I would be grateful if you would tell me more about Bessarion Comnenos." It was a bold question, and she had not had time to think of any explanation for her interest. But Zoe had not given any reason why she wished Euphrosane recommended to Cosmas.

Zoe walked over to the window and stared out at the complex pattern of rooftops. "I suppose you mean his death," she said dryly. "Bessarion's life was uninteresting. He married my daughter, but he was a bore. Pious and chilly."

"And he was killed for that?" Anna said with disbelief.

Zoe turned around slowly, her eyes sweeping up and down Anna from her woman's face in the guise of a eunuch, naked of a masculine beard and unsoftened by the lushness of feminine curls and ornaments. Zoe's eyes traveled down her body, bound at the chest, padded out from shoulder to hip to hide the natural curve.

Anna knew what she looked like. She had worked hard on her appearance. Yet at times like these, in the presence of a woman who was beautiful, even now, she hated it. Her hair no longer than to her shoulders actually became her face. It was less stiff than the highly dressed styles women wore, but still she missed the combs and ornaments she had once had. More than that she missed the color for her brows, the powder to even out the tones of the skin, the artificial color to make her lips less pale.

A servant's footsteps passed audibly across the floor in the next room.

Deliberately, Anna forced herself to remember Zoe's terror when she had been burned, the nakedness of the pain in her. It reduced her to a human being in need.

Zoe saw some change in her but did not comprehend it. She gave the slightest shrug of one shoulder. "It was not an isolated incident," she remarked. "A year before his death he was attacked in the street. We never learned if it was an attempt at robbery, or one of his own bodyguards, perhaps, seizing a chance to stab him in the scuffle but making a mess of it. He was cut only once, but it was quite deep."

"Why would one of his own bodyguards do that?" Anna asked.

"I have no idea," Zoe answered, then saw instantly from Anna's face that that was an error. Zoe would always know, and she would never admit ignorance. Now to cover the disadvantage Zoe would attack. "It was before you came," she said. "Why does it concern you?"

"I need to know friends and enemies," Anna answered her. "Bessarion's death still seems to be of interest to many people."

"Of course," Zoe said tartly. "He was of one of the old imperial families, and led the cause against union with Rome. Many people placed their hopes in him."

"And now in whom?" Anna asked-too quickly.

There was a flash of humor in Zoe's eyes. "And you imagine this was a bid for sainthood. Or that Bessarion is some kind of martyr?"

Anna blushed, angry with herself for opening the way for such a remark. "I want to know the allegiances, for my own safety."

"Very wise," Zoe said softly with a flicker of appreciation, an inner light of laughter. "And if you succeed, you will be cleverer than anyone else in Byzantium."

Eight

WHEN ANASTASIUS WAS GONE, ZOE REMAINED ALONE IN the room, standing at the window. She never tired of the view. Up that shining strip of water had sailed Jason and his Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece. He had found Medea and betrayed her. Her revenge had been terrible. Zoe could well understand. She was nearly ready to exact her own revenge on the Kantakouzenos. Cosmas was Zoe's age. It was his father, Andreas, who had told the crusaders where the vial was with the blood of Christ in it, in order to save himself. Dead now, he was beyond Zoe's reach, let God burn him in hell. But Cosmas was alive and well and now here again in Constantinople, prospering. He had much to lose. She watched him as she would watch a fruit ripening, read to be plucked.

Her eyes moved to the golden bowl on the table. It was full of apricots, like liquid amber touched with the red of the sun. She picked one up and bit into it, crushing its flesh between her teeth and letting the juice run over her lips onto her chin.

Euphrosane's grandfather Georgios Doukas had helped steal icons from the Hagia Sophia, the Mother Church of Byzantium. He had even helped them take the Holy Shroud of Christ itself. Its loss to the Orthodox faith could never be forgiven. Now the coarse, irreverent fingers of the Latins would hold it. Zoe's whole body shuddered at the thought, as if she herself had been touched intimately by something foul.

It was a stroke of good fortune that Euphrosane had fallen ill with a disease of the skin that her own physician could not heal. It had enabled Zoe to send the eunuch physician to her, and he in turn would get Cosmas to trust her.

She took another apricot; this one was less ripe than the first, a little like Anastasius. He had surprised her with his sharpness in judging Euphrosane. Not that he was wrong, of course; she simply had expected him to be more mealy-mouthed in expressing it. But liking him could not be allowed to get in the way of Zoe's plans for revenge. If Anastasius was useful, that was all that mattered.

And he had one weakness she should not forget-he forgave. Some of the patients she had recommended had treated him badly, but he did not seem to bear a grudge. He had had opportunity to take advantage of them in return, and he had not taken it. Zoe did not think it was cowardice; there would have been no danger to himself-indeed, no price to pay of any sort. That was stupid. With no fear there would be no respect. She would have known better. She would have to protect Anastasius, as long as he was useful. All scores must be evened.

She turned back and faced the room and the great gold crucifix on the wall. She would help the physician in his quest for information about Bessarion, but she knew it had nothing to do with understanding alliances in Constantinople. Then why was he asking about it?

Naturally she could not tell him even a whisper of the truth. Could she say that Helena had been bored witless by Bessarion and that he had probably never been interested in her-not as a man should be interested in a woman?

She relaxed and threw back her head, smiling in a rare moment of self-mockery She had tried to seduce Bessarion herself once, just to see if there was any fire in his loins, or his soul. There wasn't. He was willing, eventually, but it wasn't worth the trouble.

No wonder Helena's eyes were wandering! Far cleverer to seduce Antoninus and then use him to dispose of Bessarion and so get rid of both of them-if that was what had happened. That was worthy of a daughter of Zoe's. She had been slow to learn, but apparently she had succeeded well enough in the end. Pity Helena had compromised Justinian, too. He was a real man, too much for Helena. If she had caused that, Zoe would not forgive her for it.

She walked slowly across the room to the doorway, swinging her arm out a fraction to make the silk of her robe flutter and shine in the light. The sheen changed color from russet to gold and back again, deceiving the eye, firing the imagination.

A week later, the emperor sent for her. There was a man worth lying with. The memory was still a good one, even all these years after. Not the best; Gregory Vatatzes would always be that. But Zoe forced him out of her mind. There was pain in every thought of him, as well as pleasure.

Michael wanted something, or he would not have sent for her. She dressed carefully, gorgeous in a bronze and black silk tunic that clung to her. A high necklace would conceal the aging of her skin under her jaw. Her hands were soft. She knew exactly what ingredients to use in unguents to keep them pale and the knuckles from swelling. She wore topaz, set in gold. None of it was to seduce him; their relationship was beyond that now. He wanted her skill, her cunning, not her flesh.

Since the return of the empire from exile in Nicea and scattered cities to the north along the coast of the Black Sea, Michael had made his residence in the Blachernae Palace, on the other side of the city from the old Imperial Palace. The Blachernae overlooked the Golden Horn, as did her own house, and it was not more than a mile and a half away. She could walk it easily, accompanied by Sabas, her most loyal servant.

She did not hurry, it was unseemly. She had time to notice the weeds where paving stones were missing, the broken windows in a church, never replaced.

Even the Blachernae Palace itself was scarred, some of the magnificent arches of its upper windows shattered, threatening to topple over and smash on the steps below.

The Imperial Varangian Guard did not question her. They knew better than to ask who she was. No doubt they had been told to expect her. She swept past them with just a slight inclination of her head.

She remembered the old days, before the Latins came, when she was a tiny child and her father had taken her to the old Imperial Palace, high up on the headland overlooking the city and the sea. Alexios V had been emperor of Byzantium, which to her was the world. That was just before the terrible days of the invasion.

She waited in a huge room with high windows that let the light fill the space and magnify the perfect proportions. The walls were inlaid with pink marble and the floor with porphyry. The torch brackets were high, slender, and decorated in gold. Her surroundings pleased her profoundly, and she was happy to gaze at them until she was sent for.

She was conducted by a tall eunuch with a soft face, tired eyes, and an irritating manner of waving his hands. He led her through the halls and galleries into the emperor's private rooms. There were some conversations that should not be overheard by anyone. Even the ever-present Varangian Guard would stand at a distance, out of earshot. Many of them were yellow-haired, blue-eyed, from God-knew-what remote lands.

This private room was totally restored, the walls repainted with exquisite murals of pastoral scenes at harvesttime. The tall, bronze candle stands were ornate and gleaming, the few statues left undamaged.

She made the usual obeisance. She was twenty-five years older than Michael, and a woman, but he was emperor and Equal of the Apostles. He did not rise to greet her but remained seated, his knees a little apart, covered by the woven, brocaded silk of his dalmatica and the scarlet of the tunic underneath. He was a handsome man with his heavy black hair and beard, fine eyes, and slightly ruddy complexion. He had good hands. Zoe remembered the touch of them with pleasure, even now. They were surprisingly sensitive for a man who had been a brilliant soldier in his prime and still knew more of military strategy than most generals. In battle he had led his army rather than followed it. He was busy now reorganizing the army and the navy and overseeing the repair of the city walls. He was above all a practical man. What he wanted of Zoe would also be practical.

"Come forward, Zoe," he commanded. "We are alone. There is no need for pretense." His voice was soft and deep, as a man's should be.

She stepped closer to him, but slowly. She would never presume and so give him the chance to rebuff her. Let him do the asking, the requesting.

"There is a matter in which you may be of assistance," he said, watching her intently, his eyes searching her face. She was never sure how far he could read her. He was Byzantine to the core; nothing of the imagination passed him by. He was subtle, devious, and brave, but at the moment he had a heavy burden to carry and a broken and obstinate people to lead. They were blind to the realities of the new threat, because they dared not look at it clearly.

Since Bessarion's death, Zoe was beginning to see the political situation differently. There was a betrayal still being planned somewhere, and when Zoe found it out, she would punish whoever was responsible, even if it was Helena.

She wished she could have spoken to Justinian before he went into exile, but Constantine had accomplished his rescue so smoothly, and so quickly, that that had not been possible.

Now she needed to know what Michael wanted of her. "Whatever I can do," she murmured respectfully.

"There are certain people whose services you use..." He measured his words with care. "I would prefer not to be seen to use them, but they have skills I need. I wish for information. Later it may be more than that."

"Sicily?" She breathed out the word; it was really more of an acknowledgment than a question.

He nodded assent.

She waited. A new bargain must be made, and that was good. She would deal with anyone if it was for Byzantium's sake, but she would not do it cheaply. The Sicilian she employed was a weasel of a man, a double spy, but she had caught his one mistake and kept the proof of it where all his cunning would never find it. He was dangerous, and she must handle him with care, as one did a serpent. She knew why Michael could not afford to have any connection with him, even through his own spies. Nothing escaped the eunuchs closest to him, or the house servants and palace guards, the priests forever coming and going. He needed someone like Zoe, who was just as clever as he was but who could afford to be ruthless in ways he dared not. There were too many pretenders to the throne, would-be usurpers, plots and counterplots. Michael was only too bitterly aware of it, always watching over his shoulder.

He leaned forward, less than a yard from her now. "I need this man of yours," he said quietly. "Not to strike yet, but in a while. And I need someone else in Rome also, a second voice."

"I can find someone," she promised. "What do you wish to know?"

He smiled. He had no intention of telling her. "Someone close to the pope," he said. "And to the king of the Two Sicilies."

"Someone with courage?" Hope flared inside her that after all, he meant to fight. Perhaps Michael would even assassinate the pope? After all, the pope was the enemy of Byzantium, and this was war.

He read her instantly. "Not that kind of courage, Zoe. Those days are past. Popes can be replaced easily enough." There was anger in his eyes and something that might have been fear. "The king of the Two Sicilies is the real danger, and the pope is the only one who can hold him back. If we are to survive, we must compromise."

"You cannot compromise the faith," she retorted.

Temper burned the skin under his heavy beard. She saw the flush across his cheekbones. He leaned even closer to her. "We need skill, Zoe, not bravado. We must use one against the other, in the way we always have. But I will not lose Constantinople again, to pay for anything on earth. I'll bow the knee to Rome, or let them think I do, but the crusaders will not break one stone of my city, nor tax the smallest coin of tribute from my people." His black eyes bored into hers. "Sicily may starve, and may even turn to bite the hand that robs it, and if it does, so much the better for us. Until then, I will trade in words and symbols with the pope, or the devil, or King Charles of Anjou and the Two Sicilies, if I have to. Are you with me or against me?"

"I am with you," she said softly, aware now of a subtle and disturbing irony. "I will defend Byzantium against anyone, within or without. Are you with me?"

He looked straight back at her, unblinking. "Oh yes, Zoe Chrysaphes. You may trust me to choose what I see, and what I don't."

"I have my spies by the neck. I shall see they do as you wish," she promised, smiling also and stepping back. Her mind was busy already. Sicily rising against their king? There was a thought.