CHAPTER XVIII
The sun had set, and the wide court of Blachernae was filled withpurple light to the wall tops, like a wine-vat full to the brim; andeverything that was in the glow took colour from it, as silver does inclaret, the polished trappings of the guards' uniforms, the creamymarble steps of the palace, the white Tunisian charger of the officerwho rode in just then, and the swallows that circled round and roundthe courtyard. The world moved in that short deep dream that comesjust when the sun has slipped away to rest, when the light iseverywhere at once, so that things cast no shadows on the ground,because they glow from within, as in fairyland, or perhaps in heaven.
The officer rode in on his charger, and after him entered a girlslave, dressed in coarse blue cotton, and carrying on her head a smallround basket, which was covered with a clean white cloth. The fourcorners of the napkin hung down, and one of them would have flappedacross her face if she had not held it between her teeth to keep itdown. It partly hid her features, and her head was tied up in a bluecotton kerchief passed twice round and knotted upon her forehead. Shelimped a little as she walked. What could be seen of her face was paleand quiet, and had a rather fixed look.
She was walking boldly through the gate, without slackening her pace,when one of the two sentinels stopped her, and asked where she wasgoing. She stood still, and one hand steadied the basket on her head,while the other pointed to the Amena tower.
'My mistress sends some fine wheat bread and cream cheese to the wifeof the captain who keeps the tower,' said Zoe, affecting the mincingaccent very common with female slaves and Greek ladies' maids.
The second sentinel, returning on his short beat, now came up andstood on her other side. He was a big Bulgarian, and he lifted onecorner of the cloth and looked down into the basket, merely for thesake of detaining the girl. He saw the wheaten loaves and the creamcheese neatly disposed on a second napkin, and the cheese was nestedin green leaves to keep it fresh. Both the soldiers at once thought oftasting it with the points of their daggers, but at that moment theofficer of the watch strolled out of the guard-house, a magnificentyoung man in scarlet and gold. The two sentinels at once turned theirbacks on the cheese and Zoe, and marched away in opposite directionson their beats, leaving her standing in the middle. The officer wasfar too high and mighty a person to look at a slave-girl or herbasket, and Zoe therefore went on without turning her head, taking itfor granted that she was now free to enter. In her baggy blue cottonclothes, and with her face almost covered by the napkin, there wasnothing about her to attract attention, unless it were her slightlylimping gait; and she instinctively made an effort to walk evenly,for she could not help feeling ashamed of being suddenly lame, asperfectly sound and healthy people do. But she realised that thefolded letter was in the wrong shoe and increased her lameness,whereas if she had carried it in the other it might have made walkingeasier.
She went from under the great gate into the liquid purple light in thecourt, and it was pleasant to be in it. But then again it made herthink of yesterday, when she had sat in her window at sunset, notdreaming of all that was to happen to her in one night and one day. Itmade her think of the man she loved so dearly, imprisoned somewhereunder the great city, starving and thirsting no doubt, and face toface with thoughts of death; and it was to save him that she wascrossing the courtyard of Blachernae disguised as a household slave. Itwas because there was no other way; and if Gorlias Pietrogliant failedher, or came too late, the end would overtake her in a few hours, orperhaps quite suddenly, which would be more merciful. She knew whatshe was doing, and she did not deceive herself. They would put out hereyes first; but that would be the least of the cruel things they woulddo to her, if Gorlias failed.
She was only a weak girl, after all, and once or twice, when shethought of the pain, a sharp little shiver ran down her back to hervery heels, and things swam before her for an instant in the deep seaof colour; but that only lasted for a moment, and when she reached thefoot of the tower and went in under the archway that led to the door,she was thinking of Zeno again, and of nothing else.
It was as Gorlias had told her. A very different watch was set theresince the attempt of the previous night, and she found herself face toface with an obstacle she had not anticipated. The iron door was shutand was guarded by two huge Africans in black mail armour, who stoodon either side with drawn scimitars.
They looked over her head as she approached them, and they seemed totake no notice of her existence. She thought she had never seen suchexpressionless faces as theirs; the features were as shiny andmotionless as bronze, and the purple haze of the sunset without filledthe deep arch and lent them an unnatural colour which was positivelyterrifying.
'If you please, kind sirs,' Zoe began as she stood still, 'my mistresssends some fine wheat bread and fresh cream cheese to the wife of thecaptain.'
She might as well have spoken to statues; neither of the negroes paidthe slightest attention. But she was not to be put off so easily.
'If you please,' she repeated with pleading emphasis and more loudly,'my mistress----'
She stopped speaking in the middle of the sentence, suddenly scared bythe immobility of the two black men, and by their size, and by thepurple glare that was reflected from their great polished scimitars,of which one noiseless sweep could sever her head from her body. Theywere like the genii in one of those tales of the Arabian Nights whichGreek story-tellers were then just learning from the Persians, andfrom the Tartar merchants of Samarcand and Tashkent. Zoe had listenedto them by the hour when she was a little girl, and now she suddenlyfelt an irrational conviction that she had dreamed herself into one ofthem, and that the imprisoned Emperor was guarded by supernaturalbeings.
However, when she looked at the motionless features and at the broad,polished blades, she did not feel that painful shiver which had rundown her when she had thought of being tortured by the people of thepalace, and she soon took courage again and began to speak a thirdtime.
'If you please,' she said, but she got no further, for she had gentlyplucked at the mailed sleeve of the man on her right, to attract hisattention, and he moved at once, and bent down a little.
He touched his ear with his left forefinger and shook his head slowlyto show that he was deaf, and pointed to his companion and back to hisown ear and shook his head again; and then, to Zoe's horror, he openedhis enormous mouth just before her eyes, and she saw that it wasempty. He had no tongue.
Johannes was guarded by deaf mutes, and Zoe knew Constantinople andthe ways of the palace well enough to understand that they were placedthere to make an end of any one, man or woman, who should attempt topass.
She tried signs, now. She took her basket from her head and set itdown on the step between the sentinels, and crouched on her heels touncover it and show the contents. The men saw and nodded, and theninclined their heads to one side in that peculiar way which meansindifference all over the East. And indeed they did not care whetherthe basket held cheese or sweetmeats, and their faces grew stony againas they looked outwards, over her head.
She covered up her little basket disconsolately and rose to her feet.The glow was beginning to fade in the courtyard, and she felt herheart sink as the shadows deepened. It was absolutely necessary to thesuccess of the dangerous enterprise on which she and Gorlias hadembarked, that Johannes himself, or at least the captain's wife shouldbe warned of what was to take place in less than half an hour. If thiscould not be done, everything might go wrong at the last minute, theircleverly concerted trick would fail and be exposed, and she andGorlias, and Zeno himself, would probably pay for their audacity withtheir lives.
The closed door between the sentinels was covered with iron andstudded with big nails. It was perfectly clear that it must be openedfrom within, if at all, and that the men themselves would have toknock or make some other signal by sound in order to obtain entrancefor any one who was really authorised to go in. It was also clear thatif the men on the other side of the door were stone deaf like the twoguards
, they could not hear any such knocking, and no entrance wouldbe possible at all except when those within opened for some reason oftheir own or at fixed hours. Again, thought Zoe, it followed thatthere was probably some one near who could hear sounds from without,and there was always a bare possibility, in such times, that thisperson might be a secret friend to the prisoner, though supposed tobe one of his gaolers.
All these thoughts flashed across her mind in a few seconds, while shewas covering her basket. She therefore took rather more time over thisthan was necessary, and as the mutes did not show signs of driving heraway, she at once began to sing, quite sure that they could not hearher. It was a forlorn hope, indeed, but anything was worth trying. Hervoice sounded loud and clear under the archway:--
Over the water to my love, for the hour is come! The water, the blue water, the water salt and the water fresh! Open, my very dear love, open thy door to me, For I have come swiftly over the water----
At this point, to Zoe's inexpressible amazement and delight, the doorreally opened, and she almost choked for sheer joy.
The captain's wife appeared in the dim evening light, standing wellwithin, and Zoe recognised her at once from the description Gorliashad given of her. The sentinels, being perfectly deaf, did not atfirst know that the door had been opened, as they stood lookingstraight before them. The stout woman spoke in a low voice.
'By four toes and by five toes,' she said, by way of answer to thewords Zoe had sung.
The girl lost no time, for there was none to lose, and though therewas little light she saw that there were four or five more armedEthiopians in the small chamber, so that it would be impossible todeliver her letter.
'Tell him from Carlo Zeno to be ready at once,' she said quickly, 'andnot to show surprise at anything that happens.'
The deaf mutes outside now perceived that she was speaking with someone, and that the entrance behind them was open. She had just handedher basket to the captain's wife when the two turned together to seewho had opened, but almost at the same instant the heavy iron doorswung quickly on its hinges again and shut with a clang that echoedout to the courtyard. Zoe sprang back hastily lest the door itselfshould strike her as it closed, and the quick movement hurt her alittle, for she made a false step on the foot with which she limped,turning it slightly as her weight came upon it.
That one step nearly cost her life, for though the sentinels were deafand dumb they were not blind. She thought they were going to let hergo away unhindered, and she was already almost out of the archway whenshe felt herself seized by the arms from behind.
When she had stumbled, her low shoe had turned a little, and thefolded letter, now useless, had fallen out. As it was white, theguards had seen it instantly on the dark pavement, and one of them hadpicked it up while the other had caught her.
Zoe instinctively struggled with all her might for a few seconds, butthe dumb man twisted one of her arms behind her till it was agony tomove, and she was powerless. Her captor now handed her over to hiscompanion, who had sheathed his scimitar and had placed the letterinside his steel cap. She could not look round, but she felt that thegrip on her twisted wrist changed, and she was pushed out into thecourtyard and made to walk in the direction of the palace. She couldnot help limping much more than before, and in the grasp of the bigEthiopian she felt what a small weak thing she would be in thetormentors' hands if Gorlias did not come in time.
The purple light had almost faded below, and the grey dusk wascreeping up out of the ground, though the high upper story of themarble palace was still bathed in the evening glow, and still a fewswallows circled round the eaves. Zoe looked up to the vast cornicesand at the fleecy pink clouds that floated in the sky, and as she wasforced along, almost as fast as she could walk, she wondered whethershe should ever again see the bright noonday sun. It would not takelong to kill her if Gorlias did not come in time.
There were many men coming and going now, and there were guards inscarlet, drawn up at the entrance to the palace as if they werewaiting. Some slaves, hastening away, paused a moment to watch Zoe goby, smooth-faced creatures who lived among the Emperor's women.
'There goes five hundred ducats' worth!' laughed one, in a voice likea girl's.
'What has she done?' asked another, of the dumb Ethiopian.
The speaker was a newcomer in the palace, and the others jeered at himfor not knowing that the man was one of the mutes.
And he pushed and dragged Zoe along without noticing them. She lookedstraight before her now, at the palace door, and as she went, she wasin a kind of dream, and she wondered what the room to which she wasbeing taken would be like, the place where she was presently to betortured if Gorlias did not come in time; she wondered whether itwould be light or dark, and what the colour of the walls would be.
The African hurt her very much as he forced her along, though she madeno resistance; but she did not think of the pain she felt, nor of thepain she would surely be made to feel presently. It was as if she weredetached from her own personality, and could speculate about what wasgoing to happen to her, and about the men who would ask her questions,and about the queer-looking instruments of torture that would bebrought, and even the colour of the executioner's hair. She fanciedhim a red-haired man with ugly, yellow eyes and bad teeth that heshowed. She did not know whether it were fear or courage that so tookher out of herself.
But all the time she was listening for a distant sound that mightcome, or that might not; and her hearing grew so sharp that she couldhave heard it a mile away, and the distance between her and the palacedoor grew shorter very quickly, and the ruthless mute urged her alongfaster and faster, though she limped so badly.
Then her heart leapt and stood still a moment, and the Ethiopian'sgrasp relaxed a little, and he slackened his pace. Not that he heardwhat she heard, for he was stone deaf; but the guards who stood aboutthe door had begun to range themselves in even ranks on either side,and a tall officer made signs to the African to stand out of the way.The air rang with the music of distant silver trumpets, there was asubdued hum of many voices and the trampling of many horses' hoofs onthe hard earth outside the court.
'The Emperor comes!' cried the officer, again motioning the mute andhis prisoner away.
The man understood well enough, and dragged her aside quickly androughly out of the straight way, but not out of sight; and the soundsgrew louder, and the trumpet-notes clearer, as the imperial cavalcadepassed in under the great gate. First there rode a score of guards ontheir white horses; six running footmen came next, in short hose andred tunics that fitted close to their bodies and glared in thetwilight; then two officers of the household on their chargers; andyoung Andronicus himself rode in on a bay Arab mare between twoministers of state, followed by many more guards who pressed closeupon him to protect him from any treacherous attack. He was dressedall in cloth of gold, and his tall Greek cap was wrought with gold andjewels; but the day had gone down, and neither the metal nor thestones gave any light, while the scarlet uniforms of the guards andfootmen surged about him like waves of blood in the gathering dusk.
The Ethiopian held Zoe pinioned by the arms and looked over her headas the Emperor came near. Andronicus had pale and suspicious eyes thatsearched every crowd for danger, and saw peril everywhere. He hunghis head a little, his jaw was heavy, his lip was loose, and hisuneasy glance wandered continually hither and thither. There was stillplenty of light near the palace, and Zoe saw every little thing; andthe cloth of gold he wore was lit up again by the reflexion from themarble walls.
He saw the girl, too, but though her hands were behind her, he did notsee at once that the African held them, for she stood quite still andmet his gaze. Then he perceived that the face was the most lovely hehad ever seen, and he made a motion in the saddle that was like therising of the snake when its prey is near, and his pale eyes gleamed,and his loose lower lip shook and moved against the upper one.
He drew rein and spoke in a low tone to the minister on his right, aGree
k with a fawning face, who instantly made a sign to the girl tocome nearer; and the Ethiopian mute saw the gesture, and pushed herforward with one hand, close to the Emperor's stirrup, and with theother hand he took his steel cap very carefully from his head, drawingit down close to his head and over his ear so that the letter shouldnot fall out; then, still grasping Zoe's wrist, he held the helmet uplike a cup, so that Andronicus might see what was in it.
The action needed no explaining, for the young usurper had himselfordered that his father should be guarded by the dumb Ethiopians afterthe alarm of the previous night. The Emperor looked down at the girl'sbeautiful white face, but he took the letter from the soldier's steelcap and spread it out, and read it quickly, and then passed it to theminister at his elbow, who read it too.
He looked at Zoe again, but in his eyes her beauty was all gone atonce. She was one of those monsters that were always conspiringagainst him, against his throne and his life; she was one of thosethousands whom he saw nightly in his dreams of fear, stealing upon himwhen he was alone and helpless, to blind him and kill him, and to bearhis crowned father to the throne high on their shoulders. Zoe mighthave been as lovely as Aphrodite herself, just wafted from the foam ofthe sea by the breath of spring; to Andronicus she would have been butone of the countless evil beings who for ever plotted his destruction.
But this one was in his power. He sat on his horse and looked down ather, and his loose lips smiled; yet her face was still and proud, andin her poor blue cotton slave's dress she faced him like a younggoddess.
'Who sent you with this?' he asked in the deep silence, and every manthere listened for her answer.
'Since you have read it, you know,' she answered, and there was notremor in her voice.
'Take care! Where is this Venetian, this Zeno?'
'I do not know.'
'Take care, again! I ask, where is he?'
Zoe was silent for a moment, and though she did not take her eyes fromthe young Emperor's face she listened intently for a distant soundthat did not come.
'I do not know where he is,' she said at last, 'but I think you willsee him before long, for he is coming here.'
'Here?' Andronicus was taken by surprise. 'Here?' he repeated inwonder.
'Yes, here,' Zoe answered, 'and soon. He has business here to-night.'
'The girl is mad,' said the Emperor, looking towards the ministers.
'Quite mad, your august Majesty,' said one.
'Evidently out of her mind, Sire,' echoed the other. 'It will be wellto put out her eyes and let her go.'
The one who had spoken first, the fawning Greek, made a sign to anofficer near him, and the latter gave an order to one of the runningfootmen who stood waiting. The latter instantly ran in through thegreat open doorway of the palace. Where Andronicus was, the torturerwas never hard to find.
'And pray,' asked the Emperor, with an ugly smile, 'what possiblebusiness can a Venetian merchant have here at this hour? Will youplease to tell us?'
'A business that will be soon despatched, if God will,' answered Zoe.
She could not look away from the man who had murdered MichaelRhangabe, and though she knew what she was risking if she did not gaintime, the longing for just vengeance was too strong for her, so thatshe could not control her speech, and in her clear young voiceAndronicus heard an accent that struck terror to his heart.
'She is not mad!' he exclaimed in sudden anxiety. 'She knowssomething! Make her speak!'
While the words were on his lips the running footman returned, andafter him another man came quickly, carrying a worn leathern bag. Hewas very tall and thin, and he stooped, he had the face of a corpseand there was no light in his eyes. Zoe did not see him, but he cameand stood behind her, close to the Ethiopian, and he fumbled in hisbag; and all around the uniforms of the guard were as red as blood inthe twilight.
'I am not afraid to speak, since I am caught,' Zoe said, answering theEmperor's words, 'and what I say is true. For what you owe me, you oweto many and many more, and the name of that debt is blood!'
'She is raving!' cried Andronicus in an unsteady voice.
'No, I am not mad,' Zoe answered, speaking loud and clear. 'Yourreckoning has been due these two years, and a man is coming within thehour to claim it, and you shall pay all, both to others and to me,whether you will or not!'
'Who is this creature?' asked the Emperor, but his cheeks were whiternow.
Not a sound broke the silence, and the man with the leathern bag crepta little nearer to the defenceless girl, and the Ethiopian's griptightened on her wrists. From somewhere beyond the walls of thecourtyard the neighing of a horse broke the stillness.
'Who is this girl that dares me within my own gates?' Andronicus askedagain, turning to his ministers and officers.
The Greek with the fawning face bent in his saddle towards the youngEmperor as if he were prostrating himself, and he spoke in a very lowvoice.
'Your Majesty would do well to have her tongue torn out before shesays more.'
'Who is she, I say?' cried the sovereign, suddenly furious, as cowardscan be.
No one spoke. The corpse-faced man crept nearer to Zoe, his dull eyesfixed on her features. Beyond the wall and far off the unseen horseneighed again. It was growing darker, but all around the scarlettunics of the guards were as red as blood.
Then the answer came. The twisted lips of the tormentor moved slowly,and words came from them in a thin, harsh voice, like the creaking ofthe rack.
'She is Michael Rhangabe's daughter.'
'The Protosparthos?' The Emperor's voice shook again.
The corpse-faced man nodded twice in assent, and his thin lips writhedhideously when Zoe's eyes fell on him.
'I saw her at the prison when I took him out to die,' he said.
His bony hand, all knotty and stained from his horrid work, took thegirl's delicate chin, forcing her to turn her full face to him; andshe quivered from head to foot at his touch. He knew well theconvulsive shiver that ran through the victim he touched for the firsttime; he could feel it in his fingers as the musician feels thestrings; he was familiar with it, as the fisherman's hand is with thetremor and tension of his rod when a fish strikes; and he smiled in aghastly way.
'Yes,' he said, 'it is she.' And he laughed.
He held her by the chin and wagged her beautiful head to right andleft.
Since the Emperor had spoken no sound had been heard but thetorturer's discordant voice; but now the outraged girl's shriek offury split the air.
'Wretch!'
Her small hands suddenly slipped through the Ethiopian's capacioushold. Before he could catch her she had wrenched herself free fromboth men and had struck a furious blow full in the torturer's lividface; and though she was but a slender girl her anger gave her a man'sstrength, and her swiftness lent her a sudden advantage. The manreeled back three paces before he could steady himself again.
'Hold her!' cried Andronicus, for he feared she might have a knifehidden on her, and both her hands were free.
But only for that instant. Though the African was huge, he was quick,and he was behind her. Almost before the Emperor had called out, Zoewas a prisoner again, and the man she had struck was close to her withhis battered leathern bag. He looked up to Andronicus for a commandbefore he began his work.
'Make her tell what she knows,' the Emperor said, reassured since shewas again fast in the African's great hands.
He leaned forward a little, the better to hear the words which painwas to draw from Zoe's lips, and the Greek minister settled himselfcomfortably in the saddle to enjoy the rare amusement of seeing abeautiful and noble girl deliberately tortured before half a hundredmen. Some of the guards also pressed upon each other to see; butthere were some among them who had served under Rhangabe, and theselooked into one another's faces and spoke words almost under theirbreath, that all together swelled to a low murmur, such as the tidemakes on a still night, just when it turns back from the ebb.
The sunset had faded, but there
was light enough to see the darkbruise across the corpse-like face where Zoe had struck it with allher might.
The man opened his old leathern bag, and his stained hands fumbled init, amongst irons that were brown but not rusty, and thongs plaitedwith wire, and strangely shaped tools in which there were well-greasedscrews that turned easily.
But all these his knotty fingers rejected. He knew each by the touch.They were good enough for ordinary slaves, or perhaps for adouble-dealing steward, or even a lying courtier. For a highbornmaiden victim he had an instrument far more refined and exquisitelykeen than any of these things, and he treasured it as a very rarepossession which never left him day or night; for it had been sent tohim from very far away in the south as a present of great value; andit was alive, and needed the warmth of his body constantly lest itshould die. But there was something in the bag that belonged to it andmust be found before it could be taken from its little cage of silverfiligree in the bosom of the corpse-faced man.
He found it. His stained hand drew from the bag a dry walnut. Withthe point of the knife he wore at his belt he split it carefully, andturned the nut out of one of the half shells, tossing the other intothe bag.
The Greek minister watched him with the deepest interest, butAndronicus drummed impatiently with his gloved fingers on the highgilt pommel of his saddle. Yet it was all very quickly done, andthough there was less light there was still enough; and while hewaited the Emperor again read the letter Zoe had dropped.
But she watched him, calm and fearless, and ready to face death ifneed be; she wondered what sort of hold Carlo Zeno would take on hisneck, when all was known. And she saw red all round him and behind himand beside him up to his knees, the red of the guards' tunics thatwere like scarlet stains in the twilight air.
Once more the restless horse neighed, far off, and another answeredhim.
Then the man was ready. He took his knife and ripped Zoe's blue cottontunic from her throat to her left shoulder and down her side, and shetried not even to shudder, for she did not know what was coming butshe would die bravely; and when she was dead Zeno would come, andGorlias, and they would avenge her. Death was but death, even bytorture, and there were worse things in life which had been sparedher.
Furthermore, if she died, it would be for a good cause, as well as tohelp Zeno to be free. Therefore, now that it was all decided, shelooked a last time at the face of Andronicus, loose-lipped and cruel,and then shut her eyes and prayed God that she might neither flinchnor utter one word that could hinder the end, if it was at hand, asshe still hoped.
She felt the chilly air on her shoulder and side, and then somethingsmall and hard was pressed against her, just under her arm; and handsthat felt like horns, but were horribly quick and skilful, put abandage round her and drew it tight, and it kept the thing in itsplace.
But under that thing, which was the half walnut shell, something smallwas alive and moved slowly round and round. There was no real pain atfirst, but she felt that the slow and delicate irritation might driveher mad.
Then, suddenly, a thrill of wild agony ran through her and convulsedher body against her will, but many hands held her now and she couldnot move. The horrible borer-beetle had begun to work its way into herflesh, under the walnut shell.
The corpse-faced man had watched her attentively, and when he saw herstart his creaking voice was heard in the stillness.
'She will speak before you can count ten score,' he said.