TLV - 01 - The Golden Horn by Poul Anderson Page A

ermine, sable, and other slaves. Not a word was spoken when Harald prostrated himself again and backed out.
    "There, now!" said his guide when they were safely away. He was a plump jolly fellow with white hair fringing an egglike head. "Now you've seen the Emperor, despotes."
    "But I wanted to speak with him!" said Harald resentfully.
    "There is a rule in these matters, despotes. You will find that all our lives here are governed by law and custom going back many centuries. . . ." The courtier paused, rubbing a smooth double chin. He looked almost womanish in the embroidered cope and dalmatic; it was only later that Harald found he was a clever, hardworking man and that the paper which went through his bejeweled hands held the lives of many thousands of peasant families. "Nor can you expect His Sacred Majesty to consider every detail of the world's greatest empire, the more so when he has borne the crown so short a time, only since Easter this year."
    "No," said Harald thoughtfully, "I suppose not. : . . He must be lonely."
    There was a banquet that evening, with golden tableware, actors, dancers, a choir to sing the praises of the Emperor as he sat high above the rest. Harald felt clumsy, unsure what to do with himself, prickling with the idea that a hundred eyes were watching him through secret laughter. He hardly tasted the delicate foods, he sat lumpishly silent while conversation buzzed around him.
    But the next day he went to the Brazen House, the immense building in which the Varangians were barracked, and at once felt himself home. These long-legged boys swarmed around him, shouting in the dear rough tongue of his mother, breathlessly asking the news and listening wide-eyed. Their mirth was enormous when they were off duty. He felt a sureness rising in his breast.
    "We'll have wars again ere long," said one. "The Saracens are getting above themselves in Syria, raiding the Greek ships and coasts. It's time we hammered some manners back into them. Come be our chief!"
    "That must needs be later," laughed Harald. "You have your own officers." But he had no intention of going under any other man.
    "I think it'll begin this summer with another sea voyage to hound out the corsairs," he was told. "You brought men with you, a force of your own, they'll be useful; and some of us can get leave to come along."
    Harald nodded. It would do for now to be a sea king, if that led to the captaincy of the Varangians.
    He spoke with the Byzantine officials in charge and made the arrangements; on the advice of his new friends, he gave lavish gifts and the business went smoothly. When he had taken the oath of service to the Emperor, he sprang happily into the work of readying his fleet.
     
    III
    Of Kings in Miklagardh
    1
    Varangian was the Byzantine word for all Northern barbarians: Russian, Northman, Englander, German, Fleming—the young folk spilling down from pine and birch forest, gray seas and whistling winters, south to the sun. In recent generations, many of them had been taken as mercenaries. They were in the Imperial bodyguards, the city police, the fleets and armies which stood like a wall between eastern Christendom and the Saracen fury. At this time most of them were from the viking countries.
    There were two men of Iceland in the Varangian Guard, both a little older than Harald, bold warriors and good leaders. One was Halldor Snorrason and the other Ulf Uspaksson. They, with others, got leave to accompany him on his ships, and were soon his close friends. Halldor was a tall fair-skinned man with drooping yellow mustache under a handsome hollow-cheeked face; it was odd that so much strength should lie in his gaunt frame. He was mostly of a calm and thoughtful temper. Of him there is less to be said than of Ulf, who was short for a Northman but very broad and powerful, with black hair, green eyes and looks somewhat marred by pockmarks. He was merry and open-handed, though sometimes he would fall into gloom and always he spoke