Lilla chuckled. ‘I wouldn’t blame him. Gods, I’ve dragged the poor man halfway across the world. I’d say he has a right to gripe now and then. You too.’

‘I’ve nowhere else to be,’ said Gerutha. ‘Nowhere else I’d rather be.’

‘I’m glad you’re with me,’ Lilla smiled.

‘Hm! So – are you ready?’

‘Ready.’ Lilla stood and smoothed down the crumples of her dress. ‘How do I look?’

Gerutha shrugged. ‘Like a queen.’

‘Liar.’ But she would have to do.

It was only a short walk from the Holy Wisdom to the towering gate of bronze and marble that dominated the entrance to the Great Palace. They left behind the shaded gardens and crossed the blinding white expanse of the Augustaion – the ceremonial square that seemed to form the beating heart of the city, with its high columns and splendid, lifelike statues of kings and queens of the past.

The square was thronging with people and loud with the cries of pedlars selling food or cheap trinkets off the back of handcarts. With every step, Lilla felt her confidence wilt like a flower under the heat of the sun. She tried to loosen the knot of nerves in her throat by running through the precious few phrases of Greek she had to deploy.

She wondered how many levels of office she would have to break through before she came within even an arrow’s flight of the emperor. Yet the old defiance had not left her. . .

‘Vasílissa,’ she said for the twentieth time. ‘Eímai Vasílissa.’ She even resorted to pointing to herself, as if he were some sort of village halfwit. The guard peered out from the eye-holes of his red-plumed helmet, his expression a mixture of incomprehension and growing irritation. Clearly he was losing his patience. So was she.

The absurdity of standing at the emperor’s threshold, trying to wrangle their way past some lowly gatekeeper, was crushingly humiliating.

‘He’s not going to change his mind,’ said Gerutha, tugging at her arm. ‘We’ll have to find another way.’

‘No,’ insisted Lilla. ‘I’m not giving up.’ This time her efforts became so heated, her Greek so garbled, that the guard laughed in her face. She made to shove past him but his spear quickly dropped to bar her, and his companion, watching from the other side of the gateway, stepped forward to intervene. The first guard waved him away.

Lilla could have stamped in frustration except that would only make her seem more ridiculous. How in the Nine Worlds was she to form an alliance with this king if she couldn’t even get in the door?

Just then something behind her distracted the guard’s attention. His amusement evaporated in a moment.

‘Parámera!’ he snarled, shoving them to one side with the butt of his spear, before standing rigidly to attention.