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Back A Burning Sea
Chapters (54)
  1. CAST OF CHARACTERS
  2. PART ONE
  3. CHAPTER ONE
  4. CHAPTER TWO
  5. CHAPTER THREE
  6. CHAPTER FOUR
  7. CHAPTER FIVE
  8. CHAPTER SIX
  9. CHAPTER SEVEN
  10. CHAPTER EIGHT
  11. CHAPTER NINE
  12. CHAPTER TEN
  13. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  14. CHAPTER TWELVE
  15. PART TWO
  16. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  30. PART THREE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. PART FOUR
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  53. HISTORICAL NOTE
  54. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

‘What d’you think I’m doing?’ snarled Einar, laying his considerable weight against the timber. Wild, wordless prayers shrieked in Erlan’s head. There was a sudden crash outside the gates like a thousand cymbals, a blast of heat through the door. Oil seeped hot and viscous around his boots. There was a strange, weightless lull in the flood, a silent instant which in the next heartbeat was answered with animal screaming. Erlan smelled burning flesh.

‘Now!’ yelled Einar and they shoved again with all the strength left in them. This time the great bulk of oak swung on its hinges until it was almost in place. And thanks to the Christ-God or the Virgin or to pure blind chance, there were defenders on the other door, too. Another Byzantine fell in beside them, then another, until they had the weight of half a dozen men behind them.

Through the wooden planks came Arabic war-cries and savage screaming and the hack of steel against oak, but the pendulum had swung to the defenders now. Spearheads struck like vipers between the closing doors, trying to lever it open. Einar fell back and heaved his axe at the gap, howling with fury, splintering spear-shafts like dry kindling. Any Arab close enough to get a hand through the gap soon regretted it until at last the great doors crashed back on their stone frame.

‘Seal them now!’ someone screamed. A thick beam fell across the brackets, and then another.

Erlan sagged against the door and slipped slowly down it into the dust and the blood and the oil that puddled at his feet, deaf now to the frustrated blows ringing against the heavy timber. He watched, exhausted, through hooded eyes at the Arabs who had forced their way through the gate. Every one of them was a hero, he thought. Every one of them deserved a saga-song.

And he watched as the Byzantines butchered them like swine.

PART THREE

BLOOD

Illustration

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Illustration

The first snows fell in the tenth month. And the snow continued to fall.

It was the talk of every square, every atrium, every bathhouse, from the lowest taverns to the loftiest mansions: snow that snapped at the toes, that clogged the gutters, that piled up in mountains of filthy slush along the Mese, that bowed the cedar branches in the imperial gardens. The city had never seen such a thing.

‘It is the Lord’s doing,’ the citizens said.

What else could it be? The thing was clear. The city was God-favoured. He had spared it from disaster and now He was making His enemies suffer.

Whenever a merchant stamped his feet and cursed the cold, or a tavern-keeper’s wife complained at the draughty tiles on her roof, it was answered with the same knowing chuckle. ‘Aye – but it’s worse for them.’