Some of the Sea Wolves laughed at the presumption of these men; thinking they had come to fight us, the Danes began taunting them, shouting, "Is this the mighty warhost of Miklagard?" and "Who are these maidens we see before us? Have they come with kisses to greet us?"
Squinting with suspicion, Jarl Harald glared at the men in the boat. "Find out what they are saying," he demanded, shoving me roughly towards the rail.
I hailed the leader of the men in Greek, and he made a reasonable reply. I thanked him for speaking simply and slowly, for my tongue was not accustomed to such speech, and told him I would convey his words to the king.
"I am the quaestor of Hormisdas Harbour," the man said importantly, and told me simply and directly what to tell the king.
"Well?" rumbled Harald impatiently. Sweat was running down his face and neck, for the sun had climbed past mid-morning and now shone as a hot, dirty disk in a grey-white sky.
"The man says you must pay the harbour tax," I said, and explained that the men in the boat were part of the harbour guard charged with collecting money and keeping order.
"But did you tell them who I am?" growled Harald.
"I told them. They say it makes no difference, you must pay the harbour tax like everyone else."
"To hel with their harbour tax!" roared Harald, giving vent to his frustration at last. "We will lay siege to the city and starve them into submission!"
This sentiment brought grunts and growls of approval from barbarians looking on. They, like their lord, were frustrated and anxious. The size of the city dismayed them, and they sought release for their consternation in familiar, if foolish, action.
"A siege is a fine thing, of course," observed Thorkel mildly. "But it is such a large city, Jarl Harald, and we have only a hundred and sixty men with us. Even if we had ten times as many, I fear we would be hard-pressed to surround it."
Harald, glaring hard, made to dismiss his pilot, but one of the king's house karlar spoke up. "Perhaps it would go better with us," he suggested gently, "if we were to pay this tax and seek entry into the treasure houses some other way."
"I am a king!" bellowed Harald. "I receive tribute from jarls and free men. I pay tribute to no one."
Nodding sympathetically, Thorkel stepped near his lord. "Nay, jarl," he suggested, "do not say it is tribute. Think of it as casting a little grain to fatten the goose for the feast."
Harald looked at the enormous walls, and cast an eye over the wide sweep of the busy bay. There then came the sound of something heavy knocking against the hull of the ship. I peered over the rail to see the harbour guard striking the side of our ship with his ball-tipped rod.
"We cannot stay here all day," he said. "Pay the tax or I will summon the guard ship."
I replied that we were discussing how best to make this payment, and asked for a few moments in which to make our decision. To the king I said, "They are demanding an answer, Jarl Harald. What will you do?"
He stood paralysed by indecision, gazing up at the city walls which seemed to loom over us like a high range of mountains barring our destination. After a few moments, the guard resumed his assault on the hull of the longship.
He shouted words to the effect that we were rousing the wrath of the emperor, and stood in danger of increasing the tax by our refusal to pay. This, I told to the king.
"Agh!" cried the king in frustration. "A man cannot think with all this din. How much?" he shouted. "How much to send them away?"
Leaning over the rail once more, I asked how much was required. "Four hundred and fifty nomismi," answered the guard. "One hundred for each of the small ships, and one hundred and fifty for the large."
Harald agreed reluctantly, and gave me a silver coin which he pulled from his belt. "Ask him its worth," the king ordered, and summoned one of his karlar to bring a purse from his trove box.
I stepped to the rail and held up the coin. "We are ready to pay the tax now," I said. "Please, tell me how much this silver coin is worth."
The quaestor rolled his eyes elaborately and replied, "I will come aboard your ship." So saying, he and two of his men, assisted by others in the boat, climbed to the rail and were soon standing before the barbarian king.
"The coin," demanded the tax collector, thrusting out his hand, "give it to me."
Placing the coin in his outstretched hand, I said, "The man you see before you is Harald, King of the Danes of Skania. He has come to pay his respects to the emperor.
The harbour guard made a sound through his nose as if this information meant nothing to him. "He may pay what he likes to the emperor," replied the man, examining the silver in his hand, "but first he must pay the quaestor." Holding up the coin, he said, "This silver denarius is worth ten nomismi."
I counted out the twenty coins Harald had given me, and then turned to the king. "We have paid two hundred," I told him, "we must pay two hundred and fifty more."
Harald, frowning mightily, emptied the remaining coins into his hand, counted them, and ordered another purse to be brought; from this he extracted seven more coins and gave them to me also. The Sea Wolves looked on, amazed and aghast that their king should be giving silver to this upstart of a fellow.
When I had counted twenty-five additional denarii into the tax man's hand, he said, "Two more."
"Two more?" I wondered. "Have I miscounted them?"
"No, you have counted correctly." Reaching into my hand he took up a coin. "This," he said, "is for keeping me waiting." Then, taking another coin: "And this is for causing a disturbance in the harbour."
"I most heartily apologize," I answered. "We were unaware of the customs of this place."
"Now you know," replied the quaestor, tucking the coins into his purse. Then, reaching into a pouch at his belt, he withdrew a thin copper disk. "Nail this to the prow," he instructed. "It shows that you have paid the tax."
With a flick of his hand, he turned and, aided by his two men, began lowering himself over the rail. Glancing at the disk, on which was embossed the image of a ship under sail, I asked, "Please, I would know when we must pay again."
"You are free to come and go in the harbour until year's end," the tax man replied without looking back. "Should you return to Constantinople after that, you must pay again."
Upon offering this information to the king, Harald scowled fiercely and declared that by year's end he intended to be back in his own hall enjoying the wealth he had taken in the plunder of Miklagard. This plundering, he vowed, would commence without further delay.
Seizing me by the arm, the king put his sweaty face near mine. "And you, Shaven One," he growled, his voice thick with threat, "will lead us to the nearest treasure house."
27
In order to plunder a treasure house, it would be necessary to go into the city and find one. Various ways of accomplishing this strategy were discussed and in the end it was decided that, to avoid arousing the suspicions of the populace, only three or four warriors should go ashore and search out the best places to attack. Further, it was decided that since I alone spoke the language of the place, albeit poorly, I should lead the landing party.
Strangely, the thought of setting foot in Byzantium did not alarm me overmuch. The shock at finding myself arrived at the place of my death had quickly faded, and a sense of resignation to the inevitable settled in its place. I felt as if I were being pulled along by events too complex to understand, and too powerful to resist. I was a leaf tossed in the gale, a feather cast onto the storm-maddened sea. There was nothing I could do but ride out the tempest.