Page 106 of My Fair Viking

In the evenings, she would be invited to dine with the royal family and their guests. In the large dining chamber, which held a huge table made of gold and was surrounded by thirty-six couches, meals were served on plates of gold. But even the smaller dining chambers with only a dozen couches held splendors unimaginable to the average person. Between courses, they would be entertained by jesters, mimes, dwarves, acrobats, musicians, poets… and her.

Ingrith would be really, really impressed with the staggering number of exotic dishes served each day. Vana would bemoan the amount of work to be done in polishing all the marble. Drifa would swoon at the profusion of heavy-scented flowers. And, Breanne… holy Thor! The ideas for building and renovating she could come up with here boggled the mind. She would no doubt be inspired to put marble pillars and indoor fountains in her father's great hall at Stoneheim.

Tyra never would have guessed that she could miss her bothersome sisters so much. And her father… the egotistical fool! He could teach this monarch much about reigning with dignity, even if his Norse castle was lacking the Byzantine's splendor. She hoped her father's health was continuing to improve, but she trusted that Adam would not leave Stoneheim till he was assured of that fact.

Personally, she thought these Byzantines took themselves far too seriously. They need a good hole-in-the-head-joke, if you ask me. Tyra had to smile to herself when that thought occurred. She must be going barmy if she missed Viking humor.

Occasionally, she and her soldiers had free days. Then some of them would go to the Hippodrome for entertainment, usually horse races or the circus. All of the men found women on whom they could ease themselves at night, she supposed. She never asked.

It was at Tyra's insistence that Romanus finally allowed her to join her fellow soldiers in the practice fields. And even there, they treated her like a curiosity. Many of the Byzantine soldiers wanted a chance to fight her one on one, no doubt to boast later of what great men they were to have triumphed over the Amazon soldier in combat. Some of them had been surprised when she trounced them soundly. In other cases, she'd been trounced herself. But mostly, she'd performed admirably, and slowly she was gaining their respect. She was unaccustomed to having to earn respect, and it grated on her.

Just then a soldier she recognized as an aide to General Phocas came up to her "The general would like to speak with you at once," he said without preamble.

She was bent over at the waist, hands on her thighs, trying to regain her breath after her latest bout of sword-play. She straightened and swiped a forearm across her forehead to wipe off the perspiration. "Now? Immediately?" she asked, trying to catch her breath.

He nodded.

"Should I not go off to bathe and change my dirty garments?"

"Now!" he repeated. "Follow me " And off the rude fellow went.

She glanced over at Gunter and Egil, both of whom shrugged, and she went off to meet with the general in his quarters.

Within moments, she learned what was so urgent to the gnomelike commander. She did not let his almost ugly appearance mislead her. She knew he was an excellent soldier and leader. Good looks mattered not in battle, as she well knew.

"My sources tell me you are anxious to get into active battle," he said straight off.

Well, anxious to be out of Byzantium itself, anxious to no longer be a spectacle, anxious to be given a useful job. "I would welcome an assignment," she said carefully.

"My brother, Leo Phocas, is general of the Army of the East. Always we are plagued by our greatest enemy there, Saif ed-Daula. 'Tis time to end the life of that pestsome gnat and to take the Syrian lands into the Byzantine Empire. Will you join him in his fight there?"

Lately, Tyra had been uncomfortable with aggressive warfare. She had no qualms whatsoever about defensive fighting to protect a homeland, or an ideal. But battle motivated by greed was different.

Inwardly, she struggled with all these issues, especially since she had come in contact with Adam the Healer and his criticisms of her warlike attributes. But for now her most important priority had to be getting out of the imperial city. Yea, 'twas best to accept the general's offer. Later she would have time to resolve her inner conflicts.

"I accept your assignment, provided all my men may accompany me," she finally said.

"Why must your men be with you? Can you not stand alone?" A shifty look came over the general's face, the same look Tyra had seen on too many occasions lately when he was in whispered consultations with the empress.

"Yea, I can stand alone, but we Stoneheim warriors came here as one unit, and that is how we intend to stay. Take one, take all," she insisted.

Nicephorus frowned at her, and a tic worked rhythmically to the side of his mouth, causing his lips to jerk up in a rather grotesque fashion. In the end, the general said, "So be it. You will leave on the morrow."

Tyra left the general's quarters and went off to give the news to her men. A heavy cloud settled over her mood, however. With this latest action, she would be taking herself another step farther away from Stoneheim… another step farther away from Adam, wherever he was.

What will my future hold now?

The eastern Byzantine frontier

"I never thought I would miss the cold of the Northlands, but I do." Tyra was sitting under the overhang of a tent, fanning her sweltering face with a palm leaf.

"I agree," Gunter said. "Thor's balls! Two sennights in the Syrian deserts and I would like nothing more than an icy Stoneheim wind, accompanied by a good dose of snow."

The two of them were watching a patrol of soldiers, including Egil and some of their comrades, come back from night duty. It would be their turn to go out soon. Wherever that slyboots Saif ed-Daula was, he hadn't made an appearance yet… leastways not for any direct confrontations. Instead, there were constant hit-and-hide assaults that were driving them all barmy.

A shortage of men was always a problem for the Byzantine armies, especially this Eastern division. As a result, soldiers were given land in return for service. The men were permitted to live on and work their own properties, but they had to present themselves fully armed and mounted whenever summoned to the frontier army. To say they were not dedicated soldiers was an understatement. Mercenaries and soldiers like the Varangian Guard were rewarded with huge salaries and the right to take booty after battles. Tyra thought they had the better deal.

Soon she was saddled up and about to ride out on what turned out not to be the usual guard duty. Instead, General Phocas assembled a large troop, almost two hundred soldiers, and announced they were going farther than they had in the past. This would be an overnight foray to a distant village, where Saif had presumably been raiding the last few days.