Conqueror

XX

Cynewulf and Saberht sat cautiously on a mead bench at the feet of the King. It was not the first time Alfred had kept Cynewulf waiting, while he worked through business with his clerks.

The royal hall was unimpressive. Like many of the new buildings of Lundenburh, overshadowed by mightier ruins, it was a simple framework of oaken posts, so new you could smell the drying mud of the walls. But, floored by reused Roman roof tiles and with a fire blazing in the big central hearth, it was warm and well-lit, and its walls were adorned with tapestries and bosses of silver and gold.

Alfred himself sat on a handsome giving-throne that looked as if it had been carved out of a single massive trunk. On his head was the crown he had worn in the field that day at Ethandune. He still had his taste for display; his tunic, a rich purple, looked like silk from Constantinople. Flanked by clerks, he was working his way through a mound of papers, signing, hastily amending lines here and there with a pen adorned by a handsome jewel. But Alfred's skin was sallow, his tall frame was skeletal, and he habitually held a handkerchief to his mouth. Yet he laboured steadily. The years had been much harder on Alfred than on Cynewulf, who now felt ashamed of his own self-pity.

One of Alfred's famous candle-clocks burned down on a table. It was a row of six candles, each marked with four lines to map the hours, and connected to the others by lengths of wick, so that the burning-down of one would light the next. Invented by the King himself, it was a way of keeping track of time without reference to the sun. In this as in all things Alfred liked order, control, and records.

At last Alfred shooed away his clerks, like chasing away geese. 'It is good to see you, priest. I have my hearth-companions look out for veterans of those days at Aethelingaig and Ethandune.'

'I'd hardly call myself a veteran-'

'You did your part, Cynewulf. You and that enigmatic prophecy of yours. And you still have your reward?'

Cynewulf lifted up his arm so that his silver ring showed. Saberht gaped. He hadn't known that this feeble old priest owned such a ring, a gift from a king.

'I like to see those left alive,' Alfred said, 'so that I can refresh my memory of those who fell. Like your cousin Arngrim. His men gave him a ship burial, you know. On a tub we captured from the Danes.'

'Yes. Arngrim lived and died a pagan, and there was nothing I or any priest could do about that.'

Alfred laughed, but it was a harsh sound that coarsened into a cough. 'We were glad of it at the time. But it's an irony that I see more of my old adversary Guthrum than I do of those who fought with me against him. We pray together, you know. We even sing psalms – though his singing voice makes Arngrim sound like the Arch Cantor.'

'I'm glad the Danish king's Christianity has stuck.'

Alfred smiled. 'Isn't cynicism a sin, priest?'

'I'll have to ask my bishop.'

Saberht blurted, 'Lord. Everybody asks why you deal with the Danes at all. You had the Danes on the run at Ethandune. Why give them half the country? Why not just push them back into the sea?'

Cynewulf made to apologise, but Alfred held up his hand. 'You are fiery for one of the cloth, aren't you, boy? Your tonsure is a little ragged too, you ought to take more care over that. The truth is, and hard though it is even for my thegns to accept it, we did not defeat the Danes at Ethandune. We defeated the remnant of one army. If I had pursued the Danes to Eoforwic I would have won myself some glory, but at the risk of losing everything when the next assault came. Instead I have spent my energies in making England impregnable.'

'Not England,' Saberht said, despite Cynewulf's glares. 'Half of England, dominated by Wessex. And what about the rest?'

'I have sons,' said Alfred. 'I need to leave them something to do. And in the meantime I have my books to write.'

Alfred, whose life had been dominated by the war with the Danes, had always had larger goals. He was designing a written code of law, assembled from the wisdom of the old English kingdoms – a programme inspired by the example of the east Roman emperor Justinian. And to make his country literate again he was having books translated, from the Latin to the English. He had begun with his favourite Boethius, and with histories, including Bede's famous work.

'I intend to leave an England rebuilt on surer foundations,' he said. 'An England united under God and a just law. An England where the King's writ extends into every shire, every hundred, every man's home. An England which maintains a fyrd, properly organised and equipped, ready to be called at any time to deter any aggressor. An England where a free man may read the word of God in his own tongue… One must take a long view.'

'And none,' Cynewulf said, 'takes a longer view than you, lord.'

Alfred warned, 'Like all kings I am a fool, but not one who responds to flattery.'

'It was meant sincerely.'

'But what of you, Cynewulf? Still a priest, at your time of life? Didn't I offer you a bishopric?'

'You did, and I was honoured. But it wasn't for me. After Ethandune I had had enough of history. I concluded I could best serve God's will by remaining a humble priest.'

'And by binding souls to Christ.' Alfred nodded. 'You see, we are alike, you and I. Always thinking of the longer term. What of your companion, the girl who knew the Menologium?'

'Aebbe? She has long gone. After her treatment by the Danes she couldn't bear children, the doctors told her. Well, she wasn't one for the convent. And so she left. I haven't heard from her since.'

'Many savageries were committed in those days,' Alfred said. 'One must fix what one can fix, and put aside the rest.' He glanced at his clerks, who were waiting patiently with more documents.

Cynewulf knew it was time to leave. He stood, pulling Saberht up with him. 'Lord, may I ask one more thing? The prophecy. Did it truly guide your decisions, in those days?'

Alfred stroked that long chin, now grizzled with grey stubble. 'I don't know, priest. That's the truth. The prophecy was and is a strand in my thinking – but so is Bede, so are the lives of the Caesars, and so above all is the Word of God.' He smiled. 'But if the task of our generation was to save a corner of England we've succeeded, haven't we? We must leave oceanic empires to another age.'

'Do you still have the Menologium?'

'My clerks made copies. The remaining stanzas speak of the far future, you know – many of your Great Years, hundreds of months. It will take centuries for the rest of it to unfold, though nobody in my court can add up numbers well enough to tell me exactly how long. And so it is the task of the future to deal with it – and, therefore, of my own dynasty. Which, let me remind you, springs from Cerdic himself, if not from Woden, and ought therefore to persist as long as there is an England.' He winked at the priest. 'I could scarcely believe otherwise, could I?' He glanced at his clerks. 'Now, where were we?…'

Cynewulf never saw the King again. Nor did he see Aebbe. But he did learn of her fate – in, astonishingly, a letter from the runaway slave and murderer, Ibn Zuhr.