Anna of Byzantium by Tracy Barrett

people were laughing, mouths wide, mockery on their faces, and they all pointed at me as I turned and turned, trying to escape, finding myself ever more hemmed in by crowds that would not let me flee.
    I woke up in a sweat, my bedclothes wrapped tight around me. Slowly I unwound them and rose, trying to dispel the evil dream as I made ready for the day. Maria was stirring under her own quilt, and the maids were already laying out our clothes. For me there was a golden-brown robe, one of my better items, but not as formal as that purple-trimmed thing that had caused my father displeasure the day before. We dressed slowly, Maria and I, and we ate the light breakfast that Dora brought for us.
    I had no intention of attending my grandmother in the throne room, as she had commanded, but when my father summoned me there before noon, I had no choice but to obey. Sophia gave my hair a hasty dressing, and then accompanied me. When she had seen me safely to the door, she gave my hand a quick squeeze, and left.
    Once again I made my approach, and once again I bowed. My heart was pounding, and my head spun, I supposefrom the aftereffects of the wine I had drunk the night before. My father bade me rise, and as I did so, I saw that in the throne next to him sat not my mother, but my grandmother. The surprise must have shown on my face, for my father said, “Your mother is unwell this morning, and your grandmother has agreed to assist me today.” I nodded, not wanting to say what I was thinking. I was accustomed to seeing my grandmother at my father’s side, but I resented her presence in the seat reserved for the empress.
    “Come,” continued my father. “Come sit on this stool by me and tell of what you have been doing while I have been saving Christendom, little Anna.” He gave a self-mocking smile as he said these last words.
    “She should be veiled,” interrupted my grandmother. “There are other men present.”
    Indeed, the usual crowd of counselors surrounded the throne platform. My father sighed and motioned to one of his servants, who nodded and left the room, returning in a moment with a plain black veil. My grandmother rose from her throne, and had me turn my back to her and my father as she tied the cords behind my head. As she did so, she leaned forward and whispered in my ear, “Take care how you answer! Our future depends on it!”
    Our
future? What had her future to do with it? She was an old woman. It was
my
future that concerned me. But I could not answer, for she spun me around to face my father again. He smiled reassuringly and motioned to the stool. I sat on it stiffly, wishing the ordeal were over with.
    “Now, tell me, Princess,” he began. “How go your studies?”
    “Very well, Father,” I answered.
    “Just ‘very well’? What kind of answer is that? Come, daughter, tell me what you like to study and what you do not.”
    “Indeed, Father, there is nothing I do not like to study,” I answered. “Of all subjects, I suppose history and astronomy please me the most.”
    “And why is that?”
    I had never asked myself that question and did not really know the answer. But my grandmother was growing visibly impatient as I hesitated, so I started speaking, hoping the right words would leave my lips.
    “I suppose—I suppose—” Then I spoke hastily to avert the storm I saw gathering on Anna Dalassena’s face. “I suppose because nothing can change them,” I said. “What is past is past, and we can never change history. And the stars are unchanging; they dance each night in the heavens, but one who knows their steps can say what dance they will be doing the next night.”
    “But all life is change, little Anna,” he said. “Why do you dislike change so much?”
    Again I did not quite know how to answer, so I said slowly, “Changes are rarely for the better.” I did not explain, and hoped he would move on to a different subject rather than ask me for examples of evil change. I could hardly