said. “Who’s there?”
“A servant of her Majesty the queen. You are summoned.”
I rubbed my eyes.
“What is the hour?”
“It is gone two o’clock,” the voice said. “The queen instructs you not to delay, and to dress warmly, sir.”
“This is all most unlikely.” I opened my door and found a page standing in the hall. He looked no happier than me to be awake at that hour.
“You will need a heavy cloak,” he said. “The queen awaits you at the top of the east tower. It will be cold, sir.”
“You are sincere?”
“It is very late for a page to make jokes with one of the king’s intimates, sir. I pray thee come with haste, that we both may return to our beds soon.”
“Aye.” I looked at my unfinished work. There was much to do, but I could not refuse an invitation from Kirsten, even one coming in the small hours of the morning. It was intriguing besides, and the cold air atop the tower would clear my head. I found my heaviest cloak and told the page to lead me to the queen.
“What is this about?” We had come to the stairs up the tower.
“Faith, I know not. I was sleeping until her summons to summon you. That is all I know. And now we are near the summit and I must wait here for you. The queen would speak to you in private.”
“Try to stay awake, and I shall try to be quick.”
I left the page at the landing and walked up the last flight of stairs alone. My footsteps echoed on the tiles and the stairwell was cold. The page was not dressed for warmth and I felt sorry for him. At last I came to a heavy wooden door. I raised my hand to knock, but the door opened and one of the queen’s private guards, a tall Dane whose name I did not know, stood in my way.
“It is the astrologer, my lady,” the guard announced.
“Admit him,” Kirsten said from within.
The guard stood to one side and I entered the watchman’s platform at the top of the tower. It was a plain room with plaster walls, four paces square, with a bare wooden floor. It was empty but for an iron stove in one corner and an oak chair next to it. The queen sat in this chair, wrapped in her fox cape and wolf hat. Coals burned in the stove, but the room had wide windows in three walls, unshuttered and open to the night. My breath clouded the air before me and I shivered as I approached Kirsten. She bade the soldier wait outside with the door closed and then she stood.
“Do not be alarmed,” she said.
“Majesty.” I bowed low. “It is very late, is it not?”
“Come stand beside me at the window,” she said. “There is a fine view of the harbor, the wind and waves making toys of the great ships. Those shapes beyond are your little town of Elsinore. See you there?”
I looked out at darkness. It had stopped snowing, but the moon and sky were hid behind banks of clouds. The wind lifted sheaves of dry snow from the castle roof and blew them all around the tower. Nothing was visible of the harbor or the town and I said as much to Kirsten.
“Perhaps I only fool myself that anything is out there to be seen,” she said. “But I trust that even if you find nothing in the dark, you are a man of some vision, Soren.”
The queen fell silent. Something was required of me, but I knew not what it was and the silence grew more uncomfortable with each moment until I had to speak.
“Majesty, I do not know what you mean.”
Kirsten sighed.
“I doubt it not. I find myself speaking in riddles all the day. So I shall be plain with you. My son holds you in high regard.”
“And I him, my lady.”
“He is crown prince of Denmark; your regard for him is natural. I have learned that you saved his life aboard ship from Jutland.”
“That is an exaggeration, Majesty.” The wind blew a cloud of ice crystals into the room and I shut my eyes against the blast of cold. “There was a wave come over the ship’s rail and your son was splashed, nothing more.”
“The prince tells it differently. This brave act of yours is the principle reason I invited you to sup with our family. I had planned to thank you at table so that my husband