I risked a quick glance where he indicated, and saw the huge sterns of imperial triremes moored further up the channel. The flag of the High Admiral himself flew from the largest, and all their decks were thronged with men.
‘Why is that?’
‘Barbarians.’ The boatman sucked in his cheeks as he navigated the bow of a Levantine trader. ‘They say the Normans will come again. Three days’ march away, they say.’
‘That seems unlikely. The Emperor would have fought them on the shores of the Adriatic before they ever got this far.’
The boatman shrugged. ‘I repeat what I hear. I’ll believe when I see.’
We pulled in towards the high walls ringing the colony of Galata on the far shore.
‘Which gate do you want?’ asked the boatman.
‘I’m looking for the merchant Domenico. Does he keep his own wharf?’
‘I’ve never heard his name. A Venetian?’
‘Or a Genoese.’ I scanned the pilings, and the ships moored against them, for any hint of their owner’s identity.
The boatman hailed a stevedore on one of the quays, and shouted the name Domenico at him. The man frowned, then shook his head and gestured along the shore to the next landing stage.
‘Most of the Genoese have their houses in the city,’ the boatman told me, unhelpfully.
We had to ask at three more wharves before at last the name Domenico drew a response. A burly foreman waved us in, took the rope we threw him, and helped me up the ladder.
‘Do you want me to wait?’ asked the boatman, looking up from the base of the wall. He seemed anxious to leave, for the sky was darkening, and I sensed a squall might be coming from the Asian shore.
‘I’ll find another.’
As the boatman splashed his way back across the Horn, I took my directions from the foreman and began to mount the hill. The land near the shore was cluttered with warehouses and the narrow lanes between them, but as I rose higher they quickly gave way to generous houses projected on terraces, built to see over the commercial sprawl beneath to the hump of the city across the bay. The mansions grew in proportion with their elevation, though it seemed to me that that lofty magnificence would afford their owners only sore knees and tired lungs. And solitude, for the bustle of the docks below was far behind now.
The house of the merchant Domenico was not at the crest of the hill, but it was nearer there than the foot. One day he would live in considerable splendour, for it was a vast, imposing property, but for the moment the platoon of builders, plasterers, carpenters and masons he employed disrupted its elegance. The air in the outer courtyard was thick with dust, and rang with the noise of hammers chiselling stone. Plaster was caked onto the trunks of orange trees planted in fresh earth, and a pair of trestles had turned the nymphaeum into a sawpit.
I sought out the steward and showed him my letter, trying to make myself understood over the din. It must have meant something, for he ushered me into a broad room which, while in the throes of reconstruction, was at least temporarily empty. Originally the floor had held images of fish and sea monsters, snaking through the blue- green tiles, but half of the mosaic was now overlaid with wide slabs of marble, surrounded at its borders with narrow ribbons of pink and green and black. Beyond it, through three wide arches, I could see the domes of the city cascading down from the pinnacle of Ayia Sophia to the small churches by the sea walls; the pines and cypresses spread over the eastern slopes; the heroic columns of the Emperors spiking above the skyline, and the high bulk of the
‘Demetrios Askiates. Thank you for coming.’
I turned to meet my unknown host. His voice was warm and eager, though marred by a note of insincerity from the too-perfect way he formed his words. He was about my age, or perhaps a little older, and had a figure which suggested he did not make the ascent to his house very often. His cheeks glowed red, perhaps from the effort of carrying the immaculate silk finery he wore, but his round eyes danced with energy.
‘Were you admiring my new floor? The workmen were supposed to finish it a week ago.’ He chuckled. ‘I can know to within two days when my ships will arrive from Pisa, for all that they must travel hundreds of miles at the mercy of winds and currents and storms. But ask a builder when he will finish, and he is as vague as an astrologer casting his horoscope.’
‘I preferred the old floor better.’
‘So do I, Demetrios, so do I. May I call you Demetrios? Good. But fashion dictates that the floors must be simple — clean lines of pure marble — and so I must follow her demands.’ He rubbed his toe on the stone. ‘Apparently it will focus the eye on the splendour of the walls — when the bastard painters have done their work, of course.’
I took a breath to speak, but he forestalled me.
‘But you did not come to discuss aesthetics. You came because I, Domenico, invited you. And why? Because, my friend, I think we both trade in the same market.’
‘Do we?’ Experience had taught that any man who proclaimed himself my friend was usually either lying, or a hopeless optimist. ‘Do I sell anything that you would load onto your ships for Pisa?’
Domenico laughed as though it was the greatest witticism. ‘Not unless you dabble in fine cloths, or spices from the east, or miniature ivories. But the wind that drives my ships brings other commodities too, besides those I can sell in the forum. News, for example. Some wine?’
He pulled a clay bottle and a pair of chalices from an alcove in the wall.
‘Not in the fasting season.’
‘A pity. This I had from Monemvasia, in the Peloponnese. Very sweet.’ He filled his goblet almost to the brim and sipped enthusiastically.
I paced over to the window and looked out, seeing the great warships of our navy moored in the bay below. ‘You speak of news. What news? News that would interest me?’
‘Almost certainly.’ Domenico put down his glass with an ungainly bang. ‘If we could agree its worth.’
Now it was my turn to laugh. I met many such men in my profession, worms and leeches who learned some trivia and tried to turn it into gold through dark hints and extravagant promises.
‘No thank you,’ I said. ‘I have no need of quayside gossip, and certainly not the money to pay for it.’
Domenico looked affronted. ‘Quayside gossip? Demetrios my friend, this is more than quayside gossip. And as for the price. . I am told you have influence in the palace?’
Who told you that, I wondered? ‘I sometimes have business at the palace. So do many men. But no more influence than a sailor on one of your boats has over your affairs.’
Domenico looked crestfallen. ‘I had heard otherwise. But irrespective,’ he persisted, ‘you can take word into the palace, and let those in command choose how to reward it.’
‘I can take word into the palace. But I would not trust too much on the generosity of my masters.’
‘Not even for information regarding a plot to murder the Emperor?’
Domenico slurped at his wine and turned to gaze innocently at the panorama below, though he must have seen my eyes jerk open.
‘What of a plot to murder the Emperor?’
‘Demetrios, my friend, I am a new arrival in this city, come to establish a business and to earn an honest fortune for my dear father in Pisa. But the life of a merchant is hard here — many men before me have invested themselves with rank and position and privilege, and they do not surrender it easily. You see how I am exiled from the commercial quarters within the city, forced to trade in this remote, unfashionable suburb. How can I forge alliances, Demetrios, when none of those whose ear I seek will venture across the harbour to meet me?’
He took my arms in his hands. ‘If my seed is to flourish here, and not wither and die, I must find powerful friends. Men who will unlock the doors which are barred to me, who will ensure that I am not the last to the market with my wares. I need influence, Demetrios.’
‘You spoke of a plot to murder the Emperor.’
‘If I tell you, will you see that the palace knows of the service I performed? Can I trust that the eparch will look favourably on me if I petition him?’ He sounded almost desperate.
‘You can trust the palace as much as they may be trusted.’
He wrung his hands together, then sighed. ‘Very well, Demetrios. As a sign of my faith, I will tell you what I have to say, and leave it to your conscience to see that I am rewarded as I deserve.’
