‘I do. If his brother spoke truly, and I believe he did, then he is too much a zealot not to. Whomever he serves.’
Krysaphios fixed me with an inscrutable look. ‘And so? How do you propose to act next?’
Here I was on firmer ground, for I had spent the march back to the palace pondering exactly that. ‘First, we need to find a home for the monk’s brother. I have brought him here, but he should not be cast into the dungeon. He has done nothing to deserve it, and a little kindness might repay itself with more news of the monk. We should leave him somewhere comfortable but secure.’
Krysaphios nodded. ‘You have an extravagant kindness, Demetrios, but I will do as you suggest. You can quarter him in one of the houses we use for foreign emissaries.’
‘Good. After that, we need to worm a spy into the barbarian camp. Someone who can see if the monk is hiding there, and listen for any word of a plot against the Emperor.’
‘That will be harder. There are many eyes watching the barbarians: the Patzinaks, the merchants who supply their needs, even down to the drovers and carters who deliver it — all that they see is reported back to me. But to penetrate their darkest confidences. . I cannot see how that would be done.’
‘I can.’ With brief words, I told him my plan. He did not like it; indeed, he rebelled against the sacrifice and chastised me for a sentimental fool. But, after a full hour’s argument, I won him round.
Anna did not like the plan either when I told her the next morning.
‘It will almost certainly fail,’ she told me. ‘Either he will abandon you the moment he has crossed the Horn, or he will be discovered and tortured to death. Either way, you would never forgive yourself.’
I rubbed my chin. ‘I know. But I cannot think of an alternative. And if he does desert me, then he will be back among his own people and I, for one, will not feel his loss. There are many
It was a poor choice of words, and Anna hissed with anger. ‘You’ve spent too much time in the halls of the palace, among the generals and eunuchs, if you believe that men and boys are all just counters in a game, to be discarded from the board at the throw of a die.’
‘I’m sending him back where he belongs.’ Her words pierced me like arrows, that she should think me so callous, but I hid my shame and persevered. ‘A boy of his age should not be kept locked in a monastery far from home, to be tutored by monks. If he chooses to come back, then he will have earned his freedom and far more besides; if he does not, he is still free.’
‘And if he tries to come back and is found and killed by the barbarians?’ Anna’s anger had not subsided. ‘What will you do then, Demetrios?’
‘I will pray for his soul. And for mine. I do not do this lightly, Anna, but there are no others who would be trusted in the barbarian camp who could pass for a Frank.’
‘Thomas doesn’t pass for a Frank — he
‘Yes.’ I had come to tell Anna that I would be taking Thomas away from her, but she had quickly forced from me the entire story of my plan and the reasons for it. ‘There are ten thousand men lodged in Galata. With luck he will keep apart from the monk.’
‘Luck.’ Anna snorted, not at all like a lady. ‘If you are trusting to luck, Demetrios, then you are a bigger fool even than I thought.’ She pulled her fingers through her hair, and seemed to relent a little. ‘Are you really so desperate to keep him away from your daughters?’
Despite all the gravity of the moment, I laughed. ‘I would be grateful if you did not tell Helena. But I cannot force Thomas to do anything against his will, so I had better speak with him myself.’
Reluctantly, Anna acquiesced. She led me across the monastery courtyard to the kitchen door, where the sweet smell of baking bread mingled with smoke and the scent of onions. The aromas played on my stomach, for I had not yet eaten; they also reminded me of another cause for my visit.
‘Anna,’ I called, stopping her just before the door. ‘Before we speak to Thomas, I had almost forgotten: I wondered whether you would come for supper with me. And the girls,’ I added hastily, lest I seem too suggestive. ‘Perhaps on some evening in the next fortnight, before the fast of Great Lent constrains my hospitality.’
Anna turned and eyed me with suspicion. She wore a reddish-brown dalmatica today, its inexpert dying giving the effect of woodgrain, or mottled leaves. It was tied over her hips with the silken cord she always wore, and the breeze in the courtyard blew the skirt close against her thighs.
‘I accept your invitation,’ she told me. ‘But if you are merely trying to corrupt me into agreeing with your wicked plan, then you will fail.’
‘It’s neither for you to agree or otherwise. Thomas will decide.’
Thomas was in the kitchen, stirring a simmering pot of beans without enthusiasm, while a monk sat on the stairs and read at him from a dust-worn Bible. He scowled at the sight of Anna and slammed his book shut, locked the clasps and climbed the stairs out of the room.
‘It happens often,’ said Anna, without offence. ‘Some of them do not like having a woman within their walls, and all of them fear what might happen if they were found alone with her.’
‘Their misfortune.’
Thomas looked up from his cauldron as we approached. He gave a shy smile on seeing Anna, a broader smile on seeing that the monk had departed, and a nervous frown on seeing me. He let go of his ladle, and cursed fluently as it slid beneath the oozy surface of his broth. I doubted he had learned that expression from being lectured out of a Bible.
‘Demetrios has come.’ Anna spoke slowly. ‘He wants to ask you something.’
I pushed past a row of iron pots to stand beside her. ‘I have news of the monk.’ I paused to see if he had understood me. From the way his eyes stilled and his cheek twitched, I guessed he had. ‘We think he is in a big camp of barbar. . of your people, outside the walls of our city.’
Thomas glanced hesitantly at Anna, who added a few words in his natural tongue.
‘I want you to go there and find him.’
For a long time Thomas remained silent, while the pot beside him bubbled, and spat its liquid into the air. Some of it landed on his tunic but he did not seem to notice.
‘If I go, he kills me,’ he said at last.
I shook my head. ‘No. You find where he lives. Then you go to the house of my friend.’ My fervour hastened my words, and I had to concentrate to rein them in again. ‘He will protect you, and send us your news. Then we will come with many soldiers and catch the monk, and lock him in the dungeon.’
Again Anna spoke in the barbarian language. I kept my eyes on Thomas, hoping Anna did not take advantage of my ignorance to dissuade him. Thomas replied in kind, hunching his shoulders and gesticulating with his arms; I felt a growing anger that I was barred from their arguments.
‘I go.’
Coming at the end of a string of foreign sounds, I failed to realise that Thomas had reverted to Greek until he had repeated himself.
‘I go.’
‘You will go?’
He nodded, uncertainly.
‘Good. Very good.’
‘And when he returns, he will be free to go where he pleases, to return to Frankia or stay in Constantinople or settle in the empire, whichever.’ Anna stared at me with steel in her eyes. ‘You promise that.’
‘I promise.’ I would wonder how to persuade Krysaphios to honour that promise later, if the boy delivered the monk into our hands, and if he did not desert to his kinsmen.
If he lived long enough.
21
