Arnau looked at her, and then at Guillem: they were both smiling at him mischievously. How the girl had grown! She was almost a woman now: beautiful, intelligent, and with a charm that could enchant anyone.
“Money?” the girl repeated, interrupting his thoughts.
“All wars cost money!” Arnau was forced to admit.
“Aha!” said Guillem, spreading his palms.
Donaha began to fill their bowls.
“Why don’t you tell her,” Arnau went on when Donaha had finished, “that in fact it doesn’t cost us money. It makes us more?”
Mar stared wonderingly at the Moor.
Guillem hesitated.
“We have had three years of special taxes,” he said, refusing to accept that Arnau was right. “Three years of war that we people of Barcelona have financed.”
Mar smiled once more, and looked toward Arnau.
“That’s true,” Arnau conceded. “Exactly three years ago we Catalans signed a treaty with Venice and Byzantium to declare war on Genoa. Our aim was to conquer Corsica and Sardinia, which according to the Treaty of Agnani ought to be feudal possessions of Catalonia and yet are still controlled by the Genoese. Sixty-eight armed galleys!” Arnau raised his voice. “Sixty-eight armed galleys—twenty-three from Catalonia, the rest of them from Venice and Greece—joined battle with sixty-five Genoese men-o’- war.”
“What happened?” asked Mar, when Arnau unexpectedly fell silent.
“Neither side won a victory. Our admiral, Pone de Santa Pau, died in the battle. Only ten of our twenty-three galleys came back. What happened then, Guillem?” The Moor shook his head. “Go on, Guillem, tell her,” Arnau insisted.
Guillem sighed.
“The Byzantines betrayed us,” he intoned. “They made peace with Genoa and in return gave them the exclusive monopoly on trade with their city.”
“What else happened?” insisted Arnau.
“We lost one of the most important trade routes in the Mediterranean.”
“Did we lose money?”
“Yes.”
Mar continued to switch her gaze between the two men. Over by the fire, Donaha was following their argument.
“A lot of money?”
“Yes.”
“More than we have given the king since?”
“Yes.”
“Only if the Mediterranean is ours can we trade in peace,” Arnau concluded triumphantly.
“What about the people from Byzantium?” Mar wanted to know.
“The following year, King Pedro equipped a fleet of fifty galleys commanded by Bernat de Cabrera, and defeated the Genoese off Sardinia. Our admiral captured thirty-three enemy galleys and sank another five. Eight thousand Genoese died, and a further three thousand two hundred were taken prisoner. But only forty Catalans lost their lives! After that the Byzantines changed their minds,” he added, gazing into Mar’s eyes, which were sparkling with curiosity, “and opened up their ports to trade with us once more.”
“Three years of special taxes that we are still paying,” Guillem noted.
“But if the king now rules over Sardinia and we can trade with Byzantium, why has he come here now?” asked Mar.
“The Sardinian nobles, led by a certain judge in the city of Arborea, have risen up against King Pedro. He has to go and quash the uprising.”
“The king,” Guillem protested, “should be satisfied with having his trade routes open and receiving his taxes. Sardinia is a rough, inhospitable land. We will never succeed in taming it.”
The king spared no pomp in appearing before his people. Up on his dais, his short stature went unnoticed. He was dressed in his finest robes, the bright scarlet of his doublet glinting in the winter sunlight as much as the precious stones adorning it. He had made sure he was wearing his golden crown, and the small dagger of office hung at his belt. His retinue of nobles and courtiers was not to be outdone and wore equally magnificent costumes.
The king spoke to his people, whipping them up into a frenzy. When before had they ever heard a king addressing ordinary citizens in this way, explaining what his plans were? He spoke about Catalonia, its lands and its interests. When he went on to talk of the betrayal of Arborea in Sardinia, the crowd raised their fists in the air and clamored for vengeance. He continued to stir them up, until finally he asked them for the help he needed: by then, they would have handed over their children to him if he had so desired.
Everyone in Barcelona had to pay their contribution: Arnau was taxed heavily as an authorized money changer. Soon afterward, King Pedro set off for Sardinia in command of a fleet of a hundred ships.
After the king’s army had left Barcelona, the city returned to normal. Arnau went back to his countinghouse, to Mar, to Santa Maria, and to helping all those who came asking for a loan.
Guillem had to get used to a way of doing business very different from the one he had known with the other
