Pip Vaughan-Hughes - The Vault of bones

"Whores! Nicholas, they are whores! A whore is all very-well, but they are not capable of…' 'Of courtly behaviour?' asked Letice kindly. 'My lady, you have it exactly,' said Baldwin gratefully.

'I grow tired of this talk,' said Zeno, gruffly. ‘We have the emperor, and the…'

'Ah!' I cut in quickly. 'Messer Nicholas, will you tell your guest what is in yonder chest?'

Yes, what is it?' said Baldwin. 'Querini arrived not two days ago, and has left that thing to scowl at me and torment me, for I am under pain of death not to open it, and what else do I have to occupy me than thoughts of what it contains? You are a fiend, sirrah, a fiend!' he cried to Querini, dragging his fingers through his hair with a sudden mad fury, so that I began to wonder if he had, in truth, been deranged by his captivity. 'Tell him!' said Letice.

Yes, do tell us all, and be done with it,' said Zeno, 'for I would fain have your head on a spike right now than listen to this drivel.' He scraped the tip of his sword impatiently across the floorboards.

'The chest contains the Crown of Thorns,' said Nicholas Querini, with a fine simulacrum of boredom. 'I have it as surety of a loan I made to Anseau de Cayeux. You see, you doubted me, but I have been working on your behalf.' Baldwin fell to his knees and clutched his face with his hands. When he looked up, I saw a new purpose in his face.

You think me so starved and confused that I have gone mad’ he said, Tor a madman would suit your purpose. Sir’ he said, turning to me, you spoke to me of my subjects’ There was a light in his eyes, unsteady, to be sure, but more than I had seen there before. What do my subjects say of me?'

'They would have you with them’ I said. 'Sire, some are disloyal, like the Regent and his faction. But many more are loyal. They love you, and want only that you come back to them. They need your hand to lead them. Do you know a man called Aimery de Lille Charpigny?'

'De Lille Charpigny… no’ said Baldwin, shaking his head distractedly.

'He saved me from this man's plots, sire’ I told him, pointing to Querini. 'He is but one of your loyal men, who would risk their lives to have you back. There are others.'

'And what of your debts?' sneered Querini. 'They are real enough. Thirteen thousand pounds of gold, mark you well. Men die every day in the prisons of the Doge for owing one-hundredth of that sum. The Republic deserves your gratitude, Majesty. Not only do we strive to save your honour and your reputation, but your rotting Constantinople as well.'

'Silence!' screamed Baldwin. He tottered, and I grabbed him around the waist so he would not fall. 'Sirs’ he said, when he had mastered himself, and my lady, I know not if you be another masquerade designed to undo my mind yet further, but if you are, what I say shall make no difference. Please, arrest this man, and you shall have the gratitude of the Latin Empire, for what little that may be worth.' 'Zeno?' I said. He shook his head in disgust.

'Nicholas Querini, it is the council's pleasure that you surrender the Crown of Thorns, which you removed from its rightful home without licence. And it is their suggestion that you leave Venice and limit yourself to your realms in Greece from this moment on’

And if I say no?' said Querini, folding his arms across his chest.

'The pope shall hear that you kidnapped the only hope of the Church of Rome in the East’ said Zeno.

'And perhaps were planning an alliance with Frederick Hohenstaufen, who is a friend of John Vatatzes’ I said. 'Although, since you murdered the Vassileia Anna Doukaina Komnena, who was Vatatzes' niece, I wonder how that plan would have fared. Further, King Louis of France shall be told that you seized his cousin, and planned to extort money from the French patrimony’ I said. ‘I do not think that the Doge or the council would be best pleased by that’

'So! I will go to Stampalia’ snapped Querini. With pleasure. But what of my thirteen thousand pounds, eh? Eh, Baldwin? Who will give me satisfaction? You worm. My grandsire climbed the walls of Constantinople and took it from the Greeks! You dishonour his memory!'

'All well and good, Messer Nicholas, but the loan you made to Anseau de Cayeux was funded by a consortium’ I said, 'of which you happen to be a minor stakeholder. Giacomo Tiepolo has bought up the debt. You are owed nothing’

'Lies!' snarled Querini. He seemed to be growing more bold. At that moment he could have walked past us and through the door, and perhaps we would not have stopped him. And then Letice moved. She left her place in the doorway and came slowly over to me.

'Andrew's letter, Petroc’ she said. Wordlessly I gave it to her. She walked across the room, daintily, carefully, choosing every footfall, and went up to Querini, so close that their knees were brushing together. She handed him the letter, and, laying a long white hand against his ruddy cheek, she reached up on tiptoe and breathed something in his ear.

It was as if she had run him through. Worse, for if you have ever seen an ox brought to slaughter you will remember that the great beast stood, indifferent, secure in his bulk and power, until the very instant when the butcher's axe cleaved through his backbone. Then everything is done: the solid legs turn to water, the massive body plummets to the ground with a dismal crash, the hooves churn the beast's own excrement into gory mud. Thus was Nicholas Querini felled, for as he listened to the girl's whispered words his eyes scanned the letter, and the blood left his face quicker than if she had cut his throat. He leaned heavily against the wall, groped for a chair and dropped into it. His jaw went loose, and I thought that he had suffered an apoplexy.

I did not want Baldwin to hear any more, so I helped him to his feet and out into the hall. I could hear Querini beginning to speak, disjointedly, as if in a trance. Steadying Baldwin by the shoulders, I walked him to the stairs and helped him down. When we had reached the cloister I let him sit on the low wall of the colonnade. Will you go back home now?' I asked.

‘In penury?' he said. 'How can I? You think me a fool – oh, it is nothing, sir, I have been counted a fool since the day I was born. I know what has happened. Querini stole the Crown of Thorns from me, and Venice has stolen it from him. So Cousin Louis will pay Venice for my property. You might let me die here: it would be a kindness.'

You are right,' I said. 'That is about the size of it. But all is not lost. You still have the Pharos Chapel.' What do you mean?' he asked, barely interested.

‘I mean that you are wealthy in relics beyond man's reckoning.' 'But I cannot sell them!' 'No. But I can,' I said.

From far away, glancing along stone walls and trickling down stairs, there came the sound of a man's angry tears. Nearer, a woman's light footfalls were coming down the passage. I looked up and saw Letice walking towards us, her hair a pale glow, wrapping her in a light of her own, sunlight and starlight, like primroses shining in a lane at nightfall. I felt the weight of the pope's seal just below my heart. ‘You can trust me,' I said. 'I bring you absolution.'

Venice, August 1239 ‘There is a narrow little tavern in the weave of narrow streets east of the fish market of Venice. It is indistinguishable from two score or more others, the low-ceilinged, stuffy places where the fishermen and labourers of the Republic go to quench their endless thirsts for wine and for sharp-edged gossip. Doubtless I could not find it again now, and if I did I might not recognise it. Perhaps that was why-Michael Scotus had summoned me there. A note had come to the Ca' Kanzir just after the house had risen, and I had slipped out and searched the alleys until I had found the tavern's sign, proclaiming – what? A bunch of grapes, a fox, two ravens? I do not remember. But there in the shadows was a slender form I recognised at once. Doctor Scotus pushed back his cowl and regarded me with his grey, timeless stare.