Pip Vaughan-Hughes - The Vault of bones

'That we know’ Roussel chimed in. We had a visit from the Lateran guard, who came looking for the pair of you and to inform us that you were to be guests of His Holiness. We rather took that to mean you had been arrested, but then the Captain's note arrived, which put us at our ease.' 'So where was old Gregory?' asked Gilles. 'Rieti? Trevi?'

'Viterbo’ I said. And I told them of our journey, a tale short in the telling, for I had nothing to relate of the road nor the city save endless rain. 'But as to what befell us there’ I finished, 'you must read this. The Captain stayed up all night writing it. I hope it is dry.' I fished the bundle of letters from my sodden valise, and found, to my relief, that the thick oiled leather of the bag had indeed kept out the deluge.

'But, Patch’ said Horst, through clenched teeth, 'where is Captain de Montalhac?'

'Ah. He is making haste northwards as we speak, and I hope he has found fair weather. Gregory… I mean to say, His Holiness commanded him to meet with the King of France as soon as possible. It is all in the letter’ I added, hopefully. 'France?' cried Roussel in disbelief.

'Indeed’ said Gilles. 'It is all here. And there are orders for us. The quiet life is over, boys.' 'I'm not going back to France, that is for fucking certain’ said Roussel. Horst said nothing, but his shoulders slumped.

'Nothing like that’ said Gilles consolingly. We would be leaving Rome in any case within the month. You did not wish to stay for the summer, did you? For the agues? Watching the dead pilgrims being stacked one upon the other, and wondering if you will be next to go? I think not.'

'Tis true that the poison creeps from the river when the hot weather comes’ muttered Horst, reluctantly.

When Orion calls his dog to heel’ added Roussel. I nodded my head. When the Dog Days came, every sane man left Rome. And I knew full well that the bestial vapours and poisons were particularly deadly to Englishmen.

Well then, do not fret. You are bound for Venice and the Ca' Kanzir – not you, though, Patch. Does that not cheer you?'

The others nodded, mollified, but I jumped up, dislodging my blanket. It does not cheer me!’ I exclaimed. Why must I be left to face the ague?'

'Peace, man. And put your bare bum away. You are being left nowhere’

What, then?' I said, tucking the blanket back about me while the others chuckled.

'Give me a little time to… to arrange things in my mind, if you would’ said Gilles. 'Let us discuss things over dinner, you and I. Roussel, I should like you to ride down to Ostia Antica post haste, and begin putting the Cormaran in readiness. The Captain wishes us to sail within the week’

After Roussel had gone off to pack his valise and Horst to instruct the kitchen, Gilles began to pace, head deep in the letter. What is the Ca Kanzir?' I asked him. 'The Captains palazzo. Home, on land, to the company of the Cormaran. Your pardon, Petroc: the captain's writing is atrocious. I need to concentrate.'

I took myself off to my room to get dressed and mull things over. I had heard that the Captain owned a house in Venice, but it had not occurred to me that our company – which I had always likened to that bird, the petrel, whose fate it is to fly endlessly across the wild ocean, alighting only in death – could have a permanent home on terra firma. It was then that I realised that I had not been paying attention, that my world had been filled with my own desires and fears and with Anna, and that no doubt my employers found me an exasperating, if not dull young fellow. Chastened, I found a bottle of Isaac's foul but potent tonic and forced some down. It warmed me, and I got ready for dinner feeling very young and unworthy.

I gave Gilles all my news in the greatest detail. I noticed that he stiffened when I related our meal with Peter the Dominican, and that the poor Captain must perforce be suffering his company at this moment, and at least until they had reached the plains of Lombardia, but pressed on, for I assumed that the details of this must be in the long letter he had read. Still, our gentle abduction made a jolly story now that it was over, and Gilles pressed me for every minute detail of our audience with the pope.

'That reminds me: shall we examine our gift from His Holiness?' said Gilles at last, when I had all but run out of words. He drew out a square of vellum, which I recognised with a start as the one that Gregory had entrusted to the Captain. His eyes raced across the page, and in his excitement his face became quite red. Finally he looked up, and his eyes shone.

'By… by Origen's ballocks! I am amazed. This is the Inventarium of Bucoleon!' 'That it is’ I agreed.

'How did His Holiness get his hands on this wonder?' breathed Gilles, studying it again. 'I have heard of such a list, but 'Baldwin de Courtenay gave it to him’ I said. Why on earth would he do such a thing?' 'The emperor tried to bribe the pope’ I told him. 'And…'

'He failed. Now Gregory is trying to arrange for Baldwin to bribe – forgive me, to freely give as a gift – Louis Capet of France with these treasures, in return for aid to prop up his tottering empire’ I explained.

With your humble servants as intermediary?' asked Gilles, grinning like a child.

'God wills it’ I said piously, and we woke the spiders in the ceiling with our amazed laughter. I slept fitfully that night, sleep eluding me in the way it does when one is utterly exhausted: another of nature's merry jests. So I was up and about early, and just about to set out for Baldwin de Courtenay's lodgings to deliver the papal bull, when Gilles found me as I was helping myself to some bread and bacon. I told him what I was about, and he shook his head, smiling.

'No, no. This is a high, high matter of state. It wouldn't look right for you to just trundle up to Baldwin's door and hand that thing over as if it were a tradesman's receipt. No, send Piero to announce your intentions. Request an audience. Tweak the man's pride a little. He is worth it to us.'

So Piero was sent off in his most respectable clothes, only to return within the hour with the annoying news that Baldwin and his retinue – if two men may be called such – had departed on a hunting trip with the Count of Tivoli. They would be gone for at least ten days.

'So what shall I do with this thing, then?' I asked Gilles, brandishing the letter with its absurdly heavy seal. 'Leave it with his landlady? I jest, by the way.'

Gilles puffed out his cheeks in exasperation. ‘You are right: it is exceedingly vexatious,' he said. 'Sit with me: I have made my plans according to Captain de Montalhac's instructions.'

'Then tell me, please, for I wish to know if I must expose my tender English flesh to Rome's summer poison.'

Gilles laughed. 'No. Listen. I am being sent to Byzantium to open negotiations with Baldwin's new Regent, one Anseau de Cayeux. Meanwhile we shall dissolve the present company for the time being. I plan to set out as soon as I can – tomorrow, I hope – for Brundisium, to find a fast ship bound for Greece. I am sending the Cormaran to Venice as per Captain de Montalhac's instructions, where Roussel will set up our winter lodgings. Now then. Patch, you have been at loose ends these past weeks, yes?' I nodded ruefully.

'Then perhaps you would like to make yourself useful?' I nodded again, eagerly this time. 'Excellent. I would like you to go ahead to Venice and make things ready for the Cormaran. There will be much to occupy you, and many vital things to learn. Indeed, this has been my task until now, so it bears a deal of responsibility. Are you equal to it?'

'Of course I am,' I said proudly. 'I thank you all for your confidence, and I promise to reward it, many times over.' Flowery words, perhaps, but I was overjoyed. I had become a supernumerary to the Cormaran s affairs, and now I was being offered a chance to get back into the heart of things. 'I am at your service, sir!'