James Heneage - The Towers of Samarcand

The philosopher was shaking his head, lost in the riddle. Anna rose. She was interested in a different betrayal and wanted very much to talk to Fiorenza. ‘Where does she sleep?’ she asked, moving to the door.

Plethon looked up. ‘You may not hear what you want to hear.’

She turned. ‘I want the truth, Plethon.’

*

Not long afterwards, in a room at the other end of the castle, Fiorenza heard a soft knock on her bedroom door. She was lying on a bed wet with her tears. Soldiers of the gautchin had just entered and arrested her husband. She got up from the bed, walked over to the door and opened it. Anna was carrying a candle and its light made Fiorenza’s cheeks shine like paint. Her golden hair was disordered, her eyes red, but her back was straight. She was, after all, a princess from Trebizond.

She glanced beyond Anna into the dark corridor. ‘It’s dangerous for you to be here.’

‘It’s dangerous to be alive, Fiorenza,’ said Anna. ‘I must speak with you.’

Fiorenza stepped aside and Anna entered the room. She put the candle on to a table and looked around her. ‘Is there somewhere to sit?’

Fiorenza went over to the bed and sat down. The air smelt of must but there was a fire in the grate and the room was warm. She said: ‘I know why you’ve come.’ Her face was a mask of misery.

Anna breathed deeply. ‘Giovanni is Luke’s son.’ It was said quietly, not a question.

The Princess was still for a while. Then she dipped her head.

Anna felt numb. There was only one question to ask. ‘Why?’

Fiorenza looked away. ‘He was forced to. I drugged him.’ She paused for several moments, summoning the words. ‘We wanted a child and Longo couldn’t. So I used Luke.’ Fiorenza turned and there were tears in her eyes. ‘He loves you, Anna,’ she said quietly. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen a love like it.’

Anna stared at the woman beside her. This was not the same woman she’d first met four days ago and she had no doubt that she was telling the truth. She closed her eyes, wanting to savour the sweetness of Fiorenza’s words, to let them tumble in the whirl of her mind, then come to rest. She opened them again to see that Fiorenza was crying. She took her hand. ‘What is it?’ she asked softly. ‘Where is Longo?’

‘You must go.’

‘Is it what Zoe said to you?’ Anna squeezed her hand. ‘I have been with Plethon. We know of your meeting with Zoe. Perhaps we can help.’

Fiorenza shook her head. ‘It’s too late.’

‘What’s too late?’

The Princess from Trebizond straightened. She took a handkerchief from her sleeve and brought it to her face, wiping her nose, her eyes. ‘I have betrayed my husband. I have betrayed the signori. They’ve all been arrested.’

Anna took Fiorenza in her arms and held her tightly. ‘What have you done, Fiorenza?’ she whispered into her hair.

Fiorenza was breathing hard between the sobs. ‘I have betrayed the signori to Tamerlane just as I have betrayed them to Venice all these years.’

Anna drew away. ‘But why?’

‘Because of love,’ came the soft answer. ‘Because of love for a man called Pavlos Mamonas.’ She wiped her eyes with her hand and looked at Anna. ‘Love makes you do strange things, but then you know that.’

‘You love Pavlos Mamonas?’

‘Did love. No longer.’

‘So why betray them now?’

Fiorenza screwed her eyes shut, unable to stop the tears, stop the pain. ‘Because the man I loved has a daughter who holds my son.’ Fiorenza’s grip on Anna’s hand was tightening. ‘She would have killed him if I hadn’t confirmed her story.’

‘What story?’

‘That they sent the Varangian Matthew to kill Tamerlane.’

The shock made Anna start. Matthew sent to kill Tamerlane? It didn’t make sense; then it did.

Zoe wants the signori dead before Luke and Mohammed Sultan get here .

Fiorenza opened her eyes. ‘They will all die. Tomorrow. All except Longo. I had to … for Giovanni.’

Anna had to do something. She released Fiorenza and rose. ‘I must return to Plethon.’ She paused. ‘One thing I don’t understand. How could you betray a man like Marchese Longo to Pavlos Mamonas for all that time?’

Fiorenza shook her head slowly. ‘I told you. I loved him. I loved him until …’

‘Until?’

Fiorenza stared at Anna. ‘Until Giovanni arrived. Then everything changed. I loved someone else.’

Anna saw the truth set out in all its misery before her. She’d looked for it and there it was. She wanted to ask something else but knew that Fiorenza wasn’t listening any more. The Princess was staring into the fire and the embers in her eyes were just one small corner of the hell that burnt all around her.

*

The next morning, the manacled signori filed into the castle hall to find Tamerlane already there and seated in a chair, watching them from beneath a frown deep enough to hide armies. He was not wearing his spectacles. Zoe was sitting on the marble floor beside him, her body resting against his legs, her face expressionless. She wore the simple white caftan of the slave.

Marchese Longo was kneeling next to Dimitri and had just seen the tapestry beside him move. He glanced up. Tamerlane had risen and was walking slowly down the hall towards them, his uneven tread scraping on the marble. He stopped and let out a long sigh.

‘You Italians. Always scheming.’ He spat on the ground. ‘You sent your assassin to kill me in my tent. But he did not find me there, so he tried to rape my bride instead. Do you expect mercy?’

There was shocked silence in the hall. Then Longo spoke. ‘Lord, what assassin? We know of no assassin.’

‘The Varangian. Is he not one of you?’

Longo was bewildered.

Luke is in Ankara .

‘Lord …’

But Tamerlane’s hand was in the air and two dozen tapestries parted as one to reveal men with bows aimed at the signori’s hearts. ‘You have betrayed me. All of you.’

A door behind opened and two soldiers came in dragging Matthew between them. He’d been beaten and his face was a mass of blood. They brought him to Tamerlane and pushed him to the floor. Tamerlane took a handful of his hair, forcing his head up. ‘Look upon the face of a traitor, Genoese. He was found in my tent last night with poison in his belt. He will die and you will die. It is just.’

Longo had dared to get to his feet. ‘Lord, this is madness. We don’t even know this man. The Varangian whom we admitted to our campagna is the man called Luke Magoris. This man is a stranger.’

Tamerlane was shaking his head. ‘You lie. Someone of your island has told me the truth: that you sent this man to kill me. And your Luke Magoris? I favoured him but it turns out he lied as well. You all lie and you will all die.’

*

An hour later, Tamerlane was riding towards the bridge, Zoe beside him. The morning was fair and the landscape around as motionless as a theatre set, winter’s cold waiting in its wings. The signori walked in chains behind and there were gautchin on either side of them carrying ropes. Behind them marched the rest of Temur’s bodyguard but without Varangians at their head.

Arcadius and Nikolas had left earlier to try to intercept Luke and Mohammed Sultan. Matthew hadn’t returned from his night meeting with Tamerlane and they’d guessed that he’d gone to Luke.

Last of all came Anna, still disguised as a messenger, hand in hand with Fiorenza, who walked with her head bowed. As Anna made her way to the bridge she was joined by Plethon. After meeting with Fiorenza the night before, Anna had returned to his room to tell him all that she’d heard. But when she’d tried to find him in the morning, he’d gone. Now Plethon was beside her. She wondered if he’d used the ring.