Robert Lyndon - Imperial Fire

Vallon took a breath and braced himself. ‘We’ll talk at supper. You must be tired from your journey.’ He turned to Wulfstan. ‘Show Hero to his room.’ Two servants — a middle-aged man and a young girl — had appeared on the veranda. ‘Peter, Anna, attend to our guest’s comfort. He’s travelled all the way from Italy.’

Wulfstan talked non-stop as he led the way to an airy room overlooking the Bosporus. Peter began unpacking Hero’s bags. ‘Wulfstan, my arrival seems to have shocked Vallon.’

‘Shocked us both.’

‘In Vallon’s case, not pleasantly.’

‘What are you talking about? He’s thrilled to see you.’

‘Is anything troubling him?’

‘Far from it. At last he’s got the promotion he deserves. Know why? He saved the emperor’s life at Dyrrachium.’ Wulfstan’s forehead wrinkled. ‘What’s the matter?’

Hero forced a smile. ‘Nothing. Nothing at all. Meeting old friends after a long absence is always an emotional shock.’

‘It’s no strain for me. I never had nothing but respect for you — the way you used your healing arts on anybody who needed them, even if they were your enemy. If you need anything, just call me. Anything.’

‘Thank you. Right now all I want is rest.’

Wulfstan grinned. ‘What stories we have to tell.’ He raised his hand and stole out of the room like a benign troll. The maid was still making up the bed, plumping the pillows. Peter was arranging Hero’s luggage. A bowl of fruit had appeared on a table by the window and a ewer of water and clean cloths stood on a washstand. Peter bowed. ‘A bath will be ready at your convenience. Is there anything else you require?’

‘No. I’m much obliged.’

Alone at last, Hero went to the window and gazed down on the Bosporus, the sea-lane criss-crossed with barges and caiques and dromons and fishing boats. Over there on the Asian shore, no more than two weeks’ ride to the south-east, Wayland and Syth were going about their lives. What had become of them? Did they still retain their English language and customs, or had they adopted Turkish manners? Fatigue smothered Hero’s speculations. He plopped onto the bed, sat for some time in a slack-jawed trance, then undressed, slipped under the bedclothes and fell asleep the moment his head touched the pillow.

He woke muzzy-headed in the dark. A figure glided in and lit a lamp. Hero sat up and rubbed his eyes. ‘What time is it?’

‘The church bells have just rung vespers,’ Peter said. ‘The master says you mustn’t stir yourself until you’re fully rested. He was most insistent on that point. If you’re hungry, I can bring supper to your room.’

‘Tell General Vallon that I’d like to join him. Perhaps after a bath.’

‘I’ve taken the liberty of preparing one.’

A mosaic of fanciful sea creatures decorated the bath-house. After a hot soak, Hero took a cold plunge and rose clear-headed to find Peter waiting with freshly laundered clothes. The servant led him into a salon painted with frescoes of pastoral scenes inspired by Ovid’s stories. Vallon rose from the table. ‘Are you hungry?’

‘Ravenous.’

Over a simple meal of grilled red mullet and spring salad, Vallon explained how he had come to adopt Aiken. ‘I’d be grateful if you spent some time with the boy. I think he’ll find your company more congenial than mine. His teachers say that he has quite a gift for logic and rhetoric.’

Hero sensed stresses in the relationship. ‘I’d be delighted.’ He glanced round and lowered his voice. ‘What’s that treacherous ruffian Wulfstan doing here?’

Vallon smiled. ‘I found him begging in the street. After reaching Constantinople, he and the rest of the Northmen joined the Byzantine navy and saw service against the Arabs in the Mediterranean. That’s where he lost his hand.’

‘Yes, but after abandoning us the way he did…’

‘If I’d been in his shoes, I might have done the same. And in the end his conscience did override his greed and made him return to the estuary. By then we’d already committed ourselves to the waves.’

Hero shuddered. ‘The most hideous experience of my life. It was a miracle we were saved.’

Peter cleared away the dishes and left. Vallon swirled wine around his beaker. ‘I can’t apologise enough for you being dragged all this way on a wasted journey.’

‘I don’t count seeing you again as a waste.’

‘You believe me when I say that I had nothing to do with the summons?’

‘Of course. But what was the Logothete’s purpose?’

‘Since it doesn’t concern you, it’s better if you don’t know.’

‘That won’t do. We didn’t keep secrets from each other on our quest to carry the ransom hawks to Anatolia.’

Vallon laughed. ‘Yes, we did.’

‘Then this time let’s start by being completely open.’

Vallon pursed his lips and stared into his glass. ‘After I came to the emperor’s attention at Dyrrachium, the Logothete examined the reasons that brought me to Constantinople. He read your account of our travels and on the strength of that document and my military record, he decided I was the right man to escort another expedition.’

‘Where to?’

Vallon’s jaw worked. ‘Well, since the Logothete has deluded himself that you’ll join me, he can hardly protest if I tell you our goal.’ He glanced up, the lamplight hollowing out his features. ‘China, the realm of the Song emperor.’

Hero let his breath go in a low whistle.

Vallon smiled after a fashion. ‘My first reaction, too — or it would have been if I’d been at liberty to express myself. The Logothete conducted the interview in the presence of the Emperor Alexius and the Empress-Mother. On a cold winter’s night in the imperial box at the Hippodrome.’

Hero straightened in his seat. ‘Why does the emperor want to send you to China?’

‘To establish relations with the Song court. Personally, I can’t see what Byzantium will gain by exchanging niceties with a heathen potentate dwelling in a land a year’s journey away.’

‘An alliance must produce some benefits. News of it would certainly burnish the emperor’s prestige.’

Vallon nodded. ‘There’s more. On his travels into the East, did Master Cosmas come across a compound called Fire Drug? It’s an incendiary even more violent than Greek Fire. The Logothete believes it has important military applications and wants me to obtain the formula.’

Hero shook his head. ‘Cosmas never mentioned such a compound.’

‘It probably doesn’t exist except in myth. Well, no matter.’ Vallon raised his hand to forestall protest. ‘You’ll stay here for as long as you wish and then return to Italy at the Logothete’s expense. I’ve already despatched a letter to the minister expressing my outrage at his deception.’

Hero traced a pattern on the tabletop. ‘I assume that he thought I would be an asset on the enterprise. Obviously you don’t share his opinion.’’

‘The journey there and back will take at least three years. I regard it as a death sentence.’

‘I take it that you’re not in a position to refuse the commission.’

‘You’re right. I face my fate knowing that if I perish, my family won’t suffer.’

Hero mused for a while. ‘Could I have another glass of that excellent wine?’

‘Forgive me,’ said Vallon, raising the flagon. ‘The whole business has unsettled me. What grieves me most is the dissension it’s caused between me and Caitlin. Imagine how she feels, knowing that I’ll be gone for years, probably never to return.’

‘When do you leave?’

‘At the beginning of the sailing season. We sail to Trebizond on the Black Sea, cross Armenia and then strike through Seljuk Persia armed with a safe conduct from the Sultan.’ Vallon uttered a sardonic laugh.