Tim Severin - King's Man

By contrast, as this crisis gradually developed, my own troubles seemed to recede. Having successfully obeyed the Orphanotrophus's instructions in dealing with Harald and his men, I calculated that John would keep me as a go-between as long as Harald proved loyal. Pelagia encouraged me in this thinking. I was spending more and more time with her, and in the evenings when off duty I would go to dine at her apartment - she always brought back fresh delicacies from the market where she kept her bread stall — and we would sit and chat together, ostensibly to practise my Greek but more and more because I found her company to be a pleasant change from regimental life and because I valued her shrewd commentary on the power play that I was observing in the palace.

'As long as you might prove useful to the Orphanotrophus,' she said, 'you should be safe. He's got much to worry him now that his brother is showing signs of ill health.'

'So news of the emperor's condition has leaked out?'

'Naturally,' she replied. 'There's not much that goes on in the palace that doesn't eventually become gossip in the marketplace. There are too many people employed in the palace for there to be secrets. Incidentally,' she added, 'your bearded northern friends who went off to Dyrrachium with their ships must be doing well. That cheese I served with the first course this evening comes from Italy, and until recently it was almost impossible to get. The Italian cheese-makers were reluctant to send their produce when so many of the merchant vessels were falling into the hands of the Arab pirates. Now the cheese has reappeared in the market. That's a good sign.'

I remembered our conversation when I received my next summons from the Orphanotrophus. This time I found he was not alone. The fleet admiral, the drungarios, was in his office, as well as a naval kentarchos, by coincidence the same man who had turned Harald and myself off his dromon. Both men looked surprised and resentful that I had been called to the meeting, and I made sure I stood respectfully, eyes fixed once again on the golden halo of the icon, but listening with close attention to what the Orphanotrophus had to say.

'Guardsman, I've received an unusual request from war captain Araltes, now on anti-piracy patrol. He wants you to accompany the next pay shipment for our army in Italy.'

'As your excellency orders,' I answered crisply.

'It is not that straightforward,' said the Orphanotrophus, 'otherwise I would not have summoned you in person. This shipment could be a little different from usual. Araltes — or Harald as you told me your people call him — has been very effective. His men have destroyed several pirate bases and captured or sunk a number of the Saracen vessels, but not all of them. One particularly dangerous vessel remains at large. Araltes reports that the vessel's base is in Sicily and therefore beyond the operational range of his monocylon. The drungarios here agrees with this assessment. He also tells me that several of his warships have attempted to hunt down this corsair but so far have failed.'

'The vessel has been too quick for them,' explained the drungarios in self-defence. 'She is powerful and well manned and she has been able to outrun my dromons.'

The Orphanotrophus ignored the interruption. 'It is vital that our troops now on campaign in southern Italy receive their pay in the next few weeks. If they do not, they will lose heart. They have not been paid for half a year as both the last two pay shipments were lost. We believe the vessels carrying the payments were intercepted by the same cruising pirate, who has yet to be accounted for. It was either a remarkably bad stroke of luck for the raider or, as Araltes suggests, the pirate was informed in advance when and where the shipments were being made.'

I waited impassively to hear what the Orphanotrophus would say next. So far he had not mentioned anything which explained why Harald wanted me to accompany the next shipment.

"War captain Araltes has suggested a ruse to ensure that the next payment does get through. He proposes that the army's pay is not sent in the usual way, by the imperial highway from the capital to Dyrrachium and there trans-shipped for Italy. He proposes that the money is delivered by sea all the way, aboard a fast ship sailing from Constantinople, around Greece and then directly across to Italy.'

'That plan is madness, your excellency. Typical of a barbarian,' protested the kentarchos, 'What is there to say that the merchant ship would not equally be intercepted by the pirate. Unarmed, the vessel would be helpless. It would be an even easier target.'

'There is a second part to the plan,' said the Orphanotrophus smoothly. 'Araltes suggests a fake pay shipment is also sent, at the same time and along the normal route, to distract the raider. This shipment is to be of lead bars instead of the usual gold bullion. It will be fully escorted as if it were the real consignment, taken to Dyrrachium, and loaded aboard a military transport carrying extra fighting men supplied by Araltes. This decoy vessel will then set sail for Italy. If the pirate's spies tell him about this vessel, he will intercept it, and this time he may be destroyed. Meanwhile the real shipment will have slipped through.'

'If it please your excellency,' the kentarchos interjected, 'the shipment can go all the way by sea, but why not aboard a dromon? No pirate would dare attack.'

'The drungarios assures me that this is impossible. He cannot spare a battleship,' replied the Orphanotrophus. 'Every dromon is already committed.'

Out of the corner of my eye I watched the drungarios. He looked towards his kentarchos and gave a shrug. The drungarios, I thought to myself, was as much a courtier as a seaman. He did not want the risk of the imperial navy losing another bullion shipment, nor did he want to contradict the Orphantrophus.

'Guardsman, what is your opinion?'

From the tone of his voice I knew the Orphanotrophus had directed his question at me, but still I dared not look directly into his face, and kept my gaze fixed on the icon on the wall behind him.

'I am not an expert on naval matters, your excellency,' I said, choosing my words carefully, 'but I would suggest that, just as a precaution, two of the monocylon escort the bullion vessel through the zone where the pirate ship is most likely to be operating, at least to the limit of their range.'

'Strange you should mention that,' observed the Orphanotrophus. 'That is just what Araltes also proposes. He says he can send two of the monocylon to a rendezvous off the south cape of Greece. That is why he asks that you be aboard the bullion ship. So that there are no misunderstandings when the captain of the Greek ship meets up with the Varangian captains.'

'As your excellency wishes,' I replied. Harald's deception plan was the sort of strategy which would appeal to the Orphanotrophus.

'Araltes asks one more thing. He requests that we send him an engineer and materials for the Fire.'

Beside me the kentarchos almost choked with astonishment. John noted his reaction.

'Don't worry,' he said soothingly. 'I have no intention of allowing the Fire to be made available to barbarian vessels. At the same time I don't want to snub Araltes. He is evidently someone who takes offence easily. He says nothing about requiring a siphon to dispense the Fire. So I'll send him the engineer and the materials, but no siphon. It will be a genuine mistake.'

It took three weeks to prepare the plan. First the bureau of the logothete of the domestikos, the army's secretariat, had to draw up two sets of orders: the official one for the false shipment and a second, secret set of instructions for the genuine consignment. Then their colleagues in the office of the logothete of the dromos, responsible for the imperial highways, had to make their preparations for an escorted convoy to go overland from Constantinople to Dyrrachium. The managers of the way stations were warned to be ready with changes of pack mules for carrying the payment, as well as horses for the mounted troopers. The eparch of the palace treasury received his instructions direct from the Orphanotrophus: he was to cast eight hundred bars of lead to the same weight as the thousands of gold nomisma, the imperial coins with which the troops were paid. Last, but not least, the navy had to find a suitable merchant ship to carry the genuine shipment around the coast.