The Archer's Gold: Medieval Military fiction: A Novel about Wars, Knights, Pirates, and Crusaders in The Years of the Feudal Middle Ages of William Marshall ... (The Company of English Archers Book 7) (20 page)

      "Not all of it, brother, but more enough to get their attention and obligate us to pay a lot of prize money.  And the priest that was with you?  What about him?  Is he free?" 

       "He's the nuncio's nephew and at first I thought he was in on stopping the delivery of the pope's letter from the very beginning.  But now I'm not so sure.  The nuncio didn't want the pope's letter delivered, you see.  But then he changed his mind when he saw how it was worded."

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       A couple of Venetian priests representing the Doge and two elderly crusaders have come to see me.  A fishing boat brings them across from their camp with a peace offer. That's when we find out why the crusaders have traveled to Constantinople instead of to the Holy Land.

       Their offer boils down to "join us and we will give you a share of the coins and lands we'll get when the deposed emperor is restored to power."  They are there to negotiate our share.

       If they are telling the truth about how much has been promised, and Thomas and Peter and I believe they are, it's a lot of coins.

       According to our visitors, Alexios, the son and heir of the deposed emperor, has made a contract with the crusaders:  If they will restore his father to the throne, Constantinople will pay the Venetians to carry the crusaders to Acre or Beirut plus pay a huge sum of two hundred thousand silver marks to the crusaders plus one thousand pounds of gold plus provide ten thousand troops for the crusade - as soon as his father regains the throne. 

       It's an interesting offer and Thomas and I seriously consider it while our visitors are enjoying some fresh bread and cheese and a bowl of wine. 

       In the end we decide not to accept - because if we do get paid, which is doubtful, everyone will know we are rich and we'll be targets for invasions and ransoms.  It's better for our plans for George for us to be secretly rich and left alone because we are greatly feared and not rich enough to be worth the trouble of fighting.

       But we do spit on our hands and shake on a different agreement - we agree to stop our attacks on the Venetian ships and the Venetians and crusaders agree to leave us alone to carry refugees and not to ever attack the city wall with the gate in front of the dock where the refugees will come out.

       "You made a wise choice," I said to one of the elderly Venetians as I gestured towards the additional galleys that were just then coming in to dock and being enthusiastically greeted by those who arrived before them.

       "We English have many more war galleys than Venice and they're crewed by fighting men instead of slaves and sailors - if you hadn't returned Bishop Thomas and made peace we intended to go for Venice itself after we'd finished destroying your ships and selling your men to the Moors."

      
That's ox shite about us going for Venice, of course, but it made me feel good to say it and see the shock on their faces.

                               Chapter Twenty Five

       Months have passed and I'm still at Constantinople even though Thomas long ago sailed for Cornwall and Tori is still in Limassol with Yoram and Lena. 

       To my great surprise, our agreement with the Venetians and crusaders is still holding.  Our dock area and the city wall and gate into the city are islands of normalcy in the midst of a serious war ranging all around us.

       And the war and the siege of the city is indeed becoming more and more serious - the crusaders and Venetians have come across the water from their camp on the other shore and are attacking the walls and gates on the land side of the city. 

       Landing their men on this side of the water means they've not only cut off the city from food supplies coming in by land and but also, except for the food our galleys are chartered to carry, by sea.  They've also broken through the city wall several times before being repulsed and part of the city has burned. 

       So far the city is holding.  All of the crusader and Venetian attacks have failed  but anxiety is rising as the lack of food deliveries begins to bite.  More and more refugees are coming out to buy their way to safety. 

       Some things haven't changed - our men and the rich lords and knights of the crusaders are still welcome to enter the city if they are unarmed and pay the necessary bribes and refugees are still free to leave.

       Even so, about the only living creatures who totally free to move back and forth through the gates unmolested are the city's clowders of cats.  They are everywhere which is probably why there are no mice and rats.

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       Byzantium's emperor is Alexios III.  His men periodically charter our galleys to take supplies and messages to and from the rest of their empire.  There is also a steady stream of refugees coming out of the city, mostly merchants, orthodox priests, and members of the aristocracy. 

       There is no doubt about it.  We are making more coins than if we had accepted the crusaders' offer and been paid.  

       One of our galleys chartered by the city is quite interesting.  It has been loaded with a small amount of cargo, a couple of dozen heavy wooden crates, and just sits there at the dock we've taken over opposite the city gate. 

       The charter was made and fully paid right after the Venetians broke through the city wall the first time and were thrown out by the emperor's fearsome Varangian Guards. It's obviously a cargo that is extremely valuable since it is under constant guard by a dozen or so of the emperor's Varangians.

       There are not all that many guards so we could, of course, kill the Varangians and take the cargo.  But I forbid it.  Even though it might make us richer today it would almost certainly make us much poorer in the years ahead when George and his heirs are in charge - because we would lose our constantly growing reputation for keeping our word and protecting our passengers and cargos.

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       Our neutral status and the dock area we hold has led to some strange things happening.  For example, the city lets our men and small numbers of unarmed crusaders in through the dock gate to buy drinks and women. 

       It won't let them carry weapons in, of course, or food out but they can come to city to eat and drink.  So it's mostly the richer lords and knights of the crusaders and Venetians who come for a bit of rest and recreation
.  I wonder how many are spies?

       Keeping our men busy while they wait for their galley to have a charter or load of refugees is a challenge. 

       One of our diversions is the archery tournament we conduct every day along the city wall next to the dock.  We hold it every day and virtually every Marine enters - and rightly so since there is a silver coin and a twenty four hour pass into the city for the winner.

       Archers and the use of bows, even longbows, don't impress the mostly French and Italian crusader knights.  They watch and sometimes cheer a good shot.  But they are generally dismissive, saying they have armor so when there's a real battle they'll just pull down their helmet vizors and wade into the archers and kill them. 

       Yesterday it came to a head when some of our archers began to be insulted by some drunken French knights.  One of our men speaks French and told the Marines what he was saying.  Apparently the insults went back and forth until one of the Frenchmen pulled out his purse and bet that his chain armour would stop any arrow.

       It was a particularly bad bet because he made it with one of our strongest archers.  By the time Peter and I heard the commotion and got there the Frenchman was gone - with a bloody iron pointed shaft through his armour and sticking six inches out of his back. 
Tough shite.  But perhaps a good message.

       "We'll bury him and say the words if you don't want to," I told the other French knights. 

       "But only if you agree to tell the truth - that he was drunk and wrong about English archers and made a bad bet."

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       The crusaders and their Venetian allies are now seriously fighting and attacking. They've stepped up their attacks now that emperor's efforts to string them along with meaningless negotiations has finally come to an end.

      We watch as the entire army of crusaders and Venetians comes across in their remaining ships and the emperor's army doesn't come out to fight them.  The very next day two of the empire's senior officials come to see me. 

       The first to arrive is chamberlain who manages the empire's financial affairs and its treasury.  He has, the chamberlain confides, a very special and very secret assignment from the emperor - to take the twenty five crates of gold bars and jewels to safety in the chartered galley if it looks as though the city might fall.

      
Gold bars and jewels?
 
Well, of course, it had to be something like that. 

       "I only tell you this because you have been so helpful by attacking the Venetians and your integrity and that of your men is so well known throughout the world - if you will help me save the gold and jewels so we can use them to pay for the mercenaries we will need to defeat the crusaders, the empire will make you a big and generous payment."

       My response is that I will, of course, do all I can to help him and the emperor.  I promise to think about how it might be done and get back to him within the next few days. 

       Later that same day an orthodox archbishop comes with virtually the same responsibility and I tell him the same thing. And the next day who should appear but two more men and their entourages, each with a secret assignment to save the empire's gold by taking the crates to safety. 

       The first is the emperor's son in law who is the Admiral of the Byzantine fleet. The second is the emperor's eldest son and probable heir.  He's the one who chartered the galley in which the crates are stored.

       "Peter, do we have any shipwrights or carpenters with us?"

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       It takes four long days to build what I want into one of our galleys, but in the end we have a very safe and special place to hold the gold chests. 

        "It's not strong enough you see."  I say to the skeptical commander of the Varangians as I bend down and rap my knuckles on the wooden hull next to the stack of crates. 

       Then I explain with the help of a lot of hand gestures.

       "We English are committed to keeping these crates safe.  We signed a contract to do so.  But they are too heavy.  If this ship sails in a heavy sea they will almost certainly break through the bottom of the galley and into the water."

       Then I take him to the galley alongside and show him the new hold and the beams below it that will spread out the weight.  He finally understands my gestures and beams his agreement when I suggest that he and his men move the chests over here to the safer galley.

       "You must do it yourself so that you know nothing is missing.  Besides, my men are forbidden to touch any cargo we carry.  That is why we English are trusted more than anyone else."

       An hour later and the chests are safely stored in the special little hold that has been built to protect them from sliding around or crashing through the bottom of the galley.  Everyone is very pleased.

        Then I send a messenger to ask my various visitors to come see me to discuss an important matter related to the safety of the cargo on the chartered galley. Each comes and each agrees to my plan. 
As they should because it is so reasonable.

       Each of them agrees that they will need to keep the location of the chests secret until the gold can be safely returned to the city.  They also agree that the galley carrying the crates to safety will need to stop somewhere for whatever amount of time they need to hide them, perhaps days or even weeks.

       And, of course, each agrees that because of extra time required to hide the crates we are entitled to a bigger payment for the use of the galley and that they will pay it before the galley sails - enough coins to be the equivalent of the value of the gold that is in two of the chests instead of just one as we initially agreed.

       Each time our negotiations are successful Peter hands me the parchment with the original charter agreement and we quickly add the necessary amendments caused by the extra time and expenses and the higher price that will have to be paid for the use of our galley and its crew of Marines.

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       Three mornings later the emperor finally leads the city's army out to fight.  It doesn't go well.  His army outnumbers the crusaders and Venetians by at least three to one. But at the last minute he gets cold feet and orders his men to return to the city without fighting. 

       By late that afternoon I've heard from all four of the men who have been secretly charged with taking the empire's gold into their personal possession in order to "hire mercenaries."

       That night, many days earlier than I would have expected, the gold protectors and their retainers begin to arrive at the times we had agreed. 

       All I can do is nod my head in agreement with the plan for them to take the gold and watch while Peter accepts the rather large amount of coins they have each agreed to pay to use our galley and its crew of Marines and sailors.