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)

by Martin Archer

  Tori will stay here in Limassol with Lena until I return. She's not happy about it and pouted the rest of the day - until I pulled her into bed and changed her mind by promising I'd take her to see Constantinople as soon as it becomes safe to visit. It has, I told her, the most marvelous market I've ever seen.

  @@@@@

  A rather severe storm separates my four galleys and causes our voyage to Constantinople to take longer than I had hoped. But after the storm our four galleys rendezvous as planned just inside the entrance to the Dardanelles, the narrow forty mile or so long strait connecting Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara where Constantinople is located.

  We get to the rendezvous about noon. Our galley is the last to arrive.

  There are many ships going through the narrow passage in both directions - all kinds from everyday cogs to strange ships from distant lands.

  No ships of the Byzantine Navy are to be seen but two Venetian war galleys are at the end of the Dardanelles when we come out of the narrow passage a couple of hours later and enter the Marmara Sea.

  They ignore us and we ignore them. We just row right past them with our sails up to get whatever help we can get from the unsteady winds coming from our port side.

  We row into the dock by the city gate closest to our post in the city. All of our captains and pilots found it easily as the sun began to set in the western sky. They've all been here before and know it well.

  It is getting dark and smells like rain as a party of Marines and I and Reuben, an old and dear friend from the archers' early days and one of Cyprus' leading merchants, hurry through the dark streets to our local post - and then have to pound on the gate for ten minutes before someone finally hears us and lets us in.

  That's when I get the surprise of my life - when I walk through the door and see someone I recognize in the flickering candlelight.

  "Peter, what the hell are you doing here? And where's Thomas?"

  @@@@@

  Peter's story comes tumbling out. The essence of it is clear - Thomas and a Father Francisco from Rome have been missing ever since they went to the crusaders' camp across the way to deliver a letter from the Pope.

  Martin Archer added to the mystery. He's one of the original archers and the five stripe senior sergeant in charge of our post here and its operations.

  "There have been rumors in the bazaar that a couple of Latin priests were captured and are being held by the crusaders, but no one knows for sure how it happened or why or where they are."

  Thomas and a priest from the pope are being held by the crusaders? At first I'm incredulous - until Peter tells me what was in the letter they were carrying and about the fight at Zara when the Venetians tried to kill them.

  We all knew about the crusaders sacking Zara, of course, and that the Pope had excommunicated them for disobeying his order not to attack Christians. We also knew that the Venetians had recently carried the crusaders here instead of to the Holy Land.

  That the crusaders had come here, of course, is why I'd come to Constantinople - to see if there would be more refugees to carry and Martin would need more ships.

  What I hadn't known about was the letter and the fight with the Venetians at Zara and the loss of Galen and his galley - and that the Venetians knew they were coming and tried to ambush them. And damn near succeeded.

  "I can understand why the Venetians tried to intercept the letter," I said.

  "They hate the Byzantines because of the massacre of the Latins. They didn't want the crusaders to know their excommunication had been lifted and the Pope was ordering them not to attack Constantinople. If they had know they might not have come here. But why did they come?"

  "There is also a rumor going about in the bazaar," Martin chimed in, "that the crusaders are demanding that the current emperor stand aside and the former emperor, his brother, be restored to the throne."

  I looked at Reuben as Martin finished and Reuben nodded his head - without a word being spoken we had just agreed that he would go to the market and find out all he can about Thomas and the local situation.

  "It's expensive to move an army and get its men to fight, particularly if they are going against Christians and the pope opposes the war," I mused.

  "The crusaders must have been offered a lot to get them to come here and the only things they're interested in are money and land."

  "The Venetians are merchants and tight with their coins and they have no land to give away - it's hard for me to believe they would pay enough to get thousands of crusaders to divert from the Holy Land and defy the pope. So it must be money and the money must be coming from the deposed king or his supporters. It's the only explanation I can imagine."

  And it must be one hell of a lot of coins.

  @@@@@

  The candle light was flickering and everyone was quiet as I walked around in the little room stroking my chin and thinking. Then I called for parchments and began writing my mobilization orders.

  My big problem, of course, is that I don't know how soon we'll have enough Marines and galleys here to begin operations against the Venetians - or, for that matter, whether we will even have to fight them to prove we're serious about our threats. Whoever's got Thomas and the priest could, after all, just release them.

  I'm going to send my orders for a full mobilization of all of our Marines and ships to Cyprus in two separate galleys to make sure at least one gets through. They'll leave immediately if the moon is bright enough and no later than in the morning at first light.

  One will go non-stop to Cyprus and be fully crewed with Marines in case they have to fight their way through the Dardanelles; the other with a slightly smaller number of Marines will sail with it through the Dardanelles and also go to Cyprus, but with stops at our bases all along the Holy Land coast to call in all of our galleys and Marines and send them here to Constantinople.

  "Be prepared to use your siege reserves of food and hold out until we return" is the message I send to Yoram.

  "Move every non-Marine worker who can fight into our fort and let no one else through the gates for any reason including their women and children. You can keep a steady sergeant and a handful of Marines chosen by Henry to command your defense force."

  It's a damn good thing we finally got the well in the inner courtyard deep enough to hit water. That's the thought that came to mind as I wrote my orders for Yoram.

  @@@@@

  The most important instructions in my mobilization order are for Harold and Henry. They are to come immediately to Constantinople with every galley and Marine they can muster. Those not now in port are to follow as quickly as they can be dispatched.

  Arriving galleys, I write to my lieutenants, will probably be met by one of our galleys at the entrance to the Dardanelles but, if not, they are to keep coming until they reach our dock at Constantinople.

  "And bring all the arrow bales except those Yoram will need to defend Cyprus."

  Our men are only to be told that we may have to destroy the Venetian fleet if the Venetians do not return some of our men they have captured - but that we are not at war with them yet and won't be if our men are returned.

  Yes, I know it may be the crusaders who have them. But the Venetians are crucial to the crusaders and can pressure them for us. They're the ones who are most vulnerable at the moment.

  Then I settle down to write four identical copies of a letter to the crusaders and to the Venetians, two for each so I'm sure they receive them. They are short and to the point - release Thomas and the Pope's priest whom their low level people obviously arrested by mistake, or else.

  Reuben will take them to his merchant friends and arrange for their immediate delivery.

  As you can see, I'm trying to give whoever has Thomas and the priest a face-saving excuse to release them and whichever does not have them a reason to put pressure on the one that does.

  Our problem, of course, is that neither the crusaders nor the Venetians know how strong we really are. They're not likely to take my t
hreat seriously until we begin to show them what will happen and how far we are prepared to go to get our people back - and we can't do that until enough of our Marines and galleys are here.

  The moon is out so the galleys with my messages sail immediately for the Dardanelles - two bound for Cyprus and other two to convoy them to the far entrance to the strait and bring back the news that they've gotten through. We'll block it and cut off the crusaders and Venetians as soon as enough of our galleys arrive.

  We worked and talked through the night and by morning Peter and I had finished putting our initial plan together and begun implementing it. As soon as the sun came up Reuben and Martin were off with a large sack of coins to arrange for the delivery of the letters and to quietly buy or rent all the rowing boats and small fishing boats they can find.

  Chapter Twenty Three

  Rueben is back from the market with much news. The most important is that the merchants are reporting that Thomas was taken by the crusaders at the request of the papal legate - and he may be dead but that is not known for sure. What is certain is that he has disappeared.

  Taken at the request of the papal legate? Why is he involved? That's hard to believe. I am beside myself with anxiety about my brother and angry that I can't do anything about it. The only good news is that one of our galleys arrived carrying passengers and parchments from Beirut. Now we have three galleys here with English crews. Sixty four to go.

  According to the local merchants, news of the pope lifting their excommunication and threatening another has reached the crusaders. But the merchants say the crusaders are not distressed because the cardinal representing the pope told them the language of the pope's new threat allows them to attack Christian cities if they refuse to assist in the crusade.

  According to the merchants, the cardinal told them that will be the case if the city does not restore the old emperor who has promised to support the crusade whereas the current emperor has refused to even let them enter the city.

  The merchants also report that the emperor has stopped negotiating with the crusaders. It seems Emperor Alexios III feels secure in ignoring their demands that he step down because he is safely behind the city walls - and rightly so according to the merchants.

  "Constantinople has been attacked many times over the years and has never fallen."

  @@@@@

  Several important things happened today. One is that one of the emperor's courtiers showed up and asked if we would carry an important member of the court to safety if it becomes necessary. The other is that Harold and twelve of our galleys arrived with seventeen more of our galleys close behind and expected to arrive tomorrow or the next day.

  The new arrivals make a total of nineteen of our galleys that are already here including those that had come in a few days ago directly from the ports along the Holy Land coast.

  There is still no word about Thomas or Father Francisco; it's time to show the crusaders and Venetians that our threat is real. We'll start first thing in the morning with the Venetian galleys beached at the crusader camp and anchored just off it.

  @@@@@

  The sergeant captains of our galleys crowding into the courtyard of Martin's little post house listen intently as I explain about Rolf's galley being attacked at Zara, how Thomas and the priest were captured after they got here safely, and about the letters I'd sent to the crusaders and Venetians demanding their release.

  "It's time to send crusaders and Venetians a new message," I tell the assembled galley captains.

  "And now that you're here we're going to start sending it - starting with a raid tomorrow morning to take Venetian prizes, a lot of Venetian prizes."

  Then I read them the message that will be delivered to the crusaders and Venetians in the morning immediately after our raid.

  "This morning's attack on your galleys is only the beginning. I warned you there would be serious consequences if you did not free the priests and you did not listen."

  "Now I'm promising you in the name of God - if the two priests are not immediately released unharmed we are going to keep coming until we take or burn every Venetian ship in these waters."

  "When we finish with the Venetian ships we'll start on the stranded and starving crusaders and the Venetians who made it to shore - and continue until ever man is either dead or in chains in our galleys. Signed, William, Archer of Cornwall."

  Our galley captains get more and more excited as they realize they'll be going after Venetian prizes tomorrow morning in the early morning light before the sun comes up.

  Taking prizes from a beach is something Harold makes our Marines and sailors repeatedly practice. Moreover, every captain in the courtyard has done it at least once for real and several have taken beached galleys as prizes three or four times. Indeed many of the enthusiastic men listening to me got their current commands by taking them off a Moorish beach as prize captains.

  What we're going to do afterwards is also nothing new.

  After we get our prizes off the beach we'll see which of the prizes have slaves to row them and which have to be towed because they do not. Those that have slaves will immediately head for Cyprus with a small prize crew; the galleys that don't have slaves to row them will be towed to the dock we're using and stay with us until we can recruit some rowers from the city or take prisoners.

  Then I gave the ship captains the details.

  "Rolf and I have been keeping close track of the tides for the past week. It will be fairly high and rising at daybreak tomorrow morning - so that's when we're going to hit them."

  "We'll approach in the dark and row in as if we own the place without any shouting or talking. Each galley will send in two or three small boats with armed Marines to cast off or cut its prize's mooring line and help push it off the beach - and kill anyone on the galley who tries to stop them."

  "Use your dinghies and the small boats we've got under guard on the beach next to the dock. Each of you can take one of them to tow in addition to your dinghys."

  "Now here's the thing," I tell the captains. "Listen carefully."

  "There are strong surface currents flowing past Constantinople that will carry us down to the crusader's camp without rowing. We know that because every night for the past week Gerard, Peter and I have gone out in Rolf's galley and drifted down past the crusader camp and the Venetian galleys beached next to it - and every night we've shown a couple of clear candle lanterns the way the local fishermen do to attract fish."

  "Tonight we're all going to follow Rolf and all of us do it together. When we leave here we're going to board our galleys and row together up to the same place beyond the Venetian camp. Then, when I give the signal, we'll quietly drift down to their camp."

  "I'll be on Rolf's galley and we'll be flying the same couple of white candle lanterns we've been flying every night for the past week. You'll use Rolf's lights to follow his galley out to our assembly point. Then, when Rolf's galley starts drifting down towards the crusaders, you just hold your place around Rolf's lanterns and drift with him."

  "Now here's the important thing - when Rolf's white lanterns come down and he puts up red lanterns you'll know we're right off the crusader camp where the Venetian galleys are beached."

  "That's your signal to row in very quietly and go for prizes - and tell your men not to be greedy and over reach themselves; getting just one prize off the beach is a great success."

  "Also I want you to tell whoever is in charge of your small boats to watch carefully to make sure that every member of his landing party is either on a galley that has been pushed out into the water or has returned to his boat. It will go very hard on anyone who leaves a man behind." It certainly will; I'll hang him.

  My initial presentation of the plan is followed by many questions and rightly so. Among other things, the captains are particularly concerned about the Venetian galleys that are anchored off the camp. They're more than likely to have rowers and sailors aboard or they wouldn't be out there.

  "Yes, that's t
rue, Edward, and good on you for bringing it up."

  "Gerard's galley and Rolf's with me on board will not be going in to the beach with you. We'll be the guard dogs and engage any of the Venetian galleys that get underway and look threatening. That's why Rolf and Gerard and their crews will get a full share the prize money based on the total number of prizes we take."

  "And each of you, of course, will have to be ready to fight off anyone who tries to stop you, meaning you'll have your weapons laid out and your best archers on your deck with all your arrow bales open. There's no galley crew in the world that can stand up to the sustained shooting of a deck full of English archers wielding longbows." And that's a fact if there ever was one.

  Two hours later our excited captains leave with one final repeated order ringing in their ears - not to talk about what we're going to do as they walk back to their galleys and not to inform their men until they've rowed well away from the dock and no one else is about. Not one damn word.

  We don't want to get there and find the crusaders and Venetians waiting for us.

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Peter and Rolf and I are standing on the roof of the stern castle of Rolf's galley. Everyone is tense and everything is quiet except for the periodic sound of oars as Rolf's galley and those clustered around us row against the current to hold their positions.

  The dark shapes of the galleys around us are barely visible in the faint moonlight.

  "Is it my imagination, Captain, or is it a bit lighter to the east?"

  "Aye. It's lighter. You're right Lieutenant. That means it's time to go. Are the red lanterns ready, Senior Sergeant Rolf?"

  "Aye Captain, I lit all three of them myself ten minutes ago and I've got my two most dependable men standing by to go up and hang them and take down the whites."