‘I raised you and I know you as if you were my own child. Something’s troubling you.’
‘Yes. You know about my project, don’t you?’
‘Your quest for the last Emperor’s tomb, yes.’
‘We found something in Cappadocia.’
‘Not the tomb? But why have you not told me before? Why has it not been on the news?’
‘We found a sarcophagus and a well-preserved body, but we don’t know yet for sure. But that’s not why I’m here. Do you remember James Calvell?’
‘You were together at university. I remember you being inseparable, practically Siamese twins back then. He’s the deputy director of the Metropolitan in New York, isn’t he?’
‘Yes, he is. A few weeks ago he found something or rather an expert restorer of Byzantine icons came by a hidden compartment in an icon. Inside he found a ring.’
Ariana blinked. Her face was ashen.
‘You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?’
‘I do. It’s about my donation isn’t it?’
‘Yes. You donated two icons, right?’
‘Yes.’
‘One of them was stolen a few weeks ago. There was an attempt to steal the other one as well.’ Ariana’s face was suddenly mapped with enough lines to compete with the surface of the moon, her jaw almost dropped to the floor. ‘But thankfully, James had the foresight to ask John, the restorer, to produce good copies, which John did in record time, and which were put there in place of the originals. The originals were placed in a safe place. We still have them. They are at the Metropolitan under very sophisticated lock and key. But I’ll tell you about that later. Grandma, why haven’t you ever told us about this? Especially me. You know about my obsession with the last Emperor.’
‘Because it is a long and very sad story. It’s something about our past that was regrettable and shameful and my ancestors and I thought we could protect you from it. But, obviously, we were wrong. The truth would have come out eventually. It always has a habit of outing itself, in spite of even the most elaborate precautions.’
Ariana looked at the far wall lost in thought, then down at her lap and then she raised her head, looked deep into her grandson’s eyes and began her story. ‘It’s something that happened in 1453 in Constantinople, a few weeks before the city fell to the Ottomans of Mehmed II. The last Emperor had a child. The mother died at birth. That child was a son and he was the heir to the throne of Byzantium. Of course it was not expected that he would ever ascend to the throne. Only a blind and deluded person could not see that the Empire was finished, that it was only a matter of a very short time before the city fell to the Ottomans.
‘However, that child was doted on and protected as if he was the most precious thing in the world. And he was precious. He was the son of an Emperor after all, part of a proud line, going back through different dynasties and generations all the way back to Constantine I, the Great, and, more specifically, one of the sons of Theodosius the Great who upon his death presided over the split of the Roman Empire to the Eastern and the Western Empires respectively. On 4th May 1453, the child and heir was kidnapped from the Palace of Vlachernae. He was never found. However, the icon and ring that were stolen with the child found their way to my ancestor, Sotirios Vendis.’
* * *
The doorbell rang. Alina opened the door and was surprised by the illustrious group standing in front of her. There was Elli, Iraklios, Katerina and Aristo. Alina recognised Katerina and greeted her.
‘Katerina, it is good to see you. And Mr Aristo, it’s a great pleasure.’
‘Alina, it’s good to see you too. This is Elli, Aristo’s mother and this is Iraklios, Aristo’s uncle.’ Elli and Iraklios politely greeted Alina. ‘We’d like to speak with my grandmother, please.’
‘Yes, of course. Please wait here.’ Alina walked to the sitting room and knocked on the door. Ariana called her in.
‘Alina, what is it?’
‘Mrs Ariana, Katerina and Mr Aristo are in the hall. Aristo’s mother and his uncle are with them as well. They want to see you.’
‘Please show them in.’ Alina went back to the hall. Ariana turned to Giorgos.
‘Quite a gathering. It must be important. I wonder whether it has something to do with Katerina and Aristo. Do I hear the bells of upcoming nuptials? So much excitement and all in one night. What a treat for an old woman. And to think I was only looking forward to a quiet evening in front of the television watching my favourite and mostly depressing soaps.’ Giorgos laughed and Ariana laughed with him too. ‘We’ll finish the story later.’
* * *
There was a knock on the door and Ariana called them in. As the door opened, Ariana and Giorgos rose and smiled warmly to the incoming crowd. Introductions were made and Ariana asked them all to sit down. Katerina was surprised to find Giorgos there.
‘Hi, brother. This is a coincidence. We were just talking about you.’
‘Oh? What about?’
‘We’ll explain soon enough.’
There was a brief silence, as they all seemed to defer to Elli. She looked at Ariana.
‘We do apologise for barging in like this and at such a late hour. However, there is something we want to talk to you about. We wanted Giorgos’ opinion on something too. So finding you both here is very convenient.’
Nobody interrupted. They all waited. You could taste the tension in the room. Not just because of the new arrivals, but there was something else hanging in the air already, something was going on before they arrived. Elli felt it. And so did the others. Ariana and Elli sized up each other as people in powerful positions do.
They both were matriarchs of their clans, with long histories. What those eyes had seen. A respectful understanding passed between the two women as only between such two great women could.
‘Ariana, I want to ask you about Katerina’s cross. We think we recognise it, but we are not sure.’ Elli paused. Ariana waited. ‘We believe that cross is identical to the one given to the newborn heirs of the Byzantine Imperial family. It could be a copy of course, but it could also be an original.’ Elli looked at Katerina.
‘Grandy, I’ve told Elli about the tradition regarding this cross.’
Elli continued. ‘Ariana, we know the cross is very old. We don’t know how old it is or whether it is a genuine Imperial cross. That’s where Giorgos comes in. We hoped that he may be able to verify its authenticity.’
Giorgos, who until now had been sitting like the others in silence, made a move to take the cross from his sister who had already unclasped it. His mind was already processing what his grandmother had told him and even though the story was not finished, he was subconsciously already connecting the dots. Ariana did not let him complete the process.
‘That will not be necessary. That is indeed the Imperial cross.’
Ten pairs of eyes turned to her in shock. They were all thinking of what had not yet been said. Their minds were travelling in all sorts of weird directions and assumptions.
Elli dreaded the truth. Was Katerina’s family descended from the child or from the child’s nanny who may have stolen the cross? Is that how they knew about the icon and the ring and came to have the cross? Or, and this was the most outrageous possibility, were they connected with the kidnapping somehow, maybe through the nanny who may have assisted with that, or … was it possible … were they descended from the kidnapper? She did not utter any of this speculation, but like the others she waited. Ariana continued.
‘My family name is Vendis. My ancestor was Sotirios Vendis who lived in Constantinople in 1453.’
Now that had not come up in the check on Katerina’s family that Elli had carried out. And there was the matter of her ancestor’s, Eleni’s, son, Michael, having married the daughter of a Sotirios Vendis, Leyla. That certainly was not a coincidence. The two families were distantly related.
What other secrets were hiding in their past? Elli thought she knew everything. The inner circle of the Orde
r of Vlachernae and all that.
Ariana continued. ‘The Vendis family was one of the most prominent in Constantinople. Sotirios Vendis was the head of the family and part of the Emperor’s inner circle. About a month before the city’s fall, he started to observe a change in the last Emperor’s behaviour. It was subtle, but he had known the Emperor well and for a long time and he was one of very few who could see it. He began to become concerned. The Emperor’s behaviour in public was credible – nobody seemed to have noticed anything different or strange - but in private he was becoming increasingly erratic, a different person. And it was not just the expected different persona of a public figure like the Emperor.
‘My ancestor knew him personally, so he could be confident of knowing the Emperor’s private side, life in his most private moments. And he decided to take action. He arranged for the taking of the child from the palace and for him to be taken to a safe place until at least he could see the situation had changed and it was probably safe to return, if at all. This is what became known as the kidnapping. He wanted to protect the child. The kidnapping took place on 4th May 1453.’
Elli remembered rumours about the identity of the last Emperor before the siege, rumours she heard from her family, stories that were handed down the generations of the Symitzis family.
Ariana, your ancestor was perplexed by the change in the Emperor’s behaviour, wondered maybe it was the tense built-up leading to the siege. But my ancestor and head of our clan and the Valchern business at the time suspected otherwise. My ancestor, Eleni’s son, Michael, visited Constantinople on 28th May 1453, on the eve of the final battle and fall of the city. Michael met with the Emperor and had an extensive audience with him in secret. Michael asked him about the disappearance of the child and about the city. He was surprised with the Emperor’s total indifference to the plight of the child, his own son, and about his not initiating a search for the child. And he was surprised that the Emperor was seriously considering fleeing to Venice with many of his treasures. And Michael believed he was not joking.
‘At the time he thought the Emperor was out of his mind. It was totally out of character for him, one of the bravest people he had ever met, to take the coward’s way out. Eleni and Michael suspected that it was not the Emperor that he had met, but an impostor. I know it may sound crazy, but with everything we’ve heard so far, maybe it was not such a crazy suggestion after all.’
Ariana resumed her story. ‘Eventually the items that were stolen with the child found their way to my ancestor and that’s how they came to be in our family.’
Katerina could not hold it any longer. ‘What happened to the child Gran? You said the items came to be in our ancestor’s possession, presumably bought by him. But you said nothing about the child being taken to Sotirios Vendis as well.’
Before Ariana could reply Elli interjected. ‘Ariana, you said items. So it was not only the cross. What else was there?’
‘Giorgos had been here for some time before you arrived. I was telling him a story. Strangely enough it was a long story related to what we have just been talking about.’
Katerina turned to her brother. ‘Giorgos, why are you here?’ Giorgos proceeded to explain and repeated what his grandmother had told him. Elli was stunned. She couldn’t speak for a while. Then she found her voice.
‘Ariana, there’s more to this story, isn’t there?’
Ariana did not hesitate. She nodded, her eyes formed an iron-cast connection with the expectant eyes fixed on her and when she spoke her voice was clear and strong. ‘Yes. Those are the famed Likureian icons. The second one came to my family in Smyrna in 1922. It was my ancestor, Kostas Vendis, who found it by accident. The two icons relate to the legend of the last Emperor. They are the ones that are supposed to wake him from his sleep.’
Katerina shook her head in disbelief. ‘Surely that’s not true, is it?’
Elli intervened. ‘Actually, we believe that it may not be that implausible and, though we should not take it literally, there may be some grain of truth in the legend.’
Katerina tensed. ‘Do you mean to say that…?’
Elli gently cut her off. ‘Yes. There is a lot more on this that you don’t know. And some of it will seem fiction, but, in view of what has been revealed today, it is time for that to come out too, as it seems to be connected with the rest.’
Katerina remembered her earlier question. ‘Gran, what happened to the child?’
Ariana’s memory needed no jump-start. She had replayed the story in her mind too many times over the years to forget a single detail. Even though it all happened more than five hundred years ago, almost five hundred years before she was even born, it was such a big part of her life that she felt as if she had just lived that story a few moments earlier. Her account of the fateful events of that distant day was clear and precise.
‘When the kidnapper encountered a group of riders, he panicked and he could not risk the child making a noise and betraying him. So he left it there in the forest and ran away. But as luck would have it, the kidnapper did not go far. Two men working for my ancestor, and enjoying his complete trust, were on their way back to the city when they had an unfortunate encounter with the kidnapper when they bumped into him sleeping in the forest. They knew about their master’s plan. They tied the kidnapper and dragged him back to Constantinople to face their master’s judgment. The kidnapper stupidly demanded part of his promised reward for his trouble, claiming that the child was stolen from him. But of course my ancestor knew the scoundrel before him was lying and was outraged. He had no doubt that the kidnapper deserted the child either at the first sign of trouble or just because its cries or just its presence was proving tiresome and had probably decided that nothing like that was worth the reward promised to him or any reward for that matter.
‘Sotirios Vendis led a search party and dragged the kidnapper with him to show him the place where he last saw the child. But they found no child, nothing, however long and hard they searched the surrounding areas. They returned to the city where not only did the kidnapper not collect his reward, but my ancestor had the kidnapper put to death and retained the items the kidnapper had kept after he deserted the child to the predators of the forest and a fate of certain death. The items have been part of this family’s heirlooms ever since, at least until I donated the two icons to the Metropolitan. I thought that would be the safest place for them. That was, of course, after I had their true depictions concealed with others to hide their true importance and prevent their theft. Obviously, I was not that successful as their true identity had been discovered by those people who attempted to steal them.’
Elli had a sudden thought. ‘Giorgos, what was it that you found in the tomb in Cappadocia?’
Giorgos turned to Elli, surprised at the unexpected timing of the question. ‘We found a sarcophagus bearing depictions of Byzantine art and Imperial insignia. Inside we found the mutilated naked body of a woman, surprisingly well preserved.’
Elli remembered the dream that had been troubling her lately. ‘Lately I’ve been having this strange dream about a woman’s mutilated body, and a woman and child that seem to be saying something to me, something I cannot remember, who then disappear screaming. Considering what you have found it could not be a coincidence.’
‘It sounds like it.’
‘Giorgos, have you been able to make any progress in identifying the remains?’
‘Not yet. But I would guess it must have been an important woman, if she were buried in a sarcophagus bearing Imperial insignia. It can’t have been a random use of the sarcophagus. Do you think she may have had a connection to the last Emperor? We did see the name Palaiologos on an inscription we found inside the sarcophagus under the body, but the rest was in a language we didn’t understand.’
Katerina still did not have an answer to her question. ‘But we still don’t know what happened to the child. He may have lived. He may have been found and raised by another family. If that’s the case, Go
d only knows who his descendants are. It would be interesting to find out. And now hearing of your dream, Elli, do you think that your dream is somehow related to the child, that there is something that you need to do?’
It was as if Katerina had turned on the light switch and had indicated the elephant in the room, the obvious that had been staring them all in the face, but that nobody had consciously dared to acknowledge.
Each of the assembled group mourned for the child, in their own way, but while wondering about his fate and the possible connection of Elli’s dream with it, felt hopeful as well for the child’s survival.
Someone had to put flesh and bones on Katerina’s theory and take it to its logical conclusion. Elli put the situation into perspective.
‘It seems to me that we need to pull our resources together and not keep anything from each other. These are the things we need to do. One, we need to locate the stolen Likureian icon. Two, we need to know whether there was indeed an impostor on the throne during those last few weeks, although it will be very difficult after all this time. Three, we need to find out what happened to the child. Four, we need to assist Giorgos with his search for the tomb of the last Emperor. There is a possibility that the search for the child’s fate could be connected to the tomb in Cappadocia and the search for the last Emperor’s final resting place. Five, when I was recently in Mount Athos in Greece, a monk, the librarian at the Monastery of Pantokrator showed me a very old manuscript called the Book of the Pallanians which relates to the legend of the last Emperor and something called the Temple of Wisdom, whatever that is, but there are unfortunately some missing pages. It looks as if someone ripped them out. We need to find them.
‘And there is something else. Carrying out these missions will be dangerous. We are dealing with a powerful enemy, called the Ruinands. Legend and stories handed down in my family has it that there has been a long war between the Ruinands and the Pallanians who eventually became the Order of Vlachernae. It seems that it has fallen upon me to end this drawn out war. I will need your help. The Book of the Pallanians will be our guide. But please be prepared and forewarned. We are embarking on a mission, a journey that will test your scepticism regarding belief in supernatural events. Iraklios and I are the current keepers of the secrets of our family going back to Eleni and her sons in the 15th century A.D.
The Emperor Awakes Page 13
