Imperial Fire

by Lyndon, Robert

  ‘Permission to speak again,’ said the Croat.

  ‘If you must. In your case, it won’t make any difference. As I recall, you have at least one wife and four children you acknowledge as your own.’

  The Croat glared at his chuckling companions. ‘General, I’d rather risk the unknown than go back to those fever marshes. As for my wife and children, they know a soldier’s fortunes are uncertain. For the last eight years they’ve lived every day with the fear that I won’t be coming home.’

  A murmur of agreement ran through the ranks.

  ‘Silence!’ shouted the three centurions.

  Vallon’s gaze raked over the faces. ‘On this expedition, failure to return isn’t a possibility. It’s a probability.’ He paused. ‘I’m flattered that you put so much faith in me, but I don’t demand loyalty for loyalty’s sake. Let me repeat: the expedition will be extremely dangerous. Many of you who ride out with me won’t return. Their bodies will be consumed by wild beasts in lands where no Christian has trod.’ He left another resonant silence. ‘We’ll try the second rank, as before. All those who wish to volunteer, take…’

  With impressive timing, the second rank stepped forward.

  Vallon conferred with his centurions before addressing the squadron again. ‘Third rank.’

  Lucas took two paces forward, face held high, chest straining. No, not every man had volunteered. Lucas glimpsed a gap to his left and realised that Aiken had held back. Vallon noticed it, too, and made the best of an embarrassing situation.

  ‘Aiken has no need to volunteer. As my son and shield-bearer, his place is at my side.’

  Otia the Georgian centurion stuck out his hand. ‘That man there. What are you smirking about?’

  Lucas jerked his head back. ‘Nothing, sir.’

  Vallon rubbed his forehead again and sighed. ‘I see there’s nothing for it but to choose for myself.’

  He went into a huddle with the centurions and several minutes passed before he broke off and faced the squadron. ‘I’d take all of you if I could. No man left behind must take it as a slight on his courage, loyalty and integrity.’

  Vallon dismounted and began the long selection process. From where Lucas stood, he saw that the general had words with every man he came to, and warm gestures besides. After he’d passed by, some of the soldiers clutched their fists at their sides and some went grey with the shock of rejection. One man broke into sobs and Lucas saw gritted faces and the sparkle of tears on several others.

  Vallon’s progress meant that Lucas was the last to hear his fate. His tense stance made him tremble by the time the general stood in front of him.

  ‘Trooper Lucas, by all reports you’ll make a fine soldier in time. You handle weapons well and have a natural way with horses. But you’re too young and green for this adventure. It would be a crime to expose you to dangers you’re not ready to meet. Also, your Greek isn’t up to standard.’

  Rejection struck Lucas like a kick in the guts. Vallon had turned away before he found his voice.

  ‘General, you said we might be away two years.’

  ‘At least.’

  Lucas’s voice shook. ‘In that time I’ll have grown to manhood and acquired the necessary military skills. My training goes well and my Greek teacher is pleased with my progress.’

  Vallon looked back. ‘I’m sure that when I return, you won’t disappoint me.’

  ‘General!’

  Gorka seized Lucas’s arm. ‘Shut up! Vallon’s heard your plea. He’s turned down many others more deserving.’

  Lucas struggled, features contorting. ‘You can’t leave me behind!’

  Gorka’s hand dug into his arm. ‘For your own sake, get a grip.’

  Vallon turned, his face conveying puzzlement. Everyone within earshot was spectating. Over the sea, gulls wheeled and mewed.

  ‘You took me into your home,’ Lucas panted. ‘You put me into your squadron with Aiken. To be spear-companions, you said. You can’t separate us now.’

  Centurion Josselin jerked his chin. ‘Take him away. Put him on a charge. Failure to obey orders.’

  ‘Wait,’ Vallon said as Gorka lugged Lucas away. He moved closer and spoke only for the young Frank’s benefit. ‘Yes, I hoped you and Aiken would become companions. Unfortunately, I hear that your attitude towards him is anything but friendly. Spite isn’t a quality I admire.’ He swung on his heel. ‘Dismiss the squadron.’

  Lucas made a lunge, but Gorka yanked him back. ‘You’ve said enough,’ he snarled. ‘It’s a flogging for you.’

  Blanched and dazed, Lucas knew what he had to do. Vallon, I’m your son, the son of the wife you murdered, brother of your younger son and the daughter I held in my arms before she died two years ago. Sole survivor of a disgraced family reduced to rooting for acorns in the mountains.

  He opened his mouth, framing a shout. Father!

  ‘Let Lucas come,’ Aiken said. ‘Unlike me, he acts as if his life depends on it. He doesn’t like me. I don’t like him. That doesn’t matter. I’ll be interested in seeing how he deals with the reality of life on campaign.’

  Vallon waved away the bystanders. ‘Gorka, you were in charge of Lucas’s training. What do you think?’

  Gorka slackened his grip. ‘Well, General, it’s like this. Trooper Lucas has a long way to go before he can call himself a soldier, but I’ve dealt with worse raw material. The thing is, he gets up my nose, and what I hate is the thought of him twiddling his dick in some cushy billet while me and my mates are fighting whoever it is you’re leading us against. So… I agree with trooper Aiken. Let him come and take his chances.’

  Lucas had been standing to attention for two hours. Vallon’s face seemed to go into eclipse, the darkness not like the dark of night, but the absolute blackness of a world where no sun ever shone. He had no recollection of Gorka catching him just before he hit the ground.

  All leave was cancelled. For the next ten days the expeditionary force laboured from dawn to dark. They spent most of the time in a cordoned-off section of the harbour loading supplies onto the dromons – Stork and Pelican – and the two cargo ships. Vallon and Hero sometimes appeared on the quay to monitor progress, and it was on one of these occasions that Lucas, trundling barrels up Pelican’s gangplank, crossed paths with the Sicilian. He wiped his brow.

  ‘These barrels weigh as heavy as bullion. What’s in them?’

  Hero smiled. ‘Nothing so precious as gold, I’m afraid. It’s a mineral called cobalt, mined in Persia and used by potters to produce a blue glaze on ceramics.’

  ‘Is it valuable?’

  ‘I’m not sure. We don’t know what our clients want from us.’

  ‘Who are they? Where are we going?’

  ‘Vallon will tell you once we’re at sea. All I can say is that by the time you return, you’ll be grown to man’s estate.’

  ‘Sir…’

  Hero had already turned away.

  Lucas delivered his next statement in a flurry. ‘Thank you for buying the horse. I’ll repay you.’

  Hero blushed. ‘You weren’t supposed to know.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter. I’m grateful – not just for Aster, but for the way you treated my wounds. I crave your pardon for my churlish behaviour on the ship.’

  Hero’s expression gentled. ‘Granted without reservation. I know what it’s like to be a stranger in a strange land. I wasn’t much older than you when I fell in with Vallon.’ Seeing Lucas about to pursue the subject, he made his tone brisk. ‘If you want to show your gratitude, bestow it on Aiken. These last few months haven’t been easy for him.’

  ‘Lucas,’ Gorka shouted. ‘No one gave you leave to chat. Get back to work.’

  Lucas lay in bed that night, turning over what Hero had said, torn between the physician’s request and his own resentment. Resentment won, rising like a bitter froth. So Aiken hasn’t had an easy time of it these last few weeks. What about me? I’ve been carrying pain for ten years. Curdled memory dragged him back to the nig
ht when Vallon had lurched into the nursery splashed with his wife’s blood, his sword raised to slay his children. Lucas had been six years old, and since then not a day or night had passed when the hideous image didn’t rear up.

  ‘Aargh!’

  He bolted awake to find Gorka’s face leering down, his features grotesque in the light of a candle.

  ‘No more pleasant dreams, laddie. We’re off to catch a ship and explore the world.’

  ‘You mean —’

  ‘That’s right. By the time the city wakes, we’ll be gone, and every one of us no more than a memory.’

  The Black Sea and the Caucasus

  X

  Stars were multiplying in the east when Vallon’s squadron began filing aboard Pelican. Midnight had passed before everyone had found a berth and stowed their kit. Still no sign of the duke. Vallon couldn’t even send to find out what was delaying him because the Logothete had ordered the quay to be sealed. The general paced the dock with mounting impatience. The stars were paling before Skleros and his entourage trotted up with about as much urgency as a group of clubmen returning from a good dinner. Some of the ambassador’s company were the worse for drink. It was all Vallon could do to contain his anger.

  ‘My Lord, the minister gave clear instructions that we were to sail under cover of dark.’

  The duke’s bottom lip drooped. ‘My dear general, do you really think our departure would have gone unnoticed after all the bustle of the last fortnight?’

  ‘My Lord, we’re carrying enough treasure to attract every pirate in the Black Sea. It’s imperative we observe all security measures.’

  ‘Oh, stop fussing,’ Skleros said. He yawned and looked around. ‘Now then, if you’d be so good, I’ll need some men to see to our horses.’

  Vallon’s windpipe burned with suppressed rage. ‘That gentleman will learn I’m not to be trifled with,’ he told Josselin.

  ‘Thank God we’re sailing on separate vessels.’

  Lucas was among the party who loaded the duke’s mounts. Josselin had assigned him to one of the cargo ships because of his horse-handling skills, and even in his fuming temper, Vallon noticed how neatly the youth coaxed a high-strung steed up the gangplank.

  The sun was sliding up over the rim of Asia when Josselin approached. ‘Everybody aboard and everything loaded, sir.’

  Vallon looked around at the empty quay. No one had come to see them off. No priest to bless the enterprise with holy water. No proud flags flying from the mainmast. Vallon had received his last instructions from the Logothete the morning before and bade farewell to his family after a private service in St Sophia. A last glance and he strode up the gangway. ‘Cast off.’

  Crew members drew up the plank. A gang of dockers began unhitching the mooring cables. Pelican was almost floating free when a commotion at the far end of the wharf drew Vallon’s attention.

  ‘Hold hard!’ Wulfstan shouted.

  But Vallon had already seen the tall blond man loping down the quay with a bow slung over his shoulder, a dog at his side and a porter pushing a hand cart scurrying in their wake. ‘Get a move on,’ he cried to the dockers.

  ‘No, wait!’ Hero shouted. ‘We can’t sail away without saying farewell.’

  Wayland drew up beside the ship and smiled lopsidedly at Vallon. ‘That was sneaky – telling me you wouldn’t be sailing until next week.’

  ‘I was acting in your best interests.’

  ‘I’ll decide what’s good for me.’

  ‘Who told you we were leaving?’ Vallon demanded. He spun round. ‘Wulfstan, was it you?’

  ‘It was me,’ Hero said.

  Vallon growled low in his throat.

  Wayland cocked his head. ‘Are you going to lower the plank or do I have to jump? I’m not as agile as I used to be, and my swimming hasn’t improved since I left England.’

  ‘I don’t want you to come out of any misplaced sense of obligation.’

  ‘I’m coming of my own will.’

  ‘Does Syth know?’

  ‘We discussed it most of the night. She’s not happy with my decision, but agrees it’s the right one. There’s no hurry to return to England. She and the children will remain in Constantinople with your family. They’ll take comfort from each other in our absence.’

  Someone on the duke’s ship demanded to know the reason for the delay. Vallon looked at Hero. The smile and shining eyes said it all. Behind Hero Wulfstan was grinning like a loony.

  Vallon turned to the waiting crewmen. ‘Lower the plank.’

  When Wayland arrived on deck, both men embraced. ‘You always did go your own way,’ Vallon muttered. ‘I pray you haven’t chosen the wrong path.’ He broke off and walked blindly away.

  The wind was against the flotilla and when Pelican had shoved off into open water, the two tiers of oar ports below deck on each side opened and one hundred and twenty rowers put out their oars. A drum beat a sonorous rhythm and the oars lifted. When the beat was established, a whistle shrilled and the oars dipped in unison. Up they rose again, water flashing in the sunlight, and down once more, the fifteen-foot-long shafts flexing under the strain. Pelican gathered way. The rhythm of the oars speeded up until water ran foaming past the prow.

  Vallon looked back at Stork. Pelican was the larger of the dromons – a rakish fighting vessel almost one hundred and fifty feet from bow to stern, only twenty-five feet across the beam. Her crew numbered a hundred and forty, plus about seventy of Vallon’s squadron standing in for the fifty marines she usually carried. Two masts supported the furled lateen sails that gave greater manoeuvrability than the square-rig Vallon had learned to handle on his northern voyage. For combat, she was equipped with a metal-clad ram projecting from her prow, and an armoured wooden castle amidships for archers and catapults. Bronze siphons for spraying Greek Fire had been fitted at bow and stern. The stern cabin, whose roof also functioned as a fighting platform, only accommodated a dozen passengers, including the captain and his senior officers, Vallon, his centurions and Hero. The rest of the Outlanders, plus the off-duty sailors, slept under canvas awnings on deck.

  The supply ships, Thetis and Dolphin, were a type of dromon called chelandia, with broad hulls adapted to carry horses and cargo. Crewed by a hundred men, they were slower than the fighting dromons under either sail or oar. Thirty of Vallon’s squadron, together with the muleteers and other non-combatants, had been divided between the transports. The arrangement was to rendezvous at the northern end of the Bosporus before proceeding in convoy across the Black Sea. Already they were in the strait’s southern mouth. Vallon watched Galata approach. He could even see his villa and knew that Caitlin would be up there holding the girls and telling them not to cry. Hush now. Your father will be home soon.

  Three years!

  He saw Wayland staring landwards with a bereft expression that flexed in a forced smile when he noticed Vallon’s attention.

  ‘I would have suffered more pain if I hadn’t joined you.’

  ‘And your pain softens mine. Wayland, I can’t tell you how glad I am to have you and Hero at my side.’

  ‘Don’t forget me,’ said Wulfstan.

  Vallon’s laugh sounded like a sob. ‘You, too, you Viking rogue.’

  Wayland made a fist, shoved it into Vallon’s arm and turned away to watch Constantinople dropping away behind them.

  Pelican and Stork reached the Black Sea in mid-afternoon and anchored off the Ancyraean Cape – so named, Hero told Vallon, because here Jason had taken on board a stone anchor for the Argo during his quest for the Golden Fleece. The supply ships didn’t catch up until the sun was flaring behind the soft black contours of the Thracian coast. During the night the wind shifted full west and at dawn the fleet hoisted sail and set course for Trebizond. It was the twenty-sixth day of April.

  When the coast had sunk from sight, Vallon assembled his squadron and told them their destination. They took the news calmly, unable to absorb the scale of the enterprise or the distances involved. F
or most of them, the realm of China was a destination as abstract as heaven – or hell. On that first day they were just glad to be away from barracks, bound for a mysterious empire where the natives talked like cats, concubines minced on bound feet and dragons were as common as crows.

  Warm airs wafted them east all day and when Vallon woke next morning, the same favourable wind was pushing them along. He stood at the bow, watching flying fish skimming the waves.

  Hero joined him. ‘At this rate we’ll reach Trebizond within a week.’

  ‘And our journey will have hardly begun.’

  ‘Admit it, part of you is thrilled to be off on such a grand venture.’

  ‘That’s what makes me feel guilty. It’s always harder on the ones we leave behind. What about you, Hero? Is there anyone who grieves for your absence?’

  ‘My colleagues will miss me, I expect. Apart from them, there are only my sisters.’

  ‘The Five Furies, you used to call them.’

  ‘Marriage has mellowed them. I’m the proud uncle of seven nephews and five nieces now. This journey will save me a fortune in presents.’

  Vallon sensed that Hero felt awkward talking about personal matters and changed the subject. ‘Let’s take a closer look at the Greek Fire siphons. I’ve only seen them in action at a distance and I’d like a better understanding of how they work.’

  Iannis the ship’s captain was reluctant to stage a demonstration. ‘General, the siphons are only used in battle, and even then only in extremis. Greek Fire poses almost as much danger to the ship that fires it as to the target.’

  Vallon was insistent. ‘As military commander, I need to know our fighting capabilities.’

  While sailors reefed sails and a team readied the bow flame thrower, Vallon and Hero examined its mechanism. The incendiary compound was ejected from a swivel-mounted bronze barrel with a mouth cast in the shape of a roaring lion. From the rear of the flamethrower a copper tube, fitted with a valve to regulate the flow of oil, led to the fuel reservoir – a welded iron chamber pressurised by a bronze plunge pump. Underneath the reservoir, mounted on wheels, stood a bellows-fanned charcoal brazier to heat the fuel.