CHAPTER 73
Some familial dynamics are a mystery to an only child or orphan, and Sofia was both. Even so, she marvelled that the queen tolerated her uncle’s overbearing manner.
The patriarch’s eyes followed Andronikos with patent alarm, as if expecting the prince to assault his beloved mistress any moment. The queen lay back on her cushions, playing with her infant cousin – Andronikos’ daughter was a spirited baby – while her uncle stalked back and forth like a great cat. His long purple cape was fastened around his bull-like neck with a gaudy brooch; like his loud manner, it ill-fitted the sluggish, decorous ambience of Catrina’s court. With his barbaric matted moustache and dirty spurs, Andronikos might have just come from the field of battle – in fact, he practically had, as he spent the previous night’s feast proudly recounting how he had destroyed Concord’s Ninth. The party had been quite ruined by the behaviour of the prince’s retinue. Instead of using Lazarus Knights as bodyguards, he retained a gang of axemen from the ice-burdened lands across the northern seas. Sofia was unsurprised that Andronikos failed to discipline them – he was no less boorish than they, dressing in their furs and matching them drink for drink – but she found it odd that the queen did not protest.
Catrina was more interested in how Andronikos could absent himself from Byzant. ‘However did you find someone suitable to leave in charge?’ she asked.
‘Don’t worry. Prince Jorge may be very young, but he is quite capable. Popular with the men, too.’
‘A popular prince! Madonna, now I am worried. Do you really think you’ll have a city to return to?’
Andronikos laughed heartily at this. ‘Jorge doesn’t have the lineage to be considered a rival. Everyone calls him “Prince” but he wasn’t born to the purple. Oh, he has a drop or two of decent blood, but he won his fame and his title racing chariots in the Hippodrome.’
‘I see,’ said Catrina. It was clear that she found Byzantine manners as strange as Sofia did.
‘But come, Catrina, this is dry stuff. Where’s the light-hearted niece I used to play with?’
‘Alas, Uncle, she grew up. But you know how glad I am to see you. I have need of wise counsel; tell me, what do you make of our guests’ request for assistance?’
Sofia was surprised: Catrina was shrewd, and whatever the prince’s qualities, wisdom was obviously not amongst them.
Andronikos didn’t pause to consider his response. ‘Bah! What concerns us Etruria? In our hour of need, their assistance was niggardly. Now that they need help, the ambassadors they send reveal the contempt in which they hold us.’
‘Ouch!’ said Levi, pulling an imaginary dart from his chest. ‘Hard not to take that personally.’
‘Come, Podesta. Condottieri are men of the world. The princes of Europa use Oltremare as a dumping ground for their family scandals.’
‘I’m not sure I follow,’ said Levi, less equably.
‘Then I’ll explain as I would to a child. In the desert, gardens must be protected by walls or the Sands eat them. Someone scaled this lady’s walls. Only she can say if it was trespasser or guest.’
Levi’s sword would have taken the prince’s head off had Fulk not parried it. The prince’s axemen looked on stupidly.
‘Back up,’ Fulk said with deadly calm.
‘Tranquillo, Levi,’ Sofia said.
Levi put away his sword, and the prince backed away with a scared laugh.
The queen was merely annoyed. ‘Uncle, don’t be so rude! The Contessa came a great distance at great personal danger to warn us,’ she said, coaxingly. ‘Our fathers won this land from infidels – and what are Concord’s Godless engineers if not infidels? If they gain control of Etruria, and the Contessa says they will, our duty is clear: our fathers answered the call. How can we do less?’
‘Because the Old World is far from here. You don’t understand their politics, Catrina. It’s foolish to let ourselves be entangled in their quarrels just when our kingdom is on a firm footing.’
Sofia noticed how the ‘our’ made the queen’s nostrils flair, but Andronikos carried on blithely, ‘If we turn our back on the Radinate—’
The patriarch snorted, ‘We’ve nothing to fear from those gerbil-eaters. Their government is a thing without structure or foundation, like the tents they live in. Abraham’s children have become children once more.’
‘And any one of those children will cut the other’s throat for a few pieces of silver,’ the queen finished.
‘Fine,’ said Andronikos, ‘but the Concordians – the men you call infidels – were enemies of the Ariminumese until this summit drove them together. That makes them potential allies, as far as I’m concerned.’
‘Allies!’ Sofia interrupted. ‘Last night, you treated us to a vivid description of a Concordian legion marching to the walls of Byzant.’
‘Perhaps you slept through the end of the story, child: we saw them speedily off. Geography is the reason no Europan State can threaten us militarily – the Ariminumese plague us in other ways, stealing our markets, under-pricing us. They’ve made a pirate into their admiral. Need more be said? Let the Etrurians fight between themselves. Why search for infidels abroad?’ he asked, glancing at the slave fanning the queen. ‘We have enough of those at home.’
‘You’re right about one thing, Prince,’ said Sofia. ‘You don’t understand Etrurian politics. The Concordians covet territory like the Ariminumese covet gold. If the Concordians get access to the Ariminumese navy, Oltremare will be faced with a new Crusade, a Crusade that will supplant you.’
The prince’s child shrieked in delight and the queen looked up with a smile. ‘My kingdom’s strong enough to see off any pretenders.’ Sofia knew that this boast was for her uncle’s ears – and so did he. Embarrassed, he made his excuses and stalked out.
Unperturbed, the queen kissed the giggling baby’s stomach. ‘Where’s Papa gone? Where’s he gone?’ After the last of Andronikos’ retinue filed out, followed by Fulk and his men, she turned lazily to the patriarch. ‘Your Beatitude, what say you?’
Chrysoberges pursed his lips with great solemnity. ‘Since we have subjugated heresy so thoroughly here, the Evil One is trying to flank us. Our duty is clear: Etruria and Oltremare are one. Your uncle talks of commerce’ – a shudder shook the old tree – ‘and makes arguments of expedience, but there can be no compromise with apostasy! Evil must be vanquished wherever it manifests itself. The engineers of Concord deserve harsher treatment than the Ebionites. Abraham’s children languish in the old dispensation, but at least they fear God. The engineers worship an idol called Reason.’ He added mournfully, ‘If that poison were to gain purchase in people’s hearts, where might it end? What beastliness could not be justified in Reason’s name?’
‘Considering the sins committed in God’s, I tremble to imagine. Get to the point – should we go to war?’
His fervent manner changed entirely. ‘A more delicate question, Majesty. However just the cause, war’s not to be rushed into. Our long-term security rests on controlling the Middle Sea.’
‘And our fleet is old …’ the queen said, musing. ‘Thank you, Chrysoberges. You may go. You too, Podesta. I would speak with my sister queen.’
The queen waited till all the men were gone, then rolled her eyes. ‘I do apologise for Andronikos, Contessa. Do you have siblings? No? Consider yourself lucky. Uncle means well, but he has always been an ambitious dreamer. That’s what brought my ancestors across the sea: a dream of a heavenly city. When they found a pointless rock in the middle of a dry nothing, most of them went home. The ones who stayed were weak, weak and divided. Oltremare was several states, then. Impossible to do anything, impossible to agree.’ This was ancient history, but the queen appeared to take fresh umbrage at it. ‘They warred with the Ebionites, and with each other as well. The Ebionites took sides in our feuds, and year by year they won back more territory. Within a century, they retook Jerusalem. We could have stopped them if the nobles had united behind the crown. Jealousy almost destroyed us – my uncle knows this!’
Sofia attempted to look sympathetic.
‘Oltremare was doomed: friendless in Europa, enveloped by the Radinate, divided internally. The conversion of Egypt reprieved us for a few decades, but my grandfather Tancred was the real miracle worker.’
‘I’ve seen his mask in the Ancestor Room,’ Sofia said neutrally. She remembered a cruel, scar-matted face.
The queen apparently remembered something more admirable. ‘Ah, Contessa, there was a king!’ She mooned like a love-struck girl. ‘He broke the nobles’ power and consolidated the crowns, and faced with our unity, the Radinate collapsed and we took Jerusalem once more.’ She whispered, almost as if speaking of an absent lover.
‘According to the traditional steps, we should have waited until the Ebionites stopped fighting each other long enough to expel us, then begged the princes of Europa once more to save us. But King Tancred had a new dance in mind.’ The queen’s eyes flashed. ‘If we could not have the rock, no one could. The Ebionites had proved false witness. So Tancred exiled the people and destroyed her walls; forbidding any entry. And if further proof was needed that we are God’s chosen now, the Sand Devils did the rest. Then Grandfather looked about and saw a kingdom that might be as great as the Etruscans’: we already controlled the trade routes to the east, and we had slaves aplenty to man our galleys. The Middle Sea is a better prize than Jerusalem, and if that put us in competition with the Europans – so what? We have prosperous cities along the coast, while the once-great metropolises of the Radinate have been eaten up by the Sands that spawned their impious race.’ She grasped Sofia’s hand suddenly. ‘We are queens, are we not? We see off all challengers.’ She slowly composed herself and became reserved once more, ‘Contessa, I understand time is pressing. but we would consult with our ministers.’
‘Of course.’ Sofia bowed and retreated with a feeling of new optimism. Clearly, there were powers in Oltremare that viewed an Etrurian war as an opportunity to acquire territory from the weakened states in the aftermath, but the queen impressed her as more clear-sighted: Catrina understood the existential threat Concord represented to her throne.