The Sheen of the Silk

chapter 21-22
Twenty-one

ANNA PUT AWAY THE HERBS INTO HER CASE, SAID A FEW last words of advice to the patient, then excused herself.

"Thank you," Nicephoras said sincerely as she came out into the hallway. He had obviously been waiting for her. "Will Meletios recover?" The concern was apparent in the slight strain in his voice. He was sending for her more and more often lately.

"Oh yes," she said confidently, praying she was right. "His fever's broken. Just get him to drink, and then start him eating again soon, perhaps tomorrow."

Nicephoras was clearly relieved. She had found him to be both compassionate and highly intelligent. She had become increasingly aware of a loneliness in him to share the excitement of his knowledge. He not only collected works of art, especially from antiquity, but even more he loved the treasures of the mind and hungered to share them.

They walked together from the anteroom to one of the great galleries. He guided her a little to the left. "Have you met John Beccus, the new patriarch?"

"No." She was interested and knew that it showed in her voice. This was the calling that Constantine had wanted, even though he was obliged to hide it.

"He is with the emperor now. If you wait a short while, I shall introduce you," Nicephoras offered.

"Thank you," she accepted quickly. They fell into conversation about art, moving into history and the events that had inspired certain styles, and from that into philosophy and religion. She found his views more liberal than she had expected, teasing her mind with new and broader ideas.

"I have just been reading some works by an Englishman named Roger Bacon," he said with intense enthusiasm. "I have never discovered a mind like his. He writes of mathematics, optics, alchemy, and the manufacture of a fine black powder which can explode"-he jerked his hands apart to demonstrate-"with great force, when it is ignited. The thought is exciting and terrifying. It could be used for immense good, and perhaps even greater evil." He looked at Anna's face to judge her appreciation of what he had said, the sheer intellectual excitement of it.

"He is an Englishman?" Anna repeated. "Did he discover this stuff, or invent it?"

"I don't know. Why?" Then he understood. "He is a Franciscan, not a crusader," he said quickly. "He has many practical ideas, such as how lenses could be ground and then assembled into a machine so that the tiniest objects could appear enormous, and you could see them quite clearly." His voice lifted again with the love of pure knowledge. "And other lenses so that objects miles distant could seem to be only yards away. Consider what that could do for the traveler, especially at sea. He is either one of the greatest geniuses in the world, or he lives in an ecstasy of madness."

She looked down, hating what she was thinking. "Perhaps he is a genius, and can see all these things, but is he wise? The two are not the same."

"I have no idea," Nicephoras answered gently. "What is it you are afraid of? Would it be bad to see things in the distance more clearly? He writes of being able to fix some of these lenses in a contraption so you could wear them on your nose, and those who cannot now see would be able to read." His voice rose with his excitement. "And he studies also the size, position, and paths of celestial bodies. He has worked out great theories on the movement of water, and how it could be used in machines to lift and carry things, and to create an engine that transforms steam into power which could drive ships across the sea, regardless of the wind or the oar! Imagine it."

"Can we make these things that explode?" she asked softly. "Machines that create steam to drive ships across the sea, without the wind in the sails, or men at the oars?" She could not rid herself of the fear of such things, the power it would give the nation that possessed them.

"I expect so." He frowned slightly, as if at the first touch of a chill. "Then we need not be prisoners of the wind."

She looked up at him. "The kings and princes of England come on crusade, don't they?" It was a statement. Everyone knew of Richard, known as the Lionheart, and of course more recently Prince Edward.

"You think they will use these things in war?" Nicephoras was pale now, his excitement bled away, leaving horror like an open wound.

"Would you trust them not to?"

"Bacon is a scientist, an inventor, a discoverer of the miracles of God in the universe." He shook his head. "He is not a man of war. His religion is one of wonder, the conquest of ignorance, not of lands."

"And perhaps he thinks all other men are the same," she said dryly, an edge of sarcasm in her tone. "I don't, do you?"

He was about to respond again when the door opened and John Beccus emerged from the emperor's presence. He was imposing, a gaunt and hatchet-faced man. He wore his magnificent robes with elegance, the silk tunic under a heavy, sweeping dalmatica. But far more than his mere physical presence, there was a power of emotion in him that commanded attention.

After acknowledging Anna, he looked at Nicephoras. "There will be a great deal to do," he said almost by way of an order. "We must have no more disturbances like that last miserable affair. Constantine seems incapable of controlling his adherents. Personally, I have doubts about his own loyalties." He frowned. "We must either persuade him, or silence him. The union must be carried through. You understand that? Independence is no longer a luxury we can afford. We must pay a certain price in order to avoid having to pay everything. Is that not obvious enough? The survival of both church and state are tied to the issue."

He chopped his large-knuckled hand savagely in the air, his rings gleaming. "If Charles of Anjou invades-and make no mistake, if we are separate from Rome he will-then it will be the end of Byzantium. Our people will be decimated, exiled to who knows where? And without our churches, our city, our culture, how will the faith survive?"

"I know that, Your Grace," Nicephoras answered gravely, his face pale. "Either we yield something now, or everything later. I have spoken to Bishop Constantine, but he believes that faith is our best shield, and I cannot shake him from that."

A shadow crossed Beccus's high face, and a flash of arrogance. "Fortunately, the emperor sees the stakes even more clearly than I do," he replied. "And he will save every jot he can, whether some of our more naive religious orders can see that or not." He made an almost cursory sign of the cross and swept away in a swirl of jewel-encrusted robes, the light flickering on him as if it were fire.

Walking away from the palace and back down the hill toward her own house, the wind in her face, Anna thought hard about the passions and the issues she had heard, both from Nicephoras and from the new patriarch.

There was ruthlessness in John Beccus she had not expected, yet she realized that without it he would be useless. Maybe she had been too emotional and simplistic in her judgment? Constantine might need to be just as devious to succeed, just as willing to use all the weapons he could reach.

And what of this Englishman who could see for miles, drive ships without wind or oar, and, perhaps worst of all, create a powder that exploded? Whose hands might that fall into? Charles of Anjou? If Nicephoras knew of it, who else did?

Now murder did not seem so unlikely, to get rid of both Bessarion and Justinian by murdering one and contriving that the other should be blamed for it. Antoninus might be incidental, not an intended victim at all. She shivered as she realized how much more likely it was that whoever had done this, one person or several, had actually intended Justinian to be the one executed.

When she knew just a little more, she must find a way to ask Nicephoras about the trial of Justinian and Antoninus. As one of the most intimate advisers of the emperor, he had to know. There was no office of prosecutor. The emperor himself was regarded as "living law," and his word was final, as to both verdict and punishment. Michael had chosen to execute one man and yet only exile the other.

The punishment of Justinian and Antoninus not only would get rid of them from the scene, but would also frighten and confuse any other conspirators against union, leaving only Constantine and the leaderless masses who were against every disturbance and change.

Who was the real killer? A betrayer among them, an infiltrator or intruder? Even an agent provocateur on Michael's behalf? It would be understandable. The emperor was embattled on all sides, surrounded by ambition, bigotry, religious fanaticism. Yet he alone was responsible to make the final decisions for his people's survival, not only in the world, but perhaps in heaven also.

Twenty-two

ANNA CONTINUED TO WATCH AND LISTEN, BUT THE answer was always the same: She needed to know more about the people surrounding Bessarion in the last years of his life. Perhaps the women he had known might reveal more to her; she would certainly understand them better. Naturally she did not say this to Zoe when she visited her to offer her some new and interesting herbs, but she did ask her help in widening her practice.

Her reward came a week later, when Zoe asked her to call again. This time she was shown into a different room from the one in which she was usually received. This was more formal and beautiful in a traditional way. There was nothing here that seemed to reveal Zoe's character, as if in this part of the house she received people whom she wished to keep at arm's length.

Helena was there, exquisitely dressed in dark wine red set with jewels. Her hair was ornamented and gleamed like black silk. Clearly she was no longer in mourning. She watched Anna with an interest devoid of kindness.

There was another, older woman present of commanding demeanor, as different from Zoe as possible. She was barely of average height and uniquely ugly. Her expensively embroidered blue green dalmatica could not disguise her wide, bony, almost masculine shoulders or her lack of bosom. Her broad nose was too strong for her face. Her light eyes were brilliant with intelligence, and her mouth was delicate but without sensuality.

Zoe introduced her as Eirene Vatatzes, and only then, when she smiled, did she momentarily possess an illusion of loveliness. Then it was gone.

With her was a tall young man. His long, dark face was not quite handsome but held a promise of considerable power to come, perhaps in ten years' time when he was in his late forties. He was a startling contrast to Eirene, and Anna was surprised when he was introduced as her son, Demetrios.

They spoke politely of trivial matters until finally Zoe mentioned that she had been badly burned in an accident. She told how Anna had healed her, holding out her arm to display the unblemished skin for Eirene's appreciation. She also looked at Helena with a flash of amusement that was very easy for Anna to read.

From then on, the conversation was less comfortable. Helena was sharp, walking across the room with an exaggeratedly graceful movement as if to display her youth in front of the two older women. She did not even glance at Demetrios, but she might as well have stared at him. It was for his attention; she clearly did not care in the least what Anna thought of her. She passed by her as if she barely existed.

Suddenly, Anna found the muted blues of her own tunic and the necessity of her eunuch mannerisms more than usually imprisoning. She felt as if she stood on the edge of the room like a cipher, while the exchanges, spoken and unspoken, passed in front of her. Did all eunuchs feel like this? Did a woman as unlovely as Eirene Vatatzes feel a little of the same thing?

She saw Zoe looking at her with bright, clever eyes. Too much understanding.

The conversation turned to religion, as sooner or later every conversation in Byzantium did. Helena had no particular faith, which was clear from her manner as much as her words. She was beautiful, physically very immediate, but there was no soul in her. Anna could see that, but was it invisible to a man?

She listened to them, averting her eyes slightly so as not to be noticed.

"Very tedious," Zoe said with a shrug. "But it all comes to money, in the end." She was looking at Eirene.

Helena looked from her mother to Eirene and back again. "With Bessarion, it was the faith, pure and simple," she contradicted.

Eirene's face flickered with impatience, but she kept it in check. "To organize a faith and keep it alive you need a Church, and to keep a Church you need money, my dear." The words were gentle, even affectionate, but there was a condescension in them of the highly intelligent to the intellectually shallow. "And to defend a city we need both faith and armaments. Since the Venetians stole our relics we have far fewer pilgrims, even since our return in 1262. And most of the silk trade has gone to Arabia, Egypt, and Venice. Trade may be tedious to you, and perhaps to many of those who buy the artifacts, the games, and the fabrics. Perhaps you find blood messy, it smells ugly, it soils the linen, it attracts flies-but try living without it."

Helena wrinkled her nose in slight revulsion at the simile, but she did not dare argue.

Amusement flashed in Zoe's eyes. "Eirene understands finances better than most men do," she observed, not entirely with kindness. "In fact, I have sometimes wondered if Theodorus Doukas really runs the Treasury, or if it is you, most discreetly, of course."

Eirene smiled, a faint flush in her sallow cheeks. Anna had the sudden thought that there was much truth in Zoe's remark, and the fact that she perceived it was not entirely displeasing to Eirene.

Conspicuously, Helena said nothing.

Anna became aware that Zoe was watching her, half smiling.

"Do we bore you with our talk of doctrine and politics?" Zoe asked her. "Perhaps we should ask Demetrios for some tales of his Varangian Guard? Colorful men, from all sorts of barbarous places. Lands where the sun shines at midnight in the summer, and it is dark all winter long."

"One or two of them," Demetrios agreed. "Others are from Kiev, or Bulgaria, or the principalities of the Danube, or the Rhine."

Zoe shrugged. "You see?"

Anna felt herself blushing. She had not been listening. "I was thinking," she lied. "Realizing how much I still have to learn of politics."

"Well, if you've learned that, I suppose you have achieved something," Helena said waspishly.

Zoe did not hide her laughter, but there was a crackle of ice in her voice when she turned to Helena. "Your tongue is sharper than your mind, my dear," she said softly. "Anastasius knows how to dissemble, and mask his intelligence with humility. You would do well to learn the same trick. It is not always wise to appear clever." She blinked. "Even if you were."

Eirene smiled, then instantly looked away, and the moment after, Anna found her bright, clear eyes fixed steadily on her, curious and interested.

Helena was talking again, looking at Demetrios.

Antoninus might have loved her because he alone could find the tenderness in her. Anna had no idea what they might have shared. Helena might suffer alone now, not daring to let anyone else see, least of all her mother or this other clever, ugly woman who carried such hurt in her face.

Anna looked across to where Helena was standing with Demetrios. She was smiling, and he appeared self-conscious.

"He is beginning to look like his father," Zoe observed, glancing sideways at Eirene, then back at Demetrios. "Have you heard from Gregory lately?" she continued.

"Yes," Eirene said tersely.

Anna saw that she stiffened, her body becoming more angular just in the way she stood.

Zoe seemed amused. "Is he still in Alexandria? I see no reason for him to remain there now. Or does he believe we are going to be decimated by the Latins again? I never knew him to care a jot about the intricacies of religion."

"Really?" Eirene said with raised eyebrows, her brilliant eyes ice cold. "But then perhaps you did not know him nearly as well as you imagined."

The color was brighter in Zoe's cheeks. "Perhaps not," she agreed. "We had some wonderful conversations, but I cannot recall that they were ever about religion." She smiled.

"Hardly the circumstances conducive to matters of the spirit," Eirene agreed. She turned to look at Demetrios again. "Yes, he does look like his father," she said. "A pity you did not have a son... by any of your... lovers."

Zoe's face tightened as if she had been slapped. "I would not advise allowing Demetrios to admire Helena too much," she said softly, in little more than a whisper. "It could be... unfortunate."

Eirene lost the last trace of blood from beneath her skin. She stared at Zoe, then turned with a freezing look to Anna. "It is agreeable to make your acquaintance, Anastasius, but I shall not be availing myself of your services. I do not put potions on my face in a desperate attempt to cling to youth, and fortunately my health is excellent, as is my conscience. Should it not be, I have my own physician to consult. A Christian one. I have heard that you use Jewish remedies on occasion. I prefer not to. I am sure you will understand, especially in these strange and disloyal times." Without waiting for Anna to reply, Eirene nodded briefly to Zoe and took her leave, Demetrios following after her.

Helena looked at her mother, appeared to consider picking a quarrel over the issue, and decided better of it. "So much for your further clientele," she said to Anna. "I don't know what you were hoping for, but Mother seems to have made it impossible." She smiled brightly. "You will have to seek your business elsewhere."

Anna excused herself also and left. There had been no possible retaliation she could afford to make, dearly as she would have liked to.

She spent a long evening turning over and over in her mind what bound these people together who seemed to have so little in common. Anna could not believe it was faith, but it could perhaps be hatred of Rome.

The following morning was Sunday, and she walked alone to the Hagia Sophia to attend the Mass. She wanted to be where neither Simonis nor Leo could see her or question her mood. Perhaps the glory of the building and the power of the familiar words would comfort her, remind her of the certainties that mattered.

On the steps almost in the shadow of the dome, she nearly bumped into Zoe. It was impossible to avoid her without being both rude and slightly absurd.

"Ah, Anastasius," Zoe said blandly. "How are you? I apologize for Eirene's odd manners. She is a woman of peculiar moods. Perhaps you could treat her for it? She would benefit greatly." She fell into step beside Anna as they moved toward the Tarsus doors. "As would all those around her," she added.

Once they entered the building, it was as if Anna had ceased to exist. Zoe was as wrapped in the intensity of her thoughts as she was in the dark folds of her robe. Zoe stepped to one side, at the tomb of Doge Enrico Dandolo. A look of scalding hate filled her face; her eyes narrowed, and her lips curled into a snarl. Her body clenched, and she spat violently onto the cursed name. Then, chin high, she moved away.

Without looking to left or right, she went straight to one of the outer colonnades of arches and found an icon of the Virgin. She stood before it with her head bowed.

Anna was a little to the left of her and saw her face, eyes closed, mouth soft, and lips slightly parted, as though she breathed in the essence of a holy place. Anna believed she prayed quite genuinely, several times repeating the same words over and over.

Anna looked at the Madonna holding her child, the calm joy radiating from her face more than from the gold of the mosaic creator's art. There was something purely human in it, a power of the spirit to which she had been a witness.

Anna felt it like an ache within herself for something forever lost, a grief for what could not be. And she felt guilt because she herself had given it away, not in generosity or sacrifice, but in fury and in a revulsion so savage that she had allowed it to possess her. Was there forgiveness for that? She left, tears spilling hot on her face, all but choking her.

As she passed the tomb of Enrico Dandolo on the way out, she saw a man there, a cloth in his hand, carefully wiping away the spittle where Zoe, and others, had vented their hatred. He stopped and looked up at her, his dark eyes finding hers, recognizing the pain but puzzled.

Another woman walked past and, disregarding him, spat on the tomb.

He turned back to it and began patiently cleaning it again.

Anna stood and watched. His hands were beautiful, strong and slender, working as if nothing had happened.

She regarded his face, knowing he was unaware of her, set on his task. There was power in the line of his bones, vulnerability in his mouth. She would like to think he could laugh, quickly, easily if the wit was good, but there was nothing of ease in him now, only an intense loneliness.

Anna felt it also, an ache inside her almost beyond bearing, because outwardly she was neither man nor woman, only a solitary person loved perhaps only by God-but not yet forgiven by Him.