Assassins of Kantara

by James Boschert

  There was a long silence between the two men, as one remembered and the other watched the workings of his keeper’s face.

  “I am so terribly sorry,” Alexios whispered. “I was wounded and only managed to get home because of that same man, Talon, and his companion. I had no idea that we had left you behind,” he sighed. “It was a disaster, and the emperor barely made it home. So many were left on the side of the road to be killed and their bodies pillaged.”

  “I don’t care what happened to the rest of them!” Pantoleon shouted, all his pent up fury coming out. “I was one of his best men, one of his most important! I was his champion charioteer! Still he left me and made no attempt to find me!”

  Alexios shrank away from this rage. It took a visible effort for Pantoleon to regain his composure.

  “So you see, Alexios, my good friend, I became a pirate. Many a ship has been plundered by my men and Gabros, whom you might yet meet. He is one terrific killer, that man! Myself, I am a leader, and I can boast that is I in no small part who helped our Emperor destroy the Senators and their lackeys, their ‘administrators’.” He would not use the word eunuch. It was too close to home.

  “Do you remember those hysterical idiots who brought him back from exile in Syria to become emperor? We already knew one another, and I had established a network of spies, both within the city and outside. He knew what value I would have for him.”

  Alexios stared at his former friend and rival. “So it has been you who has systematically destroyed the senatorial class?” he demanded. “My father? All those people who died horribly were denounced by you?

  Pantoleon nodded. “The wine from your father’s cellar is excellent, by the way.”

  “What did my father ever do to you, or your father for that matter?! He had nothing to do with the fire and your father’s death, I can assure you of that!” Alexios still managed, despite his weak condition, to add bite and contempt to his words.

  Pantoleon shot him a cold and bitter look. “Yes, it has been me, and I am not yet done, Alexios Kalothesos. I intend to destroy your entire family and leave no issue to continue the name.”

  Alexios expression must have given away the panic inside him.

  “Yes, indeed I will, but in my own time, slowly. Your sister, for instance.” He watched Alexios give a start of alarm. “Oh yes, I saw her; today in fact. She came to examine my right eye. There really isn’t much wrong with it, but it was a good excuse to get near to her. Attractive, in an interesting sort of way.” Pantoleon drew out his words for the benefit of his audience.

  Had he been laid out on the table and tortured Alexios could not have imagined a more exquisite agony than this. His squeezed his eyes shut and his features crumpled with horror at what he was hearing. Tears dribbled down his filthy face to disappear into his beard.

  “You must not! She is an innocent, for God’s sake!” he whispered in a hoarse voice. “Are you such a monster that it means nothing to you, to destroy innocent people? Have you not done enough by destroying my father, her husband, and me?” He seemed to slump in his seat, but he would not remove his angry gaze from Pantoleon.

  “We’ll see.” Pantoleon smiled his grotesque grimace. “If she pleases me I might spare her, but I shall enjoy her first. She smells very nice....” He lifted his head and sniffed theatrically. “So few women please me these days,” he added ruminatively.

  With a strangled cry of pure rage, Alexios leapt up from his chair and threw himself at Pantoleon, who, while he had been anticipating some kind of reaction, was not prepared for this arm-flailing, chain-thrashing, screaming dervish who crashed into him and tipped them both onto the filthy, blood-caked floor. It took all his considerable strength for Pantoleon to eventually subdue Alexios, who fought like a devil, pummeling with his fists, scratching and roaring as he tried to kill his tormentor, but eventually Alexios was beaten unconscious, with the help of Pantoleon’s guards who came rushing in to help their master.

  Pantoleon staggered to his feet and looked down upon the unconscious body of his erstwhile assailant. He wiped the cut on the side of his mouth tentatively with the back of his hand, then shook his head, breathing heavily.

  “Don’t kill him,” he warned them, as he straightened his clothing and replaced his wig. He wasn’t ready to kill Alexios, not yet. He was needed as a bargaining piece for the goodwill of his sister.

  My life is far from my dream of life—

  Calmly contented, serenely glad;

  But, vexed and worried by daily strife,

  It is always troubled, and ofttimes sad—

  And the heights I had thought I should reach one day

  Grow dimmer and dimmer, and farther away.

  —Ella Wheeler Wilcox

  Chapter 21

  Flight

  All the way home inside the lurching litter with its closed curtains Theodora thought about the man she had just met. Who was he? Certainly one of the emperor’s highest ranking servants, he could not be otherwise living in the opulence of those chambers. How was it that in this gossip- and rumor-rife city she had never heard his name before?

  She looked down at the small bag of gold she now held in her hands. It would feed them for months and keep them warm in the winter to come. The payment was more than she could ever have expected. It left her puzzled, and with an uncomfortable feeling, because the injuries to his face had not in fact wrought much damage to the eye itself and the cataract within was in its early stages. Not a very good reason for all the trouble he’d taken to find her, she surmised.

  The man unsettled her, behaving almost as though he knew her, but from where? The look she had caught in the back of his eyes when she told him her name was frightening, and she shivered. She hoped that he never called upon her again, but feared that this would not be the case. Blinking back tears as she thought of her husband, brother, and father, Theodora felt very alone and vulnerable. They had been sentenced from this very palace. Could the man who called himself Exazenos be one of those monsters who worked for the emperor in his ghastly pogroms? Why else would he live like a prince in that place?

  The Verangians deposited her civilly enough in front of the villa gates and left her there while they tramped off back up the hill. It was already late afternoon, so there was no point in going to the academy. Theodora walked slowly, in a very thoughtful mood, along the rough path towards the house. She didn’t hear what Angelos called out to her; she just waved and walked on.

  She was still wrapped up in her thoughts when she opened the door and walked into the main room to hear voices in the living area. Instantly wary she stopped, then stepped in cautiously to find her mother talking in an animated manner to a man she recognized. Giorgios, the one-time family assistant agent, was seated near to her mother, he was smiling and sipping on a cup of wine.

  He jumped to his feet when he noticed Theodora standing at the doorway.

  “Madame! Forgive me for the intrusion. I have just come from Rhodes and Cyprus and was in the city, so I took a chance to come and see how you were,” he said.

  “Giorgios, you are always welcome!” Theodora said, a smile of relief and pleasure on her face as she walked forward to take their former servant’s hands in hers. “How have you been? How is your family? We are starved of news from outside the city.”

  Giorgios grinned with pleasure and ducked his head respectfully. “My Lady, I am well and so is my family; but alas, I see that you are not. God save us, but your mother has told me something of what has been going on. It is truly terrible.” He had tears in his eyes as he spoke but Theodora would have none of it and brushed away his remonstrances.

  “I see you have some wine, not such good vintage, I fear,” she said. Giorgios just shrugged and smiled. “It is more important that I came to see you,” he replied with genuine affection. He was a stocky man, running to a middle-aged spread and balding, but his round features were kindly. She was glad to see a friendly face.

  “Hello, Mother,” Theodora s
aid, placing a kiss on her mother’s forehead.

  “How did it go with the visit to the palace?” Joannina asked her, with concern in her voice.

  “It was strange, and I am still trying to understand what was going on. I will say one thing: the man I met was frightening. I had the impression I might know him, and I have racked my brains but cannot think where or when,” Theodora told her. “He wanted me to examine his eye; he had been badly burned at one time and said that it was giving him problems. Didn’t seem that way to me, but... he at least paid for the visit, so I cannot complain. But enough of this; Giorgios, you must tell us all. I want to hear of the exotic places you have visited since the last time you were here. It must have been two years!”

  “Closer to three, my Lady,” he answered.

  “Has it been that long?” she asked, looking distracted.

  They talked till dusk fell and Theodora went to get Damian to join them for supper. Giorgios made much of the boy, which brought a smile to her face. Their guest agreed to have some soup with them, as he had much to tell and his ship would be leaving in a week or so. He might be unable to come back, there was so much to do. The boat, he told them, was anchored in Neorion harbor. “You can even see it from here.”

  “So that is your ship?” Theodora asked him, as he pointed the vessel out to her. “I should congratulate you, you have come up in the world.”

  He smiled. “Well, it really belongs to Isaias, my partner in Rhodes, my Lady, but he trusts me with trade and hates sailing, so I am in charge of the ship, as it were. But I have news that might interest you,” he said with a glance at the doorway, as though he didn’t want to be overheard.

  “Go on,” Joannina said from her chair, raising her eyebrows with interest.

  “Do you remember a Frank named Talon?” Giorgios asked them.

  After a moment’s hesitation, both women nodded. “Yes indeed, we do remember him. What a strange young man he was. We all liked him, though.” Joannina said ruminatively.

  Theodora actually felt her ears beginning to burn. “Yes, I remember him. What of him?” she asked, trying to sound casual. Her memories of the young Frank came rushing back. Her behavior had not, as she remembered it, been altogether circumspect towards the Frank.

  Giorgios rubbed the growing patch of baldness on his receding hairline. “I was in the port of Paphos three weeks ago,” he said. “The emperor of Cyprus is known to you, I believe. Isaac Komnenos?”

  “Another Komnenos?” Theodora snapped. “Tell me, Giorgios, is he as bad as this one?”

  Giorgios looked frightened for a moment, then he nodded his head. “Every bit as bad, I’m afraid, my Lady. One of the first things he did when he conquered the island was to seek out his former tutor, beggar him, then cut off his feet. He is just as sadistic as his great uncle.”

  “So what has this to do with Talon?” Joannina demanded, after making a grimace of disgust.

  “Well, rumor has it that Sir Talon, who is a Templar Knight, managed to steal a castle from the emperor! And when the emperor wanted to take it back, Talon somehow, no one knows how, persuaded the emperor to let him keep it!”

  “Both women had reflexively put their hands to their mouths, their eyes wide with surprise and disbelief.

  “Dear God, Giorgios! Are you not joking?” Joannina asked, an expression of incredulous amusement beginning to form on her tired face.

  Giorgios shook his head with a grin. “No, my Lady, no one on the island is talking about anything else! They are also laughing behind their hands, because the emperor is loathed. From what I have heard, the castle of Kantara is virtually impregnable. No one knows how he took it, but they say that Sir Talon has been to far away lands where he learned magic. He is now a wizard who makes thunderbolts fly and destroys whole armies, and his men are invisible at night.” Giorgios seemed to relish the tale.

  “I wonder what the emperor thought about that?” Theodora asked the room at large, her tone dry, at the same time trying and failing to stop a tiny snort of laughter. She glanced over at her mother, who seemed to be having difficulty controlling her own amusement. They were both on the edge of hysterics at this preposterous tale.

  “Giorgios, you really must not tease us like this. It’s too good to be true,” Joannina begged him, waving her hands in the air like a happy preying mantis.

  Giorgios looked hurt. “I swear it upon my honor, my Lady! All of it is true! The emperor has given orders that Talon, er, Sir Talon is to be left strictly alone and his followers too,” he asserted. “It’s unbelievable, but I swear it is true!”

  “Are you sure this is the same Talon we know?” demanded Theodora.

  “I am now very sure, because I ran into one of his captains while in Paphos harbor, a Master Henry, whom I remembered from before. We met right there on the quayside! I could not believe my eyes, but it was Henry all right; he assured me that his master had been here to Constantinople, and furthermore he remembered you. Henry was avid for news, and I had to tell him the sad state of affairs in this city. Henry assures me that Talon has a following on Cyprus who would willingly die for him.”

  “Where on the island is Talon living? Where is this fabled castle of his, Giorgios?” Theodora wanted to know.

  “It is on the long strip of mountains that runs north of Famagusta, my Lady. There is a small harbor there. I have sailed past it on my way to Paphos from Alanya before.”

  Joanna nodded her head. “I am beginning to believe you, Giorgios. Talon had a friend with him, I remember.”

  “Yes, his name is Max, and he is there. The stories Henry told me of their adventures almost turned my hair gray!” Giorgios ran a hand through his sparse hair. “They had a man called Dimitri who helped translate for me, as I don’t speak their barbaric language very well. He, like Henry, seems in awe of Sir Talon.

  It is Dimitri who told me that Talon had come back from a great sea journey to lands far, far to the east where the silk is from. Dimitri told me of the time when Talon threw a thunderbolt down to the ground and many of the emperor’s men perished in an instant.”

  “So there is much more to this story than the few words you have told us,” Joannina said. She turned to her grandson, who was listening wide-eyed to the visitor. “Damian, you may stay up just this once to hear the story, but then it is straight to bed. Theo, please put another log on the fire, I am cold. We must have a good bottle of wine left somewhere! Giorgios, please stay; have some more of our awful wine and tell us all!”

  Theodora went back to work the next day in a very thoughtful mood. Her encounter with the strange man Exazenos, combined with the news of Talon’s exploits, had made for an almost sleepless night. She managed to work her way through the day and returned home, expecting to rest and relax, but she was disappointed.

  The gate man, Angelos, must have been waiting for her. As soon as he spied her coming down the road he hobbled out towards her as fast as he could.

  “Madame, Madame, wait!” he called, waving his arms.

  Theodora stopped and allowed him to catch up.

  “What is it, Angelos?” she asked the puffing old man, who bowed and said, “Madame you have a visitor.”

  Theodora ducked her head, acknowledging the news. “Do you know who it is?” she asked.

  “Someone who has an escort of soldiers and came on a fine looking horse. He is badly scarred, what little of his face I could see, Madame.”

  Theodora blinked, and her heart sank. “Exazenos!”

  “Thank you, Angelos. I will go to meet with him,” she said, and made her way along the pathway towards the house feeling as though she had a lump of lead in her stomach. Sure enough, there was a palanquin standing on the grass and a small group of dismounted soldiers watering their horses at the old trough while talking amongst themselves. They stopped talking when they spied her walking towards them.

  As she passed, she heard a muttered comment from one of the men to another. It was a crude remark that angered her, but she held
her head high and pretended not to hear them. Her heart beating hard against her ribs, she made her way to the entrance, where two guards stood waiting. They nodded politely enough to her, and she passed into the main hall. The murmur of conversation from within alerted her that the visitor was talking to her mother.

  As she came into the room the visitor stood up and turned to greet her. Once again there was something familiar about him that she couldn’t place.

  “Ah, there you are, my dear,” her mother called out. “We have a visitor. Such a nice man, he has been so interesting.”

  “Hello, mother,” Theodora said, and gave Exazenos a wary look with a question in it.

  He gave her the grimace that passed as a smile and extended his hand to greet her. She gave him her hand but felt like recoiling as he held it.

  “I was passing by on my way back to the palace when I decided to make a call upon you, my Lady,” he said, as he bowed over her hand. She resisted snatching it away from him.

  Her mind was racing. What was he doing here?

  “I came because there is an emergency, my Lady. I need you to come with me to the palace. At once.”

  “At once?” she asked. “Surely it can wait until tomorrow. It is late and I am very tired.”

  “I am very sorry, my Lady, but it cannot wait. You must come with me,” he voice carried iron in it that she didn’t miss. She stared up at him; he was taller than she by half a hand.

  “What could possibly be so urgent that I must leave tonight for the palace?” she demanded.

  “I shall explain as soon as we arrive, but you must come. Please, I have brought a litter for your comfort. It is will not take very long.”

  She turned to her mother. “I should not be too late, Mother. Please do not fret yourself.”