Pericles nodded his agreement. “Generally speaking, travel by ship is faster than travel on land. You saw how much faster we traveled to Babylon once we reached the Euphrates. The main issue is supplies. If we have to stop to resupply, we’ll lose any speed advantage. So, I recommend we split the fleet. Let’s create an invasion fleet with soldiers, and cannons and as much supplies as we can fit, we’ll toss out everything not necessary and cram every nook and cranny with extra food and water. At least enough to reach Kozhikode and support the army until the supply fleet arrives.”
“OK, figure out if we can make enough space. If we can, let’s do it.”
Soon we had carpenters and other workers modifying ships, taking out unnecessary things (like captain’s bunks – to their loud, but ineffective complaints) and retrofitting cargo space for as much storage as possible. It was going to be tight. Since these ships were powered by oars, much of the space was needed for oarsmen. They were, as Pericles said, river boats or coasters, designed to never be far from the next port and not designed to carry much in the way of supplies.
Still, it was our best hope of catching Aspasia. We put the soldiers on ¾ rations (which is a hard thing for men who are rowing all day) and set to sea (well, at least to the part of the sea that can still see the shore).
I worried about everything. Would the weather hold? Were the sailors going to be able to keep up speed on short rations? Would Aspasia be there when we arrived?
We set up the sailors to row on shifts, not stopping until full dark (one problem with keeping close to the coast, is that you couldn’t sail at night, out of fear of shallow waters or rocks) and everyone would take a shift rowing (which raised a loud complaint from the officers, amazing how quickly people become accustomed to positions of privilege), even me and the rest of the Distillery crew. Not Rose or Melite (apparently, rowing is bad for nursing mothers), but everyone else. Nobody really knew how long the trip would be, our ‘experienced’ captains’ estimates ranged from 4 days to 2 months, so we planned on 2 months and hoped for the best.
Aside from the constant work, bad food (of which there was never enough), cramped living space and the stink of 200 unwashed bodies, it was quite pleasant on the sea. The waters were relatively calm and the progress of the fleet was satisfying.
We must have been a little way down off the Indian coast when a giant storm blew up out of the south. I’d lived through Super Storm Sandy in New York, but let me tell you: A giant storm is a completely different animal when you are in a high-rise apartment building than when you are on a tiny (tiny!) ship. We were tossed and tossed and turned and turned. I’ve never been more frightened in my life and I’m a man who has almost been beaten to death twice and fought against Spartans.
The wind howled, and giant waves swept over the deck of the ship. Poor Rose was terrified and huddled below deck where at, at least, she couldn’t see the storm. We shipped the oars, useless as they were, and hoped to ride the storm out.
The noise was deafening and the constant flashing of lightening blinded us. I guess that’s what kept us from noticing as one of the ships behind us exploded.
We’ll never know exactly what happened, but I can guess. Either the ship was struck by lightning, or somehow a fire was started, or something got knocked loose and crashed into a barrel of gunpowder. According to the following ships the explosion was sudden and spectacular.
We’d been working with gunpowder for a longtime now with relatively few accidents. I knew how dangerous the stuff was and set up strict safety procedures for anybody handling it. But, as I knew, eventually we were bound to have a serious accident.
And here it was. So, I added another 200 lives to my burden of guilt. Union soldiers. Men and women who had trusted me with their lives, and so lost them.
Was it worth it? Who can say? All men die and once you are dead it’s as if you were never born (at least to you). So, in some sense, it doesn’t matter if you live a long time or a short time, live a happy life or a horrible one. In some sense. I know this, but it doesn’t help the guilt. I want them all to live long, healthy and happy lives. It doesn’t matter on the grand scale of things, but it matters to me.
The storm beat us for most of a day. When it was over we took stock of our fleet. 5 ships sunk (800 more sailors to mourn), including the explosion, 17 inoperable and 9 damaged but operable. We distributed the sailors from the inoperable ships to the rest of the fleet and sank them. The damaged but operable ships would slow us down, so we sank them as well (after taking their sailors too, of course).
We were a sadder and smaller fleet. We ordered a portion of vodka distributed to the sailors and extra portions of food and water. And we held funeral ceremonies for the dead.
Taking a page out of the Roman Catholic Church’s Crusade Handbook, I’d announced earlier that any soldier (or support staff) dying during service to the Union was guaranteed automatic rebirth to a happy life. Our funeral ceremonies reminded the living of the happy fate of the dead.
They all seemed mollified. I, of course, knew better. As it turns out, the best cure for a crisis of conscience is to be stuck on a boat thousands of miles from home. With no option to turn back, I kept going and eventually the rightness of our cause took its old place in the front of my mind and, I am ashamed to say, my guilt over the dead, receded.
15 days after leaving the mouth of the Euphrates our scout ship reported Kozhikode was in sight. They had sighted a navigable estuary a few miles north of the city and another a few miles south. It was perfect for landing our divided army.
So, we directed half the fleet to the upper estuary and half to the lower and coordinating with signal lamps we landed our army. 10,000 troops to the north and a slightly smaller contingent to the south. Once landed the fleet sailed back out to sea, out of sight of the city, and organized a naval blockade.
Our two armies quickly split into 4, with each sending roughly 1/3 of its troops east to circle around the back of the city. In this way we would have the city surrounded and make an escape, if not impossible, at least very risky.
Now, we had to hope that Pericles was right and that Aspasia would bargain rather than attempt to escape. Assuming she was in Kozhikode.
I was with the southern army marching north, while Tros took the northern army south and Pericles and one of Tros’ commanders each took an army east. Socrates rode with Melite and Alice and Rose and I, just in case.
This was a particularly dangerous part of the campaign. We were so far from Greece, we couldn’t expect our reputation to proceed us. Maybe the size of our army would convince them to give up, but maybe they would do something stupid and decide to fight.
I really didn’t have the stomach for more death. Once again, I couldn’t eat or sleep. I was constantly on the verge of tears and/or vomiting. I didn’t understand how Pericles could be so calm, even cheerful.
But there was no time to indulge my psychological and moral pain. We had a city to capture and a little girl to liberate.
We set a fast march. We were more than half a day from the city and we needed to arrive before dark. We put the cannons in back and set the infantry and cavalry in front. If we arrived a few hours before the cannons that would (probably) be ok.
It was a good thing too, because one of the lead cannons broke an axle, stranding all the other cannons behind it. It took 50 men the better part of an hour to pull it out of the way.
A few hours later the city came into sight and I was happy to see our eastern army also approaching. They signaled that they had visual contact with the southern army. Assuming the fleet was in place we had the city surrounded!
Night was approaching as the army set up camp and the Distillery crew and I along with our translators approached the city gate.
Our translators only spoke Persian, so we had to hope they had a Persian speaker. If not, negotiations were going to be difficult.
We didn’t want to take the city by force if we could avoid it and we also didn’t want to
cause any kind of anti-Aspasia sentiment that might result in a mob. So, we sent a pair of our translators to request a meeting with a representative of the city under a guarantee of safety.
Apparently there was a communications problem so we waited about an hour while they found someone who spoke Persian.
After much discussion, they finally agreed to send out a representative. A small door in the gate was unlocked and four men came out.
Negotiating with a translator is a weird experience. You can never be 100% sure that you are communicating exactly what you think you are saying. Of course, that’s really no different than any conversation.
“Hi, thanks for coming out to talk to us. I’m Robert and this is my wife Melite and our daughters Rose and Alice.” I think seeing my family shook them up even more than the army camped outside their walls. What kind of man brings an infant on a military campaign? Either a supremely confident man, or a lunatic. Either way, that’s bad news.
“Let me assure you that our intentions are entirely peaceful. Well, almost entirely peaceful. We are Greeks, and we have reason to believe that you have a Greek woman, named Aspasia, and a child in your city. We simply want to speak to them and then we’ll leave you in peace and go return the way we came.”
“I am Durai. I am prime minister of his most Royal Highness Jagjit, king of Kozhikode. We are most pleased that you proclaim peace. Although, this,” he gestured around at the army, “is the most military peace I have ever seen. I know the woman you speak of. We call her Jyothi for her color, but I do not know her other name. I will have her summoned immediately.”
“Thank you, Durai, for your cooperation. I regret greatly the necessity of the army. I assure you again that we will leave as soon as possible and we will pay a fee for use of the fields and any damage the army might do while we are here. I also regret that we cannot permit anyone to leave the city until our business is concluded. Quickly, I hope.
“It is most important that neither the woman nor the child be harmed in any way. If she will not come willingly, don’t force her. Simply ensure that she doesn’t leave and we will send a delegation to her.”
He gave a slight bow “It will be done as you ask. If she will not come, I will post guards to ensure that she awaits your delegation. I will return as soon as I have spoken with her.”
I gave him a little bow too. “Thank you. We will await your return.”
As they walked back to the city, Socrates sat on the ground and pulled a jar from his sack. “Anyone for a bit of vodka and fig juice?”
We all sat. Tros started a small fire and we waited. I could tell that Tros was nervous.
“Nervous, Tros?” I asked as I passed him the jar.
He took a long drink. “Yes! Hell yes! I can’t believe that we have found her! But I don’t trust Aspasia. No offence Pericles. I just can’t help but think that something is going to go wrong and they’ll slip away or, oh my god, something will happen to Cilo!”
Melite put her hand on his to comfort him, in addition to being sarcastic and scary, she can be sweet too. “Now that we’ve found them I’m sure it will be ok. Somehow.”
I put my arm around his shoulder. “I know you’re worried. We all are.” Everyone nodded. “But we’ll know soon enough how this is going to go. I’ve already promised you, there is nothing I won’t do to free Cilo and I’m telling you the same thing now.”
“Thanks. Thank you all. Pass me that jar. I need another drink.”
Alice and Rose slept and the rest of us drank and waited. Nobody spoke much.
It was long past midnight when the door opened again and 5 people stepped out. Durai, his interpreter, and three newcomers. One of the newcomers was a tall well-muscled man and we couldn’t tell anything about the other two since they wore hooded robes. Pericles and Tros stood and put their hands on their swords. And I saw Pericles motion to some soldiers to come closer.
Durai came to stand in the light of our fire. “Lord Robert, I have done as you asked. The woman you seek is here.” He gestured to one of the hooded figures and it stepped forward and threw back the hood to reveal Aspasia!
Our group gasped in shock as if we were one person. I don’t think anybody really expected her to just come out to see us. I hate how she always seemed able to surprise me.
“Robert. How nice to finally meet you.” She look around at the others and gave a slight start when she saw Pericles. “Pericles, my love, I’d heard that you had joined with them. I’m, frankly, a little disappointed.”
Pericles looked as if she had slapped him.
“Aspasia.” I nodded. “I hope that it will be nice to finally meet you too. You know what we want.”
“Right to business? I’d heard that you were a man with a sense of humor.”
“I don’t think there is anything funny about our current situation. Give us Cilo and we’ll leave in peace.”
She laughed “Ah, there’s that famous sense of humor. Durai, may believe that, wishful thinking and all, but I don’t for a moment think that you’ll just take the child and march your army away.”
I sighed. “Ok. You wouldn’t have come unless you wanted to make a deal. What do you want?”
“Only that you deal honestly with me, and I will deal honestly with you.”
“In the past, your honest dealings have left a bad taste in my mouth.”
“I’ll give you a sample of my good will.” She nodded to the other hooded figure and it stepped into the firelight. I could see that its hands were bound. Aspasia grabbed the hood and pulled it back. Eleni!
Now it was Tros’ turn to gasp and look stricken. He ran to her, but the large man pushed him back, Tros started to draw his sword, when Melite, put her hand on his arm and pulled him back.
Aspasia pushed Eleni forward and Tros rushed to untie her. “She’s all yours.” She smiled “See, I can be generous. Now show me how you can be generous with me.”
“What do you want?” I asked.
“A guaranteed safe passage from Kozhikode, 50 talents of gold and,” she gestured toward Durai, “Durai’s head on a spike.”
There was an explosion of comments, most loudly from Durai.
“Joke!” She held up her hands, “I’m just joking. The safe passage and the gold will be enough.”
I shrugged. “Done. Where is Cilo? How can we know that she is safe?”
“Her mother can tell you the Cilo is safe, we were all together, a happy little family, up to the moment you so rudely surrounded the city.”
Eleni nodded her agreement. “Cilo is safe. I don’t know where.” She was crying softly.
“Ok, I accept that Cilo is safe. Deliver her to us and you’ll get your gold and safe passage.”
“You ARE a funny man! Deliver me the gold, and once I am safely away, Cilo will be released.”
There were mummers of protest, “Ok. I’ll have the gold delivered immediately. When will Cilo be freed?”
“Well, there is the little matter of my safe passage.”
“You have my word, you won’t be stopped or interfered with in any way.”
“Your word as High Priest of the Great God Einstein?”
“Yes. My word as High Priest and as leader of the Union and personally.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be good enough.”
“What about if we just kill you now? Then your friends won’t have any reason to hold Cilo.” Tros broke in.
Aspasia laughed. “They’ll have the same reason I had. Their own protection. Once you kill me, they’ll certainly fear for their lives. Maybe, they’ll think, the best thing to do would be to kill Cilo and act as if they never knew her?” She smiled sweetly. “Now, as I was saying, about my safe passage. I’ve contracted with a ship to take me away from here. Unfortunately, you have the port blockaded.”
“I’ll call off the blockade immediately. You’re free to go at any time. Just give us Cilo.”
“You’re intellect is highly overrated if you think that would be sufficient
. How do I know you won’t follow me? Your word? No, something more is needed.”
I was exasperated. “What do you want?!”
She smiled. “Burn all your ships, and every other ship in the port, except mine. Once my ship is safely away, Cilo will be released.”
There was more uproar in the circle. “OK.” I turned to Tros, but he was busy with Eleni, so I turned to Pericles. “Order it done. Have the gold delivered to her ship.” I turned back to Aspasia. “It’s done. No one will follow you. But I swear if Cilo isn’t delivered safely, nowhere on Earth will be safe for you. We found you once and we’ll find you again.”
She smiled. “You gave in so easily, I wish I had asked for more. Don’t worry, Cilo is safe and she’ll be delivered safely.” She put her hand on my face. “Be a dear and pay my man half a talent, I promised him you’d take good care of him if he took good care of Cilo. He’s just a slave so he really has no choice.”
I pulled back from her touch and nodded my agreement.
She called to Pericles, “My ship is the ‘Asia’ you can deliver the gold there and, in the name of Zeus, make sure your people don’t burn it.”
And she walked back to the city. I guess we should have been happy, but somehow we were a sad group. The normally unflappable Pericles looked more shaken than I had ever seen him (and this is a man who I’d met for the first time right after I’d taken his city from him), Eleni was still crying into Tros’ shoulder and everyone else was furious that Aspasia was going to walk away free and rich.
Still, if we got Cilo back it would be all worth it.
After a few moments, Pericles pulled himself together and went off to order the gold and burn the ships. By morning most of our fleet had landed their crew and cargo and the port was full of burning ships. We moved them to deep water to avoid clogging the harbor and to one side to leave a safe passage for Aspasia’s ship.
She boarded her ship late in the morning after the last ship was torched. I’d ordered soldiers to search all her belongings as they were loaded to make sure Cilo wasn’t smuggled aboard.
Soon, her ship pulled away from the dock and was leaving the port, barely visible in the smoke filled air.
A New York Lawyer in the Court of Pericles Page 24