Tom Swan and the Head of St. George Part Four: Rome

by Christian Cameron

  Bessarion nodded. ‘Yes – I imagine some of them are men like other men. I am arranging for you to be accepted as a Donat – a volunteer – with the order. This will allow you to serve on their galleys. Our Pope has just signed a bull stating that service on the order’s galleys will win remission of your sins.’

  Swan nodded. ‘That’s … good,’ he said slowly.

  Bessarion laughed out loud. He threw his head back and roared, and for a moment, with his long beard and bushy white eyebrows, he looked like the Silenus Satyr that Swan had seen in Florence. He laughed for several ticks of his enormous German clock.

  ‘My boy, there are few men in Christendom who need remission of their sins more than you do, and few with less interest. In a way, you are the perfect exemplar of – of …’ Bessarion shook his head.

  ‘Foolishness?’ Swan ventured.

  ‘Youth!’ Bessarion said. ‘Here’s a note for the prior – he’s the senior officer of the order in Rome. He’ll take your oath. Thomas, do me an enormous favour, and do not dishonour your oath to the order. For me.’

  Swan put his hand on his heart. ‘I will be a faithful … er, Donat. Is that like being a knight?’

  ‘Very like,’ Bessarion said. ‘Men pay vast sums of money for the rank.’

  Suddenly Swan was pleased. ‘Ah!’ he said. ‘I’ll do it as well as I can,’ he added earnestly. Suddenly, under his youthful show of indifference, he was afire. The Order of St John!

  Bessarion handed him two scrolls. ‘These are your patents of nobility, and this is the Pope’s grant to you. The prior will want both of them. By Saint George, Thomas, I only wish I was going to be there to see you with the knights.’ He waved his hand. ‘Be off with you.’

  Swan smiled winningly. ‘Eminence, you say I saved some good things. I brought other things back.’ He opened his sack and began to place objects on the cardinal’s desk.

  Bessarion began looking at them impatiently, and muttered something about appointments. But the coin with Alexander’s head and ram’s horns arrested him – another with Medusa made him laugh aloud. The small seals with intricate scenes carved on them – one homoerotic and one heteroerotic – both made him laugh. The spearhead he put aside, and then held out the butt spike.

  ‘I suspect your military education is better than mine,’ he said.

  Swan shook his head. ‘I don’t know the Greek word,’ he admitted. ‘But I think it went on the base of the spear.’

  ‘Beautiful – like a Greek column,’ said Bessarion, weighing it in his hand.

  Swan laid out all his treasures. Bessarion nodded over all of them.

  ‘I will give them as gifts,’ he said. ‘The butt spike for Sforza of Mila, with the spearhead. They express the majesty of Greece. What is lost. And what can be regained. Well done.’

  Swan hesitated. ‘I spent money on them,’ he said. ‘I intended … to sell them.’

  Bessarion was looking at a small crystal seal with a tiny Eros masterfully carved into the face. ‘Of course you did, my young criminal. Unless you stole them.’

  Swan raised his eyes to heaven. ‘I didn’t steal any of them,’ he said.

  ‘Then they didn’t cost you much,’ Bessarion answered him. ‘But do not think me ungrateful. I’ll get you some gold. Bring me more of this …’ He waved at his table. ‘Great men will put them in their cabinets and display them. We will have some measure of power by having these things.’ He shook his head ruefully. ‘In Constantinople, we had so much of this that these would have been like rubbish.’

  ‘I need a new sword,’ Swan said. ‘And a breastplate that fits me better.’

  ‘You should spend less on Demoiselle Violetta, then,’ Bessarion said. ‘Go and see Di Brachio. I’ll find you some money.’ He got up. ‘I will look at Father Ridolpho’s activities. But stealing from another member of this household will not happen again. No matter how much you dislike him. And you will only enjoy sinning with your friend outside my house. Those are my rules. Are they clear in your mind?’

  Swan bowed his head. ‘Yes, Eminence.’

  Bessarion opened his five-page wax tablet set and tapped his stylus against his forehead in mock consternation. ‘Now it is I who play the fool – I have not told you your mission.’

  Swan was on his feet. ‘There’s more, besides fighting with the knights?’

  ‘My son, much as Christendom needs every warrior, I would not, in fact, send you to fight for the order if there was another ship that was sailing east in winter.’ Bessarion sat back down, and his chair creaked. ‘Listen,’ he said very quietly. ‘The reports coming in from the Siege of Constantinople and from every action of the Turk since then suggests to some that Christendom has a traitor. Many accuse Demetrios Paleologos of being this traitor – he has openly suggested that he might convert to Islam.’

  ‘He is the current ruler of Monemvasia,’ Swan said.

  ‘You have a gift for this world of intrigue. Yes. He is. I know him – indeed, I know every member of that handsome family. If he meant a general betrayal, he would not flout his coming conversion. Besides, his hatred of the Latins is well known. Neither the Genoese nor the Venetians trust him. He is not the traitor. The traitor is … effective. Someone we trust.’

  Swan nodded.

  ‘The Genoese are sending a famous man – Francesco Drappierro – to be their ambassador in Constantinople. You understand that Genoa openly supported the Emperor in the last days of Constantinople – yes?’

  ‘Yes. And paid for it – they lost Pera across the straits and most of their city privileges. I saw that with my own eyes.’ Swan nodded.

  ‘Just so. Now Genoa is desperate. Loss of the alum mines in Phokaia would devastate the Genoese cloth trade – loss of their sugar plantations would cripple their banking, and loss of Lesvos and Chios – which belong to the Gattelussi – would end Genoa as an overseas empire, topple the balance of power in Italy, and incidentally rob Christendom of the second-most powerful military fleet in the Inner Sea.’ The cardinal steepled his fingers. ‘Some of us suspect that the collapse of Genoa would mean that France would invade. You understand?’

  ‘More importantly, the fleet most likely to help the Pope,’ Swan noted.

  ‘I am pleased that you have become so very … accurate in your views on Church politics,’ Bessarion said. ‘So Genoa is sending a very wealthy man – one who was friends with the Sultan’s father – to attempt to bring the Sultan to a more friendly state of mind. Genoa is fully aware that there is a traitor. Drappierro will be fully briefed. You will go with him and serve where you see fit – with the knights, or with Drappierro’s embassy. The Turks hate the knights – but respect them. They despise the Genoese, but use them.’ Bessarion spread his hands. ‘This is a very ticklish matter. I meant to send Di Brachio. Can you help me catch a traitor?’

  Swan nodded. ‘I can try. I imagine his weak point would be in passing communications to his Turkish friends.’

  Bessarion shrugged. ‘It could be someone right here in Rome,’ he said. ‘Ah – here is a list of my plantations on Lesvos – please collect the rents if you have a chance.’

  Swan wished that he had a five-fold wax tablet book. ‘I’m to go with the knights, fight for them if I must, watch for a traitor, buy antiquities for sale, and, if possible, collect your rents from Lesvos. Anything else?’

  Bessarion laughed. ‘I have some shirts that need washing,’ he said. He raised his hand and blessed Swan, who knelt and kissed his episcopal ring. ‘I also have some letters for you to deliver. Come and collect them this evening. Now go and see Di Brachio.’

  Di Brachio was conscious, and had Master Claudio with him.

  ‘Ah – you will all be my testimonials when I apply for a professorship at Padua,’ the doctor said. ‘Let me look at that eye – don’t go getting killed before I’m done with you. This is a salve – try it on the abrasion. The abrasion, fool.’ Claudio put salve on Swan’s cheek with his thumb.

  Di Brachio’s skin was
waxy and his face was pale so that his unshaven cheek seemed to be bruised. He coughed too much. Each cough clearly pained him.

  ‘Fever?’ asked Swan, whispering, which was pointless, because the close room was absolutely silent.

  The doctor shook his head. ‘Not yet,’ he said. ‘I don’t think the blade cut his guts. If it did?’ He shrugged. The shrug was a death sentence.

  ‘I can hear every word,’ Di Brachio muttered. ‘By the crucified Christ – talk to me, Englishman. I’m so bored I might die.’

  Swan pushed into the room and leaned over the bed.

  ‘Jesus, you look like hell,’ Di Brachio said. ‘Don’t tell me that Violetta did that to you.’

  ‘An Orsini bastard with a chair,’ Swan said.

  ‘And you killed him?’ Di Brachio asked softly.

  ‘No,’ said Swan.

  ‘What? Are you getting soft?’ Di Brachio murmured. ‘Listen, the doctor tells me you are taking the mission to Chios.’

  Swan paused. ‘To Rhodos and Cos,’ he said.

  ‘He didn’t tell you more than that?’ Di Brachio said. ‘Did you make him angry?’

  ‘Not particularly,’ Swan said. He was shocked by how bad his friend looked. ‘I’m going to be made a Donat of the order.’

  Di Brachio raised his hand, where a red stone burned like an eye in a small gold ring. He muttered something, and Swan leaned close.

  ‘He’s tired. You need to let him sleep,’ the doctor said.

  ‘I am a Donat of the order,’ Di Brachio said. ‘I was going to go … on crusade. For my … sins.’

  ‘I’ll do enough for both of us,’ Swan said, trying to keep the conversation light.

  ‘I thought you were supposed to keep me from getting killed – eh, English?’ Di Brachio made a clawing motion with his hand. ‘Heh – stay safe, boy.’

  Swan kissed the Venetian on the cheek. ‘Live!’ he said.

  ‘Heh – I plan to. Hell is waiting for me,’ Di Brachio said. ‘I just keep asking myself …’

  ‘What?’ Swan asked.

  ‘How I let that cocksucker get his blade under my guard,’ Di Brachio said.

  Swan changed into his new velvet doublet and silk hose and walked to the Priory of Rome with a dozen of Bessarion’s swordsmen as his retinue. The Frenchman was one of them, looking a little less polished.

  The prior was a young man – as young as Swan himself. He kissed the Pope’s order reverently, and read through Swan’s genealogy, nodding. ‘Your grandfather was the King of England?’ he asked. He was obviously impressed, and trying to hide it.

  Swan bowed. ‘No, my lord. My great-grandfather. My grandfather was the Duke of Lancaster.’

  The prior nodded. ‘You are the child of two generations of bastardy,’ he said.

  Swan thought of a number of replies, and swallowed them. ‘Yes, my lord,’ he said.

  ‘But the Pope’s grant only deals with one of them,’ said the prior. His eyes burned with fanaticism and suppressed jealousy. ‘Only the most holy, most pious men are fit to lead our great crusade,’ he said.

  Swan wondered whether the prior was quite sane. But years of dealing with his mother’s customers had left him some resources, and he bowed, and said in his most respectful voice, ‘I believe that His Holiness has made his desires plain enough, but I would be delighted to serve your lordship by going back to His Holiness and explaining your position.’

  The prior reread the Pope’s document and frowned. ‘I suppose …’ he said.

  Swan took his oaths from an older knight, and the man – clad in a black gown with the eight-pointed star and wearing a black knitted cap so old that the black was fading to grey-blue – had iron-hard hands and a steady grip on Swan’s shoulder, and Swan liked him immediately. He took Swan into the chapel of the priory, made him kneel, and left him there for an hour.

  Swan knelt. He assumed it was a test.

  The elderly knight came back and lit candles – seven candles. For each one he prayed a string of prayers, and then he came and knelt by Swan.

  ‘I make all the rich bastards kneel, to make sure they have an inkling of what this is about,’ he said. ‘See the candles? My friends. All killed facing the foe.’

  ‘The Turks?’ Swan whispered.

  The old man shook his head. ‘Jean-Baptiste died fighting. The rest – plague, leprosy, the cough, the black fever – it’s the hospital that kills us. No armour against disease.’

  Swan crossed himself. ‘I see,’ he said carefully.

  The old knight helped him to his feet, and he could scarcely walk. ‘You are going to a galley, I gather,’ he said.

  ‘Yes, my lord.’

  ‘Call me brother. Or sir. Welcome to the order, boy. Do us no disgrace.’ The old man led him to a podium desk, where he signed a document and sealed it. ‘Take this to our bursar and have it countersigned. And then go and get yourself a ring.’ He smiled. ‘Do you love God?’

  Swan hesitated.

  ‘Good for you, boy. Tell the truth. But have a go – see if you come to love him while you wash some beggar’s feet and feed some poor women with leprosy. Or sweat in your armour on a pitching deck while the red-hot sand is flung at you by infidels. See what follows.’ He nodded. ‘You’re a bastard?’

  ‘I am,’ Swan admitted.

  The old knight laughed. ‘Welcome to the club,’ he said.

  Swan wandered into the Jewish ghetto as if directed by his feet. But here he met no ill-will, and after several attempts he found a pawn shop that specialised in religious rings. He saw magnificent episcopal rings, and small profession rings, and one massive thumb ring that might have graced a cardinal.

  The shopkeeper brought them out willingly enough. ‘What are you looking for, young gentleman?’ he asked.

  Swan lifted a ring that had to be three hundred years old and admired it. ‘I’m looking for a profession ring for a Donat of the Order of St John,’ he said.

  The owner’s eyebrows fluttered. ‘Oh – oh,’ he said as he picked up a tray, placed it back in a wooden clothes press, and pulled out another. ‘Oh – oh,’ he said again. ‘I have one – my wife, you know – I’m sure I have one. Oh – oh.’

  Swan opened a manuscript on the main counter and found that it was an illuminated Torah. He was annoyed at how little Hebrew he remembered. He turned a page, and the owner snatched it from under his hands.

  He didn’t say anything. He merely looked at Swan with something very like hate.

  Swan took a step back and spread his hands. ‘I meant no harm,’ he said. ‘I—’

  ‘Go,’ said the man. ‘I won’t sell to you.’

  In the end, Swan bought his ring from a jeweller, a middle-aged man whose daughters were his apprentices. The elder girl made his ring up while he waited – engraved garnet in gilded silver. The jeweller’s was in the same street as four swordsmiths and a vast suite of armourers who shared work space and sheds, but all of the armour looked clumsy, and Swan knew that Di Brachio never bought weapons in Rome. Gaudy stuff for the pilgrim trade, covered in crosses and encrusted in jewels. He poked about, saw nothing he wanted, and returned to the jeweller in time to have hippocras served while the elder girl tried the ring on him and then tapped it gently on to an anvil stake until she liked the fit on his finger.

  Back in his rooms, he packed a pair of valises and a big leather malle, or horse-sack. It was early afternoon. He checked in the stables and secured four riding horses and a pack animal and a mule.

  Giannis was currying his favourite horse. ‘You are leading an army?’ he asked.

  Swan shrugged. ‘I’m off east,’ he said. ‘I’ll take the new Frenchman.’

  ‘Antoine?’ Giannis asked. ‘He’s not a soldier, he’s a cook. But he’s a good cook, as we all learned at breakfast.’

  ‘Take care of Di Brachio,’ Swan said. He found that he was embracing the Greek. He wanted to say something like ‘I’m not sure I can do this alone’. But he didn’t.

  He promised to have din
ner with his friends, and then he went back to his room and changed into plain workman’s clothes.

  Swan crossed the city carefully. He was by himself, and wasn’t even wearing a sword. He was dressed like a labourer, applying some of the lessons he’d learned in Constantinople. He moved from street to street like a man in enemy country, and when he saw a party in red and yellow he avoided them even when he saw that they were escorting two women. He was pleased to see some puffy faces and some bandages.

  Madame Lucrescia’s was closed. Swan went to the servants’ entrance and watched until he saw three workmen carrying something heavy, and then he joined them. It was a heavy marble altar top. Swan admired it while it tore at his fingers. It had the curled shape of Greek temple capitals on columns – it weighed four hundred pounds, and even with four strong men and a small wheeled cart, it took everything they had to get it in through the kitchen and into the main room.

  The great room looked different, empty, and the erotic paintings and mosaics, bereft of both customers and courtesans, looked showy and tawdry, perhaps even vulgar. Flaws in art and execution showed up more readily.

  They moved the thing to the back of the room while a housekeeper chided them to be quick. The smallest man, a redhead, was clearly their foreman, and he began to argue with the housekeeper about what would happen next.

  ‘I’d like to come here,’ said the biggest workman. He looked at the walls. ‘Think these fancy bitches are worth the money?’

  The other man spat. ‘Whores. Tools of Satan to snare men.’

  ‘I can’t be snared by what I can’t afford,’ said the first man. ‘Anyway, who gets his pump primed behind Saint Paul’s every feast day?’

  Swan nodded agreeably as the two started what sounded like an old and well-established quarrel. He walked out of the great room and went straight up the staircase. Then along the corridor, counting doors. The rooms weren’t much wider than the beds inside them, and he counted – sixteen.

  He looked both ways – there was movement in the other rooms, he could hear it – then he turned her door handle and slipped in.