The Byzantine Wager

Chapter 70 -Mischief

Chapter 70

Mischief

Once Nestor returned with the saw, they swilled down one more cup-full of wine for courage. Pons pressed a silver byzant on the goodwife of the Golden Eel with the instructions that should a guardsman from the Golden Gate come, she would give him the coin and he would eat and drink on Pons' credit. Wineskins were filled for the revelers and their follies. Almost as an afterthought Pons brought some dried lamprey as a snack.

On the rapidly darkening streets, their first stop was at a chandlers stall for the correct equipment. Pons bought a lantern fueled by oil with a wick - metal on three sides with a bull's eye aperture on the front which could be shielded from a draft (or observation) merely by covering it. He handed it to the hunchback. Thrilled to be in the lead position, Zinthziphitees almost danced with delight at the midnight drunken caper about to unfold.

Nestor followed with no light source, merely his crutch. "I should be abed. You will all run and leave me to be caught and lynched."

Behind came Pons, Cyn, and Marius. Each carried a torch as yet unlit. The men of Montferrat were armed but not armored. Pons carried the triangular saw discretely along the length of his forearm. They made their way nonchalantly through the gloom.

"The misshapen Greek is leading us the wrong way," Cyn murmured to Marius, "Hippodrome's back that way."

They turned right and arrived at an archway with an iron gate closed by a padlock.

"The journey's end for you and me - we simply do not have a key." Zinth sniggered. "Unless you robbed a bearded one... good night my friend it has been fun."

Two quick cracks with the flat end of Pon's hand axe sundered the lock. Beyond the gate a stone stairway curled into the darkness.

"You two, wait here," Pons indicated with a nod of his head to Cyn and Marius. "I'll whistle - you come."

Pons lit his torch from the lantern Zinth carried, and gestured for the club foot and the cripple to lead the way down. "You two, advance."

At the top of the stairway Cyn and Marius leaned back into the shadows, settled on their haunches, and let the late street traffic drift past.

"Is he always like this?" Marius asked. Marius and Cyn knew one another from days past.

"We recently returned from Nicea. We joined a revolt. It failed. He is furious. It is the heat. Who can sleep? Better if we do something."

"We did not have a chance to speak when I arrived in Montferrat last summer. I came in late one afternoon with the bad news about Renier while you left early the next morning."

"Pons did not even bother telling me I was going to Constantinople until I dragged it out of him. Did you know the Margrave granted him a grain mill near Tanibrook?"

Mutterings and curses from the stairwell. Pons' torchlight had spiraled down out of view.

"He tells you what he wants you to know when he wants you to know it."

"Or he tells you nothing because he has no plan. Which do you think tonight's lark is?"

Marius chuckled. "You rose to be Lord Conrad's sergeant during the five years I was in the Land Beyond the Sea. Were you busy while I was gone?"

"Some," Cyn replied. "After the League of Lombard cities made peace in Venice with Lord Guilhelm's cousin, the German Emperor, things became quiet. Quiet with the Lombards that is. Lord Conrad fought at Camerino for a time. Bigger than a 'skirmish,' not really a 'battle,' certainly not big enough to be a 'war.' A 'campaign' I guess you could call it. Some spoils. We ransomed an archbishop, still but not enough for a man to take a wife. A lot must have happened to you over five years. What were you doing all that time?"