I closed my eyes, focused my mind and invited my mother to join me. She materialised before me like a hologram. She hugged me close and quickly released me. She stared at me with that piercing look of hers and waited. I experienced an involuntary tremble rush through my entire body.
‘Mother, my mission has failed. But the worst is that — and I know you won’t like this — the child is missing.’
‘What do you mean missing?’
It’s at times like this that I admired my mother. You never knew when she was upset. But you would know when she was angry. She would show little emotion and without wasting time dwelling on how or why something happened or on any ‘what ifs’, would always turn her mind to the practicalities and the solution.
‘The Emperor did not seem to know or had even sent a search party or taken any attempt to find out. And apparently it all happened a few weeks ago. When I asked him why we were not informed and why they did not ask for our help, he simply dismissed it as unimportant and left me in no doubt that he was not expecting us to be of much help in any case. And he made his charitable feelings towards us clear when he added as an afterthought that the matter of the child was none of our business. He did not seem to care. His whole attitude was very lackadaisical.’
‘The Emperor I know is hard and still harbours strong feelings against the Order, but he’s no fool and has a heart. Michael, come out with it, what’s on your mind?’
‘I could not chase away the feeling that he was an altogether different person. Not everything he said was wrong. But he slipped often enough. Mother, he knew too many of our secrets which you would expect of the Emperor. Yet I do not believe that he was the Emperor. I think we are in great danger. We need to warn the others.’
‘We will deal with the so-called ‘Emperor’ later. We need to concentrate on the child. Nothing else matters now. That child is everything. It has to be found and taken to a safe place. Now… what about Mark? Is he still alive? He has not shown any signs of life and the battle was two days ago.’
‘When I last saw him he was shaken and injured, but alive.’
‘When was that?’
‘At the battle scene. It was when we realised we had no chance and decided to get out of there to fight other battles. As we went our separate ways, he said he had a mission to complete.’
‘That must be the little errand I sent him on. We will hear from him before long. And the others?’
‘The others are gone, mother. Mark and I are the only ones that got out alive.’
‘Now let’s go back to your ‘fortuitous’ meeting with the Emperor.’ My mother could never resist a little irony.
‘I did plead the Order’s case for his ancestors’ redemption as one final decent act of power, but he was unmoved and spiteful.’
‘That does not sound like the Emperor at all. One thing I’m certain of is that you did not meet with the real Emperor. There have been many fine occupants of the reins of power. Yet there were many of his predecessors that ascended the transcontinental double-eagled throne that were greedy and vain, and murdered without compunction to gain power. But Konstantinos Palaiologos is different. I truly pity him. It was a great shame that he ascended the throne at the end of the life of an empire, for which, despite all his great abilities and determination, he could do nothing. Such a waste.’
‘Mother, would that person consider, let alone put into words openly, in front of witnesses, fleeing the city, and to Venice of all places?’
‘He said that to you? Flee to the city’s rival and mortal enemy and sworn adversary? If it had not been for all the other things you told me about your meeting with him, I would think it a joke. But if he’s not the Emperor, it starts to make sense. But then again, would he have betrayed himself so easily. I wish I could say that I need to think about this, but, I’m afraid, we don’t have time for such luxury.
‘Michael, we both know that the Emperor would never flee from his duty to his people and his city. As regards Venice, he would have preferred death than to surrender to the charms of the lion’s mouth. As you well know the Venetians did not waste any time taking advantage and using an excuse to raid and loot the city in 1204. They have smelled blood again, an opportunity. He must have promised them a lot. The problem is it looks as if it may already be too late for even them to intervene, not to help the city, but to even manage to get him out and especially their booty. Even for them it would be an impossible task to break through the Ottoman naval blockade.
‘I wonder whether we have the firepower to spirit away many of the treasures that he has so recklessly and arrogantly promised in exchange or simply failed to get out of the city to hiding on time. Maybe he’s taken them out already. Real Emperor or not, they both have the incentive and the wish to do that for their own different reasons and it is the result that matters. Michael, there is only one way we can be sure who we are faced with and we need to act quickly before any more damage is done. We need to test the blood of the Emperor. You need to get me a sample.’
‘But how?’
‘Tonight, whilst he’s asleep.’
‘I don’t think he will be getting much sleep tonight. He was already talking about going to the battlements to prepare and rally his defenders.’
‘You’ll need to find a way. In the meantime, we cannot sit tight waiting to know before we can act. We need to hedge our bets and take certain measures. I have to go now. I will contact you later. Goodbye, son.’
‘Till later, mother.’
As suddenly as she appeared, Eleni vanished, as if she was never there. I briefly wondered whether I had just had a dream.
What I did not know was that I would not see the Emperor again. Events would throw our plans off kilter.
I had always wondered why my mother had never told me who my father was. I had sometimes wondered whether I had been adopted, as I was very often at cross-purposes with my mother. However, I could also see the striking similarities in our character and the family resemblance in our looks.
CHAPTER 8
Constantinople
29th May 1453 A.D.
(The Day of the Fall)
Dawn was breaking over the dome of Ayia Sofia and the first rays of the sun were starting to throw an incandescent light on the Patriarchate and the bell towers of the churches scattered around the city.
The harbour was waking up and the first ships were ploughing the waters of the Bosphorus heading for the harbour of the Golden Horn. It seemed like another normal day in the city that took your breath away.
The streets were waking up with the first signs of life. Or rather that was the idyllic view on a normal day, before the siege, before the heavy chain or boom was put in place to close the entry to the harbour of the Golden Horn and prevent the Ottoman fleet from entering the city’s heart, from bringing forward the seemingly inevitable and finishing the job once and for all.
Inside the Vlachernae Palace, all was being prepared for the Emperor’s audience with his ministers and advisors and a selected number of prominent citizens. The Emperor was in readiness to rally his troops and his citizens.
The distinction between ruler and ruled was now blurred and waning further. On everybody’s mind was the Ottoman, on everybody’s lips was one word, their eyes directed involuntarily to the heavens and the direction of the painted dome with the depiction of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ hugging the world.
All present had only one question. When would the city fall, not how.
Rising above the murmur of raised, burning, anguished concerned voices, was the serene and calming sound of the trickling water from the fountain in the middle of the Great Hall. But on this day the serene surroundings, their potency diminished, failed to inspire and beguile.