Swan drew it off and handed it to the cardinal. ‘I’m told it was the signet ring of the great Alexander.’
Bessarion slipped it on his finger. ‘We’ll dicker later. As usual, you have exceeded my expectations. Go and sin with your friends, and I’ll see you when I can make time for a cup of wine. Go — go — I don’t want the Pope’s French secretary to even know you exist.’
Swan slipped out the private door into the servants' corridor, and was enfolded in a deep embrace.
He looked into Di Brachio’s eyes. They were slightly too bright, as if fever had marked him — but he had weight on, and some muscles, and looked a little more alive than the last time Swan had seen him.
Alessandro grinned. ‘You English — everything loud, eh? Could you not have saved Chios quietly?’ He embraced the Englishman again.
Swan grinned back. ‘I missed you — and Giannis and Cesare — every day. I was … way over my head.’
‘Ah!’ Di Brachio said. ‘Welcome to the profession.’
And that night, they sat in a small, quiet inn north of the forum — all seven of them. Giovanni Acudi was brilliant in scarlet robes, and De Brescia looked more prosperous then Swan had ever seen him. Giannis and his new wife Irene sat hand in hand, almost uninterested in the others, and Peter sat with Di Brachio. The cardinal’s other Greeks were on a mission. It was not discussed.
He heard that De Brescia had been all the way to the Germanies and back, and that Acudi was trying a case against the Orsini and had to be protected by Giannis and thirty men. They drank, and drank, and went to vespers and returned and drank more.
‘What were you doing in Germany?’ Swan asked De Brescia, who laughed.
‘What indeed?’ the man answered. ‘I went to great conference — almost a parliament. Every ruler in Europe sent their representatives. They met to discuss a crusade, and I believe that I have never seen so many nobly born fools posture so ineptly. The Emperor sponsored the conference — although he does not want a crusade — and the English and French helped pay for it — although they hate each other worse than twenty Turks.’ He shrugged. ‘I was bribed every day.’ He snorted.
Giannis leaned forward. ‘Despite which, the Hungarians and the Germans may put something together.’ He put a finger to the side of his nose. ‘Do you know who this man is, called Hunyadi?’
Di Brachio smiled. ‘Fancy a visit to Romania?’ he asked, and everyone laughed except Peter and Swan, neither of whom understood.
Acudi drew on the table in wine. ‘Mehmet is going to try to take all the rest of the Empire,’ he said. ‘He has four armies preparing.’
‘And the Crusaders and their legate will rally to the Hungarians at Belgrade,’ Di Brachio said.
Swan shook his head. ‘I have a report to write,’ he said. But he laughed. And before the evening ended, they all drank to it.
‘To Belgrade!’ they all shouted.