The Lake of Sorrows (26 page)

Zavellas blinked. Twice his mouth opened, then closed again.

“I shall send you back to Souli a free man, with full honors and a fat purse. And my entire army of the North as a guard of honor to keep you safe - under the command of my own son.”

Dark fire pulsed in Zavellas’ eyes. “And … my son?”

“Oh, yes, the auspicious Fotos. He will enjoy my hospitality here in Yannina until my couriers bring me good tidings from Souli.”

The Greek’s answer was a growling snarl.

“Your eloquence tells me you understand quickly. All you have to do is persuade Botsaris to surrender Souli without a fight when my army arrives there with you. No blood will be spilt on either side. Enough has been wasted already. We shall be happy and affectionate neighbors forever after.”

“So I give up my people’s freedom - or my son’s life?”

“On the contrary, my friend, I offer you both. An alliance. I will give the Sultan Souli, in the same way that I gave him Hyperus. He will rule both by me - and, in time, lose both by me.”

For a moment, captain Zavellas actually gaped. “You will make
yourself
Sultan of Hyperus - and of Souli?”

“And you Pasha of Souli.” Alhi rose from his kneeling position and smoothed his robe. “Unless you prefer we both assume Greek titles? After all, what are mere
words
for he who rules when compared to
being
he who rules?”

“But … why?”

“By the gods, Zavellas, yours and mine! Why do you think generations of Sultans have thrown away thousands of perfectly good soldiers to conquer Souli? Because the Sultans of the Sublime Porte have taken a fancy to your little bit of stony countryside? Because they thirst for the mediocre wine from your scraggy vineyards? No, they do it because you are just a measly little hamlet when compared to Constantinople and
yet
you manage to defy them. If you can get away with it, their more powerful vassals will watch - and, sooner or later, think.”

“Like you have?”

“Like I have. Half the power of a creaking old empire like the Ottomans’ is that the peoples under their yoke have forgotten that things could ever be different. With Souli as part of a new empire here on the shores of the Ionian Sea, my people,
our
people, would believe that things had really changed. I was dreaming of that even before I bent my knee to the Sublime Porte. But Souli must be
part
of my empire - not defy it as it has defied the Sultan.”

Struggling to rise, the captain snarled through tortured gasps. “You play a scheming dog’s game! These are the dirty ways and ruses of the goatherds of Tepeleni, not of men of the world.”

“Why, thank you, my friend. There have been those, of late, who say I have lost my Tepeleni edge — I always knew I had not. And as to the dog, he is usually wise enough not to bark at, or bite, those who feed him. Will you show less wisdom than a dog? It might have you die like one, you know.”

The captain groaned, struggled - and fell back to the floor, panting. Alhi bent over him, looking into Zavella’s blood-shot eyes. “Do we have an agreement? Will you pledge your strong arm to me? Or should I have my dungeon-keeper take it off as he dismembers you and feeds you to the dogs of the palace, along with your son?
They
do not bite me, for I feed them well.”

T
he captain had been taken away, albeit to the golden cage of the sumptuous guest’s wing of the palace. The grime and blood from his body was still on the floor of the audience chamber, along with the spilled wine. Muhtar, alone with his father, had not bothered to step around either and left a trail of filthy impressions of his boot-soles on the marble as he ascended the dais to stand before his father.

Alhi leaned back in his throne and let out a sigh of contentment. “He gave in, of course. Souli is mine. Our empire is on the horizon. The Thessalian empire - or should we call it the Ionian?”

Muhtar’s answer was the most infuriating of all - nothing.

The Pasha leaned forward sharply, his face contorted in exasperation and disgust. “And
you
go all womanly on me, in front of my entire army and force me to execute my best colonel!”

“I did not ask you to do that. The man was a beast, but so are you!”

“Yes, that was why he was my best colonel and why I am about to become the ruler of Hyperus and not just the Sultan’s errand-boy. No soft-hearted, love-struck boy will ever achieve that. Had you not been my son, that would be
your
head grinning on a spike out there in the courtyard. My son will not become such a weakling! That was why I had to take the colonel’s head, do you not see? He
had
to be wrong about you.”

“Perhaps he was right. Perhaps you are right. I may be love-struck and soft-hearted because of it. But perhaps I wish it to be so.”

“
But I do not!
Your dalliance with that little Greek hussy has gone far enough. And beyond. You first duty is to your family, to your house, do you hear me? When I move against the Sublime Porte, I need a young and strong heir beside me. That will convince the Sultan that if he wants to fight, he will not only have to fight me for as long as I live, he will then have to start all over with you - a you that will be a younger, stronger, fiercer me. He must know you are the Muhtar of all the previous wars you have won for me. Unless you want the Sultan to send us all the silk cord.”

“I want none of your games of deceit and death, father. You have a new son on the way, by a woman said to be as devious and ambitious and selfish as you are. You are yet a vital and strong man. Build your empire without me. Raise that son to be son you want. Let me go away and become … me. Not just another you.”

“Go away, will you? Elope with your moping little Greek lady? Yes, I have had my spies keep an eye on her. She lies in her bed all day and sulks, naked as an egg to fight a fever, and my spies positively drool at the recollection of
that
nakedness when they report. Oh, I do confess I was tempted
myself
when I saw her in the bazaar once.”

Muhtar’s hands jerked and clenched into fists, but Alhi forged ahead as if he had not noticed. “But
I
know the world is full of splendid-bodied women, my son. When you are the heir to my new empire, you can stuff your harem with the finest game from all over the Balkans and re-stock it whenever their beauty fades. But why let one silly little strumpet reduce you to a mere appendage to your private parts?”

Muhtar shivered convulsively, hands like claws. “You will
not
talk to me of your vile ways with women ever again!” He took a step towards his father, hands rising.

Alhi laughed in his face. “
At last!
Some fire left in you, after all. I am happy to see my true son is still lurking somewhere in there. It is that Muhtar that I want to take Souli for me. If for no other reason, then to keep his infatuation out of my lake.”

His son froze. “You would not — “

“Dare? Oh, you think she is safe because Pashou has told you I would not execute little Froshenie for
her?
Come now, what would I not risk to save my own son from himself, and to preserve our family’s future? Even a rebellion in Yannina would be a small price to pay for safeguarding our empire-to-be. I learned long before I was your age that the soft hand can grasp little and hold even less.”

Muhtar convulsed again, as if retching. Alhi merely waited. At long last, his son raised his head, though his eyes were closed. “What do want me to do?”

“I want you to take command of our army.
Command
, mind you. No moping, no drinking, no ‘we really ought not to do this’. You will march to Souli, with Zavellas as my ambassador to the Souliotes. He will make them submit to me. You will place a garrison in Souli and make sure it is in an unassailable position before the rest of our army leaves. You will hang any Souliote who opposes Zavellas, up to and including Botsaris, if need be. Then you will send a courier to me with the good news that you have done your duty to your Pasha and your family. And
then
I might - might - allow you to return. Meanwhile, I will see that no harm comes to your Froshenie and that her husband does not steal her away from the city.”

All of a sudden, Alhi smiled at his son, oozing fatherly generosity. “I might even relieve you of the burden of him. There are hints that he has joined the
Filiki Eteria
. Best we had proof against a man in his position and with his connections, but if we find it, I can make your little lady a widow on the spot.”

“I do not wish her to be … free by such means.”

“All the same to me. If he is a traitor, he will have to go. His wealth alone would buy me the loyalty of all the
armatoloi
militias in Hyperus, Greek or not. And if you will not avail yourself of the opportunity his demise would give
you
, that shall be your own choice. I shall just be shaking my own head. You may ride Pashou while thinking of Froshenie to your heart’s delight when you are not in the peoples’ eye - but when you are, you will be the iron-fisted heir to the empire of Alhi. You will be the master of all because you have mastered yourself. If you fail me in that, you fail your Froshenie. Do we have an agreement?”

“Will you … at least let me go to her?”

Alhi slammed both fists into the arm-rests of his throne. “Go to her? I would not even let you
think
of her, if I could only stop you from doing that all the time.” He leaped to his feet and pointed imperiously towards the door. “No, I will not let you go to her. I will let you go from this chamber and straight to the war council room and gather your officers, so that you can plan to march tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? Our soldiers are exhausted.”

“They are sullen, that is all. They feel cheated and they will feel cheated again when they do not get to plunder Souli. But you and Zavellas will see that Souli wines and dines them like conquerors, and do not let them be miserly with the whores, either. You will make that army smile at you again, and only then will I let you make your Greek filly smile again, too.”

Muhtar finally opened his eyes and Alhi cringed, seeing the gleam of tears. He leaned close to his son and his voice rose to a lion’s roar.

“
Do we have an agreement?
”

I
n a different chamber in the palace, Eminee’s far humbler quarters, another audience was beginning. And her guest was every bit as uneasy as the Pasha’s. The palace guards had banged on Karayannis’ door with ill-tempered impatience, telling him only that his presence was ordered at the palace forthwith. The doctor had jumped from his bed, where had been sleeping fitfully after yet another night at the lake. When the soldiers told him he need not bring his doctor’s bag, he had nearly fainted.

Now, sweating despite the coolness in the small, dark chamber of the Pasha’s wife, he began trembling at Eminee’s first words.

“I will come straight to the point, doctor. I know you sometimes hide people from the Pasha’s wrath. Perhaps you do more, but I do not have as many spies as my husband, so I know less. And you are a good doctor to Alhi, so I wish for no harm to come to you.”

Karayannis wet his lips and had to swallow hard to find his voice. “I … “

He got no further. “I have no idea, doctor, if you already know where Anesso is hiding. But even if you do not, I have faith that you can find her.”

“My lady, I — “

“It is said that her son’s misfortunes and then his unknown fate, have clouded her mind. Yet she was always well-liked in this palace and especially by my daughter-in-law, Pashou. Like Alhi, she was always in need of a … mother of sorts.”

“Your daughter-in-law wishes to know that Anesso is well?”

“Come now, doctor. You know her too well for that. To her, like and love means affection for a source of contentment. Real love, wishing only the good of the beloved is not something that runs deep in her family’s blood.”

For a moment, Eminee’s eyes grew distant and the doctor dared not speak.

Eminee visibly forced herself back to the here and now. “I need you to find her, Karayannis, and bring her to the palace. The Pasha knows she is innocent, so I promise you no harm will come to her.”

“I wish very much to believe you, my lady, but … Anesso herself might not. I mean, her mind being so darkened by the recent tragedies.”

“By my husband’s savagery, you mean. No, do not deny it. That little girl
was
a traitor, but I care deeply for those harem girls, as you well know. But I love my husband even more and
that
is why I tried to stop him — that act was not worthy of him. But showing mercy and kindness to Anesso will be. I will make him see that. If Anesso and you have no faith in the Pasha, at least have faith in me.”

“I do not understand, my lady.” The doctor looked genuinely puzzled. “Why do you need a Greek, half-mad woman as a lady-in-waiting to Pashou. There are so many harem girls far more appropriate for the role.”

Eminee sighed and smiled back at him. “You are so innocent when it comes to women, Karayannis.”

Slightly alarmed at the wretched expression that flickered across Karayannis’ face, she hastily continued. “Pashou has a tempest in her mind, too. The worst kind for a woman, if the poets are right. Jealousy. But she is also deadly proud. She will never confide her pain and fears to any of those girls. It would jeopardize her status in my son’s nascent harem.”

“I am a Christian, my lady. I know little of the ways of the harem.”

A flash of indignation darkened Eminee’s gaze and the doctor sweated anew. “You are a Christian in name only, Karayannis. The reason my husband prefers you to any other doctor in Yannina is precisely that you believe in so little. You are not self-righteously ignoring the fact that Christians, too, have their harems. They just call all but their first wives ‘mistresses’ instead. And they treat them with far less respect than the Pasha does his harem women. Those women, at least, have a home and an official status, Christian mistresses are hidden away in shame and denounced by their keepers every time they go to mass.”