Justinian

MYAKES

Yes, of course I knew what he'd do with them, Brother Elpidios, or I had a pretty good idea, anyhow. No, I didn't want to see him do it, especially not so soon after the last massacre. But he gave the orders. If I didn't do what he said, I figured I'd be next up on a gibbet. All he could think about, near enough, was paying back everybody he thought had ever wronged him.

I took a look at the list, divided it into four parts, and sent out four troops of excubitores. I led one of them. I can do my own dirty work, I can. First door we knocked on, the fellow we came for opened it himself. "You don't look sick," says I to him. He tried to slam the door, but I stuck a foot in it and my boys went in and grabbed him. His wife and brats were wailing behind us when he left.

The other three were just as easy, and none of them looked sick, either. Back we went to Blakhernai. Getting all four of them hadn't taken two hours. "Have mercy on us!" they kept saying, over and over. "In the name of Christ, have mercy!"

But that wasn't for me to say. It was up to Justinian. I didn't think any of those sixteen poor bastards would get away with his neck. Turned out I was wrong, though.