One for Sorrow

Epilogue

“Now that Leukos is avenged, the black creature that was gnawing inside of me has flown,” John said, lifting his wine cup to his lips.

The day after the fight in the cistern, John and Anatolius sat in the Forum Bovis opposite the great bronze bull head Europa had admired. John explained how he had identified Kaloethes as the murderer of both Leukos and Berta.

“When Thomas and I visited Isis we saw Kaloethes arrive, and his greeting to Berta indicated he had visited her before. Isis told me that Berta had been boasting about an valuable pendant she had been given worth more than all the wealth in the city, or so she claimed. Kaloethes no doubt heard about this piece of jewelry from Berta, and tried to make her give it to him. And indeed Mistress Kaloethes told Felix her husband killed Berta because she would not do so.”

“But to attempt to rob her grave…!”

“Many do far worse things than that for far less reason.”

Earlier in the day, Anatolius had accompanied Cornelia and Europa to the docks. John exchanged private farewells with his family and then, standing at his study window, watched them leave. Although he was a master of elaborate court ceremony, the simpler, unwritten rituals of everyday life such as leave-takings made the Lord Chamberlain uneasy.

Anatolius’ gaze moved around the forum coming to rest, it appeared to John, on two patrolling members of the urban watch.

“I heard from an impeccable source today that four men were found dead this morning in a cistern,” Anatolius said. “The authorities suspect robbery and aren’t inquiring too closely.”

“Just as well.”

“Why did Kaloethes want to murder you, John?”

“He must have feared that I suspected he was the murderer, that my coming to the inn to speak to Ahasuerus was only a pretext. If so, he overestimated me. I wasn’t certain until yesterday when I went back to search his establishment.”

“Of course! You were the inquisitive visitor Mistress Kaloethes complained about!”

“Yes. When I noticed she had a set of table linens matching the one found in Leukos’ pouch, that is to say with the imperial mark, I was convinced she and her husband had had a hand in his death, not least because I also found imperial plate in their cellar. Leukos had to be silenced.”

He paused. “I suspect that was the reason for Xiphias’ flight. Who else could have sold them stolen palace plate? He must have decided drowning was preferable to Justinian’s torturers.”

Anatolius shook his head. “Imagine the odds on the Keeper of the Plate going to an inn where, among other things, stolen imperial goods are in use!”

“He would have recognized them at once. I assume he wanted to take some proof away. A piece of linen is easier to conceal than a platter or goblet.”

“And Kaloethes saw him take the linen?”

“If he had, he would never have left it with the body. No, I am supposing Leukos insisted on searching for more imperial goods and Kaloethes caught him examining the plate.”

Anatolius frowned. “But what caught your attention about that piece of linen in Leukos’ pouch? How did you know it didn’t belong to Leukos?”

“He didn’t have it earlier that day at the Hippodrome because I recalled him wiping his face with his hand.”

Anatolius remarked with admiration that only John would have noticed, let alone remembered, such a small detail.

“Small details are essential in court ceremony, are they not, and I have had to cultivate a keen eye.”

Anatolius grew quiet, his face darkening. “Stolen imperial plate. Imagine the punishment! Mutilation would be the least of it!”

He took a long drink of wine as if to fortify himself against the thought. “No wonder Kaloethes panicked. I’m surprised he let poor Leukos get as far as the alley before stabbing him.”

“He didn’t. He drowned Leukos in the fountain at the inn. Held his head underwater, as if he were reviving an intoxicated reveler like the charioteer I saw him bringing to his senses.”

John closed his eyes, trying to control his emotions, and then continued. “I should have realized at once when I saw Leukos’ blue lips. I’d seen it before, when my brother in arms died in that icy stream in Bretania. Perhaps I didn’t want to be reminded.”

“But how did Kaloethes get the body to the alley without being noticed?”

“It isn’t far from the Inn of the Centaurs to Isis’ house. I was reminded of how small Constantinople is the night I climbed the stylite’s column. During the celebrations the streets were full of reeling drunkards, many of them in costume. Kaloethes donned a mask, tied one on Leukos, and staggered through the streets dragging Leukos along with him. They would have looked like just another pair of revelers. However, I also found a young woman who saw them from a tenement window, although she mistook them for demons.”

“And why wasn’t the body found earlier?”

“Kaloethes must have hidden it in the inn until the streets were crowded and it was less likely anyone would pay attention to him.”

“But the soothsayer’s dagger-what about that?” protested Anatolius.

“Stolen from his room easily enough,” John replied. “I suspect it was Kaloethes who pointed suspicion in Ahasuerus’ direction. After all, the old man was a foreigner and a soothsayer to boot, and there was no one to speak for him. Once Leukos’ alleged murderer had been caught, no further investigation would be made.”

“Kaloethes was extremely busy.”

“Yes. It seemed likely to me the night I helped Felix home the man who appeared at the house was one of the innkeeper’s accomplices, there to coerce him into assisting them with their schemes. He might very well have been the biggest of those rogues we fought in the cistern. Felix refused but in doing so revealed he had had dealings with the intruder in the past, most likely to pay off gambling debts. Felix confirmed the connection by what he shouted at Kaloethes.”

“You told me there was an intruder on the Anubis when you visited Europa. Could that have been Kaloethes?”

“Possibly. Cornelia has told me she and Europa went to the inn and they might have aroused Kaloethes’ interest. He could have followed them back to the Anubis and then returned after dark the next night, or sent an accomplice, to see if there was anything of value to be found. Whoever it was, it was one more reason for them to come to my house.”

Anatolius fell silent but could not contain his natural curiosity for long. “What do you think of this Grail business?” he blurted out. “I hear the patriarch has acquired some holy relic more remarkable than any in Constantinople. It’s being talked about all over the palace. Do you suppose……?”

John laughed softly. “When I visited the patriarch he showed me a stone. He believes it is a artifact of great value, at least judging from the amount he said he paid for it. He purchased it from Ahasuerus.”

Anatolius looked amazed. “You mean that scoundrel did have the Grail and it was not a cup or a platter but rather a stone?”

John looked down into his wine. In the bright sunlight, he could see the wisps of cloud in the sky reflected its surface. “Tell me truthfully, did you ever desire something because someone else wanted it?”

A puzzled look crossed Anatolius’ face.

“Did it ever occur to you,” John continued, “that our friend Thomas talked a great deal? I gather he attempted to get audiences with every person of importance at the palace. Would you go about a quest like that?”

“I’ve never thought about going on a quest. Are you saying that Thomas was trying to persuade people to take an interest in the Grail, the better to raise its price?”

“What better place than Constantinople to sell a priceless relic or, for that matter, a counterfeit? Especially now, with Justinian completing his Great Church and the patriarch so ill…dying and grasping at straws. No doubt the patriarch believes that the stone he purchased is the Grail. In any event, with this great project, he and the emperor spurred the greedy and unscrupulous to take advantage in any way they could.”

“Is it possible Ahasuerus and Thomas were working together?”

John shrugged. “Thomas may really have been a questing knight. Ahasuerus may indeed be the keeper of the Grail. And perhaps he must live until the end of the world.”

Anatolius shook his head wearily. “I don’t know what to believe, John, except that by all accounts Ahasuerus drowned. Nobody seems to have seen him since that night”

“Strange then that hours after his reported demise the soothsayer visited and cast the pebbles for me,” John said. “Perhaps it was in a dream. He told me I would find my treasure underground.”

“An accurate prediction.”

John agreed with a slight smile. “Thomas told me Berta’s pendant had a stone like the one Leukos was carrying, the type of pebble the soothsayer gave his clients. You have one yourself. Leukos’ was somewhat smaller but otherwise identical to the stone the patriarch purchased from the soothsayer and believes to be the Grail. But what if Ahasuerus did indeed possess the Grail and rather than selling the real one to the patriarch, he gave the pendant containing it to Berta for safekeeping, planning to retrieve it to sell it later?”

“The pendant with the green stone? But John, I purchased that with one or two other items of jewelry from Felix! I gave them to Europa and Cornelia. So if you’re right they now possess the Grail!”

“I am afraid not,” John said, thoughtfully swirling the clouds and sky in the bottom of his cup. “Before she left, Cornelia gave the pendant to me and asked that it be returned to Berta.”

He could not help wondering about the pendant he had had buried with Berta. Could such a Grail truly exist?

For an instant, as he mused over his lover and his daughter-lost, found, and now lost again-regret breached the barricade of John’s self-control and he allowed himself to think what he would never have spoken.

Mithra forgive him, but did there live in Constantinople any man who had more need of such a mighty heal-all than John?