Free Imperial Fire by Robert Lyndon

let his breath go in a low whistle.
    Vallon smiled after a fashion. ‘My first reaction, too – or it would have been if I’d been at liberty to express myself. The Logothete conducted the interview in the presence of the Emperor Alexius and the Empress-Mother. On a cold winter’s night in the imperial box at the Hippodrome.’
    Hero straightened in his seat. ‘Why does the emperor want to send you to China?’
    ‘To establish relations with the Song court. Personally, I can’t see what Byzantium will gain by exchanging niceties with a heathen potentate dwelling in a land a year’s journey away.’
    ‘An alliance must produce some benefits. News of it would certainly burnish the emperor’s prestige.’
    Vallon nodded. ‘There’s more. On his travels into the East, did Master Cosmas come across a compound called Fire Drug? It’s an incendiary even more violent than Greek Fire. The Logothete believes it has important military applications and wants me to obtain the formula.’
    Hero shook his head. ‘Cosmas never mentioned such a compound.’
    ‘It probably doesn’t exist except in myth. Well, no matter.’ Vallon raised his hand to forestall protest. ‘You’ll stay here for as long as you wish and then return to Italy at the Logothete’s expense. I’ve already despatched a letter to the minister expressing my outrage at his deception.’
    Hero traced a pattern on the tabletop. ‘I assume that he thought I would be an asset on the enterprise. Obviously you don’t share his opinion.’’
    ‘The journey there and back will take at least three years. I regard it as a death sentence.’
    ‘I take it that you’re not in a position to refuse the commission.’
    ‘You’re right. I face my fate knowing that if I perish, my family won’t suffer.’
    Hero mused for a while. ‘Could I have another glass of that excellent wine?’
    ‘Forgive me,’ said Vallon, raising the flagon. ‘The whole business has unsettled me. What grieves me most is the dissension it’s caused between me and Caitlin. Imagine how she feels, knowing that I’ll be gone for years, probably never to return.’
    ‘When do you leave?’
    ‘At the beginning of the sailing season. We sail to Trebizond on the Black Sea, cross Armenia and then strike through Seljuk Persia armed with a safe conduct from the Sultan.’ Vallon uttered a sardonic laugh.
    Hero raised the glass to his lips but didn’t drink. ‘Cosmas told me that the Chinese are a most ingenious race, with many inventions and wonders to their credit. It would be a singular privilege to study their arts and engineering.’
    Vallon swallowed his wine and poured another cup, the neck of the flagon chattering on the rim.
    ‘No, I won’t allow you to come. Consider how I’d feel if you died on the journey.’
    ‘Consider how
I’d
feel if I let you go without me.’
    ‘I’m duty-bound. You aren’t. I have family to consider. You don’t.’
    Hero’s mouth tightened. ‘Each of us has different motives. In my case, I’d accompany you out of choice, to satisfy my curiosity, to further my store of knowledge. An expedition to China would be the adventure of a lifetime.’
    ‘Do you despise your profession so much that you’d throw it away for a land march into the unknown?’
    ‘I’m still only twenty-seven. I have half a lifetime in which to practise medicine.’
    Vallon knocked over his glass and swore. ‘Hero, you’re not coming. Let’s talk of other matters. I insist.’
    Hero drank no more than a couple of sips. ‘Do you think Wayland has received a similar summons?’
    Vallon glanced around as if he half-expected to find someone lurking in the shadows. ‘No, thank God. Even if the Logothete’s influence extended as far as Suleyman’s court, Wayland wouldn’t abandon Syth and the children to go traipsing to the end of the world on some unknown minister’s say-so.’
    ‘You said “children”. That means an addition to the family.’
    ‘A girl, born three