The Spring of the Ram - Dorothy Dunnett [222]
“Also,” said Nicholas, “the galley would take off our dye bales and manuscripts. I’d load them before she left for Batum, and they’d come back to the depot at Kerasous.”
“Leaving us to perish here for the Emperor David?” said Tobie, “Now I see why Julius preferred Kerasous. You said it was easy to persuade him.”
The man called Patou said quickly, “Meester Julius would never leave friends in danger.”
Nicholas said, “If you think we meant that, then forgive us. Whoever sails with that galley is a brave man. I said that our future depends on what the Sultan will do. He will attack Hasan Bey, or he will attack Trebizond. He cannot do both in one season. To command the Black Sea and Trebizond, he must take Sinope, which has forty cannon and two thousand artillerymen to defend it. To reduce Hasan Bey, he must begin with the White Sheep’s western frontier, which is the fortress of Koyulhisar. The forces of the emir of Sinope and the King of Georgia could save Sinope and Trebizond. Once the Sultan marches, we will know whether it is Persia or Trebizond he is attacking. Once the galley comes back from Batum, we shall know whether Georgia will throw her army on behalf of both against the Sultan. Whatever happens, Julius will await the right time and sail. Depending on what happens, we remain in Trebizond, or we escape and sail with him.”
“Escape?” Astorre said. “Kerasous is three days to the west.”
“Or we don’t escape,” Nicholas said. “And trade under whatever master takes Trebizond.”
There was a long silence. “The White Sheep? Turcomans? Muslims?” Godscalc said.
Nicholas looked at him with wide, steady eyes. “We have been trading with Pera, a suburb of Stamboul,” he said.
Astorre made a grinding noise in his throat. He said, “I’ll be damned to hell if I serve under a Turk.”
“You won’t,” Nicholas said. “If the City falls and you’re in it, you’re dead.”
The sewn eye was scarlet. “If it falls. I took money to fight here. I’m not running away.”
“Then you have one chance to our two,” Nicholas said. “If the City falls, you lead your men out when it’s falling, if your pride will allow you. We can join Julius beforehand, or we can stay as merchants, and hope to be spared. That, of course, depends on who our new masters would be. The Turk, straight from Sinope; or Uzum Hasan with his allies, the Turk conquered behind him. The difference is not so much their treatment of us as their treatment of our clients, the City. We can decide to stay for one, but not for the other. We can decide to stay for neither, and abandon the station as soon as we know trouble is coming.”
John le Grant said, “You haven’t mentioned the best that can happen. Georgia sends over its army, and so does the emir of Sinope. Both the Sultan and the White Sheep recoil, and Trebizond survives, as before. Our station continues, and Julius sails to the West, and comes back next year with a new freight. Is it impossible?”
“No,” said Nicholas. “But it requires no discussion. It is failure that requires to be planned for. Now I want to know what you think.”
Godscalc said, “I know what I think.”
He saw, perhaps for the first time, how attentive the eyes of Nicholas were. Nicholas said, “Yes?”
Godscalc said, “First, that we send the galley to Batum, and then let it secretly pass back to Kerasous. Second, that we wait to see where the Sultan is marching. Third, that we wait to hear what odds from Sinope and Georgia he may be facing. If the Sultan retreats, we remain until Julius returns next year with the galley. If the Sultan wins through, despite the emir of Sinope, despite the King of Georgia, despite Hasan Bey, he can only sit down before Trebizond at the end of the season and besiege it. We stay, and withstand the siege. If Uzum Hasan and his allies conquer the Sultan, we stay as we are. The lord of the White Sheep may covet Trebizond, but I can’t see him overturning it as well as the Sultan. More, it is his channel to Christian help from the West. It’s in his interest to preserve it.”
Astorre