Chapter 235: The Lliad

"In the depths of the sea on the cliff 

Between Tenedos and craggy Imbros 

There is a cave, wide gaping 

Poseidon who made the earth tremble, 

stopped the horses there"

The Lliad, Homa

"The Rumelians are starting their offensive!"

"What do we do! Where is our Agha!"

"Sir! Our Agha have ran away! I saw him at the stable behind just now!"

"Screw that man!"

A junior officer cursed his general with the worst possible worded he can find in his dictionary but swearing will not do any thing to turn the situation for a better, and now as the second in charge of the fortress is trying to take up the burden which seems to be a little bit too heavy for his shoulders. He thought about it in his mind rolling his eyes, with the central tower gone and a section of the walls crumbling, it is now already impossible to continue to defend it, and he still needs to preserve the seeds of the newly formed Janissary for the Grand Vizier, as for a man with rank like him he already knows some of the things ongoing in the higher ups, thus, he made up his mind and…

Ran away, together along with his Janissaries.

Seeing both their commander and second in charge have ran for their lives the rest of the Janissaries are quick to follow making the entire castle empty in less than five minutes time, even before Yuri and his Varangians have managed to paddle to the shores these folks have already left the premise not even leaving a trace behind.

Hearing the report sent back by Yuri, Antonius sighed shaking his head and closed his eyes feeling the touch of the familiar war flag of the Janissaries. The flag is the same, but the people commanded by this flag are now different. The Janissaries back then under the lead of Mehmed II is almost an entirely different species than the current rebuilt Janissaries. Does it mean that the Ottoman army have became weaker? No, but Antonius do believe that even if the Ottoman Janissaries are like a peck of tigers, they will not be capable of war going if led by a rabbit.

"Destroy the fortress, do not leave a single still in tact building for the Ottomans, and we shall come here to clean this place up every month from today, until we are able to take it."

"Yes, admiral."

The sailors and Varangians moved quickly burying gun powder from the Ottoman arsenal all over the fortress mixed with oil, and with a single match stick it sent another thunderous explosion right on the two sides of the fortress tearing the towers and the walls down. Then the massive fleet organised itself and sailed southwards before the wind changes its directions.

…

The fortress of Kilitbahir marks the ending point to the strait of Gallipoli connecting the two seas, and after a voyage longer than any other ones for the past entire year and an not so exciting siege battle, Antonius now entered a brand new world that he have not visited for almost two years since he sailed for Constantinople.

For the first time in many months Antonius had rarely felt such a strong emotion with increased hormone of dopamine rushing towards his brain. He could feel it, it is the calling of the sea that soothed him for a decade, a pristine art of adventure, a tide for new sails awaiting his return. Although what lies in front of the sails are yet unknown, there can be more challenges, more tears, more laughter, but most importantly, more opportunities awaits. 

"Hahahaha…"

"Oh~oh~oh~!"

The sailors on Antonius' flag ship watches as their admiral dances around humming weird tunes he used to sing back during the days of piracy, Then, their pirate took off all of his cloth and jumped down in to the pure blue waters to have a swim having a taste of his ages old friend the waters of the Aegean. 

"Admiral over board!" The sailors laughed and teased as they watch their admiral swim in the water freely as a dolphin. 

Just then, a brig carrying a white flag of neutrality appeared on the horizon approaching the fleet accompanied by two scouting ships.

"Antonius! My friend! Admiral! Stop swimming! Come up!" Abdullah shouted out to Antonius.

"What?" Antonius dug his wet ears.

"You have guests!"

The incoming brig is a few ambassadors from the island of Imvros came here wishing to see the admiral. A significant diplomatic gesture that Abdullah took with the highest priority as this island of Imvros is seating on an important strategic location for Antonius and have strangely be able to keep its semi independent state dancing between the Genoese, Greek and Ottomans, an ambassador from this island must bring some political message that Antonius simply must know.

Antonius climbed on to the flag ship groaning that why happy times always ends so damn fast for him, dried his face with a cloth and called for the ambassadors with a set of simple linen clothing and a wet hair making him look more like a fisher man instead of a lord or the legendary naval leader.

The group of ambassadors came in bowing to Lord De'Ricci with some offerings and gifts such as the newly harvested summer fruits that grew on the islands. Seeing this ripped fruits Antonius wiped his wet hair with a hanker chief and instantly picked one up from the basket starting to eat it right in front of the ambassadors, leaving the later looking at each other not knowing what to comment.

"Ah, greetings my dear ambassadors… Welcome to my fleet, how may I help you?"

"Honourable admiral, conqueror of the seas, legendary leader of all navies and fleets, we are humble islanders from the county of Imvros here paying you respect offering you the sweetest Apricots and juiciest peaches all grown native on our home land, with a small donation of two thousand ducats worth of Genoese lira coins, we hope that you would like our gift."

Hearing this Antonius is aroused with interests. "Dear ambassadors, I accept your gifts and offerings with all my sincerity and thankfulness, but I also knows the rule of diplomacy that if some one offered you a heavy present like gold, they are trying to get some thing from you. May I know prestigious ambassador what you are trying to achieve from me with these gifts?"

The ambassadors knew that this admiral have a reputation of being straight forward, though they did not expect him to be so straight forward like this. Bring well prepared about the admiral they steadily replied. "Yes admiral we do have one humble wish for you… we have heard about your stories of expansion in the sea of Marmara, frankly speaking although we do admire your martial intellect in those expansions but we would definitely not want you and your fleet to spread the fire of war to our tiny little island."

"Oh?" Antonius raised his eye brow looking at the ambassador in dismay. "But you see your island seats on a position way too important for me to just bypass you, and your coins definitely is not enough in keeping me out. If that is the case please take back your coins and your fruits. We will not mistreat you do not worry."

"You misunderstood me, respectable admiral, we are not trying to yield you from our humble tiny island, we are just offering you a deal, a deal of submission."

"Submission?"

"Yes, admiral, we had a plan between the town elders a few years back, that although we are by name a subject of the Roman empire just like the island of Lemnos, and we have decided that since the Basileus in Constantinople cannot protect us, we shall take matters in to our own hands negotiating to whoever the victor is; If the Ottomans succeeded, we would go to the Sultan, if the Basileus deterred the invasion, we shall remain as his semi autonomous subject, and now since you, my lord, the mightiest of the seas came, we shall submit to you."

Antonius leaned forward grinning and gave a heavy pat on the shoulder of this ambassador. "Next time, say your sentence clearly and quicker so that it will not cause so many misunderstandings, gentleman."

"Sorry, admiral."

"I can agree on your terms, but you must later discuss the specific ones with my friend over here called Abdullah."

The ambassador looked sideways bowing to Abdullah but is surprised that this man looks no Roman, instead he looks like a….

There are infidels in the admiral's fleet?

"I have a few questions for you."

The ambassador hurriedly stopped thinking of the things he should not ponder on, and turned back. "You have my ears, admiral."

"What else can I gain from granting you te special statues of semi autonomous? And do you know what happened on the Prince's islands?"

"Do not worry, admiral, we people of Imvros are equipped with sense and intellect all well educated with literature scripts of late antiquity and studies of Christology, we are people of sense with clear minds, and we will not do those nauseating deeds those Hillbilly have done there…"

"…As for what can you get…"

"We have special ties with the coastal cities of the Peninsula, especially the city of Thessaloniki."