Chapter 34 - The Maiden and Her Third Brother

°°°

They were at the table of the wealthy and influential merchant Gherardino Figa, as his guests, idly watching the summer evening over the Venice Grand Canal by the open balcony. Unexpectedly, the host said to his brother, under a wide and insidious smile,

"Narces, I knew that you didn't do what I asked you to."

Hearing his brother's real name being said in a demeaning tone, Alexios took his eyes off the channel to look at his brother and the benefactor who had sheltered them after their escape from Constantinople. After the death of the other Dallassenos as heretics, the Lazarite Order was excommunicated and officially dissolved, and its members, persecuted. Betrayed by a dissident faction inside the Order, the names of Alexios and Narces Dallassenos were widely known, and any news of their whereabouts was paid with a good amount of gold anywhere around the Bosphorus, Black and Adriatic Seas.

Now as fugitives in the Republic of Venice, staying about two months ago, Narces was Apollon and Alexios was Aris Gallanilis. Hidden and protected by the rich merchant, they were awaiting the return of Figa's ship that would take them to the Iberian Peninsula, from where they would go to Languedoc next. More precisely, Carcassonne, where they expected to find shelter with Master Petrus.

"I understood that the first case was necessary, Brother, but the second case was not in my hands. I could not direct that man to the gates of death just because he was someone preventing the rise of a new Catholic Pope," his older brother's response had immediately puzzled Alexios, or rather the maiden who was once again forced to take a male identity during the escape.

"In the Order, thinking wasn't part of your duty, Narces. Nor it is your greatest talent," the repulsive Italian rose from the table with a sarcastic smile. "You are as arrogant as you are beautiful. Your belief just makes of you good assassins and sorcerers, nothing else. There is nothing sacred on what you do, but this you will see soon in hell, since…" the older man turned to the two brothers again, with a devilish expression, "You are of no use to me if you cannot be my dogs."

The younger Dallassenos moved closer to his older brother, alarmed, only to notice the handsome face of his brother; of the three, the one with more resemblance to Lex. It was pale as wax and dotted with beads of sweat. He didn't look well.

"Narces!" Lex called as his brother stared at the evil host with hatred, and spat the words,

"Why did you do that? Have you forgotten your oaths ?!"

Narces simply put his finger to his throat, without the slightest shame, trying to throw up what he had just ingested. Lex drew his dagger, and looked for the best place to escape, but Figa's henchmen began to enter the hall. Apparently everything was arranged in advance.

"Oaths? To whom? Haha ha. I was acquitted of my past sins seven days ago. It is my Christian duty to find and punish heretics of the faith, demonists and criminals. But… Your young brother, he's still worth a lot of money."

"Damn bastard!" Lex shouted his outrage, not because of himself, but because he was understanding all the vile betrayal, and how the bastard still tripped them for their blind trust. Narces bent over in pain, and the human jackals advanced on the Greek brothers, clearly enjoying the moment. Lex stood by his brother's back, wielding his dagger, ready to stab the first one who dared to try to touch them, while Gherardino Figa laughed,

"That would not have happened if you had bowed to those who fed you. Do not blame me, but a man should not keep a dog that bites his hand."

Focused on defending his poisoned brother, Lex knew very well that his size and strength did not match that of the mercenaries serving the Venetian merchant. If he wanted to have some escape alternative, he couldn't let them get close. Unfortunately, he wasn't sure if his brother, the most lethal and capable of spies in the service of the Order, would long resist the poison, since they didn't know what it was.

But Narces leaped onto the table, and with another fantastic jump forward he drew his daggers from his sleeves, catching the fat, disgusting Gherardino in the third movement. In Narces's fourth movement, Figa fell to the floor, his throat slit and spurting blood over his linen tablecloth. The celerity of the action astounded the Italian henchmen, and even Lex struggled out of his trance and seize the moment, nimbly darting toward the ceiling chandelier, and running down the support beam to the balcony.

There he found his brother, again bent, suffering from severe cramps caused by the toxin. Narces raised his face to the crossdressed maiden with a manic laugh and motioned for his sibling to climb onto the balcony railing. Lex obeyed without blinking, as Figa's men reached the balcony.

Narces swung his blades back, and in a fantastic leap toward his enemies, drew blood from two of them as he clung and climbed to the third floor balcony. The screams of the wounded thugs cut through the night. Lex looked back, and saw their faces mangled by the curved blades of Narces's daggers.

Glancing just once at the canal, he threw herself into the air, falling onto the felze of a passing gondola. The little boat lurched, and Lex threw himself to the side, trying not only to rebalance the elonged boat, but also to avoid the oar the gondolier lifted against him. Unfortunately, the passenger inside the cabin put his face out, and it was his face that the gondolier smashed with his oar.

The young Greek escaped to the back of the gondola, and then lunged for another boat that was cruising in the opposite direction. Looking up, he saw his brother waving from a roof.

Lex threw a coin at the gondolier, which prevented him from being thrown into the channel's dark waters like a mere thief. As soon as Lex saw a bridge across which the boat would go across, he jumped at its railing, running in the direction where his brother was, frightening the night passersby with his crazy escapade.

He found Narces vomiting, hunched like an old man, in a dark alley; his throat and face seemed to have grotesque spasms that turned the young blond beau into a caricature of himself. Although Lex did not want to do so, he had no choice but to steal a horse from the vicinities, putting his older brother on the back. They fled to Castello district, trying to reach the Greek community where perhaps they could get shelter into.

But apparently their enemies predicted that it would be the wisest step of the Dallassenos brothers, and Lex soon saw them coming another way. His brother writhed close to his body, and whispered for the younger to try to leave the city across the continental gates, which Lex obeyed.

The chase would not stop, but luckily the path the pursuers followed was cut by a channel, and so the brothers again gained some advantage. Crossing the gates of the Serenissima to the north, and perhaps due to tiredness, Lex lost for a moment the notion of direction.

He did not know the place or where to go. He just knew he had to save his brother.

"Water…! Narces's voice could barely be heard, and the youngest turned to see him, just in time to prevent his brother from slipping from the animal to the ground. Desperate about the health of his only brother and living relative, Lex stopped the horse and helped his brother down.

One more vomit, this time bloody, followed, and Narces moaned loudly. But they were on the main road to the most important merchant city in Europe, and would soon be reported, but Narces could not keep riding. Lex just helped his staggering brother off the road, abandoning the horse. Unfortunately Lex didn't have the strength to carry it alone.

His feet wallowed in the flooded grassy ground, and Lex became convinced that he had made a mistake. When his brother couldn't take it anymore, he bent, falling to his knees in the mud. Lex crouched beside him, hugging him in tears of despair,

"Narces, brother, please don't die! Please! please! Don't leave me alone!"