Chapter 555: Death Of An Abyssinian
The Venetians noticed that they have been discovered too, but they do not seem to be concerned at all, as one of them even started laughing and yelled.
"OI! Abyssinian! deditionem non interficiemus te"
The other Venetian holding the rope gave him a smack on his head. "You donkey, how would an African know our language? Use Greek!"
"Abyssinian! Yield, and we would not kill you!"
"Aye Abyssinian, believe in us! For we are Venetians, we are the civilised! We are here to free you from your masters, there is no need to run away from us!"
"Yes, my brother, for we are all brothers loved by Christ, it is meaningless for us to continue killing each other, come, give me your hand!"
Abraham is neither in the mood nor has the strength to reply to these Venetians, he is too tired, tired from all the things that have happened to him since a week ago, and it has finally gotten onto him after the only bit of hope he has had has diminished before his eyes. Abraham has been burnt out both physically and mentally, and he might not realise it, but his entire frail body has already fallen into the deep spiral of exhaustion. Abraham knows that his body cannot support him any further from now onwards.
But definitely he is not going to surrender.
Abraham relaxed his entire body letting every single muscle going loose and closed his eyes. A surge of cold water seeped into his ears soaking every inch of his skin as he sank himself casually into the sea. It is freezing here in the deep water as he submerges, much colder than the surface, with the only bit of heat left being sealed in his heart. The middle-aged sailor from the horn of Africa opened his eyes once again, and saw the body of the young man Alexei, still staying afloat above the water surface, with little amount of the pale sunlight getting onto him allowing him to observe his surroundings.
The deep sea is a wonderful place indeed for Abraham, it is a place where Abraham can finally feel some calm and tranquil giving him a runaway from the disturbing hassle and hustles in the real life above the water surfaces. Without all those distractions and noises from the Venetians, Abraham feels that his mind has been cleansed, by the water of the briny deep seas and light slowly fading away before his fingertips. Creatures swam past him, some he knows, some he does not.
The Venetians on the boat above the water surfaces started to panic.
"What do we do! He committed suicide! That is a sin stated in the Bible!"
"We need to dive in and pick him up, you, go, jump in there!"
"Why is it always me! No, you shall be the one to take the initiative this time round."
The Venetians gazed at the pile of blood and all those intestines, guts, and god knows what organs that belongs to the remains of Alexei floating above the water. One of them asked the other two Venetians in disgust. "You guys want to try dive in there and save our target?"
"Not for me, I don’t feel good about diving into a pool of blood."
"Neither for me."
"..."
"I guess that this Abyssinian is not that important after all right? After all, he is just an Abyssinian, and our captain did not really tell us about the importance of this man."
"Of course, he won’t, if he had told us that this is a valuable target, we would have brought him to the admiral ourselves and claimed the reward."
"..."
"So, I guess, he is not really that important, am I right?"
The other two Venetians looked at their friend with ignorance in their eyes."
"Fine, then just do remember that we saw no Abyssinian this round, we just came here to shoot down these folks, no one is supposed to mention a single word about the presence of any Abyssinian to the captain, understood?"
...
Antonius is still on the shores, watching over the seas as the mists slowly clears out alongside with the Venetian scout ships patrolling the area, with the lion on their flag, which Antonius cannot recall its name, as if taunting at him for his failure and inability to keep his control of the seas despite him being an admiral roaming the seas for two decades.
Antonius is tired, of course, after galloping and marching with his troops on horseback all the way from Ioannina to here. He is old, too, he could feel that as the years go by his body too has started aging as well, he could stay overnight without sleep for days last time staying on the deck to watch the seas back then, but he could no longer even stay for one night as he is approaching his forties, and what is more pathetic of him is that he is yet to bear a healthy male offspring as his heir, and one after another of his old loyal pals is already starting to die before him.
Like now.
The Venetian ships slowly started to disperse and sail away, leaving behind nothing but a bunch of seagulls hovering over the area occasionally swooping down and fetching some things from the surface of the water which no one wants to know what it is.
Not a single person in sight.
Antonius roughly expected this to happen, but when it really did happen it still came unbearable to him, seeing a comrade he has knew for one decade plus dying right before his very own eyes, and he as the commander is incapable to do any single thing to stop this from happening. The Caesar of the Roman Empire just sat there, on his mount, looking as if he is lost in his thoughts. The white mount that accompanied Antonius for years too seems to have sensed the drastic change in its master’s emotions and let off a few long neighs, tilting its head to look at Antonius’ face.
Abraham is dead for sure, the Caesar now has lost his favourite admiral due to a decisive defeat in a battle that was ordered by himself against a very enemy that he wanted to offend, the entire army saw that, and now they are all buzzing about it.
Alexios saw this as well, and by his good wills he stepped forward intending to comfort his sovereign by a bit, but he got pulled back by the old man Apostolos standing behind him, who then shook his heads looking at the lord of the treasuries.
"What do you mean?" Alexios is baffled. "Aren’t we, as courtiers of the Caesar, supposed to be caring and concerning for our political master at times like this?"
Apostolos swiftly glanced to his left and right, pulled Alexios to one side and murmured beneath his breath. "Listen, my young friend, any dictators, including these kings and emperors who wish to remain seating on his throne and keep the loyalty of his army, will need to bring his hounds from one victory to another victory sharing the fruits of victory with his men."
Alexios became even more baffled. "Then what does it got to do with this?"
"If the ruler suffers a catastrophic defeat, his men will start to question his capabilities, and in order to prove to his followers that this defeat is not a result of his misjudgements, he will start to pick a scapegoat, and if you are going to approach him at this dangerous timing, you are going to throw yourself onto that booby trap."
Alexios is unconvinced. "Nah I believe that the Caesar is not like that, he did not say a thing when Yuri died, nor did he make a face when Anjelo is, you know."
"It is different this time, and besides, trust me young man, all dictators, no matter what kind of men they were at the start, will eventually evolve into the same species. And our Caesar is definitely no exception. Just trust me, I am saving your life."
Alexios struggled a bit within his mind and stopped at where he is watching at the back of Antonius.
Suddenly, the Caesar of the Roman empire, the owner of Thessaloniki, Epirus and Larisa, began trembling violently on horseback, and then fell heavily onto the Earth right before the eyes of hundreds of men, including that of Alexios.
People are shocked by this sudden change of event, tens of the Caesar’s guards rushed towards their sovereign. Alexios now too could no longer care more and less, and rushed forward, leaving the old Apostolos remain standing there with a sigh.
"Your majesty! Your majesty!"
A dozen of people surrounded Antonius lying on the ground and started shaking the Caesar hoping that he would wake up, while some began seeking for water in their bags thinking that this is nothing but merely a heat stroke, and some others began arguing whether they ought to bring the Caesar into the city of Avlonya or just simply remain here, with the entire beach suddenly turning into a rowdy market place until Alexios showed up.
To many, this scene is much more horrendous than the sight of the navy getting doomed before them.
