Chapter 604: A Friendly Little Conversation Will Help
After receiving the approval from the Caesar, Abdullah ventured into the Sultan’s room, and began trying to engage in conversations with him, while Antonius positioned himself in a corner where he wouldn’t be noticed by the Sultan. The conversation is a rather quiet one though, with Abdullah borrowing a whole full stack of paper and quill from the medical logistics officer, and carried a table attaching it to the Sultan’s bed, freed his hands, then began scribing a bunch of words in Ottoman Arabic showing it to the Sultan, a language that Antonius has no idea about. But still, he stood there watching, all the way for several hours, till the afternoon when Anna could wait no longer, and sent Mauro down to call The Caesar back for lunch.
However, upon seeing Mauro, Antonius immediately ordered Mauro to go to the next corridor to remind the passing by medical officers to be quiet and not salute the Caesar, for they might expose the fact that he is here and interrupt the meeting between the Sultan and his chancellor, possibly affecting the lives of tens of thousands of people.
The silent conversation between the Sultan and Abdullah continued. Abdullah showed signs of being deeply affected, at times weeping, occasionally slamming the table, and at other times laughing uncontrollably. On the other hand, the Sultan was relatively reserved, only occasionally picking up his quill to write on the board after one or two sentences by Abdullah. But as time passed, the Sultan too began to participate more frequently in the silent discourse.
Antonius stood observing until the evening, and the conversation between the Sultan and Abdullah extended into the night. Anna, unable to wait any longer, sent Cerberus to the medical centre to find the Caesar. But upon seeing Cerberus, Antonius instructed him to follow Mauro’s example and guard the back corridor, while poor Mauro, already tired and hungry, had been standing in armour the entire afternoon.
Finally, as dusk falls, Anna could wait no longer, and came to seek for Antonius in the camp herself dressed in hood and the light armour that she used to wear as well during the conquest of Epirus. It did not take her much effort to find the medical centre, and of course, Mauro there who could no longer feel his legs, attempting to remove the chainmail by himself, and under the instructions of the stubborn man, Anna found her husband there, leaning on the walls, sleeping soundly.
Anna lightened her steps, and approached her husband from the back taking the chase to closely observe him, for she did not have any chance in doing that in the entire past month. Another few ashen hairs have crawled onto his head, with now wrinkles emerging on his face exposing how dreaded he is in the month when she is not here. And there are something that Anna did not notice during a day when she only had barely a few minutes to talk to the man, but the cloth of Antonius really stinks, a clear indication that he had neglected his personal hygiene since leaving her care.
And just nice, the door to the Sultan’s room came swinging open, almost giving Anna a jump scare; It is Abdullah, obviously, who is startled as well seeing both Anna and Antonius standing there, with one almost snoring leaning against the wall.
...
Anna is left behind once again, watching Antonius gulp down the dinner she prepared, which is basically lunch gets heated again, and then left for the commanding tent, without saying any further words to Anna, leaving her alone here again, to spend the night, with the books, just like the life she lived for on a daily basis for the most of her life when both Antonius and their daughter were not around. The woman sighed, cleaned the table, dropped the dishes into the pantry and cleaned them all by herself. She did not bring any maiden or servant around, for this is the battlefield, a war zone, and everyone, inclusive of her and the Caesar, is marked equal to the lowest ranking man, as said by the Caesar himself.
Anna is never a simple woman, a silent workhouse shielding much of the traditional Greek cultures of intrigues, backstabbing, house works and court matters to herself preventing all of these matters from affecting the Caesar, though most of these works are too trivial as compared to all the economical, military and diplomatic issues Antonius have to handle thus making him turning a blind eye sometimes on the contribution of Anna.
But that is alright, Anna thought to herself, as she covered herself in a cloak and went out of the tent to enjoy a bit of the fresh air, and the night sky of Thrace in which she did not have a chance to witness again for an entire decade, after that that grand escape from Constantinople.
Just as Anna is there gazing the stars, a man in armour approached the tent of Antonius bringing a series of clinging sound produced by the constant knocking of his armour pieces. Anna looked down, and with the help of torches she is able to identify the identity of the incoming person, it is Julian. The later too felt that there are someone looking at him above with his sharp instinct, looked up and stopped with a surprised look, for no one ever told him that the Basilissa is summoned here as well.
"Evening, General Julian." Anna greeted the general graciously.
The later hurriedly greeted back and stated his reason of visit. "Greetings, your Grace, May Jesus Christ bless you with a good health. I came back from the construction site looking for his Majesty, but since he is not here tonight in his tent, I shall come back later, please do excuse..."
"Construction site?" Anna caught something in the words of the general. "What construction site do you mean?"
"I mean a trooper welfare station, a site where soldiers can go and have their baths, wash their cloth, and play a bit of balls those kinds of things..."
Anna regarded the anxious general with a sly smile, aware that such trivial concerns would not require the attention of the army’s second-in-command. Thus, she surmised, Julian and potentially her husband as well, must be concealing something from her. Then, her gaze landed on an object in Julian’s possession - a scroll of parchment.
"What is that you’re holding, Julian?"
"Oh, this? This is nothing, Your Grace," Julian stammered, hastily trying to conceal the paper behind his back.
"Hand it over, General Julian," Anna commanded, her voice slow but unyielding. It was only when she adopted this tone that people were reminded of the fact that this woman is the queen of the nation, with an immense political influence over the court, and has her say in matters from all sectors of the government, and naturally, over Julian as well.
After a few moments of internal struggle, Julian conceded, surrendering the scroll of parchment to the queen. The later opened the paper, and started reading it right in front of the fidgeting Julian, and of course, this paper that Julian is trying to hide from her, is a sketch and a second phase plan of a construction project, a dam.... siting right in the middle of river Tundzha? Anna frowned increasingly with each detail she goes through on the graph, and finally, she could control it no more as she slammed the paper on the railing and spoke beneath her breathe trying to minimise the fume in her tone. "This is ridiculous! Preposterous! Appalling! Absurd! Flooding the entire city? What are you people thinking, did you not stop him? Who thought of this plan?"
Julian is stammered, with droplets of sweat rolling down his cheeks as he lowered his face not daring to look at the Basilissa.
"Is it you?"
"...Yes, your Majesty."
"Why."
"...Because... Because... We need to take in account of the thousands of Roman lives that might be lost to the siege on a fully mobilised city..."
"I see."
Anna got back from her initial shock, and continued looking down at Julian with her eyes narrowed. The night coastal wind gushed through the terrains, but it definitely did not cool the heated-up level of anxiety and dilemma inside that of Julian, for he has realised that despite the fact that the Basilissa seldom gets up her temper in front of others, but when she do, it can be more fearsome than the Caesar.
"I see, alright then."
The words of Anna made Julian heave a sigh of relief, but immediately the next sentence made his nerves tense up once more.
"What else do you have in your mind that you are trying to hide away from me?"
"I... I... I..." The general stammered.
"Just say it Julian, I want to know the news recently when I am not around, especially about my husband, for he has not been regularly sending me mails for the entire month."
Julian looked up, caught the glimpse of the queen, and lowered his head for not knowing how many times of the night, and answered with his teeth glued together, hard. "... The Caesar has adopted Giovanni Giustinianni Junior as his step child."
