Chapter Three part two
Svend met with Stefanos the next morning to go over the details of the trip to Venice and bring the foreign advisor up to speed before the Council meeting. Stefanos seated himself at the small alcove overlooking the Palace gardens.
“So what have you been wasting your time with, while I have been away?”
“Well, while you had your nice and festive vacation from the council, I went ahead and started training and recruiting the new army, I’ve had to let the city commander do the basic training, the Emperor has not announced his plans for me yet, and I haven’t pushed until I knew that Arn was successful.”
Stefanos nodded, “Well he was, will you be accepting command then?”
“I don’t know, I loathe to give up the Guard, we’ll see, I did manage though to let Alexios get the command of the cavalry, though they have only just completed drafting the full contingent.”
“Alexios, the son of the old general? Smart move that will buy you some political clout, both with the Emperor and the Army, even if not with the two Generals.”
“Mmm, and he happens to be a great cavalry officer too, and interested in my Freja.”
“That too,” Stefanos grinned, he liked to tease Svend about his ability to be political; it sort of took away the focus from his own ambitions. “What’s on the agenda today?”
“Well I’m sure we are to congratulate you on a mission well done, rumor has it the Emperor will attend at least parts of the meeting, I’m sure we will also touch on the military parts, I wonder if I can avoid being sucked into accepting the army, until I’m ready.”
Stefanos looked at his friend, wondering why he was stalling so. Then he shrugged, “and Dimitrios?”
“I don’t know, his assistant hasn’t made much noise and I understand you didn’t have a lot of trouble with him in Venice?”
“Not really, he turned out to be very passive, apart from a magnificent show at the Saint Mark’s Basilica.”
Svend raised a quizzical eyebrow and Stefanos relayed the story.
The Varangian Captain laughed, “good for him, the Venetians shouldn’t be allowed to forget.”
“Indeed, so what is your stand on that army thing?”
“I want it, because it is good for us, I believe with the help of D’Urbino that I can turn out a prime infantry fighting force that will open the eyes of the regular commanders of the army.” Stefanos nodded, that made sense, “but, on the other hand I’m loath to give up the Guard, my father would rotate in his grave. I see no easy solution.”
“What about Ulf?”
“What about him?”
“Couldn’t he take over the Guard and still ensure the traditions are upheld?
“Probably, he needs the advancement and recognition, still I’m not sure I would do very well as a regimental commander under the current general staff.”
Stefanos merely nodded and filed away the discussion. Then both got up and made the short trip across the palace to the Council meeting.
*****
The room was slowly filling, the Chancellor seated himself to the right of the main chair, relegating once again another member of the Council to move to one of the lower positions, indicating that the Emperor the Emperor would indeed be attending.
Nikolos, the Chancellor, waved for everybody to be seated before he started to speak,
“As you probably all are aware, Stefanos has returned successfully from his mission to Venice, the Emperor will therefore join us in a few moments. I have been ordered to tell you that today’s agenda will be short and that the Emperor wishes to make a number of announcements, once he is done he will gracefully allow a short discussion of these, but keep it short gentlemen, the Emperor has no interest in your bickering.”
A murmur rose around the table, quickly replaced by a rush of clothes and scraping of chairs as everybody stood at the Emperor’s entry. The Emperor slowly rounded the table, nodding to his Chancellor before seating himself, once his scribe nodded that he was ready the Emperor waived his hand as a signal that all should seat themselves.
As the silence descended over the room everybody’s attention was on the Emperor, but the old man merely stared at some papers on his desk without looking up. Finally he raised his gaze and stared piercingly at the assembled dignitaries. He lifted the stack of papers,
“This, gentlemen is all we need, this is the work of Stefanos, and this is the signed alliance with Venice. Once our army is rebuild and trained we will now what to do, this will not leave this room, but you all know our first objective, The Roman Empire WILL be again.” He leaned back and for a long moment all that could be heard was the wheezing breathing from him.
The Council members looked at each other, was this the ramblings of an old man, or did the Emperor truly believe that Byzans could rise like a Phoenix of the ashes?
The Emperor coughed once then looked up? “Who here in my presence have the courage and the strength to assume the command of the new army?”
There was a stir among the members and the Commander of Thrace, Theodosios, almost spoke up, but the Emperor silenced him with a hand. “No Theodosios, this will be new army, an army to be used for special assignments, an order of men, dedicated to serve on my orders directly.”
Svend leaned back and looked across the table at Stefanos, An entire army after the concept of the Guard? Stefanos smiled, and Svend got a nagging suspicion that Stefanos had not spend the previous evening celebrating his accomplishment, but rather closeted with Nikolos or even the Emperor.
The Emperor shifted his gaze to his trusted Captain and the piercing eyes turned soft for a moment.
“Svend you have served me well as a Captain of the Varangians, as you father before you, and you have diligently served the Empire as a nonvoting member of the Council, striving to ensure that what was best for the Empire came first.”
Svend had a strange feeling of being caught unawares, Stefanos seemed to know what was going on and so did Nikolos, in a way he felt like trapped in water, unable to move, but not restrained in any way.
The Emperor droned on, “It is now time for you to let go of the Guard and serve me as a full member of the Council. I expect nothing less than your full service as regimental commander and General of my newly raised troops, you will further more receive the full control of the newly raised cavalry regiment.”
Svend tried to keep his clam, he was being honored and elevated beyond his dreams and yet he felt a dread that he couldn’t explain, he was fairly certain the pompous style was created to subdue the two theater generals, but still, this was surreal.
“I will give you two days to get the Guard into proper hands, then I expect to see your acceptance of your new command, note that the seat on the Council is yours and supplant the one you had as a Captain of the Guard, your replacement will not be seated at the Council, unless you choose to have him as aid.”
As he finished his speech the Emperor rose and left the chamber without waiting for the debate as promised, this was an Empirical decree and not up for discussion after all.
Svend was stunned and as the door closed behind his Sovereign and the room burst into a cacophony of sounds and talk, he merely sat there and let the shouted question and badly veiled threats wash over and around him. Slowly the sounds decreased and the meeting came to order. Nikolos continued to recount the gains from Venice and a number of other state issues, but it was all lost on Svend, he was going to loose the Varangians and he was going to build an elite regiment, ten times the size of the Guard, the dual emotions of sadness and joy raced through his veins and he didn’t know how to deal with it.
The meeting finally came to an end, and Ulf, his lieutenant, had already heard the news and was waiting for him.
“Some surprise, eh?”
Svend looked at him a thought occurring to him, “you knew?”
“Well yes and know, I’ve had a hunch, since all your stalling and creation of the separate cavalry regiment went too easy, nobody but Theodosios even tried to stop you.” He grinned, “And I’ve had a visit from Stefanos last night.”
Svend threw his hands up in the air, muttering curses, before he turned towards the gate and home, he badly needed to talk to his wife, Sofia.
