Dockyards, Constantinople, 1111


Solomon sat on a crate of spices, looking out at the pier where two old merchant ships were being readied for the journey to Egypt. He had managed to get them at bargain prices thanks to a favor he was owed by a local trader. The smaller and less sea worthy of the two crafts was a decrepit Byzantine vessel which looked as if it hadn’t been sea worthy since before he was born. The other ship which was to be his flagship was a small but swift vessel of Venetian origin. There was only one problem with her….

Clearly painted on the hull, in bold crimson lettering was the ships name, Satan’s Arse. It will just have to be scrubbed off and replaced with something more appropriate for the crusade thought Solomon. He pulled out a small leather bound bible from his russet tunic and began reading for inspiration. Several hours past and the sun began to fall beneath the western horizon. With the light quickly fading, Solomon decided to read one last passage before retiring for the evening. Ezekiel 25:17 he muttered to himself as his brown eyes traversed the page. “That seems rather appropriate….Even if it is a bit vague”

Solomon rose to retire for the night but stopped when four men rounded the corner. They were all dressed in the livery of that damn Asteri house. The four men were pushing large barrels and were heading towards a ship to the north. With a devilish glint in his eyes, Solomon followed them, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. At last they stopped in front of a ship he knew belonged to Strator Laskaris.

“Eh, this is the last of the provisions. Lets get it loaded so we can rest ‘for we set sail tomorrow,” Stated the tallest of the men.

“Iannios, you heard ‘bout what’s being said up that the Magnaura,” Asked a pockmarked man in the group, “They say old Hypatios Butchered a whole city himself. Say he even raped the Sultan’s prize camel ‘for he burned it to death.”

“Those are filthy lies spread by those filthy monks from Antioch and I better not hear you spreading them again,” replied the man who was apparently Ioannis.

“All the same,” said the pockmarked man, “It makes getting supplies a right old pain. The first thing those bloody merchants ask us is what house we serve. T’second we say Asteri they get all uppity with us. I had a hard time getting something as simple as water from those money grubbing usurers.”

The rest of the conversation was lost to Solomon as the four boarded the ship. Solomon crouched behind a small fishing boat and waited for the men to leave. After he was sure they had gone he walked over the edge of the pier and dived in. He swam over to the hull of Laskaris’ ship and pulled out two daggers. He gouged one into the hull of the ship and then the other. Slowly, he crawled his way up the side of the ship using the two daggers. Once on board Solomon quickly found the entrance to the lower decks and darted inside before one of the night guards caught him.

Solomon made his way over to the barrels containing fresh water. Grabbing a nearby hammer, he cracked open the barrels. He didn’t yet know what he was going to do but he wasn’t going to let any of those cursed Asteri mongrels beat him to Aegyptus. All he had to do was stall him for a few days.

A rat scurried across the floor and Solomon had his plan. He lunged at the rat and pinned it with one of his daggers. The animal shrieked in pain but Solomon swiftly put it out of his misery with his other dagger. Raising the rodent over a barrel he gutted the poor creature and scraped its innards into first one barrel, and then another, and then another. Then he hacked the creature apart and distributed the pieces into the other barrels.

His sabotage complete, Solomon knelt and clasped his hands in prayer, “Lord, please guide my ship on its holy mission and give it great speed. Please let no one fall ill because of my sabotage but please keep those filthy maggots out of Aegyptus, Amen.”

Before he left Solomon crossed over to one of the polluted barrels and, in what he would later describe as “one of the most arrogant foolhardy things I ever did”, he carved the following message into the oaken barrel.

The Lord has judged your house and found it filthier than Sodom and viler than Gomorrah. He now rebukes it and all its members. He now strikes down with great vengeance and furious anger, those who follow the madman, Hypatios.

~Solomon