Chapter 43: One Servitude for Another

The walk to the docks for once had no interruptions, leaving Vito plenty of time to notice what had happened to the harbor since the fleet arrived there.

Coils of rope that ought to have been hanging from the rails were stacked in a yard beside the docks, already swallowed by the carpenters. Crates of nails and bundles of roof beams had taken the places where fishery might once have sat.

Most benches in every galley he passed were empty, while the crews who belonged on them were sweating over the fondaco’s timber a street away. The little flotilla had managed to turn itself into the most expensive lumberyard on this side of the sea.

Vito laughed under his breath. It was calm enough that only the gulls had cause to take offense.

There was barely a watch left aboard now, just enough men to mind the lines and keep half an eye on the cargo still waiting to be hauled ashore. La Contessa had the largest share of that duty, being the flagship.

Vito climbed her gangway with one hand resting loose on the hilt of [Artiglio del Leone], mildly curious about what else the day meant to put in his path.

He was scarcely aboard when Bepi greeted him, or rather accused.

"Well, well. The wanderer returns."

He finished tying the line and gave Vito a slow, unimpressed inspection.

"Should I fetch the captain’s chair, or have you forgotten where that is too?"

Vito smiled in good faith. "I could never forget you, amico. Who else would I trust to keep the biscuit dry while I go off having adventures?"

Bepi spat over the side, mostly from habit. "Adventures, he calls it. While the rest of us slept, you were off earning yourself another story nobody will believe."

"Not a good story I’m afraid, only a Pisan. The devil would’ve been better company, and probably harder to catch."

Bepi grunted. From him, that was practically enthusiasm.

"That the fellow you’re after? Down below?"

"The very one."

Bepi needed no further invitation. He led the way for the hatch, either for entertainment, or perhaps simply company.

The belowdecks hold was low, enough to force Vito to duck beneath the beams. It was dark enough that his eyes took a moment to make out the man waiting there.

Ansaldo sat with his wrists bound and his back against a bulkhead, safely away from the oar benches, while a single guard stood near the ladder looking far more bored than dangerous.

He saw him and spoke immediately. "Ser Barozzi, I heard? I was beginning to think you’d forgotten me down here altogether, and I confess I was starting to like that idea better than whatever you’ve come to do."

"Miss me?"

Ansaldo shifted against the bulkhead, trying to coax some life back into his bound wrists. "Miss is a strong word for a man who knocked me off a horse. Though I confess, signore, I’ve had the whole night to think. I’ve got a great deal to say, if you’re the sort of man who listens before he starts cutting throats."

"Very civilized." Bepi leaned against the ladder. "Shall I fetch him a cushion while we’re at it?"

Vito waved him quiet and crouched close enough to speak over the groaning of the hull.

"Then talk. Start with how a Pisan comes to be running errands for a Genoese count."

Ansaldo’s mouth pulled crooked, half smile and half grimace. "Because the other choice was to lose my head. Pescatore’s men intercepted my ship, stole my cargo and told me either service or a knife. I am, signore, rather fond of my head, so I chose service."

"And you never thought to escape?"

"Constantly. Loudly, too, in my own head. If only it was that easy."

Bepi shook his head. "What a fine union, a Pisan working for the Genoese. If the Devil had sired a bastard with a sea wolf, it’d still be a happier household."

"I’m not cheerful about it either!"

Vito believed him, or enough of him to make the difference. Ansaldo’s voice had not trembled once, and that was important enough.

But the better reason was simpler.

In either of Vito’s lives, he had never heard of a Pisan choosing a Genoese leash because he liked the idea. There were hatreds in this world too old to be overcome by convenience.

"Fine, suppose I believe you. What good are you to me alive?"

Ansaldo flashed him a grin. "Of course I have intelligence, signore, rare intelligence even. Things I collected beneath the bastards’ noses even while they tried to hide them from me."

Vito clicked his tongue.

He had known there was rot beneath the surface, but Ansaldo was telling him that it ran much deeper than he had imagined.

"That’s worth considerably more to me than one Pisan’s life is worth to your Count."

"I was hoping you’d see it that way."

"Then work for me instead of wasting away down here."

Ansaldo’s smile turned into neutral, neither cold or warm. "Forgive me if I don’t leap at the honor, signore. You’re offering me one servitude in exchange for another, then asking me to call it mercy."

"Ma va’. It’s a better leash."

Ansaldo breathed out an exhale close to a laugh. "They always are at the beginning. I’ve had one master threaten me with a knife and another knock me off a horse in the dark. Between the two of you, I’ll take the man who at least lets me finish a sentence."

"Wise man."

Vito grinned. "Here’s the bargain. You give me names, and we see if they’re worth the trouble. If they are, you walk free when this is finished. If not, you go back to being precisely what you are now, capisci?"

"Painfully."

"Good. Then we understand one another."

Ansaldo straightened as far as the low beam and his bound wrists permitted.

The resignation in his shoulders eased, replaced by conviction. "I’ll need ink, signore, and paper to write on. Those names deserve better than my memory, and I don’t trust either of us to keep them straight without a little help."

Vito called through the hatch for parchment, and a deckhand went off to find some without complaint.

Bepi stood by the ladder, shaking his head. "Well, I’ll be damned. We came aboard with a prisoner and we’re leaving with a spy. At this rate, we ought to start raiding for talent."

"There’s a first time for everything, amico."

Once the names were written down, it would be time spread the island before him and see where they led. There was more to find now, and the next question was where to start looking.