Vito set his cup down and let the invitation sit there a moment before taking it.
"Land, I understand well enough."
He kept his tone casual, friendly even, "A man can march an army onto it, stick a banner in the ground, and dare any fool who wants to come take it back. That’s not where your trouble lies."
Boniface’s eyes had already wandered back to the map behind him, one thick finger resting near the coast without him seeming to notice.
He grunted back a reply, "Thessalonica, or that’s the whisper going round, anyway. Give the old marquess a kingdom and hope he quits moaning about the crown he didn’t get."
"Either way, it’s the sort of prize you can occupy without needing a bathtub full of headaches."
Vito spread his hands.
"Instead of islands, which have a talent for making fools of their owners."
That earned him a look sharp enough to remind Vito that the wine had not dulled anything important underneath it.
Even then, he continued without hesitation, "Crete. You’ve already got the paper for it, or near enough once the ink dries. Very fine prize, too. Only trouble is, once you’ve claimed an island, you discover you’ve somehow acquired every pirate, raider, smuggler, and hungry neighbor who thinks it might look better under his name."
Boniface shook his head, "I’ve got ships, boy. You don’t think I’ve spent my life taking cities only to forget how to hold an island?"
Vito clicked his tongue in a smile, "That you do, though there’s a difference between carrying an army across the water and keeping an island from being carried away from you. I’m from La Venezia, Marquess. We learn the sea before we learn our prayers, if ships alone were enough to hold Crete, we’d have conquered half the world by now."
That brought out a snort from the old general.
By then, Vito’s voice had acquired an easy warmth, the sort that made inconvenient truths sound almost like favors. "Meanwhile, the Genoese have already made themselves comfortable near the island, and parchment doesn’t frighten men who’ve got ambition and hungry crews. There’s Pescatore, too. Calls himself Count of Malta, though nobody seems to have asked Malta."
Boniface’s mouth twitched.
Vito laughed and continued, "The man’s never waited for an invitation to take what hasn’t been nailed down, and an island nobody has garrisoned is about as nailed down as a tavern girl’s affections on the night a fleet comes into port."
He gestured one finger towards the map, right where the island sat beneath Boniface’s hand.
"That’s the trouble with islands. Everybody can see them."
Boniface rubbed his chin and shook his head. Vito had seen that look on veterans before, the one that said youth was a disease best survived from a safe distance.
Eventually the Marquess sighed, "God’s teeth. You’re a young bastard, aren’t you? Already sniffing around kingdoms instead of women."
"What can I say? I’ve always had expensive tastes."
Boniface snorted again, shorter this time, and reached for the wine jug.
"Keep talking like that and you’ll be explaining yourself to a priest sooner than any of us."
"I’ll take my chances, priests like a good story more than they admit."
The humor remained on Boniface’s face, but it had moved a little farther behind his eyes.
"Go on, then. Since you’ve clearly an opinion how this ends already.
"I’d suggest the sensible choice and sell it now, while Venezia is still eager to pay for it."
Vito leaned across the table, careful of the injured leg. "My name is worth more to that negotiation this week than it was a fortnight ago, and I can bring you terms you would spend a season haggling over and still come away with half as much."
Boniface said nothing for a moment, but simply turned his cup slowly on the table without taking a drink.
Then, he asked in an neutral tone, "And what happens when this blind old Doge of yours decides my claim isn’t worth the price you’re offering me?"
Vito laughed, "That’s the part you ought to worry about? Dandolo’s ancient, cazzo, and blind as a stone besides. All the more reason to get Crete in our hands while he’s still alive to put his seal on it. I doubt the old bastard intends to leave Venezia a pile of unfinished business."
Boniface took a drink and promptly choked on it, wine coming back through his nose. Vito wondered if the Marquess would recover before finding something heavy enough to throw at him.
"Sweet Christ."
Boniface thumped his chest with a fist until he could breathe properly again.
"You would say that to the man’s own face?"
Vito shrugged, "I’d say it to God’s face, if He asked me a straight question and I thought He could stomach the answer."
"And here I thought I’d already met every kind of madman this crusade could create."
Boniface shook his head, though something more cautious had returned to his eyes.
"So what are you actually selling me, Barozzi, if not the Doge’s word?"
"Mine."
Vito let the word sit there for a breath. "Once your Thessalonica is occupied and mine is standing on Crete, we have an alliance. I’ve no old grudge tying my hands the way Venezia’s councils do, and no ancient quarrel with your family that outlives every man who remembers how it began."
At last, the old general’s expression turned completely serious.
He rose from his chair more slowly than a man his size ought to have managed, the old wood groaning its relief the instant his weight left it. He came around the table until he stood close enough that Vito had to tip his head back to keep looking at him.
One broad hand slammed flat onto the wood between them, hard enough to make both cups jump.
His voice lost its humor, "Let’s be plain with each other, since you’re so fond of plain speaking. Is this Dandolo’s idea, sent to soften me up with a pretty young face so I don’t notice the knife until it’s already in me? Is this Venezia’s play dressed up as a favor between friends? Or is there some third party sitting here, some cadet with more nerve than sense, building himself a kingdom off the back of an old soldier’s bad week?"
Vito met his stare without flinching, though it made him more nervous than he cared to show.
"If Dandolo sent me, I hardly think I’d have told you he’s too old to keep his own promises."
He let that sit for a beat. "I’m building this for myself, Marquess. For ships that answer to nobody but me, for ports that don’t ask a Barozzi permission before letting him trade. Enough standing that nobody ever gets to decide what happens to me again without asking me first. Helping you get free of an island you can’t hold, then walking away well paid for the trouble, fits nicely alongside all of that. I’m not ashamed to admit it."
Boniface watched him for a long moment, close enough that Vito could smell the wine on his breath and the road dust that no soaking tubs had managed to scrub from him.
Then, slowly, the hand on the table relaxed, and Boniface straightened. The danger left him almost as quickly as it had come.
He simply nodded, "By Christ’s own wounds, if that isn’t the most honest thing a Venetian has told me since I landed on this coast."
The old general walked back around the table and dropped into his chair again, waving one hand as if he meant to shoo the last of the tension out of the room.
His tone was back to normal, "No promises today. I’ve broken enough of those this month through no fault of my own, and I’ve no desire to add another to the pile. When the terms are ready, you’re the one who brings them to me. Send some soft-handed clerk in your place and I’ll have my men walk him straight back out the gate he came through, papers and all."
Vito rose, careful of the leg, and gave him the smallest bow the room allowed.
"I’ll hold you to that, Marquess."
"See that you do, before some other pup gets there first."
Boniface was already waving him toward the door without looking up again, his attention back on the map spread beneath his hand.
The guards let him out without a word, and the door shut behind him with the same weight it had opened with.
Behind it, Boniface of Montferrat sat alone with his wine and maps.
For the first time since Vito had entered that room, his finger wasn’t tracing the coastline near Thessalonica at all.
It had already found Crete.