Chapter Summaries

On September 1, 1422, Vitus Palaiologos used his knowledge of the Serpent Cannon to help Constantinople’s defenders destroy Ottoman siege weapons. The Ottomans continued their assault, but their attempts to scale the walls failed to gain a foothold.

• Vitus watched the Ottoman army approach and recorded details about Constantinople’s defenses as Lucas prepared the soldiers for battle.
• Ottoman trebuchets battered the walls, and Vitus stepped in to operate a Serpent Cannon after its commander was knocked unconscious.
• Vitus directed the gunners’ fire, destroying three Ottoman trebuchets and then helping destroy the remaining two.
• Ottoman archers targeted the cannon crews, but the defenders endured the volleys until the attackers withdrew.
• The Ottomans filled the moat and climbed ladders, but crossbowmen drove back the few who reached the outer wall.

After the Ottomans ended their three-month siege, Vitus secured permission to accompany Crown Prince John on a mission to Italy seeking Western aid. Back in his quarters, he began reconstructing artillery mathematics to help the Eastern Roman Empire improve its cannons.

• Vitus joined a religious procession with John and Patriarch of Constantinople, where he spoke with Constantine Dragases Palaiologos about the fighting on the walls.
• The Ottomans launched a second assault, but Vitus directed the Serpent Cannons against their siege equipment until their forces retreated and dismantled their camp.
• Vitus traveled through Constantinople and attended a meeting where John proposed seeking a Crusader army in the West, despite Emperor Manuel II's earlier failure to secure promised aid.
• Vitus asked John to take him to Italy, and John agreed that they would leave the following month.
• Vitus returned to Blachernae Palace and worked on cannon designs and equations, hoping to develop accurate artillery for the empire.

Vitus traveled to Venice with the Byzantine heir to seek Western support against the Ottomans, but the Doge offered no firm commitment to a Crusade. As the embassy continued overland toward the Roman Curia, it encountered a war-ravaged village and evidence of the Noose Mercenary Group’s brutality.

• Vitus found Constantinople’s finances too depleted to fund his proposed cannon foundry and joined the embassy bound for Italy.
• Vitus and the heir to the throne arrived in Venice, where the Doge welcomed them with a banquet but gave no clear answer to the request for a Crusade.
• Vitus warned the heir that the Doge wanted to preserve Venice’s interests by keeping Constantinople in a defensive war against the Ottomans.
• The heir continued seeking support from Venetian officials, then set out with the embassy for the Roman Curia.
• Lucas’s guards scouted an abandoned village and found no enemies, but discovered corpses hanging from an oak tree.
• The Venetian guide identified the killings as the Noose Mercenary Group’s work and urged the heir to hurry on.

After a riding accident left Vitus injured in Florence, he stayed at a manor to recover and learned that Italy was in turmoil. When the Noose Mercenary Group raided the manor and killed his guards, Vitus escaped and sought help from a passing caravan.

• Vitus fell from his horse in the Apennines, injured his ankle, and was carried to a manor in the Republic of Florence.
• The heir to the throne left Vitus with four guards and two hundred ducats before continuing the delegation's journey.
• While recovering, Vitus learned that the Duchy of Milan was expanding and worried that Constantinople would receive no foreign aid.
• The Noose Mercenary Group raided the manor, killed the guards, and looted the house.
• Vitus escaped over the courtyard wall and set out on foot for Pistoia, planning to continue to Rome.
• Exhausted on the road, Vitus approached a caravan, and a merchant who spoke Latin asked what he needed.

Vitus traveled to Pistoia with the merchant Giulio Di Maggio, then discovered that Milan and the Noose Mercenary Group had launched a surprise attack on the city. As Pistoia prepared to defend itself, Vitus donned borrowed plate armor to watch the coming battle.

• Vitus told Giulio Di Maggio that bandits from the Noose Mercenary Group had attacked his manor, and Giulio took him to Pistoia.
• Vitus learned that Giulio was a wealthy banker and textile merchant, and they discussed the Serpent Cannons in his caravan.
• At dawn, Vitus and Giulio saw an army bearing the banners of the Noose Mercenary Group and the Visconti family outside Pistoia.
• Giulio explained that Milan had hired the mercenaries to invade Florence's sphere of influence, and that Pistoia would have to hold out for reinforcements.
• Vitus learned that Pistoia had only two hundred garrison soldiers and fifteen hundred defenders, then asked Giulio for armor so he could observe the battle.
• Giulio lent Vitus a suit of plate armor, and a servant helped him put it on.

Vitus helped defend Pistoia as the Noose Mercenary Group besieged the city, first enduring days of skirmishing and looting, then facing three heavy bombards. He arranged eight Serpent Cannons and prepared to direct their fire against the siege guns.

• Vitus observed the militia exchange fire with the mercenaries, and the first day's fighting ended after half an hour without an attack on the city.
• Giulio invited Vitus to dinner, where Vitus explained how defenders at Constantinople detected and countered enemy tunnels.
• The Noose Mercenary Group spent the second day building siege equipment and raiding nearby villages, angering Giulio and the militia.
• On the third morning, more than a thousand mercenaries arrived with three heavy bombards, and Vitus warned Giulio that Pistoia's walls were too thin to withstand them.
• Vitus agreed to direct the city's Serpent Cannons, asked Giulio to call him Anthony Doukas, and positioned eight cannons before returning to the wall tower to give firing signals.

Vitus directed Pistoia’s cannons against the besieging mercenaries, damaging their siege weapons and forcing them to abandon their bombardment. As Florence’s reinforcements approached, Vitus urged Giulio to lead the defenders out to fight and preserve the garrison’s hope.

• Vitus adjusted the Serpent Cannons’ aim with trial shots, and their bombardment killed gunners and damaged a Bombard until the mercenary captain gave up trying to breach Pistoia’s walls.
• Vitus studied the muddy mercenary camp during the rainy siege and later helped carpenters and blacksmiths build more mobile gun carriages for the Serpent Cannons.
• As rain flooded the mercenaries’ tunnels, Vitus warned Giulio that the defenders should prepare, but Giulio revealed that Florence’s reinforcements were due within days.
• On December 5, the mercenaries prepared for battle as Florence’s forces arrived, and Giulio considered whether Pistoia’s militia should go out to meet them.
• Vitus urged Giulio to fight, arguing that defeating the reinforcements would destroy the townspeople’s hope of rescue and endanger the city.

Vitus led Pistoia’s militia and six Serpent Cannons into battle, helping the Florentine relief force break the Milanese line. After the fighting, he learned that his elder brother had left Rome for France to seek aid from Sigismund, a plan Vitus doubted would succeed.

• Vitus recruited forty-two artillerymen and prepared six Serpent Cannons while Giulio assembled the militia.
• Vitus delayed the militia’s departure until the battle was underway, then led them out of the city and formed them into a defensive formation.
• Vitus ordered the cannons to fire grapeshot at the advancing mercenaries, then used them to batter the Milanese right flank until its battle line collapsed.
• Florence postponed its attack until at least spring and disbanded its militia, while Vitus traveled from Pistoia to Florence with Giulio’s caravan.
• Vitus learned that his elder brother had sailed from Rome to France to seek Sigismund’s aid, and he doubted Sigismund would help Constantinople before the Hussite Wars ended.

Vitus considered returning to Constantinople or pursuing opportunities in Italy before accepting Giulio's offer to serve as an artillery commander in Florence. He arrived in the city and settled into Giulio's home, looking out over Florence's rooftops and its unfinished cathedral.

• Vitus weighed returning to Constantinople against staying in Italy, while considering how to fund his inventions and protect them from copying.
• Giulio offered Vitus a salary of a thousand Florins a year plus a share of the spoils to assist his son Pauli as an artillery commander.
• Vitus accepted, agreeing to continue using the alias Anthony Doukas, and Giulio praised his rare instinct for controlling a battlefield.
• Vitus and Giulio arrived in Florence and passed through San Gallo Gate, where Vitus saw the city's shops, wool workshops, and textile trade.
• Giulio named Fabriano and Donatello as artists worth following after Vitus asked about Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti.
• Vitus entered Giulio's residence and viewed Florence's rooftops and the unfinished dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore from his guest-room window.

Vitus wrote to his father in Constantinople, then attended dinner with Giulio and his sons, Pauli and Phil. The next morning, he watched Master Conan win a trial by combat, and Phil took him to a blacksmith’s shop to learn swordsmanship.

• Vitus wrote to his father that he was well, planned to stay in Florence, and would not abuse the Palaiologos family name, then sent the letter to Constantinople.
• Giulio introduced Vitus to Pauli and Phil as Prince John’s brother, who would serve as an artillery commander under the assumed name Anthony Doukas.
• At dinner, Phil questioned Vitus about his knowledge, and Vitus praised the extravagant sugar-castle dessert after a live bird flew out of it.
• Phil told Vitus that Magistrate Albizzi’s dispute would be settled by trial by combat, and Vitus followed him to the Piazza della Signoria.
• Master Conan defeated his opponent with a counterattack, and Phil explained his swordsmanship before leading Vitus to a blacksmith’s shop.

Vitus explored Florence’s guild system and decided against starting a business there, while he and Phil failed to master sword techniques during practice. The chapter left Vitus heading to inspect the Di Maggio family's cannon workshop as part of his artillery duties.

• Phil took Vitus to a blacksmith’s shop, where they borrowed armor and blunted swords and tried to practice swordsmanship.
• Phil failed to perform a Master Strike, and Vitus also failed to copy the technique before they fought clumsily until the blacksmith laughed at them.
• Vitus learned that blacksmith apprentices served for seven years without wages and needed guild approval to become full members and open independent shops.
• Phil showed Vitus around Florence, where Vitus learned that the twenty-one guilds controlled much of the Republic’s political power.
• Vitus abandoned his plan to establish a business in Florence and asked Phil to take him to the Di Maggio family's cannon workshop.

Vitus proposed a lighter, mobile field cannon and practiced swordsmanship with Phil while staying at the Di Maggio residence. Giulio then told him that Thessaloniki had accepted Venetian trusteeship and that Venice was preparing to join an alliance against Milan, prompting Vitus to reaffirm his service as artillery commander.

• Vitus proposed casting a lighter cannon that fired three-pound iron shot, arguing that mobility mattered most for field artillery, and Pauli agreed to test both cannon designs.
• Vitus stayed at the Di Maggio residence under the alias Anthony, read Giulio's books, and practiced swordsmanship with Phil.
• Vitus and Phil sparred with lead-weighted wooden swords, grappled in the flowerbeds, and discussed the French knights at Agincourt.
• Giulio gave Vitus news that Andronikos Palaiologos had placed Thessaloniki under Venetian trusteeship to protect it from the Ottoman army.
• Giulio told Vitus that Venice was expected to join an anti-Milan alliance, and Vitus promised to fulfill his duties as artillery commander.

In 1423, Florence launched a campaign against Milan and decided to annex neighboring Lucca, marching north with an army led in part by Pauli and Vitus. After Lucca rejected Florence’s demand to surrender, Vitus positioned his artillery outside the city and began the bombardment.

• Venice and Florence signed an agreement to jointly declare war on Milan, and Florence assembled a ten-thousand-man expeditionary army.
• Vitus marched with Pauli’s forces and inspected the artillery as the army advanced toward Lucca.
• Vitus surveyed Lucca’s walls, but negotiations failed when the city council chose to resist and await Milanese reinforcements.
• Vitus positioned his Serpent Cannons two hundred meters from the walls and ordered the first shots fired.

Vitus’s siege artillery breached Lucca’s walls, and Albizzi secured the city’s surrender on harsher terms while quieting a mercenary mutiny with a bonus. During the occupation, Vitus found a military use for Luccan silk, while Albizzi received a Genoese request for help that could redirect the allied army’s campaign.

• Vitus ordered the heavy cannons to bombard Lucca’s tower until it collapsed, then predicted the city’s walls would fall within a week.
• On the fourth day, a section of Lucca’s wall collapsed, and Albizzi raised the taxes and reparations demanded in the surrender terms.
• When the mercenaries began to mutiny over being denied a chance to plunder, Albizzi distributed 100,000 Florins among them.
• Vitus explored Lucca, recognized silk’s usefulness for powder bags, and obtained Albizzi’s permission to use some for that purpose.
• A Genoese envoy asked Albizzi to expel Milan’s forces from Genoa, and Albizzi considered whether to change the army’s route.

Vitus’s expedition battered its way along the Genoese coast toward La Spezia, but damaged cannons and muddy roads stalled the siege. He promised Albizzi he would capture the city in seven days and began preparing a risky plan to fire artillery from the surrounding mountains.

• Albizzi discussed helping Genoa with an envoy, who offered compensation for weakening Milan.
• Vitus’s expedition left Lucca, captured Fort Malvin after six days of bombardment, and continued taking Milanese-held castles along the coast.
• After the expedition captured Santo Stefano, Vitus reported that most of its siege cannons were out of commission and the roads were slowing reinforcements.
• Albizzi demanded that Vitus capture La Spezia within half a month, and Vitus promised to take it in seven days for two-tenths of the city’s spoils.
• Vitus recruited Piero’s thousand Sicilian mercenaries and surveyed the high ground near La Spezia for a position from which to fire cannons over the walls.
• Vitus promised Piero part of the bonus for command of the Rotten Herring company and ordered him to gather tools and carpenters for the plan.

Vitus used artillery hauled onto a mountain to bombard La Spezia until its defenders agreed to surrender. He received his share of the city's ransom, and Piero pledged the Rotten Herring Mercenary Group's future support.

• On April 5, Vitus and the Rotten Herring Mercenary Group hauled and assembled twelve cannons on the mountain overlooking La Spezia.
• Vitus used a fisherman's directions to target the garrison, then ordered the cannons to bombard the city through sunset.
• On April 6, Vitus resumed the bombardment and threatened to keep striking the wealthy districts unless the city surrendered.
• After La Spezia agreed to surrender, Albizzi set the ransom at eighty thousand Florins, and Vitus received sixteen thousand Florins.
• Piero collected his share and promised that the Rotten Herring Mercenary Group would help Vitus again.

Albizzi’s expedition marched toward Genoa after learning that a revolt had driven Milan’s governor from Loras Castle, and its leaders negotiated entry into the city. Vitus sensed danger and stayed outside while Pauli attended a banquet, where the chapter left the consequences of the gathering unresolved.

• Vitus’s bombardment failed to take Loras Castle, but on May 6 wounded defenders surrendered and revealed that the governor had fled during a revolt in Genoa.
• Albizzi left two battered companies behind and forced-marched toward Genoa with seven thousand men, while Vitus followed after leaving the siege guns at Loras Castle.
• At Genoa’s eastern gate, Albizzi negotiated with Casella Eredora, who agreed to cooperate with Florence and invited the army’s leaders to a banquet.
• Pauli dismissed Vitus’s fears and entered the city, but Vitus turned back at the drawbridge after feeling a sudden sense of dread.
• Pauli joined the banquet at the city’s highest point and discussed business with Genoese families while Vitus remained outside.

Pauli discovered that the Eladore banquet was a trap and escaped to warn the consul’s guard, while Vitus led the mercenaries into Genoa after fighting broke out. Vitus suspected the Milanese army had returned to seize the city and redirected his forces to rescue the leaders and secure the walls.

• Pauli spotted a banquet guest wearing chain mail, escaped the Eladore estate through a hole in the wall, and warned the consul’s guard of a plot.
• After the banquet guests blocked a guard from reaching the consul, Pauli sent soldiers to seek reinforcements as fighting broke out.
• Vitus heard bells and citywide turmoil, gathered the mercenary captains, and marched nearly seven thousand men toward Porta di Sant'Andrea.
• Piero’s men climbed the undefended walls and lowered the drawbridge, letting the mercenary army enter Genoa.
• Vitus suspected the Milanese army had joined forces with families inside the city, so he sent an elite unit to rescue the leaders and ordered the main force to secure the walls.

Vitus and Piero fought through Genoa to rescue Magistrate Albizzi and Pauli as Florence’s forces battled Milanese troops for control of the city. After Florence won the night’s fighting, Albizzi called a meeting at Saint George Palace, where the survivors began arguing over blame for the deaths and looting.

• Piero led the Rotten Herring Mercenary Group north, routing Milanese troops and using Vitus’s Three-Pounders to break through a barricade.
• Vitus reached the Eladore estate, found Casella Eladore and other nobles dead, and followed signs of the survivors’ escape east.
• Vitus rescued Magistrate Albizzi, Pauli, Master Conan, twelve guards, and four Florentine nobles from a tower surrounded by Milanese troops.
• Florentine forces captured Genoa’s northern gate, then took the western gate at four in the morning, routing the Milanese army.
• Albizzi summoned surviving local nobles to Saint George Palace, where Paoli Di Maggio blamed the deaths and looting on Genoese conspirators and the city’s chaos.

Vitus watched Genoa punish looting soldiers, learned about Swiss mercenary discipline, and helped conclude a settlement that paid Florence three hundred thousand florins. After receiving thirty thousand florins for his role, Vitus was identified by Governor Albizzi as a Palaiologos prince.

• Vitus saw Genoese locals whip and hang soldiers who had looted, while Piero explained how the Rotten Herring Mercenary Group punished deserters.
• Piero praised the Swiss Guard's loyalty, and Vitus considered hiring Swiss mercenaries or Rus as his own guards.
• Vitus spoke with Master Conan, who said he planned to duel Zawisza, the Black Knight, and then retire.
• Vitus reviewed the agreement in which Genoa promised Florence three hundred thousand florins, and the representatives signed it.
• Albizzi promised bonuses to the mercenaries, gave Vitus the largest share of thirty thousand florins, and revealed that he knew Vitus was Vitus Palaiologos.