Chapter Summaries

Varro recruited former soldiers to serve as his bodyguards in Egypt, then accompanied the emperor by train to inspect the Danube front and discussed railway costs and industrial development. The journey left Varro advising the emperor as they considered the empire’s mineral resources, political factions, and plans for expanding railways.

• Anastasia questioned Varro about how he knew a shooting involved only one shot, then urged him to hire guards for their planned move to Egypt.
• Varro recruited Boris to find candidates and offered the former soldier Baron command of his future bodyguard team.
• Varro vetted six applicants, hired them at seventy gold coins a year, and appointed Baron their captain.
• The emperor summoned Varro to accompany him on an inspection of the Danube front, and they traveled by train toward the railway terminus.
• The emperor asked Varro to explain railway construction costs, and Varro described the expenses of roadbeds, rails, land, and equipment.
• Varro discussed mining, railway investment, and industrial policy with the emperor, who described the Cabinet’s plans and the competing political factions.

Varro traveled through the Balkans with the emperor as winter wheat yields collapsed, then returned to Constantinople after the Eastern Roman Empire and the House of Habsburg signed a peace treaty. At the Southern Canal Company’s first board meeting, Joseph defended the navy’s required canal depth, and Nikephoros backed the plan to support future overseas trade and naval power.

• Varro saw poor winter wheat crops in Sofia and Serbia, where farmers were turning to potatoes to make up for the losses.
• Varro met Albrecht von Wallenstein while waiting outside the Belgrade negotiations, and the Eastern Roman and Habsburg representatives signed a peace treaty.
• The emperor planned to reinforce the Northern Black Sea Coast against Ryazan, while the war’s expense deepened his financial worries.
• Varro returned to Sofia and learned that farmers had bought potatoes on credit after flooding ruined their wheat fields.
• At the Southern Canal Company’s first board meeting, Joseph presented a plan to divide construction into sections and insisted that the canal meet the navy’s required depth of 8.5 meters.
• Nikephoros supported Joseph’s construction plan, arguing that the canal and a stronger fleet would help Eastern Roman merchants compete overseas and avenge past losses.

Varro and Joseph struggled to recruit engineers and workers for the Southern Canal before Varro left Constantinople with his family for Egypt. After visiting his uncle on Mykonos, Varro arrived in Pelusium and began settling into the heat and hazards of his new post.

• Joseph recruited at the University of Constantinople and other schools, but found few suitable candidates and received only ten places from the Army Higher School.
• Joseph left for Egypt with two hundred people, while Varro recruited Angelo and more than thirty machinery workers for the canal company.
• Varro and Anastasia sailed from Constantinople, stopped on Mykonos to visit Lucius Mykonos, and continued to Pelusium.
• Varro arrived in Pelusium and warned his household to use mosquito nets and boil drinking water.
• Varro reflected on the Eastern Roman Empire's need to import cinchona bark and on Spain's loss of the Andean Confederation and overseas settlements.

Varro managed machinery and supplies for the canal project, then raced to secure grain after learning the navy planned another requisition. He bought enough grain to sustain the company until summer, and Joseph asked him to accompany him to Cairo to report to the governor.

• Varro visited the canal site, where an engineer explained plans to use excavators and dredgers to speed construction and divert seawater into nearby depressions.
• Varro encountered Western Church pilgrims at the site and questioned a young clergyman named Richelieu before ordering guards to keep outsiders away from the work area.
• After hearing that the navy planned to requisition grain in Alexandria, Varro traveled to Suez and bought nearly all the grain on the local market before prices rose.
• Varro told Joseph how his purchases had saved the company money, and Joseph praised his decision.
• At dinner, Joseph asked Varro about Angelo and asked him to accompany him to Cairo the following week to report to the governor.

Varro and the canal company group were caught in a rebellion in Cairo, where the Governor and his family were killed after rebels entered the citadel through a side gate. Varro helped the group escape by train to Suez and returned to Pelusium, where Anastasia found him staring blankly.

• Varro and Joseph witnessed assassins attack Oustrati's procession, and the dying lord warned them that rebels planned to revolt.
• Varro led Joseph and the company group away from the Governor's residence and into the garrison camp, where they learned the rebels had killed the Governor and his family.
• Varro urged the deputy brigade commander to secure the railway, then took soldiers to the northern station and discovered its manager had fled to Alexandria.
• Varro prepared a locomotive, but Joseph persuaded him to board the train that arrived from Suez, and the group returned there that night.
• Varro went back to Pelusium the next day, and Anastasia asked why he seemed so shaken.

After the rebellion in Egypt was suppressed, Varro received a court promotion but stayed focused on the canal project. Meanwhile, Nikephoros inspected his coal mine and traveled to the Krivoy Rog iron deposit to secure resources for his expanding industrial plans.

• The emperor stripped the ten rebellious lordly families of their lands, executed their core members, exiled other participants, and rewarded Oustrati's family and those who helped suppress the revolt.
• Varro was promoted to first-class court attendant and inspected the canal workers' low-alcohol sorghum brew, refusing to let them distill it into strong liquor.
• Nikephoros inspected his coal mine at Tarol, fired its manager over suspicious accounts, and demanded a twenty-percent increase in output next year.
• Nikephoros learned that prisoners of war would soon be sent to the mine and that the Cossack threat near Tarol had been cleared.
• Nikephoros crossed the Dnieper with a guide and inspected the shallow, extensive iron deposit at Krivoy Rog, intending to build an integrated iron and steel business using his own coal and ore.

Manuel IV weighed how to address the empire’s grain shortage, backed a bill to encourage grain imports, and approved plans for a polytechnic university while rebuffing Sweden’s request for a military alliance. Nikephoros organized a major iron-mining and railway venture, then spotted Prime Minister Labeo leaving the theater and suspected he had come to advance the grain bill.

• Manuel IV agreed with Prime Minister Labeo to push the grain import bill through and approved a polytechnic university with four practical fields of study.
• Manuel IV told a Swedish envoy that Rome would intervene in the German conflict while refusing to sign a military agreement with Sweden.
• Nikephoros supported the grain import bill and met Mattia Goropachi and other investors to plan an iron-mining company and a railway in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
• A dispute between two young men outside the theater ended with one man dead, and Nikephoros noticed that the survivor wore army-issue cavalry boots.
• Nikephoros saw a tall, thin man he recognized as the Prime Minister leave the theater in an unmarked carriage and wondered whom he had met to promote the grain bill.