50 pages • 1 hour read
Sailing to Sarantium
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Prologue-Part 1, Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1
Prologue Summary
The Prologue provides world-building exposition and illustrates the effects of the death of Emperor Apius on characters of all social status. Several of the characters introduced here appear later in the book in more substantial roles. One such character is Scortius, a young charioteer for the Greens, who is focused on honoring Heladikos, the son of the god Jad, through his professional achievements. Plautus Bonosus, the unwilling Senator, provides insight into the governmental system of the Sarantine Empire by highlighting its puppet Senate. Petrus is the mild-mannered but quietly ambitious merchant and nephew to Valerius, the Count of Excubitors (law enforcement) and proverbial man of the people. Petrus’ lover, Aliana, is a former dancer for the Blues who hides a keen political mind.
Because the emperor has no heir, the members of his court quickly take action to support their own candidates. With the strategoi (military leaders) abroad, they must move quickly to have their choices ratified by the Senate before they can return. In the mad-dash for the throne, the front-runner is Flavius Daleinus, whose family is as famous as it is wealthy. Given his connections, he seems to be the obvious “choice” for the figurehead senate. In an unexpected twist, Daleinus is murdered using Sarantine Fire, “liquid fire” dispensed through a hose and used by the Navy. In light of Daleinus’ death, the previously divided mob unites to demand that Valerius, the Count of Excubitors, be named Emperor. Due to the swift, masterful, and deadly maneuvering of his nephew, Petrus, Valerius the Trakesian, becomes the unexpected Emperor of Sarantium.
The name of the novel is also explained directly, its principle reflected by recent events:
To say of a man that he was sailing to Sarantium was to say that his life was on the cusp of change: poised for emergent greatness, brilliance, fortune—or else at the vey precipice of a final and absolute fall as he met something too vast for his capacity. Valerius the Trakesian had become an Emperor. Heladikos, whom some worshipped as the son of Jad and placed in mosaic upon holy domes, had died in his chariot bringing fire back from the sun (39).
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary
After the death of Emperor Valerius I of the Sarantine Empire, his nephew, Petrus, ascends to the golden throne as Valerius II. Emperor Valerius II is set on rebuilding the “Sanctuary of Jad’s Holy Wisdom,” which had been burned during a riot (45). As such, he has been contracting various artisans for the work, intent on finding only the best due to his own penchant for the finer things.
An Imperial Courier, Pronobius Tilliticus, is charged with bringing an Imperial Packet to an artisan, Martinian of Varena. He lazily delays his journey for his own pleasure and takes great offense at the apparent lack of deference and awe at his arrival and the announcement of the packet’s contents: money, a permit to stay in the Post Inns, and the official request for Martinian to travel to Sarantium to work on the mosaics for the newly rebuilt Great Sanctuary.
Martinian, for his part, is suddenly struck by a whim and misinforms the courier, claiming that Crispin is Martinian. The real Martinian is old and uninterested in the journey to Sarantium, but encourages his younger business partner to take the prestigious offer in the hopes that it will rekindle Crispin’s will to live after losing his wife and daughters to the plague. As he begrudgingly considers the opportunity, he finds himself kidnapped and brought to Gisel’s palace. The young and beautiful queen manages to shock him for the second time that day with a covert assignment. She asks him to carry a dangerous message to Emperor Valerius II: an offer of marriage.
Despite his training in the art of mosaics, Crispin understands the political maneuvering behind the offer: While Gisel is the rightful queen, the Antae do not wish to be ruled by a woman. Gisel’s rule so far has only been permitted due to the fact that the Antae’s factions cannot agree on who should marry her. The uneasy stalemate between the Antae’s factions will not last and Gisel is unlikely to live out the year. When she dies, civil war will return to Batiara, likely followed by a Sarantine invasion as Valerius II capitalizes on the country’s weakness to reclaim the coveted capital of the former Rhodian Empire. Marriage to the Sarantine Emperor would not only save her life, but prevent the unnecessary bloodshed of her people. There’s only one problem: Emperor Valerius II is already married, and given that he changed the Sarantine laws to marry Empress Alixana, he seems unlikely to set her aside for the young queen.
As dangerous as his mission is, Crispin realizes that he must accept it—Gisel is both too intelligent and too desperate to allow him to pose a threat to the secrecy of her plan should he refuse. Gisel’s own position is afforded no more safety by the dangerous plot, but she has carefully considered her situation and has no other option besides waiting for death: “This was almost certainly doomed to failure, but there was little she could do but try” (76). Whether he wants to or not, Crispin will leave for Sarantium, carrying a message which may decide the fate of his country.
Prologue-Part 1, Chapter 1 Analysis
The Prologue and first chapter establish the setting—a Byzantine-inspired fantasy world complete with Emperors, a farcical senate, a powerful religious system, and a pointed look at the power of the mob. Each of these elements represents a cog in the complex machine that is Byzantine-esque government, a system that can be exploited if one has the cleverness, temerity, and sheer ruthlessness to do so as shown by Petrus’ machinations leading to his eventual ascent to the throne. Given that the novel is told from multiple perspectives, the narration is unreliable, demonstrating the opinions and biases of the characters in question. Their intersecting story arcs tie together to give a broader picture of the story.
Crispin, the main protagonist, is more of a grieving widower than conquering hero, struggling with survivor’s guilt and depression. Crispin irrationally blames himself for his family’s death due to plague and has withdrawn from everything in life but work. Martinian, his former master and current business partner, insists that this invitation to Sarantium is the ticket to his recovery and brooks no argument regarding Crispin’s reported indifference to the opportunity and everything else: “You are afraid to accept that you have been allowed to live, and must do something with that grace” (62).
Crispin’s guilt over being unable to protect his family and frustration with having to continue life without them is a common theme and motivation underlying many of his brash decisions. As his journey begins, the danger forces him to focus on matters beyond grief and mosaics, though he struggles to allow himself to rebuild his life and enjoy the pleasures it may bring: “His life. He had a life. The hardest thing was to accept that, it sometimes seemed. To move out from the rooms where a woman and two children had died in ugly pain, stripped of all inherent dignity or grace; to allow brightness to touch him again, like this gift of the morning sun” (81). Crispin has little choice in the matter as he is forced to accept the Emperor’s invitation.
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