Some holy brothers in Constantinople and elsewhere were considered mad monks who were often more trouble makers than servants of God, tending to steal things, destroy property and aggressively beg. Brother Zazo and his other brothers are like that, though Zazo is also a very honorable man who is stricken when Martha, who was in his charge at the time, was kidnapped. He decides to join Gaius’ gang and bring along other brothers to help Gaius and to get back at Ammianus who took Martha. His fast reactions and instincts influence the course of events in the rebellion against Emperor Justinian. Here's an excerpt from Chapter 20, Steering a Mob, when Brother Zazo first takes the lead in turning the mob to a specific target…

 

The vanguard of the mob, mostly Blues, was momentarily stalled in front of a moderate church positioned so the wide street forked around it on both sides and continued on as two smaller streets. Several people had already committed to the left street, attracting some of the Blues off the steps of the church, deciding to leave it and God in peace.

 

“There Is the Devil’s Enterprise, There, There!” yelled out Zazo moving quickly to the right street, pointing to two of his lieutenants rushing up to the tannery main door yelling, “Burn Him, Burn Him!” Zazo, with a couple of other monks by him, smashed a lantern against the door. The fire from the oil flashed bright yellow and completely engulfed the door. The extraordinary flash drew the eyes of the mob, watching as tall Zazo kicked through the magnificent flames trying to break the door down. Two, three, five, six others rushed from the crowd – brothers all, I recognized – toward Zazo, echoing the call to “Burn Him!” One kicked at the door alongside Zazo and yelled out over his shoulder, “The tanner cheats and steals from the poor, He Cheats the Poor!”

 

Now there were seven pounding the door, its seasoned wood catching ablaze helped by another ceramic lamp smashing against it, but not delivering the spectacular flames of Zazo’s lamp. Probably 10 more of Zazo’s brothers not dressed as monks drew in from different parts of the crowd to join those at the door, as angry as a swarm of hornets and agitating with flailing gestures for the entire crowd to Burn Him! Four Blues resting on the church steps turned toward the tannery following the attention of the crowd. It appeared that they might be leaders, though lazy or inexperienced ones. The crowd stalled at the church crossroads began to clamber loudly, following the example of the crazed brothers at the door. I could feel the mob pause and I turned with it toward the tannery and began to move.

 

A man ran out from the side door of the building, one of Zazo’s, but he pleaded as if he was the tanner, crying out for Zazo and the others to spare his building, his livelihood. Two of the rioters at the door (also Zazo’s men) grabbed him by each arm, while a third kicked him in the stomach, crying out, “He’s a Green. A Greedy Green!”

 

The one acting the tanner’s role – a very dangerous one – broke away and ran off down the street, two brothers chasing him, the third joining them waving a strip of Green cloth snatched from the fleeing tanner. (All our men carried cloth strips of each color). More people broke out of the crowd and headed toward the tannery, with its promise of valuables to loot and equipment to destroy. Ten, 20 then more ran to join Zazo’s action and started hurling paving stones, a flaming torch, an unlucky cat at the building and over the walls to its courtyard, screaming, “Cheats the Poor, Cheats the Poor!” Scores of others quickly swelled their ranks, livid with rage at this tanner, none of them really knowing or caring why.

 

The Blue’s apparent ringleader, who had stood back in these moments on the church steps, sought to catch up with the crowd he had lost, calling on the Mighty Blues to burn the tannery to the ground – an objective they were already accomplishing at Zazo’s behest. More surged toward the tannery’s bolted front doors, and as they took turns throwing themselves and each other against the door, Zazo dropped back to let them take over. They broke the door’s hinges from the jam and streamed into the opening.

 

As the mob rushed into the tannery, breaking what they could while looking for loot, Zazo and his men retreated unnoticed to the church steps. Zazo caught my eye and said, “It is God’s will.” The 15 or so brothers around him crossed themselves as one.

 

“And your bright fire, Zazo, what was that?” I asked.

 

“My will,” he said, wiping his forehead with the arm of his robe, which was smoking. “These moths fly to the brightest light. A normal lamp, with a special separate chamber that releases an agent, let us say, that wants to burn all at once. I already have more for you, Gaius Galen,” and he slightly bowed his head to me. I should have bowed to him.

 

In a few moments, all of his men were on the church steps watching the tannery light up in multiple places from within. I motioned for Zazo to follow and I led us all down the dark street to the left of the church. We made a wide circle to the rear of the prefect’s mounted troops, who didn’t dare to confront the mob at the height of its destruction. Fire brigades, falling in behind the troops on cleared streets, were ready when the time was right to extinguish the burnt offering of the Blues.

 

Zazo’s men melted into the city to head back to their monastery, leaving the six of us to carry on. Atakam marched at Zazo’s side in front of us, animated in praise and apparently trying to recruit the monk into the army. But his fuzzy hair shook no repeatedly.

 

“Well, Crassus,” said Monaxius with a slap on my back. “We might just follow this brother to the vault.”