Caprice and Rondo - Dorothy Dunnett [70]
They parted outside. He had been asked for no promises. He had been given money. He took the chance, politely, to send his regrets to Violante, and Caterino Zeno assured him that he would convey her husband’s affectionate greetings to the lady Gelis in Venice. Nicholas assumed that Gelis could deal with that, if he could. The sun was shining as he crossed the square, and the vendors were unwrapping their stalls. He made his way, thinking, past baskets of berries and mobs of lacquerred radishes big as plums. The painted houses stood upside down in wide puddles, and pigeons drank from their windows. Beside the steps to Straube’s house, a man stood awaiting him.
‘Now it is my turn,’ said Callimaco. ‘Pray come in. I shall not keep you long and, as you see, you do not have far to go. I am living here, between the house of Copernicus and yours.’
Chapter 10
A MEETING WITH Callimaco had been inevitable, and Nicholas saw no point in avoiding it. As his host pointed out, he had no distance to go. Only, before he climbed the parallel steps, Nicholas took a moment to check that no message from Father Ludovico had come, and to dispatch Jelita with a message for Kathi. Then he went next door, to make himself available to Filippo Buonaccorsi.
The two houses were very alike. In this, the wide public room on the first floor overlooked the long garden, like Straube’s, but was otherwise unremarkable except for those few objects which the lessee had clearly brought here: a writing-box inlaid in Florence, a globe, a painted chest, a ewer with a trailed handle and a set of Murano glass goblets. The man Lipnicki filled them. Compared with that of the Burgh Halls cellar, the wine was ambrosia, and Nicholas could not bring himself to refuse it. He thought, then, that the day was within his control.
Cailimaco was wearing a robe of dun-coloured taffeta, and a single jewel, and his spectacles. His hair was like Zacco’s. Kochajmy się. Outside, speaking in Polish, he had waszmośćed Nicholas in the third person, but now he used the Italian of his Siena countryside. ‘Have you been told that I may molest you?’
‘Caterino Zeno, it is true, is not a sensitive man. But then he is trying to propel me into the arms of the Tartars and Uzum Hasan. It surprised me that the Patriarch left without helping him.’
‘He has not yet gone,’ Cailimaco said. ‘Nor has Adorne, but he will. Adorne was a bad choice: I agree with Signor Zeno, if for different reasons. The Duke sent Lord Cortachy to lodge a public complaint with the Hanse, or be seen to be doing so. He made him envoy to the Levant on a whim, to please Adorne himself, whose name is known there, and as a sop to the Pope and Milan. But how could he ever succeed? Venice has always been able to promise Uzum more than anyone else, and it is Venice whom Uzum and the Great Horde will favour. Then, if Uzum conquers the Turks, it is Venice who will benefit from the flood of renewed trade, and who will take control of the alum mines. That, of course, is Zeno’s interest. You will have guessed.’
He had guessed. He knew, also, what Callimaco’s bias was. Zacco, too, had hated the Genoese. Nicholas said, ‘I should tell you that I have been given a bribe. Or a non-returnable gift. Or perhaps even a pension. I have taken it, but I am not yet committed.’
‘Whatever it is, the King would offer more,’ Buonaccorsi said. ‘If your commitment is for sale.’
‘Why?’ said Nicholas. ‘Why not allow someone else to pay me to advise Uzum and what is left of the Horde, and help free Poland from all these threats?’
Callimaco leaned back in his chair, his long-fingered hands embracing his glass. ‘Because, Niccolò, this country has been torn to pieces by mercenary troops over the years, and we have had enough. Our delegate to the Council of Constance denounced crusading as contrary to God’s will. It amuses you. But we are the base for every Western attack: against the Muslim, against the pagan, against those of Orthodox faith. Destroy the Turks, and the Grand Prince of Moscow will immediately appear on our frontiers.