Gemini - Dorothy Dunnett [414]
‘You want me to live a long, happy life,’ the other man said.
Andreas looked at him. He said, ‘You may die tomorrow, and it would affect nothing now. Oh, the kingdom would suffer: I give you that. You would be mourned. Your family would be desolate.’
‘I should like to think so. But if my death doesn’t matter, why not divine?’ Then, at last, he used his intelligence, and answered himself. ‘Because it affects someone else? You thought it might?’ And then: ‘You know who? You have found out where the illusions come from?’
‘Come from?’ Andreas said. ‘You have had more?’
He was disconcerted. ‘I’m not sure. There was something, with Julius. As if I were being forbidden to fight him.’
Andreas watched him. Then he said, ‘It was someone else’s resistance. Someone else’s dilemma. You took what was the right decision, for you. But it is better if you receive nothing more. I think, in the end, you won’t regret it. You may even meet him one day.’
It was a mistake. Nicholas de Fleury cried out. ‘Then he is in this life? Where?’
It was necessary to quell that at once. ‘No. Never. You will never meet him in life. Later, perhaps. That is why I suggest you protect your life, so far as you can. You have a long time to wait. So has he.’
But when de Fleury said, ‘But who is he?’ the astrologer did not give a direct answer. ‘Ask me what he is,’ Andreas said. ‘Some of that, I can tell you.’
Presently, he forced a digression, and filled his own cup and the other, many times.
LATER, WHEN ANDREAS had been assisted back over the road, Gelis went and sank into his place beside Nicholas. ‘Well?’ she said.
He sat and gazed at her. He looked warm, and rather shaken, but not drunk. ‘Oh,’ he said. ‘He used a hogspear.’ He went on gazing at her. He said, ‘He admired the sapphire. Seaulme had left him his Unicorn Horn.’
‘And?’ she said. ‘What did he tell you?’ It was not like before, a stone wall. He was struggling to think of two things at once.
‘He didn’t tell me anything,’ Nicholas said. ‘What are doctors supposed to be for? He just said that I would continue to blame myself for a long time for just about everything, and that it was damned right that I should. He said that since I had dragged everyone over here, I should either tell them what I was going to do, or let them go away and forge their own lives.’
She could see why he looked heated. She said, ‘I rather agree with all that, or most of it. So?’
He now looked mildly harassed, but not angry. He said, ‘What do you think? Where do you want to go?’
She stared at him. (Dr Andreas? What have you done?)
She said, ‘I don’t know. Perhaps we should make a shortlist. Persia? No. It’s still split over Uzum’s succession. Turkey? They’ve just retreated from Italy. The new Sultan is pro-Venice and promising, but is against Italian art: poor Bellini. And of course, Rhodes is grooming a supplanter. Cyprus? No. Not after what the Venetians did to Zacco. Venice? A new House of Niccolò, Venice?’
‘Gelis,’ Nicholas said.
‘No. Wait. Venice? It’s Gregorio’s now. Going back wouldn’t be fair. Africa? It’s less safe than before, and the English are racing the Portuguese for the gold. Poland? You liked it a lot, but you’d have to spend all your time fighting. I rather think Muscovy would be the same. The Tyrol? No. The Duchess is dead, and I don’t care for Sigismond. Spain? They’re driving the Moors out of Granada. Umar wouldn’t have liked that at all. France?’
‘Gelis,’ Nicholas said.
‘No. Wait. France? You liked Louis, but he’s dying, and the next King is a boy. You’ve had enough of bear-leading boys, and I can’t see you joining Lorraine, although old King René might have suited you well. Burgundy? The heirs are two children, and the Archduke is an unlikeable youth who didn’t stop Seaulme’s indictment, and is disliked by both Brabant and Flanders. Diniz can handle it. You’ve done enough. Milan, Naples, Genoa, Florence—do we wish to follow in the bankrupt footsteps of poor Tommaso, even though his vander Goes altar-piece is magnificent, and Filippo Strozzi has opened a third branch in Rome? Or,