Race of Scorpions - Dorothy Dunnett [294]
The returns from the fief had been pouring into his Bank at Venice since Zacco had sent Corner to fetch him. ‘I am most grateful, sire,’ said Nicholas.
‘I have extended it,’ Zacco said. ‘I have also arranged for you to be given the castle within the new boundaries. You already have the right to live in my manor of Kouklia. You will have two properties now. When you come to Nicosia, which I hope will be often, I shall have rooms prepared for you at the Dominicans’. And if you accept the post I am offering, you will have a residence, naturally, here. What do you say?’
Nicholas was silent. He said, ‘The fief. Is that dependent on my appointment to Famagusta?’
‘You are going to refuse it?’ Zacco said. The lines had returned to his face.
Nicholas said, ‘My lord, you show me trust and favour beyond what I deserve, but this is a matter not only for me, but for my officers and my company. I would beg the King’s leave to postpone my answer. There is, too, another matter which has a bearing.’
‘I hardly know,’ said the King, ‘if I want to hear of another matter.’
His face showed anger, and something else besides anger. Nicholas said, not all that quickly, ‘It concerns the King’s safety.’
Silence. Then Zacco said, ‘You had better tell me.’
Embarking on his monologue, Nicholas was aware that he was not in the fittest state to lay this particular trail. To begin with, he had hoped to keep Abul Ismail’s name from the story; and then had realised that it could not be done, and had gone to the Arab, and asked his permission. He had given it.
Through all the days that Katelina lingered, and after, Abul Ismail had tended her like a daughter. The only rite he had not observed was the ceremony she had asked for herself: her burial in the Cathedral of St Nicholas. After that, the physician had seen to the ordering of the room, and had her clothes boxed, and found and taken to Nicholas the three letters she left, one for Simon, one for Lucia his sister, and one which contained no message for Nicholas, although it was inscribed to him. The physician had also brought to Nicholas an object he did not know how to pack. It was a dried and broken chaplet of reeds, hastily plaited, and it had been stored with a veil. Nicholas had taken the package, saying, ‘I will see to it.’
It was that evening, when speech was impossible, that Abul Ismail had waited until Diniz was out of the room and then had said, ‘I wish to speak on the subject of Cyprus.’
It was true that Cyprus still existed, and the rest of the world, and one was not a child. Nicholas said, ‘Would you have preferred Carlotta’s rule?’
‘I am not sure if I wish the rule of Uzum Hasan,’ said the Arab.
Once, by Kyrenia, they had spoken of this. Uzum Hasan, prince of the Turcomans, sometimes allied with the Sultan of Cairo, sometimes ignored him. But against the great army of Osmanli Turks under the Sultan Mehmet at Constantinople, both were united. Ludovico da Bologna had toured Western Europe with envoys from Uzum Hasan, promising combined Muslim and Christian troops to combat Mehmet’s forces. Uzum Hasan, as an ally of Cairo, could rid Cairo of its obstreperous Mamelukes. But the cost would be a Turcoman alliance, perhaps a Turcoman power in Egypt. And instead of a Mameluke-ruled overlord, Zacco would have Uzum Hasan.
Nicholas said, ‘I have thought of this. I have studied Uzum, and Sultan Mehmet. I think the Mamelukes are dragging Egypt to destruction, and may overrun Cyprus. And if Venice is occupied with the Turk, Zacco will not be able to stay, even as a puppet king, even if I remain with my army. It is my belief that Uzum would prove a tolerant prince, and an acceptable ruler.’
‘That is what Tzani-bey is afraid