Scales of Gold - Dorothy Dunnett [160]
‘Which,’ said Gelis, with animation, ‘might do us some good. If we keep to our own journey east, we might miss them.’ She tilted her head. ‘How reassuring. Is that your idea, Senhor Jorge?’
‘My idea,’ said Jorge da Silves, ‘is to trace Doria’s gold-hunting party and kill them. I think you will find Messer Niccolò of the same mind.’
‘Before Ethiopia,’ said Gelis.
‘Before they have time, quite simply, to turn on us.’
‘And Lopez?’ said Bel. Gelis was smiling.
Da Silves was not. ‘They will kill him,’ he said. ‘There can be no other outcome. But first, he will lead them and us to the mines. And now we know, thanks to the demoiselle, that Saloum can track him. You are quick, senhorinha.’
‘Too damned quick,’ muttered Bel. She stared at the bonfire. They were close enough to see Nicholas. He was talking.
Gelis had seen him as well. ‘Nonsense,’ she said. ‘Look at him. You know he won’t let Lopez escape, or the gold, or Doria. The senhor is right. I’ll wager your comb to my kerchief that we’ll be on the gold-hunters’ heels before dawn, and until we’ve come at Wangara, Prester John and the padre can whistle.’
She broke off. She said, ‘Do you realise that that’s all we can wager? We have no means of support, and hardly a garment between us?’
‘And I the same,’ said da Silves. ‘But we are not destitute. We have the fruits of the wild. We have some means to purchase necessities. We have all these fine barrels of fat.’
‘Pig lard,’ said Gelis. ‘For Muslims. You couldn’t give it away.’
‘Neither you could. Fancy,’ said Bel. ‘So what, would you say, have we hidden there?’ It pleased her to see Gelis jump.
They had arrived. Da Silves put down his paddle. Men came running to pull them aground. ‘In the lard? Cowrie shells,’ he replied. ‘Thousands and thousands of cowrie shells. So that if we do come across gold, we can buy it.’
He smiled bleakly and made ready to land. He had said nothing of his seven murdered men. He hadn’t mentioned Vicente. He had shown no passion over the fate of the ship. He had been attacked and mortified by Raffaelo Doria, for which he wanted revenge. He also wished to stop him from finding Wangara.
Bel stared at da Silves, and then, looking more closely, was struck by other signs she had missed: the hollow eyes, the lines of weariness, the genuine pain. For him, this was a pilgrimage. He had wanted the slaves brought to grace: it had been he who had urged Father Godscalc to carry the Cross to Bati Mansa. If he coveted gold, it was only partly for himself: it was chiefly for the Order of Christ and his masters. She wished that she liked him.
Then she stepped carefully ashore and carried the box to Godscalc and Melchiorre, taking Gelis pointedly with her. She slowed, passing Nicholas, in order to listen; but his senses appeared to have returned to him. He was regulating, in a voice she found unusually grating, the party which was to refloat and man the San Niccolò and appointing (as of right) the group which, with Saloum’s help, would find a suitable boat and proceed with him into the interior.
Chapter 24
IN ELECTING TO GO upriver with Nicholas, it seemed very likely to Godscalc and to Bel that they were choosing death, and violent death, of the kind they had seen for the first time at close quarters today. To Diniz, already blooded, it appeared merely a glorious extension of the adventure to which Nicholas had introduced him. To Gelis, the added danger, the change of purpose, meant nothing.
They had all four been given the opportunity to turn and sail back to Gnumi Mansa on the rehabilitated San Niccolò. Halfway through the operation to refloat her, which lasted nearly till daybreak, Nicholas had come back to the fire on the beach along with Diniz