Scales of Gold - Dorothy Dunnett [167]
‘But all of them?’ Nicholas said. Beside Gelis, Saloum rose to his feet. He had wiped his face with her cloth and held it, smeared with blood, under the fringe of his beard. She rose too, and stood between him and Jorge.
‘All of them. I told him,’ said Saloum. His lips, swollen and fissured, would hardly move. He was swallowing blood. ‘I am sorry,’ he said.
‘You …?’ said Jorge, and took a step forward. His neck and face were suffused.
‘No,’ said Nicholas, and, catching the club, twisted it from the other man’s grasp. He flung it away. ‘Don’t. It’s bad, but he isn’t an enemy.’
‘He isn’t?’ Jorge said. ‘Where is Doria? Where is your so-called friend Lopez? We are not following in the footsteps of either. We are being sent to our deaths by their ally, this traitor.’
‘Perhaps,’ Nicholas said. ‘Although I don’t think so. I suggest we ask him. If he can speak.’
‘He needs water,’ said Gelis. ‘If you take him back, the others will kill him.’
‘They will do,’ Jorge said, ‘what I will do, when I have picked up my club again. Beat him until he tells us the way to the mines. And then force him to lead us in shackles.’
The sky flared with the last of the sunset; soon they would be in darkness and outside the compound. A swirl of smoke rose from the banks of the river where torches and fires would be lit. They could find no refuge from curiosity there. In the last of the light, she saw that Saloum’s whole attention, mind and soul, was on Nicholas. And in the eyes of Nicholas was an expression she had never seen: one of desolation that came close to anguish. He said, ‘I must speak apart to Saloum. There will be a hut where he could hide in the village. Gelis?’
She looked at Jorge.
‘Will you take him, Gelis?’ Nicholas said.
She understood, without words. He said, referring to Jorge, ‘I won’t harm him.’
He was lying, if one took it too literally. She had hardly started to move when Nicholas drew back a fist and struck the Portuguese such a blow that he fell senseless. Gelis didn’t wait to see more. She said, ‘Come!’ to Saloum, but could not make him hurry as, walking stoically beside her, he accompanied her back to her hut in the village.
An hour later Nicholas came, and Bel and Gelis admitted him. The single torch showed him Saloum, his clothes fresh, his face swollen and salved. Nicholas crossed and sat Turkish-style facing the three of them. Saloum bowed his head. Gelis said, ‘He has deceived us.’
‘I guessed,’ Nicholas said. ‘I gave Lopez the slaves, but I didn’t impose any promise. The mines are a secret. He kept it.’
‘He arranged with Saloum to lead you away. You were not to follow him. You were to be led to the caravan terminus, where you would find gold enough.’ It was Gelis.
‘That is so?’ Nicholas said. He was looking at Saloum.
‘That is so,’ Saloum answered, through stiff and whistling lips. His gaze, clear as Godscalc’s, rested on Nicholas. ‘He has taken Doria to his death, but he will not lure you on the same path. He said what you said. He made you no promises. He told you he would do as he chose when the time came.’
‘But how will he escape?’ Nicholas said. ‘It is death to show strangers the gold. If the miners don’t, Doria will kill him.’
Saloum’s gaze didn’t alter. He said, ‘I am to tell you that you must forgive him.’
‘You were to tell me?’ Nicholas said.
And Saloum said, ‘He thought you would find out, but hoped it would be too late, as it is. He wished you to know that the source of the gold is a secret that he would not betray, even to you, whom he loves. He has not taken the Genoese there, and would not take you. They have gone to the place of silent trading.’
‘Where they will be killed?’ Nicholas said. ‘But so will Lopez. Saloum, so will Lopez.’
‘You cannot help him,’ said Saloum. ‘He does not want to be helped. And you could not get there in time.’
The silence this time was a long one. Then Nicholas said, ‘So what does he want?’
Saloum rose and, stepping across, took the place of submission before Nicholas. He said, ‘Out of love, he would