Scales of Gold - Dorothy Dunnett [168]
Gelis listened, and Bel beside her said nothing. Nicholas said, ‘Jorge will not go.’ A dimple appeared, out of his distraction. ‘I should have to gag him.’
He was gagged already, Gelis suspected, and bound as well, in some corner known to Nicholas. Saloum said, ‘Perhaps I could persuade him?’
Nicholas frowned. ‘Why not?’ Gelis asked. ‘Saloum persuaded me. Send him over to tell Jorge the truth. Saloum doesn’t know the source of the gold, but can take us to where we can buy it. Isn’t that so?’
‘That is true,’ Saloum said. ‘By all I hold sacred.’
‘Then send Saloum over,’ said Gelis. ‘Get them reconciled. You can’t keep Jorge tied up for ever. Let them talk on their own, if they want to. Then you can free Jorge and announce changed plans tomorrow. How long a journey is it to this depot?’
‘To Timbuktu?’ said Saloum painfully. ‘From here, senhorinha, three to four weeks at the most.’
‘Did you know that?’ Gelis said.
‘No,’ said Nicholas.
‘And if we had gone direct?’
Saloum answered. ‘Senhorinha, I have brought you the easiest way, if the slowest. It was what I was told.’
She said nothing. Nicholas left, taking Saloum, and no one returned. Diniz came, bringing gazelle meat and palm wine and maize cakes, but didn’t stay long; even his bright black eyes had deep circles beneath them. Gelis wondered where he would call next. Since no one appeared, they lay on their straw without speaking, and presently Bel’s gentle snore filled the air. Gelis lay for a while, and then slept.
They were awakened by movement and voices, then by shouting, and the clatter of loading. Someone rapped on a post of their cabin, and Gelis took Bel’s cloak and pushed back the matting. Nicholas stood there, the sky lightening behind him. He said, ‘Jorge has gone on without us, and so have five crewmen and Diniz. I have to follow. I’ll take Vito with me.’
‘Diniz has left you for Jorge!’ said Gelis. ‘Why? Where are they going?’
‘To the silent market,’ said Nicholas. ‘They know how to get there. Damn them, they’ve stolen the donkeys.’
‘Saloum went with them?’ she said.
‘No. I kept him with me to prevent it. But he had already given Jorge all the directions.’
‘He wanted Jorge dead,’ Gelis said.
‘Oh, yes,’ said Nicholas. ‘Do you want to beat him for it?’
Chapter 25
THE VILLAGE OWNED a single camel, which Nicholas bought for a sackload of cowrie shells. He mounted with unthinking ease, as if he had done it many times before, and had to lean to help Vito behind him. Godscalc watched, hastily dressed, with Gelis and Bel at his side. They were all that remained, but for Saloum. Gelis went to Saloum and said, ‘Are you satisfied?’
Yesterday, he had been in pain. Now he looked ill. He said, in his stumbling Portuguese, ‘Senhorinha, they were crazy for gold. They would have stopped at nothing to learn where the market was. Your lord also said he could not tie up the senhor for ever.’
Gelis said, ‘It is not the senhor who concerns us. It is the boy Diniz, and the lord Niccolò who has now gone to retrieve him. You have told him the way?’
‘Yes, senhorinha,’ said Saloum.
‘Then take us the same way,’ said Gelis. ‘We have weapons. However slow we may be, we can surely help somehow. Then take us on to your caravanserai, where the camel-trains come from the desert. You must be useful for something.’
They didn’t speak on that morning’s journey. Tied like puddings, their worldly goods paraded before them, borne on the heads of six men from the village. Saloum chose the way, and Godscalc and Bel walked behind Gelis.
At mid-morning, with the land shimmering yellow before them, they made a halt on a patch of harsh grass below the dusty leaves of a group of acacias. Godscalc said, ‘Spare them all a thought. The boy Filipe is with them.’
‘He needn’t have been,’ Gelis said.
‘That is harsh,’ Godscalc