Scales of Gold - Dorothy Dunnett [186]
The thought led to another. Godscalc said slowly, ‘The next stage of our journey?’ Umar looked away.
Nicholas said, ‘I promised I’d take you to Prester John. Perhaps you don’t want to go.’
Gelis said, ‘Father?’
Godscalc looked at her. She said, ‘God himself would not ask it. Surely it is enough to have reached as far as we have.’
‘Child,’ said Bel. ‘They’re talking of the way to the East. That’s always been what the game was about and, being men, they’re not for rushing to change it until it’s changed for them. So we need help. So we need help whether we go on or go back. So yes, I agree to accept Umar’s offer. So does Diniz, you’ve heard. So, once she gets her senses in order, will Gelis. I don’t know what way the padre will vote, but that’s a majority. Umar, what will it cost you?’
He said, ‘No more than I am willing to pay. Nicholas has not voted yet.’
‘I don’t need to,’ said Nicholas, reopening his eyes. ‘You have a majority. Welcome, Umar, Timbuktu agent of the Casa Niccolò, Venice. Father, will you stay behind, please?’
They all rose. Godscalc said, ‘I could come back in an hour.’
‘Don’t you want to get it over with?’ Nicholas said. The others left. Godscalc reseated himself and set his hands on his knees.
Nicholas said, ‘Who else have you shown them to?’
Godscalc said nothing, in a cloud of belligerence. Had he been a lesser man he would have cursed.
Nicholas said, ‘You knew I would write down my orders. I did it before. Who else have you shown them to? Gelis?’
‘No,’ Godscalc said. ‘If you see a change in Gelis, it is not due to that. You know she sat with you last night?’
‘At Bel’s suggestion,’ Nicholas said. ‘What did I say?’
‘The truth,’ Godscalc said. ‘It is not a bad thing to have out in the open. I cannot tell you whether Gelis is less your enemy than she was: you took her by surprise, I should guess, and she has much to consider. I showed your notes to Bel, not to Gelis. She won’t talk of your plans.’
‘Except, no doubt, to me. I could have wished you had waited,’ said Nicholas.
‘For your nurses to find them? Or Lopez? You addressed the packet to me,’ Godscalc said. ‘And I haven’t shown it to Diniz. That, I take it, is what you really want to find out.’
‘You don’t approve,’ Nicholas said.
Godscalc thought. He said, ‘Surprisingly, I think that I do. It would be easier if we knew what was happening at home.’
Remote though he seemed, Nicholas laughed. He said, ‘Bring in your brushes and write these words in gold on that wall. Or read the minds of Simon and David de Salmeton for me.’
A day later, he left his bed and moved restlessly through the house, and Gelis avoided him. Two days later, he rose at sunrise and, dressed in a robe Umar had brought him, walked into the courtyard where the others awaited him with the horses. He walked steadily, because they were watching him. It was too soon, perhaps, but he was no longer prepared to tolerate the perpetual confinement, the perpetual guard.
Approached, the governor had agreed to receive Niccolò vander Poele of Venice and his party of traders in formal audience at the Ma’ Dughu, the palace of the Timbuktu-Koy on the western edge of the city that morning. It was time, and more than time.
They rode there enclosed by their retinue: Diniz in figured silk and draped hat, Godscalc in fine priestly wool and the women veiled in thin tissues. They had ceased, now, to be surprised that such things could be procured. They knew, because Nicholas had demanded to know, the essential facts about Timbuktu, which for centuries had been no more than an oasis above the flood-plain of the Joliba, where merchandise from the north might be transferred from camel to boat, and bartered for the produce of rainforest and river. The trade in salt and gold had come later, and forced the Tuaregs who engaged in it to seek a secure place for their stores, and for the caravanserais