Scales of Gold - Dorothy Dunnett [205]
‘Ah!’ said Zuhra wisely, but her eyes had grown very large. ‘And you, for his pleasure? He is a strong man, like Umar. And how many sons does he have?’
‘I’m sorry, I have misled you,’ said Gelis. ‘He has had two wives, but one is dead, and he is unmarried at present. He has no legitimate sons.’
‘So!’ Zuhra said. ‘He is old, like Umar, and is hoping to breed some on you. You are fat, and white, and are like the cows of plenty my father has always favoured, who drop their calves in due season, and make milk, and are fruitful. Why are you laughing?’
‘Because I like you,’ said Gelis, and got herself out of the water, still laughing.
‘Well, you are fat and white by her standards,’ Nicholas said, when she described the scene at supper that evening. ‘Why do I never get invited to the baths? I ought to qualify, minus potentes, as your mechanical lover.’
‘I shall ask Umar to warn her that you’re not,’ said Gelis. ‘Just then, it seemed a pity to spoil it. As for the baths –’
‘I didn’t mean it,’ said Nicholas.
‘Of course you did,’ Gelis said. ‘I know the rattle of a rutting goat when I hear it. The baths are forbidden. You may, if you are invited, come to one of the entertainments that follow. There’s one tomorrow. Umar will bring you.’
‘It doesn’t sound very licentious,’ Nicholas said.
She said, ‘Then perhaps it needs some attention, like the pumps. If you put your mind to it, you may evolve another Tendeba.’
‘The comparison,’ said Nicholas, ‘leaves something to be desired. If it’s a glutton-feast, I might come. Shall I take a puzzle?’
‘You’ve made another one?’ she said. They sat on the same side of a trestle set up in his chamber, and a black eunuch was serving them. Another stood by the door. Godscalc was not there, but she was well protected if she wanted to be. Equally, she could have dismissed them both, and no one would have cared. It was a liberal society, that of Timbuktu.
Nicholas had been watching her. He said, ‘Yes. It’s over there. You have to tilt the box so that the ball is steered round the traps.’
‘It looks easy,’ she said.
‘It is,’ he said, ‘until you play it in spectacles. What makes you nervous? The girls? They don’t come when you’re here.’
‘I know,’ she said. ‘I wondered what Diniz had done with his offering.’
‘Sent her back to Akil,’ he said. ‘I’ve kept mine. She spies on us all, and it’s useful.’
‘But she doesn’t know Flemish,’ said Gelis. ‘Why should Akil spy on us?’
‘Because we might upset the balance of power,’ Nicholas said. He was fishing for bits of duck with his fingers. ‘Akil’s got the authority, and the army, but they don’t want to stay here: they move about; they’re nomads and brigands. The old man stays and rules, and reluctantly gives up what is owed Akil in tax money. He probably cheats, and in return Akil occasionally descends on the city and tries to shake out more profits, which the old man resists.’
‘The Timbuktu-Koy,’ Gelis said.
‘Yes. The Timbuktu-Koy does nothing, as is plentifully obvious, about irrigation, or building, or stock-breeding, or food storage or the simplest measures of defence. But he makes sure the city’s trade is run well, and the imams are respected, and the schools flourish. If he didn’t, Timbuktu wouldn’t make money. If he did it alone, without Akil, he’d probably be tempted to skim off too much for his own use and wreck it. So while these two are at odds, the traders actually flourish. The imposts are not too high, and there’s some sort of order.’
‘So how do we threaten it?’ said Gelis. She forgot to keep her voice even. ‘Damn you! You’ve finished the duck.’
‘Look, I’ve left all the rice. We don’t, at the moment. We might, if we attract other traders with ships. We might, if we were to help the Koy in some way that increased his power. Re-establishing his domestic water system so that you can dance around in the nude isn’t going to upset Akil too much, unless he sees you.’
She said, ‘It didn’t impress you overmuch.’ Now that the days were so hot, the nights, too, were warmer than was sometimes comfortable.
He said, ‘You weren’t dancing.