Scales of Gold - Dorothy Dunnett [251]
‘And it is your duty to explain it to him,’ Nicholas said. ‘Unless I set your mind at rest? What would set your mind at rest?’
‘I do not wish,’ Akil said, ‘to constrain you to leave, although I would say, in the privacy of this room, that it would be wiser for you to do so, and best for the city. Indeed, if you were to leave, there would be no difficulty. Failing that, I should like some earnest of your resolve not to interfere.’
‘Would the Timbuktu-Koy feel so strongly?’ Nicholas said.
‘I do not know. No doubt, in due course, you will ask him,’ Akil said. ‘In the meantime, I have asked my men to enter your storeroom and remove half of all the gold and the goods that they find there. If the Timbuktu-Koy finds me over-zealous, he will no doubt tell me. It will be between him and me.’
‘It seems to me,’ Nicholas said, ‘that this is entirely between you and me, my lord Akil. Suppose I say that I have no objection to your taking this tax, and that I shall not complain to the Timbuktu-Koy?’
‘I should commend your wisdom,’ said Akil. He said it after a moment.
‘Although,’ said Nicholas, ‘I am unclear on one point. If I decide to leave, will it be returned to me?’
The black moustache moved in a smile. ‘Your soul has lived before, in the person of a sage. The tax pertains to all the days you have spent here, and cannot be rescinded. But if you leave, you may take with you freely all the goods and gold you have left.’
‘You are generous,’ Nicholas said.
His first trouble, next day, was soothing the passions of the men who called on him, indignant, enraged by the news of the theft. His second trouble was Umar, who did not come. In the evening, when Nicholas knew the children would be asleep, he called on him. Zuhra met him on the threshold; seventeen, lovely, her breasts swollen with milk. She said, ‘We have heard.’ Her eyes were anxious.
‘I know,’ Nicholas said. ‘I blame Umar, of course. I am fiercely critical of you, and am ashamed of Muhammed, and renounce Umar Niccolò as my name-child. Zuhra, I am here to put it all right. There is nothing to fear.’
She dropped her eyes and leading him in, drew her veil down and over her shoulders for the first time he remembered in her own house. When she had left them alone, he spoke to Umar. ‘You expected it.’
‘I didn’t provoke it,’ Umar said.
‘No. But you knew I could become the catalyst in the war between these two men. The excuse for division.’
‘They would find another,’ Umar said.
‘But in the meantime, as you did not tell me, loss and indignity, at the very least, might lie ahead of me. You thought, if you told me, I would think it just another deceit.’
‘I am sorry,’ Umar said. ‘I shall make good your losses.’
‘There is no need,’ Nicholas said. ‘I am not staying. They have frightened me away.’
Umar’s hands tightened. He did not answer.
‘No, you don’t believe that.’ Nicholas said. ‘I could take one side or the other, and perhaps make it successful. But it is the balance of power, isn’t it, that has brought peace to the city, and my presence which is going to disrupt it? And anything I can do will fall apart after my death, because you are right: you cannot perpetuate a civilisation ahead of its time unless those around are civilised also. I have decided to go.’
‘And do what?’ Umar said. His hands remained doubled.
‘Zuhra veiled herself just now,’ Nicholas said. ‘Perhaps I envy you. Perhaps that is the lesson I learned here, not what the doctors were teaching me.’
‘It was not – it was not my purpose,’ Umar said. His face, puzzled, had lost some of its strain.
‘No, you had another purpose,’ Nicholas said. ‘I am aware of that, too. But you are happy? Not just from duty?’
‘Not just from duty. Here, it is not difficult to be happy in marriage. Zuhra is young. There are no great requirements laid on her. We cannot disappoint each other.’
‘A warning,’ said Nicholas.
‘I should not presume,’ Umar said. ‘You mean to leave? When will you leave? It is March. The May azalai is largest and safest, and should