Scales of Gold - Dorothy Dunnett [91]
Ochoa de Marchena didn’t need it spelled out. He had treated them to one of his soft, toothless grins. ‘You heard the Fortado’s been licensed for Guinea as well? You don’t want her to clean out your market before you.’
‘I’d quite like to get to Arguim first,’ his patron had remarked. He looked livelier than you’d expect, though unshaven. ‘She’ll have left Funchal by now. She knows, I’m sure, where you’re going. What do you think she will do?’
Ochoa always liked a man who asked his opinion. He said, ‘Take the same route as us; she can’t avoid it. The quickest way to raise Arguim is to sail by the Canaries until their peaks are hull down, and then cross to the coast above Blanco. Her advantage is that she’s fully provisioned. So she won’t stop. She’ll go straight over to Guinea.’
‘Is she well manned?’
‘She’s got a well-practised crew. I don’t know what master; she changed command when she got her new orders. She was diverted from Ceuta: the crusade came to a halt, and the Fortado had a load of grain and gear she’d no use for. That’s what she’ll be selling at Arguim.’
‘Diniz?’ the patron had said unexpectedly.
And the boy, asleep on his feet, had said, ‘That’s right. It was a regular run. I can tell you what she carried.’
‘Can you? Good. And being a caravel, her sailing speed will be much like the Niccolò’s? Other things being equal?’
Ochoa had laughed. ‘You asking about Jorge da Silves? I’ll tell you. He wants a knighthood in the Order of Christ.’
‘So?’
‘So he’ll burn water for you, if he thinks he’ll get a name for it. He’ll get to Arguim first. But what about your next port? You’ll have the Fortado after you, empty and angry. And she’s licensed.’
‘I wasn’t asking you to sink her,’ vander Poele said. He had a mild way of speaking.
Ochoa had laughed again. ‘No, you weren’t. But she might fall off the end of the world. No one could blame me for that.’
‘Not if you brought absolute proof. So we call at Grand Canary?’
‘Why?’ said the young lady. She wasn’t asleep. Her face was familiar.
She was the one he’d been told not to wave to. Ochoa said, ‘Do I answer?’
‘You might as well,’ vander Poele said. ‘She doesn’t like the Fortado either.’
‘She was a guest of the Captain at Funchal,’ said Ochoa.
‘Then if she swims ashore to complain, we’ll be sorry. We call at the Grand Canary because we require a receipt for having offloaded horses. Also, the San Niccolò will have arrived, and I’m joining her.’
She said, ‘I won’t be put on shore.’
Ochoa, pleased, left the patron to answer. The patron said, ‘Who would dare? Diniz, however, had best come with me. Father Godscalc might worry.’
Later, when the girl had retired, Ochoa thumped into his cot by the others. ‘So the young lady stays with Ochoa?’
The Ghost was in the full ocean by then, her course set for south by south-east, her square sails bellying, her round starboard flank seething and dipping. The first of an uneasy dawn lit her mast-top. The patron stirred, and delivered an answer. Its import was negative. Its nature – its poetic nature – was such that Ochoa de Marchena was awed. Seized with joy, he leaned over his owner and kissed him.
In the event, circumstances saw to it that nothing disembarked at Grand Canary four days later but twenty-five mythical horses: mythical only to the inhabitants of the island, that was. They were real enough on the Ghost, where it seemed likely that they would stove in the planks between decks. And there was no question of transferring to the Niccolò, because the Niccolò had gone straight past La Palma without stopping (so the port officer cheerfully informed them) and down the east coast of the Canary as if the devil himself were coming after her. ‘And let us hope,’ he said, ‘that she has her supplies well aboard, because she’ll find little but water at Arguim.’
The port officer was Castilian, and he approved the brave Castilian flag the Ghost was flying, as well as being well acquainted with Ochoa de Marchena. Nicholas, fretfully ashore and plied with heavy Andalusian wine, enquired whether the captain was sure it was