The Ringed Castle - Dorothy Dunnett [107]
The Tsar stirred irritably. ‘They will break my monopolies.’
‘Time will break your monopolies,’ Lymond said. ‘Best do it with good grace while you can.’
The pale eyes stared at him, the brow furrowed with weariness. ‘The Queen of England is married to the Emperor’s son. This English trade will harm the Baltic lands which are the Emperor’s allies. The Emperor may send his armies to stiffen Lithuania and Livonia against me. These English may be here not to trade, but as spies.’
Lymond gazed up at the flushed face with its wet, shining beard. He said calmly, ‘If I thought they were spies, I would kill them.’
‘Are they?’ said Ivan.
Lymond said, ‘It is unlikely. If you will allow me to attend some of their meetings, I can assure myself of it. There is something else your grace should bear in mind. The people of England are unhappy with the prince their Queen has married. They may rise against him. It is almost certain that the Queen dare not offend her people by spoiling a trading adventure for the sake of her husband. The Emperor will not incite Lithuania and Livonia against you, if you do not give him cause by threatening his allies. He will be your friend for life, and so will England, if you continue your crusade against the Tartars.’
‘So Adashev says,’ said the Tsar. ‘And it is plain. Turkey supports the Tartars. The fall of the Tartars is a blow against Turkey. And Turkey is the friend of the French and the enemy of the Emperor Charles.…’ He drew back, and, with a half-closed fist, fetched Lymond a light blow on the shoulder. ‘It is your career you think of, you dog. You yearn to wrest Turkish pearls and Tartar maidens from the Crimea next summer.… Rest content. I have said we shall march. And if these red English moujiks are true men, I shall give you something to take in your baggage. If England wishes me to fight the Emperor’s battles, and be kind to her merchants, and give up my monopolies, she must do something in exchange. Givemearms.’
Lymond was silent.
The Tsar’s beaked nose inhaled, with firm sonority. ‘You persist in this obstinacy. You say she will not do it. I, who know women, say she will. The benefits are such that she will. When I have explained them, she will listen. You say there is no King in that country; that the people dislike her husband. So there is only a woman, a creature given by God to serve man and obey him. If you were a man, you would realize this.’
Lymond said, ‘I serve your grace as a man.’ His voice was level.
‘I doubt it sometimes,’ said Ivan Vasilievich. There was still some mead in the cup. He flung it, suddenly and pettishly, and it flooded over the white cambric of Lymond’s shirt, splashing his face, and mixing with the blurred marks of blood from the scratch on his shoulder. ‘I have offered you women. Why do you not take them?’
‘I have a woman,’ Lymond said. He had not moved to blot the thin streaks of wet on his skin. Only those who served under him would perhaps have recognized the look in his eyes.
‘Of whom you are innocent,’ the Tsar said. ‘Innocent as a maiden. You resent being followed. You do not know how closely you are followed. I say again. Are you a man?’
Lymond took a long breath. Beneath his lips, his teeth were closed hard together, but his eyes were blue and open and lucid, and his limbs were composed. He said, ‘My debt is to Güzel, who is satisfied.’
The other man nodded, galvanically, combing his beard with his fingers. ‘She brought you here. It was her message which prepared us for your coming, and her money which conveyed you from Turkey. Does she feel she has received due reward?’
‘She is content,’ Lymond said briefly.
The Tsar continued to finger his beard. ‘But if she felt less content, as time went on? Perhaps she might leave … perhaps, being so deeply in her debt, you might feel you should leave with her. It comes to me,’ said the Tsar, ‘that it is this