The Ringed Castle - Dorothy Dunnett [120]
‘They did not open the bodies,’ said Güzel. ‘The Egyptians also married their art to their religion. Below the skin, under the breastbone; within the cage of the pelvis, they left precious tokens, for the use of the dead. The comforts of this room were bought with gold which travelled to me from Egypt in a stronger casket than any smith could devise: a wrapping of dried skin and bone dust. Does it console you?’ she said, smiling, to Adam.
He shrugged his shoulders and sat back, smiling in turn against his will as the interlude slackened his outrage. Prince Vishnevetsky said, to no one in particular, ‘And who knows this man Viscovatu? He is Clerk of the Council, and a priest, and a painter. Is he a man, blessed in the eyes of the Almighty, who puts before all else the strict and terrible service of God?’
There was a decent silence. ‘This is a man who detests Sylvester,’ Lymond remarked.
Prince Vishnevetsky opened one dark eye.
‘… and who complained to the Stoglav about Sylvester’s new four-part commission for the Blagoveschensky Cathedral to such effect that the Council laid down the right to supervise the ethical content of any other work Sylvester might negotiate. Sylvester being priest of the Blagoveschensky and the Tsar’s adviser and confessor.’
‘I know,’ said Vishnevetsky. ‘So religion is merely an excuse?’
‘It seems likely,’ said Lymond.
Prince Dimitri Vishnevetsky glanced round. His gaze rested on the candlesticks and the silver-gilt brazier; on the crystal dishes of ginger, and orange in sugar; on the little sewn cushions of roses, pressed behind Güzel’s velvet shoulders. ‘And the Voevoda Bolshoia is afraid of Viscovatu?’ he said.
‘He controls the fate of the Muscovy Company,’ Lymond said. ‘Mr Chancellor and his friend Mr Killingworth would not be at all happy if the Tsar took against Catholics. And an attack on the Russian Orthodox religion would be taken as a Catholic attack. No one will pay the least heed to the grotesque inner springs of Blacklock’s spiritual mechanism: they have never heard of the freedom of the artist and couldn’t imagine what it meant anyway. They would merely recognize, and very readily recognize, that the heretic is hacking at one of the dearest roots of their foundation. Then they fling us all out and march into Lithuania.’
Güzel, smiling, said nothing. Christopher had shifted his position merely because he found he had cramp, but had still not taken his eyes from the lazy, lamplit face of his host. Plummer was looking at Adam Blacklock, and Adam, his lips tight, was gazing at the floor. Prince Vishnevetsky said gracefully, ‘Really?’
‘Really,’ affirmed Lymond dryly. ‘Who is more Catholic than the Emperor Charles? Neglect the Tartars; strike a blow at the Baltic countries and you strike a blow at the Emperor. If the Tsar pushes right through to the sea, he won’t even need England, and her precious Frozen Sea route.’
Chancellor said, clearing his throat, ‘You told us to act as if there had been no change of religion. The Tsar knows we have a Reformed Church.’
‘The Tsar knows the late King Edward had a Reformed Church,’ Lymond said. ‘And he also knows that the present Queen Mary is the stoutest upholder of Roman Catholicism in Europe, because I told him myself. The device worked well enough for the first weeks, and, once confirmed in his plans for the Company, he is capable of ignoring unpleasant facts, so long as he feels they are not being subtly withheld from him. But a formal protest from the Council of the Hundred Chapters and the Metropolitan Makary would be a little hard to ignore. Thus the future of nations hangs on Blacklock’s compulsion to paint St Theodore Tiron, legs astride, in a feathered bonnet, a smirk and a surcoat. Mr Chancellor does not believe it.’
‘No one would believe it, put like that,’ said Güzel.
‘No one believes me anyway,’ Lymond said. ‘I am kept to