The Ringed Castle - Dorothy Dunnett [135]
‘I don’t follow,’ Chancellor said.
Turning from Christopher’s open-eyed gaze, Hislop trained a bland eye on his father. ‘A man of rare endowments, the Voevoda,’ he said. ‘But in the north he need exercise fewer of them, perhaps. We inferior beings would also welcome a respite.’
‘Mr Crawford is a hard task-master?’ Chancellor said. ‘My son tells me that soon you will be able to put a hundred thousand well-furnished men into the field at forty days’ notice. In a country of this size, with such problems of climate and communications, and a people totally undrilled, I should have thought it quite a feat.’
‘Yes. Well,’ said Danny. ‘He has made sure there is one person we shall always fear more than the enemy. The atmosphere of lofty command can, however, be a trifle dispiriting. We do hope you will both go to Lampozhnya.’
Diccon Chancellor said suddenly, ‘What keeps you here? Mr Hoddim evaded the question. You are highly paid, I expect. Perhaps your commander has passed on his passion for power. But there seems to be no camaraderie. I have never heard one of you call the other by his Christian name. And no one, except perhaps Mr Crawford, could call the life easy. When the fighting is over, what can you do with your leisure? Where do you go for civilized conversation? What sport can you pursue but the coarsest, within the harshest extremes of the climate? What entertainment is there: where can you find books, or listen to music, or enjoy the pleasures of the table, and visit the homes of your friends?’
The pale, clever eyes glittered again. ‘Ah,’ said Danny. ‘You have a report to make to your superior.’
Chancellor made a sound of impatience. ‘I have. But you may also credit me with the normal instincts of friendship.’
‘And a nose, naturally, for the prevalent cult of Belial the Epicene,’ Danny said. ‘You have seen him at his house at Vorobiovo. I doubt if he is there, or at the Kremlin house more than two days a week, and sometimes not for a good many weeks at a time. It pains me to destroy the legend, but if he pursued a life of ease himself, I doubt if one of us would follow him.’
Chancellor said, ‘You still haven’t answered my question.’
‘No. Why are we here, Hoddim?’ said Hislop.
The tall brow ridged. ‘I’m damned if I know why you’re here,’ said Fergie candidly. ‘Why am I? The money’s good, and some day I’ll go home and spend it. I like fighting, and St Mary’s does that better than anyone else now in Europe. And I have a mind for the law, and a country where jurisdiction is just beginning to shake itself free of abuses, and has a use, maybe, for a trained mind in doing it. I never thought about it, but I suppose that’s why I’m here.’
‘You’re here because the land is virgin and you are an expert,’ said Danny crisply. ‘That’s why we’re all staying. Not only because we enjoy being superior soldiers. Plummer is spending all his spare time in a welter of bochki vaultings and wall systems. Guthrie visits a different lavra every week, unearthing ancient Greek scriptures like truffles. D’Harcourt is pursuing unfettered his God-given vocation to defend his sheep against the Mussulman wolf. And Blacklock, burning with artistic dedication, is teaching half the Ikonopisnaia Palata to oil-paint.…’
‘Half the——?’ said Fergie.
‘A slight exaggeration. Three pupils,’ said Danny cheerfully.
‘And you?’ said Diccon Chancellor.
‘You are, I suppose, right,’ said Danny Hislop. ‘There’s no conversation, except among ourselves: the princes aren’t going to hobnob with foreigners. There is no feminine company. The pleasures of the great outdoors are strictly limited unless you care for massacres or for fishing, which I do admit is prodigious. Given a fine day, you might find a group of ladies having a gentle swing on a wheel in the meadow, but you are more likely to come across gangs of boys kicking each other freely to death. The less said about the winter the better. And as you say, there are no entertainments, short of church and court ceremonial,