The Ringed Castle - Dorothy Dunnett [39]
Ivan’s arms stiffened on the knobs of his chair. ‘Hah!’ he said on a shout. ‘Protestant strumpet, you ape us?’
Lymond stood, deferential and barely tinged with reproachful surprise. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘The will of the Prince is the will of God. In the enlargement and tranquillity of his dominion, let us live quietly and peaceably in all goodness and purity, and follow him in all things.’
‘The coronation service?’ said the confessor Sylvester. ‘The Voevoda is indeed a fountain of knowledge.’
The Tsar’s voice, full of purpose, overruled his words without ever hearing them, ‘Enlargement and tranquillity! Enlargement, Voevoda, yes: although I have not witnessed my domain increase itself by one pebble since you and your mess of ill-mannered dogs so used my city of Moscow that I came near having nothing to reign over but a city of ashes and carcasses. You have brought no enlargement, and are thieving from us every tranquillity. My princes spit on you.’
‘I cannot detect it,’ said Lymond with diffidence. ‘I should like to be excused from returning the courtesy.’
The Tsar did not speak. Only, stirring a hand, he signalled to the boyar standing nearest to Lymond. And the counsellor, lifting his heavy gloved hand, delivered two blows across the Voevoda’s bland face which left it marked across, reddened and bleeding. Lymond said, without moving, ‘I speak the truth. I always speak truly. What is your princes’ complaint?’
The Tsar, his colour high, was breathing a little more thickly. ‘Where,’ he said, ‘Where are the treasures of Astrakhan? Where are the carts, the slaves, the spices you stole from my captains? Exhausted from fighting——’
‘They were perfectly fresh,’ Lymond said. ‘The Nogai did most of the fighting.’
‘Box by box!’ exclaimed the Tsar. ‘By night and by day! Shall I tell you the merchandise which they lost from the boats, coming upstream on the Volga? What was taken between Kazan and Morum? What was stolen by land from Morum to this city—the Shemakha silk, the swords, the bows, the cotton wool, the walnuts, the ambergris and the musk which the new Khan Derbysh made free to my men for a pittance? Prince Vyazemsky tells me he found his own bow and dagger sheath empty. Prince Yuri Pronsky-Shemyakin declares the very camp fires were put out one by one with no warning. Are you a madman?’ said the Tsar. ‘For whom are you fighting? Are you a minion of Sigismund-Augustus and his master the Emperor Charles who wishes to see us a nation of peasants?’
‘No,’ said Lymond, his voice undisturbed. ‘I am making you an army which can fight against Tartars. Your princes did well at Astrakhan, and Yamgurchei has been punished for breaking his oath of allegiance. But elated with their success, your army took no pains to protect themselves on the long journey northwards. They gorged themselves on sturgeon and kvas, and played tricks and were hearty. The Tartars stayed in their yurts, but they might well have done far more damage than we did. This your people must learn.’
‘While you make yourselves rich?’ Adashev said. ‘You who already have tasted from us a generosity unprecedented?’
Standing still in his sashed tunic and splashed riding coat, Lymond showed neither insolence nor improper humility. ‘The salt, the spices, the cloth and the personal goods of your distinguished princes have by this time been returned to await each in his palace,’ Lymond replied. ‘The other weapons and the three bags of silver, of which perhaps you have not yet been told, have been put to a purpose I considered would serve my sovereign lord better.’
‘They are to be offered in expiation to our Most Holy Church?’ said Sylvester with bitter derision.
‘They have bought three Cossack leaders,’ said Lymond calmly. ‘And engaged the interest of several more.’
Adashev said, ‘You have given arms to the Cossacks of the steppes? These are robbers; outlaws; stateless men without settlements who rove the Tula, the Putivl,