The Spring of the Ram - Dorothy Dunnett [130]
Permission was given, and a messenger sent. Nicholas could hear women speaking in whispers where they felt themselves secure from the eyes on the dais. The Emperor, who had been thoughtful, asked a question. “The Florentine consul was outside my church of Panaghia Chrysokephalos this morning?”
Amiroutzes was not at hand. Nicholas hesitated. He said in Greek, “Forgive me, Basileus. Yes.”
The Emperor appeared to rebuke. “Learning needs no apology. You heard the service?”
“I heard the music, Basileus,” Nicholas said. “I cannot find words for its excellence. In sound, and in the many uses of the mystery of Christian numbers.”
“You refer to the canon, the canticles?” the Emperor said.
Nicholas inclined his head, and was encouraged with a gesture to continue. He said, “The liturgy is new to me, but mathematics and ciphers are not. It seemed to this hearer, magnificence, that the second verse of the first ode was missing.”
The Emperor turned his eyes. His cousin the secretary said, “That is so, Basileus. The acrostic was incomplete. My lord the Florentine consul has observed correctly.”
“A gift for languages, and a gift for numbers,” said the Emperor. “Florence is fortunate. You spoke of troops.”
He could hear Astorre, outside, marching his men up to the wall. The Basileus, also hearing them, rose, upon which everyone bowed. Nicholas, straightening, was allowed to follow the Emperor to the balcony, and stand looking down on the shining rows of his ninety-eight men. They had spent three days polishing the armour they wore, and the Charetty blue plumes in their helmets might have been painted, so straight were their lines. They were better than the Imperial guard. Astorre, in front, had his good eye and his sewn eye trained like a hawk on the Emperor, and his sword held at the salute in both hands. It was as they had planned, which made it none the less miraculous. His liking for Astorre overwhelmed him, clearing a path through the other things.
Then the Emperor spoke, and a kid bag was placed in his hands and then transferred to those of the Domesticus who, bowing, carried it down to Astorre. It looked heavy. It should be, considering what the Emperor was getting. Astorre, receiving it, passed it to Thomas his deputy and performed, like an ancient and sinewy goat, the complete Prostration on the paving of the court. He rose, bowed, and walked off somewhere with the Protospatharios, his plumes crowing. Thomas, who looked almost smart, barked out orders in anglicised Flemish, bowed, and marched the men off down the slope.
The audience was ended. Inside the room, the Empress was already leaving between ranks of bowed heads. The Emperor, again enthroned, gave his gracious leave to both consuls to retire. Standing together again, Nicholas and his unruffled rival made their deferential retreat. This time, instead of the secretary, an equerry who had no Italian led them off through the Palace, taking them through passages not before seen and drawing to their attention a number of unexceptional appointments on the way to the courtyard. You would say that he had time to put off, or wished the consuls to linger. Pagano Doria who had, indeed, fluent Greek, conversed with him on trivial matters and then, falling back, engaged Nicholas in airy Genoese.
“And now, tell me,” said Pagano Doria, “how did you contrive those plague cases?”
“Tobias did it. Our physician,” said Nicholas. “Paint and lentils, I believe. I thought you said there was no silver left?”
“The Emperor’s bag? Don’t be deceived. Paint and lentils, my dear.” The sea prince was in no way put out, it was clear, by Astorre’s success with the Basileus. He said gaily, “To return to an earlier topic.”
“Your wife?” said Nicholas.
“No, yours. I’ve a letter from her lying about somewhere. She sent it to Trebizond to await your arrival. It came on a Genoese ship, and the merchants kept it until you got here. I took the liberty,” said Doria rapturously, “of opening it. I let Catherine read it as well. She couldn’t understand some of the words, although