Abdul laughed and topped up his drink. 'Men like you and I, Harry Wooler, traders and sailors, live in the moment, in the business of the world. But popes and caliphs, princes and emirs – those sort of folk like to believe they cast long shadows over history.'
Harry tried to get a sense of this cousin. He seemed intelligent, competent, and with a taste for beautiful things, judging by his clothes, and the wistful glances he cast out of the windows. But he was alone, without a family. Was he a man who preferred men? Whatever his taste he had evidently nothing but failed relationships behind him. And yet he had a place in this city, this ancient civilisation he obviously cherished.
He and Harry could hardly have been less alike, Harry thought. And yet here they were, related, considering working together.
He turned the conversation to the matter of the Testament.
Abdul said, 'I'll tell you the truth. In my family – or my branch of it – we have a sort of memory of prophecies. Of terrible weapons of war, of a man called the Dove, all of that. But if this was ever written down, it was long lost, and reduced to a memory of a memory. I don't think Ibrahim cared much for that sort of stuff. So why have you sought me out? Why come here, to al-Andalus? And why now?'
'It was Geoffrey's suggestion…' Harry had told Abdul of his contact with the monk. Now he produced a parchment on which the first twelve lines of the Testament of Eadgyth were written out.
Abdul lodged small spectacles on his thin nose and scanned it quickly. ''The tail of the peacock',' he read. He looked up. 'There is an old Arab myth, of the Flood-'
'I know,' said Harry. 'Or rather, Geoffrey knows. That's what he found out. He believe that al-Andalus must be the peacock's tail of the Testament.'
'So that tells me why you've come here. But why now?'
And Harry spoke of the 'last days' of the Testament's first line, and how some Christians believed that the year 1500 in the Christian calendar would mark the end of time.
Abdul looked amused at that. 'Muslim scholars rather look down on the Christian calendar. Full of errors! Our calendars and clocks are somewhat superior – the demand for the accurate timing of the calls to prayer five times a day sees to that. But I see the relevance of the date to Christian thinking.'
'When Geoffrey found out about you, he thought you may be able to help understand the prophecy, perhaps even track down the Dove.'
'So I would be an ally in al-Andalus. And,' Abdul said drily, 'I would be committed to help, given that it is my home that will surely be the target of the marvellous weapons of which you speak.'
'What do you think we should do?'
'Think it through,' said Abdul firmly. 'Always the best policy.' He scanned down the Testament. 'Some of this seems quite explicit, doesn't it? A fire consuming 'our ocean' – that must be the Mare Nostrum, as the Romans called it, our ocean, the Mediterranean. 'God's Engines will… flame across the lands of spices.' A massive war in the east, then, if the Dove turns that way – perhaps a war with the Islamic states which control trade with the spice islands? That much is logical. But why would this Dove, if he exists, wish to travel west? To the west is only the Ocean Sea.'
'For trade,' Harry said immediately. 'Perhaps that's a bias in my own thinking. But there is money to be made out there. That's why I would go…'
For decades European navigators had been probing the Ocean Sea, seeking new trade routes. This drive was a legacy of the Mongols, whose hundred-year peace had briefly united Asia with Europe. Travellers like Marco Polo, following the new continent-spanning trade routes, brought back accounts of great eastern empires. Italian colonies on the Black Sea and the crusader cities in the Levant made a handsome profit as conduits for imports from the east, including sugar, spices and textiles, furs, pelts and hides, wax, honey, amber, metals.
'But it wasn't only wealth that came swarming into Europe along the Mongol trade routes,' Abdul put in darkly. 'The Annihilation dawned in the heart of Asia, and travelled with the traders and their ships out of the east. You can tell from the records…'
When the Mongol peace ended, the rise of Muslim empires like the Ottomans' cut off the Christian west from the rich markets of the east. Now nobody even knew if the Khans were still on their throne. In the south too Christian traders found themselves boxed in by Muslims, who controlled the spice trade from India and the far east, and whose caravans, snaking across the Sahara, were the only access to the great gold fields of west Africa.
So, in search of new trade routes, the Europeans were taking to the seas.
'It's an exciting time,' Harry said. 'You must have seen the new maps.
The ships continue to get better too. The Portuguese, for instance, are inching their way down the west coast of Africa, seeking a sea route to the African gold mines. Some say it might be possible to go all the way down the coast of Africa and find a channel east, through to the Indian Ocean and the spice islands that way. And others are already working their way out west into the Ocean Sea. They are coming to understand how the wind blows, where the great ocean currents flow.
'And we know there are new lands to be found out there. Like Madeira, which the Portuguese control. And the Canaries, which the Spanish have conquered, and they call the Fortunate Isles.'
Abdul said, 'So there are solid reasons for this Dove to turn his energies west.' He fixed Harry with a glare. 'But you haven't told me everything, have you, cousin? If the Dove goes east there will be war between Christians and Muslims – but there is always war between Christians and Muslims. What would be so terrible about this one?'
Harry sipped his pomegranate juice. And he showed Abdul the rest of the prophecy, the lines his sister had discovered scratched in the wall of her cell in York.
X
Harry read,
The Dragon stirs from his eastern throne,
Walks west.
The Feathered Serpent, plague-hardened,
Flies over ocean sea,
Flies east.
Serpent and Dragon, the mortal duel
And Serpent feasts on holy flesh…
'Geoffrey Cotesford believes he now understands these words, four centuries old. This is how he has interpreted them.
'The Dove is a strong man. Strong, clever, determined. He is a force, elemental, loose in our world. He must be, or else why would the prophecy speak of him? West or east, where he goes others will follow. If he goes west, he will surely lead the conquest of lands teeming with wealth and strange peoples – lands unknown to the ancients, and to our geographers, perhaps. On the other hand, if the Dove turns east, with the same energy and single- minded purpose, he will lead a ferocious war against Islam. And he will use the Engines of God to do it. That's what Geoffrey argues. It all fits together, Geoffrey says.'
'Better weapons are always an advantage,' Abdul said. 'But Muslims aren't fools. Advantages tend not to endure.'
'Yes, that's what Geoffrey says. In time the spies of Islam will acquire the secrets of the engines. And what's more, Islam and Christianity have no means of achieving peace with each other: history shows that, says Geoffrey. So the war will be unending, the destruction on both sides will be multiplied – the use of the engines won't lead to victory but to catastrophe. From London to Baghdad, Geoffrey predicts, not a stone will be left standing. The only victors will be the warlords – whether fighting in the name of Christ or Muhammad it won't matter.
'And like all warlords, like the Mongols, they will need to feed their armies on further expansion. When the destruction of their homelands is complete they will turn their attentions outside Europe, south to Africa – and east into Asia. There will be more carnage. But China, immense, populous and ancient, will survive, as it survived the Mongols.'
'I can believe it,' Abdul said. 'How many warriors could England muster? A few thousand? It's said that the
