But now there was the heavy tread of military boots on old Greek pavements. It was time for the Old One al-Arik to show once more his legendary management of perception.
Chapter 44
I woke in my own bed with a splitting headache. Worse, Meekal was glaring down at me. He grunted and scowled as I opened my eyes and looked at him. I pointed feebly at the jug on the table. He poured a cup of lemon water and carefully raised me up so I could drink.
‘So you survived even that!’ he said in Greek, sitting back down. He waved the doctor forward.
I shut my eyes again and thought of nothing in particular as the man passed his chilly hands over me, checking pulse, poking and prodding, muttering away to himself over what he was finding. I opened my eyes when he was done and tried to sit up.
‘No, my beloved grandfather,’ Meekal said, ‘you just stay where you are for the moment.’ He turned to the doctor, who nodded and then shrugged. He was a typical doctor. I might be at death’s door. I might be ready to train for a torch race. His manner was all the same.
‘So I really am still alive?’ I croaked. From the shadows the sun was casting in the room, we were already late into the afternoon. I closed my eyes once again and tried to stretch my weary, overstrained limbs. I thought of my reception back into the palace: the hugs and tears from a scared Edward, the loud prayers from Meekal, still reeking of smoke, but now got up in armour and covered in blood, the silent and terrified Karim. I must already have been out cold when I was carried back here. Certainly, I had no recollection of anything once the palace gates had thudded shut and I’d been thrust into a carrying chair. I’d slept the morning through. With a sudden thought, I forced myself into a half-sitting position. The doctor got some pillows behind me, and I was able to lean back.
‘How long have I been asleep?’ I asked. Meekal got up and paced over to the window. He stood with his back to me. ‘What day is this?’
‘If I set a task for that fool Karim beyond his abilities,’ he said without turning, ‘I am willing to blame myself. But I expected better of you than to get caught up in an Imperial terror attack – especially when this attack party had been sent specifically to murder you. That you survived last night is less down to anything you did than to the fact that God is on our side.’ He stopped and continued looking out of the window. Was that a prayer he was muttering under his breath? I couldn’t tell. If it was, though, this wasn’t the Michael I used to know. I suddenly realised that, but for him, the whole suite seemed absolutely quiet. ‘It’s Thursday,’ he said, now redundantly. ‘You’ve lost only one morning of your remaining time before you must stand before God.’
‘Where is everyone?’ I asked.
Meekal turned to face me. His beard had been waxed and pressed into something that resembled a pair of sharpened ox horns. He came back over and sat down again. He pulled his chair closer and stared at me with his freezing, dark eyes.
‘Get out,’ he said to the doctor, still in Greek. ‘But I correct myself,’ he added, sliding at once into the ceremonious politeness of the powerful, ‘let me show you out.’ He got up and pushed the man from the room.
Once alone, I lifted my arms and held them out before me. I bent my knees up and tried to touch them with my chin. With a bit of strain in my upper back, I just about managed. Still tired, and now conscious of aching all over, I settled back, reasonably content. If I really had fatally overstrained myself the night before, it didn’t show up on my own examination. I’d see what I could find on Meekal’s face when he eventually returned from his conversation with the doctor.
I sat watching the movement of a shadow cast by a chair. It moved steadily towards the edge of one of the larger floor tiles. The whole suite was creepily silent. The shadow had just crossed over to the next tile when Meekal came back in. He dumped the golden key to the whole suite on the table beside me and sat down.
‘I kicked all your shouting, messy workmen out when they downed tools for lunch,’ he said quietly in Latin. ‘How they didn’t wake you this morning is a small miracle. I cleared everyone else out with them. I understand that my pretty new uncle went off earlier in the day with Karim to watch the public executions. Had I known of this in time, I would most certainly have prevented your boy from leaving the safety of the palace. Because of his family connections, I am sadly unable to discipline Karim. But I will speak with him about this. In the meantime, your boy is safe enough. And letting him see the public executions may serve a useful purpose. We didn’t take many prisoners last night. But I think the boy will be impressed by the show we can put on here in Damascus.’
‘And now we’re alone,’ I said, trying to smile. I looked about for my teeth. But my gums were sore, and I didn’t need to stand on ceremony with Meekal. ‘I don’t suppose there’s any wine left in my office?’
‘It was my intention to let you settle into your rooms here in the palace,’ he went on, ignoring my question. ‘I was to take you on a tour of the city tomorrow, so you could see the Faithful at prayer. The day after that, we’d get down to business. However, in view of last night’s attack – coming so soon after the earlier attempt on your life, I think it appropriate to come straight to the point.’ He paused and looked at the golden key. He got noiselessly up and crossed the room to the door. He pulled it suddenly open and looked up and down the corridor outside. He closed the door and went over to the window. He shut the glazed frame, and then pulled down the silken blind. Light now came from the glazed window overhead, but this was of double glass and was already fastened. He sat down again.
‘You do know why I had you brought here, don’t you?’ he asked. ‘You know why we had you lifted from under the very noses of the Intelligence Bureau. You know why we brought you all the way back here, right through Imperial waters. I’m sure you appreciate the diplomatic triumph required to get the northern barbarians to do as we wanted. And I’m sure you appreciate how much it cost us to get that ship designed and built. So, must I spell out why you are now here, and received with such lavish honour? Why is it that we have even decided to overlook your apostasy from the conversion you made in front of the Caliph Omar himself? As you ought to know well, the punishment for apostasy is death.’
‘You tell me, my dear,’ I said, patting my nose with a corner of the white bed covering. I looked down to see if I’d been bleeding again. I hadn’t. ‘You might also tell me why you’d arranged a meeting for me at Kasos. How you’d have got a fleet there is beyond me – especially since you don’t even control the sea approaches to Beirut.’
Meekal smiled grimly. He got up and went over to a sofa that was turned to catch the light from the window. He took up a scroll and unwound it to a place already marked, then stood in a pool of sunlight that came from above.
‘I found this on your desk this morning,’ he said. ‘I didn’t expect you’d overlook anything so flattering to your own place in history – and this does flatter you, as you will agree.’ He cleared his throat, and, in a remarkably melodious Saracen, went over the passage I’d been reading the night before last. He reached the hard word that had stopped me, and went straight on:
And among the numberless ships of the Faithful sailed the five ships of al-Arik; and lo, al-Arik raised his golden sword from his place upon the walls, and the morning sun glittered on the armour of the Old One as it does upon the waters where mingle Tigris and Euphrates; and there was a sound of drums and many trumpets; and fire spat from the mouths of five pipes that were within the five ships. And a roar of thunder was in the fire spat forth from the five ships; and like unto a spear shaft that is set alight, the fires leapt five and even seven hundred cubits across the waters of the sea, and fell upon the ships of the Faithful, and these were burned utterly to the water. And behold, the fires shot upwards and downwards upon the water as directed; and yea, the fires were unquenched by the waters poured upon them, but burned even on the water; and the sea was set alight, and countless ships of the Faithful were caught and burned even as they fled the shafts of fire from the five ships of al-Arik; and there was great slaughter among the ships of the Faithful. And the Greeks sent ambassadors among the Infidels of the North, and gave much gold, saying, O good men of the north, take now this money and depart from the City upon the Two Waters, lest the fire that jumps and is not quenched shall be also rained upon you; and the Infidels of the North lost heart and went from the place with much astonishment and fear. And other ships of the Greeks now came forth and spat fire even at the Faithful who waited in armour upon the shore; and the slaughter was wicked even as the breath of the Angel that of old blasted the men of Sakkenah as they rejoiced in their moment of triumph. And Yazid looked upon the many fires and the smoke of the fires, and cried out in a loud voice…
