Edward’.
‘Will everything be ready for demonstration to the Caliph?’ Karim asked with another revelation of knowledge.
I nodded. ‘You’ll understand that a complete prior demonstration would be helpful,’ I explained. ‘I still don’t know if the kettles will stand up to the full pressure, and it would never do for the Commander of the Faithful to lose his eardrums. But I don’t think we’ll have time. We must all hope that today’s experiment was the success I declared it to be.
‘Oh,’ I said with a sudden change of tone, ‘do tell Meekal when you see him tomorrow that I’ll need another visit to the monastery before the next demonstration. I want another look at those research notes. There was something there that might be useful. Also, I’ll need authority to be taken into every one of the closed zones. When the Caliph does go out to inspect our efforts, we can’t afford any mistakes.’ Karim nodded again.
‘And’ – I wasn’t finished: I looked about for a sheet of papyrus on which I’d been working before dinner – ‘I’ll need all these things brought in here.’ Karim looked at the sheet and frowned. ‘Oh, you’ll get everything here in Damascus,’ I said with airy reassurance. ‘I’ve seen the observatory from one of the windows here that looks over the main city. I would go there myself, if it didn’t mean travelling outside the palace. As Edward can tell you, my researches into the theory of light have reached the point where I need proper instruments. You get me everything on that list, and I’ll see to its positioning up on the roof.’ I finished my wine and looked about the table to see if there was anything left that didn’t require teeth. I reached forward for some olive paste and took up a spoon. I put it down again. I still wasn’t finished.
‘Now,’ I said firmly, ‘while I have no intention of dying in the near future, I do think the time has come for me to finalise a few arrangements that have been in the making for some while.’ I motioned Edward to a wooden box over by the window. I waited for him to open it and take out the two sealed sheets of parchment. ‘I made a new will in Beirut. I see, however, that circumstances have changed. In light of these, I have decided to make over the bulk of my estate while I am still alive. These deeds make the pair of you very rich men.’ While I waited for both seals to be broken, I put my teeth back in and prepared to flatten all objections by clothing myself in the formality of His Magnificence the Senator Alaric. ‘The transfer deeds are made under Imperial law. Regardless of my somewhat doubtful religious status, I remain a citizen of the Empire, and my intentions will be recognised by the Syrian courts under the Ordinance of Omar. They are drawn in a form that makes them irrevocable by any third party – short, that is, of gross despotism. You will both need to add your signatures of acceptance. These can be witnessed when I call in my Greek secretary. Because of his evident youth, there is a rider to Edward’s deed, in which he must certify that he has reached both puberty and the age of fourteen. While he is not entirely sure when he was born, no one is in any position to object if I declare, as his adoptive father, that Edward was fourteen on the 20th April.
‘No’ – I raised a hand to cut off the protests I could see rising – ‘this is my considered intention, and I shall think hard of anyone who objects to it. I fail to see how, for a man of my age, such wealth can be other than an inconvenience. I retain a seventh part of my estate for my own uses. This should be more than adequate. I have given instructions for its disposal in another will that I signed yesterday. You are named as joint executors, and I do ask you to comply with the requirements of the trust I have created. The money is to be used for the purchase and release of slave secretaries who have reached the age of fifty. I have always accepted that an institution so deeply embedded in the life of men as slavery cannot be abolished by positive legislation. Even so, the procedural changes I persuaded Heraclius to make after the Persian War have moved the Empire a reasonable distance towards its effective extinction. I can have no such influence on the laws of the caliphs – especially when their conquests have given such life to the slave markets. But I can hope that a fortune often acquired by dubious means will be put to the service of humanity when I am dead, and that my act can serve as an example to the faithful of every religion.’
I sat back and took my teeth out again. I was finished, and I was weary. Fuck Meekal! In a sense, he was right. My life’s work had been crowned by the development of the most horrid weapons. But, if woefully inadequate, this was my response to the fact. I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep. When I opened them again, I saw the boys still looking at me in silence. I laughed and made some feeble joke about the virtue of gratitude. I reached for my stick and got myself over to the window. I pulled at the glazed frame and let air into the room and all the distant sounds of the palace and of Damascus. There was the general sound of the outside at twilight. Mingled with this was the sound of a distant drum and of flute music. For several days now, the palace had been filling up with new arrivals. Tomorrow, or the day after, the Caliph would be making his entry, and the relative silence of the palace since our arrival would be at an end. For the moment, the night sounds of revelry were within their accustomed limits.
I gripped the frame to keep myself steady and breathed in deeply. I looked over towards the hills behind which the sun was fast setting. Its departing rays had turned the sky to pink. In a moment, it would be darkness, and we’d have to call the slaves in to fuss with the lamps. It was then I’d have to put off my visor and give myself eyestrain with my lenses. For the moment, we were alone with just enough light for me to turn round, if I were so minded, and look at the worthless luxury of my living quarters.
I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Edward.
‘Brother Aelric,’ he said in oddly accented English, ‘the hour is late, and you should rest.’
I turned and smiled at him. Karim stood a few paces behind him, a worried look on his face.
‘Yes, it is late,’ I said in Greek. ‘But you won’t believe the amount of work that has still to be done, and that only I can do. Do please go and call the slaves back in. Don’t forget about my Greek secretary. Once you’ve gone out, I will sleep until the midnight hour. I’m then to be woken and helped to my office.
‘Karim,’ I said, back in Saracen, ‘I need those astronomical instruments on the roof at the earliest moment. I shall also need the Director of the Caliph’s observatory to explain their use to me. I imagine the man is a Greek. Certainly, it will be faster if we can work in Greek.’
Chapter 58
I was woken late the following morning by a sound of trumpets. I got myself to the window and looked out. I could see a few men running about below in plate armour. One of them was carrying a large green banner with something white painted on it that I couldn’t make out.
‘His Majestic Holiness will make his entry before the day is out,’ said the slave who’d been sitting beside me as I slept.
I grunted and went back to sit on my bed. The man pulled a cord for the bath slaves to come up, and lifted a cloth off a tray filled with the usual soft foods. I looked at the peeled eggs and the bread that had been carefully extracted from the centre of a loaf. I was about to ask if the books I’d ordered late the previous night had been delivered yet from the Caliph’s library when I saw the sheet of folded parchment on the bedside table. I was about to reach for this when I heard noises overhead. There were footsteps and a heavy bump. I looked up at the glazed ceiling panels, and saw a bearded face looking down at me. I smiled and the face vanished again.
‘Is young Edward around?’ I asked. The words were no sooner out than I saw him just outside the door. ‘Come in,’ I cried with some attempt at vigour. I stopped and drank from the cup of water held to my lips. I looked vaguely about for my slippers. ‘Come in and sit down,’ I said to the boy. ‘I’m sure you can fill me in on all the news.’
Once Edward was done with all he had to relate of any importance, I turned my attention to the letter. It was a summons to a banquet arranged for five evenings away. Meekal had added a note in his own hand that I was to attend both sober and undrugged – but that I’d not be expected this time to play any active part. My job was to smile and bow. He’d then pat me on the head and send me off with an early goodnight kiss.
Sadly, the message didn’t end there. I was being allowed an early night, it explained, because I’d be expected the following morning to go out with Meekal and give my final touches to the project. The day following that, the Caliph would be turning up there some while before noon. He’d watch a full demonstration of the Greek fire, and then ride back to Damascus for Friday prayers. ‘ For all our sakes,’ the message ended in an underlined scrawl, ‘ let nothing go wrong! ’
‘That gives me six sodding days,’ I grumbled. I thought of my seething vats. ‘Telling me to work those round the Caliph’s schedule makes as much sense as telling me to arrange the phases of the moon. The stuff will be ready
