Fools' Gold Read online

  ‘So that we can write Milord’s report,’ Luca reminded him. ‘He told us we were to find out where the English gold nobles were coming from. We’re on the way to discovering the source.’

  Brother Peter shook his head sadly. ‘It’s hard for me to countenance sin,’ he said. ‘Even for a great cause. Milord is our commander and the Order of Darkness is pledged to understand the rise of heresy, the signs of darkness, and the coming of the end of the world. Often, in this work I have had to study terrible sin. But never before have I had to be a party to it.’

  ‘It’s hardly terrible sin, you’re only gambling for piccoli,’ Freize said cheerfully. ‘We might have to do far worse. And anyway – look on the bright side – you might win.’

  The five of them waited in their grand palace for the arrival of the alchemist and his daughter. Isolde was confined upstairs and so she peered down the great marble staircase, hoping to glimpse the stranger when he came up the steps from the watergate. Ishraq was waiting on the first floor in the dining room, which they had equipped as a study, with paper and pens laid out on the dining table. Freize, dressed in a dark suit and looking like a servant, was ready to greet the alchemist as his boat came into the private quay, and to usher him upstairs. Brother Peter had shut himself in his room to write the report to Milord, and Luca was holding his chip of glass up to the light, and idly measuring and drawing half arcs of rainbows while gazing out over the Grand Canal.

  ‘I think that’s him,’ he said to Ishraq as a small gondola detached itself from the seething traffic of the Grand Canal and turned towards the watergate of the palazzo. Luca crossed to the door with three swift steps. ‘Freize!’

  ‘Ready!’ came the shout from the lowest level of the house. Luca turned and looked upwards to the second floor and caught a glimpse of Isolde’s smile before she stepped back, out of sight. It was as if she had sent him a message of encouragement, or blown him a kiss; the smile was for him alone, as if she was saying that she had faith in him.

  He heard Freize greet the man and, looking down, saw him leading the dark-robed figure up the stairs to the first floor. Luca went forward to greet him with his hand held out.

  ‘Drago Nacari,’ he said. ‘Thank you for coming.’

  ‘Luca Vero,’ the man replied formally. ‘Thank you for inviting me to your home.’

  They entered the room and Ishraq rose up from her seat behind the table. She was wearing her Moorish dress: tunic and pantaloons, her scarf covering her hair and half veiling her face. She bowed to Drago Nacari and he took off his hat and swept a bow to her.

  ‘This is my sister’s companion, Mistress Ishraq,’ Luca introduced her. ‘I thought she might be able to help us with your manuscript. She speaks Arabic and Spanish and she is a scholar.’

  ‘Of course,’ the man said. ‘I am honoured to meet you.’

  ‘Did you not bring your daughter with you?’ Ishraq asked.

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘She is studying at home.’

  The three of them sat at the great table, Drago at the head, and Luca and Ishraq on either side of him. He was carrying a satchel and he put it on the table, unfastened the ties and slid out a sheet of parchment painted with beautiful symbols and plants, and closely written with a clerk’s well-wrought handwriting.

  ‘Where did you study?’ he asked Ishraq politely. ‘Do you recognise any of this?’

  ‘I was in the service of the Lord of Lucretili,’ she said. ‘He was a great crusader lord and he took an interest in the people and the learning of the Moors. He took me to Spain to study with the philosophers at the universities. I was allowed to study geography and astronomy, some medicine and languages. It was a great privilege.’

  He bowed his head. ‘I have studied in Egypt,’ he said. ‘I read Arabic but I cannot understand this. It is definitely an alchemy text. I know that much for certain. So we may expect certain things.’

  ‘What things?’ Luca said.

  ‘A mixture of symbols and numbers and words,’ the man answered. ‘Alchemists have symbols, special signs for many elements, and for many processes.’ He pointed to one symbol. ‘That means to heat gently, for instance, any alchemist would recognise it.’

  ‘Do you think this is a recipe?’ Luca asked. ‘An alchemy recipe?’

  Drago spread his hands. A small gold ring on his finger caught the light. ‘That, I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I hope so, of course. I hope it is a recipe for the one thing, the greatest thing, the thing we all seek.’

  ‘And what is that?’ Luca asked. He was scanning the first page of the manuscript trying to see what words stood out. Nothing was recognisable, he could not even see a pattern.

  ‘Of course, we all seek the stone,’ the man said quietly. ‘The philosophers’ stone.’

  ‘What is that?’ Luca asked.

  Drago glanced at Ishraq to see how much she knew of the stone.

  ‘It is the stone which changes base material to gold,’ she said quietly. ‘And water thrown on the stone when it is hot, becomes the elixir of life, it can prolong life perhaps forever, it can make the old young, it can make the sick well. It is the one thing that all alchemists hope to make. It would solve all the troubles of the world.’

  ‘And you trust me to translate this with you?’ Luca asked Drago Nacari. ‘If we could understand it, this document might mean the end to death and the beginning of limitless wealth for any one of us, for all of us.’ For a moment he thought what he would do if he had the stone and could command a fortune, an unstoppable fortune. He thought he would buy the freedom of his parents, of all slaves. Then he would buy the castle of Lucretili and give it to Isolde. Then he would ask her to marry him, he would be a man so rich that he could propose marriage to her. He broke off from his dream with a short laugh. ‘Already I am dreaming what I would do if I had the stone, and could make gold,’ he said. ‘Why would you trust us strangers with this?’

  ‘This is only one page of many,’ Drago said. ‘And it’s not a recipe for stewing oysters, it’s not easy. Even if you were to read every word you still would be far from making the stone. To make the stone you would need to study for years. You need to purify yourself and everything you touch. I have been working for decades and only now am I starting to be ready. You may be very clever – Jacinta says that you have quick eyes and a good ear, and, of course, she dreamed of you – but you have not studied for years, as I have done.’

  Ishraq smiled. ‘And also there is the question of desire,’ she said.

  ‘Desire?’ Luca repeated the single inviting word.

  Drago Nacari nodded. ‘You are learned then,’ he confirmed to Ishraq.

  ‘If you desire wealth, if you are bound to the world by greed, then you cannot find the stone for you are not pure in heart,’ Ishraq explained. ‘The only man or woman who can find such a thing would be he or she who wanted it for others. Someone who did not want it for themselves. It is the purest thing in the world, it cannot be discovered by someone with dirty hands, it cannot be snatched in a greedy grasp.’

  Luca nodded. ‘I think I understand. So let’s have a look at it.’

  ‘It’s not Arabic,’ Ishraq said. ‘Though some of the symbols are like Arabic symbols.’ She pointed to one sign. ‘This one, and perhaps these.’

  ‘It’s no language that I recognise,’ Luca said. ‘Have you shown it to a Russian? Or to someone from the East?’

  Drago shook his head. ‘Not yet. I hoped to be able to understand it on my own, but I have studied it for months now, and I see that I need help.’

  ‘I don’t recognise these plants,’ Ishraq said. ‘I’ve never even seen them, not in the garden, not in a herbal. Do you know them?’

  Luca did not answer her. He was looking at the writing and scribbling something down. Ishraq immediately fell silent, and looked from Luca’s notes to the manuscript.

  ‘It might be a cipher,’ he said. ‘A code.’

  ‘Based on what?’ Drago Nacari whispered, as if he feared being overheard.