Order of Darkness Read online

  They both held their breath as the water level rose, sticking to the side of the glass, but definitely rising up and up until it reached the mark set by the ring.

  ‘The coins are pure gold,’ Luca said in quiet triumph. ‘Someone, somewhere is either stealing pure gold English nobles fresh from the mint in Calais, or else they are mining the purest gold, and forging their own.’

  The five of them were elated, as if they had found the gold mine itself.

  ‘So what next?’ Isolde asked. ‘How will we find the mint? How will we find the forgers?’

  ‘Could we buy so much gold that the money changer cannot serve us from his own store?’ Luca suggested. ‘Then we’ll ask him where we can go to collect it. If he won’t say, we’ll have to watch him, see where he goes to get a chest of gold.’

  ‘We can take it in turns to watch . . .’ Ishraq started.

  Luca shook his head. ‘No, not you,’ he said. He glanced at Isolde and saw her nod in agreement. ‘I am sorry, Ishraq, but you can’t. If we want to pass as a wealthy family then you two have to behave like ladies. You can’t come to the Rialto and spy on the gold merchants.’

  ‘Really, we can’t,’ Isolde told her.

  ‘I could go dressed as a common girl. Or dressed as a boy! Isolde has bought a room-full of costumes and masks! It is carnival time, almost everyone is disguised.’

  ‘It’s not worth the risk,’ Brother Peter ruled. ‘And besides, you should not be wandering the streets exposed to danger. It happens that we are here in the only time of year that women are allowed out of their homes at all. All the women in Venice will dress up in disguise, wear masks, and go out on the streets for the twenty days before Lent, the city is never more unruly than now. They are a most extreme people. This is an exception, a time of utter licence, the rest of the year ladies only go out to visit privately in each other’s houses or to church.’

  ‘But as it’s carnival, surely we can go out masked and disguised?’ Ishraq insisted. ‘Even if it is only for these weeks?’

  ‘Only if you want to be mistaken for the whores of the city,’ Brother Peter said crossly. ‘You would be advised not to go out at all. It is a time of great sin and debauchery. I would advise you to stay indoors. Indeed, I have to request that you stay indoors.’ He glanced at Luca for his agreement. ‘Since you are travelling with us and have agreed to enact the pretence that we are your guardians, I think it is right that you should give us the power to decide your comings and goings.’

  ‘Nobody has that power over me,’ Ishraq said quickly. ‘I don’t give it to you, I don’t give it to anyone. I didn’t leave home and then run away from the nunnery to be ordered about by you and Luca.’

  Luca flushed. ‘Nobody is ordering you,’ he said. ‘But if we are to keep up the pretence that we are here as a noble family you will have to behave like the companion of a noblewoman. That’s simply what you agreed to do, Ishraq.’

  ‘I’ll go out masked,’ she promised herself.

  ‘As long as someone goes with you,’ Luca compromised. ‘Apparently the whole city goes quite mad for the days of carnival. But if Freize goes with you, or the housekeeper, you should be all right.’

  ‘So can I come with you to the Rialto this afternoon?’ she asked. ‘To see Father Pietro? If I am masked?’

  Luca shook his head. ‘This is my quest,’ he said. ‘I go alone.

  Freize beamed. ‘I go alone too,’ he said. ‘I’ll go alone with you.’

  The two young men left the house together; Ishraq and Isolde, at the upper-floor window, watched the black gondola nose into the middle of the Grand Canal and swiftly cut through the busy waterway.

  ‘I’m going out,’ Ishraq said. ‘I’m going to get us boys’ clothes so that we can walk around as we please.’

  Isolde brightened. ‘Do we dare?’

  ‘Yes,’ Ishraq said firmly. ‘Of course we dare. We’ve come all the way across Italy. We’re hardly going to be stuck indoors now because a couple of priests think that Venice is too sinful for us to see.’

  ‘I’ve ordered us both gowns from the sempstress.’

  ‘Yes, but I don’t want gowns, I want costumes. I want disguises. I want boys’ clothes so that we can go where we like. So no one knows who we are.’

  ‘Go then,’ Isolde said excitedly. She put her hand into the pocket of her modest grey gown and pulled out a purse. ‘Here. Brother Peter gave me this, for alms for the poor and for candles at church, and for other things – who knows what – that he thought we might need: trinkets that ladies of a noble family might have. Go and get us breeches and capes and big masks!’

  Ishraq laughed, pocketed the money and went from the room.

  ‘And get me a big hat.’ Isolde slipped from the room and leaned over the marble staircase to call to her friend. ‘One that will hide my hair.’

  ‘And I’ll trade with some of your mother’s jewels!’ Ishraq called softly up the stairs.

  Isolde hesitated. ‘My mother’s jewels? Which ones?’

  ‘The rubies,’ Ishraq insisted. ‘This is our chance to make a fortune. We’ll trade in the jewels and buy English gold nobles and watch them rise in price. When they’ve doubled in value we’ll buy the rubies back and you’ll still have them plus a fortune to hire your army to march on your brother.’

  ‘We could make so much money just by trading in the nobles?’ Isolde asked, tempted at the thought.

  ‘We might,’ Ishraq said. ‘Shall I do it? Shall I go to the money changer and buy gold nobles with your rubies?’

  ‘Yes,’ Isolde said, taking a chance, tempted by the thought of a fortune easily made which might win her back her inheritance. ‘Not the broadsword, I can’t let that out of my keeping. But take the rubies. Yes, take them.’

  At the Rialto the two young men found Father Pietro in his usual place, the bustle of the crowd all around him, someone juggling with daggers nearby, and a performing dog circling slowly and mournfully, a small ball balanced on his nose, his clown-faced owner passing the hat. They did not notice Ishraq, dressed as a boy, hat pulled low over her pinned-up hair, a black mask over her eyes, arrive to do business with Israel, the money changer.

  ‘This is my master,’ Freize introduced him, elbowing his way through the crowd to get to the priest. ‘This is Luca Vero.’

  ‘You are seeking your father,’ the Friar said gently. ‘And I am glad to tell you that I have news of him.’ He looked at Luca’s sudden pallor. ‘Ah, my son. Are you ready to hear it?’

  Luca bent his head and said a swift prayer. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Tell me at once.’

  ‘A slave that I ransomed from Bayeed last year told me that Gwilliam Vero was serving on his ship then,’ Father Pietro said quietly. ‘He was alive and strong then, only last year. It may be that he is still slaving on the ship now.’

  ‘He might be alive?’ Luca repeated as if he could not believe the news. ‘Now? This very day?’

  ‘He might. I can send a message to Bayeed, and ask if your father is alive and if Bayeed would accept a ransom for him.’

  Luca shook his head, to clear his whirling thoughts. ‘I can’t think! I can’t believe it!’

  Freize put a gentle hand on his back. ‘Steady now,’ he said as if he were soothing a horse. ‘Steady.’

  ‘Yes. Of course,’ Luca said to the priest. ‘Please. Do it at once. When would we hear back?’

  ‘If Bayeed were at Constantinople—’ The priest corrected himself. ‘Istanbul as they call it now, God forgive them for taking our city, the Rome of the East, the home of God – well, if Bayeed was there it would take about two weeks to get a message to him. But you might be lucky. I heard he had come into Trieste. If that’s true, then we might get a message to him within a few days. He may even be coming to Venice.’

  ‘Days?’ Luca repeated. ‘He might be coming here?’

  The priest put his hand gently over Luca’s clenched fist. ‘Yes, my son. You might have an answer in days. If he is in port at Trieste, and