The Baroque Cycle - The Confusion Part 44

"I should not call them friends exactly; not any more."

"Well, I have enemies here. Enemies, and a boy who has not seen his mother in three years and seven months. I must make preparations to meet them. If you would be so good as to entertain the Princess for me, for a few hours-"

"No."

"What?"

"You are in error. Come with me." And Leibniz turned his back on Eliza, which was an arrestingly rude thing to do, and walked down the aisle and out of the Nikolaikirche into Leipzig. This left her no choice but to pursue him. Caroline pursued Eliza, and the rest of the train was drawn out behind them. Eliza turned back and with a significant look or two commanded the nurses to bundle Adelaide back into one of the carriages; she screamed at this, loud enough to draw looks from hookah-puffing Turkish merchants half a mile away.

"You are very rude. What is the meaning of this?"

"Life is short," said Leibniz, and looked Eliza up and down. It was a blunt allusion to smallpox. "I can stand in the aisle of the Nikolaikirche for two hours and try to get it across to you in words, and at the end of it you'll only say, 'I must see it with my own eyes.' Or I can take you on a five-minute walk and see the thing settled."

"Where are we going? Caroline-"

"Let her come along."

They walked across Leipzig's town square, which, the last time Eliza had seen it, had been a maze of leads and gaps among fragrant stacks of baled, barrelled, and trade-marked goods. Today it was all but empty, and sheets of dust skimmed across its paving-stones driven by spring gusts. Here and there, well-dressed men had clumped in twos and threes to smoke pipes and converse-not in the amused, aghast tones of merchants haggling over terms, but more as old men do on Sunday afternoons as they stroll out of church. As Eliza and Caroline followed the Doctor into the streets that issued from the square on the yonder side, they began to see business transacted, of a kind-but only at open-air coffee-houses, and nothing more weighty than a third cup of coffee, or a second slice of cake. The street was ventilated with broad vaulted arches, each of which, as Eliza knew, led into the courtyard of a trading-house. But half of them were closed, and in those that were open, Eliza spied, not throngs of hollering commercants commercants but unraveling knots of semi-idle men, smoking and sipping. For all that, though, the scene was never gloomy. It felt as though a holiday had been declared, not only for Christians, or Jews, or Mahometans, but for all at once. And this holiday was all the more enjoyable for being unwanted and unplanned. Leipzig was but unraveling knots of semi-idle men, smoking and sipping. For all that, though, the scene was never gloomy. It felt as though a holiday had been declared, not only for Christians, or Jews, or Mahometans, but for all at once. And this holiday was all the more enjoyable for being unwanted and unplanned. Leipzig was calm calm-as if the quicksilver that, as a rule, intoxicated these merchants were ebbing from their bloodstreams. When they all came together in a place like Leipzig, a madness came over them, and transformed them into a new kind of organism, as fish schooled. One such jumping, irritable, rapier-quick creature, if he were to appear in the town square of a medieval village, would be a useless, incomprehensible nuisance. But a thousand of them together amounted to something that worked, and that wrought prodigies that could never be imagined by villagers. That spell had been undone today, and the quiet of the village reigned.

A golden Mercury leapt from the keystone of an especially grand arch halfway up the street. The gates below it were closed. But they were not locked. The Doctor pushed one of them open, and extended an arm, inviting Eliza to precede him. She hesitated and looked both ways. This was a habit from Versailles, where merely to step over a threshold in the company of a person const.i.tuted a Move in the social chess-game, sure to be noted, talked of, and responded to; indeed people there might devote hours to engineering the details: seeing to it that certain persons were in positions to notice the event, and encoding messages in who preceded whom. Here Here it was faintly ridiculous, and she knew it; but the habit died hard. She looked, and acquired the knowledge that her entry into the House of the Golden Mercury was witnessed by half a dozen persons: an idler collapsed in a doorway, a Lutheran minister, a widow sweeping a stoop, a boy running a message, a Jew in a furry hat, and a very large bearded man with one sleeve empty and the opposite hand gripping a long staff. it was faintly ridiculous, and she knew it; but the habit died hard. She looked, and acquired the knowledge that her entry into the House of the Golden Mercury was witnessed by half a dozen persons: an idler collapsed in a doorway, a Lutheran minister, a widow sweeping a stoop, a boy running a message, a Jew in a furry hat, and a very large bearded man with one sleeve empty and the opposite hand gripping a long staff.

This latter she recognized. From time to time, during the long barge-ride up the Elbe, she'd glimpsed such a figure striding along the riverbank, or betimes wading like a three-hundred-pound stork, darting at the water with a fish-spear. Here, he almost blended in. For Leipzig was the crossroads of the Venice-Lubeck and the Cologne-Kiev highways, and served as a catch-pot for all sorts of exotic ramblers, human oddities, and people who could not make up their minds which turn to take. She marked him only because she had seen him before. And in other circ.u.mstances she would have devoted the remainder of the week to puzzling over what he was doing here; but too much else was on her mind now, and this crowded Flail-arm out of her consciousness. She walked into the court of the House of the Golden Mercury as if she owned the place.

It was like a graveyard, save that instead of cenotaphs and head-stones, it was cluttered with stacks and piles of goods: bales of cloth, barrels of oil, crates of china. She could not see far in any direction; but craning her neck she could see up five stories to the big cargo-doors let into the gables of the House. These were a-gape, swinging untended in the breeze. Within, the attics of the House of Hacklheber were empty. Their contents had all been let down into the courtyard, as if Lothar had decided to liquidate all. But there were no buyers.

Something plopped to the ground behind Eliza, and she heard Caroline give out a little gasp of surprise. Eliza spun on her heel and confronted a tiny savage-a pygmy with a tomahawk. He'd been stalking her through the courtyard, creeping along behind the piles of goods. He had sprung from the lid of a crate taller than his head to menace her in a narrow pa.s.s. But now he was having second thoughts, for he had trapped himself between Eliza and Caroline. He turned around to look at the latter. Gazing now at the back of his head Eliza saw a whorl of blond hair that needed was.h.i.+ng, a precipitous cowlick that needed tr.i.m.m.i.n.g, a small body, just stretching out through its sheath of baby fat, that needed a bath. He was dressed in a breech-clout and moccasins, and carrying a weapon made from a terra-cotta pot-sherd that some grownup had patiently lashed to a stick.

Caroline had got over being startled and was trying to pick between amus.e.m.e.nt and annoyance. "Boo!" she shouted. The little blond Indian spun around as if to run away, but remembered too late that his escape was blocked by Eliza. His eye met hers for a moment, and she recognized it as an eye that belonged to her. He dropped the tomahawk, the better to scramble over a netted pallet of sugar-loaves, and before she could call his name, he had vanished into a pretend Ma.s.sachusetts.

Caroline laughed, until she met Eliza's eye, and took in her face; then she knew.

The court was surrounded by a covered gallery, where, when Eliza had last been here, men of the House of Hacklheber had sat at their bancas bancas writing in their ledgers, and counting streams of outlandish coinage in and out of their ma.s.sy strong-boxes. Eliza could see little of it now, save the tops of the arches; but a few moments later she heard a piping voice in German, making something known to "Papa," and a moment later, a rumble of a laugh, followed by some patient explanation. writing in their ledgers, and counting streams of outlandish coinage in and out of their ma.s.sy strong-boxes. Eliza could see little of it now, save the tops of the arches; but a few moments later she heard a piping voice in German, making something known to "Papa," and a moment later, a rumble of a laugh, followed by some patient explanation.

Hearing that voice, Eliza by some instinct turned and gazed up at a three-storey balcony that projected out into the s.p.a.ce above the court, all decked out with golden Mercurys and other Barock commerce-emblems. She had once seen Lothar up there, talking to the Doctor, and staring down at her and Jack; but the thing was deserted now, a still-life of dusty windowpanes, faded curtains, and moss-slicked stone.

The man had begun to declaim in a loping singsong. Eliza knew little German. She looked to Caroline, who explained, "He reads from a book of tales."

Eliza picked her way among the dusty goods, following the sound of that voice, until she stepped up onto the stone floor of the encircling gallery. This had been cleared of many of its bancas bancas. Several paces away, a ma.s.sive man squatted upon a black strong-box, all bound about with straps and hasps; but none of them was locked, which she looked on as suggesting it might be empty. The man had a great ill.u.s.trated story-book open on one of his thighs. Perched on the other was the little blond Indian, who had leaned his head back on the man's bosom, and drawn up a corner of his breechclout to chew on it. His spindly legs straddled the man's leg. The moccasins pedaled slow air. He had got a falling look in his eyes, and the lids were unfolding. He glanced up at Eliza when she stepped into his field of view, but presently lost interest, and looked to his dreams. To him the appearance of the strange woman in the court of the house had been diverting, but only for a moment, and alarming, but only until "Papa" told him everything was going to be fine. "Papa," who was Lothar von Hacklheber, kept reading the story-not, Eliza, thought, out of any studied effort to ignore her, but because no parent who knows the rules of the game interrupts a story just when a child has tucked his wings and settled into the long glide to sleep. A pair of gold-rimmed half-gla.s.ses perched on Lothar's cratered nose, and when he reached the end of a page he would lick a finger, turn a page, and glance up at her with mild curiosity. The boy's lids drooped lower and lower, more and more of the breechclout made its way into his mouth to be sucked on-a sight that produced an ache in Eliza's b.r.e.a.s.t.s as they remembered what it was to let down milk. Presently Lothar shut the book, and glanced around for a place to set it-a gesture that brought Caroline running up to take it from his hand. Tightening a burly arm around the boy's chest, he leaned back, making of his body a sort of great pillowy couch, and somehow levitated to his feet. He turned his back on the visitors and padded on bare feet through a doorway, then laid the boy into a sort of makes.h.i.+ft Indian-hammock that had been strung diagonally across a disused office. After spreading some blankets over the child, he straightened up, emerged into the gallery, and pulled the door to behind him-leaving it cracked, as Eliza the mother well knew, so that he could hear if the boy cried.

"I had got the news that the Elector and his wh.o.r.e had died," said Lothar mildly, in French, "and wondered if a visit from the Reaper might not be in store for me as well."

Atop a bench on the edge of the court rested an array of weapons, dis-arranged, as if he and the boy had been at fencing-practice. Lothar scooped up a sheathed dagger, and in the same movement tossed it towards Eliza, who clapped it out of the air. "That has.h.i.+s.h.i.+n has.h.i.+s.h.i.+n stiletto that you have secreted in the sash of your dress is too small to dispatch one of my size with decent speed; pray use this instead." He was wearing a linen s.h.i.+rt that had not been changed in a while; now he ripped it open to expose his left nipple. "Right about there ought to do it. You may send the Princess of Brandenburg-Ansbach out first, if you would ward her tender eyes from so grisly a sight; or, if it's your purpose to raise her up to be another such as yourself, by all means let her watch and learn." stiletto that you have secreted in the sash of your dress is too small to dispatch one of my size with decent speed; pray use this instead." He was wearing a linen s.h.i.+rt that had not been changed in a while; now he ripped it open to expose his left nipple. "Right about there ought to do it. You may send the Princess of Brandenburg-Ansbach out first, if you would ward her tender eyes from so grisly a sight; or, if it's your purpose to raise her up to be another such as yourself, by all means let her watch and learn."

"Until this moment I had believed that the art of the masque had been developed to its highest in the Court of the Sun King," said Eliza in a quiet voice, so as not to wake the boy. "But now I see you know as much of it as anyone. What sort of mind invents a show like the one I have just witnessed?"

"What sort of mind," answered Lothar, "invades the tranquillity of a man's home and then denounces it as a show? This is the world, madame, it is not Versailles; we are not so devious, so recondite here."

Eliza tossed the dagger on to the floor. "You who kidnapped a baby, should not presume to deliver catechism to its mother."

"When an orphan, being raised by strangers, is brought to live with a family who loves it, does this even deserve the name of kidnapping? It seems rather like kidnapping's opposite. If you now announce that you are its mother, then I am disposed to believe you, for there is a marked resemblance; but this is the first time you have admitted admitted it." it."

"You know perfectly well that to admit it then would have destroyed me."

Lothar turned to face his courtyard, and raised both hands. "Behold!"

"Behold what?"

"You speak of being destroyed as an abstraction, a thing you have read about, a phantom you fear as you lie in bed at night. Do not be satisfied with abstractions and phantoms, madame. Instead look upon destruction, for it is here. You have wrought it. You have destroyed me. But I have a boy who calls me Papa. If you had admitted to being his mother, and suffered destruction, what would your estate be to-day? And would it be better or worse than what you have?"

Eliza flushed at this: and not just her face but her whole body. It felt as though warm blood was was.h.i.+ng into parts of her body that had been starved and pallid since the pox. She would have faltered, and perhaps even surrendered, if she'd not spent years steeling herself for this. Because the words of Lothar carried in them much that was true. But she had always known he would be formidable and that she'd have to bull ahead anyway. "You need not be destroyed," she said. "With a word, I can see to it that the loan is repaid, with interest."

"Stop, I pray you. Do you suppose my mind is as empty as this?" He kicked the strong-box with the side of his foot and it boomed like a drum. "I know that you would never have come to Leipzig had you not so arranged matters that you could hold out to me the choice of destruction or salvation. It is all very ingenious, I am sure, the sort of thing I'd have found fascinating at your age; but I am not your age."

"Of course I am well aware that you have moved beyond money, to Alchemy-"

"Oh, you are? And I suppose you have some morsel to dangle above my mouth, where the Solomonic Gold is concerned?"

Having been antic.i.p.ated thus made Eliza disinclined to say it, but she did: "I know who has it, and where; if that is your desire-"

"My desire was to conquer Death, which took my brothers young and unfairly," said Lothar von Hacklheber. "It is a common desire. Most come to terms with Death sooner or later. My failure to do so was an unintended consequence of a pact that my family had made with Enoch Root. In order for him to dwell among humankind he must don ident.i.ties, and later, before his longevity draws notice, shed them. My father knew about Enoch-knew a little of what he was-and struck a deal with him: he would vouch for Enoch as a long-lost relative named Egon von Hacklheber, and suffer him to dwell among us under that name for a period of some decades, if, in exchange, 'Egon' would serve as a tutor to his three sons. Of the three, I was in some sense the quickest, for I came to know that Enoch was not like us. And I guessed that this was a matter of his having discovered some Alchemical receipt that conferred life eternal. A reasonable guess-but wrong. At any rate, it fired my interest in Alchemy until of late."

"And what came of late to damp that fire?"

"I adopted an orphan."

"Oh."

"It is trite, I know. To defeat Death, or to phant'sy that one has defeated it, by having a child. But I could not manage it before. For the same pox that slew my brothers left me unable to get a woman pregnant. I'll not speak of the motives that led to the taking of the boy from the orphanage where you kept him at Versailles. They were, as you have collected, quite beastly motives. I did not intend to love the boy. I did not even intend to keep him in my house. But as things came out, I did both-first kept him, then loved him-and as time went on, my mind turned to Alchemy, and to the lost Gold of Solomon, less and less frequently. I'd not thought of it for half a year until you reminded me of it just now."

"Then whatever other differences you and I may have, we are united in seeing it as foolishness."

"Oh, I don't think it is the least bit foolish," said Lothar, raising the pocked ridges where eyebrows had once sprouted, "all I said was that I no longer think of it. I'm ready to die. And whether I die rich or poor is of little account to me. But you are gravely mistaken if you believe that you can take Johann away from me. For that truly would be kidnapping; it would break his heart, and that would break yours."

"As to that, I am not not mistaken. I mistaken. I know know this, and have known it, ever since I learned, from the Doctor, that he was being raised as your son." Eliza looked up to solicit a confirmation from Leibniz. But it seemed that the Doctor had some minutes ago quietly taken Caroline aside, and led her off to some other corner of the courtyard so that Eliza and Lothar could talk privily. this, and have known it, ever since I learned, from the Doctor, that he was being raised as your son." Eliza looked up to solicit a confirmation from Leibniz. But it seemed that the Doctor had some minutes ago quietly taken Caroline aside, and led her off to some other corner of the courtyard so that Eliza and Lothar could talk privily.

"Son and sole heir, and sole heir," Lothar corrected her, "though, thanks to your intrigues, I have nothing to will to him save debts."

"That could be changed."

"Then why do you not change it? What is it you want? Why are you here?"

"To see him. To hold him."

"Granted! Truly and happily granted. You may move in with me here, for all I care; you're welcome to do so. But you can't take him."

"You are in no position to dictate terms."

"Foolish girl! They're not my terms, and I am not dictating them! They are the terms of the world. You cannot admit to this world that you bore a child out of wedlock. You cannot even admit it to the boy-until he is older, perhaps, and able to fathom such things. You can take him back and give him to the Jesuits, who will raise him up to be a priest, who will fault his mother for having sinned. Or you can leave him in my care, and visit him whenever you will. In a year or two he'll be old enough to travel-he can visit you incognito incognito in France, if that shall please you. He shall be a Baron and a banker, a gentleman, a Protestant, the cleverest scholar in Leipzig; but he shall never be yours." in France, if that shall please you. He shall be a Baron and a banker, a gentleman, a Protestant, the cleverest scholar in Leipzig; but he shall never be yours."

"I know. I know all of these things-have known them for years."

Lothar's ravaged face was a difficult one to read, but he seemed exasperated now, or bewildered. "After all this," he said, "I did not expect you to be such a confused person."

"You did not? How unreasonable of you. You belabor me for being confused-yet you you took the boy, not for love of him, but for hate of me, and out of l.u.s.t for Alchemical gold-only to change your mind!" took the boy, not for love of him, but for hate of me, and out of l.u.s.t for Alchemical gold-only to change your mind!"

Lothar shrugged. "Perhaps that is the real Alchemy."

"Would that such Alchemy could work its spell on me, and make me as content as you seem."

"I shall grant you this much," said Lothar. "The taking of the gold at Bonanza put me into a vengeful rage that kept me awake at night, and filled all of my days, for a long time, and drove me to hurt you as badly as I supposed you had hurt me. I wanted you to fathom my anger. You then went on to destroy me, cleverly and systematically, over a span of years. You used my own greed as a weapon against me. And if I seem content to you, why, in part it is because I have a son. But in part it is because of you, Eliza, your Barock fury, sustained for so long and expressed so Barockly. You showed, you expressed, what I once felt; felt; and from that, I knew that I had struck home, that a spark had pa.s.sed between us." and from that, I knew that I had struck home, that a spark had pa.s.sed between us."

"Very well. Enough of this. Do you have, Lothar, a spare banca banca at which I could sit down for some minutes, and write a letter?" at which I could sit down for some minutes, and write a letter?"

Lothar spread his hands out, palms up, as if handing the place over to her. "Take your pick, madame."

SHE WOULDN'T HAVE NOTICED F FLAIL-ARM if not for this gesture of Lothar's, so stealthily had the big amputee crept into the House. But as it happened, she turned on the b.a.l.l.s of her feet to gaze into the court, and saw in the corner of her eye that a new thing had been added to the jumble-sale: a tall man with a beard, who had chosen this moment to step out from behind a crate. As before, he held a long walking-staff; but now something had been added to its end: the leaf-shaped warhead of a harpoon, its twin edges white where the whetstone had scoured them. This he hefted in his one hand, bringing it up above his shoulder, and he swung the s.h.i.+ning adder's head about so that it pointed at the heart of Lothar. if not for this gesture of Lothar's, so stealthily had the big amputee crept into the House. But as it happened, she turned on the b.a.l.l.s of her feet to gaze into the court, and saw in the corner of her eye that a new thing had been added to the jumble-sale: a tall man with a beard, who had chosen this moment to step out from behind a crate. As before, he held a long walking-staff; but now something had been added to its end: the leaf-shaped warhead of a harpoon, its twin edges white where the whetstone had scoured them. This he hefted in his one hand, bringing it up above his shoulder, and he swung the s.h.i.+ning adder's head about so that it pointed at the heart of Lothar.

Now Eliza-who only a couple of hours ago had been preaching to Caroline about the importance of noticing, and connecting-at last took her own advice. There was no telling how long it might have taken for her to recognize Flail-arm as Yevgeny the Raskolnik if he had not suddenly appeared gripping a harpoon, and making ready to kill Lothar; but these two data data did the trick. She remembered now seeing this Yevgeny in the company of Jack in Amsterdam. Eliza had even borrowed his harpoon, and in a fit of pique hurled it at Jack. Yevgeny must have become, and might still be, a member of Jack's pirate-band. He must have peeled off from the group and come back to Christendom for some reason. He'd been keeping an eye on Eliza, and, in consequence, had found himself in Leipzig, before the gates of the house of the man who, as he supposed, was Jack's worst enemy. And now he was about three heartbeats away from doing what any red-blooded pirate would, when presented with such an opportunity. did the trick. She remembered now seeing this Yevgeny in the company of Jack in Amsterdam. Eliza had even borrowed his harpoon, and in a fit of pique hurled it at Jack. Yevgeny must have become, and might still be, a member of Jack's pirate-band. He must have peeled off from the group and come back to Christendom for some reason. He'd been keeping an eye on Eliza, and, in consequence, had found himself in Leipzig, before the gates of the house of the man who, as he supposed, was Jack's worst enemy. And now he was about three heartbeats away from doing what any red-blooded pirate would, when presented with such an opportunity.

This hefting and pointing of the harpoon was only the first move in some procedure that involved running some steps toward the prey. Yevgeny also extended his stump, which he had fortified with what appeared to be a cannonball on the end of a stick: a counterweight to augment the force of the throw. Eliza began moving sideways toward Lothar. She would interpose herself between harpoon and target, and Yevgeny would break off the attack. Yevgeny's blue eyes flicked towards her as she moved.

But a small person flitted out of the shades of the gallery. He had built up a running start and so was able to bound up and over the empty strong-box next to Lothar and thence to the top of the bal.u.s.ter that surrounded the courtyard. He already had an arrow nocked to his tiny bow, for as Yevgeny had stolen around the courtyard, getting into position to attack, Johann must have stalked him, and plotted intercepts, and looked for his opportunity. Eliza, seeing him flash across her vision, had already changed course, and flung out both arms toward the boy; but quick as a fingersnap he drew back his arrow and let it fly. Its blunted tip caught Yevgeny in the eye just as he was winding up to throw. The counterweight dropped like Thor's hammer. His body convulsed forward. The arm cracked like a knout. The harpoon was launched. It hurtled past Lothar's shoulder and crashed into the banca banca behind him. Lothar dropped onto his a.r.s.e. Eliza, unable to stop herself, ran into Johann and hammered him off the railing; he tumbled into the dusty cobbles below and became one large abrasion. Yevgeny had ended up on his knees, staring forward. Eliza a.s.saulted the bal.u.s.ter with her midsection and toppled over it, diving to the courtyard and catching her weight on her hands. behind him. Lothar dropped onto his a.r.s.e. Eliza, unable to stop herself, ran into Johann and hammered him off the railing; he tumbled into the dusty cobbles below and became one large abrasion. Yevgeny had ended up on his knees, staring forward. Eliza a.s.saulted the bal.u.s.ter with her midsection and toppled over it, diving to the courtyard and catching her weight on her hands.

She, Johann, and Yevgeny now formed an equilateral triangle, maybe two yards on a side, in the court. Lothar, enthroned on his empty coffer, gazed down upon them in stupefaction. Yevgeny was no less dumbfounded. Johann was still winding up to bawl. Eliza, having just narrowly evaded death by smallpox, was the least taken aback, and the first to get up. She took a step toward Yevgeny. She didn't know Russian, and a.s.sumed he knew little French. But if he'd been a galley-slave in Algiers, he must know Sabir; so she sc.r.a.ped up a few leavings of that tongue that were to be found in rarely-visited corners of her brain, and said to him-quietly, so that only he could hear-"If your loyalty is to Jack, then know that this this man is no longer your enemy. Instead go to Versailles and throw some harpoons at Father edouard de Gex." man is no longer your enemy. Instead go to Versailles and throw some harpoons at Father edouard de Gex."

Yevgeny nodded once, clambered to his feet, and went up to the level of the gallery to extract the tool of his trade from the tool of Lothar's. Because of the head's barbed flukes, this was not to be accomplished without half-destroying the banca banca; a task for which Yevgeny was superbly equipped in that he had the strength of ten men, and in lieu of one hand, a cannonball. A city-sacking's worth of splintering and shattering was packed into a brief span of time; then he popped up with the terrible head in his hand, and the shaft under one arm. He turned toward Lothar and favored him with a very civil nod and half-bow, then stalked out of the House of the Golden Mercury, glancing up once to get the sun's bearing.

"Who was that that!?" asked Leibniz. He and Caroline had been oblivious to the harpoon-attack but had been drawn to the banca banca-demolition.

Eliza had Johann on her hip; he had got through all of the bawling and gone into child-shock.

"My dear Doctor," she answered, "if I explained every little thing to you, you'd grow bored with me, and stop writing me those charming letters."

"I simply wish to know, for practical reasons, whether you are being stalked by any more giant murderous harpooneers."

"He is the only one, as far as I know. His name is Yevgeny the Raskolnik."

"What's a Raskolnik?"

"As I said before, if I explain everything everything..."

"All right, all right, never mind."

Our heart oft times wakes when we sleep, and G.o.d can speak to that, either by words, by proverbs, by signs, and similitudes, as well as if one was awake.-JOHN BUNYAN, The Pilgrim's Progress She chose an ancient desk that had been dragged out into the court and left to die. Rain had fallen on it, and its planks had warped and split, and its drawers were stuck. But the sun shone on it, which felt good on her skin. From another banca banca she fetched a sheet of foolscap, and in a recess of this one she quarried out a gla.s.s inkwell whose cork was cemented in place by a rime of hardened ink. In the end the only way to get it open was to take that stiletto out of her waist-sash and sc.r.a.pe off the crust, then pry the cork loose. The ink had become sludge. She thinned it with saliva and gathered some of it up into a quill. she fetched a sheet of foolscap, and in a recess of this one she quarried out a gla.s.s inkwell whose cork was cemented in place by a rime of hardened ink. In the end the only way to get it open was to take that stiletto out of her waist-sash and sc.r.a.pe off the crust, then pry the cork loose. The ink had become sludge. She thinned it with saliva and gathered some of it up into a quill.

Leibniz and Caroline were sitting on crates, doing lessons: "Tactics," "Tactics," said the Doctor, "are what the d.u.c.h.ess of Arcachon has been pursuing; Baron von Hacklheber has quite neglected said the Doctor, "are what the d.u.c.h.ess of Arcachon has been pursuing; Baron von Hacklheber has quite neglected tactics tactics for for strategy strategy."

"Who won?" Caroline asked.

"Neither," said the Doctor, "for neither pure pure tactics nor tactics nor pure pure strategy const.i.tutes a wise course for a Prince, or a Princess. Perhaps the winner shall be Johann Jean-Jacques von Hacklheber." strategy const.i.tutes a wise course for a Prince, or a Princess. Perhaps the winner shall be Johann Jean-Jacques von Hacklheber."

"Let us hope so," said Caroline, "for he has been saddled with the most ungainly name I have ever heard."

Eliza to Jean Bart MAY 1694.

Captain Bart, My dear friend Monsieur le comte de Pontchartrain, being the My dear friend Monsieur le comte de Pontchartrain, being the controleur-general controleur-general of France, has, and shall have, numberless opportunities to channel the flow of the King's revenues in those ways that are most satisfactory to him, and so I feel I do him no great disfavor by suggesting that you sail your treasure-s.h.i.+p to the port of Dieppe, so that the King's loan to the House of Hacklheber may at last be repaid. France is helpless to defend her interests on foreign soil, so long as her credit, in foreign eyes, is bad; and repayment of even a single loan shall go far towards repairing the damage done in recent years. The German and Swiss bankers have already abandoned Lyon, but this need not prevent the payment from being sent through more modern channels, perhaps in Paris. It might help if you could suggest as much to the gentleman in Dieppe. of France, has, and shall have, numberless opportunities to channel the flow of the King's revenues in those ways that are most satisfactory to him, and so I feel I do him no great disfavor by suggesting that you sail your treasure-s.h.i.+p to the port of Dieppe, so that the King's loan to the House of Hacklheber may at last be repaid. France is helpless to defend her interests on foreign soil, so long as her credit, in foreign eyes, is bad; and repayment of even a single loan shall go far towards repairing the damage done in recent years. The German and Swiss bankers have already abandoned Lyon, but this need not prevent the payment from being sent through more modern channels, perhaps in Paris. It might help if you could suggest as much to the gentleman in Dieppe.I thank you for having consulted me before taking action in this matter. Please know that one of the beneficiaries shall be your long-lost G.o.dson, who, as I write these words, is creeping up on me from behind with a bow and arrow, like a dirty little Cupid.Eliza

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, MADAME?"

"Finis.h.i.+ng up a letter." She scattered sand across the page to blot it.

"To whom?"

"The most famous and daring pirate-captain in the world," Eliza said matter-of-factly. She let the sand slide off onto the ground, folded the letter up, and began ransacking the old desk's drawers for a bit of sealing-wax.

"Do you know him?"

Using a sc.r.a.p of paper as a spatula, Eliza sc.r.a.ped some beads of sealing-wax out of a drawer-bottom. "Yes-and he knows you. He held you when you were baptized!"

Johann von Hacklheber quite naturally wanted to know more-which was how Eliza wanted it. He pursued her like an Indian tracker through the dusty rooms of the House of Hacklheber, pelting her not with arrows but with questions, as she scared up a melting-spoon, a candle, and fire. Presently she had a flame going under the blackened belly of the spoon. Into it she poured the crumbs of wax that she had looted from the desk: mostly scarlet, but a few black, and some the natural color of beeswax. Those on the bottom quickly succ.u.mbed to the heat. Those above stubbornly maintained their shapes. The similarity of these to smallpox-vesicles was very obvious to her. "When a thing such as wax, or gold, or silver, turns liquid from heat, we say that it has fused," Eliza said to her son, "and when such liquids run together and mix, we say they are con-fused."

"Papa says I am confused sometimes."

"As are we all," said Eliza. "For confusion is a kind of bewitchment-a moment when what we supposed we understood loses its form and runs together and becomes one with other things that, though they might have had different outward forms, shared the same inward nature." She gave the melting-spoon a little shake, and the beads of wax that had been floating on its top-which had become sacs of liquid wax, held together by surface tension-burst and collapsed into the pool of molten wax below, giving off a puff of sweet fragrance, vestiges of the flowers visited long ago by the bees that had made this stuff. It was sweeter by far than the telltale fragrance of smallpox, which she hoped never to smell again, though she caught a whiff of it from time to time as she moved about the town.

Before the black and red could mix together into mud, Eliza dumped the contents of the spoon onto her folded letter, and mashed her ring into it. The seal, when she pulled her ring away from it, was of scarlet marbled through with black and pale streaks-most attractive, she thought, and perhaps the beginning of a new trend at Court.

Lothar had summoned a rider who was willing to carry the message at least as far as Jena, where other messengers might be found to take it into the west. The rider waited just inside the gates with one horse that was saddled, and a second to spell it. Eliza handed him the letter and wished him G.o.dspeed, and he mounted up without further ceremony and set to trotting down the street. When he reached the great square, he got his mount turned toward the west gate, and cantered out of sight. Along his wake were any number of curious onlookers, peering out the windows, and opening up the doors, of diverse factories and trading-houses. A man emerged from a door, pulling a big wig down over his stubbled scalp. He turned toward the House of the Golden Mercury and began to hustle toward it, eager to get some explanation from Lothar; and before he'd reached Lothar's gate, two others, not to be outdone, had fallen in stride with him. Eliza returned their courteous greetings as they went in the gate, curtseying to each in turn. But she did not follow them in. She stayed out in the street to watch the news spread and to hear the slow-building murmur of Leipzig coming alive.

Book 4

Bonanza

Southern Fringes of the Mogul Empire LATE 1696.