The Baroque Cycle - The Confusion Part 47

"For Christ's sake! Look at her! Will you just look at her!? Look at her!" Then a pause while Jack drew breath and Surendranath translated this into Marathi, a couple of octaves lower, and the sculptor muttered something back.

"Yes, I see quite plainly that you were so good as to remove the elephant-trunk, and that the lady has a proper nose now, and for that you have my undying grat.i.tude," Jack hollered sarcastically, "and as long as I am helping you with your self-esteem, sirrah, allow me to thank you for sc.r.a.ping off the blue paint. But! For! Christ's! Sake! Do you know, sirrah, how to count? You do do!? Oh, excellent! Then will you be so good, sirrah, as to count the number of arms possessed by this Lady? I will patiently stand here while you take a full inventory-it may take a little while...oh, very good! That is the same reckoning that I I have arrived at! Now, sirrah, if you will be so kind, how many arms do you observe on have arrived at! Now, sirrah, if you will be so kind, how many arms do you observe on my my body? Very good! Once again, we agree. How about Surendranath-how many arms has body? Very good! Once again, we agree. How about Surendranath-how many arms has he? he? Ahh, the same figure has come up once again. And you, sirrah, when you carve your idols, you hold the hammer in Ahh, the same figure has come up once again. And you, sirrah, when you carve your idols, you hold the hammer in one, one, and the chisel in and the chisel in another another, hand-how many makes that? Remarkable! Yet again Yet again we have arrived at the same figure! Then will you please explain to me how come it is that This! Lady! is formed as you have formed her? we have arrived at the same figure! Then will you please explain to me how come it is that This! Lady! is formed as you have formed her? Why Why the numerical the numerical discrepancy discrepancy? Do I need to import a Doctor of al-jebr al-jebr to explain this?" to explain this?"

Jack stormed out of the shed, followed closely by Surendranath, who was saying, "You told told the poor fellow she was supposed to represent a the poor fellow she was supposed to represent a G.o.ddess G.o.ddess-what on earth were you expecting expecting?"

"I was being poetickal. poetickal."

Jimmy and Danny had long since clambered aboard, and were running from stem to stern and back again, hooting like schoolboys. Enoch had been walking about her, tracing short segments of arcs on the wet sand, and was now standing in violet light with the water up around his knees.

"My first thought was that she couldn't have been wrought by a Dutchman, on account of her marked dead-rise,* which will make her fast but will bar her from most Dutch harbors." which will make her fast but will bar her from most Dutch harbors."

"There are no Dutch harbors around here, you'll notice," Jack observed.

"Her stem is strongly raked, more like a jacht jacht than a typical East Indiaman. It looks as if two and maybe three exceptionally n.o.ble teaks were sacrificed to fas.h.i.+on that curve. There are no such trees in Europe any more, and so stems are pieced together, and rarely have such a rake. How did you find trees that were curved just so?" than a typical East Indiaman. It looks as if two and maybe three exceptionally n.o.ble teaks were sacrificed to fas.h.i.+on that curve. There are no such trees in Europe any more, and so stems are pieced together, and rarely have such a rake. How did you find trees that were curved just so?"

"In this country, as you have seen, there is a whole sub-civilization of woodcutters who carry in their heads an inventory of every tree that grows between the Roof of the World in the north, and the Isle of Serendib in the south," Jack said. "We stole those trees from other jagirs jagirs. It took six months and was complicated."

"And yet her keel is no shorter, for all her stem-rake. So yet again, the builder seems to have valued speed above other desirables. Being so long and so rakish, she had to be narrow-quite a bit of volume has been sacrificed to that. And even more has been given up to riders and other reinforcements-you've put two s.h.i.+ps' worth of teak into her. Expecting her to carry a lot of guns, are you?" Enoch asked.

"a.s.suming you've held up your end of the transaction."

"She should last thirty or forty years," Enoch said.

"Longer than most of us will," Jack answered, "present company excepted, that is-if the rumors about you are true."

"Anyone who looks at her will know she is hauling valuable cargo," said Enoch. "If s.h.i.+p-building is the art of compromise, then your builder has everywhere chosen speed and armament at the expense of volume. Such a s.h.i.+p can only pay for her upkeep if she is hauling items of small bulk and great value. She is pirate-bait."

"If there is anything we have learned in our wanderings, it is that every every s.h.i.+p on the sea, even one as humble as s.h.i.+p on the sea, even one as humble as G.o.d's Wounds, G.o.d's Wounds, is pirate-bait," said Jack. "And so we have built a pirate-slayer. There is a reason why the Dutch make their merchantmen almost indistinguishable from their s.h.i.+ps of Force. Why should we go to the expense of fas.h.i.+oning a teak-built s.h.i.+p, only to lose her to some boca-neers six months after she is launched?" is pirate-bait," said Jack. "And so we have built a pirate-slayer. There is a reason why the Dutch make their merchantmen almost indistinguishable from their s.h.i.+ps of Force. Why should we go to the expense of fas.h.i.+oning a teak-built s.h.i.+p, only to lose her to some boca-neers six months after she is launched?"

Enoch nodded. Jack had become a bit furious.

"So let me hear your guess, Enoch. You said that she didn't look like a s.h.i.+p built by a Dutchman. Who was the s.h.i.+pwright, then?"

"A Dutchman, of course! For only they are so free in adopting outlandish notions-only they have the confidence. Everyone else only parrots them."

"You are both right and wrong," Jack said after a moment's pause, and then turned away and began slogging down the beach in the direction of a fire that had been kindled in the last few minutes, as the sun had finally disappeared and stars came out overhead. "Our s.h.i.+pwright is one Jan Vroom of Rotterdam. Van Hoek recruited him."

"His name is well-known. What on earth is he doing here here?"

"It seems that in the days of Vroom's apprentices.h.i.+p, s.h.i.+pwrights were held in high esteem by the V.O.C. and the Admiralty, and given a free hand. Each s.h.i.+p was built a little differently, according to the wisdom-or as some would say, the whim-of the s.h.i.+pwright. But recently the V.O.C. have become prideful, thinking that they know everything that will ever be known about how to build s.h.i.+ps, and they have begun specifying sizes and measurements down to a quarter of an inch-they want every s.h.i.+p the same. And if a s.h.i.+pwright dares to show any artistry, why, then, some rival s.h.i.+pwright will be brought in to take measurements and write up a report, laying out how these rules and regulations have been violated, and causing no end of trouble. What it comes down to is that Jan Vroom did not feel appreciated. And when a worm-gnawed and weatherbeaten letter arrived in his hands, a couple of years ago, from an old acquaintance of his named Otto van Hoek, he dropped what he was doing and took pa.s.sage on the next s.h.i.+p out of Rotterdam."

"Looks as if more followed," said Enoch, for they were now close enough that they could see a whole semicircle of muttering Dutchmen around the fire, lighting up their clay pipes with flaming twigs. In the middle were the red-headed captain, and a tall man with a blond-going-gray beard who was obviously Vroom. But four younger men were around them, listening and nodding.

"Before we interrupt these gentlemen, let us conspire in the darkness here," said Enoch.

"I'm listening."

"Along with these very Dutchmen, you imported some scribe, skilled-or so you were told-in the cryptographickal cryptographickal arts. You had this scribe write me an encyphered letter saying, 'Dear Enoch Root, I require forty-four large naval cannons, preferably of finest and most modern sort, please provide.' And several months later I decrypted and read this doc.u.ment in London-though not before some arts. You had this scribe write me an encyphered letter saying, 'Dear Enoch Root, I require forty-four large naval cannons, preferably of finest and most modern sort, please provide.' And several months later I decrypted and read this doc.u.ment in London-though not before some spy spy had intercepted it, and copied it out. At any rate, I read this doc.u.ment and I laughed. I hope you were laughing when you dictated it." had intercepted it, and copied it out. At any rate, I read this doc.u.ment and I laughed. I hope you were laughing when you dictated it."

"A smile might have played round my lips."

"That is good, because it was an absurd request. And if you did not have the wit to recognize it as such, it would mean you had turned into some sort of addle-pated Oriental despot."

"Enoch. Do you, or do you not, have certain large metal items for me?"

"The items you refer to are not free for the taking. One does not acquire such goods without accepting certain obligations."

"You're saying you've found us an investor? That is acceptable. What are his terms?"

"You should rather say, her her terms." terms."

Jack levitated. Enoch clapped a hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eye. Enoch was facing toward the fire and the light glinted weirdly in the dilated pupils of his eyes: a pair of red moons in the night. "Jack, it is not her it is not her. She has done well for herself, it's true-but not so well that she can dispatch an a.r.s.enal halfway around the world, simply because a Vagabond writes her a letter."

"What woman can can?"

"A woman you saw once, from a steeple in Hanover."

"Stab me!"

"And now you appreciate, I trust, how deep the matter is."

"But I should not have addressed the letter to Enoch Root, if I did not want it to become deep. What are her terms?"

The red moons were eclipsed for a little while. Enoch sighed. His breath on Jack's face was hot and warm like a Malabar breeze, and laced-or so Jack imagined-with queer mineral fragrances.

"Investors who dictate who dictate terms terms are common as the air, Jack," Enoch said. "This is a different matter altogether. You are not borrowing are common as the air, Jack," Enoch said. "This is a different matter altogether. You are not borrowing capital capital from an from an investor investor in exchange for specific in exchange for specific terms terms. You are entering into a relations.h.i.+p relations.h.i.+p with a with a woman woman. Certain things will simply be expected expected of you. I cannot even begin to guess of you. I cannot even begin to guess what what. If you and your partners fail to act as gentlemen should, should, you will incur the lady's displeasure. Is that specific enough? Is it clear?" you will incur the lady's displeasure. Is that specific enough? Is it clear?"

"It is neither."

"Good! Then this has been a successful conversation," Enoch said. "Now I must convey the same maddening ambiguity to your partners. That being accomplished, I must show due diligence, and-"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Certain items are conspicuously absent-such as masts and sails. Cordage. A crew. I cannot release the weapons until I have seen these. Also, her position on the beach is vulnerable."

"We will float her soon, and complete her on the water-as is traditional. If she had a few cannons on board she would be a difficult prize to take from land."

"Agreed. Have you made plans for her maiden voyage?"

"We were thinking perhaps of running saltpeter to Batavia, and then bringing spices back to one of the Great Mogul's ports-for Hindoostan consumes more spices than all Europe combined, and they have no lack of silver with which to pay for it."

"It is not a bad plan. But you may have a different plan tomorrow, Jack."

THE FOLLOWING AFTERNOON FOUND THEM in dangerous territory south of the Black Vale of Vhanatiya. The Carnaya miner had given Enoch deliberately misleading directions that would have led him directly into a Maratha trap. But Enoch had antic.i.p.ated this, and tracked the miner through the hills like a hunter stalking wild game. in dangerous territory south of the Black Vale of Vhanatiya. The Carnaya miner had given Enoch deliberately misleading directions that would have led him directly into a Maratha trap. But Enoch had antic.i.p.ated this, and tracked the miner through the hills like a hunter stalking wild game.

They pa.s.sed for some hours through a high terrain overgrown with vicious scrub. All of the large trees seemed to have been cut down long ago and never grown back. Just when Jack was convinced that they were utterly lost in the most G.o.d-forsaken part of the world, he smelled camels, and they stumbled upon a caravan of Persians headed the same direction. This was a bit like running into a clan of kilted Scotsmen in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

The way became broad and trampled; Enoch no longer had to use his tracking skills. Finally even the scrub and thorn plants vanished. Like a few pebbles rattling down into a stoneware bowl, they descended into a rocky crater, maculated with schlock-heaps and filled with a perpetual miasma of wood-smoke.

"Even if your taste taste is abominable, I must grant you credit for is abominable, I must grant you credit for consistency, consistency," Jack muttered. "How is it you always end up in the same sort of place?"

"By following the spoors of men such as the Carnaya," said Enoch, speaking in a hush, like a Papist who's just entered a basilica. "Now you see why I insisted that we come here alone-if we'd brought an escort of rowzinders, rowzinders, imagine how this place would have been upset." imagine how this place would have been upset."

"Isn't it already already?" Jack asked. "What the h.e.l.l are they up to? And why are those Persians Persians here? And do my smoke-burnt eyes deceive me, or is that a contingent of Armenian long-range traders?" here? And do my smoke-burnt eyes deceive me, or is that a contingent of Armenian long-range traders?"

Enoch said only: "Watch." So Jack followed Enoch and watched Enoch watch.

Now in the beginning Jack was certain that they had come to the place where all of Europe's teacups were manufactured, for there were clay-pits all over, and Hindoos squatted in them fas.h.i.+oning teacup-sized vessels. These were carried up to kilns to be fired. But if they were teacups, they were rough thick-walled ones without handles or decoration, and each came with a domed lid. And other peculiar operations were going on nearby: Canes of bamboo, and odds and ends of teak-wood, were being loaded into smoky furnaces to be turned into charcoal. Jack was certain that some of this teak was sc.r.a.p left over from his s.h.i.+p-building project, and was peeved at first, then amused, to realize that his kolis kolis had another operation going on the side. had another operation going on the side.

Teak and bamboo were not the only vegetable matter being brought up to this stony vale. Wizened hill-people were staggering down under twig-bundles bigger than they were, and being paid in silver by important-looking characters. Jack did not recognize the twigs, but he gathered from the price paid for, and the reverence accorded, them that they were of some sort of plant sacred to the Hindoos.

All of these ingredients came together before a towering mud hearth, a sort of blazing termite-mound the size of a small church that rose from the center of the compound, looking twice as ancient as anything Jack had seen in Egypt. An old man with a priestly look about him squatted on his haunches next to a pyramid of rough teacups. He stirred his hand around in a sack of black sand just like what the Carnaya had panned out of the riverbank, and sifted it between his fingers into the crucible, seemingly feeling every single grain between his wrinkled fingertips, flicking away any that didn't feel right. Then he chose a few shards of charcoal and distributed them around atop the black sand, crumbling them into smaller bits as necessary, and finally plucked some leaves and blossoms from a giant spraying f.a.ggot of magic twigs and arranged these on the charcoal like a French chef placing a garnish atop a ca.s.soulet. Then his hand went back into the sack of black sand and he repeated the procedure, layer upon layer, until the tiny vessel was full. Now the lid went on, and it was pa.s.sed with great care to an a.s.sistant who sealed the lid in place with wet clay.

The finished crucibles, looking like slightly flattened b.a.l.l.s of mud, were stacked like cannonb.a.l.l.s near the great furnace. But they did not go in just now, because a firing was in progress: Jack could look in and see a heap of similar crucibles glowing in the heat like a bunch of ripe fruit.

"I'll be d.a.m.ned," said Enoch Root, "they are only red-, not yellow-hot. That means that the iron ore is not actually being melted. Instead the charcoal is being absorbed by the iron, though the iron is yet solid."

"Why doesn't the charcoal just burn?"

"No air can get into the sealed crucibles," Enoch snapped. "Instead it fuses with the iron to make steel."

"We've come all this way to watch a bunch of wogs make steel!?"

"Not just any steel." Enoch stroked his beard. "The diffusion must be very slow. Mark how carefully they tend the fire-they must keep it at a red heat for days. You have no idea how difficult that is-that boy with the poker must know as much of fire as Vroom knows of s.h.i.+ps."

The alchemist continued gazing at the furnace until Jack feared they would remain in that very spot for as many days as the firing might take. But finally Enoch Root turned away from it. "There are secrets about the construction of that forge that have never been published in the Theatrum Chemic.u.m, Theatrum Chemic.u.m," he said. "More than likely they are forgotten secrets, or else these people would have built more of them."

They moved on to a pile of crucibles that had been removed from the furnace and allowed to cool. A boy picked these up one at a time, tossing them from hand to hand because they were still too hot to hold, and dashed them against a flat stone to shatter the clay crucible. What remained among those smoking pot-shards was a hemisphere of spongy gray metal. "The egg!" exclaimed Enoch.

A smith picked up each egg with a pair of tongs, set it on an anvil, and struck it once with a hammer, then examined it carefully. Eggs that dented were tossed away on a discard-heap. Some were so hard that the hammer left no mark on them-these were put into a hod that was eventually carried across the compound to another pit where an entirely different sort of clay was being mixed up, according to some arcane recipe, by the stomping feet of Hindoo boys, while a village elder walked around the edge peering into it and occasionally tossing handfuls of mysterious powders into the mix. The eggs of metal were coated in thick jackets of this clay and then set aside to dry. The first clay had been red when wet and yellow when fired, but this stuff was grey, as if the clay itself were metalliferous.

Once the gray clay had dried around the eggs, these were carried to a different furnace to be heated-but only to a dull red heat. The difference become obvious to Jack only when the sun went down, and he could stand between the two furnaces and compare the glow of one with that of the other. Again, the firing continued for a long time. Again, the eggs that emerged were cooled slowly, over a period of days. Again they were subjected to the test on the anvil-but with different results. For something about this second firing caused the steel egg to become more resilient. Still, most of them were not soft enough to be forged after a single firing in the gray clay, and had to be put through it again and again. But out of every batch, a few responded in just the right way to the hammer, and these were set aside. But not for long, because Persians and Armenians bought them up almost before they had hit the ground.

Enoch went over and picked one of them up. "This is called wootz, wootz," he said. "It's a Persian word. Persians have been coming here for thousands of years to buy it."

"Why don't the Persians make their own? They seem to have the run of the place-they must know how it's done by now."

"They have been trying, and failing, to make wootz wootz since before the time of Darius. They can make a similar product-your sons and I made a detour to one of their forges-but they cannot seem to manage since before the time of Darius. They can make a similar product-your sons and I made a detour to one of their forges-but they cannot seem to manage this this."

Enoch held the egg of wootz wootz up so that fire-light grazed its surface and highlighted its terrain. Jack's first thought was that it looked just like the moon, for the color and shape were the same, and the rugged surface was pocked with diverse craters where, he supposed, bubbles had formed. On a closer look, these craters were few and far between. Most of the egg's surface was covered with a net-work of fine cross-hatched ridges, as if some coa.r.s.ely woven screen-a mesh of wires-had been mixed into the stuff, and was trying to break free of the surface. And yet Jack had seen the crucibles prepared with his own eyes and knew that naught had gone into them save black sand, fragments of charcoal, and magic leaves. He pressed a fingertip against a prominent lattice of ridges; they were as hard as stone, sharp as a sword-edge. up so that fire-light grazed its surface and highlighted its terrain. Jack's first thought was that it looked just like the moon, for the color and shape were the same, and the rugged surface was pocked with diverse craters where, he supposed, bubbles had formed. On a closer look, these craters were few and far between. Most of the egg's surface was covered with a net-work of fine cross-hatched ridges, as if some coa.r.s.ely woven screen-a mesh of wires-had been mixed into the stuff, and was trying to break free of the surface. And yet Jack had seen the crucibles prepared with his own eyes and knew that naught had gone into them save black sand, fragments of charcoal, and magic leaves. He pressed a fingertip against a prominent lattice of ridges; they were as hard as stone, sharp as a sword-edge.

"Those reticules grow inside the crucible, as plants do from seeds. And they are not only at the surface, but pervade the whole egg, and are all involved with one another-they hold the steel together and give it a strength nothing else can match."

"If this wootz wootz is so extraordinary, why've I never heard of it?" is so extraordinary, why've I never heard of it?"

"Because Franks name it something else." Enoch glanced up, attracted by a distant ringing sound: a smith was smiting something. But it was not just some dull clod of iron. This was not a horseshoe or poker in the making. It rang with a n.o.ble piercing sound that put Jack in mind of Jeronimo wielding his rapier in the Khan el-Khalili.

The forge was about five minutes' walk away, and when they arrived they joined a whole crowd of Ottoman Turks and other travelers who had convened to watch this Hindoo sword-smith at work. He was using tongs to grip a scimitar-blade by its tang, and was turning it this way and that on an anvil, occasionally striking it a blow with a hammer. The metal was glowing a very dull red.

"It isn't hot enough to forge," Jack muttered. "It needs to be a bright cherry red at least."

"As soon as it is heated a bright cherry red, the lattice-work dissolves, like sugar in coffee, and the metal becomes brittle and worthless-as the Franks discovered during the Crusades, when we captured fragments of such weapons around Damascus and brought them back to Christendom and tried to find out their secrets in our own forges. Nothing whatsoever was learned, except the depth of our own ignorance-but ever since, we have called this stuff Damascus Damascus steel." steel."

"Damascus steel comes from here!?" Jack said, jostling closer to the anvil.

"Yes-the reticules you saw in the egg of wootz, wootz, when patiently hammered out, at low temperature, produce the swirling, liquid patterns that we know as-" when patiently hammered out, at low temperature, produce the swirling, liquid patterns that we know as-"

"Watered steel!" Jack exclaimed. He was close enough, now, to see gorgeous ripples and vortices in the red-hot blade. Without thinking, he reached for the hilt of his Janissary-sword and began drawing it out for comparison. But Enoch's hand clapped down on his forearm to restrain him. In the same moment the forge was filled with a storm of whisking, sc.r.a.ping, ringing, and keening noises. Jack looked up into a dense glinting constellation of drawn blades: serpentine watered steel daggers, watered steel scimitars, watered steel talwars, talwars, Khyber swords, and the squat fist-knives known as Khyber swords, and the squat fist-knives known as kitars kitars. Inlaid pa.s.sages from the Koran gleamed gold on some blades, as did Hindoo G.o.ddesses on others.

Jack cleared his throat and let go of his sword.

"This gentleman with the hammer and the tongs is extremely well-thought-of among connoisseurs of edged weapons the world round," Enoch said. "They would be ever so unhappy if something happened to him."

"ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT, your point is well taken," Jack said, after they had, by dint of Enoch's diplomacy, extracted themselves from the forge with all of their body parts present and in good working order. "If we want valuable cargo for the s.h.i.+p's maiden voyage, there is no need to go to Batavia and load up with spices." your point is well taken," Jack said, after they had, by dint of Enoch's diplomacy, extracted themselves from the forge with all of their body parts present and in good working order. "If we want valuable cargo for the s.h.i.+p's maiden voyage, there is no need to go to Batavia and load up with spices."

"Ingots of wootz wootz will fetch an excellent price at any of the Persian Gulf or Red Sea ports," Enoch said learnedly. "You could trade them for silk or pearls, then sail for any European port-" will fetch an excellent price at any of the Persian Gulf or Red Sea ports," Enoch said learnedly. "You could trade them for silk or pearls, then sail for any European port-"

"Where we would all be tortured to death 'pon arrival. It is an excellent plan, Enoch."

"On the contrary, you might survive in London or Amsterdam."

"I had in mind going the opposite direction."

"It is true that in Manila or Macao you might find a market for wootz wootz," Enoch said, after a moment's consideration. "But you would make out much better in the Mahometan countries."

"Let us strike out south and west towards the Malabar coast tomorrow."

"Will that not take us through Maratha territory?"

"No, they live in citadels up on mountain-tops. I know the way, Enoch. We will pa.s.s through a couple of independent kingdoms that pay tribute to the Great Mogul. I have an understanding with them. From there we can pa.s.s into Malabar."

"Wasn't it Malabaris who stole your gold, and enslaved half of your companions?"

"That's one way to look at it."

"What is the other way?"

"Surendranath, Monsieur Arlanc, Vrej Esphahnian, and Moseh de la Cruz-our most cosmopolitan and sophisticated members-prefer to think of Malabar as a large, extremely queer, remote, hostile, and heavily armed goldsmith's shop goldsmith's shop in which we have made an involuntary in which we have made an involuntary deposit deposit."

"We call such enterprises banks banks now." now."