One by one, they lowered their gaze.
‘I can still give you sanctuary. Take it while you still can.’
Renzo turned away, let her gun fall nerveless through her fingers, and with a sudden sigh the others followed.
‘They knew from the very start what would happen,’ said Benzamir.
‘How do you know, master? Can you read their minds?’
‘Look at all the weapons they brought with them, Said. No matter what they say, this is the evidence that cries out the loudest.’
‘Benzamir?’
‘Alessandra?’
‘You are the best, bravest man to have ever lived.’
‘Not me. That one there.’ He shuffled himself forward, dragging his feet stiffly until he could slap Va’s shiny head. ‘You did it. The patriarch will be so very proud of you.’
Knowing that he had disobeyed his earthly father in every last matter, Va started to shake, not with cold, but with sobs. Benzamir drew him in and held him the best he could, whispering words of Old Russian in his ear like an angel, Said and Alessandra supporting them both.
‘What happens now, Benzamir?’ Alessandra asked.
He said nothing, but instead made some stupid, spur-of-the-moment decisions he might now actually live to regret.
CHAPTER 44
HE WAS BACK where he’d started, standing on glittering white sand under the heat of a midday sun. The Inner Ocean had long ago washed the beach clean of the remains of the slave he’d dragged from the water and hadn’t had time to bury.
‘Do you remember, Said?’
‘How could I forget? You grinning like you were touched by the sun, and Ibn Alam swinging his precious sword around.’ Said reached down and scooped up a handful of dry sand, then let it trickle through his clenched fist. ‘You punched me in the throat, then tied me up.’
‘Yes,’ said Benzamir, ‘but I’m not sorry.’
‘And I’m not asking you to apologize. It was the will of Allah that brought us together that day, and more fool Ibn Alam for not recognizing it.’ He wiped off the last of the sand from his palms. ‘And look. It’s the will of Allah that we’ve returned, safe and sound. Not a scratch on us.’
‘No one will believe your story. You haven’t lost an eye or a leg, you haven’t gained a single scar. Perhaps—’
‘Master! You’ve saved us from diggers and armies and monsters and who knows what else. That we’ve lived is a miracle.’ Said slapped Wahir across the shoulders, making the boy grunt. ‘To say anything else would be ungrateful.’
‘Except,’ said Benzamir, ‘you return as Said and Wahir, man-at-arms and camel boy, and not as the friends of Prince Benzamir Mahmood. I’d like to do something about that if I can.’
‘You won’t ask Ariadne to float over the sheikh’s palace? Please, no. They’ll stone us all.’
‘It’ll look really impressive.’ Benzamir could see Wahir weighing up the idea.
‘It would be a gift too far,’ pleaded Said. ‘Don’t honour us in that way.’
‘I had another idea. A gift that you might accept.’ The lift disc slid down the beach, laden with bolts of cloth. ‘We can bury these above the high-water mark, or stash them in a cave if we can find one. You can collect them later when you’ve got a camel or two in tow.’
Said fingered a deep blue cotton. ‘This is a king’s ransom.’
‘Not really. It leaves me short on azo-dye components, but Ariadne assures me that we’re not going to need them on the way home. You can sell these for a good price, and you’re wise; you’ll know what to do with the money. A business buying and selling. Mahr, even, if you met the right woman.’ He bent down. ‘And for you, too, Wahir. Said will share what he gets with you, but I want to make certain you benefit from this, just in case your father decides that your good fortune should be his alone. Said will look after what’s due to you until you can control it yourself.’
Wahir looked serious as he considered his options. ‘Camels, I think.’
‘I never doubted it for a moment.’
‘Though I don’t think I’ll be like Ali Five-camels. That story was just too strange.’
‘Trust me. You’ll change your mind one day. You’ll want to give five camels and consider it a bargain. Love never counts the cost.’
Pulling a face, Wahir mumbled: ‘I’m too young.’
‘And yet the time will come around, like it or not.’ Benzamir got up again. ‘It’s going to be nightfall in Novy Rostov at this rate.’
‘Ariadne is faster than the fastest bird,’ protested Said.
‘She is, but Novy Rostov is west of here, so it’s mid-afternoon there already.’
Said and Wahir looked sceptically at each other.
‘Ask the imam. He’ll tell you I’m right.’ Benzamir gave up. He hugged Said, slapping him repeatedly on the back, then swept up Wahir and swung him around. Wahir laughed and howled as his heels left the ground. ‘We have to go.’
Va, Elenya and Alessandra gave more circumspect farewells, and Wahir had one last word with Benzamir.
‘I’ll never see you again, will I?’
‘If everything goes well, then no. I don’t expect to come back. But if I do, we’ll smoke a sheesh and talk about old times, and you can tell me all your news. I expect it to be interesting, though,’ and he wagged his finger. ‘Adventure is burning in your soul. Never let it go out.’
The others were carrying the heavy rolls of cloth up the beach, and Benzamir took one, put it over Wahir’s shoulder, then gathered up an armful himself and added it to the pile. There was nothing more to be done.
‘I’ll remember you every day I’m alive,’ called Benzamir, walking backwards towards Ariadne. ‘Peace be on you both.’
No matter how fast he blinked, his eyes filled up with tears. He stumbled into the cargo bay and did something he hadn’t done since he was a child: pressed his face into a corner of two walls and let the sadness take him.
Getting to Novy Rostov unseen was all but impossible. Ariadne couldn’t change her skin colour – she was a spaceship, not a spy drone – and Benzamir didn’t want to wait until nightfall to leave. He wanted his grief to be compressed into one overwhelming lump, then finished with, not strung out like a wire until he broke on it.
So they rose into the sky until they looked no more than a crow, and crossed the Inner Sea from east to west. Ariadne’s drive didn’t produce a vapour trail, but her passing shed a ghostly mist which spun and broke up in her wake.
Those who looked up would have seen a dark shape dart across the sky, followed a few moments later by the rumble of distant thunder that seemed to roll on for ever before fading. But as they approached the Caliphate, heavy snow clouds bunching down from Siberia shielded their approach.
They watched from the flight deck, radar punching through the cloud layer and discovering what lay beneath. The Black Sea fell away, and they slowed as they came to the Bay of Azov, dropping lower all the time.
‘There,’ said Elenya. ‘See where that finger of water reaches up between the hills? Novy Rostov is on the south bank.’
Benzamir looked at Va. The monk’s jaw was clenched tight shut, and beads of sweat glittered on his head. ‘Brother?’
Va didn’t move. His gaze was locked on Novy Rostov.
The radar painted a picture of the city, balanced on a ridge of land between the sea and a river. Brutal stone walls enclosed a warren of streets and alleys, and at the eastern end a second enclosure surrounding an ugly squat castle and a bright-domed cathedral. The fields around the walls were vacant, the forests further out, deserted.