Read Murder on the Leviathan Online
Authors: Boris Akunin
Tags: #action, #Historical Novel, #Mystery
Today at breakfast, for instance, a general conversation had completely failed to materialize, but now as Clarissa took her seat the discussion was in full swing. She began studying the menu with a bored expression on her face, as though she had forgotten what she had ordered for lunch, but she could already feel that familiar tingle of excitement.
'The thing that bothers me about the crime,' Dr Truffo was saying, 'is the blatant senselessness of it all. Apparently all those people were killed for absolutely nothing. The golden Shiva ended up in the Seine, and the killer was left empty-handed.'
Fandorin rarely participated in these discussions, preferring to remain silent most of the time, but for once even he felt compelled to express an opinion:
'That is not quite true. The p-perpetrator was left with the shawl.'
'What shawl?' asked the doctor, confused. "The painted Indian shawl. In which, if we are to believe the newspapers, the killer wrapped the stolen Shiva.' This joke was greeted with rather nervous laughter. The doctor spread his hands expressively. 'But a mere shawl . . .'
Sweetchild gave a sudden start and lifted his spectacles off his nose, a gesture of his which indicated intense agitation.
'No, don't laugh! I made inquiries as to exactly which shawl was stolen. And it is, gentlemen, an extremely unusual piece of material, with a story of its own. Have you ever heard of the Emerald Rajah?'
'Wasn't he some kind of legendary Indian nabob?' asked Clarissa.
'Not legendary, but quite real, madam. It was the name given to Bagdassar, the ruler of the principality of Brahmapur. The principality is located in a large, fertile valley, surrounded on all sides by mountains. The rajahs trace their line of descent from the great Babur and are adherents of Islam, but that did not prevent them from reigning in peace for three hundred years over a little country in which the majority of the population are Hindus. Despite the difference in religion between the ruling caste and their subjects, the principality never suffered a single rebellion or feud, the rajahs prospered and grew rich and by Bagdassar's time the house of Brahmapur was regarded as the wealthiest in the whole of India after the Nizams of Hyderabad, whose wealth, as you are no doubt aware, eclipses that of every monarch in the world, including Queen Victoria and the Russian emperor Alexander.'
'The greatness of our queen does not consist in the extent of her personal fortune, but in the prosperity of her subjects,' Clarissa remarked primly, stung by the professor's remark.
'Undoubtedly,' agreed Sweetchild, who was already in full spate and not to be halted. 'However, the wealth of the rajahs of Brahmapur was of a very special kind. They did not hoard gold, they did not stuff trunks to overflowing with silver, they did not build palaces of pink marble. No, for three hundred years these rulers knew only one passion - precious stones. Do you know what the Brahmapur Standard is?'
'Isn't it a style of faceting diamonds?' Dr Truffo asked uncertainly.
'The Brahmapur Standard is a jewellers' term which refers to a diamond, sapphire, ruby or emerald that is faceted in a particular manner and is the size of a walnut, which corresponds to one hundred and sixty tandools, in other words eighty carats in weight.'
'But that is a very large size,' Renier exclaimed in amazement. 'Stones as large as that are very rare. If my memory does not deceive me, even the Regent diamond, the glory of the French state jewels, is not very much larger.'
'No, Lieutenant, the Pitt diamond, also known as the Regent, is almost twice as large,' the professor corrected him with an air of authority, but eighty carats is still a considerable size, especially if one is dealing with stones of the first water. But can you believe, ladies and gentlemen, that Bagdasssar had five hundred and twelve such stones, and all of absolutely irreproachable quality!'
'That's impossible!' exclaimed Sir Reginald. Fandorin asked:
'Why exactly five hundred and t-twelve?'
'Because of the sacred number eight,' Sweetchild gladly explained. 'Five hundred and twelve is eight times eight times eight, that is eight to the power of three, or eight cubed, the so-called "ideal number". There is here, undoubtedly, some influence from Buddhism, in which the number eight is regarded with particular reverence. In the north-eastern part of India, where Brahmapur lies, religions are intertwined in the most bizarre fashion imaginable. But the most interesting thing of all is where this treasure was kept and how.'
'And where was it kept?' Renate Kleber inquired curiously.
'In a simple clay casket without any adornment whatever. In 1852 I visited Brahmapur as a young archaeologist and met the Rajah Bagdassar. An ancient temple had been discovered in the jungle on the territory of the principality, and the rajah invited me to assess the significance of the find. I carried out the necessary research, and what do you think I discovered? The temple turned out to have been built in the time of King Chandragupta, when . . .'
'Stop-stop-stop!' the commissioner interrupted. 'You can tell us about archaeology some other time. Let's get back to the rajah.'
'Ah yes indeed,' said the professor, fluttering his eyelashes. 'That really would be best. Well then, the rajah was pleased with me and as a token of his favour he showed me his legendary casket. Oh, I shall never forget that sight!' Sweetchild narrowed his eyes as he continued: 'Imagine a dark dungeon with only a single torch burning in a bronze bracket beside the door.
The rajah and I were alone, his retainers remained outside the massive door, which was protected by a dozen guards. I got no clear impression of the interior of this treasure house, for my eyes had no time to adjust to the semi-darkness. I only heard the clanging of locks as his Highness opened them. Then Bagdassar turned to me and in his hands I saw a cube that was the colour of earth and appeared to be very heavy. It was the size of . . .' Sweetchild opened his eyes and looked around. Everyone was sitting and listening with bated breath, and Renate Kleber had even parted her lips like a child. 'Oh, I don't know. I suppose about the size of Miss Stamp's hat, if one were to place that piece of headgear in a square box.' As though on command, everyone turned and began staring curiously at the diminutive Tyrolean hat decorated with a pheasant's feather. Clarissa endured this public scrutiny with a dignified smile, in the manner she had been taught as a child. 'This cube resembled most of all one of the ordinary clay bricks that they use for building in those parts. His Highness later explained to me that the coarse, dull uniformity of the clay surface made a far better foil than gold or ivory for the magnificent glimmering light of the stones. Indeed, I was able to see that for myself when Bagdassar slowly raised a hand studded with rings to the lid of the casket, then opened it with a rapid movement and ... I was blinded, ladies and gentlemen!' The professor's voice quavered. 'It . . . it is impossible to express it in words! Picture to yourselves a mysterious, multicoloured, lambent radiance spilling out of that dark cube and painting the gloomy vaults of that dungeon with shimmering patches of rainbow-coloured light. The round stones were arranged in eight layers, and in each layer there were sixty-four faceted sources of quite unbearable brilliance. And the effect was certainly enhanced by the flickering flame of the solitary torch. I can still see Rajah Bagdassar's face bathed from below in that magical light . . .'
The professor closed his eyes again and fell silent.
'And how much, for instance, are these glass baubles worth?' the commissioner's rasping voice enquired.
'Yes indeed, how much?' Mme Kleber repeated enthusiastically. 'Say, in your English pounds?'
Clarissa heard Mrs Truffo whisper rather loudly to her husband:
'She's so vulgar!' But even so she pushed her mousy curls back off her ear in order not to miss a single word.
'You know,' Sweetchild said with a genial smile, 'I have often wondered about that. It's not an easy question to answer, since the value of precious stones fluctuates according to the market, but as things stand today . . .'
'Yes, please, as things stand today, not in the time of King Chandragupta,' Gauche put in gruffly.
'Hmm ... I don't know exactly how many diamonds, how many sapphires and how many rubies the rajah had. But I do know that he valued emeralds most of all, which was how he acquired his popular name. In the course of his reign seven emeralds were acquired from Brazil and four from the Urals, and for each of them Bagdassar gave one diamond and some additional payment. You see, each of his ancestors had a favourite stone that he preferred to all others and tried to acquire in greater numbers. The magical number of five hundred and twelve stones had already been reached in the time of Bagdassar's grandfather, and since then the ruler's primary goal had been not to increase the number of stones but to improve their quality. Stones which fell even slightly short of perfection, or which the present ruler did not favour for some reason, were sold - hence the fame of the Brahmapur Standard, which gradually spread around the world. Their place in the casket was taken by other, more valuable stones. Bagdassar's ancestors carried their obsession with the Brahmapur Standard to quite insane lengths! One of them purchased a yellow sapphire weighing three hundred tandools from the Persian Shah Abbas the Great, paying ten caravans of ivory for this marvel, but the stone was larger than the standard size and the rajah had his jewellers cut away all the excess!'
'That is terrible, of course,' said the commissioner, 'but let us get back to the question of the stones' value.'
This time, however, it proved less easy to direct the flow of the Indologist's speech into the required channel.
'The question of value can wait for a moment,' he said, peremptorily dismissing the detective's request. 'Is that really so important? When one considers a noble stone of such size and quality, the first thing that comes to mind is not money but the magical properties that have been attributed to it since ancient times. The diamond, for instance, is considered a symbol of purity. Our ancestors used to test their wives' fidelity by placing a diamond under their sleeping spouse's pillow. If she was faithful, then she would immediately turn to her husband and embrace him without waking. If she was unfaithful, she would toss and turn and attempt to throw the diamond onto the floor. And the diamond is also reputed to guarantee its owner's invincibility. The ancient Arabs used to believe that in battle the general who owned the larger diamond would be victorious.'
'Ancient Arab mistaken,' said Gintaro Aono, interrupting the inspired speaker in full flow.
Everyone stared in astonishment at the Japanese, who very rarely joined in the general conversation and never interrupted anyone. The Oriental continued hastily in that odd accent of his:
'In the Academy of St Cyr we were taught that the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, specially took the huge Sancy diamond with him into battle against the Swiss, but it did not save him from defeat.'
Clarissa felt sorry for the poor devil for making a rare attempt to show off his knowledge at such an inopportune moment.
The Japanese gentleman's remark was greeted with deadly silence, and Aono blushed in painful embarrassment.
'Yes indeed, Charles the Bold . . .' the professor said with a sharp nod of dissatisfaction and concluded without his former ardour. 'The sapphire symbolizes devotion and constancy, the emerald confers improved sharpness of vision and foresight, the ruby protects against illness and the evil eye . . . But you were asking about the value of Bagdassar's treasures?'
'I realize that it must be an incredibly huge sum, but could you at least give us an approximate idea of how many zeros there are in it?' Mme Kleber enunciated clearly, as if she were addressing a dull-witted pupil, demonstrating yet again that once a banker's wife, always a banker's wife.
Clarissa would have enjoyed listening to more on the subject of the magical properties of precious stones and would have preferred to avoid talk of money. Apart from anything else, it was so vulgar.
'Very well then, let me just tot it up.' Sweetchild took a pencil out of his pocket and poised himself to write on a paper napkin. 'Formerly the diamond was considered the most expensive stone, but since the discovery of the South African mines it has fallen significantly in value. Large sapphires are found more often than other precious stones, and so on average they are only worth a quarter as much as diamonds, but that does not apply to yellow and star sapphires, and they made up the majority of Bagdassar's collection. Pure rubies and emeralds of great size are also rare and have a higher value than diamonds of the same weight . . . Very well, for simplicity's sake, let us assume that all five hundred and twelve stones are diamonds, and all of the same value. Each of them, as I have already said, weighing eighty carats. According to Tavernier's formula, which is used by jewellers all over the world, the value of a single stone is calculated by taking the market value of a one carat diamond and multiplying it by the square of the number of carats in the stone concerned. That would give us ... A one carat diamond costs about fifteen pounds on the Antwerp exchange. Eighty squared is six thousand four hundred. Multiply by fifteen . . . Mmm . . . Ninety-six thousand pounds sterling - so that is the value of an average stone from the Brahmapur casket . . . Multiply by five hundred and twelve . . . About fifty million pounds sterling. And in actual fact even more, because as I have already explained, coloured stones of such a great size are more valuable than diamonds,' Sweetchild concluded triumphantly.