the Walking Drum (1984) (55 page)

From the herbs gathered, I prepared several preparations, crushing dried leaves into powder and tucking them away in small papers in the folds of my turban. This could be my last day on earth. That I must face. If I escaped and rescued my father, it would be nothing less than a miracle. In this place a weapon might help but could not bring victory. What had I said that night in Constantinople?My mind is my sword. And so it must be.

There was a rush of feet in the passage, and my door was thrust open. In the doorway stood Mahmoud, his eyes hot with hatred. "What have you done? If you think to escape me-"

Smiling, I remembered a saying:Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.

My smile infuriated him, as I was sure it would, so I added, "Escapeyou? You misunderstand the situation, Mahmoud. It is you who shall not escape me."

His fury astonished me, and I learned something else about Mahmoud. As he had grown older and stronger he had also become impatient of restraint, impatient to a degree that approached imbalance.

"What is the reason for this outburst?"

"Sinan wishes to see you!"

Could I shake his confidence? "Mahmoud, when will you learn to consider not only what you are doing but what others may be doing also?

"Sinan is a master of intrigue, you are only the student. You may be sure he knows more of what you are planning than you suspect. If you believe you will ever replace Sinan, you are mistaken."

Of course, he had been thinking of that, for there was no loyalty in Mahmoud. No matter who his master might be, he would begin at once to try to supplant him. He loved authority, hated to bow to it, yet he was a man who might kill viciously and suddenly, from sheer frustration. I walked a thin line between his ambition and death.

Rashid Ad-din Sinan was a man noted for the majesty with which he surrounded his position. He never allowed anyone to be present when he was eating. He listened much, spoke little, and then only after careful consideration of the problem. He conducted himself carefully when appearing, ruling more by personality than fear.

Assassination was used by the Isma'ilis as a means of war, waged in this manner because they lacked a large army. It was carried out with deadly efficiency. Yet Sinan was a diplomat also, managing the affairs of his sect with skill.

He was also noted for wonders he was said to perform, yet how much was due to second sight, mental communication, or clairvoyance was a question. The same effects could be produced simply by possessing secret information. Upon one occasion he was foretold the deaths of a number of his enemies following a dispute on the subject of religion. He told each one the day and place of his death, and all died approximately as he foretold.

Of those forty deaths none was by dagger, so he was feared even the more. My eyes were busy as I was shown into a long room where Sinan was seated upon a dais. As we approached, he kept his eyes on us, studying us.

Some fifteen feet from him we were stopped by a guard. Ignoring Mahmoud, he studied me with attention.

"Ibn-Ibrahim or Kerbouchard, why do you use a name not your own?"

The Isma'ilis were considered heretic by old-line Moslems, and there had been many freethinkers among them, so I decided upon frankness.

"To travel with greater facility, and to avoid discussions. I cannot claim to be a Christian, nor yet a true Moslem, although I have studied the Koran."

"What are you then?"

"An inquirer, Your Excellency, a seeker after knowledge. I am something of a physician, a geographer, and when opportunity offers for experiment, something of an alchemist."

"You knew Averroes?"

"He was my good friend. John of Seville, also."

"And why did you come to Alamut?"

Mahmoud started to speak, but my voice overrode his. "I was invited to come. I understood the invitation was from you. I accepted quickly, for I had heard of your great knowledge of alchemy, but when I arrived I discovered that Mahmoud al-Zawila had invited me. He is an old enemy from Cordoba."

Sinan gestured Mahmoud to silence. "What was the nature of the enmity?"

"Your pardon, Magnificence. I did not say I considered him an enemy. It is he who holds enmity against me. Not," I added, "that I am inclined to forgiveness.

"We were friends as students in Cordoba until I fled the city with a girl. When we returned we were seized, betrayed to Prince Ahmed by Mahmoud."

"Prince Ahmed, you say? And Aziza?" Sinan's expression had changed. His eyes were suddenly cold and attentive. He glanced at Mahmoud, then back to me. "I have heard the names."

Mahmoud was deathly pale. As skillfully as it could be done, I was scuttling his ship, but only by telling the truth. Mahmoud might succeed in having me killed, but now he must be wary of his own life.

"I should believe," Sinan suggested, "Prince Ahmed would reward such service."

"He did, Magnificence. He gave Mahmoud a position at his side."

"Ah?" Sinan's fingers tapped upon his knee. What I had said might warn him of Mahmoud, might even destroy Mahmoud, but there remained my own safety, and I had an idea the interview was about to end.

"Your Excellency, you are considered among the greatest of alchemists. I hoped to study at your feet, and"-I paused just long enough-"to exchange ideas. Some discoveries of mine have been curious indeed, and of a sort that might interest you."

He arose and was taller than I had thought. Also, he was two steps higher, an interesting position strategically, for we must look up to him. This man thinks of everything, I thought. He keeps himself ever in a commanding position. It might be nonsense, but it was shrewd nonsense, and effective.

"You will return to your quarters, Kerbouchard, and I shall send some books from my library. Later, you may visit my place of experiment."

He gave a gesture of dismissal, and we turned about and walked from his presence. We had reached the door before Sinan spoke again. "Al-Zawila, you will answer for the presence of Kerbouchard."

Mahmoud did not speak until outside my door. His face was still pale, but he was in control of himself. "You believe you have defeated me, but know this: Once within these walls, only one of us may leave, only an Isma'ili, and I shall see that if you do leave, you will not be the same man as when you arrived."

He was speaking in Arabic, which he evidently knew the guards did not understand. They were Persians from Daylam. "He will not move against me, and if he does, we shall see who is master here." He smiled. "No, I shall not submit you to torture ... not yet. There is first the patient you must attend."

Only a few minutes later a slave appeared at my door with a book. It was theAyennamagh, the book requested from Mas'ud Khan, in Tabriz. Was it coincidence? Or did the lord of Alamut's ears reach so far? No doubt Mas'ud Khan was his man. Yet such a small detail? I was impressed. TheAyennamagh was a book written or compiled during the years of the Sassanian Empire of Persia, translated into Arabic by ibn-al-Muqaffa. It was a compilation of history, court annals, government regulations, and laws, containing discussions of strategy in war as well as politics, archery, and divination.

Yet, no matter how interesting the book, I could not keep my attention on it.

Restlessly, I paced the room. I was no nearer to discovering the whereabouts of my father, and bribery had no chance of success here. Some things I had noticed in my walk from my quarters to those of Sinan. From the top of my window to the roof was no more than four feet, if as much, and my window was long and narrow. A man might, justmight, stand on my window's ledge and, holding himself inside with one hand, might reach up and grasp the edge of the roof with the other.

He would have to do it without being seen, and would risk a fall to the stone-paved court below. There was always the chance that he could not reach the roof's edge, nor pull himself up if he did. Obviously, for reasons of defense there would be some connection between the roof and other roofs as well as the walls.

Below me, in the Castle of Alamut, a struggle for power was taking place in which I had no part, yet which very well might mean life or death for me. Nor dared I make any move without first ascertaining where my father was. As yet I had seen no slaves or any women.

The fortress gave the appearance of being inhabited by men only, and if my father was here, being a slave, he would be at work. Had they tortured him? Had they broken his spirit? The spirit of a strong man does not easily break, but he must be inwardly strong, secure in his beliefs and in what he is.

Although my father had often been away at sea, his image had been ever before me, and my mother had led me to assume responsibilities from my earliest youth. There is no miraculous change that takes place in a boy that makes him a man. He becomes a man by being a man, acting like a man.

Now was the time to show what I was made of. No help would be coming from the outside. I was alone. So it ever is in moments of trial or decision. One is born alone, one dies alone, and usually faces the trials and tribulations alone.

Returning to my book, I turned its pages, reading here and there to acquire as much as possible in the short period of time I would have, struggling to grasp its message while half my faculties were turned to other problems.

Even had he wished, Sinan could not save me. Much of the strength of Alamut was that no one outside could assess its strength, and that meant no one must escape. Slowly, the day dragged by. My thoughts sought out every possible escape route, every stratagem, every ruse. Nothing happened. By afternoon I could stand it no longer. I must move! I must do something. It had seemed such a simple thing to find my father once inside, but I had seen not one slave, and my food was brought me by a warrior.

And then the door opened ...

Two guards waited. "The Imam will see you now."

The Imam ... that would be Sinan. Picking up my bags, I followed them.

The guards escorted me into a branch of the castle where I had not been. On every side, the walls of the rock fell sheer away. Where then was the mysterious valley?

We paused at last before a door. The passage we had followed continued on, perhaps thirty feet further. The guard tapped lightly at the door, obviously of oak and bound with straps of iron.

My eyes fell to the floor at my feet, and for an instant my breath caught. On the stone floor, mixed with a little black loam, was a fragment of a leaf, a pomegranate leaf!

Nothing grew upon the Rock of Alamut. Nor had I seen a pomegranate within miles, or any fruit that I could remember except for wild pears.

My eyes turned to the door at the end of the passage. Was that it? Had I found the entrance to the fabled Valley of the Assassins?

There were many valleys in the mountains, but there might be no real valley of that name. On the other hand, what lay beyond that door? And where was my father?

A key turned in the door before us, and the door opened. Beside the door stood a huge, powerfully muscled man with a massive sword. He was naked to the waist, and his muscles shone with oil. He stepped aside for us to pass, but his cold little eyes probed as if to read my heart.

Across the room near another door stood the twin of this guard, except that if anything he was larger and uglier. Seated on a cushion among a pile of books was Rashid Ad-din Sinan, the Old Man of the Mountains.

Around the room were vats, retorts, and furnaces, some of the finest alchemical working materials that I had seen. "Come! We will talk, Kerbouchard! We will see what kind of alchemist you are!"

Chapter
54

Where was Sundari now?

Night lay upon the castle, and the wind held a promise of rain. Far off, like muted trumpets, thunder rolled down empty gorges. I lay upon my pallet, staring into darkness, my sword at hand, my bags close by.

The time was near.

The night held a warning, a threat of waiting danger. My ears strained to interpret the warning but found nothing. Nothing moved, all was still.

Today, I had spent hours with Sinan, working with retorts, furnaces, and bowls, quieting any doubts that I was not what I said. We talked of acids and powders, of the Chinese "art of the yellow and white," their term for alchemy. Most of all I tried to build his hopes of what he might get from me.

I wanted to give him an excuse to keep me alive.

Quickly, I discovered that I knew more than he, for he was the victim of his own isolation and knew little that had happened in alchemy since Jabir ibn-Hayyam, known to the Franks as Geber.

He possessed the most complete library of the works of Jabir that I had seen, and Jabir's methods had been sound, his knowledge of alchemical relationships beyond the usual. Aside from his search for a means of making gold, he had studied the manufacture of bronze, steel, and the refinements of metals. He introduced new methods to the dyeing processes. He knew how to produce concentrated acetic acid by the distillation of vinegar, the use of manganese dioxide in glass manufacture, and much else.

Several experiments of which Sinan had only heard, I reproduced for him ... or perhaps he was but testing my knowledge. Despite my restlessness, I enjoyed knowing him and enjoyed the work. I possess a deep respect for men of knowledge and of inquiring mind, and I am only impatient with those who allow themselves to vegetate.