Rise of Empires Omnibus: The Walls of Byzantium, The Towers of Samarcand and The Lion of Mistra (The Rise of Empires) by Heneage James

Author:Heneage, James [Heneage, James]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Quercus
Published: 2015-07-01T16:00:00+00:00

PART THREE

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

SAMARCAND, SUMMER 1399

Without Shulen, Luke, Matthew and Nikolas were removed from the Garden of Heart’s Delight. Lost behind the magnified wonder of Shulen’s glasses, the Conqueror of the World had immediately forgotten the Varangians’ existence and it was left to his heir, Mohammed Sultan, to slip them discreetly from the tent and take them into Samarcand.

On their way into the city, they passed through the gardens of Paradise and Model of the World, through orchards and vineyards and a suburb called Delhi, until they reached a city under construction. For Luke, it was the opposite of Constantinople. The sun was setting and the workers gone, leaving behind a landscape crenellated with unfinished building, its gleaming stone fresh from the quarry, its mortar still wet to the touch. He thought of the dust that hung over Constantinople’s crumbling masonry and of what Ibn Khaldun had said about the rise and fall of empires.

Not yet.

As they came into the centre of the city, riding down a wide boulevard bordered by young plane trees and palms fronting shops selling an empire’s produce and pillage, the buildings turned from large to enormous, and stone became majolica. A sea of blue and gold broke over them from every direction, dome climbing on dome, minaret on minaret, and they rode on in silent stupefaction.

They were housed in a building that had been furnished for ambassadors. There were bedrooms and bathrooms and rooms with rich tapestries and pools where red apples bobbed beneath little fountains. They were given food and wine and the stuff to wash themselves and servants to attend them. But when they tried to leave, their Mongol guards shook their heads solemnly.

‘We are prisoners,’ said Matthew. ‘I had hoped for some sightseeing.’

They spent a week seeing Samarcand from a window, watching slaves from a hundred countries toil beneath the whip to create beauty on a scale unimaginable to men born in a small city on the edge of the sea.

With nothing to do but talk, they talked and wondered what had happened to Khan-zada and Shulen. Any question they’d had about Shulen’s contribution to their cause had disappeared with her performance in the Garden of Heart’s Delight. She’d given Tamerlane the gift of sight and his gratitude had saved them all. But they’d also witnessed the precarious nature of survival in the court of the Celestial Conjunction. Where was Shulen now? Was she safe from those new-seeing eyes?

As to their future, it was as opaque as it had ever been. They were in Samarcand but inside a gilded cage whose doors were locked. Would they still be there when Tamerlane marched north into China? Or would they be dead?

At last, one morning, they received a visit from Mohammed Sultan. The Prince entered smiling. ‘You are fortunate,’ he said. ‘You are to have some entertainment.’

Luke had risen from a couch where he’d been teaching Matthew to play chess. He bowed. ‘We can leave?’

‘You are invited to join the clans. My grandfather has announced a qurultay on the plain of Kani-gil outside the city.

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