Ilario, the Stone Golem Read Online Free Page A

I employed Ilario as a scribe.’
    ‘No.’ Honorius kept a perfectly straight face for a moment. He
    smirked as he took the page back from me and passed it over to the
    Egyptian. ‘I grant you the accuracy of reading between the lines.’
    ‘This isn’t like the last one?’ I speculated. ‘Not a dozen copies sent out
    to ambassadors or bankers, so that one would get to you sooner or later?
    This came direct to Venezia?’
    Rekhmire’ did not even look up to see Honorius’s confirming nod.
    ‘It would appear that King Rodrigo knows where the Captain-General
    is . . . There are other channels by which information could pass, but I
    will point out that Aldra Federico – and Ramiro Carrasco, when he was
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    at large – are both positioned to have told your King this. Or rather
    Videric, whom we may assume would tell King Rodrigo.’
    Honorius muttered, ‘ Court politics! ’ in tones of deepest disgust I got up. It eased me to pace the room, despite the pull on my pink and
    healing stitches.
    ‘This makes twice King Rodrigo’s ordered you home.’ I paused,
    bending down to touch the fluff on Onorata’s head. ‘And as we said in
    Rome, it’s understandable. You retire, rich. You head home for Taraco.
    No man sees you. The first thing you do is leave again for Carthage—’
    ‘That was to visit you!’ Honorius looked mulish.
    ‘I know that! You know that! The King doesn’t know that!’
    Onorata began grizzling.
    Rekhmire’ leaned his crutch against the hearth-surround, and lifted
    Onorata out of her cot into his lap. His arm supported her head with a
    professional care. I did not know whether to feel pleasure or jealousy that
    she subsided at once into whining mutters.
    Voice soft and even, Rekhmire’ said, ‘Ilario’s correct. King Rodrigo
    doesn’t know. He has a foreign general come home – foreign, because twenty-five years in Navarra and Castile means no man knows you. You
    have the reputation of “the Lion of Castile”—’
    The Egyptian pressed on when Honorius would have interrupted:
    ‘—Whatever you think of your reputation, you have it. You return to
    Taraconensis, you ask your King for nothing, and you go to Carthage.
    Exactly when, as far as he’s concerned, Carthage has just robbed him of
    his First Minister!’
    My father spluttered.
    I took the opportunity to speak. ‘Either Federico will have written, or
    Videric will have told King Rodrigo himself, that you’re my father.’
    And if that interview took place between Videric and Rodrigo
    Sanguerra, I would like to have witnessed it. Between Videric’s
    embarrassment at being cuckolded, and Rodrigo’s ferocious temper at
    not having been told all this before, I thought I would have found it very
    satisfying.
    Rekhmire’ handed Onorata up to me and reclaimed his own drinking
    bowl. ‘Which, of course, makes Videric all the more dangerous now.
    Viler things have been done out of fear than ever stemmed from anger or
    revenge.’
    Honorius sprang to his feet, his fingers white against the green glaze of
    his wine bowl. ‘I can’t believe my supposed King thinks me disloyal!’
    Watching Honorius’s stiff back as he stalked over to the window, I
    doubted he would conceive of anyone believing him that.
    I rocked Onorata gently in my arms. ‘You didn’t return from Rome at
    his request.’
    ‘I—’ Honorius spun on his boot-heel, pointing at Rekhmire’. ‘Your
    messengers caught me up!’
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    The Egyptian nodded. ‘Which is why I thought hard before I wrote. I
    knew it might look bad.’
    Honorius set his jaw. ‘I can sort this out ten minutes after I set foot in
    Taraco harbour – which I will , once I have assurances of my son-
    daughter’s and grand-daughter’s safety!’
    Onorata stretched up her hand and prodded at my chin, although the
    contact may have been accidental. Judging by the slant of the light, she
    would be hungry soon.
    ‘If I were Aldra Videric,’ I said absently, playing catch-finger with