By Sylvian Hamilton Read Online Free PDF

if the price was right.'

    'My
master trusts that you will negotiate on his behalf, as you have done
before. Funds can be drawn in Paris from the Jew, Rohan, or in Rome
from the banker, Tolomei.'

    'Til
make enquiries,' said Straccan. 'My fee is one hundred gold pieces,
half before I go, and mine whether I succeed or not. The other half
on delivery.'

    'One
hundred? Your charges have gone up, Sir Richard!'

    The
cost of living's gone up. It's the Interdict, you know. Everything's
dearer: travel, inns, food. Besides, it's always costly dealing with
royalty. Palms to grease, friends to buy, favours to spread around.'

    The
man unbuckled his belt and upended it over the table. Gold coins fell
out, one after another. Straccan counted twenty.

    'Present
yourself at the house of the Jew Eleazar in Nottingham, and give him
this.' He took a roll of parchment from his pocket. 'It is my
master's authority to pay the rest.'

    The
messenger's escort, two men-at-arms, was ready and waiting when his
horse was led from the stable. A boy held its head while he mounted.
He sat in the saddle for a moment, gazing round the yard at the
various doors and windows. From an open door came the sound of a
child singing. The man smiled. 'Who is the little wench?' he asked.
'I saw her earlier, sitting in the cart.'

    'That's
our Gilla,' said the boy, beaming. 'The master's little girl. Don't
she sing pretty?'

    'Like
an angel,' said the messenger, and listened a moment more before
touching spurs lightly to his horse and trotting under the arch out
of the yard.

    I've
got a job for you,' said Straccan when Bane returned. He recounted
the story of the dead man at Holystone while Bane listened, whistling
softly. 'The nuns sent their bailiff's son to try and backtrack this
fellow and find out anything about him. When Gilla came home, the
prioress sent word with her their man came back with no success. I
want you to have a go. Find out where he came from and who sent him,
where he was going, and what that picture is.'

    'Right.
When?'

    'Tomorrow
will do.'

    'I
met that Gregory's man and his escort as I came back. What did he
want?'

    'He
wants a relic of Doubting Thomas,' said Straccan. 'Have you ever seen
one of these?' He offered Bane a gold coin. It was small and very
thick. On one side was some unknown script and on the other the image
of an ugly little tentacled creature.

    'Some
sort of octopus,' said Bane. 'No, I've never seen one. Where's it
from?'

    'I've
no idea. I thought I'd seen all monies, especially eastern. D'you
think this is eastern?'

    'Probably.
But it's strange to me. Where'd you get it?'

    'Gregory
sent it. Up-front money for his relic.'

    'Just
so long as it's true gold,' said Bane.

    'Oh,
it's gold right enough.' Straccan held up one of the coins which bore
his testing teeth-marks.

    Chapter
5

    Straccan
knew very little of Bane's previous life. He had a story but how much
of it was true was anybody's guess. Various more-or-less colourful
adventures were let slip from time to time.

    Apprenticed
to a physician, he had run away and joined the army --been wounded in
a skirmish in France –survived and gone pilgrim to Saint James
at Compostella, come home penniless and turned beggar, tried thievery
and joined a band of wandering players.

    Straccan
first saw him in the pillory in the market square at

    Evesham
where a small crowd had gathered, not to pelt, but to laugh at the
prisoner's jokes, songs, and facial contortions. Towards curfew folk
drifted away to their homes and a couple of large young oafs started
throwing rubbish. Straccan, watching from the alehouse door, saw the
prisoner's head jerk and his body suddenly slump, hanging from the
neck and wrists like a sack, and realised that a stone had been
flung. Just then the sherrif's underdog came to open the pillory,
letting the man fall like a dead thing into the mud. The two youths
had fled, the sun was sinking, the curfew began to ring and three or
four people hurried past,