To Lie with Lions (106 page)

‘Well?’ said the Patriarch, leaning above him. ‘Well? Have you got rid of them?’

‘It was rather the other way round,’ Nicholas said.

‘But you’ve thought of what I said? The Golden Horde are the key. You don’t get anywhere by pinning your flag to the Genoese or the Venetians or the Muscovites, or to Naples or to Uzum or to the Knights or to the Tartars alone. You pander to everybody.’

‘What makes you think I’m good at that?’ Nicholas said.

‘I knew you’d agree in the end,’ said the Patriarch.

He wondered how the Patriarch knew, when it had been such a surprise to him. It was as curious as the way he had regained Umar recently, while in the haunted place where Umar had been, there was a child, and a girl. Jodi. Egidia.

They had been well matched as a pair, he and Gelis. Matched in a taste for intrigue, for numbers, for puzzles, for business and, to a degree, in the transmission of pain. It had not been a pretty war, but he had persevered, sure enough of the outcome – impatient, at last, for the outcome. And confident, too, that he would watch this son grow, as the other had not, at his hearth.

He had thrown all that away. Oblivious to all but his creation, he had been unprepared for the final awakening, and the revulsion which his schemes would evoke. And yet he should have been ready. It had all happened before. Intent upon his objective, he could set aside all human feeling, in the same way that he barricaded his mind against psalmody. As a result, men and women had died, and others had left him, as Gelis had. He would hear of her, of course, as they reared Jodi between them. He would hear of his other friends, as they abandoned him for new posts. The Bank itself would remain, staffed by strangers, stiff with formality. It was safer than friendship or music or deep discussion or the emotions – the untidy emotions – inspired by the majesty of the world, and creations of an order far greater than his.

So he told himself, in the well-deserved darkness where he had been left. Where he must cease to think of that small, surprising family he had been vouchsafed: Clémence and Pasque, Jodi and Egidia, Tobie, Moriz, John and the rest. And another person, already lost, already renounced: a friend; a precocious friend who, for a short time, had trusted and respected him, and placed her life in his hands. The only one who might have observed the broken thread in his design. Having been to Ultima Thule, he had not sold it.

He had, of course, sold everything else. It was what he was trained for.

It did not occur to him, because he was still in some ways inexperienced, that there are some things – the contents of a dovecote, for instance – which cannot be sold. For as the soul to the body, the birds will find their way back to their master.

Reader’s Guide

1. For Discussion:
To Lie with Lions

What are Nicholas de Fleury and Katelijne Sersanders to each other, really? What does each offer to, or release in, the other? What do you think the future holds for them?

2. What are the various motives for which his well-wishers persuade Nicholas to throw himself into designing the great Miracle Play at the novel’s center? What are Nicholas’s motives? Can you contrast Jody’s response to the play with Gelis’s eventual response? Why, of all the possible Miracles in the medieval play-book, is the Nativity such an appropriate story for the novel, and for Nicholas?

3. The journeys of Nicholas, since he first left his home in Bruges years ago, have up to this point been to the far East, or the far South. The most memorable and exotic journey in
To Lie With Lions
is to the far North. How does Dorothy Dunnett exploit the territory of Iceland—its geography, its history, its economics, its symbolic resonance—in the novel?

4. “A good man is as a tree, sheltering those of his blood whom he loves.” Nicholas hears this brief allusion to family and future from the great scholar Cardinal Bessarion, and stricken, wishes it were true (ch. 36). Is it not true? Of his sons? Of the older men he believes are also of his blood? How do these shelterings deepen the potential for a tragic outcome under this “tree”?

5. Nicholas’s behavior to the king and country of Scotland causes the moral catastrophe that ends the novel: do you see any similarities or differences between this and the Emperor’s behavior to the Duke of Burgundy at the end of the novel? What grounds does Kathy have for hope at the end of the novel?

Dorothy Dunnett was born in Dunfermline, Scotland. She is the author of the Francis Crawford of Lymond novels; the House of Niccolò novels; seven mysteries;
King Hereafter
, an epic novel about Macbeth; and the text of
The Scottish Highlands
, a book of photographs by David Paterson, on which she collaborated with her husband, Sir Alastair Dunnett. In 1992, Queen Elizabeth appointed her an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Lady Dunnett died in 2001.

Books by Dorothy Dunnett

THE LYMOND CHRONICLES

The Game of Kings
Queens’ Play
The Disorderly Knights
Pawn in Frankincense
The Ringed Castle
Checkmate

King Hereafter

The Photogenic Soprano
(
Dolly and the Singing Bird
)
Murder in the Round
(
Dolly and the Cookie Bird
)
Match for a Murderer
(
Dolly and the Doctor Bird)
Murder in Focus
(
Dolly and the Starry Bird
)
Dolly and the Nanny Bird
Dolly and the Bird of Paradise
Send a Fax to the Kasbah
(
Moroccan Traffic
)

THE HOUSE OF NICCOLÒ

Niccolò Rising
The Spring of the Ram
Race of Scorpions
Scales of Gold
The Unicorn Hunt
To Lie with Lions
Caprice and Rondo
Gemini

The Scottish Highlands
(with Alastair Dunnett)
The Dorothy Dunnett Companion Volume I
(by Elspeth Morrison)
The Dorothy Dunnett Companion Volume II
(by Elspeth Morrison)

THE HOUSE OF NICCOLÒ SERIES
BY
D
OROTHY
D
UNNETT

NICCOLÒ RISING

Bruges, 1460. Street smart, brilliant at figures, adept at the subtleties of diplomacy and the well-timed untruth, Dunnett’s hero Nicholas rises from wastrel to prodigy in a breathless adventure that wins him the hand of the most powerful woman in Bruges—and the hatred of two powerful enemies.

Fiction/978-0-375-70477-2

THE SPRING OF THE RAM

Backed by none other than Cosimo de’ Medici, Nicholas sails the Black Sea to Trebizond, last outpost of Byzantium, and the last jewel missing from the crown of the Ottoman Empire. But trouble lies ahead. Nicholas’s stepdaughter has eloped with his rival in trade: a Machiavellian Genoese who races ahead of Nicholas, sowing disaster at every port.

Fiction/978-0-375-70478-9

RACE OF SCORPIONS

At the age of 21, Nicholas finds himself in limbo. His beloved wife is dead, his stepchildren have locked him out of the family business, and his private army is the target of multiple conspiracies. And both contenders for the throne of Cyprus—the brilliant Queen Carlotta and her sexually ambivalent brother James—are demanding his support.

Fiction/978-0-375-70479-6

SCALES OF GOLD

As unknown enemies conspire against him in Venice, Nicholas sets sail for Africa, legendary location of the Fountain of Youth and the source of gold in such abundance that men prefer to barter in shells. There he will discover the charms of Gelis van Borselen—a woman whose passion for Nicholas is rivaled only by her desire to punish him for his role in her sister’s death.

Fiction/978-0-375-70480-2

THE UNICORN HUNT

Nicholas seeks to avenge his bride’s claim that she carries the offspring of his archenemy, Simon St. Pol. When she flees before Nicholas can determine whether or not the rumored child is his own—or exists at all—Nicholas gives chase. So begins the deadly game of cat and mouse that will lead him from the infested cisterns of Cairo to the misted canals of Venice at carnival.

Fiction/978-0-375-70481-9

TO LIE WITH LIONS

As three courts vie for his allegiance, Nicholas finds himself embroiled in furious combat with his estranged wife for the future of their young son. He embarks on the greatest business scheme of his life—beginning with a journey to Iceland. But while Nicholas confronts merchant knights and the frozen volcanic wastelands of the North, a greater challenge awaits: the vengeful Gelis, whose secrets threaten to topple all Nicholas has achieved.

Fiction/978-0-375-70482-6

CAPRICE AND RONDO

Winter 1474 finds Nicholas exiled in the frozen port of Danzig, Poland. His Machiavellian exploits in Scotland have cost him friends and family—not to mention countless riches. As Nicholas pursues his future, his estranged wife, Gelis, seeks the truth about his past, only to discover the secret identity of his latest comrade in arms—a ghost from the past poised to deal him the crowning death blow.

Fiction/978-0-375-70612-7

GEMINI

It is 1477 and Nicholas returns to Scotland in search of personal redemption and a haven for his recently reunited family. Friends and foes from many a past adventure converge on the scene as Nicholas becomes swept up in a political involving the Scottish royal family. With tensions escalating and the secrets of his heritage emerging, Nicholas finds that peace can be the most elusive achievement of all.

Fiction/978-0-375-7085-5

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