Part 15 (1/2)

”Kadri has just run away, for a while,” he said.

Palewski nodded, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. ”Do have some more cheese, Kadri. As for you, Yas.h.i.+m, let me find you a gla.s.s.”

”What is that?” Kadri pointed to the green bottle that Palewski had just picked up.

”Glad you asked. Late vintage Riesling.” He poured some into a stemmed gla.s.s and handed it to Yas.h.i.+m. ”Not the usual stuff, Yas.h.i.+m. Piesporter-southern bank of the Moselle,” he added, leaning an elbow on the mantelpiece and holding his own gla.s.s up to the light. ”Spatlese-n.o.ble rot, Kadri. Bishop of Fulda, I recall. Von Bibra. Heinrich? Helmuth? Plums, figs, late summer, all that sort of thing. I ran into a whole case of the stuff at Macarios's, G.o.d knows how. He thought it was some sort of German beer.”

Kadri looked surprised. ”It is alcohol?”

Palewski raised an eyebrow. ”Slate and suns.h.i.+ne, Kadri. It's late summer in the mountains-green mountains, where it rains early in the year.” He drew Kadri's attention to a colorless bottle standing on the sideboard. ”That, young man, is alcohol.”

”It is forbidden,” the boy said, primly.

”It is certainly forbidden to boys,” Palewski agreed. ”Like running away from school.”

Kadri smiled shyly, and lowered his eyes.

”Kadri didn't exactly run,” Yas.h.i.+m pointed out. ”He jumped.”

Kadri's eyes flickered toward Yas.h.i.+m.

”He got out through a window. The window,” Yas.h.i.+m added, ”was thirty feet above the ground.”

”Ah. The old knotted sheet routine,” Palewski murmured, approvingly.

”No sheets were missing.”

”A ledge.”

”No ledge.”

Palewski cast his eyes at the ceiling. ”Wings?”

Yas.h.i.+m shrugged. ”Sometimes the impossible is the only possibility.”

Kadri looked away and bit his lip; he lifted his chin slightly, instincts of pride and reserve warring in his expression.

”I couldn't work it out,” Yas.h.i.+m said, ”until I caught you, in the tree.”

The boy looked around and smiled.

”Your tutor said you could run. He didn't tell me you can jump as well. It's a talent, Kadri.”

”But not one recognized by the school, perhaps,” Palewski interjected.

Kadri scratched his burred head. ”Before Hamdi Bey took me I lived in the mountains, efendim. On my own, I mean. There was an earthquake when I was in the fields. My family was at home. My uncle wanted to take me in, but he-that is, we-” He swallowed. ”He was a hard man. I survived in the mountains. I didn't want to be caught.”

”Good for you,” Palewski said.

”There were stones, and columns, and rocks.” Kadri shrugged. ”I lived like a goat.”

”But thirty feet ...”

Kadri grinned. ”It's not so far across the gap to the other side.”

”But still ten feet, at least. And the lane between the refectory and the mosque is even wider, I imagine.”

”I can run and jump,” the boy repeated. ”It's mostly about knowing how to land, I think.”

”And from the mosque?”

”I used the minaret, Yas.h.i.+m efendi. It's small, like a tree. I swung around it, onto the wall, and off the wall onto the rooftop beyond. I didn't even break a tile.”

”Scuttling across the rooftops? What fun!” Palewski raised his gla.s.s in salute. ”And how, if I may ask, did you two find each other?”

Yas.h.i.+m laughed. ”Kadri found my sandwich.”

Palewski raised an eyebrow, and Yas.h.i.+m explained.

”I just put myself in the right place,” he added finally. ”The palace school takes you up and up, and away from the world. It's like climbing beyond the tree line.”

”With better views, in the end,” Palewski said.

”Oh, certainly. That's what they tell you, in so many words: work hard, and one day you'll get to turn around and have your view. Maybe it's over a province you govern, or an army at your command. It could be the empire, when you get made grand vizier.” He glanced at Kadri. ”But sometimes you want to stop climbing, and straining, and getting above everyone.”

Kadri pursed his lips thoughtfully.

”You make up your mind to come off the mountainside for a while,” Yas.h.i.+m continued. ”And you run down-like a stream.”

”Yes, Yas.h.i.+m efendi! You go down, you're right. In the valley there's life, there's people ...”

”Funny, isn't it?” Palewski said. ”I always wanted to run away to school. Any school. Jolly boys, ghastly masters with pretty daughters, pranks in the dormitories. Instead I had tutors at home, and my father's thoughts on Roman law and the Czartoryskis, who thumbed out their daughters like playing cards.” He looked thoughtful. ”But I'd rather have been a mountain goat, like Kadri.”

Yas.h.i.+m looked into his wine. ”I was wondering,” he began, ”whether you could put Kadri up here, for a while. If Kadri agrees.”

”Here? Why not? Be delighted. I'll tell Marta right away.” He made for the door, then stopped. ”Bit late. Tell her in the morning. I'm afraid you might have to bunk down somewhere ...” He waved a hand vaguely toward the ceiling.

Kadri's swarthy face had reddened. ”I would not wish to be a burden,” he said.