Pastwatch- The Redemption Of Christopher Columbus - By Orson Scott Card Page 0,103

praise of the King. Thus he was able to win the general approval for his most important stipulation: "untried foreigner."

"Of course, after the voyage, which Your Majesties have already agreed to authorize and fund, if he returns successful, then he will have brought such honor and wealth to the crowns of Spain that he would deserve all the rewards he has asked for, and more. He is so confident of success that he feels he already deserves them. But if he is that confident, surely he will accept without hesitation a stipulation on your part -- that he receive these rewards only upon his successful return."

The King smiled. "Santangel, you fox. I know you want this Colyn to sail. But you didn't get your wealth by paying people until after they delivered. Let them take the risk, is that it?"

Santangel bowed modestly.

The King turned to a clerk. "Write up a set of capitulations to Colyn's demands. Only make them all contingent upon his successful return from the Orient." He grinned wickedly at Santangel. "Too bad I'm a Christian king and refuse to gamble. I would make a bet with you -- that I will never have to grant these titles to Colyn."

"Your Majesty, only a fool would bet against the conqueror of Granada," said Santangel. Silently he added: Only an even bigger fool would bet against Colyn.

The capitulations were written in the small hours of the moming, after much last-minute consultation between the counselors of the King and the Queen. When at dawn a beadle was sent to deliver the message to Colyn, he returned flustered and upset. "He's gone!" he cried.

"Of course he's gone," said Father Perez. "He was told that his conditions were rejected. But he will only have left at dawn. And I suspect he will not be riding quickly."

"Then fetch him back," said the Queen. "Tell him to present himself at once before me, for I am ready to conclude this affair at last. No, don't say 'at last.' Now hurry."

The beadle rushed from the court.

While they waited for Colyn to be brought back, Santangel took Father Perez aside. "I didn't figure Colyn for a greedy man."

"He's not," said Father Perez. "A modest man, in fact. Ambitious, but not the way you think."

"In what way is he ambitious, then, if not the way I think?"

"He wanted the titles to be hereditary because he has spent his life pursuing this voyage," said Perez. "He has no other inheritance for his son -- no fortune, nothing. But with this voyage he will now be able to make his son, not just a gentleman, but a great lord. His wife died years ago, and he has many regrets. This is also his gift to her, and to her family, who are among the lesser nobility in Portugal."

"I know the family," said Santangel.

"You know the mother?"

"Is she still alive?"

"I think so," said Perez.

"Then I understand. I'm sure the old lady made him keenly aware that any claim to gentility he had came through her family. It will be sweet indeed for Colyn if he can turn it backward, so that any claim of true nobility for her family comes through their connection to him."

"So you see," said Perez.

"No, Father Juan Perez, I see nothing yet. Why did Colyn put this voyage at risk, solely to gain such lofty titles and absurd commissions?"

"Perhaps," said Father Perez, "because this voyage is not the end of his mission, but the beginning."

"The beginning! What can a man do, having discovered vast new lands for Christ and Queen? Having been made viceroy and admiral? Having been given wealth beyond imagining?"

"You, a Christian, you have to ask me that?" said Perez. Then he walked away.

Santangel thought himself a Christian, but he never was sure what Perez meant. He thought of all sorts of possibilities, but they all sounded ludicrous because no man could possibly dream of accomplishing such lofty purposes.

Then again, no man could possibly dream of getting monarchs to agree to a mad voyage into unknown western seas with no high probability of success. And yet Colyn had achieved it. So if he had dreams of reconquering the Roman Empire, or liberating the Holy Land, or driving the heathen Turk from Byzantium, or making a mechanical bird to fly to the moon, Santangel would not bet against him.
* * *

There was famine now, only in North America, but there was no surplus food anywhere else to relieve it. To send help required rationing in many