PIF 28

Plot Summary

Lymond and party rendezvous at the House of Gaultier, aiming to evade Roxelana by escaping through the cisterns. They are ambushed by Onophrion, who is revealed to be Gabriel's man and the source of the opium. Gaultier is killed. Marthe rescues the party by flooding the cisterns - and her treasure – with melted ice, and the party leaves Constantinople for many days of headlong flight, finally reaching Volos. They are attacked by dellies, and eventually kill them, using up the last of Lymond's resources. Philippa, Archie and Kuzum leave on a Venetian ship, and Marthe and Jerott remain to care for Lymond

Dates

Winter 1553. The day following the events of PIF 27, and then many days of flight.

Fictional Characters

(including references to characters not present)

• Philippa Somerville
• Míkál
• Archie Abernethy
• Francis Crawford of Lymond
• a negress
• Jerott Blyth
• Marthe
• Georges Gaultier
• Kuzúm
• Onophrion Zitwitz
• a delly
• a priest
• the Meddáh (referenced)
• Ishiq (referenced)
• Graham Reid Malett (referenced)
• Gabriel (referenced)
• Salablanca (referenced)
• Khaireddin (referenced)
• her mother (referenced)

Non-Fictional Characters

(including references to characters not present)

• a large old man
• Pierre Gilles (referenced)
• Herpestes
• Suleiman the Magnificent (referenced)
• Prince Mustafa (referenced)
• Roxelana Sultána (referenced)
• Roxelana's three sons (referenced)
• Leone Strozzi (referenced)
• Nicholas Durand de Villegagnon (referenced)

Locations

(Including references to other locations)

• the Golden Horn
• the Süleymaniye Mosque
• the House of Názik
• the covered market
• Beyazit's Mosque
• the House of Gaultier
• the conduits and cisterns under Constantinople
• Marmara
• Volos
• the Seraglio (referenced)
• the hippodrome (referenced)
• Baden (referenced)
• Zuara (referenced)
• Thessalonika (referenced)
• the Beglierbey's House (referenced)
• the Dauphiné (referenced)
• Zakynthos (referenced)
• Chios (referenced)
• Rome (referenced)
• Gallipoli (referenced)
• Lyons (referenced)
• Blois (referenced)
• Nantes (referenced)
• Flaw Valleys (referenced)

Literature

• none

Other References

• the First Story-teller Suhâib Rûmi
• Paradise
• Turpe est Doctori cum culpa redurgit ipsum
• the last mysterious station ... of some terrible odyssey
• Ars sine scienta nihil est
• Moist Mother Earth engulf the unclean power
• poems by Lisáni

Quotes from Dunnett

• He called her one of nature's bloody little hermaphrodites. Then he told her she was a mercenary bitch and could pay for it
• And wha a thing is an intelligent hermaphrodite bitch
• 'Thy little bride has the soul of a lion.' 'My little bride has an extraordinary rantge of erotic persian poetry', said Lymond. 'What else did you teach her, on that journey from Zakynthos?'
• Happiness, said Míkál simply.'She has the key. She will open the door, in due time, herself
• Leaving him was less like leaving even the most simple of her friends in Flaw Valleys, and more like losing unfinished a manuscript, beautiful, absorbing and difficult, which she had long wanted to read

Controversies

• what has Lymond to live for?
• where is the opium coming from?

Previous/Next

PIF 27 / PIF 29

References

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