they got what they deserved?’
‘Yes, I do deny that,’ Ben said. ‘They deserved to be reported to the authorities, prosecuted and punished appropriately.’
‘I prosecuted and punished them on the spot myself. What’s the difference?’
‘The difference is that you do not have the authority under law to take such an action.’
‘What is authority?’ Nicholas asked. ‘It’s just a bunch of people with titles they’ve given each other who everyone obeys simply out of habit or fear.’
‘I think there is rather more to it than that,’ Ben said stiffly.
Nicholas shrugged. ‘Maybe. But it was men in authority who —’ He broke off then and said nothing further.
‘Who what?’ Ben asked.
‘Ben, I want you to give me your word of honour that you will never tell anyone else what I am about to tell you.’
‘Will this pledge of confidentiality require me to be an accomplice to another act of criminality?’ Ben asked very stiffly.
‘No, this all happened six centuries ago. No-one will get prosecuted now. Trust me! Now give me your word.’
‘Very well,’ Ben said after a pause. ‘You have my word.’
‘It was men in authority who took Daniel’s family and slaughtered them in front of his eyes,’ Nicholas said.
‘Who was Daniel?’ Ben asked.
‘Daniel was the first Baron of Raspero, Ben. He is your ancestor. His blood flows in your veins and in mine. That is the only reason I am telling you this. I would tell no-one else, and neither will you.’
‘Why was Daniel’s family slaughtered in front of his eyes?’
‘Because he was found to be vandrizald. Do you know what that means?’
‘Vaguely,’ Ben replied. ‘Demons, or something.’
‘It was once believed that the ability to use a wand was only natural to those of noble birth. It was not realised then, as it is now, that it comes from literacy. Those of low birth who could use a wand were thought to be ‘vandrizald’, that is, of demonic origin, and they were killed as soon as they were detected. Not only that, but their whole families were slaughtered down to a precisely defined degree of blood relationship, in order to stamp out the emergence of demonic influences into humanity.’
Ben groaned. ‘If you’re saying that people in authority get things wrong, well, shiver my timbers, I never knew. This was all very harsh for Daniel, but let’s all move on, shall we?’
‘Daniel escaped,’ Nicholas continued, as if Ben had never spoken at all, ‘and nothing is known of him until an eleven-year-old boy arrived at the camp of General Galen Sarkisian, a mercenary general of the time. Sarkisian took him as one of his followers and Daniel became in due course of time a Vadim, that’s like a captain of horse.’
‘This is all very interesting,’ Ben said impatiently, ‘but what does it have to do with anything now?’
‘I am talking about our ancestor, Ben. What happened to him is as real as anything that happens to you or me.’
‘Real or not, it is irrelevant to anything now.’
‘Daniel was taken prisoner at the age of fifteen in some long forgotten battle and thrown into the Silver Mines of Sacramento as a slave. The authorities did this, Ben. Now are you beginning to understand? How would you like to be taken underground at the age of fifteen to spend the rest of your life in darkness, never seeing the sun or the sky, digging up dirt to be taken above ground to the world you had been banished from? When he arrived, Daniel was shown a man with his tongue cut out. Speak out of turn and this will happen to you, the guards told him. Then he was shown a man with his hands cut off. Raise your hands against us, and this will happen to you, the guards told him. Then he was shown a man with his feet cut off. Try to escape, and this will happen to you, the guards told him. Daniel was searched for weapons and money and tools with which to pick locks such as the lock he was chained with. But Daniel had a wand hidden on him and he was not searched for a wand because the thought never crossed anyone’s mind to do so. The wand was disguised as part of a wooden strapping around his legs. He took that wand and that very day he overthrew and killed his guards and freed his fellow prisoners, who you can be sure looked on him as a saviour, for he had indeed saved them.’
‘Is there a point to any of this?’ Ben wanted to know.
‘I am coming to the point, Ben. Picture the scene. Daniel and his fellow freed prisoners emerge above ground. They kill and capture the remaining guards and the personnel who process the silver from the ore they dig up. Now bear with me for this is the interesting part. What Daniel did then was completely unexpected, a bolt from the blue, a stroke of genius. What he did then is why Daniel is the greatest of us all, the greatest of the Rasperos, a man whose name is still held in veneration today by those who remember this tale.’ Nicholas was almost in a trance by now, but he came back to himself in order to say, ‘Which are not many, of course. This story is not in the history books. It is not generally known. It is confidential, which is why I have sworn you to secrecy.’
Ben waited, but Nicholas stubbornly refused to speak. Ben sighed. ‘All right, what did Daniel do next?’
‘What would you have done, Ben? I will not answer your question until you have answered mine.’
Ben sat and thought for a while. ‘Well, I’ve escaped from a living hell of being buried alive underground as a slave, I’ve got my freedom, so I make my way from that place without delay and seek a place of refuge where I can avoid recapture.’
‘Very good, Ben, that is excellent.’ Nicholas was highly pleased with this answer. ‘That is indeed an excellent answer. And can it be faulted? No, it cannot be faulted. It is the answer just about anyone would give to the question: what would you have done then? The obvious thing is to run for it, is it not? To escape, to run with your freedom secure in your hands while you can still get away. But this is not what Daniel did, Ben. What Daniel did was this. He climbed up to where he could address all the freed prisoners and he said to them, “I am Daniel of Sacramento and I claim lordship over these lands. Stay here and serve me, and we will continue to dig up silver from the ground, and we will divide it among ourselves, and we will all become rich men.” And they followed him, Ben. Near those mines was the riverside town of Raspero, and in due course of time Daniel became the first Baron of Raspero. He brought the King to his knees and had that Barony created just for him. Now do you understand the nature of authority, Ben?’
Ben sighed in exasperation. ‘Your tedious tale is supposed to inform me that one authority can be overthrown and replaced by another. Well, who could have guessed? Now I know! Lucky me! For Heaven’s sake, none of this means anything. It certainly doesn’t mean that you can do anything you please.’
‘It certainly does not mean that I can do anything I please,’ Nicholas agreed, ‘but it does mean that I can make up my own mind about things. Authority is just a resource to be called upon when necessary, and tonight it was not necessary because I had everything under control. I decided because I could decide. What should authority do, anyway, Ben? Should authority tell you what music to like, how to feel when you see the sunlight fall on the waters of the ocean? You talk about authority as if that means you can’t
