The Religion by Tim Willocks Page A

without some violence on the docks, all of it to the cost-it hardly need be said-of a gaggle of thwarted pimps. For this deed the ladies considered him gallant, not least because they were surprised to discover that whoremongering, along with vomiting and pissing, were forbidden within the Oracle. Even so, the girls made a handsome contribution to his business, for men came to slake their eyes as much as their thirsts, the latter intensified greatly by frustrated lust. Since the girls knew that unwelcome attention was punished with even greater severity than the use of their master's chair, they paraded their charms without shame and with a singular lack of pity, both of which attitudes Tannhauser wholeheartedly admired.
    Dana raised a glazed earth jug and gave him a smile that was demure by design alone. He resisted more wine by placing one hand over hisbeaker but failed to prevent the other from caressing the calf beneath her skirt. Her skin was cool and smooth and luscious to his touch, and she brushed her breast against his cheek and murmured some Serbian endearment beneath her breath. He shifted in his seat, admirably aroused, and slid his hand up higher beneath the cotton. She'd shared his bed, and a number of spontaneous assignations in the bowels of the warehouse, for the last several weeks, and with the frequency of these trysts now climbing to several times a day, he knew he should know better; but the idea of a visit to his chamber, with the wine and sausage settling on his stomach, presented itself as one whose attractions were vast. Love was good for the digestion and while he had a number of chores to perform he could think of none, at that moment, that could claim great urgency. He inhaled her body's perfume and sighed. A short nap afterward and what further joy could the Cosmos possibly offer?
    His palm cupped her buttock and his fingertips settled in the muscular cleft of her arse, and he was inspired to wonder at the boundless perfection of Creation when it took such form. Dana tugged at his hair and he pushed back his chair. Yet in his erotic reverie he'd lingered too long. Before he could take her arm and steal away, Sabato Svi emerged from the Oracle's depths and sat himself down at the table.
    Beyond a courteous nod, Sabato paid Dana and the glare with which she fixed him no mind at all. He spread a place among the books for his elbows and shook the oily curls that dangled from under his yarmulke and smiled with the deep-set eyes in which there always burned a flame of Divine Madness. Sabato plucked a letter from his sleeve and Tannhauser flinched. He could not quite bring himself to withdraw his hand, but out of a vague sense of etiquette he kneaded Dana's flesh with lesser vigor and mustered a greeting.
    "Sabato," said Tannhauser. "What news?"
    "Pepper," said Sabato Svi.
    Sabato was a Jew of fearless temper from the Ghetto of Venice. At twenty-seven he was ten years Tannhauser's junior and his senior in matters vital to their prosperity. They'd been partners for half a decade yet in all that time had never quarreled, even when some oversight had left them facing slavery or worse. He delighted in provoking outrage by slyly calculated slurs, by walking out in mimed fury as an arduous negotiation reached its climax, by asking impertinent questions of ruffians thrice hissize. Yet with few, if memorable, exceptions, Sabato contrived to emerge in a position of advantage. Tannhauser was chary in his affections, for those he'd favored had proved themselves too prone to calamity, but if anyone was destined to bury him it was Sabato Svi. Tannhauser loved no man more.
    "I've told you before," said Tannhauser, "I know little or nothing of pepper and have no great itch to learn more."
    "And I have told you-before-everything you need to know," Sabato replied, "which is that its price better than quadruples between a warehouse floor in Alexandria and the market stalls of Venice."
    "If, that is, I can avoid the tonnage