The Bellini Card

115

Before he left the palace, Yashim crossed the Third Court and entered the imperial archives, where the vast records of the bureaucracy that had governed millions of lives for centuries were all held.

He spent an hour going through an elaborate index, waving away all offers of help until he found the volume he wanted.

A librarian disappeared into the huge stacks, crammed with volumes of correspondence and reports, ancient scrolls, imperial firmans.

“The records you’re asking for are not yet bound.” The librarian fluttered his hands apologetically. “They have only just been delivered.”

“I’d like to see them anyway.”

The librarian frowned. “It’s against regulations to let out unbound records.”

Yashim waited.

“You can’t remove them, efendi.”

“I’ll examine them in front of you, if you like.”

The librarian sniffed. “That won’t be necessary,” he said crisply.

A few moments later, Yashim was leafing through a pile of diplomatic records.

It took him twenty minutes to find what he wanted.