"Who are you?" echoed back, from both the captain and the Roman.
"Thyatis Julia Clodia, an agent of the Imperium and representative of the House De'Orelio," she replied coolly. "Captain Pylos, feel free to leave harbor at the earliest opportunity." At the same time, she nodded to him, flashing her forearm—circled by an archer's wristband—for him to see. The captain nodded in response, relieved to turn things over to a superior officer, then pushed out of the cabin, muttering. A moment later, the ship trembled as he stomped up onto the deck, bull-voice shouting.
"You would be Nicholas," Thyatis continued, nodding to the shorter Roman, "and this would be Vladimir."
"I am," the man said, glowering up at her. "We also serve the Empire. We've been waiting for you, then, and your... baggage."
"My team," she said, suppressing a smile. Nicholas was standing on tiptoe now, which barely managed to bring him to her eye level. For a moment, she considered the man—he was finely muscled, with odd colored eyes, a dancer's waist and thick wrists. One eye was nearly obscured by a fierce, semicircular scar. A swordsman, she thought, looking him over. Very quick, I think, with a temper and a sharp tongue and he's never even thought of working with a woman before... Thyatis looked around the cabin, saw a table built into the wall and sat. Now they were of a height and Nicholas visibly relaxed. "Have you been apprised of the mission?"
"I have," he said. "There is a device, hidden in some Egyptian tomb. We find the thing and bring it home."
Thyatis nodded, pursing her lips. She looked Vladimir over critically and the big, black-maned Walach stiffened, then almost blushed. "There might be more than one device—the telecast—and they are heavy. Vladimir, how much can you lift?"
"He can lift an ox," Nicholas snapped, stepping between the two of them. "He's with me, my partner and my friend. Can you lift so much?"
"No," Thyatis said, pointing past Vladimir with her chin. "But my friend Mithridates can."
Vladimir turned and his eyes widened. The big African was standing behind him, completely filling the passageway, head bent over almost sideways.
"Hello," Mithridates rumbled, smiling at the Walach.
Vladimir bared his teeth reflexively, then grinned tightly. "Kind of cramped down here, isn't it?"
"It is," the African answered, backing up. Stepping carefully, he eased back up the stairs. Vladimir followed and Thyatis was sure he was relieved to escape the tension between Nicholas and her.
"We'll need both of them to move such a weight," she mused, watching Nicholas back away to the other side of the cabin. "Nicholas—what kind of missions have you taken for the Empire?"
"Whatever they gave me," he said suspiciously. "Why?"
She spread her hands, taking a breath. "Have you dealt with anything odd? With wizards or sorcerers?"
"Yes." The Roman settled back against the wall. "Vladimir and I were bodyguarding a Legion thaumaturge the last year. We were in Judea, cleaning up some local trouble, before the revolt swept over us. Then we were in Constantinople..." Nicholas' voice went hollow and Thyatis raised an eyebrow in surprise. The man seemed shaken. "That was very bad."
"I heard," she said. "I know how you feel—I've been in some scrapes where it seemed the gods were far away." A vision of flames filling the sky beyond an iron doorway tugged at her memory, but she put the thoughts and the grief they brought away with a shake of her head. Concentrate!
"This one of those?" Nicholas' expression had softened and Thyatis breathed a little sigh of relief. The tension had faded from his voice and his shoulders relaxed from guard stance. "Wizards? The dead come to life—the sky shaking with infernal voices? A chill like Thule ice in the air?"
"I hope not!" Thyatis grinned, running the tip of her tongue against the back of her teeth. "These telecasts are sorcerous, though, and the Hill thinks the Persians would give left nut and right sword-hand to secure one."
"I heard." Nicholas ventured a tight little smile. "Master Gaius said he'd seen one—all ablaze with green fire and whirling light. He said the prince used one to..."
Thyatis felt the room grow distant, rushing away from her. The tone change in the Roman's voice was plain—Nicholas knew old Gaius, and the prince—he respected them. Her eye fixed on the man's collar, finding a silver medallion there, worked in the shape of a dolphin. The crest of Caesar's house, she remembered. The Duchess' voice followed—The prince is charmed by the duradarshan and all it promises and dear Gaius Julius will bend heaven and earth to please our lord Maxian... So here is their agent, set before me as my second.
She blinked and saw Nicholas looking at her with a quizzical expression. "I'm sorry," she said, focusing on him again. "I've seen one too. An unsettling experience." She made a sharp wave with one hand, pushing away ill memories of the prince. "We believe there might be two in Egypt, or rather, there were two once and we hope to find just one, or the parts of one."
Nicholas watched her intently with his odd eyes, but said nothing.
"Do you have a problem," she said after a moment of looking back at him, "working for me?"
"No," Nicholas replied, but his jaw was clenched tight. "I was told to follow your orders."
"Will you?" she said, pushing away from the table. He licked his lips, staring up at her. Thyatis noticed his fingers were clenched tight around the hilt of his sword and for an instant, she thought she heard a singing sound, like fine glass being rubbed wet.
"I will," he said, grudgingly. Then he swallowed, as if he cleared his mouth of some poor taste, and said, "I've been the leader before, I know how it is. I—"
"Good." Thyatis said, cutting him off before he said something he would regret later. She swayed a little, as the ship shivered, pulling away from the dock. Thyatis leaned down, peering out a porthole and saw the narrow brickwork wall of the quay sliding past. Bronze rings, corroded and green, drifted past. "We're on our way, then."
She looked up, grinning, then frowned. Nicholas was already gone, leaving the cabin empty.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Alexandria, The Portus Magnus
Shirin pressed herself against a colossal sandstone foot, cloak over her mouth against billowing dust and heat. A row of gods towered above her, hands on knees, facing the sea. Dead stone eyes watched a column of Roman legionaries tramping past, hobnail boots ringing on the paving, shields gleaming in the noonday sun. Every man's face was grim and sparkling with sweat. They filled the avenue, pressing beggars and priests alike aside. Dust settled out of the air, coating Shirin's dark hair. Ignoring the legionaries—she had lost sight of Florus and his maniple in the confusion of debarkation—she turned away from the port and padded down a narrow side street. Hot dimness folded around her and the Khazar woman moved forward confidently, her face covered by a heavy veil.
Mutilated beggars whined as she passed, pushing dirty, stained bowls against her feet. She ignored them, leaving the alley and entering a wider street. Off to her left, over the turbaned heads of the multitude—pressing and shouting, every face alive with the urgent fever peculiar to Alexandria—she could see a tall, white pillar rising above brick and plaster warehouses.
That is the clock tower at the base of the Heptastadion causeway, she thought, orienting herself. Her previous time in Alexandria had been very short, though entertaining. Thyatis had led her through the warren of the city in haste and by night. Now daylight dazzled the eye, shining back from hundreds of copper pots hung on a storefront, glaring from enormous white buildings rising above the din and bustle of the street. The merchant harbor and the theater are to the left, the Serapeum ahead.
Without a pause, she darted into the crowd, slipping through a line of half-naked men carrying wicker baskets of owls. A line of obelisks marked the center of the great road, the base of each monument shining smooth—the ancient glyphs worn away by the passing shoulders and hands of the multitude. The Khazar paced herself, finding a rhythm in the current of the crowd and she followed the stream of humanity east towards the theater. If memory served, there were numerous shipping offices in the streets just north of the odeon and hopefully one of the agents could find her a ship to Pergamum and the Asian shore.
Fine-boned hands rested within her cloak, covering the hilt of her knife, touching the edge of the Eye and her pouch of coins. Dark eyes looked ahead, watching for eddies in the throng—a water-seller, a shouting priest, men arguing theology on the steps of a pillared building—watching for familiar signs. Within half a glass, a woman in the crowd—paused in the doorway of a baker's shop, her head shrouded in white cotton, silhouetted against the glow of ovens—drew her attention. Shirin slid aside, pressing herself against the nearest wall, watching the woman out of the corner of her eye.
She is of the Order. Shirin recognized something subtle in the way she walked. The Khazar woman froze, becoming entirely still, as she had learned to long ago in the stands of beech and oak at the fringe of the high prairie. The woman passed in the crowd, hands occupied with a basket of loaves, without a glance in her direction. Curious, Shirin eased away from the wall and followed, though she was amused with herself for tracking such an unwary quarry. I fled their sanctuary, she thought, watching the other woman's feet on the muddy stones of the street. Would they take me in? Shirin made a sour face, well hidden by her veil. Would I want them to?
—|—
Within a glass, the woman and her bread vanished through an inset door in a blank wall on an unremarkable side street. Shirin kept on, marking the turning into the blank-walled cul-de-sac. Her feet were tired and she was thirsty. The clinging humidity stole more moisture than it gave. A public fountain presented itself—no more than a marble trough set beside the street, warm silty water spilling from an ancient lion's broken jaws. She drank deeply, striving to keep track of children running past and the old men sitting before the doors of the houses. When she stood up, covering her face again, she realized the trail had led into a residential district.
The crowd on the street was sparse—nothing like the jostling, hot mob around the port or on one of the big avenues—and there were no official buildings, only a small temple with a stepped facade. Shirin frowned. Did the woman just go home? Or is the Order's house a hidden one? Then she remembered the Duchess' house in Rome—also on a street of houses, very quiet, unassuming. No grand temple here. Just a domus beside a sun-dappled street.
She thought of going to the blank door and knocking. Her stomach grumbled in response. I am hungry. She dabbed water from the edge of her mouth with her sleeve, then continued down the street, counting doorways. The little avenue turned and Shirin found herself at the edge of a small square. The graceful pillars of a small, neighborhood temple drew her attention for a moment, but then the smell of roasting meat made her lithe neck turn. A hostelry sat opposite the decrepit temple and men and women were eating under an arbor of vines and crosshatched slats.
Without thinking, Shirin entered the hostelry and sat, drawing back her hood, slumping in relief against the cool bricks of the ancient wall. Despite her weariness, she was careful to place her things close at hand, half-hidden under the cloak. The proprietor appeared as Shirin tucked in a fraying edge of cloth.
"Noble lady," the man said, brisk in manner, dark brown eyes flitting over her travel-stained cloak and well-made but threadbare clothing. She could feel him gauging her, finding her wanting. "Wine? There is roast mutton, some lentils..."
"That will be fine," she said, giving him a reserved look. She caught sight of an amulet hanging around his neck: horns and a bull's head. He bowed, waiting impatiently while Shirin pressed two coins into his hand. The innkeeper hurried off, sandals slapping sharply on the tiled floor. The Khazar woman relaxed again, wondering if there were private rooms to eat, either above the taverna or nearby. From this place, she could see the entrance to the little street, but no more.
"Here you are." The innkeeper returned with a platter and slid wooden bowls of olives, shelled nuts, steaming hot lentils and a slab of mutton onto the table in front of her. "You've a knife?"
"Yes," Shirin said, her stomach stabbing with pangs of hunger. Despite an urgent desire to tear into the meat, she raised the wine cup and spilled a little on the floor. "For the bull and the sun," she whispered, just loud enough for the innkeeper to hear. The words woke a genuine smile and the man bowed in proper greeting. Shirin made a seated bow in return, waiting until he had bustled back inside before she slipped out her knife and cut a slab of spiced meat for herself.
—|—
A familiar accent roused Shirin from a warm doze. She was lying on a bench on the roof of the inn, under flower- and vine-heavy trellises, her cloak as a blanket, a borrowed basket as a pillow. Men clattered up the stairs, muttering in low tones. Shirin's eyes opened, then settled to bare slits. Two men appeared in the stairwell, bent under heavy burdens. Dust tickled her nose and she smelled the desert, camels, sweat and chipped limestone. Laborers? Speaking Greek with Persian accents—not likely!