Mary Reed: Six for Gold

Laughter from down the hallway mingled the voices of Europa and Hypatia, now back in residence, with the deeper tones of Peter.

“Whatever is going on in the kitchen?” Felix wondered. “It sounds as if Peter is declaiming something of great import.”

“I believe he’s entertaining the ladies with a magick trick he learned on the boat back,” said John. “For the purpose of entertainment only, of course.”

Thomas laughed. “It’s the leaping coin illusion. Dedi showed him how to do it, as Peter wanted to amaze Hypatia when he returned. It’s quite easy. All you need is a coin with a tiny hole drilled at the edge and a length of black hair or finely woven thread tied through it. A quick twist of the wrist and you can flip it out of a bowl as if by magick. It works wonderfully well, especially in dim light. In fact, I’m going to astonish Isis with it, assuming she’ll allow me to return to her employ after such a long and unexplained absence.”

Anatolius remarked that Peter sometimes surprised him.

“I expect Peter will chatter for months about our trip,” John said. “On the boat back, he observed to me that right from the time we disembarked for Mehenopolis he realized Porphyrios was not what he could call reliable. He said he’d reached this conclusion because despite the supposed charioteer’s statement about dogs running while they drank from the Nile for fear of being dragged in by crocodiles, a dog was standing quite calmly on the bank drinking from the river near where we landed!”

They went down to the atrium. Anatolius paused at the house door. “One thing more that I don’t understand. Felix, at times it appeared to me as if you really thought John had murdered the senator.”

Looking embarrassed, Felix tugged at his beard. “Yes, I could see you were puzzled. John indicated there was more to his exile than it seemed, but he was not very clear.” He scowled briefly at John. “Officially he was being blamed for the murder. I wasn’t certain how much to reveal of what I intended to do if we could not find evidence to clear him.”

Anatolius gave the excubitor captain a questioning look.

“If we could not clear John’s name-and Justinian would not-if John died for a crime he did not commit, I was prepared to take the first opportunity I had to kill Justinian. It would have been a dishonorable act to murder a man I am sworn to protect, but I knew John was innocent and as brothers in Mithra…”

“But John is so valuable to Justinian…” Anatolius argued.

John observed that many valuable subjects had been executed for lesser sins than supposedly murdering a senator.

“That’s true,” Thomas said. “I’d have expected Justinian to have Dedi dispatched on the spot for trying to foist that snake oracle off on him after all that talk about an astounding relic.”

John chuckled. “I suspect Justinian realized Dedi’s act could be used to discredit his religious opponents. Besides, the Christians’ holy book claims Nehushtan was destroyed, and Justinian certainly wouldn’t have welcomed proof the sacred writings were fallible.”

“Then the emperor isn’t likely to order anyone to Mehenopolis to seize whatever is in the maze, even if he guesses there’s more to it than Dedi’s performance suggests,” Thomas observed. “Mind you, I wager Melios will go after it while Dedi is here, and then that’ll be the end of Dedi’s livelihood.”

“I doubt if Melios has enough servants to fight his way through the pilgrims who’d rush to defend the maze,” John said. “Besides, by destroying the relic he’d deprive himself and the settlement of a good source of income. For that matter, once Dedi gets a taste of performing at court he might not care to return to Egypt.”

“It’s enough to make my head hurt,” growled Thomas. “I’m a fighter, not a plotter. Give me a fair contest, blade against blade, any day and none of this creeping around and skulking in shadows. Why, even the emperor’s at it now! He needs a few good swordsmen, I’d say! They’d settle things a lot more simply, if not as daintily as some might like.”

“Ruling an empire isn’t so simple as it seems,” John pointed out. “The imperial couple often hold themselves out in public as disagreeing on certain matters. It may be these are attempts to flush out hitherto unsuspected enemies foolish enough to declare themselves to one camp or another. Not to mention it keeps people off balance, always a good advantage to have.”

Thomas frowned. “You mean Theodora wasn’t really championing those heretics, or Justinian isn’t as orthodox as he likes to appear?”

“All I can say is that Justinian requires the support of the orthodox, but he also needs the resources of Egypt, which is not entirely orthodox,” John replied. “The emperor does not confide everything in me. Even a Lord Chamberlain can be trusted only so far.”

“I’ll wager the emperor and empress don’t even trust each other,” Thomas observed with a grin.

“That could be. Whatever the understanding or quarrel between Justinian and Theodora might be on this occasion, I believe they both keep secrets from each other. The real reason for my journey to Egypt is quite possibly one of them.”

“We ought to get on our way,” Anatolius interrupted. “Francio’s expecting a good number of guests. I think he will get them, because according to Hypatia in the last few days-in fact, ever since Dedi’s performance for Justinian and Theodora-they have admitted no further plague patients to the hospice.”

“Strange indeed,” John admitted as they crossed the cobbled square. “And yet, as followers of Mithra, should we not consider that as nothing more than coincidence?”