David Drake - Out of the waters

Syra took a deep breath. She was talking more easily now that she'd gotten started.

"They were just there, these three statues, I thought they were," she said. "But they moved. They couldn't come through the door, and the windows have grates besides being just under the roof. I dropped the towel I was holding for afterwards and I guess I said something. The master shouted and her ladyship turned. I don't know if she started to get up but they, the statues, grabbed her."

Syra forced both fists against her mouth. Past her knuckles she whispered, "They fell, it was like. They just fell into the air, her ladyship and the statues holding her, spinning and getting smaller but they weren't going down. They were going away. And they were gone and the master was shouting and everybody came in from the hall and they were gone!"

The maid began to blubber again. Alphena made a moue: Syra's behavior infuriated her. She couldn't really blame the woman, but if she had to listen to more of this whining, Alphena was going to slap her just to shut her up.

"Syra," she said. "Go back to your cubby and stay there until morning. Go on, now!"

Florina took the other maid by the shoulders and turned her around, then shoved her out of Alphena's protective circle. The push wasn't brutal, but it was more forceful than necessary.

"Next," Alphena said, "where's Agrippinus? Oh, never mind, there's Callistus. Callistus, come here!"

Her mind had direction now. She was proceeding logically, with a feeling of relief because she was proceeding.

The deputy steward had just come from the office. He heard his name and looked around with an angry expression to see who was calling him.

Alphena waved imperiously. That might not have been sufficient, but a Po-Valley Gaul from her escort bellowed, "Callistus! Get your fat Syrian ass over here! Lady Alphena wants to talk to you!"

The deputy steward's expression went from being furious to being terrified in an eyeblink-the length of time it took him to get past the insulting nature of the summons to what the words actually meant. He came over to Alphena as quickly as his feet could mince.

"Your ladyship?" he said. "Is there something wrong? I assure you-"

"Hush," said Alphena. "Find one of the clerks and a runner for me. I want to send a letter to-oh!"

Anna couldn't read and write. Her husband could, but Pulto was here already with Corylus. And besides, Anna wouldn't be able to- "Your l-ladyship?" said the frightened deputy steward.

"The double litter is still here at the house, isn't it?" Alphena said, making her decision as the words came out of her mouth. "Get it around to the front with the crew immediately. I'm going to see Master Corylus' nurse at his home."

She gestured to the servants standing around her. "These men will be my escort," she said. "And find Iberus for a guide, he's been to the apartment block before."

"You should be talking to Nestor," Callistus said. "The litters are-"

He closed his mouth and swallowed when he saw Alphena's face contort.

"Want me to pop him one, your ladyship?" the big Gaul asked cheerfully.

"Let him see how those pretty teeth feel going down his throat?"

"I'll see to it at once, your ladyship!" Callistus said. He turned, shouting, "Nestor! Spartax! I need you!"

"Your ladyship?" Florina said. "The regular litter hasn't been taken back to the warehouse either, from when your father was using it. The little one would be handier if you're going alone."

Alphena looked at the girl. "I'm going alone," she said. "But I'm bringing Anna back with me."

She took a deep breath and added what she hadn't intended to say to anybody but Anna herself. "When Anna gets here, I'm going to have her help me to find Hedia. Because Hedia came to save me."

Corylus found Varus standing in his stepmother's bedroom, staring moodily at the at the wall. The painting of Neptune and Amphitrite in a conch-shell chariot being drawn by sea horses was attractive-under other circumstances, Corylus might have spent some time examining it himself-but he doubted that his friend was really thinking about art at the moment.

Dozens of servants were in the suite, chattering, shuffling, and peering closely at the furniture. As Corylus entered, a maid opened a wardrobe cabinet, stared at the contents, and closed the wicker door just in time for a footman to open it and repeat the process.

"Gaius?" he said quietly. Then, when Varus didn't react, he said in a louder voice, "Gaius Varus?"

Varus turned; his look of fierce intensity became welcoming. He said, "Publius, I'm glad to see you. Have you had any luck, ah…?"

He apparently didn't know how to end the question. Corylus smiled faintly; that was understandable, since framing the questions was the really difficult problem.

"Perhaps," Corylus said. "Is there a place we can talk privately?"

"Right here, I think," Varus said, "if Lenatus and your man-"

He gestured past Corylus to the pair of veterans who had followed him into the suite.

"-can clear the room and then stand in the hallway."

Corylus looked over his shoulder. Lenatus grinned like a drillmaster-a position he had held with the Alaudae Legion-and bellowed, "All right, you pansies! On the orders of Lord Varus, out! Every bleeding one of you. And if my buddy Pulto and me don't think you're moving fast enough, you're out the bleeding window!"

"And we won't take the grating off first!" Pulto said.

Servants either looked up in shock or hunched and stared at the floor, but they moved with surprising unanimity toward the door. Corylus heard a few whines of complaint, but no one tried to argue.

Varus leaned close to Corylus and said, "Could they really do that? The windows are too high, aren't they?"

Corylus grinned, remembering a fight he'd seen in tavern in Moguntiacum. There were no windows, but openings under the peak of the high thatched roof allowed smoke to trickle out.

"I think they could," he said. "But I don't think it'll come to that."

Lenatus and Pulto were the last out of the suite. Before he banged the door behind him, the trainer looked back and grinned again.

Corylus grinned also. "You've impressed Lenatus," he said.

"What?" said Varus, looking puzzled. "I just stood here. Goodness, I couldn't have emptied the room like that."

"You did empty the room," Corylus said. "You identified the correct subordinate for the job, gave him clear instructions, and stayed out of his way while he executed them. Any time you want a career that involves freezing your butt on the Rhine, the Army is ready to give you a home."

He visualized his friend creeping through the Hercynian Forest in loose woolen leggings with a cape over his shoulders. His laugh was real and spontaneous, a release after a very tense day. Hercules! A lot of very tense days!

"You learned something about Hedia from talking to the doorman?" Varus said, smiling mildly at his friend's pleasure. He didn't ask what had caused the laughter, for which Corylus was thankful. Varus would think he was being mocked.

"No," Corylus explained, "and I didn't expect to. I was able to talk to Pulto and Lenatus about how we might find Pandareus, or at least find more out about him, though. Which is why I was prowling around with them."

He grinned and added, "Your other servants were scared to death of being blamed for intruders getting in, so they kept as far away as they could while the three of us were muttering to one another in the door alcove."

"Very good," Varus said, nodding. "Yes, at least we know who abducted Pandareus."

He pursed his lips with a frown and said, "It seems very unlikely that Tardus and his associates were involved with whatever happened to Hedia, however."

Corylus shrugged. "I can't imagine that there's no connection, however," he said. "Anyway, we have an entry point on Pandareus and none at all on her ladyship."