Air and Darkness (6 page)

“Why in the name of Pluto would Sentius do that?” Corylus said. Other than the fact that he was a senator and therefore wealthy, Sentius had little public profile. The only reason that Corylus had even heard of him was because the man had recently dedicated an altar to Eastern Fortune in the harbor of Ostia. Pandareus had taken his whole class to the ceremony to critique the speech delivered by Formianus, a rival teacher.

“Yes,” said Saxa. “I wondered about that.”

He stared at the wall painting above the closed door to the entrance hall. It showed Ariadne, abandoned on the shore of Naxos, waving to Theseus' ship as it disappeared over the horizon. Poking through the right edge of the painted frame were the heads of two harnessed leopards, implying that the god Bacchus was about to rescue the girl to become his queen.

“I hadn't had much contact with Sentius in the past,” Saxa continued, still looking toward the painting. Corylus doubted there was an answer there. “Just last month, though, he visited and asked to see my collection of historical treasures. I'm always pleased to show other scholars the fruits of my research, you know?”

“Indeed, Your Lordship,” Corylus said. Saxa's spirits had risen as soon as he started talking about his collections. He was a remarkably good-natured man. That was reason enough for Corylus to want to help him, quite apart from Corylus' friendship with Saxa's son.

“Sentius was particularly interested in the objects which had originally been collected by Marcus Herennius,” Saxa said. “The one he kept asking about was the Ear of the Satyr, though, and I've never heard of it. Well, hadn't till then, I mean.”

“An ear broken off a statue?” Corylus said, frowning.

“I really don't know,” said Saxa. He had stopped wringing his hands. Intellectual puzzles intrigued rather than worried him. “The collection … well, it wasn't an estate sale, exactly. Herennius was proscribed during the Second Triumvirate. The man—his nephew, I believe—who was responsible for his arrest was granted a third portion of the estate. I suppose the nephew might have taken the ear, whatever it is. But that was two generations ago, and I don't know where the broker who sold the collection to me had acquired it.”

“Was it a collection of artwork, then?” Corylus said while he tried make sense out of what Saxa was saying. Marble statues were merely cheap copies of bronze originals, and it wasn't likely that a bronze ear would be broken off … or that it would be of any importance if it was.

“Well, no…,” said Saxa, suddenly embarrassed. “Not exactly. That is—”

He grimaced and met Corylus' eyes. “In fact, Master Corylus,” he said, “it was a collection of magical paraphernalia. At one time I was, well, interested in, ah, hidden knowledge.”

Corylus showed no expression. If his host wanted to believe that the spells he had worked with the wizard Nemastes six months ago were a secret to those close to him, Corylus wasn't going to disabuse him.

“I haven't involved myself in such matters in some time—”

Not since Nemastes had destroyed himself and nearly destroyed the world.

“—but I still have some of the books and objects which I acquired while I was studying them.”

“Did Sentius' visit to you occur before these rumors began?” Corylus said. His throat was dry, but he didn't want to break the mood by asking for a carafe of wine while Saxa was talking in a lucid fashion.

“Why, yes, I suppose he did,” Saxa said, raising his eyes to the ceiling while he tried to tried to organize events in serial order. “At least
I
hadn't heard the rumors before. I wouldn't have accepted Sentius' request to visit if I had, would I?”

“Do you think…,” Corylus said. This was much like getting information of military importance from a civilian who didn't care what weapons a group of strangers had carried and who couldn't count above five.

“That is,” he continued after a moment's pause, “do you suppose Sentius thought you were lying about not having the Ear of the Satyr? Perhaps he was either punishing you or he hoped to acquire the object if you were condemned for malfeasance in office. Your estate would be condemned, then.”

“But why would he think that?” Saxa said. “If I had this ear, I'd have shown it to him. I'd
give
it to him if that would make this business go away. This is a terrible situation!”

“Yes, I see that,” Corylus agreed. The Emperor was a suspicious man. If he believed that his own secret service, the Agents for Affairs, had been subverted, his reaction would be more enthusiastic than reasoned. “Ah, I'm not sure why you're telling me this, Your Lordship?”

Saxa flashed him a sad smile. He said, “I suppose you think I'm a woolly old fool, Master Corylus. And perhaps I am.”

Corylus said nothing. Saxa was probably speaking rhetorically; and regardless, Corylus saw no benefit in answering the implied question.

“You're a friend of my son,” Saxa continued. “I trust his judgment, and I trust my own, though perhaps I shouldn't. I believe you would carry out a mission faithfully, no matter what bribes or threats were used against you.”

He paused. Corylus swallowed, then said, “I hope you are correct, Your Lordship. I think you are correct.”

“Furthermore, you are levelheaded,” Saxa said. “More so than one would expect of a boy so young. And your age is an advantage also, since no one would expect me to be sending a youth to Lusitania as my personal agent, my spy if you will. You will appear to be a young man going off as an aide to the vicar. A very junior aide.”

Saxa cleared his throat and added, “If the rumors are true, I will go to the Emperor and throw myself on his mercy. If they are false, I will lodge a formal complaint against Sentius.”

“Ah…,” said Corylus in the silence that followed. Not long ago Corylus had considered using his friendship with Varus to gain a position on the governor's staff. Corylus was suited by background and education to act as the vicar's messenger and observer in a province with rugged terrain and no little banditry … work very similar to what Saxa was asking him to perform, in fact.

Corylus hadn't executed that plan, however, in part because a series of magical events had left him too stunned to consider his future. The other part was the fact that he, Publius Cispius Corylus, had been a significant factor in preventing those events from overwhelming the world and humankind.

He grinned tightly.
My major contribution was in helping keep my friend Varus alive … but that was real.

Either Varus was a magician or the magical onslaughts that Corylus remembered so vividly were the hallucinations that he had initially tried to convince himself they were. If they were real, it had been a good thing for the world that Corylus had not been in Lusitania when Varus needed his sword in Carce.

On the other hand, if Saxa and his son were executed out of hand for treason, Corylus' presence in Carce would be of little benefit against a squadron of the Emperor's German Bodyguard.

“Your Lordship…,” Corylus said. He licked his dry lips. “I am honored by your request, but before I accept it, I need to consult with others whose opinion I trust.”

“Yes, of course,” Saxa said, lifting his chin. “Your father, Publius Cispius. A very responsible man and an honor to the Republic.”

“Yes, my father,” Corylus said.
And your son and your wife. And your daughter, Alphena, as well, because she too has been part of this, whatever
this
is, which involved demons climbing from the depths of the Earth and things even more amazing than that.

Saxa rose with Corylus. “I trust your judgment, boy,” the older man said. “And there are few enough things that I can trust in this matter.”

Corylus opened the side door of the office. There was a scurry of half-seen motion, servants scattering like mice on the floor of a granary when a watchman enters with a lantern.

First to the gymnasium to find Pulto
, Corylus thought.
After that … well, I hope then I'll figure out what to do after that.

*   *   *

A
LPHENA SCRAMBLED TO HER FEET.
Dizziness made her knees buckle, but Pulto must have expected that; his hands gripped her shoulders and held her upright until the spell had passed. She wanted to throw up, but that was momentary also.

“You all right now?” Pulto said, staring into her eyes.

Offended by the stare, Alphena jerked her head back. “Yes, I'm all right!” she said.

“He's checking to see that your pupils are the same size,” said Corylus, closing the door behind him. “Did you take a knock on the head, Your Ladyship?”

“You might say that,” said Lenatus. He'd picked up Alphena's helmet; now he turned it so that the dent was toward Corylus. Corylus whistled.

“I slipped and fell!” Alphena said. “I'm fine now.”

Her skin felt prickly, but that was more or less true. At least her stomach had settled down and her eyes were focusing normally.

“Naw, I caught her a whack on the back of the head,” Pulto said harshly. “Same as I did you, lad, when you got too big for your britches the once.”

Corylus suddenly hardened, but after a moment he relaxed. “We'll let it pass,” he said. “If you'd tried to do it in front of me, I'd have stopped it.”

“Yes, master,” Pulto said.

“He wanted you to be able to trust me,” Alphena said. The words came out as she formed them in her mind. “He said if I was closing your left side, I needed to be better. I'm glad of the lesson, and I won't forget it.”

Pulto stiffened.
To attention,
Alphena realized, and she realized also that it was a compliment to her.

“I'm sure you won't, Your Ladyship,” Corylus said with a broad grin. He touched his head behind his left ear. “I certainly haven't forgotten the time he taught me the same lesson.”

Alphena started unlatching her body armor. It was of silvered bronze, molded with a triton battling a snake-legged giant on the front panel: officers' armor, not the mail or articulated iron bands that a common soldier would wear. She'd cramped something in her left hand during the bout and it didn't want to bend up to get the catches.

“Just lift your arm, missy,” Pulto said, guiding her arm out of his way. With the ease of long practice his other hand turned the catches where the front and back joined. “Your Ladyship, I mean.”

“Were you hoping to find my brother, Master Corylus?” Alphena said.

She winced as she heard the words come out of her mouth.
I should have either shut up or just asked him directly. Mother can be arch and sound charming, but it's just stupid from me!

“Ah, no,” Corylus said, becoming ill at ease. “Ah, Lord Saxa requested that I visit him.”

Corylus paused; the three others in the room were looking at him. “He, ah, has offered me a position. I … well, there are a number of things to consider. Do you know when Varus and, ah, Lady Hedia are to return from Polymartium?”

Alphena felt Pulto lift away the armor. She spread her right arm to make it easier for him, but she didn't take her eyes off Corylus. “I believe Mother was planning to come back today,” Alphena said. “I suppose Varus will come with her since they left together, but I don't know that.”

She cleared her throat and went on, “What position would that be?”

“I'm sure your father would tell you, Your Ladyship,” Corylus said. “But I think it would be better if you asked him, especially since I'm not sure of my own plans until I've had time to discuss them.”

With Hedia and my brother. Or maybe just with Hedia!

“Pulto,” Corylus said, “I want to get back to the apartment. I have some thinking to do, and I'm scheduled tomorrow morning to deliver a set argument in class.”

“Thanks for the wine, buddy,” said Pulto, nodding to the trainer. He opened the door as servants vanished from the corridor into the house. He and Corylus walked toward the front and the street beyond.

Florina, Alphena's chief maid, had stayed in the corridor because she had a reason to be there. She squeezed against the wall to be out of the guests' way, then bowed toward Alphena. She didn't speak or enter the gymnasium.

“I think,” Alphena said aloud, “that I'll bathe here in the house. Is the bath ready, Florina?”

“Yes, Your Ladyship,” Florina said. “I saw to it myself!”

The furnace in the bathing annex was always kept burning. Saxa's wealth made this practical, but most people, even the very wealthy, preferred to walk a few blocks to the public bath where there was more space and the surroundings were more impressive.

The original builder of this house had included a gymnasium and private bath. They hadn't gotten much use until Alphena decided to train to become a gladiator. They were used even more often since Varus and Corylus had become friends. That also meant that Varus was getting more physical exercise than he otherwise would.

Varus wasn't a social youth, but he valued Corylus as a friend—probably his only friend. Though Corylus didn't actively encourage Varus to train, his friend's presence and example caused Varus to show interest in things he had never before considered.

Florina called a sharp order down the hall. Two junior maids scurried into the gym and unlaced Alphena's heavy sandals. When Alphena lifted each foot, they slipped on wooden bath clogs.

Florina's giving herself airs with the other staff.…
But that was what people did. You could punish them for it, but why? It would be like punishing the sky for raining.

“Your Ladyship?” said Lenatus with a worried expression. “Is something wrong?”

“No, not at all, Master Lenatus,” Alphena said as she walked from the gymnasium. “I was just realizing that because of the time I've spent talking to my brother and his teacher, I've begun to think about things that I didn't used to.”