Selene of Alexandria (12 page)

"Oh, thank you!" Selene clasped Hypatia's hand. "I'll be there. Nothing could keep me away."

Nothing except her father.

Chapter 9

"I see you are feeling better, Selene." Calistus stood by the fountain, arms folded across his chest. "I went to your room before mid-day meal to inquire about your health. Rebecca...reluctantly...told me you were out. She didn't tell me of your costume."

"I, uh..." Selene's hands fluttered between her brief tunic and her shorn locks, her mouth dry as dust. Antonius backed toward the door.

"You." Calistus' eyes speared the boy into stillness. "What have you been doing with my daughter?"

"He had nothing to do with this, Father." Selene stepped in front of Antonius. "He found me in the marketplace and offered to escort me home."

Calistus scowled. "You may go home, boy, but tell your father to expect me to call upon him tomorrow. I'll send a slave to inquire as to his pleasure and convenience."

"Yessir." Antonius bowed then lunged for the door.

Calistus turned to his errant daughter and shook his head. Some men went into fiery rages when angry, turning red, eyes shooting sparks. Selene's father became sorrowful, as if the punishment he meted out truly hurt him worse than it did his child. Selene trembled under his quiet censure.

"I have allowed you altogether too much freedom – lessons with your brothers, running outside the city. It's more than time you started to act like a young lady. Your punishment for this outrageous behavior is to remain in this house until the next Sabbath. No trips to the market, no visitors, and especially no running. For her part in this deception, I've dismissed Rebecca from our service."

Selene was stunned. "But, Fath…"

"Do you question me?"

"No, Father." Selene approached him, throat constricted and blinking back tears. She sank to her knees, head bowed. "I justly deserve any punishment you mete out. I deceived you, but do not put my sins on Rebecca. She did only what I asked and tried mightily to dissuade me."

Calistus bent down and tipped up his daughter's chin. "I can not have such a disloyal servant in my house."

"Father, I know no one more loyal than Rebecca. What she did, she did out of love for me, at my request." The tears broke through and streamed down her cheeks. "Please let her come back."

"My child, it is a hard lesson to learn, but you must know that your actions affect others. When you made the decision to deceive me, you not only put yourself in jeopardy, but all those who helped you on the wrong path, regardless of their motive."

"You dare compound your lies?" Calistus looked as if his heart had broken. "You hold me in such low esteem, you expect me to believe you had an audience with the Lady Philosopher?"

"But…"

"Go to your room. At once."

"Yes, Father." Selene walked stiffly from the courtyard, stifling thoughts of her father's unfairness, knowing but denying she was at fault.

Selene sullenly picked at her food that night while her father ate his meal in silent disapproval. Phillip was out, which seemed to upset Calistus even more. Nicaeus, after his first joking comments drew icy stares from his father, gave up his attempts to start a conversation.

After dinner, Selene rushed to her room, threw herself on the bed and cried herself into a sweaty, restless sleep. In her dreams Rebecca starved, begging on the streets; a disdainful Hypatia denied their meeting; Nicaeus, Antonius and Phillip surrounded her, pointing and laughing while her father stood in rigid disapproval.

"Mistress Selene?" She heard a knock at the bottom of the door. "Are you awake? I've water and dates for you." It was Anicia, Cook's youngest daughter.

Selene rolled over and groaned. There was another knock at the door. She pulled a cover over her head and mumbled, "Go away."

"Mistress Selene, are you all right?"

In a louder voice, "Go away!"

Today should have been a joyous one, her first as a student with Hypatia. She sat up. Lady Hypatia. Waiting for her at the Great Library.

"No, wait, Anicia." Selene leapt to her feet, opened the door, and yanked the girl into the room, overturning a jar of water on her tray.

"Oh, Mistress! Look at this mess!"

"Never mind. I need you to deliver a message for me. Go to Lady Hypatia, she lives in the scholar's quarter on the Road of the Peacock…" The servant girl's eyes grew big as pomegranates. "Anicia, what's wrong?"

"The Witch. You want me to take a message to the Great Witch?"

"Philosopher Hypatia is no such thing. She's a scholar and a teacher."

Anicia's jaw set in a stubborn line. "It is well known the Pagan Philosopher practices sorcerous astrology. The presbyters have forbidden such magic."

"Astronomy. She studies the positions of the planets, not their influence on our lives. Patriarch Theophilus does not condemn her. She is held in high esteem by all in the city."

"Not all." Anicia cowered at Selene's scowl. "I only repeat what I have heard in the markets and streets."

The girl's fear jolted Selene. After what happened to Rebecca, how could she even think about entangling another servant in her schemes? But what should she do? Selene couldn't let the Lady Philosopher believe she was uncertain in her will. Neither could she let Rebecca go without some word of apology or recompense. Selene sat for a moment chewing a nail while the servant girl made unsuccessful attempts to clean up the spilled water with a sopping rag.

Suddenly, Selene lay back on her bed moaning. "Leave it, Anicia. You do not have to deliver any message. I have a severe headache and wish to be left alone today. Please tell all the servants I am not to be disturbed."

"As you wish, Mistress." The girl bowed out the door, closing it softly after her.

After Anicia left, Selene rolled off the bed to paw through the pile of clothes on the floor. She found Nicaeus' tunic and shook it out.

Selene caught her breath. Her heart thudded in her chest so loud she was surprised no one heard it. It had been difficult getting out of the house unseen, but once in the streets she made her way quickly to the scholars' quarter. If she were caught, her father would have every right to beat her or send her to live with the holy women. Selene silently bargained with God, promising never to disobey her father again if she could just do what she had to and return without his knowledge.

Modest houses lined the streets south and east of the harbor. Most were three or four stories high, with families living in one or two rooms on each floor. Small shops selling leather, glass, jewelry and embroidery fronted the streets, living quarters perched above. Public baths, bakeries and cookshops adorned every street. Selene couldn't picture Hypatia living in such an ordinary neighborhood.

Selene spied a young boy coming out of a bakery, with the day's bread tucked under his arm. "Boy! Can you tell me where Lady Hypatia lives?"

He looked at her with suspicion. "You don't know where the Lady lives? You're not from around here, are you?"

"No, but I have a message for her from a student. Can you tell me the way?"

With her explanation, the boy seemed to lose interest. He pointed south. "Cross two streets, at the third, turn right. Her house is the second one on the left, by the almond tree."

Selene bowed her thanks and strode down the street. The shops thinned to single story houses on streets lined with trees. Where Hypatia lived blank walls faced outward in a more compact version of Selene's neighborhood. She knocked on the second door. The carving over the doorway had been hacked out and a crude cross painted in the blank spot. Selene had heard some Christian youth gangs engaged in this sort of vandalism, but wondered that Hypatia let it remain on her door. The sign could easily be removed or painted over.

A middle-aged woman with a pinched face answered the door, looked Selene over with a critical eye, and sniffed. "What's your business here?"

Selene bowed, acutely aware of her rumpled appearance. "I have an appointment with Lady Hypatia."

"The Lady sees no one before noon except special personages. Be on your way." The woman turned to go.

"Wait! My appointment is for later today, but I cannot make it. I wanted only to explain to Lady Hypatia my circumstances. Please let her know Selonius would wait on her for a few moments. She will be most displeased if I fail to make our appointment."

The pinch-faced woman led Selene to a small office just inside the door where she indicated the needed supplies on a plain wooden table. Scrolls and books towered in stacks against the walls, some threatening to topple. Selene had never seen so many books in a private residence. Most wealthy households kept a copy of the gospels or a book of psalms. Some who fancied themselves patrons of scholars might collect a few dozen manuscripts in a chosen field. Few collected so many. Selene speculated this was not the only room stuffed with books.

The woman cleared her throat. Selene stopped gawking and moved to the table. She took a few moments to carefully word her message then wrote in a fast, clear hand:

Selene fought back tears as she left the tablet in the hands of Hypatia's servant.

She took her bearings after exiting the quiet house, and headed further east. This next task would be much harder. Rebecca's family lived in the poorer section of the Jewish quarter, but Selene had no idea where. She had but a few hours to find Rebecca before returning home. Selene didn't want to risk her father's wrath a second day, but her obligation to Rebecca weighed heavily on her heart.

Selene entered the quarter with a sense of despair mixed with apprehension. She knew of the turbulent fortunes of the Jews of Alexandria. Brought here by the early Greek kings as mercenaries and scholars, their population waxed and waned with the political tides. Today they seemed a multitude thronging the streets, Rebecca but one among them.

This neighborhood was much like others Selene had visited. The shops contained the work of silver smiths, incense makers, perfumers and gem cutters. One merchant promised to repair damaged clothing "as good as new," and, indeed, Selene could not tell where the sample had been rewoven. But, unlike the neat and spacious homes in her quarter, these buildings tumbled on top of one another like an overgrown termite hive. The narrow roads filled with carts selling vegetables, cloth and other everyday goods. Gangs of small children raced up and down the streets kicking balls, hauling baskets, or minding even smaller children. She wandered past cookshops, bakeries and baths. Normally the scent of fresh bread made her mouth water, but today Selene's stomach knotted and denied hunger.

The street she followed emptied into a square with a fountain in the middle. One side taken up by a magnificent building, several stories high, fronted with blazing white limestone. From the solemn attitude of the men coming and going from the various doorways, Selene surmised it was a synagogue. No matter the god or goddess, all places of worship seemed to exude a sense of holiness, reverence and peace.

The feeling did not reach beyond the pillared steps of the building. Color flowed past Selene's eyes in the form of striped cloth and garish jewelry; sounds assaulted her ears. On one corner, a young woman danced to a drum and tambourine. On another, an old man played a pipe in high fluting tones that rivaled the nightingales. Over all this, voices rose in an intricate rhythm: women shouting to one another at the fountain, prayers floating from the open doors of the synagogue, children screaming as they played.

The pulsing life lifted Selene's spirit. She approached the women at the fountain and gave them a short bow. "Good day. I'm looking for a friend; a young woman named Rebecca. Her mother, Miriam, lives in the neighborhood with her four sons. Could any of you good ladies tell me the way?"

A lean woman, with graying brown hair and a droopy right eye, straightened from her task. "What kind of friend are ye, who don't know where she lives?"

The other women muttered and gave her dark looks. Selene decided to move on. Where just moments before the bustle of the square excited her, now it felt threatening. She retreated to a side street, leaned against a wall and watched a group of children play, trying to decide whether to continue. Suddenly she straightened and called to the children. "I have a copper coin for some information."