Three Wise Cats (7 page)

“Is there something amiss?”

The Greek sea captain grinned, making his face even more hideous to look upon. “Not at all. In fact, I shall be pleased to have your cats aboard, for this time I sail with a full shipload of grain.”

Gracus raised his eyebrows. “And you do not wish to sail with a shipload of mice and rats.”

Alexos nodded. “Your cats will be more welcome, actually, than yourselves. For I shall not have to feed them.” He laughed.

The men parted and Gracus hurried back to his quarters, well pleased with finding not just a very capable captain with whom to sail, but a friend of many years.

Early the next morning Gracus flicked the reins across the back of his horse, and his chariot caught the first rays of the rising sun.

Behind the chariot came another horse pulling a small cart with Citus, Polla, and the three cats in their basket.

“So that's what we looked like as we entered the outlying parts of Lepcis Magna,” Kezia commented, admiring the gleaming chariot, polished and bearing Gracus as befitted a warrior. “I wish all of the city could have seen us in our grandeur!”

Abishag settled herself to sleep in the basket while Kezia and Ira stood with their front paws upon the basket rim, looking at the sights.
At least we are now started on our way again. I hope we are still following the prophecies correctly. It has been so long since Ptolemy first taught me, I fear forgetting some of his directions.

Gracus's few possessions and the fewer yet of his servant and slave filled only part of the cart bed. In the darkest corner of the cart Asmodeus crouched beneath a wineskin.
Finally, a taste of adventure once again. A few other rats should be on board, and they may have many amusing tales with which to regale me. And if the seafaring life suits me, I will abandon my post of nursemaid to these country simpletons and remain aboard. Ah, the exotic foods I may yet sample!

Aboard the
Oceanos
, Gracus and Polla were given a cabin next to Alexos's captain's quarters. Citus would bunk with the seamen, either above or belowdecks depending upon the weather. The weather itself would determine whether their passage was easy or difficult, as well as the duration of their voyage.

Several of the sailors muttered among themselves when they first spied Citus carrying the basket of cats aboard. Alexos, who saw more with his one good eye than most captains who still had both, noticed this.
Unrest among my sailors? Ah, again those two I but recently signed. Well, I shall not be sorry if they find another ship once we reach Tyre, for I am heartily tired of their whispers and moans. I will deal with this on the morrow.

At dawn the next day the ship was fully loaded with her cargo of grain and passengers. Alexos poured wine for all aboard and then carefully poured the first cup into the harbor water, asking Poseidon for a safe journey and fair weather. He next lifted his own wine cup and poured a few drops onto the plate Citus used to feed the cats.

“And your blessing, O mighty Poseidon, on these your servants also, for they will rid my ship of vermin, and I shall bring rich gifts to your temple in Tyre.” Sailors stared as Ira sauntered up to the plate and stuck his tongue into the wine drops.

“You must take a sip, too,” he hissed at his foster sisters. “Otherwise, we will offend their gods and the sailors will fear punishment for the entire ship.” Abishag and Kezia immediately lapped up the remaining drops.

Alexos pointed to the three grouped around their plate.

“You see? These are not ordinary wharf cats or household lap cats. They will bring us luck on this voyage, as they have already brought luck to Gracus in his new orders, which will advance his career.” He told his men of Gracus's dream about two black cats and one tabby, waiting for him beside the road to Lepcis Magna. He spoke of Ira's broken leg and Kezia's near-drowning, concluding both his speech and the ceremony by saying, “Do not harm them; it is obvious they are under the gods' protection.”

Citus stood listening to the captain and thinking of how large the ship's rats were; he had seen a few as he stabled the chariot horse belowdecks. He'd brought strong, well-tanned leather with which to make a new harness for Gracus's horse during the four- to six-week journey.
I will have plenty of leather to spare. The male cat needs a leather harness to protect his
chest and neck, since his crooked leg slows his pounce a bit, and I can easily fashion wide collars for the two females. They will have some protection from rat bites in that manner.

“I still say two black cats mean two demons are now aboard,” one seaman whispered to his friend as the command to sail was passed. “What real cats would drink wine?”

“But a tabby is reputed to bring good luck,” his friend replied.

“So we throw the two demons overboard and keep the tabby. No harm in that, is there?” And the first sailor nodded to the other as he went to his station, preparing to hoist anchor.

Just before dawn the next day, sailors on watch were surprised by a small parade of triumphant cats, each carrying a dead rat nearly as large as themselves. They laid the carcasses in front of Alexos's door and then scratched on the door of the next cabin. Polla opened it, and the cats went inside Gracus's quarters to lick their wounds and sleep.

When Alexos discovered the dead vermin, he insisted Citus take a fresh-caught fish to the cats as their reward. Then the captain skinned the rats, tied their tails together, and hung the hides from a rope flung overboard.

Asmodeus ground his remaining teeth in rage. “How dare he preserve the skins of our comrades!” he shouted to the seafaring rats that night, deep in the hold of the ship. “This is outrage! This is deliberate affront!”

“What's he screamin' about?” One rat nudged another just as they prepared to gnaw their way into a tasty bundle of tallow candles.

“Don't know. Can't care,” answered his fellow rat, and then he swore as he saw Ira slip into the hold. “Hades! We're in for it now—run!”

Three more rat carcasses and two dead mice were in front of Alexos's door the next morning. Kezia lingered for a few minutes.
Those two mice are so plump,
she thought longingly.
The fish yesterday was delicious, but not nearly enough for all three of us. It isn't as if Alexos is going to eat them. Surely he wouldn't mind if I had only one.

Just then the captain opened his door. With a pleased exclamation, he bent to look at the night's catch and spied Kezia. He held out a hand to her.

“Ah, pretty one. You and your companions have hunted successfully again! I thank you, for the merchant receiving the grain promised me a reward if his goods were delivered without rat droppings.”

Kezia wrinkled her nose at the thought but wound herself around Alexos's ankles and purred.
I may be a lady cat, but I do know how to kill vermin,
she told him silently.

“You act as if you understood my words,” he said, surprised, and gently patted her. “You may have the mice for breakfast, if you wish,” he added. “I save the rats' hides because there is a peculiar merchant in Tyre who buys them for use in medicine.”

Kezia pounced on the mice and ate them quickly, looking up at Alexos as she finished. “You are sent by the gods,” he murmured. “I will see that today's fish sent to you is a larger one than yesterday. Hunting is hard work.”

9

D
AYS PASSED AND the wea-
D
ther continued fine while the cats continued their hunting. Citus had sewn his fingers bloody making the leather harness for Ira and collars for Abishag and Kezia, but he felt the cats were now protected from the rats' teeth. One evening, Alexos invited Gracus and Polla to dine with him at his table.

“I am pleased with your cats, Gracus,” he began, after they had enjoyed fresh-caught fish with sauce and other delicacies, for Alexos believed in feeding himself and his passengers and crew well. “Would you consider parting with the tabby, thus allowing her to continue to serve aboard my ship?”

Gracus frowned. “If I could be sure it would not offend the gods, you would have your cat within my next breath, old friend,” he said. “But I do not know what they wish. Have you someone aboard skilled in reading entrails?”

Now Alexos frowned. “No, regrettably, I do not.” He thought for a moment. “But I am sure I may find someone in Tyre. We shall go together to ask.”

“Agreed.”

The humans hadn't seen the tabby crouched by the open door to Alexos's quarters. Kezia's small head drooped, as did her thoughts.
No one has asked me about this. Spend the rest of my life on this smelly ship? I would have to put up with this ugly collar forever. What if we were caught by pirates—they nearly killed Alexos; just look at his disfigured face and crippled hand. He is a kind man, a good merchant seaman, but he has no servants, no real luxuries; nor does he feel the lack of them. Besides, we—I—promised Ptolemy we would stay together until we found the Messiah.

The next day saw a sudden squall brew itself up in the middle of the Mediterranean: a violent disturbance that nearly forced the
Oceanos
down to the sea's depths. The storm was so fierce, Gracus told Citus to stay with Polla in the cabin and to fasten a lid upon the cats' basket. “If we have to abandon ship,” he bellowed so as to be heard over the shrieking winds, “the cats will all be rescued together that way!” He turned then and fought his way across the deck to where Alexos stood, hands on the ship's tiller and feet planted firmly on the deck.

“This eye says it's a bad squall,” he greeted Gracus and tilted his head to the left. “And the one that can see prophesies no better. I think perhaps you must keep your cats. Obviously the gods do not want them divided!” A sudden huge wave washed over the side of the ship and carried away three seamen. Cries of fear rang out and bits of hastily mumbled prayers were heard, too, as sailors clung to ropes or the lowered sails, and the wildly heaving ship seemed to groan its last with every lashing of rain. “Get back to your cabin, Gracus! This storm is for seafaring men, not soldiers, brave though they may be.”

“What of my horse?” Gracus leaned close to Alexos and shouted to be barely heard above the waves and wind.

“He must fend for himself until we ride this out,” Alexos shouted in turn. “I am sorry for the beast, but no one can get belowdecks now—the waves are coming over the sides so rapidly, they could wash into an open hatch and sink the entire ship in seconds.”

Gracus suddenly tried to fight his way to the side as it tilted up; but he lost his footing and his breakfast in one precipitous drop of the entire ship, as she crested a wave only to have it fall below her.

Polla sat on the cabin floor when the storm first blew up and tied one end of a strong rope about her waist and the other end to a metal ring in the wall placed there for just such emergencies. Then she took the cats' basket and set it on her lap, wrapping her arms about it. She crooned to the cats and sang softly to them in her native language. Citus copied her and tied himself to another ring on the opposite wall. He marveled at her composure, and finally his curiosity overcame him. “How is it that you stay so calm in the midst of this? We may all be dashed to pieces at any moment!”

She turned her head and the thick blond braid swung across her shoulder. “This is a storm much like the one that beset the slave ship I was brought in, as we were close to the other shore of the sea,” she told him.

“So you have survived a storm such as this before!”

“No, I have survived a shipwreck before,” she corrected him. “There were only myself, the captain, and five other men who clung to the main mast until another ship found us. Two of the men died when they were pulled aboard because their injuries were too terrible.”