Written in the Ashes (44 page)

Hannah nodded and he drew her close and kissed her.

Alizar said nothing and busied himself with balancing the bags on the camel, for he was unsure if she had told Gideon all there was to know when she had reluctantly accepted his proposal the day before. He just hoped she would not do anything foolish. As if reading Alizar’s thoughts, Hannah drew out the silken cord from between her breasts where the shard of the Emerald Tablet rested, showing it to Gideon. “The Pythia said no harm could come to me as long as I wore it.”

So.

Hannah was discovered on the second day out of Alexandria. She had managed to hide herself in between a carpet and a grain bin on top of the larger camel. She was just small enough to curl herself into place and wait through the terrible heat until the night came. Then she snuck out and relieved herself while the men slept, and nibbled on a piece of dried mutton she had brought in a satchel at her hip. It was Jemir who found her on the second morning when he went to rummage through the bags for a missing pot he was certain he had packed.

Alizar was infuriated that she disobeyed him, but she stood before him, humbled and without protest. When he finished admonishing her, he sat down and offered her a date.

“You are not sending me back then?” she said.

Alizar shook his head. “Eat something. We cannot turn back now.”

Hannah dipped her fingers in the bowl and looked up to see Tarek behind the dying fire, staring at her, his eyes full of lust and hatred. At least she had her knife, and Gideon his sword. She resented Tarek, but felt his threat to her was finished. She could see it in his eyes.

Quite soon, they were three days out from Alexandria, and waiting in the shallow cave for the noonday sun to pass. Gideon and Alizar poured over the half-dozen maps of the desert they had acquired from the Great Library, checking them against each other, Gideon utilizing his years of travel and familiarity with cartography to close the discrepancies. The others sat in a circle, sharing water and throwing back handfuls of almonds and dried figs. The cave was a welcome relief from the egregious sand that burrowed into every bodily orifice. They shared it with only one other inhabitant: a skeleton that lay partially mummified by the desert, sprawled on its side, the jaw slightly agape as if its occupant had died in astonishment, or perhaps uttering some final words of warning.

“Alizar, that thing sickens me. Why must we camp here?” Tarek pointed at the skeleton as he entered the cave, smacking noisily on a strip of dried meat.

Hannah laughed. “That from the boy who always takes the catacombs to the library.”

Tarek just stared at her in response, and Gideon shifted on his feet, picking up on Hannah’s discomfort.

“What are you looking at, Tarek?” Gideon growled.

Alizar set down the map in irritation. “Tarek, you begged me to join this caravan, and I was reluctant to let you, if you recall. I gave only one condition. Can you name it?”

Tarek’s shoulders slumped forward and his eyes fell to the floor in front of him like a child. “No whining,” he said.

“Yes, that sounds accurate. Now, make yourself useful and help Jemir with our supper. We will be finished in a moment.”

Gideon and Alizar went on for another hour discussing the old maps, then walked out to measure their course against the path of the sun. They were not in agreement about their position. There were two mounds of rock that contained caves pictured on each of the maps, one due west of the other. Gideon seemed to think they were occupying the eastern outcropping, Alizar the west. It was Gideon who surrendered to Alizar’s way of thinking against his better judgment, but the discrepancy was only slight; in the end they would be merely half a day to the east of Siwa if Alizar’s course was off. The maps had belonged to Cleopatra, who had made frequent visits to the oasis, so each man felt confident in their reliability, if only they knew which one would be the more so.

As they huddled around the fire that night discussing the adventure and the miles ahead, Jemir questioned Alizar about the Oracle of Amun-Ra. “What do we actually know of it, aside from legend?”

“Very little.” Alizar smiled. That was the enchantment for him. No one from Alexandria had been to the oracle for hundreds of years. This factor alone had persuaded him to let Tarek join them, for Tarek’s artistic facilities would enable them to return to Alexandria with not just memories, but sketches. “Apparently, Cleopatra thought so highly of the anti-aging properties of the mineral baths that she took frequent trips from Alexandria. Still, I wonder how much of that is mere rumor.”

“When was the last time anyone summoned the oracle?” asked Hannah.

Alizar leaned back on his elbows and stretched his legs. “I have no idea. The library shows no record of it. But the Oracle of Amun-Ra is ancient. It was named for the god Amun, or Amen; this is the word we still use in most languages to close our prayers, as it heralds the sun. Perhaps Alexander was the last to summon the oracle. Do you know, Gideon?”

Gideon nodded. “It is true. We know of no other after him.”

Hannah let her eyes trace Gideon’s form beneath his dusty
tunica
. She did not know much of this man yet, save for his strong, stubborn character, and the strong but lithe body that housed it. The decision had been a difficult one for her, but ultimately, the one she thought her father would advise her of, which was her reason for acquiescing to his proposal. She was pregnant. She needed to make a decision that would protect the child, however she felt about it.

When they had made love the night before the caravan departed, she had felt a mix of emotion from wanting to please him, to longing for Julian’s embrace, to concern that Gideon would see the mound in her belly and the deception she was attempting to pull over on him. She had pulled the sheet over her hips.

“You are so beautiful,” said Gideon. “Like a goddess.”

She smiled for the first time at the words. So be it. She knew that such a man as Gideon would never have chosen her if she had been ugly or misshapen. And he seemed to truly love her. Her fate could be worse. Much worse, indeed. Alizar could have sent her to the brothels to sell herself beside Mira when he learned she was pregnant. Hannah shuddered. She hoped she would learn to love him.

So.

Alizar sat back beside the fire Jemir had created from camel dung and lit his pipe. He looked at Hannah, and then to Gideon beside her. In the small cave, Gideon’s presence was imposing, his massive chest broader than a bull’s. Alizar knew how brash he appeared. So much charisma should never be squeezed into one human being. Still, he reminded himself to find the time to tell Hannah that beneath Gideon’s fearsome exterior was a man of refined spirit, as he had a passion for poetry and a gift for nursing sick plants in Alizar’s herb garden whenever he came to visit. In truth, Alizar preferred Gideon’s company to many of the aristocrats and philosophers of the Great Library, for he had retained his humanity.

“And how are things faring in the church of St. Alexander?” Gideon kicked Alizar’s foot playfully with his own. “You talked any sense into the bishop yet?”

“Currently, my impression of the church is that its clergy care a great deal more about preaching against supposed heretics and heathens than they do for instructing their flock to follow the example of Christ. Of late, Cyril’s sermons resemble instructions on how to dispose of what he considers the filth of Alexandria: the scientists, mathematicians, philosophers; those bastions of sorcery and black magic, the Jews; the beggars. Oh, and us, of course.”

“Do you think Cyril will actually follow through with the reconstruction of the Heptastadion bridge to Pharos?” asked Hannah. This was the latest news in Alexandria. No one could remember when or how the bridge that separated the two harbors had collapsed, although Hypatia surmised it had probably fallen during one of the city’s many earthquakes some hundred years earlier. This had proved fortunate for the preservation of the temples of Isis and Neptune, although massive amounts of fuel for the lighthouse had to be shipped across the harbor on a barge, an expensive and laborious endeavor just to keep the light shining. Still, it was slightly less daunting than finding an architect the city could afford, as its economic seat in the Empire had crashed since the drought had diminished Egypt’s grain supply. There was simply nothing to export. Gone were the days of Caesar’s prolific economy. Still, with the many donations pouring into their church, the Christians could no doubt take on the expense of the bridge, which would give them access to the little isle, the last stronghold of pagans in the entire Empire.

“Yes, I do.” Alizar shook his head in a burdened way as though he had already considered the subject from every possible angle. “Cyril has control of the mob. They heed his every word. They would build him a bridge to heaven if he asked it of them.”

The conversation then turned to talk of the Great Library, Hypatia’s newest lecture series, and Sofia’s apparent interest in Synesius. Alizar seemed outwardly pleased with the match, though he tended to keep his private feelings to himself. His answers were pithy, punctuated with yawns as he pulled off his boots and rubbed his swollen toes.

As the heavy bellied moon came up in the east, talk died down and turned to preparing the camels for the hours of trekking ahead. Hannah sat and listened to the crackling of the fire, and watched the stars wheeling overhead until Gideon came for her. He reached his hand for hers and pulled her to her feet, his eyes full of admiration for the woman out of all the women he had met who he found worthy enough to make his bride.

So.

After three nights of traversing the desert navigating by the stars, the moon’s generous light began to wane, and they decided to walk by day to ensure no one stepped on a snake or a scorpion. Alizar checked the maps and sighed, as they seemed to be on course.

Gideon stood at Alizar’s shoulder, the two men equal in height as they trudged along the spine of a broad dune. “I just want to be certain that we remain aware of the passing of time. We cannot stay in Siwa. We must be certain we turn back within a week of arriving.”

Alizar nodded. “The
Kahmsin
winds.”

“You have experienced them?”

“No, but I hear they blow for fifty days across the southern desert.”

“We have until the end of winter.”

Alizar nodded in agreement. “We best pick up the pace.”

The caravan struck out over the dunes and camped within a small outcropping of boulders above a dry earthen lake that night. The next morning Gideon was the first to rise. He went for a quick walk along the salt flat beyond their camp to find a suitable place for them to cross. Then he reached into a fold in his white
tunica
and pulled out a single smooth, black pebble and dropped it on the ground. Since the records in the library said the journey to Siwa was expected to take ten to twelve days, Gideon had filled his pocket with twelve small stones, dropping one each morning as a method of keeping time in the desert, a landscape where time could be extremely deceptive, especially traversing the same rolling dunes or flat parched earth day after day. He had spoken to the stones and asked them to mark their place along the path so that they might return the way that they had come. When Gideon had explained it to Alizar, Alizar had raised one eyebrow contemplatively and said, “Hmm, a Siwan Ariadne’s thread,” referring to the lovely maid who had spun a ball of thread for Theseus to find his way out of the labyrinth of the Minotaur once he had slain the beast.

When everyone was roused and sipping cups of steaming tea, Hannah looked up. “Where is Tarek?” She had not felt him staring at her in over an hour, and the pleasantness of the sensation was so unfamiliar that she commented on it.

In the pale lavender light of morning, everyone set down their cups and scanned the surrounding area for the familiar figure of their friend.

Then, as if on cue, Tarek came running out from behind the boulders in a frenzy, shrieking and slapping at his neck. “Get it off me!” he screeched. “Get if off me!”

Alizar and Gideon rushed to his immediate assistance. The desert was filled with reasons why Tarek would be in such a state. The men just hoped it was not one of the more serious.

“Tarek, calm yourself. Take a deep breath. What happened?” said Gideon as he grasped Tarek by the shoulders.

“My neck,” said Tarek fearfully, his voice quivering.

Slowly, Gideon touched the skin. A red welt the size of a goat’s nipple was already swelling up.

Gideon looked at Alizar gravely, and then to the side of Tarek’s neck. Both men knew the mark of a scorpion.

Gideon continued to examine the welt. “Did you see the creature?” he asked Tarek, who shook his head. “The sting is fresh. I think we can get most of the venom. You will be fine, Tarek. Where were you sleeping?”

Tarek pointed to an outcropping of jagged stone.

“Alizar, would you and Jemir have a look for the scorpion? If it can be found I will know better how Tarek will fare.” What Gideon said was mostly true. Certain scorpions were more pernicious than others, but everyone reacted to them differently. Gideon too had been stung several times, but with his father’s thick Greek blood, had never reacted with more than a momentary dizziness, such was his constitution. He could only hope that Tarek’s Egyptian blood would respond as well.

“Is there anything I can do?” Hannah wrung her hands nervously. She hated Tarek, but she did not wish him dead. She had seen enough death already.

Gideon shook his head. “Pray.”

Alizar and Jemir began to search Tarek’s sleeping site as Gideon sucked the welt of its poison, spitting the bitter juice upon the ground. Hannah stood beside him, both hands clamped on Tarek’s shoulders to hold him still.

Gideon took some water into his mouth from a flask and spat, and then raised a knife to Tarek’s neck. “This is not the best place to have been bitten, but we got to it quickly. Time will tell. We need to cover the welt in snake powder and clay. The medicine will draw out the rest.”