The Shadow of Ararat

by Thomas Harlan

  "You were in a coffle with twenty or thirty others brought in from the provinces, hands bound behind your back, only a slip of a girl in rags. Just one of dozens of children sold to the market to pay the debts of a poor family. You had pretty hair, though of course it was matted and rough. Your legs were strong and you had not surrendered yourself yet. That struck me the most, I think, that you were so new to the chain that you had neither received a brand nor had the life beaten out of your eyes."

  Thyatis blinked, coming back from a distant grim memory. In the moment of inattention, Anastasia had moved around the table and now knelt at her side, long fingers running through the younger woman's hair. Thyatis struggled to keep from flinching away.

  "Your hair is much nicer now," she said, brushing it back from Thyatis' high cheekbone and neck. "You are better kept." Anastasia rose and returned to the other side of the table. Now she sat, wide awake, no longer dreaming of ancient days. "There is work for you."

  The older woman paused, thinking, then continued: "The state has come to a critical period. The Emperor sits easily upon his throne here in Rome, all of his enemies in the West humbled. The people have recovered some of their spirit that was lost in the plagues and the civil war. The fisc, of a wonder, maintains a surplus of coin, and the provinces are beginning to be profitable once again. Despite the unmitigated disasters of the last three hundred years, the Empire has survived and, even now, prospers. It is a dangerous time for the Senate and people of Rome."

  Thyatis raised an eyebrow at this last statement. Anastasia nodded, her lips quirking in a quick smile. "No greater trouble has ever come to Rome than under the reign of an Emperor without pressing concerns. It is in such times, when the future seems unlimited and rosy, that grand plans and visions intrude into the business of maintaining a vast state, stretching thousands of miles from the dark forests of Britain to the sands of Africa. Experience shows, again and again, that the hubris of the Emperor—the quest for some unguessable destiny—is a sure road to disaster. We are now at such a point again as faced the Divine Caesar or the great Emperor Trajan or the first Aurelian. It seems like the tide, repeated over and over again."

  Anastasia paused, pulling her hair back and binding it in a loose fillet of dark blue silk. In the dim light of the lanterns, and now the moon peeking through the gauze drapes, she seemed burdened by a great weight. Her hair tied, she lay back among the cushions.

  "If this is the will of the gods, there is nothing that a mortal can do. But if this is the doing of men, of their ego, of their vanity, then there is much that a mortal woman can do. There is much that I can do. There are things that you can do." Anastasia's voice was a low burr, echoing from the peaked roof of the little room.

  "I serve the Emperor, though I have no office. All those who serve me serve him, and through him the Empire itself. We operate outside of the strictures of the law, as you did so recently in the dyers' district. I have known the Emperor for a long time, and he has my complete loyalty. Yet..."

  She stopped and sat up. Thyatis put down the cup of wine, meeting her gaze.

  "What do you know of the Emperor and his brothers?" Anastasia asked.

  Thyatis shrugged. "What anyone knows. Galen is Emperor and God. His younger brothers, Aurelian and Maxian, are his left and right arms, extending his reach to all corners of the Empire. In time, when Galen dies, Aurelian will take his place on the Purple and will become a god himself. One presumes that Maxian will serve him as well."

  The older woman sighed, shaking her head. "To be expected, I suppose. Let me tell you of them:

  "Primus, Martius Galen Atreus is our Emperor and God. He is the Emperor of the West, as decreed by the Divine Diocletian in the separation of the greater Empire into two halves. I do not know if your studies covered history, but this was done to resolve problems of rule that the old Empire experienced due to its sheer size. Galen is the son of a regional governor, Sextus Varius Atreus, who was long the administrator of the region of Gallia Narbonensis in southern Gaul. During the most recent civil war, Galen and his brothers were successful in leading the Spanish and African legions against the other pretenders, Vatrix and Lucius Niger, to capture Rome and drive out the Franks and Goths.

  Anastasia paused and sighed.

  "Even dreadful events can bear good tidings with them. The plague that took so many Romans slaughtered the Frankish and Gothic tribes. Too, the principalities beyond the Rhine frontier have grown strong enough to halt the advance of the tribes farther east. Galen was very lucky in battle to win the Purple. He is, to my experience, wise and cunning. He seems to understand the mechanisms of rule as well as any Emperor in the last two centuries. That he has two capable siblings who have not, yet, conspired against him, bodes well.

  "Secondus, the next younger brother, Aurelian Octavian Atreus. A brave fellow, though well nigh heedless in battle—some would say the perfect commander of the equites. Well loved by his elder brother. By all accounts and experience, he is utterly loyal to Galen and to the Empire. It is he who will be our next Emperor, for Galen has yet to have any children. Aurelian, on the other hand, has a thriving brood of yelling brats, all as strong as horses and as much like their father as peas in a pod."

  Anastasia paused again, her look grim, and she took a long drink from her own cup. A light breeze came up, parting the curtains, and she rose. Pinning the curtains back, she savored the clean night air. From the distance, the sound of bells and gongs echoed from the nearest temple.

  "Look," she said, "the priestesses of Astarte are rising to meet the moon."

  Thyatis looked out, kneeling next to her patron on the cushions. Far away and below, in the swale at the northeastern end of the Forum Romanum, the domes of the temple of the goddess of the moon were lit by hundreds of candles. All else in that district was quiet and dark, but now the moon had risen high above the Latin hills and the pinpoints of light rose as well, one by one, into the dark sky.

  "Ah," Anastasia said, "as pretty as ever." She laid her hand possessively on Thyatis' shoulder. The younger woman trembled a little under the light pressure. Idly, Anastasia stroked her hair. Thyatis grimly kept from leaping to her feet or lashing out with the edge of her hand.

  The matron continued, "Aurelian is all that the popular troubadours would have an Emperor be—brave, handsome, kind to children and women in distress. Possessed of a noble bearing and a clear voice. Sadly, he is not the best Emperor for us, for the State, for the Senate and the People. Do you know why, child?"

  Thyatis, mute, shook her head no. Anastasia slid the drape of the younger woman's dress off her shoulder. Her long fingers ran over Thyatis' smooth flesh, raising hundreds of tiny goosebumps. Part of Thyatis' hidden mind began to gibber in fear at the intimacy of the delicate fingers. Still, she remained still, though her left hand slid quietly between her thighs.

  "Because he has not the sense of one of his beloved horses." The older woman sighed. "He would doubtless ignore the business of the Offices, or hand those paltry details such as the shipment of grain, or the state of the coinage, off to advisors and seek out adventures, glory in battle. He would be slain on some muddy field by a chance-shot arrow, or thrown by a tiring horse, or vomiting his life away in encampment around some Frankish hill-town. Stand, my dear."

  Anastasia rose, Thyatis' hand in hers, so that both stood. Thyatis' robe, unclipped, fell away in a dark puddle at her feet. Anastasia smiled again, her face mostly in shadow. The breeze had snuffed the candles and lamps, leaving only the moonlight to wash over the younger woman's naked body.

  "No," the matron continued, "Aurelian will not do. But, tertius, Maxian Julius Atreus, now, he is a young man with potential. The potential to be a very fine Emperor. And he is a young man, with a young man's preferences... you will please him greatly, I think."

  Thyatis flinched at last, as if struck. The Duchess, seeing her fear, laughed softly.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The School of Pthames

  Dwyrin woke to sem
idarkness again, but now there was no crane-headed man looming at the foot of his bed. Instead there was cool dimness and long slats of light falling across the sheets. As he woke, coils of shimmering red and blue light flared quietly around the door frame, ran along the heavy wooden beams of the ceiling, and slithered down the ridges of the cotton quilt. He blinked and they were gone, the stones and beams of the room solid and distinct, even clear in the subdued light.

  Dwyrin rose up, expecting to wince at the movement, but there was no pain. He felt oddly calm, like a deep well had opened in him and its strong waters carried through his limbs to his ringers. The room was small, with a low writing table and two chests of burnished dark wood, bound with bronze. Scrolls of the writings of the teachers hung along the walls, revealing portraits of stars, of diverse animals, of cabalistic signs.

  A master's room, he thought. None of the apprentices or students rated a room to themselves. What has happened to me? The stones were cold under his bare feet. He tested his arms, his stomach. He remembered flames, being consumed in fire. There were no marks upon him, nothing to indicate the things he half remembered. His stomach growled suddenly and he realized that he was famished.

  His tunic and belt were under the low bed, and thus attired he ventured out into the corridor. How am I going to get breakfast! he thought. By the height of Ra it's too late for the students or masters to be eating. The cooks have their eye on me, and no one will have thought to smuggle me food.

  Dwyrin stood in the shadow of the hall, distressed to realize that there was no friend among his fellows that he could truly call upon at this time. Patroclus had been sort of a friend, but the prank with the bees had ended that. He shook his head, trying to clear away the dark thoughts. I could just wait, he mused, but no, I'm too hungry.

  Padding quietly on the smooth tiles, he reached the end of the hallway and looked down from the second story of the masters' quarters into the garden below. Beyond its red brick walls lay the kitchen building and beyond it the students' dormitories. Dwyrin looked warily about and skipped quickly down the wooden steps into the garden. The garden was quiet, with the subdued buzz of bees and flies muted in the sunny morning. Tiptoeing, he passed through a high hedge to reach the rear wall of the garden. Here the bricks of the wall were sheathed in white stucco and covered with ivy and roses. Dwyrin backed up, eyeing the top of the wall and measuring it for his leap. Taking another step, he collided with a solid figure, whose hand settled easily on his right shoulder. Dwyrin froze and the hand spun him easily around. A thin old man, barely his own height, stood there, clad in a simple white kilt and tunic. His head was bare and a rich bronze color. Thick white eyebrows hooded his eyes. The old man smiled, his entire face crinkling up like parchment.

  "Apprentice Dwyrin, I am surely pleased to make your acquaintance at last. I am Nephet. Surely you must be hungry now after your interesting experience. Please, come with me."

  The little old man's hand was soft on his shoulder, but Dwyrin found himself firmly guided back across the garden and then into the ground floor of the masters' quarters. As they entered the hallway that bisected the main floor, they just missed Ahmet, who came down the stairs into the garden rather quickly and then stood, looking around in concern.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Cumae, On the Bay of Neapolis

  Maxian trudged up the long pathway from the narrow beach that lay below his brother's Summer House. Though it had once been a rocky trail, filled with washouts and steep inclines, it was now broad and paved with fired tile. A low edging of worked stones capped the seaward side of the trail, and sconces were cut from the rocks to hold torches and lanterns at night. With each step on the cleverly worked pavement, the young Prince grew more and more despondent. Where once the trip down the hillside to the beach had been an adventure, filled with slippery rocks, startled deer, and nettles, now it was an easy afternoon excursion. All of the mysterious edges of the property were gone, carefully smoothed away by an invisible host of gardeners, laborers, and stoneworkers. Even the beach was calmed, the sands carefully raked into a pattern pleasing to the eye. Even the driftwood had been placed by the gardeners before the sun had risen.

  At the top of the last switchback in the trail, the Prince turned and stared down into the little cove. The blue-green waters glittered up at him, merry in the high afternoon sun. From the top of the cliff the wire net that closed the mouth of the cove was all but invisible, only an occasional flash off of the green-glass floats that held it up betraying its presence. Maxian fingered the tattered edge of his tunic, feeling the grit of the city under his roughened fingers. His hair was greasy and laid back flat along his scalp. His chin was unshaven, sporting a lumpy three weeks' growth of beard.

  He laughed a little, suddenly realizing why the fishermen who guarded the cove had stared at him so, to see the Emperor's younger brother drag in on a leaking ketch to the all but invisible sea-entrance to the summer house. Though they had recognized him, they must have thought him at the tail end of a horrendous drinking binge. His thought stilled, realizing that this was the first time he had laughed since he had left the charnel house in Ostia.

  "Milord?" inquired a soft, even delicate voice from behind him. Maxian slowly turned around, his hand unconsciously brushing back the soot and grease in his hair. A slight woman with her once-blond hair bound up in a bun stood at his side, one hand outstretched in concern. Dressed in a very plain dress with muted red and green embroidery, her wrinkled face was graven deeper than usual with great concern. "Are you well?"

  "Domina." He bowed and she smiled at the gesture. "No, not well. How is the house of my brother?"

  "In a great state on your account, young master. Though I hazard from your current appearance that you had not heard, your brothers have been raising a great commotion in search of you. I would wager that every praetor and civil governor between Genova and Syracuse is shaking in his boots at the invective issuing from the offices of the Emperor."

  "Oh," he said, puzzled at the bemused look on the housekeeper's face. "Have they been looking for me for very long?"

  "Only for the past ten days. Messengers come and go at all hours, bearing the dire news that you... have not been found."

  Maxian scratched his head, digging tiny bits of charcoal out of his scalp. "I suppose that they have not happened to mention why they wanted to talk to me?"

  The housekeeper shook her head slowly, her bright-blue eyes sparkling with hidden delight. "Not a word."

  Now the Prince scratched his beard, finding it equally greasy and thick with minute flecks of soot. "Well, I guess I had better go relieve their concerns. Where, ah, where would they be this afternoon?"

  The domina turned, looking back over her shoulder. "Where they always are, when they are here together," she said, walking away into the shaded arbor path that wound along the top of the cliff.

  Maxian shrugged. He would have to forgo cleaning up, then. Uneasy, he slouched away across the neat lawns that bordered the sprawling marble and granite house that he had grown up in. It was nearly unrecognizable to him now.

  —|—

  The hallways of the servants' quarters of the Summer House were quiet and empty. As Maxian passed the entrance to the vast kitchen, he caught a glimpse of a dozen brawny men quietly eating a lunch of fresh loaves, olives, and cheese. They did not look up as he passed, his boots in his hands. At the back of the great staircase, he opened the door to the tight little stairway that predated the vast mechanism of Aurelian's "Stairway." The dark space under the staircase, crammed with its gears, wheels, and slave benches, was empty. There were no foreign visitors or dignitaries to impress with its smooth gliding ascent to the second floor of the house. At the top of the stairs, he paused to put his boots back on.

  When he had been little, the second floor of the Summer House had been the domain of their mother, and it had been filled with women, children, looms, buckets, and a constant bustle of comings and goings. Though dogs and pets of all kinds had b
een banned, it was filled with a great energy. Now the old hallways and rooms had been torn out and replaced with a stately set of rooms with vaulting ceilings, dark-colored wooden floors, and wall after wall of cunningly painted scenes. Maxian walked through the rooms, filled with furniture, clothing, desks, beds, and the dead eyes of painted figures, with a mounting sense of unease. In his current state of mind, the whispering of the living seemed to bleed from the walls and floor. A sound came from ahead, like the echo of a barking dog, and he spun around.

  There was nothing. He shook his head to clear away the phantoms.

  Now at the door to the one section of the old house that remained as it always had been, he stopped and cleared his mind. The Meditations of Asklepius came to him and calmed him. His fingers twisted in the air before him. Softly, with a barely audible whisper, the grime, soot, and dried sweat that had been his companions for these last few days lifted away from his garments, from his hair, from his skin. Clenching his right fist, the spinning dust cloud coalesced into a hardened black marble, which he plucked from the air and placed in the leather bag at his waist. Taking a breath, he rapped lightly on the door frame.

  "Enter!" came a shout from within, and he pushed the heavy sandalwood door open.

  His brothers looked up; Galen thin and wiry, cleanshaven, with his short-cut dark hair thinning at the temples, Aurelian tall and broad, with a full dark-red beard. Galen grimaced at the sight of his missing sibling and shook his head. Aurelian turned, his light-brown eyes sparkling with surprise and delight. Maxian rubbed the stubble on the side of his jaw, stepping down the short flight of steps into the map room. The room, never neat, was a tumult of parchments, ledgers, half-empty amphorae of wine, wax writing tablets, and two new things.