The Ionia Sanction (17 page)

“I can stretch out this much for a month, maybe get me a cheap woman too.” He smiled.

“Don’t do any of that.”

“What?”

“Take this money and get a decent haircut at the gymnasium and a wash at the laconica, and buy a new chiton.”

“I need the food more.”

“When you come back,” I said, ignoring him, “no one will recognize you, except maybe for the arm. You’ll have to disguise that somehow. Go in the back door of the warehouse and turn right.” I gave him directions to Brion’s space.

“Under the cover is a jar full of coins.” I described the jar. “They’re all yours if you can take them.”

He said, “How many coins are we talking about?”

“I don’t know. A lot. Maybe enough to buy a small farm and a couple of slaves.”

“Zeus!”

“The jar’s heavy. With only one hand you might need help to carry it.”

“No, I won’t. I’ll find a way.”

I was sure he would too, because half a farm is not as good as a whole one, and I had just offered this man his life.

“There’s a guard,” I warned, “and he’s aggressive. You’ll have to deal with him.”

“Not a problem,” he said confidently. He thought for a moment. “Maybe I’ll buy a long knife too.”

“Do that.”

“Why do you tell me this?” he asked, suspicious.

“Because I like you.”

And because the dangers of my profession were not so different to his. If I did this man a favor, maybe the Gods would send someone to help me, if I was ever in the same straits.

He said, “You have something against this Brion?”

“No. Funnily enough, I’m trying to save his life, if he still has one.” I didn’t know what had happened to Brion, nor fully understand why the self-confessed traitor Thorion had died, but I did know these pots had something to do with it. It was time to strike a blow, anything that might disrupt the enemy.

“If these pots are all that important to you, you might want to check with the man who met him. Half-man, rather. One of the ones from the temple with his balls missing.”

“Huh?”

“A eunuch was hanging around the doors, and when the donkeys arrived and Brion turned up to supervise, they talked like they knew each other as the slaves unloaded.”

“Describe him.”

“Tall, big chest, head shaved. One of the Megabyzoi for sure.”

*   *   *

“He gave me a message from my family,” Geros said. “It’s quite true, I did meet Brion at the warehouse.”

I’d ambushed Geros by walking up to him as he stood guard on the steps of the small temple. He hadn’t shown the slightest surprise when I appeared, and he spoke to me in a mild voice, which made me wonder if he’d been expecting this conversation.

“
You
have a family?” I failed to hide my surprise.

A woman’s voice behind us said, “Of course he has a family. You don’t think eunuchs come from Mommy eunuchs and Daddy eunuchs, do you?”

Geros and I both turned to see Diotima. I felt myself blush. I’d been hoping to avoid her presence.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.

“Geros and I are chatting,” I said, avoiding her real question.

“Without me?” Her voice rose.

“I thought we established last time he isn’t yours to protect.”

“That’s not the point. You deliberately went behind my back.”

“Because you have a soft spot for the eunuchs when right now you need to be suspicious.”

“You’re the one I suspect. Of bigotry. Geros, I order you to throw Nicolaos off the temple grounds.”

“I claim sanctuary,” I said at once.

“What? That’s for criminals.”

“Is there any rule says so?” I countered.

Geros looked from one to the other of us and rubbed his chin. “Priestess, technically, the man is right. Anyone can claim sanctuary and the temple has no right to refuse.”

Diotima opened her mouth, shut it again, then said, “You mean he can wander about bothering you and you can’t stop him?”

“It seems so, but truly, there is no difficulty, Priestess. He asks me what I’m not ashamed to tell.”

“I’d never thought about eunuchs having parents,” I confessed. “Did your father donate you?”

“I was taken at eight years and cut at once.”

“Did it hurt?”

“Nico!”

“Yes, it hurt. I was brought here with other boys. They rested us for a few days, and gave us good food so we would be strong, and then they cut us, one by one, in a ceremony, with a knife they held in flame.”

I winced and crossed my knees.

“It’s for the Goddess,” Diotima said gently. “It’s what She requires.”

“I know this, lady. All we boys cried, and afterwards they took us to lie on good beds. The fever came by next day, and for days afterwards we lay there and others of the Megabyzoi, who had been cut long ago, tended us. One of the boys died. The rest of us lived.”

“So when you met Brion at the warehouse?”

“He gave me a message from my brother. As a proxenos Brion was used to sending mail, but it was kindness in him to do this for a slave.”

Diotima said, “There, you see, Nico? Nothing to worry about at all. Now leave him alone.”

I hadn’t expected such an explanation, and it was impossible to check. Either Geros had been prepared with a clever story, or he was innocent.

“It’s my brother I miss most,” he said, almost musing to himself.

“Can you confirm any of this, Diotima?” I asked, a last-ditch attempt to shake his story.

Geros said, “I would never discuss my problems with the priestess. She has enough worries of her own.”

“Drop it, Geros,” Diotima said at once, before I could ask what he meant.

I led her aside and whispered, “Diotima, do you want to know what else I learned? The pottery was brought to Ephesus from Magnesia.” I related the story of the cart drivers and their conversation.

“Magnesia again.” Diotima looked thoughtful. “This makes it worse. Why are coins minted in Samos, an island in the Aegean Sea, appearing from Magnesia, an inland city?”

“Why is your friend Brion the one importing them?”

Diotima thought for a moment, then seemed to come to some decision because she turned back to Geros and said, “Wait here. Geros, don’t answer any more questions until I return.”

We watched her walk, almost run in fact, into the main temple. The moment she was out of sight I said, “Good, she’s gone. Now Geros, tell me what you meant about Diotima’s worries.”

“The priestess said—”

“Forget what the priestess said. If she has problems, I want to know about them.”

Geros considered me for some time, and I let him. He needed to trust me on this. Then he looked over to the temple where Diotima had disappeared. “The priestess is not popular with her colleagues. It is well you should know. Though you hate eunuchs, I know you have her best interests at heart.”

“What’s the problem? Diotima was unpopular when she’d served at the Temple of Artemis in Athens but that was because of her parentage. She should have escaped that here.”

Geros said, “The priestess doesn’t tend to notice when others find her high competence a trifle … confronting. It was I who pulled them apart. It is how we met.”

“There was a fight?”

He nodded. “Between her and the other new priestesses, when it became clear she had outperformed them in all learning and prayers and rituals.”

“She said nothing to me of this.”

“Would you expect her to?”

No, of course not. Diotima was not one to admit a problem she couldn’t solve. “She should have pretended to be like the rest of them.”

“If you think that, then you do not know the Priestess Diotima.”

We both nodded our heads glumly.

I said, “You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”

“The Megabyzoi can’t have the emotion as you know it. There is no lust, but there is kind regard.”

“So what you said before about being able to pleasure a woman was—”

“Absolutely true. But it’s not something we
need
to do, unlike you. I may be a slave to the temple, but
you
are a slave to your lusts. I know which of us is the freer.”

“I’m perfectly rational.”

Geros smiled his insulting smile.

Why was I arguing about my sex life with a eunuch slave?

Diotima walked out of the temple toward us. She announced, “I’ve just informed the High Priest I’m leaving Ephesus. When you go, Nicolaos, I’m going with you.”

Geros let out a small cry of astonishment. “But Priestess—”

“It’s decided, Geros. Everything leads to Magnesia. I have to follow.”

Geros began to argue, then bowed his head and said, “You will be missed.”

“I’ll miss you too, Geros.”

Geros turned to me and said, “You must keep her safe.”

“I will,” I promised him.

*   *   *

Next morning, Diotima met Asia and me at the southeast gate. Diotima wore an old, patched chiton, suitable for hard travel on a dry, dusty road. She’d rolled up the hem to her knees to make it easier to walk. Not the most elegant arrangement, but she was a practical girl. I noted with approval that she wore a pair of thick leather sandals. Over her back she’d slung a soft leather sack, stuffed with what I guessed to be clothes and whatever things a woman needed.

I led Ajax. She took one look at what was on the end of the lead rope and said, “You bought a horse? Why?”

I explained, finishing, “Ajax could be very useful.” I felt put out when Diotima laughed.

“How do you plan to get him home?” she asked. “He can hardly go by boat.”

“I thought of that. I’ll ride him home.”

“What? North, past Byzantion, across all of Thrace, through Macedonia and Thessaly? It would take
months.
”

“Only a few, and after I’ve finished this job I’ll have the time. It’ll be a holiday.”

“I’ve never even seen you ride a horse. I didn’t know you could.”

“Of course I can ride. I’m a man, aren’t I?”

Diotima rolled her eyes.

“Let me take that sack for you.”

Diotima handed me her sack and I slung it over Ajax. I hauled myself up, swung my leg over, and grabbed the reins. “All right, here we—”

I don’t know what happened next. All I recall is the world passing by in a blur.

When I came to I was on the ground. My head hurt. The bits of me between my legs hurt. Everything else hurt too, my elbows and knees were grazed and my chiton torn, but the head and groin were special hurts. I put my hands between my legs and groaned.

“What happened?” I asked. I pushed myself up with my elbows. Three Diotimas frowned and put their hands to their mouths. Their heads spun around me.

Three was more than I could cope with. I closed my eyes, which didn’t stop the world spinning around, but at least I couldn’t see it happening. When I opened them again things were more stable. The Diotimas were reduced to one; a much more manageable number.

The place where I had mounted Ajax was a hundred paces away. Ajax stood nearby, grazing on some wild grass. He looked at me through one eye and snorted.

“You left without us,” Asia accused. She hesitated. “May I speak frankly, master?”

“Go ahead.”

“When you said you could ride, I think you might have been telling a teensy little fib.”

Diotima said, “The horse bolted, you hung on, screaming something I couldn’t quite catch. I saw you let go the reins and grab his neck. Then you fell off.”

I stood up, refusing to wince, and walked cautiously toward Ajax, my right hand held out. I coaxed, “Here, boy … here, boy … that’s a good boy.”

“Master, he’s a horse, not a dog.”

Ajax watched me with apparent indifference. He bent to take another mouthful of grass and chewed on it while I edged up to him. He didn’t move at all when I grabbed his bridle.

I said, “Right, this time we’ll see who’s boss.”

*   *   *

We walked to Magnesia. I led Ajax by his lead rope. The journey would take two days, but as I pointed out to Diotima and Asia, this was good news because there’d be time for my contusions to heal.

The road east out of Ephesus crossed a bridge over a small stream and remained flat for only a few hundred paces before rising into the hills that surrounded the city. After that, it was up and down all the way. Diotima walked ahead, Asia behind. They never spoke to each other. I tried to walk alongside Diotima, but she was still surly over my suspicions of Geros and angry I had gone behind her back, so instead I kept Asia company.

We slept the night under the stars, without much conversation, beside the road in a depression invisible to anyone passing by. Luckily it was a warm night.

Next day, Asia skipped along and sang songs. She had been understandably scared, then solemn, back in Athens. Now she was positively happy, and no surprise, soon she’d be home with a family she’d expected never to see again.

As midday approached I started believing we were close to Magnesia, I predicted we would see the city at the crest of every hill we climbed, and around every bend we trudged. Asia became increasingly amused at my irritation when I was invariably wrong, but I kept it up. Eventually I’d be right. I watched forward in the pleasant anticipation of seeing Magnesia and knowing the journey would soon be at an end.

As we rounded one bend, we saw another hill to the right of the road, this one low and covered in grass. Standing upon the hill was a man, in a curious position, his legs spread, his arms stretched wide, nor did he change position in all the time we walked his way. The closer we came, the more audible his moans.

Diotima spotted him too. We exchanged glances but said nothing.

A rude, narrow trail split from the main road and led up the hill. I tied Ajax to a bush. “Something’s wrong,” I said to the women. “Wait here.”

Asia ignored my order and walked along behind me. Diotima turned to our packs, which we’d slung across Ajax. On the ground I recognized footprints: man, donkey, and horse. Obviously we were not the only ones to have stopped.

As I walked uphill toward him I saw that a wooden stake, of a width you could barely get the fingers of both hands around, stood upright between his legs, embedded deep in the ground and reaching up to penetrate his anus. It was a tight fit.