Felix followed. The hallway curved gradually. The air grew warmer and droplets appeared on the walls.
Abruptly they emerged into an enormous room whose high ceiling was obscured with mist. The air felt as hot and moist as that in the baths. Enormous potted plants with exotic-shaped and colorful leaves hid the walls. Shafts of light fell through the mists from windows far above. Felix could hear water gurgling and birds singing. As he gazed upwards there was a flash of yellow as two birds rose from the fronds of a tree unlike any Felix had ever seen.
The flash of yellow was followed immediately by a flash of red, the predominant color of the long tunic and loose trousers of the man who stepped from behind the tree. The man’s black hair hung to his shoulders in glossy ringlets. A pointed beard accentuated the length and angularity of his face. Ear rings dangled from both ears.
The stranger regarded Felix and Julianna with the eyes of a hawk, then walked straight past them and went out into the corridor without a word.
Felix stared after him in amazement.
“It’s the Persian emissary,” Julianna said. “Antonina told me he traveled here with Belisarius. Something to do with the peace treaty Justinian is negotiating. He’s staying somewhere at the Daphne and is always wandering about. I keep running into him. Gives me chills every time.”
“I’m not surprised,” Felix said. What other wonders might they encounter in this strange and secret place?
“Come on,” Julianna told him. “There isn’t any time to waste.” Her voice echoed in the huge space.
Then they plunged into another, colder, hallway. A door of intricately carved wood opened on a long room illuminated by a single lamp. The meager light glimmered on busts arrayed on pedestals all around the walls. An enormous central table receded into the darkness, more like the highway outside the Golden Gate than a mere piece of furniture.
Purple silk billowed from the walls and ceiling of the passageway beyond. The silk rippled constantly, like the windblown sea. Felix felt his giddiness returning.
He stumbled. Closed his eyes for an instant trying to regain his equilibrium. When he opened his eyes again he saw he was standing in a gilded alcove, in front of an archway guarded by a shining metal statue. Neptune, he supposed, judging from the trident the stern, bearded figure held upright. Beyond the archway a wide marble staircase curved upwards. Curious, Felix took a step toward the stairway.
There was a click, followed by a loud squeak and the trident came crashing down into a horizontal position, blocking his path. He recoiled in surprise and the trident sprang back into its original position.
Julianna giggled. “That stairway leads to the emperor’s private chambers.” She put her foot out and lightly tapped the floor in front of the archway. The trident came down again and then went back up. “It amuses him to have a pagan god guarding his door. Or maybe it was Theodora’s idea. The armed men at the top of the stairs are not mechanical.”
Felix shook his head in amazement. He knew that no one was admitted to Justinian’s private quarters, apart from a clergyman or physician. Not even high officials were allowed inside. No doubt a common excubitor should not even venture this close.
Without any urging, he followed Julianna away down another corridor. Before long vivid wall mosaics depicting classical myths gave way to painted scenes of the countryside and finally to plain, whitewashed walls on which hung the occasional silver cross.
Then they emerged into the crisp sunlit air beneath the portico in front of the Daphne Palace.
Felix took a deep breath. His head felt clear. He could hardly believe he had actually tried to see Antonina in her private rooms. His memory of it all seemed less substantial than the memory of a dream.
“You’re lucky you didn’t get any further,” Julianna said. “Do you feel yourself now? Can you get back to the house without deciding you want to drop in on Theodora?”
Felix grunted. He felt his cheeks reddening. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Julianna’s eyes narrowed. “Only what you were told to think, I suspect.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just that Antonina can be very persuasive. I will have to leave you now.” She started toward the steps of the portico.
Felix took hold of her arm. “Wait. You’re not supposed to leave John’s house. I’ll forget I saw you here, since you assisted me, but I can’t let you roam around. You’ll have to come back with me.”
She tried to pull her arm away but Felix held tight. She glared and pursed her lips. He was afraid she was going to spit at him, but she didn’t. “Do you really want to see Antonina again?” she asked him. “I can arrange it.”
“No. I have orders to guard you and your family. Besides, it’s for your own safety.”
“All right. You’re hurting my arm. Please let go. Or do you think a girl can outrun you?”
Felix released his grip.
Instantly Julianna grabbed at his sword. He placed his hand on the hilt, to block her. But her hand never arrived. Instead she spun around and raced back into the Daphne Palace.
Felix cursed under his breath and went after her. She had already vanished down one of the hallways opening off the bare, marble atrium. He heard receding footsteps. From what direction?
He headed down what he thought was the right hallway.
A scholare wearing a ridiculous plumed helmet and holding a nasty looking curved sword stepped in front of him.
“Excubitor!” Felix barked. “Emergency. Here on orders of Captain Gallio.” He reached for the order tucked in his belt.
It was gone. Julianna hadn’t been trying to grab his sword. She’d stolen his orders, and with them his access to the Daphne!
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Porphyrius isn’t at the Hippodrome today.” The young charioteer eyed John suspiciously. The tall stranger in the dirty tunic and threadbare cloak did not look the sort of visitor Porphyrius would deign to see.
“He is at his home?”
“So they say. Packing up his gold and silver in case the fires come any closer. Not that it’s any of your business.”
John returned to the Mese. He had dressed in plain clothing before setting out for the Hippodrome and taken the precaution of dirtying it and his face and hands. Any person caught on the streets even suspected to be from the palace was not likely to survive the fury of the mob. Already several courtiers who had attempted to flee the capital had been killed in sight of the guards at the Golden Gate. Under orders not to interfere, they had watched the slaughter. It would have been a better plan, John thought, to depart by sea but for the fact the only two vessels lying in the palace harbor were already loaded with furniture, silk, gold and silver plate, and other valuable items on the order of the emperor.
Most of the shops he passed were charred ruins. Rubble blocked the colonnades in places, forcing him to move out into the street. The fires had jumped some buildings, however, particularly those not constructed primarily of wood.
The air smelled as if it were itself singed. In one spot there hung an unpleasant odor of charred meat. John could not recall whether a butcher’s shop had occupied the gutted shell.
He thought not.
As he walked he couldn’t help thinking about Haik. What had been on his friend’s mind as he hurried to his meeting with Porphyrius?
After speaking with Hypatius and Pompeius John had returned to the room where his friend’s body lay, decently covered with a linen sheet. He and Felix had searched every bit of the room, seeking a clue to the murder but had found nothing. They would have found the adoption documents Hypatius had spoken of, had they been there.
They had not, however, searched the body.
John had done so.
Haik had not been carrying the documents. Or, at least they had not been anywhere on the corpse.