He watched her disappear into the distance between the endless rows of grapes. He was already sweaty, and the day had barely begun.
“I saw that,” said a gruff voice, and he turned to see Vibius on his horse looking down at him. He was pointing to the ground, where the broken cluster lay. “I’m taking it out of her pay, Ben-Deker. Now get to work.”
Athanasius got down on his knees and started on the next vine, carefully lifting one branch to count a cluster, and then another, as Vibius and his horse breathed heavily over his shoulder.
The assassin known as Orion had been on quite a death run lately since Corinth thanks to Athanasius of Athens, and he looked forward to its finish as his horse took its water in Caesarea and then galloped on his final leg toward the Dovilin Vineyard.
First came his orders in Corinth, which were to assassinate the Greek and his entire family. But the local legions botched the job by moving in too soon on the estate. All they managed to do was burn the family alive and let Athanasius escape. But Orion did manage to catch a glimpse of this Athanasius, which made him indispensible to the operation in Ephesus after Athanasius killed the garrison commander on Patmos.
Now Athanasius had not only escaped the trap set in Ephesus, he had also slaughtered the Dei’s key man there, Croesus, who was cousin to Senator Celsus in Rome. The shipowner’s swollen and almost unrecognizable corpse had bobbed up in the silted harbor after coming loose from its anchor. He had allegedly taken off the day before on a ship to Rome. Orion was already following reports of a man jumping caravans on the way out of Ephesus toward Laodicea, and he had followed the trail to Iconium when he crossed paths with a messenger from the Dei’s man in Cappadocia. They knew each other, exchanged information and figured things out quickly.
This Samuel Ben-Deker was in fact Athanasius of Athens. The Greek had brazenly decided to move up the chain of the Dei by killing Celsus. Now he had set his sights even higher, targeting Dovilin.
All of which made Orion wonder.
After Ephesus Orion had to consider the possibility that Athanasius was more than what he appeared to be. No man was that favored by the gods. To escape the Tullianum, slay a tribune and Senator Maximus, escape Rome, escape Corinth, break into the prison on Patmos and kill its commander? He had to be getting help from somewhere.
But where? Orion wondered as he flicked the ear of his horse with his whip and they picked up speed. Certainly not from this Lord Jesus Christ that the Christians worshipped. From Rome? The Dei? The Church?
It didn’t matter now. Athanasius was a dead man. But it always helped to know who ultimately wanted the target dead. That was because it often tipped him off earlier if the orders included his own death as well.
The problem with being the man who tied up loose ends for Rome, Orion thought, was that it made him one too.
II
Gabrielle was a dead end, Athanasius concluded after several hours of counting clusters. He was no nearer to poisoning Domitian’s imperial amphorae in the winery nor to the identity of his alleged contact Cerberus in John’s so-called “eighth church” at Cappadocia. But between the fields and caves and some bartering, he had been able to scrounge up the various ingredients required to make his poison for Domitian. He also had come up with a plan to break into the Angel’s Vault that night without the help of Gabrielle, who was marching toward him along an irrigation ditch between the vines with a furious brow on her dirty face.
She hasn’t even seen my progress yet, he thought, and already she is angry with me.
“Congratulations, Samuel Ben-Deker,” she informed him. “You’ve been promoted.”
“To the winery?” he asked quickly.
“Oh, even better: the Dovilin estate itself. You’re joining the First Fruits.”
“First Fruits?”
“The elite household staff chosen to support the Dovilins and the ministry of the Lord’s Vineyard.”
He couldn’t hide his disappointment, and this seemed to surprise her.
“Your prayer is answered, Samuel. No more hellholes like the rest of us. You get to live at the estate, serve the visiting dignitaries and drink the same wine as the Dovilins.”
“Why me?” he asked her.
“Well, you’re not a woman, Samuel, and you’re certainly no follower of Christ,” she explained. “So why shouldn’t the Dovilins judge you worthy enough to join them? Now get yourself to the stables behind the villa. Leave your counting scroll. I’ll be your relief for the rest of the day.”
He watched her sink her knees into the wet soil by the ditch and start counting to herself. She looked like a little girl, so small and frail and yet made of iron. He stood there a while, wanting her to say something else, anything. But she didn’t, wouldn’t even acknowledge he was still lurking. Finally he walked away across the vineyard toward the villa.
When he reached the stables behind the Dovilin villa, his pack from the caves was already waiting for him in a large bunk room built to house a dozen or so of the “First Fruits,” who were all muscular, clean-shaven and well-scrubbed young men in crisp staff tunics. The head of staff was big Brutus himself from the house. Athanasius wondered if he had gone through his pack again, but when he opened it he found his small lead vial of poison still in its hidden pocket.
“We have everything you need here,” said a lilting voice, and Athanasius closed his sack and turned to see Cota, Dovilin’s daughter-in-law and Vibius’s wife, looking at him with an arch smile and holding out a folded tunic for him. “Even a bathhouse. Let me show you.”
Aware of the stares of Brutus and the other First Fruits, he followed her out back to indeed find a bathhouse and beyond it the outdoor kitchen where the young women of the estate prepared and cooked food.
“You’ll need a good bath before dinner, Samuel. It’s time to get the dust of the field off that body of yours. Some Roman officials have arrived, and you’ll help with the service.”
Athanasius nodded, although the mention of Roman officials worried him. “I appreciate the honor of working at the villa, but I am afraid I am depriving you of my greatest gift.”
“Now what might that be, Samuel?” she asked with exaggerated interest.
“If we could meet privately in the Angel’s Vault tonight, perhaps I could show you.”
She frowned. “What could you show me in the Angel’s Vault that you couldn’t show me out here?”
“What I can do with your amphorae,” he told her innocently. “I know a way to create an amphora with walls half as thin and twice as strong. Smaller amphorae on the outside allow as much or more wine on the inside, and enable Dovilin Vineyards to transport almost a third as many amphorae for the same weight and price as yours do now.”
“That is interesting,” she said, absent of any interest in the subject at all, but moving closer to him and putting a finger on his chest. “What else could you show me?”
“If you would be amenable to opening just one amphora, I could see if you are coating the insides with the proper quality and quantity of resin. I have a formula that not only preserves the wine during transport but can help in aging it properly during its travels.”
“I do think taste is paramount,” she said, licking her painted lips. “You’ll let me taste this resin of yours?”
“Absolutely, Mistress Cota. I want you to be satisfied with my labor above all else.”
“Well, then, let me see what I can do, Samuel. And if this new formula works, and I am satisfied, then perhaps we can discuss it further with my husband and father-in-law.”
Athanasius put on a big, earnest smile. “God bless you.”