"My dear, that's impossible," I said. "We must wait for the Judaeans to finish the robe. And please keep your voice down."
"Seth eat up your robe! My life more important. You promise me you take care of me and take me to Rhodes. All right, do this. You not getting anywhere, sitting in Bousiris waiting for throat to be cut."
"Look, dearest. In the first place, I'm a soldier carrying out an order. In the second, when we get to Tamiathis, we're going next to Alexandria. I shall have to make some special arrangement for you to follow on a merchantman, as my captain would never let me bring a woman aboard the trireme."
"Why you not put me on merchant ship for Rhodes? Then I wait for you there."
"Because it's the end of the sailing season, and we shan't find any merchantmen sailing for Rhodes for months to come."
. "Why not?" she demanded.
"Because we have deadly winter storms on the Inner Sea, and even when the sea is calm, how can a ship find its way over open waters when clouds veil the sun and the stars? Moreover, no ordinary merchantman will be sailing to a city under siege."
She frowned. "I cannot go to Rhodes on merchant ship because none sail until war and winter are over. I cannot go on this warship because captain not allow women. How you expect me to go? Ride on back of fish?"
"Well—ah—darling, to tell the truth, I hadn't thought enough about the matter when I urged you to come. What I can do I will. If you can't get to Rhodes now, I'll see you comfortably settled in Alexandria until the war is over. Then I'll send for you."
Amenardis struck the table with a force that made the beer dance in our mugs. "Oh, you silly boy! You stupid little fool! I put my life in your hands; what happen? 'We cannot do this,' you say; 'we cannot do that; I sorry I did not think sooner; but anyway I cannot do what I promise.' Think you I sit in Alexandria for maybe year, two year, with no money, no man, no nothing, waiting to hear from you? Not knowing if you dead or living with some other girl?"
"Now look here, by Zeus the Savior, that's enough!" I said, angry because there was more truth in her words than I liked to admit.
"Not enough at all. You think you stay in Alexandria safely while Tis live? Ha! You even more big fool than I thought. He send man, stick knife through your rotten, lying heart! And I happy! I laugh!"
"Hold your tongue, hussy!"
Amenardis said: "I go take care of Berosos. He have more sense with fever than you without!" She slammed out of the inn.
Manethôs murmured: "One would think you an old married couple."
I sat down, breathing hard and trembling. After a few deep draughts of beer I got myself under control. I said:
"I see I've been much too casual about our pursuers."
"Love, no doubt," said Manethôs . "In that state even the wise Thôth would lose his judgment."
"Be that as it may, what shall we do about this barge-load of ready-for-aughts? Kenamon would never let us turn his inn into a fortress. If I were Tis, I should have obtained a description of the Hathor and passed it on to my villains to assist their search. Perhaps we ought to hide or disguise the boat."
"The best place to hide it were an irrigation canal," said Manethôs . "I would choose that which opens into the Nile near Sebennytos. However, I have a better proposal to make, not conflicting with the first."
"What's that?"
"That you and your comrades come down to Sebennytos and hide in the pilgrims' chambers at the temple of Thôth until the robe be ready."
"Would that be allowed?"
"Aye. I have already consulted with my high priest, the holy Thothises. Besides, you told me that General Thorax gave you no reason to expect his help when erst you called upon him here, whereas General Neon might afford you at least the pretense of protection."
"I'm tempted," I said. "But why should your high priest trouble himself on our behalf?"
"Partly because I, his favorite nephew, asked him; and partly to spite those high and mighty hierophants in the temple of Memphite Osiris, who would like nought better than for you to be quietly slain so that they could strike a secret bargain with Alkman for division of Tis's loot."
Thus Manethôs revealed that, despite his lofty theological talk, the priesthoods of Egypt were riven by jealousies and intrigues like those in which other men engage. I said:
"I'm most grateful. But we had better move secretly. We'll rouse Kenamon at midnight and then slip down the river."
"I will meet you on the waterfront at Sebennytos," said Manethôs . We clasped hands on it, and the priest added, with a wistful smile: "Do you know, O Chares, that I seem to have grown talents for intrigue and adventure that I never suspected in myself? Almost you make me regret my holy vows!"
After dinner I found Amenardis in our room. We had a tearful and intense reconciliation. When I had proved my passion for her, I told her of the impending move. At once she began to tell me what to do.
"Must tell Judaean weaver where you go," she said. "Then tell Kenamon you go to Boubastis or Sais, so thieves go the wrong way looking for you. Tell Horos—"
"Now, darling, please, I'm running this expedition!"
"You no like advice? Remember what happen to Sethenes Chamois when he not take good advice!"
"When I want advice, I ask for it."
Perhaps this was unwisely petty of me, for some of Amenardis' suggestions were shrewd and, moreover, were things that I should not have thought of myself. Her forward and positive manner, however, made it hard for a Hellene, used to a becoming meekness in his women, to accept her counsels gracefully.
Berosos groaned when awakened. "Go away! I will not move this night for all the gold of Persepolis. A poor invalid hovering on the brink of death am I. Besides, the stars foretell disaster should I stir forth."
"To the crows with your stars!" I said. "You'll be over the brink of death for sure, if Tis's ready-for-aughts catch you here after we have gone."
"Blaspheme not the divine stars. Foretold they not truly the scathe that fell upon me in Tis's crypt? Three ghastly wounds have I to prove that they lied not."
"The reason you were nicked is that you had, against my orders, left your sword behind. Now get up or I'll empty this over you."
"Istar! Do not so! I come."
Uncle Thothises, high priest of Thôth at Sebennytos, was a large fat man who, I suspected, did not take the ascetic rules of Egyptian priestly diet too much to heart. Over a bountiful lunch he explained:
"This morn, just after Ra's arrows had put to flight the demon dark, a fast twenty-oared barge stopped at Bousiris. Men went ashore and asked for news of a band of adventurers under command of a small but handsome Rhodian with curly black hair. Not finding such persons, they took to the river again."
"Ea!" said I. "They didn't miss us by much. Where are they now?"
Thothises shrugged his well-padded shoulders. "Would that we knew. For aught that my sources can say, they might have been snatched up into heaven to ride the solar ship in the company of the deathless gods—though, from what I know of these knaves, their fate in the next world is likely to be somewhat different."
I said: "Perhaps I should ask the strategos to post a few soldiers near the temple, in case of a sudden onslaught. Would that suit you, sir?"
Thothises gave me a broad, bland smile. "Well thought of, my son. But think a little further. As you are a stranger in our city, your entrance into the chambers of General Neon might well be noted in quarters where it would do you no good. Let me send my nephew with a bottle of wine wherewith to sweeten Neon before swallowing, as physicians do their potions."
"Sir, words cannot express my gratitude. If there is anything I can do for you, without disloyalty to my city, name it. Although our flights and fights have been costly, I think I could squeeze a modest offering to your temple out of the funds my captain entrusted to me—"