Dido's heart seemed to melt at the sight of the stalwart supplicants, and the women who carried or led wide-eyed children.
"Speak, Trojans," Dido said.
One came forward. "Majesty, I am Ilioneus. Since Priam's peerless city fell to the stratagems of wily Ulysses, we have sailed Poseidon's watery domain, seeking a new home promised by the gods. The noble Aeneas was our leader, but we lost him in a great tempest. Whether he and the others dwell yet above ground, or below with the shades, we know not. We crave your favor. Queen Dido. If we cannot abide here, I beg you do not drive us forth untimely, but allow us a little while to repair and rebuild our ships. Allow us provisions sufficient to keep life in our bodies, so that we may sail to Italy, there to seek noble Aeneas. And if he be dead, perhaps king Acestis of Sicily, who is of Trojan blood, will allow us to become his subjects."
Dido sighed. "Fear not, Trojans. It is not in my heart to drive forth people who are both brave and bereft. If it is your wish to continue your voyage, I will give you all you need. If you would rather abide here, lands shall be found for you." There was wild applause from the court at this generosity.
"That's what I wanted to hear!" Acne as said. "Chalmers, disinvisiblize us!"
Chalmers took the mirror between his hands and slowly straightened it. As he did, it lost its strange opacity until it reflected normally, although it had a slight ripple in the middle. Aeneas strode forward superbly, closely followed by Achates. Towering above the crowd, he went through the throng like a warship through an enemy battleline.
Dido noticed the commotion. "Now what?" Then she saw the man coming toward her. "Ooh, who's this?" She reached up and patted the hair at the nape of her neck.
"Hey, it's Aeneas!" shouted Antheus.
"Yes, Queen Dido. I am Aeneas Anchisiades, late a prince of far-famed Troy. The gods, ever mindful of the son of Venus, have cast me here, upon the shores of the beloved and most bounteous queen of Carthage."
"What a terrible time you must have had," Dido said. She smiled, a gleam in her eve, and patted the broad seat next to her. "You just come sit right here and tell me all about it."
Chalmers hurried over to the gaggle of court ladies, Shea close at his heels. He and Florimel embraced noisily amid the scandalized stares of the others.
"It's okay, they're married," Shea assured them. "Long separation, many hair-raising adventures before being reunited, that sort of thing."
"You're one of Lord Aeneas' men?" a lady asked.
"We've followed him since Troy," Harold said.
"He's a knockout! " the woman gushed.
"I just adore a man in shiny armor," said another one. "There's something about bronze that makes me go all quivery."
"Is he married?" asked a third.
"He's a widower," Shea informed them.
"Eligible!" they all cooed. Apparently, husbands of suitable bloodline were in short supply hereabout.
Chalmers and Florimel had not yet emerged from their clinch.
"So your Queen is unmarried as well?" Shea asked.
"She was. Her husband was Acerbas," said the lady with a thing about bronze. "But her brother, Pygmalion, murdered Acerbas, and that's why she had to flee. We went to Cyprus first, then we came here to Libya."
Shea was beginning to form a picture of the Mediterranean world in the heroic age as a sort of perpetual gang war combined with a mass migration of okies, everyone alternately murdering each other and looking for the promised land.
"How did Lady Florimel happen to be among you?" Shea asked.
"We were just getting the city started," said the first lady. "Queen Dido was about to consecrate the boundaries of the city and she'd just cut a bull's throat and asked Minerva for a sign, when Florimel popped out of thin air and plopped right down into the blood. You should have seen the look on her face! Well, her majesty took this as the best sort of omen. She's so cute and tiny and fair that Dido adopted her as a pet."
Shea tapped Chalmers on the shoulder. "Uh, Doc? Doc?" He gave up. "I won't be able to pry those two apart with a crowbar for a while."
He wandered around the temple until Dido announced an official court banquet to be prepared that evening. With her arm linked firmly into Aeneas', she led them to the sprawling palace complex, where she assigned quarters for all the better-born newcomers. Achates was dispatched, moaning and grumbling, to fetch the highborn refugees from the ships while abundant provisions were sent out for the rest of the crews.
The banquet was lavish, and Dido stuck to Aeneas like glue throughout, feeding him tidbits with her own royal fingers. Chalmers and Florimel had at last come up for air, and Shea was able to get some of her story at last.
"It does so embarrass me to own my foolish vaporings," she told him, "but in my silly vanity I thought I had mastered my dearest Reed's magical equations, and thought to try some small faring to test my new skill. Imagine my chagrin when I found myself in a world I knew not—and then in another, and then in another still until finally I discover myself sitting in a great mess of bull's blood and surrounded by . Florimel gestured vaguely at those around her.
"Must've been a shock," Shea opined.
"Howbeit, I was most fortunate in my place of landing, for Queen Dido has been most gracious. She is a most capable Queen, but her land suffers from a shortage of heroes. A hero is something like a knight, but there is no ceremony to dub a hero. When people spoke of the war in Troy, I knew that my knowledge of this world was not utterly wanting, for who has not heard of Troy, of brave Hector and wrathful Achilles? But soon I knew that this was but one of the manyfold worlds, for all knew the name of Troilus, son of Priam, but none had heard of his ladylove, Criseyde."
"Yes, she was a medieval creation,'' Chalmers said, "well known by the time of the Orlando."
"Well, this is all very interesting," Shea said. "But now we're all reunited and it's time to make our way home. This is a fine party, but I'm really craving a decent salad, a scotch and soda, a hot fudge sundae and the company of my beloved Belphebe, not necessarily in that order. And what kind of story can I give her for why I'm so late?"
"If you tell her all that has happened since we left," Chalmers advised, "by the time you get to the end of it she shall have forgotten why she was angry in the first place."
"I so look forward to seeing her too," Florimel said, "and returning to a world which, although dull and full of unpleasant smells, has little of the savagery and uncertainty of this, and where animals are slaughtered decently, out of sight, instead of wherever people happen to be when they wish the favor of their heathen gods." She cast fond eyes toward the head of the table, where Dido was casting fond eyes toward Aeneas. "And my lady Dido will soon wed Lord Aeneas, and they shall dwell happily here, raising a dynasty to rule Carthage."
Chalmers looked much abashed. "Well, ah, my dear, you see, that isn't going to happen."
"And wherefore not? It seems written in the stars, for these two match one another marvelous well."
"I am afraid," Chalmers told her, "that there's a tradition in classical mythology of heroes treating women very shabbily. Theseus and Ariadne, Jason and Medea, these arc typical. Sad to say, Aeneas and Dido follow the same pattern."
She looked at him darkly. "Pray what becomes of them?"
"They live happily here for a while, but it is the destiny of Aeneas to found Rome. His followers urge him to leave her and go on to Italy. Naturally the gods join in, and he abandons her.
Now Florimel was glowering. "And does she weep a while, then dry her tears, console herself that Aeneas was not a mete husband for her, and find one worthier?"
"No, no ..." Chalmers stammered, unable to look her in the eve. "Actually, she stabs herself and dies slowly from a sucking chest wound.