“Perhaps this was sent by someone who cares about Antipater, someone who wants to help him,” I said.
“In that case, why did this person not write to you directly, and ask for your help?” Kettel shook his head. “No, for such a ‘fragment’ to land in your lap, without any explanation, with no clue as to who sent it or why-someone is up to no good.”
Had I been as old and experienced as the two retired eunuchs, I probably would have been as cautious and suspicious as they were. But I was still young and not as wise in the ways of the world as I one day would be.
I looked again at the fragment.
I am in great danger, I read. I fear for my life every hour of every day.
I lowered the scrap of parchment and stared beyond the parapet of the roof terrace. At the distant horizon, the night sky met the sea-two endless voids of darkness pricked with countless tiny stars and the reflections of stars. Somewhere in that direction lay Ephesus.
“I must go to Ephesus,” I said.
Both eunuchs sighed and threw up their hands. Bethesda dropped my feet, which fell to the rug with a thump.
“Gordianus, do you not understand the danger?” said Berynus. “You’re a Roman, and there’s no disguising the fact. Your Greek is quite good-for someone who didn’t grow up speaking it. But your Latin accent will always give you away. You know what they say: ‘You can take the boy out of Rome…’”
“Yes, I’m a Roman. What of it?”
“Do you not understand the situation in the cities and provinces that Mithridates has liberated from Roman control? In those places, to be a Roman is no longer a guarantee of privilege. Quite the opposite. Across much of Asia, many people hate the Romans and were glad to see them toppled from power.”
“But not every Greek hates every Roman. Antipater says as much in this fragment. Eutropius, for example-”
“An Ephesian who hates the Romans less than some, and why? Because you, a Roman, saved his daughter’s life! This Eutropius is hardly a representative example, Gordianus.”
What Berynus said was true. In my travels with Antipater, many a native Greek-speaker had shown resentment and unfriendliness toward me, for no other reason than because I was a Roman. This anti-Roman sentiment had been especially evident in Ephesus.
“But not every Roman has been driven out of Asia,” I said. “The Roman legions have been defeated and pushed back, and one hears that many Romans have fled-some of them have sailed here to Alexandria as refugees. But many a Roman citizen, along with his family and dependents, must still reside in the cities taken by Mithridates. All those Roman bankers and merchants, and the Romans who oversee the slave markets, and the Romans who run mines and farms-”
“Yes, Gordianus, thousands of Romans, or perhaps tens of thousands, may yet remain in Ephesus and the other cities of Asia,” said Berynus. “But they are no longer in control of the banks or running the marketplaces. Mithridates has stripped them of their power and their possessions. Their situation is quite precarious.”
“But I’m not a banker or a greedy merchant,” I said. “I’ve never hurt or exploited any of those people.”
“But you are a Roman, nonetheless. And this is not a time for any Roman to plan a trip to Ephesus!”
I frowned, then raised an eyebrow. “If it’s my accent that always gives me away, then perhaps I can simply keep my mouth shut.”
Kettel smiled. “That hardly seems practical. How would you pull that off, by pretending to be a mute?”
I gazed at the dark horizon and blinked. “Why not?”
“But how would you make your way, or ask directions, or accomplish anything else you needed to do? Absurd!” Kettel laughed and slapped a meaty hand against his knee.
Berynus made a sour face. “I fear our young Roman friend has made up his mind not only to go to Ephesus, but to travel under pretense of being mute. A Roman who lacks the power of speech-a double handicap!”
They were right. I was letting my imagination run ahead of me. A trip to Ephesus inevitably would entail unforeseen difficulties and some degree of danger. To make my way without ever uttering a word would likely be impossible. Unless …
“What if I traveled with someone?” I said. “Someone who could speak for me?”
“Who would that be?” asked Kettel, pursing his lips at my foolishness. “Some urchin hired at the waterfront, who’s likely to steal your money and run off the first chance he gets-or worse, betray you to some petty official the moment you get to Ephesus, and laugh while they lock you in a cell and throw away the key?”
I shook my head. “It would have to be someone I trust, of course. Someone I already know. Someone who knows me, well enough to speak for me if we should find ourselves in a tight spot. But who?”
I had made numerous acquaintances during my months in Alexandria, but who among them was suited to be my traveling companion on such a journey, and would be willing to do so?
Another man’s slave, young Djet, had accompanied me on my recent journey into the wilds of the Nile Delta. Sometimes Djet had been a great help to me; at other times, a handicap. At any rate, it was unlikely that his master would allow me to take the boy on such a long journey, so soon after our return.
The two eunuchs were among the more respectable people I knew, and had become my closest friends, but they certainly had no intention of going with me. Most of my contacts in the city were not nearly as reputable or trustworthy. As I went down the list in my head, I was struck by the number of actors and street mimes with whom I was acquainted, not to mention professional informers and poison merchants, purse-snatching street urchins and tattletale slaves. To be sure, I knew a few philosophers and scholars as well, but I could hardly expect those men to accompany me on such an uncertain journey.
Bethesda cleared her throat. I looked down at my feet on the rug-she had not picked them up after letting them drop-and then past my feet, to see her sitting back with her head cocked to one side, staring at me with that indecipherable catlike expression of hers.
I looked at the eunuchs. They, too, were staring at me with curious expressions. They seemed to be amused at my confusion.
“Did I miss something?” I said.
“Only the most obvious solution to your dilemma,” said Berynus. “The answer is right in front of you.”
I frowned and shook my head. What was he talking about?
Berynus looked at me askance, with the haughty, exasperated expression typical of royal bureaucrats everywhere. “Literally: right in front of you. Oh, come now, Gordianus, must I point at the girl to make you see?” He extended a bony finger in the direction of Bethesda, who was now looking at me with the slightest hint of a smile.
“Take Bethesda with me? Of course not!” Though I had not yet thought that far ahead, in the back of my mind I had assumed that she would stay with the two eunuchs while I was gone. To take her with me would be to put her in danger, and that was the last thing I wanted to do. Bethesda had faced more than enough danger in the last months, thanks to the kidnappers who had taken her off to the Nile Delta. The separation had been painful for me; after finally getting her back I was not eager to be separated again, but to take her with me was surely not a good idea.
Or was it?
All three of them stared at me, and then all three began to laugh. Kettel’s chortle was low and rumbling, that of Bethesda was musical, while the laughter of Berynus had a dry, reedy sound. Combined with the sighing of the waves, their amusement made a strange kind of music.
“What are you all laughing about? I was thinking I could leave Bethesda here. I realize it’s a bit of an imposition. She can be rather troublesome, I know, but you might get some work out of her, to make it worth your while. I can pay for her to be fed, of course…”
I looked from face to face. They seemed not to have heard me.