CITY OF THE GODS: FORGOTTEN (47 page)

Meikos took issue. “Everything that goes aboard the Hektor is of concern to me. I don’t want any bad omens or bad business on our ship. If I hear that she is causing trouble or selling herself to the crew or passengers on the journey, I’ll have both of you gutted and thrown overboard.
 
Is that clear?”

“Perfectly clear. Don’t worry, we just need to get across the great lake, nothing else,” D’Molay tried to reassure the man.

“Good. Keep it that way.” Meikos turned and headed back into the tavern, leaving Aavi and D’Molay standing outside.

Aavi came forward to D’Molay and nervously gripped his sleeve. “He knew I was a woman.
 
I tried not to give it away.”

“I didn’t expect the hood and cloak to hide that fact completely, especially to anyone who looked closely at you. Everything about you exudes femininity. There’s not much else we can do about that without some magic and I have none at hand.”

A new idea struck Aavi. “Do I have a glow that lets others see I’m a woman?”

He smiled and rolled his eyes slightly.
 
“No, but the way your hips move when you walk, your height, and even how quiet you are gives you away. Don’t worry, Aavi. Just keep doing what you’ve been doing. The idea is not to completely fool anyone, just to make it hard to identify you. Come on, let’s go back in.”

They went in the tavern again, got a couple of goblets of wine and found an empty table in the corner. “If we were in different circumstances, I’d take you around and show you some of the sights on this side of the city,” he said quietly as he leaned back in the chair. “Instead we’ll just wait here until it’s time to go.”
 

Aavi held the goblet with both hands and took a sip from time to time. The liquid was dark red and bitter, but not as harsh as what she had tasted at the slavers’ den. This kind had a taste that was a bit like the fruit juice she’d had this morning.
 
She looked up at D’Molay. “What sights are there to see? Tell me about them.”

“Well, there’s the Great Library. It holds many lost treasures from Earth. The gods brought with them many of the finest manuscripts and art from the libraries of Alexandria, Rome, Egypt and China. They built the Great Library to hold them all. The Council keeps all its records there. It’s huge, Aavi; filled with great art and texts. It’s awe inspiring just to walk around inside it. I would definitely take you there, and many other places, like the Monument to the Fallen. It’s a huge obelisk built as a memorial to the gods that have fallen in battle or died in other ways. Water flows down it from the top to a lagoon.
 
It’s beautiful when the sun is setting.”
 

“Gods can die?” From what little Aavi had heard in her travels, she thought the gods were immortal and beyond death.

“Yes. Yes a god can die, but killing one is not something that is easily done.
 
Only another god or a god-like power can do such a thing, and even then it doesn’t always work. Set chopped Horus up into pieces and threw him into a river, but Horus returned to life. I think that’s how the story goes.”

Aavi turned pale and got a terrified look on her face at the mention of Set.
 
“He . . .
 
he chopped someone up?”
 
Aavi felt a lump growing in the back of her throat as the image of Set torturing her flashed through her mind’s eye.

“Aavi, I’m sorry! What was I thinking?”
 
He felt like a complete fool. How could he have forgotten what Set had done to Aavi only yesterday?
 
He took her hand in his and tried to calm her, seeing the panic in her face. They sat there for a few minutes as Aavi’s flood of fearful thoughts and flashbacks to her tortures slowly subsided. She was almost petrified and staring off into the distance, seeing things that weren’t there. Finally, her panicked breathing slowly started to return to normal again.

“I’ll . . . I’ll be fine. I just keep feeling . . .”
 
She tried to concentrate on just looking at D’Molay, the one person who had always been there for her, a man who she thought might even give his life for her. Her thoughts ran deeper as she put the pieces together. Almost everyone she met had wanted something from her. Kafele used her to please Set. Es-huh, though they became friends, had been ordered to make her a slave. Even Mazu had been paid to take her across the lake. D’Molay was the only person that expected nothing from her. She looked into his eyes and saw the glow shimmering around his head.
 
It was full of concern and made her feel safe. She sighed a little and felt herself become calm again.
   

D’Molay gave her hand a squeeze. He looked around the tavern to see if anyone had noticed their exchange. As intense as the passing moment had been for him and Aavi, no one had paid them a bit of attention. The patrons continued their drinking, talking and occasionally laughing. Looking up to the balcony, he saw that one of the house women had gone, no doubt with a sailor as a new customer. He looked back at Aavi and saw that pure, sweet smile she got when she was happy.

“All right then, let me tell you about some other sights while we wait for that boat. We might as well order something to eat. There may not be any food for passengers on that ship.”
 

Soon they were dining on apples and bacon while they waited for the ship to leave port.

A gentle breeze swept across the small inlet tugging on Aavi and D’Molay’s cloaks as they walked along the wood-planked dock towards the Hektor. They could see a bustle of activity as crewmen loaded cargo and prepared the sails for the two masts. The crew was a hard-working mix of Greek and African men. They wore short tunics and loincloths. Many of them were bare-chested and had scarves that tied around the back of their heads. The Hektor was a seasoned Greek cargo ship about fifty feet long. It was sleek and built to cut swiftly through the water. It was painted red, though the color had faded to a grayish tint. At the bow a large stylized eye was painted in gold. The large wooden deck was stacked with cargo boxes and at least a hundred large clay urns, each about three feet tall. These were carefully tied up and separated by ropes in a grid pattern so they wouldn’t collide during transit. An opening in the deck’s center led down into the hold of the ship where the crew slept and additional cargo was kept. There were ropes and rigging all over and most of them connected to the sails above.
 
Captain Zosimus and Meikos waited by the gangplank, making final arrangements to set sail.

“Ah, our passengers, and early too. Good. You have the payment?” Captain Zosimus turned away briefly to yell at a crewman as he struggled with a large clay urn. “Careful! You break that and we’ll have oil all over the deck!
 
And it will come out of your pay!”

D’Molay reached into his money pouch and took fifteen gold out. “Here’s our fare.”

Zosimus took the coins and counted. “Fifteen?
 
I thought we said sixteen for your passage?”

“We agreed on fifteen, Captain.”

“Fine, fine, just get on board.” He jiggled the coins in his hand as he stalked towards the prow of the Hektor, shouting additional orders to his crew.

D’Molay crossed the gangplank between the ship and the dock and beckoned to Aavi. Carrying the bag with their belongings, Aavi gingerly walked across. Once on board, she felt the ship gently swaying under her feet. Although she had been on Mazu’s small boat, this was a different and unexpected feeling.

“Something this big shouldn’t move like this,” she said. For a few seconds she felt dizzy because everything was moving up and down.

“You’ll get used to it,” D’Molay said, noticing her unsteadiness.
 
“Let’s lean up against one of the railings for a while.”

They walked across the deck, finding an out-of-the-way place between a cargo box and some clay urns. Leaning on the wooden railing with Aavi, D’Molay pointed out into the distance. “The ship will probably go to the north, and then up the coast. I don’t know how fast it can go, but it will probably take us most of a day to get to the other side. We could have taken a faster method, like one of the airships or even a magical transport, but I want to keep as low a profile as we can. No one has time to check all the cargo ships that travel back and forth on the lake.

“So what is this Dio-crea place like?”
 
She was unable to pronounce the town’s name.

“Well, I’ve never been to Dioscrias, but I don’t think it’s a very large town. It’s the farthest port under Olympian rule. Just beyond it is the Hindu Realm. I’m sure we’ll be able to get some kind of transport from there.” He looked off at the distant horizon as they both stood on the starboard side of the ship. Aavi moved a little closer to him to try to stay out of the breeze that kept trying to lift her cloak and throw off her hood. “As we head to see the creature in the fort, I’ll make a few inquiries about Circe and Scylla.”

“Are those other towns we have to visit?”
 

He gave her a kind smile, realizing he had not told her about the pledge he and Mazu had made. “No. They are people I’ve promised to find, just like I promised to find and help you. In fact, that makes the perfect cover story. We’ve been sent by Glaucus to find Scylla and do what we can to reverse the curse that has been placed upon her. What better reason for two travelers to wander the Olympian Realm?”

Aavi regarded D’Molay with a shy, slightly embarrassed smile. “You’re so kind to others. You truly are a good person. The best person I’ve met. I haven’t met a lot of people, but still . . .” She didn’t finish the comment, almost as if she was too embarrassed to say what she was thinking.

“Aavi, I wish I was as good as you think I am. Actually, you are probably the winner of the goodness trophy.”
 
Putting his arm around her, he gave her a sturdy hug. He wondered if it was the fresh air or the wine that had cleared her earlier sorrows. He just hoped she could forget her pains as easily as she had forgotten her past.

Other thoughts churned in his head as they stood looking out over the great lake. He still didn’t really know who or what, she was. What would happen when her memory came back? If her past was regained she might not even remember him or anything that had happened to her. In many ways she was like a child, an innocent. The feel of her under his arm cautioned him that she probably had no idea of the things that go on between men and women.
 

Aavi looked up at him and smiled, her eyes filled with adoration. “I feel safe again, thanks to you. I - I’m sorry about what happened earlier today.
 
I just couldn’t control myself.”

He stared at her with an earnest intensity that locked her gaze to his, as he cupped her face in his hands. Before he spoke, the thought that she might be falling in love with him crossed his mind. Aavi was beautiful and precious, but somehow that potential feeling between them made him feel like he was taking advantage of her lack of identity.

“There’s nothing wrong with anything you said. It’s just that the world is not as pure as it should be. I wish it wasn’t so, but sometimes good people have to do bad things. Sometimes good people make mistakes. Sometimes bad people even do good things. But I promise that I will try to shield you from the dark side of life, Aavi. I promise.”

“Maybe that’s why I feel safe with you. I don’t understand this world and I’m not sure I want to. It seems like a sad place where people lie and hurt each other all the time. But I’m here and I’m glad you’re here with me.” Aavi held him close and they both stood together as the ship left the dock and began to sail out of the harbor.

High overhead, a lone figure slowly circled the harbor before heading out to the open water of the lake.

*
       
*
       
*

Mazu remembered the sight of D’Molay lifted skyward by Eros and Zephyrus as she moved about cleaning up her last campsite. After putting the clearing back into a pristine state, she took a few minutes to sit quietly and meditate, opening her senses to the wisdom of the elements to find guidance in her search for the bat creature. Images and feelings flooded into her mind, as unstoppable as the natural force of water from which she drew her power. But like debris pushed along a raging river, the images appeared and disappeared too fleetingly for the goddess to make much sense of them. She was able to glimpse praying mortals, anxious gods, hunted creatures, armies, blood and fire, before all were obliterated in an explosion of white light. When Mazu opened her eyes, she found her face had tilted up toward one of the brilliant orbs that crossed the sky of the realms.