The Divining (42 page)

     "My dream to open a safe route to China route was indeed a success," he murmured as his fingers explored her curved back and delicate shoulder blades. "In Rome I will start planning the next phases of the Gallus caravan trade, sign contracts with importers and exporters, and expand the family business. I will make the name of Gallus known to the far-flung ends of the earth." He paused to kiss her hair, and inhale its fragrance. And then he said, "And you will be at my side. Together we will find Gaia's Venerable Ones."

     "Will you not go home to your beloved Galicia, to your sisters and their families?"

     "Perhaps, but my success in reaching China has only made me hunger for more. My heart is divided, Ulrika, except when I am with you, for never have I felt so complete as I do now."

     When she trembled in his arms, from excitement, he knew, and desire, he recalled a ceramic he had found in China, manufactured only there. The clay was fired at extremely high temperatures, creating the formation of glass and other shiny minerals. Sebastianus could not pronounce the Chinese name, so he called it
porcellana
, as it resembled the translucent surface of cowrie shell. And he thought now: it is like Ulrika—strong, shining, beautiful.

     She lifted her face and said softly, "And what about the astrologers in China?"

     He stroked her hair, her neck, ran his hand down her bare arm, and drew her more tightly to himself. Ulrika was strong and confident, yet she seemed so vulnerable in his arms. He shook with desire. "I met with them and learned from them. Ulrika, there are many gods and spirits in China, every pond, every tree, even every kitchen has its own god. I cannot begin to name even a few. But the one thing that is the same from Rome to Luoyang is the cosmos. The same stars that shine down on the Tiber River, that shine here over the Euphrates, glitter upon the surface of the Luo. This brought me great comfort while I was in a strange land. And because they are the same everywhere, they are the one constant in the universe, I believe more than ever that the stars guide our lives. They advise us and warn us. They bring us good fortune and keep us from harm. The stars hold messages from the gods. Never have I had such faith in the heavens as I do now.

     "Chinese astrologers are men of keen intelligence and insight. I spent many hours conferring with them, and I have brought back charts, instruments, devices for observation and calculation, ancient and arcane equations. I am going to take it all to the observatory in Alexandria, where the greatest astronomers in the world study the heavens, and I know they can put it all together and uncover the secrets to the meaning of life."

     Night had fallen but Sebastianus did not light more lamps. There was food in the tent—dates and nuts, pomegranates and rice wine—but the lovers were not hungry. Sebastianus cradled Ulrika in his arms as they lay beneath silken sheets. If the ordinary world outside continued to exist, if Babylon was still there, they neither knew nor cared. Sebastianus placed his hand on her breast, felt her heart beating beneath the silken skin. "Ulrika, you are
my horizon in the morning, my oasis at sunset. You are the moon glow that lights my way, the sweet dawn that ends my troubled sleep."

     They reached for each other again, and this time the embrace went beyond physical. It was the entwining of two souls. Ulrika held tightly to Sebastianus and felt his spirit engulf her in perfection and joy. She inhaled his masculine scent, buried her face in the hard muscles of his shoulder and neck, delivered herself into his power and wanted to stay there forever. He could not have held her more tightly. She could hardly breathe except to whisper "Sebastianus," with a sigh that came from her heart.

     Sebastianus nearly wept with happiness when he heard his name whispered on her warm breath. He tightened his embrace, fearful he might break her, but he felt her strong muscles and bones, as strong as her indomitable spirit. She wrapped her thighs around him as he penetrated deeper, wishing he could send his entire body into her, to be held safely and in love by this astonishing woman.

     "I love you," they murmured to each other, inadequate words barely expressing the depth of their mutual devotion.

     Finally they slept, intertwined in each other's arms, comforted by the warmth and feel of each other's nakedness.

     "W
HERE IS
S
EBASTIANUS
G
ALLUS
?" Quintus Publius barked when Primo came into the atrium. The hour was late. Publius had just sent off the last of his dinner guests.

     Primo did not want to face this man with a thunderous expression on his face, his white toga with a purple border a reminder of his power. Publius was the Roman ambassador to the Persian province of Babylon, and a personal friend of Nero Caesar. Primo had put off reporting to Publius in the hope that Sebastianus would come to his senses and pay a visit to the ambassador at his villa west of the city.

     But Sebastianus had returned to the caravan with the girl in tow, they had gone into his tent and now, hours later, had yet to emerge.

     This was Primo's second summons to the ambassador's residence this week. Primo knew it was about a special dispatch Publius had received by imperial courier directly from Nero himself, demanding a report on the progress of the much-awaited caravan from China.

     Primo mustered a civil attitude as he said, "My master was detained in the city on urgent business, sire, and he should be—"

     "Never mind that!" Quintus Publius barked, his face red with fury. "I gave him specific orders to leave Babylon three weeks ago! Why is he still here?"

     Primo thought quickly and came up with a plausible lie. "There was sickness among the women," he said, referring to a group of Chinese concubines in the caravan, a gift from Emperor Ming of Han to the emperor of Rome. They were as pretty as a garden filled with flowers, their faces white with rice powder. Primo wondered what Nero would think of them.

     It was well known that Nero Caesar needed the financial capital to keep his empire going. Primo had heard tales from travelers of unrest cropping up in the many provinces. Judea, for example, where restless young Israelites were said to be fomenting revolution to gain back their autonomy. In response, Caesar was sending more legions. The Jews called it oppression, the Romans called it restoring order. But Primo had also heard that Nero's extravagant spending was not only on the army but on new buildings in the city of Rome, fabulous homes and palaces and fountains and avenues, all unnecessary and all very costly to build. Nero was bankrupting the Imperial Treasury, it was rumored, and he was desperate for sources of revenue.

     What could Caesar create, Primo thought, with Sebastianus's fabulous treasure from China?

     Primo knew that once Nero received Quintus Publius's report on Sebastianus Gallus's unbelievably rich caravan, the emperor would demand to see it at once, and confiscate it, as was his right as patron of the mission to China.

     Primo wished the expedition had been a miserable failure. That way, his master could languish in Babylon for eternity, for all Nero would care. Because now Primo was presented with a dilemma: Obey his emperor and betray his master, or serve his master and disobey the emperor. The first
would result in his master's execution, the second, his own. Primo's mouth filled with a bitter taste. He did not like this spy business. Even though he had nothing negative to report on Sebastianus, he still felt like a traitor.

     "My master made many new alliances for Rome with foreign kingdoms," Primo reminded him, hoping to placate the bilious ambassador, and thinking of the report Quintus was going to dispatch to Nero by swift imperial courier. "Many of those backward tribes are so primitive, all one has to do is eat their bread, or in the farther east, share their rice, and the friendship is sealed." He did not add: the poor fools pressed their greasy thumbs to whatever document Sebastianus placed before them, and grinned with self-satisfaction to think of themselves as the equal of the greatest ruler on earth. They do not yet know of the pompous emissaries who will soon be paying visits, informing them of their duty to pay to Rome a ten percent levy on all goods that pass through their customs houses.

     Primo rubbed his scarred nose. It was one of many cicatrices that decorated his soldier's body, each a memento from a long-ago battle. Primo knew he was an oddity himself, like the Chinese concubines, for it was unusual that a veteran of foreign campaigns should live to such an age. But although he was now sixty and had lost most of his hair, he still had all his teeth and was robust.

     "Where did you say your master was?" Publius barked.

     "On business in the city," Primo said.

     Although the word treason had not been spoken, it hung in the air all the same. Everyone knew about Nero's marriage, two years prior, to a scheming spider named Poppaea Sabina, a greedy and ambitious woman with an insatiable appetite for amusements. It could be no coincidence that shortly after, Nero revived the ancient laws governing treason in order to fill the Great Circus with entertaining executions. Men were being arrested on the flimsiest of invented crimes, and thrown to lions in the arena.

     
Could
his master's delay in Babylon be considered treasonous? After all, Sebastianus carried goods that were the personal property of Emperor Nero. He was duty-bound to get that property to Rome as quickly as possible. And yet he had tarried in Babylon. Because of a woman!

     "Is there anything you wish me to report to my master?" Primo asked.

     "Your master is not the only reason I sent for you," Quintus said as he reached inside the folds of his toga. He paused to study Primo's disfigured face. "Are you a loyal citizen, Primo Fidus?"

     Primo was taken aback to hear his real name spoken out loud. How had Quintus found it out? And his use of it now gave Primo a strange chill. "I am a loyal citizen
and
a loyal soldier. I place my honor before my life."

     Quintus produced a scroll bearing the clay seal of Caesar himself. "These are your new orders. They are secret. Keep that in mind."

     Primo looked warily at the scroll. "New orders?" he said.

     "This document grants you the authority, Primo Fidus, to take charge of the caravan, to arrest Sebastianus Gallus, hold him in military custody, and bring him to Rome for trial."

     "Arrest him! On what charges?" Primo asked, already knowing, and dreading the answer.

     "Treason," Quintus said crisply. "All goods contained in the Gallus caravan are the property of the emperor of Rome. By withholding those goods from Caesar, your master is in effect stealing, which is a crime of treason." He slapped the scroll against Primo's broad chest. "If you do not convince your master to depart Babylon at once, then pray that his execution is a swift one."

     Primo looked at the scroll as if it were a scorpion.

     Arrest Sebastianus! By Mithras, how was he going to do that?

     Cold sweat sprouted between his shoulder blades. Since arriving in Babylon, Primo had heard strange, dark rumors about Emperor Nero, his impulsiveness, his suspected insanity. Especially his ruthlessness.
That he killed messengers bearing bad news.
But what would happen if Primo did not report his master's disloyalty and Nero found out? Primo shuddered to think. Even a hardened old soldier like himself grew faint at the thought of the grisly ways some men were put to death in the Great Circus. And what of Sebastianus? Would Primo's report result in so drastic an action as execution?

     Primo decided he must prepare a response should the emperor demand to know why Gallus had tarried so long in Babylon. Primo would declare: "Oh mighty Caesar, my master was engaged in complex commerce in order
to bind Babylon more closely to Rome, and to show those unworthy foreigners the advantage of being financially and economically bound to Rome—in fact, glorious Caesar, to demonstrate the lowly Babylonians' great luck to have Caesar look favorably upon them!"

     It was a long speech for an old soldier, but Primo would practice it from here to the imperial audience chamber and make himself sound as convincing as possible.

     He scratched his chest and felt, beneath his white tunic, the lucky arrowhead he had put on a string to wear beneath his clothes. The German arrowhead that had missed his heart by a hair. And Primo was struck by inspiration. "Perhaps the noble Publius would honor my master by receiving one of the Chinese treasures as a gift?"

     The Roman wrinkled his nose. "You wouldn't be attempting to bribe me would you, Primo Fidus? I could have you skinned alive. Find your master! Tell him he is under imperial orders to get his caravan to Rome in the quickest order. I must travel to Magna today and meet with the queen. I will return in a month's time. I expect to see no sign of Sebastianus Gallus and his caravan here in Babylon!"