“I suppose you hope that I will slit his throat while he sleeps. But first tell me how you succeeded in quieting him.”
Arsinoe opened her eyes and said innocently, “I merely held his hand and assured him that he would meet the goddess in his dreams. What is it that you suspect, Turms?” Then she paled. “If you have ever doubted my love for you, you can do so no longer, for it would have been more advantageous for me to remain silent and let him kill you. But I could not bear to lose you. Neither do I want harm to come to Tanakil although she has so often hurt me.”
That last sentence she added presumably because she noticed Tanakil’s approach.
“I can thank you, Istafra, for my marriage but also for my misfortune. You have tried to bite off more than you can swallow, and I hope that you choke on it. I suspect also that you used your wiles at sea, for why else should Dorieus have begun to rave about that white-limbed Thetis?”
“Tanakil,” I warned her, “don’t talk nonsense even though you hate Arsinoe. During the voyage Arsinoe was sick and smelled vile, she was wet from the brine and unable to care for her beauty. She could have had nothing to do with Dorieus’ visions.”
My words wounded her vanity. “What do you know about the goddess’s miracles, Turms?” she demanded angrily. “Tanakil is much wiser. I assure you that everything happened as was meant, for the goddess has always yearned to assume a sea guise.”
Tanakil looked at me shrewdly and advised, “You would be wise to take that candlestick and smash Arsinoe’s head. Thereby you would spare yourself much grief. But it is useless for us to chatter. What do you intend to do, Turms?”
“Yes,” demanded Arsinoe, “what do you intend to do?”
I became even more confused. “Is it my duty to solve the problem that you have created? So be it. I will fetch my sword and run it through his throat, although not gladly, for he has been my friend.”
“Yes, do that,” urged Arsinoe eagerly, “and while you are about it, seize the dog crown, win the soldiers to your side, pacify the council of Carthage and make me the priestess of Eryx by peaceful means. I could not ask for more than that.”
Tanakil shook her head in pity. “It would not go well with you, Turms, if Dorieus were to be found with his throat slit. But have no fear. I have seen three husbands to the grave and I dare say I have the strength to bury yet a fourth. It is my duty to perform this last service for him before he takes my life and plunges all Eryx into disaster. Go your way, both of you, take the accursed bastard with you and pretend that you are aware of nothing.”
She sent us to our room, where we sat silently with folded hands. I stared at our son and tried to find something in his infant face that might have given Dorieus reason to believe the boy his. But look as I might, I could see only that his mouth was mine and his nose Arsinoe’s.
Suddenly the earth rumbled with a noise more terrifying than any I had ever heard. The ground beneath us shook, the floor cracked, and the sound of crumbling walls reached our ears. Arsinoe snatched the boy into her arms while I shielded her with my body as we rushed into the street through the twisted gate. Arsinoe’s cat swished by us in terror.
Again the ground shook and walls cracked. Then the sky darkened, the wind began to blow and the air suddenly cooled.
“Dorieus is dead,” I said slowly. “This land was his, and it quivered at his passing. Perhaps he really was descended from the gods, although it was difficult to believe that when he smelled of human sweat and shed human blood.”
“Dorieus is dead,” Arsinoe repeated, then asked quickly, “What will become of us now, Turms?”
Frightened people were carrying things out of their houses, while beasts of burden ran wildly through the streets. But as the wind blew the air freshened and it was as though I were once again free.
Tanakil came out of the king’s residence. She had torn her clothes as a sign of grief, and in her hair was some rubble from the housetop. Her sons followed her, arguing loudly as always.
Arsinoe and I went with them to Dorieus’ room where Mikon with his physician’s case was studying the body in amazement. Dorieus lay on the couch, his face black, tongue swollen and lips blistered.
Mikon said slowly, “If it were summer and the time for wasps I would swear that a wasp had bitten his tongue. That happens to a drunkard who falls asleep with his mouth open or to a child who crams a wasp into his mouth with berries. But whatever the reason, Dorieus’ tongue has swelled and choked him.”
Tanakil’s sons cried out with one voice, “This is fate and a singular coincidence! We remember well that our father died in almost exactly the same manner. His tongue also swelled and his face blackened.”
Tanakil stared at Dorieus’ blackened face and body that was divinely tall even in death. “Nothing matters to me any more, but don’t you dare touch Turms.” She turned her aged, sorrow-lined face toward Arsinoe. “Turms may leave in peace, but we will send that goddess’s harlot back to the temple to pay the penalty for her flight. She is a temple slave and her son also is a slave and as such the property of the temple. Let them castrate the boy and train him to be a priest or a dancer. But first they must punish the woman as befits an escaped slave.”
I looked at Tanakil standing there with dirt in her dyed and coronet-wound hair, her clothes torn and her ancient face set in fury. She seemed like the embodiment of an alien god.
She smiled grimly and flicked away the flies that were beginning to hover about Dorieus’ eyes and mouth. “I have already felt the goddess’s wrath through your presence. Having lost Dorieus, whom I loved most dearly of my husbands, I no longer fear anything, divine or mortal.”
Suddenly her restraint crumbled. She struck her mouth with her fist so that the ivory teeth broke and blood began to trickle from her thin lips. Digging her nails into her breasts, she wailed, “You don’t know how deeply an old woman can love! I wanted him dead rather than despising me.”
I put my arm around Arsinoe and said firmly, “I am bound to Arsinoe and will take her and the boy with me regardless of your laws. Try to prevent me, Tanakil, and you will see what happens.” Once more I was ready, sword in hand, to abduct. Arsinoe and to die rather than be separated from her and the boy.
Mikon, plump and bloated from the wine though he was, collected the remnants of his wits and said decisively, “I also am a stranger in the city and an undesirable person if I have to testify as to the cause of Dorieus’ death. For the sake of our friendship, Turms, I feel it my responsibility to prevent Arsinoe and the boy from falling into the hands of evil priests.”
Tanakil’s sons glanced at her uncertainly. “Shall we call the guards and have them killed, Mother? That would be the easiest way of ridding ourselves of them. You may determine what happens to the woman.”
Tanakil pointed an accusing finger at Arsinoe. “Look at that too beautiful face!” she cried. “Look at that face that changes with her every whim. If I send her back to the temple she will surely win over the priests. I know her too well. No, the best punishment for her is to follow Turms as a fugitive, taking the boy with her. Let the sun darken her white face, let her limbs wither from want. Not a single garment, not a jewel or a silver coin will you take from my house, Istafra.”
Arsinoe realized from Tanakil’s stony face that it was her final decision. For a brief moment she seemed to weigh the chances of regaining her old position in the temple, then raised her chin.
“Clothes and jewels I can always get, but I can never win back Turms if I now leave him. You should be grateful to me, Tanakil. But for me you yourself would be lying there, your ugly face black and the mark of Dorieus’ fingers around your throat. Had I remained silent and let Dorieus fulfill his threat, everything would be different. But I didn’t want to lose Turms, nor do I hesitate to follow him now even if you should rob me of all I own.”
At that moment it was as though I stepped out of myself to watch everything from the side. I smiled. Irresistibly my glance was drawn to a pebble on the floor. I bent down to pick it up, hardly realizing what I was doing. It was an ordinary pebble that had been brought into the house by someone’s feet, and why I was compelled to pick it up I cannot explain, for I had no way of knowing that it again signified the end of one period in my life and the beginning of another.
I plucked the pebble from the floor, undisturbed by the fact that Tanakil was stamping her foot and demanding, “Go! Go quickly lest I regret it. Go as you are, for not one piece of bread, not one garment will you take from my house.”
Thus she banished us but did not dare to touch us or to set the guards upon us. Arsinoe managed to snatch up a child’s sheepskin and I took Dorieus’ heavy woolen mantle from the wall in addition to my sword and shield. Mikon had his caduceus and medicine case and at the doorway laid hands on a half-filled wineskin.
Because of the confusion wrought by the earthquake our flight attracted no attention. Crowds were pushing
