reinforcements I’d ordered in had eventually arrived, I thought.
‘Where’s your fucking ticket?’ he screamed again. He waved a long cavalry sword at me.
The chair shook as every one of its female carriers cried out in a unison of terror.
‘I am,’ I replied, ‘the Senator Alaric, Legate Extraordinary from His Imperial Majesty to His Imperial Highness the Viceroy.’ I stepped unsteadily down from the chair and tried to breathe through my mouth. I didn’t know how to tell the women to go back to the Mistress, but expected they’d get the idea. ‘Do not presume to ask me for identification,’ I said with a look down my nose.
The soldier opened his mouth for what I had no doubt would be a stream of very ripe abuse. Before he could spew any of it my way, however, someone else came running over.
‘My Lord! My Lord!’ he cried happily in Latin. ‘We’d heard you were dead. It is a true delight to see you in such good health.’ He was one of the Slavonic guards. He had a bandage round his left arm, and didn’t look as if he’d shaved or even washed in days. He waved the cavalry soldier away and led me through the Palace gates.
As I walked into the entrance hall, I could hear my name passing from voice to voice. There was a crowd about me before I’d got halfway across the floor. Faces bobbed in and out of my sight, calling my name. Hands stretched out to touch my robe. I’d never thought I was so popular. Even the eunuchs looked happy. I had no choice but to stop and give a little speech of thanks to God for my preservation, and of thanks to everyone else for being pleased I had been preserved. There’s a big difference between a cheering crowd and one that wants to rip you apart. But, if the Mistress assured me I was well, I could feel my legs trembling. All I wanted now was a long drink and maybe an opium pill or two.
Chapter 48
‘So how did you get out alive?’ I asked Priscus a second time.
He looked up from the list of names placed before him on the Viceroy’s desk and laughed. ‘My dearest Alaric,’ he said, ‘did you really think I could be killed by a handful of wogs? I don’t think I ever told you about my part in the loss of Serdica. That was back in the early days of Maurice, when I was just a staff officer. It was all rather boring at first. Then, one night, ten thousand savages – every one of them as big and blonde as you, and every one of them fighting mad – came pouring over the wall. The whole garrison was put to the sword. I was the only one not to be-’
He broke off as a secretary knocked and came in with a sheaf of documents. As Priscus arranged them on the desk, I saw that every sheet was another list of names. Priscus looked briefly down the columns. A couple of times, he took up a pen and crossed out some of the names. Once or twice, he added others from memory.
‘These ones,’ he said, holding up one of the more crowded sheets, ‘I want impaled. For all these’ – he signed his name on one of the smaller sheets – ‘the punishment is blinding and confiscation of property. For all the others, it’s burning. Do make sure to tell me if we run short of timber from the demolished buildings. In view of the Patriarch’s message, we’ll hold all further executions over till tomorrow. As for the blindings’… He paused and measured out a spoonful of one of his powders. He tapped the shaft of the pen on his teeth and thought. ‘As for the blindings, cancel them. I hereby degrade everyone on that list to the class of the freeborn poor and sentence them all to the galleys.’
‘How is Nicetas?’ I asked when we were alone again. I had thought of asking about Alexander. But then I’d seen the splintered box lying in a corner of the office. It still contained an entire leg and some larger fragments of the trunk. Of the head I saw no sign.
Priscus refilled my cup and pulled over a candle to heat his powder. ‘Resting,’ he said after another long pause.
I’d not expected any other answer from the moment I saw Priscus sitting so firmly at his desk. ‘Once I found the mob couldn’t get in,’ he went on, ‘and wasn’t doing much to cut through the lead on the roof, I decided to leave him for a day and a half in the Church of the Apostles. When I did eventually have him let out, he was more dead than alive. All that had kept him going, I am told, was repeated cups of communion wine. He had the priest bless every mouthful.’ He paused again, and breathed in the fumes of his evaporated powder. He pitched forward, banging his head up and down on the desk.
Nothing could kill Priscus. Nothing could harm Priscus. I’d known him too long now even to hope otherwise. I refilled my cup and drank deeply.
Getting sense out of the clerks in my office had taken an age. In the end, though, I’d heard how Priscus had somehow made his way back to the Palace and taken charge of affairs. No one could accuse him of irresolution. He hadn’t waited for the reinforcements. Instead, he’d lined up all that remained of the Palace garrison and led it out in person to a massacre of everyone who didn’t run for cover. He’d cut his way to the Prefecture and recruited every one of the quaking officers to his little army. With them puffing up his numbers, he’d slaughtered until the streets ran with blood and until every one of the rioters lucky enough to survive had burrowed his way back into the filthy slums from which he had issued. Now, order was fully restored, and it was time to punish all those who’d called the mobs into being before losing control of them.
‘Have you ever seen a man eaten to death by maggots?’ Priscus asked heavily. He looked up at me, tears carrying the mascara down his face in green rivulets.
I shook my head.
‘Then remind me in six days’ time, and I’ll take you back under the Prefecture. You’ll find the Viceroy’s secretary in a cell of his own. He came the high and mighty official when I staggered in here more dead than alive. Of course, I beat him to pulp when he tried to stop me from laying hands on the Great Seal. His death sentence was for treason. The manner of his death is for pissing me off.’
He sat up again, his mood brightening. He reached into a drawer and pulled out the Great Seal. Every one of my own intrigues since arriving here had been connected with getting Nicetas to use this as I desired. I’d never thought of just taking it. So long as Nicetas lay sobbing in his bed, surrounded by priests, Priscus was the supreme power in Alexandria and for as deep into Egypt as Imperial rule might still reach.
‘My darling Alaric,’ he said with one of his more charming smiles, ‘if I seemed less than overjoyed when you walked in, that is because I already knew that you were still alive.’ He reached into another drawer and took out a leather packet. From this he took out a folded sheet of papyrus. ‘This was waiting for you two evenings ago, when I got back from burning the poorer half of the Egyptian quarter. I hope you’ll not mind that I opened it in your absence. It does answer a question I know has been hanging on your lips ever since you walked in here.’ He pushed the folded sheet across the desk.
I took it up and unfolded it.
‘From the second and greater Pharaoh Meriamen Usermaatre Setepenre,’ it began, ‘to Alaric, Legate of the Greek Emperor – greetings and congratulations.’
‘I assume he’s the wog fucker who took Alexander’s head,’ Priscus broke in.
I nodded. He scowled and went back to scanning his death lists. I looked closely at the sheet. It had a few crossings-out and changes that made it pretty clear Lucas had written this by himself. It was good Greek and in a good hand. He must once have had the choice to be Greek or Egyptian. Why he’d not chosen the Greeks continued to astonish me.
Anyway, the congratulations were on my escape from his people. Apparently, they’d exceeded their instructions, and those ‘still in need of punishment’, would receive it from his own hands. He explained how the purpose of the attack had merely been to take me prisoner, ‘so that we might continue the business you cut so painfully short last month’. After much elaborations on his admiration for me, and his personal desire to continue ‘our most interesting discussions’, – I shuddered at that one – he got to the point:
You have, or are in a position to obtain, a relic of the Faith that we regard as of the highest value to the freedom of the Egyptian people. You will hand this to us – together with attestation from the appropriate religious authorities – at the midnight hour on the twenty-seventh day of the month of Mechir. For this purpose, you will attend on us in the market square of the town that sits in the shadow of the Great Pyramid.
You may bring armed men sufficient for your protection, and these will guarantee your safety when you meet with us. Do not presume to think your forces will be sufficient to overwhelm us. You will be on our territory. Do not presume to think we shall not observe your every move from the moment you leave the Royal Palace in
