“Mother and son will both be concubines until her master tires of his latest toy and turns Astiza out to more menial slavery. I think Somerset intends that it be the worst kind of crippling labor. And so your little family ends, you in a torture chamber, she as a scullery slave, and Horus, perhaps, as eunuch after his service to pederasts. Your courage, if you want to call it that, will have destroyed everyone around you.”
“What about my friends below?” My tone was hollow.
“They will never emerge from the pit. Since Bonaparte sent them, we dare not risk his wrath by trying for ransom. We take care not to capture people from nations with powerful navies. Better that they simply disappear, presumably lost at sea, unfortunate casualties of a doomed treasure quest with the unreliable Ethan Gage. They were last seen fleeing Venice and, poof, they are gone!”
“You bastard. You will fry in hell!”
At that a guard sprang forward and lashed at me with a whip, which stung like the very devil. Worse, the crack of the lash terrified poor little Horus, who now did duck behind his mother’s skirts, whimpering. My own eyes watered from the pain but I was damned if I was going to cry in front of my son. Family has a way of giving spine to a man.
“The other choice,” Dragut went on smoothly, as if nothing had happened, “is to do what our federation has suggested from the beginning. There was something on that sheepskin you collected because it had disappeared by the time we took you out of the hold. You found a clue, Gage, and then destroyed it. Admit it.”
“No more than a city, which you could guess anyway.”
“Syracuse?”
I nodded as if didn’t matter. “Where Archimedes lived.”
“But then why destroy the parchment? And how did you do it?”
“We ate it.”
He smiled. “Which means it held more than a city. Take us to the mirror of Archimedes, Gage, and save both yourself and your family. Astiza and your son will be released to go back to Egypt if they wish, never to be molested by us again.”
“And my companions?”
“They will be released and put on a ship back to France before today’s sunset. You will not have to meet them, and they will have no idea what bargain you made. Their nightmare will become an adventure they will recount at the supper table for the rest of their lives. Napoleon will probably reward them for having tried, and praise Yussef Karamanli for his mercy.”
“And me?”
“You will make your own choice, and it will be a real choice, not coerced. If the mirror works, you can join an alliance that is seeking to re-create the magic and power of the Knights Templar and dominate the world for good. I assure you the Egyptian Rite could run our planet far better than the grasping princes and warlords that rule it now. Mark my words, men like Bonaparte will wreak havoc! The mirror will make Tripoli impregnable to naval attack by even the greatest of powers, and behind it we will build a new utopia.”
“Like the murals of Akrotiri,” I murmured.
“What?”
“Nothing. Something I saw once.”
“Or, you can throw away the opportunity to remake the world and go back to your old corruption, where you will be regarded as traitor to your country and all civilized nations. You will be despised and friendless. The best you might hope for is impoverished exile in Egypt with Astiza. Once we have the mirror, what you choose is of no moment to me.”
By the beard of Solomon, wasn’t this a fix? Condemn the son I hadn’t known I had to slavery and rape, snuff out not only my own life but that of Astiza and my three savants—or, betray my nation when it was at war with Tripoli. I couldn’t remember old Ben offering any advice on this kind of dilemma, either, except his comment about patriots hanging separately if they didn’t hang together.
It was as if Yussef read my thoughts. “Do not flatter yourself that you hold the key to victory or defeat, Monsieur Gage,” the bashaw spoke up. “We will find what we seek one way or another—the Rite assures me of that. You simply speed things along and, by doing so, spare your family. If your nation really has a chance in its war with me, why are its ships hiding in Malta?”
Why indeed? Where in hell was that incompetent commodore, Richard Valentine Morris?
“It’s not treason to embrace the idealism of the Egyptian Rite,” Dragut added.
Aurora’s odd patience with me at sea was now explained. It had been planned from the beginning for me to turn traitor to the United States in order to save my young son. The slave market, the pit, the torture chamber—all were to soften me up for this unholy bargain. They sensed I knew more than I’d admitted, and had given me the one choice I couldn’t refuse.
It didn’t help that I felt guilty for putting the woman I loved (and our child!) in utmost peril. If I had the fidelity of a flea I never would have gotten entangled with Aurora Somerset in the first place, and she wouldn’t be plaguing us now. There would have been no kidnapping of Astiza, and no devil’s bargain. “Beauty and folly are old companions,” Ben Franklin said.
Well, the pirates were a long way from having a death ray and the only possible plan was play along. If I said no we were doomed, but if yes? Maybe my luck would turn. I’m a gambler, after all. I began to fantasize about turning this death ray on them.
“All I have are rather vague clues. I’m not very good at puzzles.”
“But you could help, no?”
“Yes. What do I have to do?”
“Find the mirror for us.”
“And Astiza and Horus?”
“They will be released unharmed, as promised. But not until the weapon is in Tripoli. Until then, Astiza remains in the harem as a prisoner.”
“How do I know you’ll keep your word if I help?”
“You’ll watch from a palace window when your savants are taken from the dungeon and put on an outbound ship this very evening. We’ll fulfill the first part of our promise before you’ve had to do yours. We of the Rite are honorable, loath though you may be to believe it.”
“And Horus will be kept safe?”
“I hope so, but that is up to you, Ethan Gage. Your son is going on our treasure hunt with you, to ensure your good behavior.”
“Horus with
Her eyes had lowered. “I dread this even more than you. I don’t want my son taken away, and I don’t trust his care to his father. Not yet. Not when your relationship with this woman started this tragedy. But I have no choice.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but how could I blame her?
And now Aurora Somerset stepped into the room, in sea boots and greatcoat, a cutlass on her waist. “There’s no need for concern, because I will be a mother to that boy,” she announced.
Her great black dog, Sokar, padded in with her, yellow-eyed and slobbering. The leopard hissed at the sight of the beast.
And Aurora smiled, infuriatingly, at Astiza.
Oddly, it was Aurora’s sneer that stiffened me. It was just the arrogance to remind me exactly where duty lay, and to which woman I owed every ounce of my loyalty. I recognized the desperate trust Astiza was extending to a lover who’d done little to deserve it. By Isis, I loved the mother of my son, loved her with a depth that sent all the old emotions flooding back, and it was time to save her or die trying!
“The hell you will,” I told Aurora Somerset. “His mother is here, and I’m the boy’s father. Astiza, I’ll take care of our son, I promise.”
Astiza nodded, as afraid of this moment as any episode in her life. She picked up the lad and stepped over to me, little Horus clinging like a squirrel. He looked at all of us with anxious suspicion, which was another confirmation of his uncommon intelligence. I caught the scent of my old lover as she leaned close, acacia and lotus, and felt the electricity of her hair. I reached out.
She put Horus in my arms.
