‘What would you say,’ I asked softly, ‘if I mentioned sworn statements about a certain person of the
Hands still clamped over his face, Simeon began swaying from side to side.
It was now time for Priscus to have his turn. ‘We’re all men of the world in here,’ he said with his broadest smile. ‘And none of us is entirely without sin. But you do know how the Great Augustus feels about what he insists on calling “male vice”. With anyone else in charge, you’d be tried by a committee of the Imperial Council. Its members would surely accept that sucking wasn’t the same as fucking, and the penalty would be only degradation and confinement on relatively easy terms in some local monastery until your friends could work on Caesar. But Heraclius will certainly try you himself, and his ignorance of legal procedure is famous all over the Empire. Having established the lesser offence of sucking, he’d take the greater offence for granted. It would then be a matter of having you paraded round the Circus, with sharp reeds inserted into the pores and tubes of most exquisite sensibility, followed by amputation of the sinful instrument. If that doesn’t kill, there is always burning, or the teeth and claws of wild animals.’
I took over again. I leaned forward and patted Simeon gently on the shoulder.
He whined and pressed hands harder to his face.
‘But, My Lord Bishop,’ I said, ‘none of this is necessary. You know that Priscus would never wish for a scandal in his family. You know my own regard for the honour of the Church. Let us suppose that the Emperor may have allowed one or two ambiguous comments to pass his lips regarding a supposed resolution of the Monophysite controversy. But Emperors say many things. Don’t imagine that anything Ludinus may have whispered at you through those gold teeth of his amounts to an authoritative clarification. The great difference between us and the Persians is that we take notice only of what our Lord and Master has expressed in the appropriate form. Heraclius the Person may speak now and then without full thought or proper advice. That is why we give our fullest attention to what Heraclius the Emperor says on a sheet of parchment bearing the Imperial Seal, or from the Imperial Throne in words that can be given clear legal effect.’
I got up and walked round to where Simeon was sitting like a cornered hedgehog. I bent down and embraced him. Priscus came round and helped get the man to his feet.
‘Come, dearest friend,’ I said. ‘Your chair awaits you, together with torchbearers and guards. It will never do to keep them waiting. It would never do to keep you up when tomorrow must be such a long and responsible day. As I said in our last conversation here, this will be a council where arguments must be judged purely on their theological merits. I have no doubt that, when I explain the provisional thoughts of His Holiness our Patriarch, you will give them the fullest and most unbiased consideration.’
I looked up at the glass bricks of the dome. The red flickering was more pronounced up here than it had been in the dining hall. It gave a pleasantly warm glow to the library, smoothing out the worst of its desolation.
I walked back with Priscus through the darkness of the residency. The new slaves hadn’t been instructed yet on the need to place lamps in all the corridors likely to be frequented at night. We passed in silence through what had once been the proper dining room, right up to the threshold of the old audience hall that I’d had cleaned and perfumed for the dinner, and made to give some impression of Imperial wealth and power. Here I stopped. Irene was hard at work with getting the slaves to clear up the mess that had been left behind.
‘I wish Your Grace Godspeed through the streets of Athens,’ I’d said to Simeon as we finally bundled him into his chair. I’d drawn breath and continued in oratorical tone: ‘I think we can both agree on desiring a homeward voyage before the sea lanes become really impassable. Can I therefore count on your assistance in getting this council over and done with before the month is out? My enquiries suggest that you have a certain closeness with His Grace of Ephesus. I will leave you to arrange matters with him as you see fit — with him and with the other Eastern bishops. You know the council will begin tomorrow, after Sunday service. If our next Sunday service can celebrate a smooth consensus of opinion between Greek and Latin Patriarchates, you may be assured that neither I nor the Commander of the East will forget your own part in bringing this about.’
Priscus had confirmed this with a great slobbering kiss, and then a parting kick at the biggest of the carrying slaves. ‘If there is a “next” Sunday service,’ he’d giggled into my ear, ‘even you might join in the prayers of thanks.’
We’d watched as the flaring procession made its way through the Forum of Hadrian. Then we’d watched as slaves had closed and barred the only gate into the residency. Now, in darkness, we were walking through its dark interior.
‘They might have been strays,’ Priscus now said, referring to the children I’d seen out by the tomb. ‘But, if you saw one family of them, it does mean the passes are open. It’s a matter of time.’ He stopped suddenly and doubled over for a long coughing attack. We’d moved into a shaft of moonlight from one of the overhead windows. In this, I saw the dark streak on his bandage.
‘You need a doctor,’ I said. ‘Don’t try telling me again this is seasickness.’
Priscus stood up and leaned against one of the locked doors. ‘If you have any sense in that pretty young head of yours,’ he whispered, ‘you’ll not go round telling people how the Commander of the East is indisposed. I was able to inspect what passes here for a militia this afternoon. With me at their head, those duffers might just hold the walls. Do you want them in a panic?’
I swallowed. In Constantinople, in Alexandria, in Egypt, and on the whole voyage to Athens, I’d done everything short of pray that Priscus — as much my fly in the ointment as I was his, my sworn enemy, my backstabbing opponent in every measure I could urge on poor, stupid Heraclius — might fall down dead of something. Now it was looking as if I’d get what I wanted, I really would make a point of praying in church for his recovery.
We continued along the corridor. After a few paces, Priscus stopped again to clear his throat. He spat into the darkness. He laughed and took my arm to help him forward. ‘When will you officially notice that Nicephorus has abandoned his duties?’ he asked.
‘He seems to have done bugger all when he was about,’ I answered. ‘Unless anyone important makes a fuss, I think we can overlook his absence for another few days.’
We’d now come into a long room that had a side window at the far end into the courtyard. Through this came another hint of distant red. ‘I know that Martin’s been urging you to scarper since before we got here,’ Priscus said with a recovery of strength. ‘We can agree that Nicephorus had no orders to arrest you on the docks. But you really can’t deceive yourself that you’re in the clear. All that guff you spoke to dear Simeon about the Imperial Constitution doesn’t touch the fact that you serve an absolute and arbitrary despot who may still have something nasty in mind for you. So do tell me, dear boy — why hang about when you could be straight out of here?’
‘Because I swore an oath to Heraclius,’ I said. ‘And because I have an overriding duty of service to the Empire so long as I’m in a position to do any good at all.’ I was saved the trouble of continuing by a sudden explosion from Priscus that was part laugh, part sneer.
‘Duty?’ he gasped when he was able to speak again. ‘
I didn’t break the silence that followed.
‘Oh, well,’ he took up again, ‘it’s so nice that we’re working together again. Even if I am thinking back just one month or so, to when we did so well in Egypt, it will be just like the old days — don’t you think?’
‘Yes,’ I said. Since he was no longer holding on to me, he didn’t feel my shudder.
Chapter 39
