Finally, I managed to gasp,“What? Did I hear youcorrectly?”
“What?” For the first time, he lookedup at me, giving me a smile of what had to be bitter amusement.“You were expecting for me to beg for his life?” When I nodded, hereplied flatly, “No, Centurion. This is one betrayal too many. Ialways turned a blind eye to his…” he broke his gaze to sayuncomfortably, “…straying. But this?” He heaved a sigh. “This issomething I cannot forgive. And,” his voice changed to a tone Irecognized, one of a commander who is making a hard but necessarydecision, “I need to send a message to the rest of my crew that Iwill play no favorites, nor will I forgive betrayal.”
At this moment, I did not doubt Demeter;indeed, my main concern was that he would not extract as muchinformation as he could before he ended Lykos’ life. Regardless ofthis concern, I did not voice it, mainly because I had no idea howI would.
Consequently, I simply said, “If that’s yourdecision, as master of this ship, that’s your right and I respectit.”
Did he look disappointed that I did notargue with him? This was my thought as I followed him back up thewalkway.
Before he opened the door, he turned to meand said, “I have another request to make, Centurion. While I willshow you Lykos’ body after I am done, I ask that neither you norAlexandros be present for what I am about to do.”
I will not lie; my mind was racing with allthe ways in which Demeter could be doing this to fool me, and therest of us, but I answered him with a nod, for which he was clearlygrateful. He opened the door, then a moment later, Alex came out,looking at me with puzzlement, which turned to alarm when, withoutsaying anything, I turned about and headed for the stern.
When he did not follow immediately, I calledover my shoulder, “I’ll explain later.”
He hurried to catch up with me, but while hedid not ask anything, I was trying to come up with a way where Icould describe what had just transpired. Once we were back in thecabin, I explained to all of them the bare bones of my agreementwith Demeter, leaving out the part that he and Lykos were lovers,though I have no idea why. When I was finished, there was a heavysilence, which was when, across the length of the ship, we heardthe first of what would be many screams.
When Demeter came to get me, it was a goodthing that I hurriedly opened the door then slipped out, because helooked as if he had been in a slaughterhouse, his arms and thefront of his tunic almost soaked with blood. He said nothing atfirst, just turned about and walked back towards the bow, leavingme to call over my shoulder for the rest to stay there, and my lastsight as I closed the door was Bronwen’s face, deathly white,telling me that she had gotten a glimpse of him.
As I caught up with the Rhodian, he musthave heard my heavier footfall, because without breaking stride orlooking over his shoulder, he began talking. “I am afraid that itwas worse than I feared, Centurion.” Seeing my look of alarm, heheld up a blood-spattered hand as he assured me, “Not for you,Centurion. For me.” Catching up with him, even in the dim lightingof the main compartment, I could see the warring emotions playingacross his face, and I found myself feeling a great deal ofsympathy for Demeter. During the time we had been sitting in thecabin, listening to what was effectively the torture of Lykos, byhis ship commander and lover, I found myself thinking what I wouldbe experiencing if, for some reason only the gods know, I foundmyself standing in front of Bronwen, and knowing she had betrayedme, and I was thinking about this when, oblivious to my internalmusing, he went on, “Over the last two years, we hadsuffered…setbacks, where the ships we had selected for…” his voicetrailed off, and I nodded that I understood what he was saying,“…escaped, and it was because Lykos had taken gold to warn themasters of those ships to be ready for us.” He did not say anythingmore at that point, choosing instead to resume walking towards thebow. When he reached the door, I saw him take a deep breath, thenopen it, beckoning to me to walk through the doorway, and I bracedmyself for what I would find. While not as much as my father, Ihave seen my share of battle, and I have seen the product of aninterrogation by the torture detachment that is attached, albeitsurreptitiously, to every man of Legate rank. Nevertheless, therush of bile up into my throat caught me so completely by surprisethat it was with only a physical effort that I did not shamemyself. I will not go into details, other than to say this; anydoubt I had about Demeter and his intentions was put to rest when Ilaid eyes on the gory mess that had been the man known asLykos.
As I gazed down, I felt Demeter staring atme, and when I gave him an inquiring glance, he came right to thepoint, saying bluntly, “But Lykos was not the only man withholdinginformation from me, Centurion.” Without waiting for me toformulate an answer, he asked, “Were you planning on telling methat Decimus Mela’s real name is Lucius Aviola?”
Making a snap decision, I replied, “Thatdepended on whether I thought you were telling the truth.”
“And now?”
I only glanced down at the mutilated bodythat was now lying on the deck in a pool of his own blood.
“Now I know that I can trustyou.”
I withheld nothing more from him, tellingDemeter everything we knew about Aviola, including the informationhis son had given about having a home—perhaps “hideout” would be abetter term—in each of the five districts of Alexandria.
I finished by explaining, “Naturally, wewill search the Rhakotis district last.”
This obviously surprised him.
“Why?”
“You know better than I do howunlikely a wealthy Roman, no matter how he made his money, would beable to hide in that district.”
To me, it seemed obvious, but Demeterclearly
