Pluto’s balls, I had to stifle agroan, this is a nightmare. Here I was, about to risk everything,and now I had to worry that the woman I thought was mine was eitherhaving second thoughts or she thought I was having second thoughts, or the gods onlyknew what was going through her mind. I actually opened my mouth tosay something to her when, from behind us, someone coughed, and wespun around to see Alex standing there.
“We need to go, Gnaeus.”
Honestly, I suspect that I looked like a manwho is on the verge of drowning who was just thrown a rope, but Ialso knew I could not just leave.
I kissed her, then promised, “We’ll talkabout this later.” I do not know why, but this was the moment itfirst occurred to me to ask, “Do you feel safe, us leaving youhere? I mean,” I added needlessly, “with the rest of the crewhere?”
She did smile then, but it was not of thekind that always made my heart fill, which I understood when shesaid, “After what Demeter did to Lykos today, my love, I think Iwill be much safer than you will.”
I felt a bit foolish when she put it likethat, because she was certainly correct, though I did not sayanything more, leaving her in the cabin as I scrambled up theladder behind Alex.
“Demeter, Gaius, and Marcellus havealready left,” Septimus informed me, and before I could ask, added,“and I’m at two hundred.”
I picked up the count as we stood there nextto the plank, and I was heartened to see that while it wascertainly not as busy as it was during the day, by the light of thelarge oil lamps hung from a tripod in the center of theHeptastadion every twenty paces or so, it was easy to see theactivity. Most importantly, it was not all one way, in the form ofcrewmen returning to their vessels, as men I assumed had just beenrelieved from standing watch went hurrying up the causeway towardsthe city. Finally, Septimus reached five hundred, and we walkeddown the plank, whereupon I realized something.
“This is the first time I’ve actuallystepped off the ship,” I muttered, not with any real purpose inmind. “I’m in Alexandria.”
“Is that where we are?” Alex spoke up behind me. “Iwas wondering.”
I heard Septimus snickering, which Iignored other than to grab my ass with both hands in a gesture Iwas certain they knew. Leading the way as I was, I immediatelybecame acutely aware of the curious glances thrown my directionthat, while happening frequently, suddenly became more meaningfulin my mind. Our berth was about halfway down the Heptastadion,making it not a short walk, and with every step I took, the morecertain I became that all eyes were on me, to the point where I wasexpecting to see a section of Roman Legionaries waiting at the endof the Heptastadion, ready to question how a Roman Centurion fromthe 1st Legion came to be inAlexandria. It sounds foolish now, yet in the moment, I wassweating more heavily than the temperature called for, and I didnot bother hiding my relief when, crossing the last bridge thatobscures the view of the terminus of the city side of theHeptastadion because it is arched high enough to allow ships topass under it, I saw nothing and nobody standing at the end of thequay. Alex noticed, asking me why I was behaving as if we hadaccomplished our task, and when I opened my mouth to explain, Irealized how it would sound, so I offered a shrug and nothing more;fortunately, he did not press me. Once we reached the end, Istepped aside so that Alex became the leader, and we did pausebriefly next to the last oil lamp as he studied thetablet.
“What are you doing? Did you forgetalready?” I was only partially joking.
“No.” He did not look up as he shookhis head. “I’m memorizing everything because I doubt we’re going tohave enough light for me to read the directions.”
“Oh.” It was all I could think to saysince he was probably right.
I know it was not that long, but I felt asif we had added another five hundred to the count before Alexfinally looked up, and without a word, began walking down the firststreet that ran perpendicular to the Heptastadion and paralleledthe Eunostos, which meant we were heading in the opposite directionfrom the royal quarter. At first, we were far from alone, but myeyes were roving about looking for at least a pair of men who wouldbe wearing helmets and carrying the rectangular shields of a Legionof Rome. The Heptastadion divides what is a huge anchorage into twoparts, and the beginning of the Rhakotis quarter starts there onthe right side when facing the city. At first, it seemed as if itwould be a straightforward matter, given how Alexandria had beenlaid out by the Macedonian king, with every street at right anglesand laid out in a grid, something that I only learned recently isfrom where our plan for a Legion camp came. However, once wepenetrated no more than two blocks deep, with the harbor to ourback, things changed dramatically in more ways than one. Followinga street that suddenly came to a dead end because a building hadbeen placed, seemingly in the middle of the street, as if somegiant had dropped the structure there because there was space, wehad to change direction. Without hesitation, Alex made a right turnthat took us deeper into the district, and now there were only ahandful of people out in the streets, while there were onlyflickers of light appearing through the cracks of the shutters fromsome of the buildings lining the street. As Alex had predicted,there were no torches, no lamps of any kind to help illuminate thestreets, but I did not need light to see how most of thesebuildings were in varying stages of disrepair. Now, the few peoplewe saw were evenly divided between men and women, but it was onlythe women who called out to us in the native tongue, which ofcourse we
