“You know,” I kept my voice low, and Ispoke in Greek, “the whores of Alexandria are famous the worldover. It seems a shame not to find out why.”
Septimus chuckled, but Alex was notamused.
“Would you be quiet?” he snapped. “I’mtrying to remember when we make our next turn.”
I did so, feeling chastened and a bitembarrassed since I was the one who was supposed to be in commandof this. And, for a moment, I was certain that I had disrupted hisconcentration to the point I had gotten us lost, because we werewalking directly towards another structure that blocked furtherprogress down the street, but I could not see an intersectingstreet before we reached it. When he came to a stop, I was preparedto be chastised again for my error; however, this was not thecase.
Pointing to a gap between two dilapidatedbuildings, he spoke in a near whisper, “We cut through here, thenwe should find Demeter and the others right down the street waitingfor us.”
Without waiting, he stepped into thegap, and while I did not hesitate to follow, almost immediately, Iwas assaulted by a sensation that I had done this before. It onlytook a couple of heartbeats for me to recall why, remembering thefighting in Petuar and how Tincommius and I had cut through whatwas not quite an alley. I also made an observation as, once more, Iwas forced to turn and sidestep, and that was thecac of people from Britannia smellsalmost exactly like the cacof the poor Egyptians of Alexandria. I reminded myself tomake sure I washed my feet before being in Bronwen’s presence as Iemerged to stand next to Alex, where we were joined by Septimus.Despite straining our eyes, we could not see anyone, and I wasabout to ask Alex if he was certain this was the right spot, when ashort hissing sound alerted us, and we spun about to see threeshadowy figures standing there.
“We were looking in the wrongdirection,” I muttered, although we were already hurrying to jointhe others.
“We were wondering how long it wouldtake you to turn around.” Marcellus’ grin was more audible thanvisible.
“Where do we go from here?” I asked,deciding that I would not engage in more banter.
Demeter pointed to the intersection that wasnow to my back. “When we turn that corner, Aviola’s house will bevisible once you walk about five paces down the street. If we pressourselves against the wall, we can stay out of sight for anotherfive or six paces.”
“Which will be close enough to hearGaius when he starts talking to them,” Alex pointed out.
This was the moment we all turned to theyoungest member of the group, who also was about to play the mostcrucial role, and because of the darkness, I put my hand on hisshoulder, not surprised to feel him trembling.
“Are you ready for this?” I asked himquietly, and I saw his head bob up and down once, while I cursedmyself for not thinking of this earlier. As we walked to thecorner, I leaned down to whisper in his ear, “Gaius, you know whatthe secret to being a Pullus is?” For the first time, he looked upat me, his features barely visible as he shook his head, still notsaying anything. “It’s because,” I went on, “unlike most people, wePulluses don’t let our fear control us. We’re the masters over ourfear instead.” I paused to let this sink in, then asked, “Do youunderstand?”
For the first time, he spoke. “Y-yes. I do,Gnaeus. And,” his voice grew a bit stronger, “you can count onme!”
“Which is why you’re here.” I pattedhim on the shoulder.
We were at the corner now, and to mysurprise, I did not have to give him a nudge forward; on his own,Gaius turned the corner, disappearing from sight. I waited to acount of five, then I followed him, except I put my back to thebuilding and essentially repeated what I had done to get throughthe gap, sliding my feet along, while Gaius moved to a spot wherehe could walk down the middle of the street. Unlike Petuar, thestreets even of the poorest district in Alexandria are paved,although there is an accumulation of all manner of things coveringthe stones; animal droppings, dirt, and the gods know what else,which made the smell only marginally better than it had beenbetween the buildings. There were two shuttered windows of thebuilding we were up against, and I was relieved to see there was nosign of light from either one, although I still bent over so thatmy head was below them as I slid past. The quiet was abruptlybroken by a sharp call that I knew did not come from Gaius, who wasstill a couple paces short of the next intersection, although Icould tell that he was plainly visible from Aviola’s building, andwhile I recognized the tone, sounding similar to when a Legionarycalled out a challenge while on guard, my heart sank when I couldnot understand a word that followed the warning call.
“It’s a fucking Egyptian,” Iwhispered. “They must have…”
Gaius had come to an immediate stop, as heshould have, but before I could finish my thought, the voiceimmediately switched to Greek. Which, I instantly understood, madesense that, no matter who would be standing guard, they would startin the tongue most likely to be understood by this possibleintruder.
“Oy!” thevoice called out in Greek. “Who are you? What are you doinghere?”
Gaius did not respond, although I knew heunderstood Greek, which made me think that he had frozen as I hadfeared he would.
In fact, he had done no such thing, which Iwould learn when he called out, but in Latin, “I…I don’t speakGreek.”
Even with the distance, I heard at least twomen’s voices exclaiming in surprise, but it was the originalinterrogator who immediately switched to Latin as well, speakingwith an accent that my ear told me came from Latium, “You’re aRoman?”
“Yes.” Gaius did a nice job ofsounding relieved. “Yes, I am.”
“Then what by
