“You know,” I used the sameconversational tone, “you haven’t even asked how we found you,Aviola.”
“What does it matter now?” he asked,seemingly indifferent, but I did not reply, nor did the othersspeak. Finally, he sighed and said, “I suppose it’s better toknow.”
“Your son,” I told him, smiling at himas I spoke. “He told us everything we needed to know to run youdown, you mentula.”
His reaction was supremely satisfying as hegasped, his eyes filling with tears, but then he shook his head andsaid stubbornly, “I don’t believe you. Lucius would never betray melike that!”
Rather than respond, I twisted around tolook at Alex, pointing to his satchel.
“Do you have either of thosetablets?”
He nodded, withdrawing one of them, which hehanded to me. Telling Gaius to bring one of the lamps closer, Iopened the tablet towards Aviola so that he could see what wasinscribed.
“How do you think we got all of thisinformation on you? Who else would have known thismuch?”
Because the tablet was between me andAviola, I could not see his face, but the sudden sob was rewardenough, and I smiled as I snapped it shut, feeling not a shred ofpity or sympathy for him. However, while we had gotten what we camefor, our problems were far from over.
“How are we going to carry all thisback to the Persephone beforedaylight?” Septimus wondered, and it was a valid question; worse,none of us had a ready answer.
After thinking a moment, Alex offered, “Weneed to go outside and try to find a cart.”
“You mean steal a cart,” I replied,for which Alex shot me a sour look, but I was not trying to makelight of it, which I explained, “and stealing it quietly enoughthat it won’t raise the alarm.”
“True,” he nodded,mollified.
“I’m open to suggestions about how wedo that,” I spoke up loudly enough so everyone could hear me,including Demeter.
And, it was Demeter who either solved ourproblem or was about to betray us, because he said, “If you arewilling to wait a bit longer, you will have more than enough helpto carry this back to the ship.”
My only consolation in the moment was thatnone of the others comprehended his meaning, either.
“Help? Who are you talking about?”Thinking I understood, I pointed outside. “You mean the people wholive around here? That we’ll bribe them somehow when they comepoking around?”
Frankly, I was surprised they had not doneso; we had all heard someone shouting, yet to that moment, this hadbeen the only indication that our presence was even suspected.
“No, not them.” Demeter shook hishead. “I am talking about my crew.”
“Your crew?” I felt my stomachclenching, my first and really the only thought was that, at last,this Rhodian had betrayed us. “Why would your crew be cominghere?”
“Because,” he replied calmly enough,“I told them to wait two parts of a watch after we left, then comehere.”
“How would they know how to get here?”Alex interjected, but Demeter answered by pointing to the tabletthat I had handed back to him.
“Because you are not the only one whowrote down the directions. As soon as we got back to the ship, Idid the same thing, and I gave it to Theodotus.”
I knew that Theodotus had been, upuntil earlier that day, the third in command of thePersephone, but frankly, I had paidlittle attention to him, being more suspicious of Lykos thanhim.
It was Septimus who asked theimportant question. “And whydid you order them to come, Demeter? And,” I heard his voicetighten in anticipation of the answer, “what are they supposed todo when they get here?”
The Rhodian did not answer immediately,seemingly considering what he was going to say, then he gave analmost imperceptible shrug as he answered, “I was going to alloweach of them to strip a piece of skin off of that dog inthere.”
He did not say it that loudly, but it wasenough to elicit a moan of fear from Aviola and a gasp from one ofhis men, who we had dragged over to the other side of the room,putting them in sitting positions with their backs to the wall.
“One of them is awake,” Alexcommented, which I thought was gratuitous, but then he turned to meand suggested, “Maybe he’ll be able to clear up whether there werefour or five men here.”
This was a good suggestion, yet I was stillmore concerned about the disclosure from Demeter that a band ofpirates was presumably heading in our direction. Before I thoughtabout it, I walked over to Demeter, looking down at him, and to hiscredit, he neither flinched nor did he take a step back to open thedistance between us.
“Are you telling us the truth,Demeter?” I asked him quietly. “Or did you have something else inmind?”
“I am telling you the truth,Centurion.” His demeanor was serious, but he clearly saw that I wasskeptical, and he offered a slight smile and shrug, “Oh, I willconfess that the thought crossed my mind that perhaps killing allof you and taking this would be the best course of action. But,”his demeanor returned to its former look, “while I may have donesome of the things you suspect me of, I am a man of honor. I gaveyou my word to carry you here, retrieve what was lost to you, andreturn you to Arelate, and that is what I am going todo.”
I said nothing to this, choosing instead tolook him directly in the eyes, and while I was trying to control myown mien, I was almost frantic in my attempt to silently plumb thedepths of this man’s soul to determine if these were mere wordsmeant to lull me into a sense of security for the period of time wehad left to wait until the arrival of his crew, whereupon we wouldlearn his true intentions, in a bloody fashion. And, I will saytruly, it was the thought of Bronwen, left on that ship to suffer afate
