The Dark Lord

'Thyatis Julia Clodia,' the Roman woman said briskly, stepping into the room. She swept back her hood, revealing a grim, suntanned face. 'Agent of the Duchess De'Orelio. I need your help.'

'Do you?' the woman grunted. 'My name is Penelope. You sent a messenger before—the little snip of a Gaul?'

Thyatis nodded, snapping the spatha back into the sheath. 'Yes. You sent agents to remove the telecast from the tomb in the wasteland of spires?'

'We were there,' Penelope allowed, looking the Roman woman up and down with ill-disguised curiosity. 'Come to check on our work, have you?'

'I don't care about your work,' Thyatis said, pacing up and down the chamber. She felt nervous, on edge, filled with restless energy. A score of acolytes peered into the door from the hall, so she bared her teeth at them, making a rumbling growl low in her throat. The women fled, letting a drape fall over the opening. Thyatis laughed. Two other passages opened into the chamber, but they too were closed with heavy, dark-green hangings. 'As long as the device is out of Roman and Persian hands, I'm happy.'

Penelope snorted in laughter, her upper lip curling in disdain. 'Why are you here, then?'

'There is another telecast,' Thyatis said, feeling the air thicken with pressure. She was getting a headache from all this. Things used to be so much simpler, she groused to herself, feeling old. 'At Siwa, in the west.'

The old woman stiffened in surprise. 'Who told you that?'

'A little bird,' Thyatis replied, feeling her stomach clench at the Egyptian's sudden alarm. It's true then, she realized with dismal certainty. 'She sang very sweetly once my companions put her in a cage with iron bars.'

An expression of disgust flickered in the Roman woman's face. Nicholas had kidnapped the little librarian without consulting her. Another rash act, leaping to the last lap of the race without forethought. He hoped to win the crown and please his masters in Rome, with or without Thyatis' consent. 'Time is very short, Priestess. I've been told the trek to Siwa takes twelve days. How fast can you and yours be there?'

'In the same time,' Penelope bit out. 'We are not gods to fly across the land.'

'You'd best run then,' Thyatis said, taking another turn around the room, restless hands examining cups, dishes, the bronze sconces for lamps lining the walls. 'We will leave at first light by ship—the Duchess' own Paris—for Paraetonium on the Libyan coast. The governor's approved our port passes with goodly speed, which is amazing. With the current winds, we'll be ashore in the port in two days. My lieutenant is impatient. By camel, I'd guess we should take ten days to reach the oasis.'

'Huh.' Penelope sagged back against the table, bitter exhaustion lining her face. 'We couldn't reach there any faster ourselves.' A gleam entered her eye. 'But there's no need... we can be in Paraetonium before you, if we take oar tonight and once you and your men are in the desert, riding south, we'll beset your party and slaughter everyone.' The old woman sat up, rapping the cane sharply on the floor. 'Easy work, with your help.'

Thyatis stiffened, coming to a halt beside a bench laden with someone's baggage. Her nostrils flared and she turned to Penelope, an outraged expression on her face. 'Murder?'

'Yes!' Penelope jabbed at her with the cane. 'Your loyalty to the Order surpasses your service to the Emperor. If these men threaten to find the duradarshan then they must be slain.' The Egyptian frowned, eyes narrowing as she considered Thyatis' conflicted expression. 'The Queen of Day would have no qualm about such an act—didn't she send you out specifically to prevent the Emperor from gaining such powerful, dangerous tools? Well, now, here's a perfect answer to your puzzle! There are bandits and brigands aplenty who prey on the pilgrim routes to the temple of Amon-Ra. No one will be surprised if your party is attacked.'

Thyatis felt her throat constrict. Murder Nicholas and Vladimir? Strike them down while they sleep, or are at sword strokes with the foe? The tight, twisted feeling in her gut grew worse. I can't kill them—they're not friends, no, but they are comrades in arms. Without Vlad, I'd have died in that tomb, crushed under rubble or suffocated. Nicholas... There were times she'd be glad to strangle the man or chop him into tiny bits, but he was a fellow soldier and a good one. He shouldn't be used up, betrayed by these schemes. But what else can I do?

Heartsick, she sat down, bending her forehead against the blessedly cool boss of the sword hilt. 'Mother, I can't use them so callously. They don't deserve to be discarded—'

'Bah!' Penelope rose, leaning heavily on the cane, face stiff in disapproval. 'Foolish child. They are only men, only soldiers. They will not be missed. Have they told anyone else of their discovery?'

'Perhaps.' Thyatis put her head in her hands. 'I learned less than an hour ago.'

'I will send a galley to Paraetonium tonight,' Penelope said, voice filling with authority. 'With those Daughters who know the use of weapons. One of our agents can supply us with camels and supplies. If any man has learned of the treasure buried under Siwa, we must remove it with all speed.'

Thyatis felt relief and a sudden desire to let the old woman handle matters. Would your hands be so clean, answered a mocking voice in her thoughts, if Vladimir and Nicholas died by another's hand, when you knew what fate awaited them? The illusion of surety vanished. Thyatis found a jeweled brooch in her fingers. Pressing the sharp edge of the clasp into the edge of her thumb felt good. The pain focused her thoughts, slowing the spinning sensation in her chest.

'I can delay us,' Thyatis said, thinking aloud. 'Make sure we reach the oasis late... then we will search and find nothing. Disappointed, we return to Rome with empty hands.'

'Hah!' Penelope laughed softly at her naivete. 'Just kill them and have done.'

Thyatis stood, still rubbing the edge of the clasp against her thumb. She felt calmer. The Egyptian's bloody answer had raised another concern. 'No. We can't just kill them. My companions are agents of a rival lord. If they find nothing at Siwa and are satisfied with their efforts, there will be no further search. Everyone will assume the devices were lost in the distant past, destroyed or stolen.'

The Egyptian woman made a face, then a sharp cutting motion with her hand. 'Why risk?'

'My mistress' enemies are already suspicious—and what about the Persians? We've fought them once and only won through because the men you revile stood at my side.' Thyatis pinned the brooch to her cloak, feeling oddly lighthearted. The pressure of events seemed negligible now, bearable. Time, however, was fleeting and she had a great deal to do before they departed for the west.

'Get to Siwa first,' Thyatis ordered the old woman, her confidence returning. 'Take the telecast away. If things go awry, don't wait for me!'

'We wouldn't anyway.' Penelope sniffed, looking down her nose at the Roman. 'You've no need to know where the Eye may go.' A ghoulish smile crept into her wrinkled face. 'You might be captured and tortured by the enemy.'

Thyatis ignored the old woman's cackle, stepping out into the hallway. In the doorway, she paused, squinting at the bundle of clothing. Something was naggingly familiar. The drapery behind the bench had fallen away from the wall. A slender olive hand was partially visible, ringed with gold and silver bracelets. Thyatis felt the world spin to a halt, every grain of dust in the air perfectly clear, the motion of the old woman limping across the floor towards her dragging slow. Her hand rose, touching the brooch, remembering the ornament at last.

Shirin?

The drape billowed, driven by some current in the air, and the hand vanished.

Thyatis blinked.

'Well,' Penelope said in a waspish voice. 'You've so much time to wait about?'

'No,' Thyatis said, licking her lips nervously. The drape remained closed. 'I have to go. Nicholas will become suspicious if I'm gone too long. We have... a lot to do.'

'Then go!' The old woman rapped the Roman sharply on the wrist with her cane. Thyatis blinked at the pain, baring her teeth in a snarl. Penelope glared up at her, dark eyes flashing with irritation. 'I don't want to see you again, do you hear?'

'Yes,' Thyatis said, turning away, though her feet felt like lead. She didn't look back, and was running by the time she reached the end of the hallway.