Another silence. This time, it was Eunapius who spoke. ‘That was a cheat,’ he shouted. ‘I saw you move your hand. If we must do this, let’s do it fairly.’
‘My Lords,’ Simon broke in, ‘I do suggest. .’
‘. . that you shut up in the presence of your betters!’ Timothy said quickly. ‘I’ll do the toss again.’ He moved directly beneath me and flicked the coin upwards. I watched it come closer, glittering as it turned over and over in the lamplight. This time, it stuck against one of the glass panes and bounced into the upper gatherings of my toga. I pulled myself back and went through my clothing. I found the coin too late to throw it back down.
‘Can we talk about Alaric?’ Simon asked despairingly.
Neither Eunapius nor Timothy was listening. ‘Get that table over here,’ Timothy ordered. ‘We’ll climb up together and see what God has decided.’ There was a loud scraping of wood and another cut-off protest from Simon.
I jumped to my feet. The plan of escape I’d worked out involved continuing along the roof to the far end of the corridor. From here, we could climb down into a little area used for holding deliveries of wood for the furnaces. There was a little door I could unbolt that led into a side street. Unless Timothy’s weight was too much for the table, we’d never get out of sight in time. I took Antonia by the arm and hurried her back the way we’d come. We were barely on to the stairs down to the main hall when, with a smashing of glass, the window flew fully open and Timothy was braying how God had indeed helped the Romans.
‘I’m not marrying that creature!’ she whispered fiercely. ‘I’d rather die.’
‘Shut up!’ I hissed. I took hold of Antonia by the shoulders and pushed her against the curving wall of the stairway. ‘So long as no one realises I was watching,’ I said, ‘it’s a stalemate. The Greeks daren’t move without Shahin. He won’t help without my silver cup. All we need to do is get away unobserved. Now, keep quiet, and let me go first.’
‘But you’ve got to stop Daddy,’ she breathed. ‘You don’t understand how he hates you.’
I stood up straight. ‘Arresting Nicetas while he’s Regent — and with an unknown part of the administration on his side — isn’t something I fancy trying,’ I said firmly. ‘I’ll write to Heraclius in the morning. He can hurry back with the small army he took with him. In the meantime, we carry on as normal.’ I listened for any sound of approaching footsteps along the roof. There were none. No one would follow us down this way. Timothy had found his coin. He and Eunapius might well argue over its answers till dawn. Shahin and his men should be halfway back to whatever dock he was using. I thought of what I had to do. It was a two-day journey by fast courier to Cyzicus. I suppressed the urge to go there myself. That would only alert everyone. I’d have Simon and half the city guard after me. And what of Antonia? What of Theodore and Maximin and all my other people? No — it had to be business as usual.
We crept down the stairs. There were a couple of lamps burning there, but the main hall should be empty. Our luck ought to hold.
It didn’t. I poked my head briefly round the corner and, in a parodic echo of the previous day, found myself looking into Shahin’s face.
His eyes widened for a moment in the gloom. He blinked and then smiled. ‘Hello, Alaric,’ he cried softly in Greek. He steadied himself against the statue of Antinous. ‘I never doubted you were listening overhead. But I was beginning to fear you’d found a less obvious way out of here.’
I shoved Antonia backward and stepped into the hall. ‘Were you fellating that statue?’ I asked with mock outrage.
He shrugged and grinned. ‘From the shine on that perfectly formed member,’ he sniggered, ‘I’m hardly the first. Such admirable men, these Greeks of the olden days, don’t you think?’ He kissed one of the thighs and stood reluctantly back.
I thought of going for my sword. That would never do. I could cut my way past Shahin, and take out the two men who were still squatting on their haunches beside the bronze of Hercules. But the noise would send Timothy and Eunapius into a foaming panic that was the last thing I wanted. Shahin gave a friendly smile and spread his arms. ‘I think I can guess yours,’ he said, ‘but I do have my own reasons for avoiding any public fuss. Any chance of a quick word in private?’
Chapter 38
Shahin turned from his inspection of the book racks. ‘Not much of a library,’ he sniffed. ‘Most of this stuff is barely fit for heating the baths.’ I was by the door. His two men had followed him up the wide staircase to this upper level and were looking impassively in at me. I smiled at them and shut the door in their faces.
Again with his back to me, Shahin pulled another book from its leather case and unrolled it a few turns. ‘So this is the latest fashion in poetry?’ he asked accusingly. He dropped one of the spines and allowed the book to unroll completely. ‘These modern Greeks are sadly decayed, don’t you think? Perhaps Chosroes is right that the time is come for a new language to dominate the East.’ He sniggered and went back to his inspection. ‘But look at this metaphor. It doesn’t even scan.’
I walked across the room and, keeping just out of reach, bent down to look at the opening sheet of the book. Shahin tipped the lamp forward so I could read the neat rows of text. ‘It’s not so very bad,’ I said. ‘You should have been where I was earlier tonight.’ I straightened up. ‘But I don’t think your main interest here is literary criticism. Can I take it that you’d like to bypass those losers downstairs and deal directly with the possessor of the Horn of Babylon?’
He sniggered again. ‘It has its convenient side,’ he said, now in Persian, ‘that you overheard everything. So, yes — let’s talk about the Horn of Babylon. I do wish I’d known, when we had that yummy dinner onboard my ship yesterday, that you had it. We could have saved much time — and avoided so many embarrassments.’ He dropped the other spine of the book and perched himself on one of the reading tables. ‘How can I persuade you to give it to me? I don’t imagine money will tempt you. I daren’t make you Emperor: you’d find a competent general, and ease his path straight to Ctesiphon with gold and diplomacy. So what price has pretty young Alaric in mind?’
‘You could try guessing,’ I answered. I moved the lamp to another table, where Shahin’s rhythmical swinging of legs wouldn’t tip it over. I pulled over a chair and sat down a couple of yards from him. If I could arrest him, I’d kill the plot stone dead. But he was easily a match for me with his sword — that was one exercise he’d never neglected. And there were his men to keep in mind. At best, he’d get away. At worst, the noise would bounce Timothy and Eunapius into a revolution that might succeed.
Shahin watched my face. He smiled knowingly. ‘You can’t keep the silver cup,’ he said. ‘You can’t give it to Heraclius. But you’ve probably worked that out for yourself. As for those idiots we left snapping at each other, you can’t make a deal with them. Since old Priscus croaked his last, Timothy has taken over as shitbag in chief. He’d have a knife in your back before he could draw breath from saying “Many thanks, dear boy.” So why not bring it to me while I wait at the docks? You can come with me to Shahrbaraz. Bring the girl too. You’ll be surprised how merciful and forgiving Chosroes can be to those who give him what he wants.’
‘That would be a side to the Great King’s character I haven’t yet seen,’ I said. ‘How about telling me why the cup is so important?’
He giggled again. ‘Since the cup goes where you go for the moment,’ he said, ‘let’s talk about you.’ He straightened his face. ‘Look, Alaric, my orders include an express instruction to keep you from harm, so far as I can, and to beg you to come back to Ctesiphon. Chosroes promises a total safe conduct and will swear any oath to that effect.’
‘I’ve seen how your boss keeps his promises,’ I said. Far down in the main hall, I heard a noise. It was followed by one of?Timothy’s rumbling laughs. Either they’d finally settled on the next Emperor, or they were sick of arguing. I walked across to the door and listened. I turned back to Shahin. ‘Supposing I refuse to do business with you?’ I asked.