The bull collapsed, and attendants held up the legs on its upper side. With a single, practiced sweep of her knife, Dido opened it from throat to tail. A great mass of viscera came tumbling out onto the floor. Shea and Chalmers turned pale and tried not to gag too loudly.
"Brace up, Doc," Shea said when he was in control of his esophagus. "We always knew those steaks and hamburgers came from someplace really unpleasant."
Dido handed her knife to an attendant. Another stood by with a bronze model of a beef liver, its bumps and valleys labeled for convenience in taking the haruspices. It was a sort of religio-medical reference for soothsayers.
"Now get that liver and interpret it for me," Dido ordered.
Chalmers took a deep breath and waded into the quivering mass of hawserlike intestines and began sorting through the ghastly mess, pushing aside the still-gurgling stomach chambers, lifting the twitching heart out of his way, at last emerging with the slippery purple liver in both hands. An assistant priest deftly snipped a few tubes and membranes to free the organ from the body cavity, sending decorative arcs of blood, bile and gall in several directions. Chalmers seemed about to faint, but Shea grasped his elbow.
"Just keep breathing through your mouth and tell her what she wants to hear, Doc."
They stumbled their way clear of the disgusting tangle and found a spot of dry floor where they could examine their trophy. Slaves heaped more incense onto the braziers to help kill the smell. The queen and her sister stood unselfconsciously dripping with gore as attendants plied mops around their feet.
Chalmers raised the weighty organ toward the altar. "O great Neptune of the Sea-blue hair, Earthshaker, god of horses, of seafaring Tyrians and horse-taming Trojans, hear the prayer of gracious Dido! How rests your mind upon the question of a royal marriage of Carthage and Troy? Shall Queen Dido wed noble Aeneas, and abide with him here until dread death darkens the eyes of them both?"
There was stillness for a moment, then the liver in Chalmers' hands began to wobble, wriggle and writhe. A collective gasp of horror went up from the assembly as the gelid mass bulged and put out pseudopods, shaping itself into something that began to resemble a human head. Tendrils of liver sprouted all over it to form hair and beard. A beaklike nose divided the face and lids opened to reveal livery eyeballs. The stern mouth gave the expression "liverlips" new meaning. When complete, the glaring portrait bust was stem and intimidating.
"But that isn't Neptune!' gasped a priest. "That is his terrible brother, divine Pluto!'
Dido bowed and covered her head with a fold of her gown. "Dread lord of the nether world, we were expecting a sign from Neptune!"
"And what am I, chopped liver? You wanted a sign, didn't you? Of course, if you really don't want to hear what I have to say ..."
"By no means, my lord!" Dido babbled out. "It is just that I was not prepared to speak with a chthonic deity! I haven't performed the proper riles and ..."
"Think nothing of it. Now hear me! You are under no circumstances to wed this peripatetic Trojan. The gods have other plans for you both. Even as we speak, he follows the counsels of the Olympians, to sail for Italy, there to found a kingdom for his son, Julus, You must abide in Carthage, and begin a glorious dynasty of your own blood. Forget about him! I, Pluto of the underworld, brother to Neptune and Jupiter, have spoken!" The head collapsed into multilobed shapelessness and Chalmers dropped it to laud on the mosaic floor with a resounding splat.
Dido collapsed on the floor, sobbing. Her sister put a comforting arm across her shoulders and priests helped her to her feet. Then a slave ran into the temple.
"Your Majesty! Bold Aeneas sets sail for Italy! He sends word that Mercury, messenger of the gods of Olympus, came to him and bade him fare forth without delay. He sends you his gratitude and affection, but he requests that you not seek to detain him here."
"That's a lot of gall!" Princess Anna said indignantly. "Does he really think the queen will beg him to stay?"
"Even now," the slave said, "his ships leave the harbor."
With a stricken expression, Dido strode toward the entrance of the temple, the rest hurrying behind her. Last of all came Shea and Chalmers.
"Doc," Shea said, "was that really Pluto? Or was it a trick of yours?"
"Honestly, Harold, even I am not certain. But I will never, never eat liver again!"
Outside, they found the queen weeping. In the harbor, the black ships were under oars, making for the open sea. Some had already hoisted their sails, for the gods had thoughtfully provided a favorable wind. Many of the women sniffled at the sight of so many prospective heroic husbands getting away.
Slowly, Dido turned and began to walk toward the palace. Her escort joined her in mourning. After a while, they tried to cheer her up.
"After all," said Anna, "we haven't sent out the invitations yet.
At the palace she dismissed them all except Chalmers and Shea. "Tarry here with me a while," she said. Then she took her seat on the purple throne.
"How may we serve you, Your Majesty?" Chalmers asked.
"You come from afar, and you may see the will of the gods without the fear and favoritism of my own priests. Tell me truly: Was this for the best?"
"Assuredly, Queen Dido," Chalmers said. "It is Aeneas' destiny to found a city that will one day be Rome."
"Rome?" she said.
"That's what they will call it. You are well rid of him."
She nodded sadly. "Aye. That may be so."
"Your Majesty," Shea said, hesitantly, "you won't do anything ... rash, will you? I know this has been a blow, but you'll get over it."
She looked up at him. "You mean I'm not to kill myself?"
"Well, uh, yes."
She sat back, her hands gripping the lion heads of the armrest. "Do you know how I happen to own this city?"
"Actually, I'm not really clear on that," Shea admitted.
She leaned forward. "When we arrived here, refugees like the Trojans, I went to King Iarbas and asked to buy land. He agreed to sell me as much land as could be encompassed by an ox hide. Then in his contempt he tossed me the hide. I swallowed my pride and agreed to his price, much to his surprise. His mistake was in using the word 'encompassed' rather than 'covered.' I spent days cutting that hide into a single, continuous string and with that string I marked the boundary of my new city."
"That was very sagacious, Your Majesty," Chalmers said.
"Many have thought so. King Iarbas has not ceased pestering me since with his suit of marriage. Now tell me," she looked from one of them to the other. "Do you think that I am the sort of queen who would kill herself and leave her beloved nation without a sovereign just because a footloose adventurer tossed her over for a country of his own?"
"Assuredly, you are far too wise for that," Chalmers said.
"So I am." She cupped her chin in a palm and pondered for a minute, then she rose and walked to a broad balcony that opened off the throne room.
"Everybody back to work!" yelled Queen Dido. Immediately, the sound of hammer, saw, and chisel resumed. She turned back to them. "You may go now." Shea and Chalmers bowed their way out of the throne room.
Florimel almost fainted when she saw them. "You look horrible!"
"We had a run-in with a god and a liver," Shea told her. "Aeneas is gone, Dido isn't going to kill herself, and we don't have time to take a bath. Let's get out of here. Just a second while I get my sword."
Chalmers took a parchment from a table. "This has the equations I've been working on. If I can recite them with perfect precision, I believe they will return us to our own world. Come on." He placed the parchment on the floor. They sat cross-legged around it, holding hands.