Three Wise Cats

by Harold Konstantelos

  The three cats sat up abruptly from dozing in their basket. A chilly breeze that morning had sent them indoors instead of outside under the trees as usual.

  “What is he talking about?” Kezia whispered.

  “Shhh!” Ira hissed. “I want to hear our new orders!”

  “His new orders,” Abishag corrected the other black cat. “Remember, we’re supposed to be with him only to find the Messiah.”

  Gracus was explaining to Polla their upcoming travels.

  “Tyre is the biggest port in all of the Roman Empire. You will see galleons, huge warships, and many other ships and boats. Every soldier going to war or to serve in farther lands must pass through Tyre. And Zeugma! What I hear from other commanders is that my pay will suffice to purchase us a fine house upon the hillside and enjoy some of the best things the gods choose to share with us.”

  Polla threw her arms about his neck. “You do intend to take us with you! You do not mean to forget us and depart us here!”

  Gracus laughed. “My favored one, your mastery of Latin deserts you when you grow excited. I will not leave you nor forget you, for I cannot leave behind my heart.”

  Kezia sighed. “He loves her! Isn’t that wonderful? Now we have a real home, with two people to love us and a servant to look after us.”

  Abishag shook her head. “We travel with them only to find the Christ child. Yes, they have been very good to us. But we must fulfill the prophecy.”

  Kezia yawned. “Oh, quit worrying so about the prophecies. You’re beginning to sound like Ptolemy.”

  “I wish he were with us,” Abishag murmured, watching Citus as the servant moved about the room, already beginning to sort things for the trip. Finally, we have a way to the harbor and passage. And I will not believe the awful things Asmodeus whispered about Ptolemy. He would not have sent us on this journey if he did not believe we would return to him.

  The next day Gracus went alone to the harbor, to arrange passage for three humans, his chariot and horse, and the cats, for neither he nor Polla wished to leave them behind.

  Striding along amid the ships being loaded and unloaded, bundles and amphorae cradled in nets pulled up by men sweating in the humid air of the harbor, Gracus hoped to find a good ship with an honest captain. Shouts and curses in strange languages sounded in his ears, and odd creatures shrieked from cages sitting on the docks; once, something pursued by a seaman scuttled past his feet in their leather caligae as he continued his search.

  So far the ships and captains he recognized he did not wish to sail with; as a veteran soldier in the service of the emperor, he had some experience already with travel upon the Mediterranean Sea.

  Suddenly a heavy hand that lacked half of three fingers fell upon his shoulder, and he turned abruptly to face whoever had accosted him.

  “Seeking passage, are you?” the man demanded, craning his neck closer to Gracus so that the man’s one functioning eye could see him clearly. A hideous scar that ran the length of his face brought attention to his milk-white left eye. His scowl revealed a front tooth banded in gold, and he kept his hand upon Gracus’s shoulder.

  “Alexos!” Gracus exclaimed and pulled the captain’s remnant of a hand from his shoulder into a warm handshake with both his own. “I am blessed by the gods yet again, for I would dare sail with you in pursuit of Poseidon’s treasure, should you desire that golden hoard!”

  The captain abruptly dropped the handshake and spat into the dirty waters of the harbor. “Take no offense, great Poseidon,” he said to counter Gracus’s compliment to his skill in sailing. “This land dweller knows nothing of the powers of your seas. Do not vent your anger at his ignorance upon myself and my poor ship.”

  The two men took their midday meal together in a tavern, and Gracus regaled his friend with tales of life in the barracks with his oddly assorted family.

  “So you wish to bring your cats along with us,” Alexos remarked as Gracus finished his cup of wine.

  “Is there something amiss?”

  The Greek sea captain grinned, making his face even more hideous to look upon. “Not at all. In fact, I shall be pleased to have your cats aboard, for this time I sail with a full shipload of grain.”

  Gracus raised his eyebrows. “And you do not wish to sail with a shipload of mice and rats.”

  Alexos nodded. “Your cats will be more welcome, actually, than yourselves. For I shall not have to feed them.” He laughed.

  The men parted and Gracus hurried back to his quarters, well pleased with finding not just a very capable captain with whom to sail, but a friend of many years.

  Early the next morning Gracus flicked the reins across the back of his horse, and his chariot caught the first rays of the rising sun.

  Behind the chariot came another horse pulling a small cart with Citus, Polla, and the three cats in their basket.

  “So that’s what we looked like as we entered the outlying parts of Lepcis Magna,” Kezia commented, admiring the gleaming chariot, polished and bearing Gracus as befitted a warrior. “I wish all of the city could have seen us in our grandeur!”

  Abishag settled herself to sleep in the basket while Kezia and Ira stood with their front paws upon the basket rim, looking at the sights. At least we are now started on our way again. I hope we are still following the prophecies correctly. It has been so long since Ptolemy first taught me, I fear forgetting some of his directions.

  Gracus’s few possessions and the fewer yet of his servant and slave filled only part of the cart bed. In the darkest corner of the cart Asmodeus crouched beneath a wineskin. Finally, a taste of adventure once again. A few other rats should be on board, and they may have many amusing tales with which to regale me. And if the seafaring life suits me, I will abandon my post of nursemaid to these country simpletons and remain aboard. Ah, the exotic foods I may yet sample!

  Aboard the Oceanos, Gracus and Polla were given a cabin next to Alexos’s captain’s quarters. Citus would bunk with the seamen, either above or belowdecks depending upon the weather. The weather itself would determine whether their passage was easy or difficult, as well as the duration of their voyage.

  Several of the sailors muttered among themselves when they first spied Citus carrying the basket of cats aboard. Alexos, who saw more with his one good eye than most captains who still had both, noticed this. Unrest among my sailors? Ah, again those two I but recently signed. Well, I shall not be sorry if they find another ship once we reach Tyre, for I am heartily tired of their whispers and moans. I will deal with this on the morrow.

  At dawn the next day the ship was fully loaded with her cargo of grain and passengers. Alexos poured wine for all aboard and then carefully poured the first cup into the harbor water, asking Poseidon for a safe journey and fair weather. He next lifted his own wine cup and poured a few drops onto the plate Citus used to feed the cats.

  “And your blessing, O mighty Poseidon, on these your servants also, for they will rid my ship of vermin, and I shall bring rich gifts to your temple in Tyre.” Sailors stared as Ira sauntered up to the plate and stuck his tongue into the wine drops.

  “You must take a sip, too,” he hissed at his foster sisters. “Otherwise, we will offend their gods and the sailors will fear punishment for the entire ship.” Abishag and Kezia immediately lapped up the remaining drops.

  Alexos pointed to the three grouped around their plate.

  “You see? These are not ordinary wharf cats or household lap cats. They will bring us luck on this voyage, as they have already brought luck to Gracus in his new orders, which will advance his career.” He told his men of Gracus’s dream about two black cats and one tabby, waiting for him beside the road to Lepcis Magna. He spoke of Ira’s broken leg and Kezia’s near-drowning, concluding both his speech and the ceremony by saying, “Do not harm them; it is obvious they are under the gods’ protection.”

  Citus stood listening to the captain and thinking of how large the ship’s rats were; he had seen a few as he stabled the chariot
horse belowdecks. He’d brought strong, well-tanned leather with which to make a new harness for Gracus’s horse during the four- to six-week journey. I will have plenty of leather to spare. The male cat needs a leather harness to protect his chest and neck, since his crooked leg slows his pounce a bit, and I can easily fashion wide collars for the two females. They will have some protection from rat bites in that manner.

  “I still say two black cats mean two demons are now aboard,” one seaman whispered to his friend as the command to sail was passed. “What real cats would drink wine?”

  “But a tabby is reputed to bring good luck,” his friend replied.

  “So we throw the two demons overboard and keep the tabby. No harm in that, is there?” And the first sailor nodded to the other as he went to his station, preparing to hoist anchor.

  Just before dawn the next day, sailors on watch were surprised by a small parade of triumphant cats, each carrying a dead rat nearly as large as themselves. They laid the carcasses in front of Alexos’s door and then scratched on the door of the next cabin. Polla opened it, and the cats went inside Gracus’s quarters to lick their wounds and sleep.

  When Alexos discovered the dead vermin, he insisted Citus take a fresh-caught fish to the cats as their reward. Then the captain skinned the rats, tied their tails together, and hung the hides from a rope flung overboard.

  Asmodeus ground his remaining teeth in rage. “How dare he preserve the skins of our comrades!” he shouted to the seafaring rats that night, deep in the hold of the ship. “This is outrage! This is deliberate affront!”

  “What’s he screamin’ about?” One rat nudged another just as they prepared to gnaw their way into a tasty bundle of tallow candles.

  “Don’t know. Can’t care,” answered his fellow rat, and then he swore as he saw Ira slip into the hold. “Hades! We’re in for it now—run!”

  Three more rat carcasses and two dead mice were in front of Alexos’s door the next morning. Kezia lingered for a few minutes. Those two mice are so plump, she thought longingly. The fish yesterday was delicious, but not nearly enough for all three of us. It isn’t as if Alexos is going to eat them. Surely he wouldn’t mind if I had only one.

  Just then the captain opened his door. With a pleased exclamation, he bent to look at the night’s catch and spied Kezia. He held out a hand to her.

  “Ah, pretty one. You and your companions have hunted successfully again! I thank you, for the merchant receiving the grain promised me a reward if his goods were delivered without rat droppings.”

  Kezia wrinkled her nose at the thought but wound herself around Alexos’s ankles and purred. I may be a lady cat, but I do know how to kill vermin, she told him silently.

  “You act as if you understood my words,” he said, surprised, and gently patted her. “You may have the mice for breakfast, if you wish,” he added. “I save the rats’ hides because there is a peculiar merchant in Tyre who buys them for use in medicine.”

  Kezia pounced on the mice and ate them quickly, looking up at Alexos as she finished. “You are sent by the gods,” he murmured. “I will see that today’s fish sent to you is a larger one than yesterday. Hunting is hard work.”

  9

  DAYS PASSED AND the wea-D ther continued fine while the cats continued their hunting. Citus had sewn his fingers bloody making the leather harness for Ira and collars for Abishag and Kezia, but he felt the cats were now protected from the rats’ teeth. One evening, Alexos invited Gracus and Polla to dine with him at his table.

  “I am pleased with your cats, Gracus,” he began, after they had enjoyed fresh-caught fish with sauce and other delicacies, for Alexos believed in feeding himself and his passengers and crew well. “Would you consider parting with the tabby, thus allowing her to continue to serve aboard my ship?”

  Gracus frowned. “If I could be sure it would not offend the gods, you would have your cat within my next breath, old friend,” he said. “But I do not know what they wish. Have you someone aboard skilled in reading entrails?”

  Now Alexos frowned. “No, regrettably, I do not.” He thought for a moment. “But I am sure I may find someone in Tyre. We shall go together to ask.”

  “Agreed.”

  The humans hadn’t seen the tabby crouched by the open door to Alexos’s quarters. Kezia’s small head drooped, as did her thoughts. No one has asked me about this. Spend the rest of my life on this smelly ship? I would have to put up with this ugly collar forever. What if we were caught by pirates—they nearly killed Alexos; just look at his disfigured face and crippled hand. He is a kind man, a good merchant seaman, but he has no servants, no real luxuries; nor does he feel the lack of them. Besides, we—I—promised Ptolemy we would stay together until we found the Messiah.

  The next day saw a sudden squall brew itself up in the middle of the Mediterranean: a violent disturbance that nearly forced the Oceanos down to the sea’s depths. The storm was so fierce, Gracus told Citus to stay with Polla in the cabin and to fasten a lid upon the cats’ basket. “If we have to abandon ship,” he bellowed so as to be heard over the shrieking winds, “the cats will all be rescued together that way!” He turned then and fought his way across the deck to where Alexos stood, hands on the ship’s tiller and feet planted firmly on the deck.

  “This eye says it’s a bad squall,” he greeted Gracus and tilted his head to the left. “And the one that can see prophesies no better. I think perhaps you must keep your cats. Obviously the gods do not want them divided!” A sudden huge wave washed over the side of the ship and carried away three seamen. Cries of fear rang out and bits of hastily mumbled prayers were heard, too, as sailors clung to ropes or the lowered sails, and the wildly heaving ship seemed to groan its last with every lashing of rain. “Get back to your cabin, Gracus! This storm is for seafaring men, not soldiers, brave though they may be.”

  “What of my horse?” Gracus leaned close to Alexos and shouted to be barely heard above the waves and wind.

  “He must fend for himself until we ride this out,” Alexos shouted in turn. “I am sorry for the beast, but no one can get belowdecks now—the waves are coming over the sides so rapidly, they could wash into an open hatch and sink the entire ship in seconds.”

  Gracus suddenly tried to fight his way to the side as it tilted up; but he lost his footing and his breakfast in one precipitous drop of the entire ship, as she crested a wave only to have it fall below her.

  Polla sat on the cabin floor when the storm first blew up and tied one end of a strong rope about her waist and the other end to a metal ring in the wall placed there for just such emergencies. Then she took the cats’ basket and set it on her lap, wrapping her arms about it. She crooned to the cats and sang softly to them in her native language. Citus copied her and tied himself to another ring on the opposite wall. He marveled at her composure, and finally his curiosity overcame him. “How is it that you stay so calm in the midst of this? We may all be dashed to pieces at any moment!”

  She turned her head and the thick blond braid swung across her shoulder. “This is a storm much like the one that beset the slave ship I was brought in, as we were close to the other shore of the sea,” she told him.

  “So you have survived a storm such as this before!”

  “No, I have survived a shipwreck before,” she corrected him. “There were only myself, the captain, and five other men who clung to the main mast until another ship found us. Two of the men died when they were pulled aboard because their injuries were too terrible.”

  Citus covered his eyes with his hands for a minute. “May the gods in their mercy spare you once more, Polla.” Just then the door burst open and Gracus staggered through it. He took the cats’ basket out of Polla’s arms and struggled back on deck once more.

  Standing beside Alexos, who still battled with the tiller to keep the ship from keeling over, Gracus tore off the cover of the basket. He held the basket to the skies and shouted, “See, O gods and goddesses! Those whom you have favored for so long are
indeed aboard this small ship! Grant them safe passage, I beg you!”

  The wind dropped abruptly. Gracus looked into the skies as the rain began pelting down, and he laughed. Alexos pried his numbed hands free from the ship’s tiller and leaned against the rail, joining Gracus in relieved laughter. “Rain we can deal with,” Alexos gasped, the water pouring down his face and running into his mouth. “The furred ones are truly in the gods’ favor!” The cats began yowling, indignant at growing wetter by the second, and then scrambled out of the basket as Gracus set it on the deck. They dashed for the cabin as Polla pulled the heavy door open, and ran past her feet to the much drier interior.

  “That rain was cold,” Kezia fussed, trying to lick her wet fur dry. Shivering, Abishag agreed, while Ira shook himself repeatedly. Citus untied and coiled the ropes he and Polla had used to secure themselves, and then took the blanket in which he slept out on the deck at night.

  “Here, little ones,” he said to the unhappy cats. “Use your rough tongues to dry yourselves and then I shall bundle you into this blanket, for I also think you may have saved our lives by being favored of the gods.” He wrapped them well in the heavy wool, and they soon dozed off. There, you see, Kezia thought as she fell asleep. Alexos, poor human, did not even think to warm us again. How could I manage without Citus?

  10

  THE NEXT MORNING brought a much calmer sea. Gracus clambered belowdecks and was saddened to find the dead body of his horse, neck broken, crumpled against the side of its stall.

  “I am sorry, faithful horse,” he said to the unmoving form. “Much of the time you were very brave, a good chariot horse. Perhaps the gods needed you.”

  Citus appeared beside the centurion. “We must bury him at sea; else the cook may try to boil him for dinner.”

  “No, he was too good an animal for that fate,” Gracus agreed. He called to several seamen above deck. “I will pay you for your help, to have my horse buried with Poseidon and Neptune instead of suffering an ignominious end in the stew pot.”