Lupus wrote on his wax tablet:
SOMETHING NOT RIGHT ABOUT HIM
‘What?’
Lupus shrugged, then scowled, then shrugged again.
From the milestone Jonathan called out, ‘Flavia! You have to hear this!’
‘What?’ she called out.
‘Nikos thinks he’s solved the mystery!’
‘What mystery?’
‘The mystery of the two Aristos!’
‘Tell us how there can be two Aristos!’ said Flavia to Nikos. They had moved to stand by the mules in the shade of the pines. Atticus and Nubia were feeding the mules with bags full of beans mixed with wine-soaked barley.
Nikos lowered his voice. ‘Two Aristos, one of them sane, and the other one mad.’
‘Yes, yes. Tell us!’
‘Lupus, show me your wax tablet,’ said Nikos.
Lupus passed him the tablet.
Nikos tapped the portrait. ‘This is Aristo, correct?’
‘Yes,’ said Flavia. ‘You should know that. You said you’ve sat begging near his house.’
‘But it doesn’t look exactly like Aristo.’
‘Well of course not. It’s a painting. It’s a likeness. But you can easily see it’s Aristo, can’t you?’
‘Of course,’ said Nikos. ‘But it could also be Dion.’
‘Dion?’ said Flavia with a frown.
‘Aristo’s younger brother,’ said Nubia over her shoulder.
‘I don’t understand,’ said Flavia.
‘When Lupus showed this portrait at the well, I thought it was Dion, not Aristo.’
‘Oh,’ said Flavia, and then as understanding dawned: ‘Oh! We’re not the only ones pursuing Aristo!’
Nikos nodded.
‘Dion’s after him, too,’ said Jonathan. ‘He must have heard about what Aristo did.’
Flavia nodded. ‘Helen’s slaves went to Aristo’s house to search for him there. That’s probably when his brother found out what happened.’
‘That explains,’ said Nikos, ‘why some people see Aristo, bloody and pursued by demons, and others see Dion – who looks very like Aristo – in close pursuit.’
‘That’s brilliant, Nikos!’ said Flavia. ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’
‘Because you’ve never seen Dion, but I have. I know what he looks like.’
‘He looks that much like Aristo?’ said Jonathan.
Nikos nodded.
‘Are they twins?’ asked Flavia.
‘No, Aristo is three years older. But they look very alike.’
WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL US BEFORE, wrote Lupus. THAT DION IS ALSO AFTER ARISTO?
‘I only just realised.’ Nikos bent to pluck a stalk of grass from the roadside.
‘But why is the Dion pursuing Aristo?’ said Nubia.
‘Here in Greece,’ said Nikos, ‘the crime of murder – or even attempted murder – brings disgrace on a family. Unless it’s for revenge. If Dion catches Aristo and brings him to justice, then his family’s honour will be restored.’
‘Or maybe Dion wants to help Aristo escape!’ cried Flavia.
‘I don’t think so,’ said Nikos. ‘They don’t like each other. In fact, they hate each other.’
‘What will Dion do to Aristo if he catches him?’ asked Nubia, lowering the feed bag from Cuminum’s nose.
‘The same thing you intend to do, I imagine.’ Nikos looked at Flavia. ‘Take him back to Corinth and make him stand trial. Of course your father would have to bring suit, because he is the injured party.’
‘But what if pater’s not well enough?’ asked Flavia. ‘What if he still can’t remember who he is?’
‘If nobody calls Aristo to trial,’ said Nikos, ‘then he goes free. Achaea is a province of Rome, so its laws are the same.’
Flavia suddenly narrowed her eyes at Nikos. ‘Wait. How do you know so much about Roman law?’
‘Lawyers can be pompous snobs,’ said Nikos, nibbling his stalk of grass, ‘but when they win a case they are extremely generous. I often sit in the colonnade of the basilica on days of public trials.’
‘Well, if you know what Dion looks like then I think you should definitely come with us to Delphi. Are we all agreed?’ Flavia glanced at Lupus.
Lupus sighed and nodded. He wasn’t sure why he didn’t trust Nikos. But all his instincts told him something wasn’t right.
It was mid afternoon by the time they had found a stream to water the mules and set off inland on the road to Thebes.
Fed and watered, the mules attacked the mountain road with renewed vigour. By the time the sun began to set over a glittering bay far to the west they had passed two ancient forts and crossed three pine-clad ridges. But they had not seen a trace of either Aristo or Dion.
At the summit of the last pass, Atticus tugged the mules to a stop, and as the grinding of the wheels ceased, Flavia’s world was suddenly filled with silence. She could only hear the sound of the mules breathing, and the wind in the treetops and lazy birdsong.
The pine covered slopes rolled down to a great flat plain below them, with the gleaming mirrors of two lakes beyond and distant mountains on the horizon.
‘That’s Boeotia,’ said Atticus, and chuckled. ‘Cow land. Its capital Thebes is down there. The town of Oedipus. You can’t see it. It’s hidden by that hill. Over there on the left is the plain of Plataea, where we Greeks finally defeated the Persian army. And can you see those two snowcapped peaks far off on the western horizon, silhouetted by the setting sun? Those are Helicon and Parnassus. Delphi,’ he added.
The others shaded their eyes against the sun and looked towards the horizon, but Flavia kept her eyes on the road ribboning down before them. At this point it was no more than a dirt track with wheel ruts carved in it by a hundred carts.
‘No sign of him,’ she said. ‘No sign of anyone. We should have caught him by now.’
‘Um, Flavia?’ said Jonathan. ‘What exactly will we do when we catch him?’
‘Tie him up and throw him in this carruca and take him back to Corinth,’ said Flavia grimly.
‘What if he resists?’
‘Shoot him with your bow and arrow.’
Suddenly Jonathan turned his head and he looked towards the pine woods on their left. ‘Shhh!’ he hissed. ‘Nobody move.’ He slowly leaned forward and took his bow from the floor of the carruca underneath the bench. Nikos and Atticus had twisted round on the seat at the front and they all stared wide-eyed as Jonathan extracted an arrow from the quiver and notched it. Slowly he sat up, took careful aim into the woods and loosed his arrow.
‘Venison smells delicious,’ said Nubia an hour later.
Lupus nodded his agreement.
‘It needs a little longer,’ said Jonathan. ‘It’s not quite done.’
Jonathan’s small deer had been drinking at a freshwater spring overhung by a fig tree and surrounded by maidenhair ferns. They had pulled up the carriage under the shelter of some nearby pines and Nubia had carried a wooden bucket back and forth from the spring to water the mules. Lupus had made a fire while Jonathan and Atticus hung and skinned the deer. They had cut up the best parts into cubes, which Flavia and Nikos had skewered onto twigs sharpened by Lupus. Tigris was given his pick of the rest.
Now they were sitting around the fire, cooking the meat.
‘That mountain,’ said Atticus, pointing with his skewer, ‘is famous. It’s Mount Cithaeron, where Oedipus’s parents exposed him after the prophecy.’
‘What is exposed?’ asked Nubia.
‘It’s when you abandon a baby on a mountain or beside a river,’ said Atticus. ‘That way it’s not murder, because the gods can always save the baby.’
‘Why did they abandon their tiny baby?’ said Nubia.
Atticus shrugged. ‘Because of the prophecy, that the baby would grow up to kill his father and marry his mother.’
‘Oh!’ cried Nubia, and nearly dropped her skewer in the fire.
‘Exposing baby Oedipus didn’t do any good, di
d it?’ said Nikos.
‘No,’ said Jonathan. ‘You can never escape a prophecy.’
‘Oedipus grew up in Corinth, didn’t he?’ said Flavia.
‘Yes,’ said Atticus. ‘A shepherd found the baby and took him to Corinth where the king and queen longed for a child of their own. They loved him and raised him, but when he was older he began to suspect they weren’t his real parents.’
‘So he got a prophecy, too,’ said Jonathan.
‘Yes. He went to Delphi and asked the oracle if the King and Queen of Corinth were really his parents.’
‘But the Pythia didn’t answer his question,’ said Flavia. ‘Instead, she warned him that he would murder his father and marry his mother. Oedipus was horrified, so instead of returning to Corinth he headed away from it.’
‘But by trying to escape the prophecy,’ said Jonathan, ‘he made it come true.’
‘What is Pythia?’ asked Nubia.
‘The Pythia is a priestess of Apollo whom the god speaks through,’ said Flavia. ‘She’s like the Sibyl in Italia.’
Jonathan took his skewer away from the flames and blew on the meat. ‘Don’t they say that if you have a problem nobody else can solve, the Pythia will find the answer.’
‘That’s right,’ said Flavia.
Jonathan nibbled at the cube of venison on the end of his skewer. ‘It’s ready,’ he said.
‘It’s wonderful,’ said Atticus, a few moments later.
‘The best thing I’ve ever tasted,’ said Nikos.
‘Don’t you like yours, Flavia?’ asked Jonathan.
‘I’m sorry Jonathan. Every time I try to eat something I feel sick. Atticus,’ she said, ‘will we reach Delphi tomorrow?’
‘I doubt it,’ said Atticus. ‘It’s probably fifty miles from here.’
‘Then can we keep going tonight?’
‘What? After dark?’
‘Yes, please,’ said Flavia. ‘We’ve got to catch him soon.’
Atticus sucked his breath through his teeth. ‘I don’t know, Miss Flavia,’ he said. ‘There’s no moon tonight. It will be very dark.’
‘Helen said we could take off the awning and put torches in the holes on each corner of the carruca to light our way. There are four new ones under one of the benches.’
‘I suppose we could do that,’ said Atticus, scratching the base of his woolly grey ponytail. ‘The road down the mountain isn’t a proper road, just wheel ruts. On rut-roads like these if you meet a cart coming the other way there’s always an awful battle about who should go back. If we travel at night there’ll be less chance of us meeting someone.’
‘See?’ said Flavia. ‘It was a good idea.’
‘Very well, Miss Flavia. You’re the boss. Night travel it is.’ He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and stood up. ‘Miss Nubia,’ he said, ‘will you help me hitch these mules to their carriage again?’
As the carruca rolled down towards the dark plain, Nubia tipped her head back and looked up at the stars blazing in the sky above her. She could see them clearly despite the circle of light thrown by the torches set in each corner of the carruca.
Flavia pointed. ‘Look, Nubia, those two bright stars are the Twins, the Gemini. Oh please, Castor and Pollux,’ she whispered, ‘protect us on our journey and help us find the culprit.’
Nikos wrapped his cloak around his slender body and stretched out on one of the padded benches. ‘I’m going to sleep,’ he said.
‘Good idea,’ said Atticus over his shoulder. ‘Why don’t you all try to get some sleep? I’ll wake you if I see anyone,’ he added.
‘May I come under your cloak, Nubia?’ asked Flavia.
Nubia nodded and they squeezed together on their padded bench.
‘I’ll sleep here on the floor,’ said Jonathan. ‘Lupus, you can share the other bench with Nikos.’
Lupus was sitting at the front beside Atticus. He turned around and shook his head and pointed down as if to say ‘I’m staying here.’
‘Suit yourself,’ said Jonathan and stretched out on the floor beside Tigris.
‘Will you be all right down there on those hard boards?’ asked Flavia.
‘Yes,’ said Jonathan. ‘The Spartans used to sleep on wooden benches with no padding and only a thin blanket in winter. I’ll be fine.’
Nikos snorted from his padded bench, but presently they were quiet and the only sound Nubia could hear was the constant dull rumble of the carriage and the mules’ hooves.
The spring night was mild, but Nubia was glad of the double cloaks and Flavia’s warm body beside her.
‘The stars console you, don’t they, Nubia?’ whispered Flavia.
‘Yes,’ said Nubia softly. ‘They console me. They remind me of times my family would all sleep out under the stars in the desert. Before the slave-traders come.’
‘Do you have constellations?’
‘Yes, we have star groups, but they are different from yours.’
‘Show me.’
‘Well,’ said Nubia, pointing, ‘that is the big camel. That is the middle camel and that is the little camel.’
‘Don’t you have any constellations that aren’t camels?’
Nubia smiled. ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘we have twelve that wheel in the sky . . . The leopard, the jackal, the hyena, the cobra, the scorpion –’
‘Oh! We have the scorpion, too. I wonder if it’s the same group of stars . . .’
‘Yes, it is the same.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘Aristo told me one time.’
‘When?’
‘On board the Delphina last month before we reach Corinth. He shows me some star groups and he tells me about the scorpion who rises before the Saturnalia.’
‘Nubia . . .’
‘Yes?’
‘Remember that dance we did after the Saturnalia last year . . . to cure love’s passion?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did it work? For you, I mean. Did it cure your passion?’
‘At first I thought yes. But then I realise that I still love him.’
‘Aristo. You still love Aristo.’
‘Yes.’
‘Even after what he did to pater?’
‘I do not believe Aristo did this thing.’
‘That’s right,’ said Flavia coldly, rolling over so that her back was to Nubia. ‘I forgot about that. Goodnight.’
‘Goodnight, Flavia,’ said Nubia quietly. ‘I wish you good dreams.’
They reached Thebes at dawn and stopped for breakfast at a two-tower hospitium beside the town walls.
A yawning slave-boy brought them unglazed bowls of porridge and hot spiced wine.
‘Did anyone hear that strange sound last night?’ asked Jonathan, taking a sip from his beaker.
‘What kind of a strange sound?’ said Flavia.
‘It sounded like evil laughter.’
They all looked at each other, then shook their heads.
‘But carruca is deep rumbly,’ said Nubia. ‘It is hard to hear something when it is moving.’
‘Then nobody heard it?’
Lupus shook his head.
Jonathan sighed. ‘Porridge, again,’ he said, eating a spoonful. ‘I think this one has some kind of animal fat in it.’
‘You know what they say about food in Greece,’ said Atticus cheerfully. ‘“Porridge, and then more porridge.”’
‘The cinnamon on top is nice,’ said Nubia.
Jonathan stretched and yawned. ‘Oh, I’d give anything for an hour at the baths,’ he said.
Lupus nodded his agreement.
‘There’s a new public bathhouse just inside the Electra Gate,’ said the serving boy, as he took up the empty bowls. ‘But it’s women only in the mornings.’
Flavia turned to Nubia. ‘Shall we go for a hot bath?’
‘Oh, yes please!’ cried Nubia.
‘Any men’s baths nearby?’ asked Jonathan.
‘We have a small hot plunge here,’ said the boy. ‘No steam r
oom or frigidarium, though.’
‘I don’t mind,’ said Jonathan. ‘All I want is to wash off the dust and have a good soak.’
‘Why don’t you all visit the baths, then?’ said Atticus. ‘I’ll go ask the authorities if they’ve seen any blood-stained fugitives.’
‘Oh, thank you, Atticus,’ said Flavia. ‘An hour is all we need.’
‘Should be enough time for me to find out,’ said Atticus, he shouldered his leather knapsack and left the courtyard.
Jonathan stood up. ‘A hot bath will be so good right now. Coming, Lupus? Nikos?’
Lupus jumped up from the table but Nikos shook his head. ‘No, thanks.’
‘Don’t worry about the cost,’ said Flavia. ‘I’ll pay.’
‘Thanks, but no.’
‘Are you certain?’ said Jonathan. ‘I don’t mean to be rude, but you smell like a mule.’
‘I’m certain.’ Nikos pulled his cloak around him like a protective shell.
Jonathan put up both hands, palms out. ‘Suit yourself,’ he said, and went off with Lupus.
Under the table, Tigris whined.
‘Oh no,’ said Flavia. ‘What are we going to do with you? We should have sent you with Atticus.’
‘I can stay with Tigris in the carriage.’ Nikos yawned, showing even white teeth. ‘I didn’t sleep very well last night. I’m still tired.’
‘Oh, thank you, Nikos,’ said Flavia. ‘Come on, Nubia. I’m desperate for a good hot soak.’
Flavia was fuming. ‘Where is Atticus?’ she cried. ‘We’ve been back from the baths for nearly two hours. We could be halfway to Delphi by now!’
‘Or at least halfway to The Split,’ said Jonathan, his head bent over his guidebook. ‘That’s the famous crossroads where Oedipus killed his father.’
‘Jonathan, will you put that silly book away! You’re not helping!’
‘I’m sorry, but I thought I was helping,’ said Jonathan coldly. ‘That’s why I’ve been rattling around in this carriage inhaling dust and fumes from mules’ backsides and swatting away their flies.’
‘Please do not argue,’ said Nubia. ‘Look! Here comes Atticus now, looking most worried.’
‘So he should,’ growled Flavia, and to Atticus, ‘Where have you been?’
The Roman Mysteries Complete Collection Page 135