‘Oh,’ said the trader, throwing up his hands in admiration. ‘I can tell you are very wise Nubian boy. Very wise. Very handsome. You know all about camels. Yes, she is five years old. But only just. Very young. Very strong. Very wise. You are also very handsome,’ said the trader to Chryses.
Chryses rolled his eyes, and winked at Nubia.
Nubia fed the camel another date, then knelt to examine the creature’s feet.
By now all the other camel traders were hurrying back with their beasts and clamouring for attention.
Nubia glanced up at the ring of men and animals around her. Although most of the camels were thin, they were in good condition, and she saw two or three that would easily be able to make the journey back to her native land.
She stood up and turned to Chryses, the kind youth who had befriended her, and who had promised to accompany her to her desert home. And for the first time since the shipwreck, Nubia smiled.
As the moon rose over the east bank of the Nile, Chryses and Nubia finished their dinner of sun-bread washed down with water, and mounted their new camels.
‘Hold on with your hands and toes,’ instructed Nubia, as Chryses’s camel pitched him forward and then back. ‘The way we practised. Once you are up it is easier.’
‘Ugh!’ Chryses wrinkled his nose. ‘This camel smells.’
‘Yes,’ said Nubia. ‘I like this smell,’ she added. ‘It makes me think of home. Yours is called Castor,’ she added. ‘And mine is called Pollux.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘I just named them.’ Nubia smiled and patted Pollux on the neck. She had grown up with camels and their presence consoled her. ‘I cannot believe you are Egyptian but have never been on camel,’ said Nubia, clicking the camels into motion.
‘I’m not Egyptian,’ said Chryses. ‘I’m Greek. I’m Alexandrian born and bred. No need to ride a camel in the city. Are you sure this is safe?’ he added. ‘Travelling by moonlight?’
‘Yes,’ said Nubia. ‘Behold the moon is almost full. And see how the road here is level and smooth.’
‘You’re not afraid of bandits?’
‘I pray to Mercury, god of travellers, that he will protect us. But we have camels. They are lofty and swift.’
Somewhere nearby a dog began to bark, setting off other dogs further away.
‘And you’re not too tired?’ asked Chryses.
‘Little bit; not so much. I slept in clover. Are you tired?’
‘Yes, but I want to put as much distance between us and Alexandria as possible.’
‘We will travel while it is still bright.’ Nubia slowed her camel so that Chryses could come up beside her. In the brilliant light of the rising moon, she studied the youth who had helped her. Although he had a male name, and although he acted like a young man, Chryses looked like a girl. He had told her he was eighteen years old, yet he did not have the slightest trace of a beard.
Nubia reached up and touched the white turban on her head. A gift from the camel seller. ‘If people come,’ she said. ‘We must be covering faces with turbans, with only eyes showing. That way they think we are men.’
Chryses must have felt Nubia’s gaze on him because he turned his head to look at her. With his slanting eyes, small mouth and fringe of straight hair emerging from the front of his turban, Chryses did not look the least bit like a man.
‘Excuse me being rude,’ said Nubia suddenly. ‘But are you being a girl in disguise? Like me?’
Chryses stared at her in astonishment, then threw back his head and laughed. ‘Silly girl. I’m a eunuch. Don’t you know what a eunuch is?’
‘I have heard of a eunuch but I am not knowing what it is,’ said Nubia.
Shaking his head, Chryses reached into the canvas bag slung over his shoulder and pulled out a gourd. ‘Before I tell you I need a strong drink. This is the palm wine that old camel trader gave us. I think he was pleased with the sale.’ Chryses uncorked the gourd and brought it carefully to his mouth, trying to accommodate the camel’s rocking stride. ‘O Lord Serapis Helios!’ he gasped, as he finally succeeded in taking a mouthful. ‘That’s strong!’ He held out the gourd. ‘Want some?’
‘No, thank you,’ Nubia shook her head politely. She could smell the pungent drink even over the camel’s odour.
‘Please yourself,’ said Chryses, and took another swig. ‘Aeiii!’ he said. ‘It burns. But it’s good.’
He replaced the cork in the gourd and said: ‘A eunuch is a man who is not a man. Neither male nor female.’ He looked over at her, his slanting eyes almost black in the silver moonlight. ‘Do you know what they do to make a boy a eunuch?’
Nubia shook her head.
‘They geld him.’
‘Oh!’ cried Nubia. ‘Like male camels and horses? They are chopping off testicles?’
Chryses nodded grimly. ‘I was lucky,’ he said. ‘They didn’t chop anything off. They only made a little cut at the top. It does the same job. Prevents a boy from ever becoming a man. But it hurt like Hades and they swelled to the size of—No. You don’t want to hear all the details . . .’
‘But why?’ asked Nubia. ‘Why were they doing this to you? Was it punishment?’
Chryses laughed. ‘No. It wasn’t punishment. I was only eight years old when they did it,’ he said. ‘My parents were slaves. Greeks from Tralles, a town near Ephesus. The master’s wife liked the idea of a little Greek eunuch to serve her. And so they cut me. It turned out I wasn’t very good at serving, but I did have a gift for languages. The master was Roman and the mistress Egyptian, so I learned Latin and Demotic. My parents spoke Greek to me so I’m fluent in that, too.’
‘You can speak three languages?’
Chryses shrugged. ‘It’s not difficult if you learn them as a child. I can write four: Greek, Latin, Hieroglyphic and Demotic.’ He took another swig of palm wine. ‘My mistress was kind to me. When she realised my gift, she had her husband’s scribe teach me to read and write. After that, she used to take me to the baths with her and I would read from a scroll. Then one day, she asked one of her husband’s Egyptian secretaries to teach me hieroglyphs. Do you know what they are?’
‘Yes,’ said Nubia. ‘Little picture writing of Egyptians.’
‘That’s right. I loved learning what the little pictures meant. I mastered the basics in only a month. From then on my mistress used to take me out in her litter. We would visit the tombs and monuments of the ancient Egyptians and I would decipher the hieroglyphs for her. Then she decided to go all the way up the Nile, and visit the shrines of her forefathers. I was about your age at the time.’
Chryses took another drink and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. ‘We sailed on a beautiful cedarwood barge, with lotus blossoms painted on its side and a shady cabin for the heat of day. We visited marvellous places: deserted cities and painted tombs. But then one day, my mistress died suddenly.’
From a dark sycamore grove an owl hooted.
‘When we returned to Alexandria,’ continued Chryses, ‘I discovered that my mistress had set me free in her will. I went to work in the Great Library. I had no savings, you see, and my parents were slaves with no possessions. But because I can read and write four languages – including hieroglyphs – the Museum employed me. It is one of the few places in Alexandria where a eunuch freedman can get a job.’
‘Were you liking it there?’
‘I did at first, I was only thirteen and it was my first taste of freedom and the world outside. I was studying with two other novices and we had a wonderful teacher. I loved it. But then,’ he said, ‘I made an enemy.’
‘Who?’
‘One of the other novices. A Jew named Seth.’
‘Why is he your enemy?’
‘He calls me a pagan, and he hates me because I’m a eunuch.’
‘But you cannot help being eunuch,’ murmured Nubia.
‘He made my life miserable. That’s why I left.’ Chryses took a swig of palm wine, and Nubia heard him add under his breath: ‘But I
’ll show him!’
The smell of sage tea and the cheerful squeak of a moorhen woke Flavia early the next morning. She was wrapped in a coarse brown blanket and lying on one of the thin mattresses that Nathan had unrolled the night before. For a moment she lay looking up at the pale yellow sky of dawn, feeling the gentle rocking of the boat and wondering what was different. Then she realised. They were not moving. The sail was furled and the Scarab was moored to the bank. She could hear the soft smack of ripples on the boat’s hull.
She sat up, looked around, and gasped. Two great pyramids stood on the horizon, flattened by the morning mist and framed by shaggy palm trees.
‘Great Juno’s beard!’ she exclaimed.
A pile of blankets on the mattress beside her stirred, and Lupus’s bald head emerged. He blinked sleepily and looked around. Then his eyes opened wide as he saw the pyramids.
‘Aren’t they amazing?’ she breathed.
Lupus nodded.
‘Jonathan!’ Flavia turned to her other side and saw Jonathan, Seth and Nathan sitting on the bench at the boat’s stern. Jonathan and Seth had covered their heads with shawls and Nathan wore his white conical cap. All three of them were rocking gently and murmuring in Hebrew.
‘Amen!’ they said together, and pulled the shawls back from their heads.
‘Good morning!’ said Nathan, jumping up. He walked over and grinned down at them and held out his calloused hand to help Flavia to her feet. ‘As you can see, we had a favourable breeze as well as the full moon. We passed Heliopolis in the night and now we are only a few hours from Memphis. I can’t offer you breakfast; you’ve devoured my store of bread. But I’ve brewed some sage tea. Countless gold of Ophir!’ he sang cheerfully. ‘Treasure, treasure, treasure in my boat!’
‘Is this the proper Nile?’ asked Flavia.
‘Yes,’ laughed Nathan. ‘This is finally the proper Nile. We have left the Delta behind. Everything to the right, on the west bank, we call Libya. And on the left is Arabia.’
‘But we’re still in the province of Egypt?’
‘Yes, of course. Though some call this Middle or even Upper Egypt. Upper Egypt really begins at Hermopolis. And it ends at Syene, where the first cataract marks the border of Nubia.’
‘According to Strabo,’ said Seth, ‘This river is more than a thousand miles long, yet nowhere is it more than five hundred feet wide.’
‘Have you seen the pyramids?’ Jonathan sat beside Flavia and began to put on his turban. ‘They’re impressive, aren’t they?’
‘They’re wonderful!’ sighed Flavia and added under her breath. ‘I wish Flaccus was here. He wanted to see all Seven Sights.’
Jonathan looked at Seth and Nathan. ‘May we go and investigate them?’
‘Of course you must go,’ said Nathan, squatting down beside the brazier. He began to pour out the tea into five small, thick glasses. ‘That’s where the treasure is hidden, isn’t it?’ He stood and extended a glass of sage tea to Seth. ‘That reminds me: we need to talk about how we divide it up.’
Seth paused for a moment, took the glass and said. ‘What do you mean?’
Nathan opened his arms, palms up. ‘Well, you couldn’t have got here without me,’ he said, ‘but I can’t come to the pyramids with you. Someone has to stay here to guard the Scarab. And someone has to buy bread and supplies for the journey back to Alexandria. I don’t want to miss out. I should have a share of the treasure.’
‘And providing we find this hypothetical treasure,’ said Seth acidly, ‘what do you suggest?’
‘I suggest we divide it four ways,’ said Nathan. ‘One part for you, one part for me, one part for the children and one part for Scarab, who’s been doing all the work.’
Lupus made a grunt of protest and Jonathan frowned. ‘Lupus is right. That’s not fair. That means you get half and each of us only gets um . . . a twelfth. Shouldn’t we divide it into fifths?’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ said Flavia. ‘All we care about is finding Nubia.’
‘That’s all right for you to say,’ muttered Jonathan. ‘Your family is rich. Mine could use the money.’
‘My family is not that rich,’ said Flavia. ‘It’s just that I care more about Nubia than I do about treasure.’
‘I care about Nubia, too,’ said Jonathan. ‘But we’ll need to pay for our passage home now that we don’t have our imperial passes any more.’
‘Good point,’ said Flavia, and turned to Nathan. ‘We want a bigger share of the treasure.’
‘All right! All right!’ said Nathan, showing his white teeth in a smile. ‘We’ll split the treasure five ways. But you must pay me back for food and services. After all, I’m funding this expedition.’
‘That sounds fair,’ said Jonathan.
‘So what do we do now?’ said Seth, draining his tea and putting the glass down on the bench beside him. Behind him the lemon yellow sky was turning pink.
‘We need to find Chryses and Nubia,’ said Flavia. ‘We didn’t meet them coming back, so they’ve probably gone into the pyramid to get the treasure. Using the map,’ she added.
‘Speaking of maps . . .’ Nathan, reached into one of the storage areas under the bench. ‘This is my most valuable possession.’ He unrolled a map of soft leather. ‘It shows the Nile from the Delta to Nubia.’
‘That’s interesting,’ said Jonathan, taking the map. ‘The Delta really does look like a capital Greek delta. Look! Here we are. By these little pyramids.’
‘And there is your transportation,’ said Nathan, pointing behind them.
Flavia turned to see the shapes of a dozen boys and their donkeys emerging from the mist on the riverbank above them. As soon as the boys saw them, they started calling out, pointing at themselves and at their donkeys.
‘Where did they come from?’ asked Jonathan.
‘There’s a village over there,’ said Nathan, nodding to the south. ‘They probably saw our mast. I imagine the bread- and fruit-sellers will be along shortly.’
‘Do we need donkeys?’ said Seth with a frown. ‘Couldn’t we just walk?’
Flavia nodded. ‘It can’t be more than half a mile from here.’
‘You could walk,’ said Nathan, ‘but it might upset them. Ride their donkeys. Give them a few small coins. These people aren’t rich.’
Seth scowled. ‘I’m not rich either. And I don’t have much money left; I only thought we were going out for the afternoon. And I refuse to pay for a journey which I can easily make on foot.’
But the boys with their donkeys were not easily discouraged. Begging and pleading, they followed Seth and the three friends all the way from the riverbank to the great pyramids.
The sun was rising behind them as they reached a collection of reed shacks and stalls pitched before the great pyramid. Half a dozen men rushed up to them with goods for sale, but the only one they took notice of was the bread-seller. He lowered the circular tray from his head and let them each choose a flat round loaf, still warm from the oven. Seth said something in Egyptian, gave the man a copper coin and pointed back towards the place where the Scarab was moored.
‘Juno, it’s big!’ said Flavia, gazing up at the dazzling pyramid, now gleaming gold in the light of the rising sun.
‘And there are two more of them,’ observed Jonathan. ‘Plus those three little ones.’
Flavia nodded. ‘I wonder how tall this big one is?’ She took a bite from her piece of bread.
‘Three hundred feet?’ suggested Jonathan.
Lupus shook his head and pointed up, as if to say: higher.
An Egyptian youth about their age skidded up to them in a cloud of dust. ‘Five hundred of feets!’ he said in Greek. ‘This pyramid five hundred of feets tall. And yes, many others here. More than nine. You want guide?’ He wore a long striped tunic and a little black turban.
At this two of the boys from the village began to yell at him and make rude gestures. The boy in the black turban shouted back at them and imitated a braying donkey. Then
he winked at Flavia. ‘I tell them they are only donkey boys. I am proper guide, speaking good Greek.’ He gave a little bow. ‘My name is Abu. You want guide to the pyramids and Sphinx?’
Flavia was about to rebuff him, then thought better of it.
‘My name is Flavia Gemina,’ she said in her halting Greek. ‘Daughter of Marcus Flavius Geminus, sea captain. These are my friends Seth, Jonathan and Lupus. We are looking for some friends. They might be inside the pyramid of Cheops. Can you ask if anyone has seen them?’
‘Of course! You very pretty girl with camel-coloured hair. You married?’
‘Yes,’ said Jonathan, slipping an arm around Flavia’s shoulder, ‘She’s married to me. Our friends are a Nubian girl of about thirteen and a young eunuch.’
‘Eunuch? You are meaning man-girl?’
‘That’s right,’ said Seth. ‘Have you seen them?’
‘I have not seen them, but I will ask my friends.’ The boy ran off towards the reed huts.
‘That was very bold of you, Jonathan,’ said Flavia, when Abu was out of earshot. ‘Saying I was your wife.’
‘Don’t get any ideas,’ said Jonathan, removing his arm from her shoulder and winking at Lupus.
‘Flavia,’ said Seth. ‘Seeing as you’re wanted in Alexandria, do you think it’s wise to tell people your name?’
‘Oh!’ Flavia brought her hand to her mouth. ‘You don’t think they’re still after us?’
‘He’s got a point,’ said Jonathan. ‘Until we know who’s after us and what we’re supposed to have done, we’d better adopt disguises.’
‘Eureka!’ cried Flavia, after a moment’s thought. ‘I’ve got it!’
‘What?’ said Jonathan drily. ‘Shall we pretend to be a troupe of pantomime actors? Or maybe acrobats?’
Lupus nodded enthusiastically, performed a neat back flip and took a bow.
Flavia laughed. ‘Actually, that’s not a bad idea, but I have a better one. Seth can pretend to be our father and we are his three sons.’
‘I’m only eighteen!’ grumbled Seth. ‘How can I possibly be your father?’
‘Then you can be our mother! It worked last time we tried it.’
The Roman Mysteries Complete Collection Page 227