The Roman Mysteries Complete Collection

by Lawrence, Caroline

  Jonathan was first up the stairs from the hidden chamber. The young priest was waiting for him.

  ‘Tell us quickly!’ said Seth coming up behind Jonathan. ‘How do we get to the sanctuary of Haroeris?’

  ‘Don’t I get my kiss now?’

  ‘But we need to go urgently!’

  ‘Back the way you came,’ said the priest, and glanced at Jonathan. ‘I’ll show you if your daughter lets me give her a kiss.’

  Seth gave an exasperated sigh, then turned to Jonathan: ‘Thweetheart,’ he said, remembering to lisp this time. ‘Let the kind prietht give you a kith.’

  Jonathan sighed. At any other time he would have kicked the priest hard in his oxyrhynchus. But the priest had helped them save Nubia. He closed his eyes and offered his cheek.

  The priest gave him a quick peck, then rushed blushing out of the sanctuary.

  ‘Follow me, ladies!’ came his voice.

  But when Jonathan and his friends reached the inner sanctuary of the healing god Haroeris, Nubia and Chryses were gone.

  When they emerged from the cool shadows of the temple into the bright light of late afternoon, they saw the red and gold galley already moving out into the river and turning north, back the way they had come. Beneath the shady awning at the ship’s stern, Flavia saw egg-headed Pullo in pink and Thonis in his blue chlamys. Nathan, wearing his one-sleeved white tunic and pointed white cap, stood grimly between them.

  They watched the governor’s galley until it was out of sight, and Nathan did not turn once.

  ‘Where to now?’ said Flavia, as the wind filled the Scarab’s sail and they moved out into the river.

  Subdued by Nathan’s betrayal and departure, they had put on their turbans and tunics again. Lupus was at the tiller and, in the bows of the ship, Jonathan was examining the map.

  ‘To Syene,’ said Jonathan, and looked up at Seth. ‘Correct?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Seth.

  ‘Why Syene?’ asked Flavia and quoted the riddle that had been drawn in charcoal on the inner sanctuary of Haroeris: ‘A mighty tooth am I, beneath exotic skies. In many other lands, in many shapes I rise. No strength in me remains, and yet my charms are prized.’

  From the tiller, Lupus trumpeted like an elephant.

  ‘I know the answer is ivory,’ said Flavia, ‘But how does that lead to Syene?’

  Jonathan tapped the map. ‘Ivory comes from elephants,’ he said. ‘And in the nome of Syene there is an island called Elephantine. That must be our next stop.’

  ‘I agree,’ said Seth. ‘There’s a Roman garrison there, too. Syene and Elephantine are both on the border of Nubia.’

  ‘So there might be Nubians there?’ asked Flavia.

  ‘I’m sure of it.’

  ‘Lupus!’ cried Jonathan suddenly. ‘Watch out! We’re heading straight for a hippo!’

  ‘Don’t cry, Nubia,’ said Chryses, ‘I know they were good friends but we don’t need them anymore.’

  ‘But I loved them,’ said Nubia. ‘They were loyal and faithful and brave. I hope the beekeeper doesn’t eat them,’ she added.

  ‘The beekeeper looked very kind,’ said Chryses. ‘And his little girls adored them. I’m sure Castor and Pollux will have a very happy life carrying honey and giving the girls rides. As for us,’ he said. ‘From now on we travel by water.’

  ‘But are you not afraid of water?’

  ‘Terrified. But I must be brave. You have taught me that.’ He smiled at her, then pointed to the islands in the river. ‘Do you see those islands?’

  Nubia nodded. The islands of Syene were unlike any of the islands she had seen so far. These were not flat, marshy reed beds, but smooth grey boulders.

  ‘That one looks like an elephant,’ she said.

  ‘Nubia! You are so clever!’ Chryses laughed his strange tinkling laugh. ‘That island is called Elephantine, or Elephant Island. Did you know that?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Well, that is where we are going. It turns out that we both have treasure on that elephant-shaped island.’

  ‘Your treasure is there?’

  ‘Yes. And yours, too.’

  ‘I have treasure?’

  ‘I hope so.’ He caught both her hands in his and gazed into her eyes. ‘Nubia! The beekeeper told me that there is a Nubian Village on that island.’

  ‘Some of my people? On the Elephantine?’

  ‘Yes! He thinks there are members of the Jackal and Hyena clans. And also of the Leopard clan. Didn’t you tell me your family is of the Leopard clan?’

  ‘Yes!’ cried Nubia. ‘Oh, praise Juno! Maybe they will know if some of my family survived.’

  Chryses had covered his eyes with his hands and was muttering invocations to Serapis under his breath, but Nubia gazed around with delight. The little sailboat was cutting through the mirror-bright water towards an island which might hold the answer to her dreams.

  The river around her teemed with life. A purple heron watched her pass and nodded gravely, a dove cooed throatily from a smooth boulder, kingfishers plunged into the Nile and a pair of moorhens swam beside them, squeaking cheerfully and working hard to keep up.

  Finally the boatman brought them gently up to the landing place and tossed the mooring rope to a waiting boy. He helped Nubia and Chryses out and accepted their coin with a beaming, toothless grin.

  Nubia followed Chryses up the steps and looked around. To her left was a town with a Roman fort and an Egyptian temple. To her right was a small village of whitewashed mud huts, some roofed with palm fronds, others with domes. A palm grove made a backdrop to the village.

  She heard the soft clanking and bleating of goats and a moment later a small flock emerged from among the trees, followed by a young goatherd. The breeze carried their scent, and it made her heart joyful. A movement beyond the goatherd caught Nubia’s eye: some older boys were throwing a ball. Nubia scanned them and suddenly her heart thudded. One of the ballplayers was a tall, lithe Nubian youth, with a flashing smile and neat ears.

  It was her cousin Kashta, to whom she had once been betrothed.

  Kashta stepped forward as Nubia and Chryses approached.

  ‘Who are you?’ he said in heavily accented Greek.

  ‘Don’t you recognise me, Kashta?’ said Nubia in their language. She pulled off her turban and waited for his reaction.

  He studied her face for a long moment. Then his long-lashed brown eyes grew wide. ‘Shepenwepet!’ he cried, using her clan name. ‘Can it really be you?’ His face broke into a smile, then clouded over as he looked her up and down. ‘But why do you wear such clothes? Like a man?’

  ‘We have made a very long and dangerous journey. Chryses thought I would be safer dressed as a boy.’

  ‘Chryses?’ His eyes flickered towards Nubia’s friend.

  ‘Yes! Without him I could not have made this journey. The gods provided him in my hour of need.’ She turned to Chryses and said in Greek, ‘this is my cousin Kashta. Kashta, this is Chryses.’

  The eunuch smiled shyly. ‘I am honoured to meet you.’

  ‘I honoured of meet you also,’ said Kashta, in his heavily accented Greek. ‘Come! Take refreshment of us. We must talk.’

  ‘Oh, Kashta,’ cried Nubia. ‘How I have longed for this day!’

  It took Nubia’s eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness of the mud hut. There were mainly children in here, but also some women. Rush mats lined the floor, some strewn with threadbare carpets or blankets. It was cooler in here than outside, but there were flies everywhere.

  ‘Sit.’ Kashta gestured to an embroidered cloth on the floor. He clapped his hands and a thin Nubian girl appeared. ‘Water,’ he said. ‘Bring us water. And also the good dates.’ Still speaking in Nubian he said, ‘You travelled alone with this person? That was not very wise.’

  ‘I had no choice,’ said Nubia, brushing away a fly. ‘My friends died and I wanted to come home.’

  ‘Our home is not safe these days,’ he said grimly. ‘Not with the slave-tra
ders. That is why many of us have moved here, or closer to the border.’ He spread his hands, ‘but here the living is hard.’

  The thin girl came in with a brass tray. On it were beakers of water and two dozen dates. The girl poured the water, smiled at Nubia, and departed.

  Kashta swatted at a fly and continued. ‘Some from the Hyena clan have had the idea of making beer and selling it to the Romans. There is a garrison here, you see. But selling beer is not good. We are hunters and herdsmen. We go where the animals go.’

  Nubia had forgotten they were speaking their own language until Chryses drained his glass and rose to his feet.

  ‘Excuse me, Nubia,’ he said in Greek. ‘But I must see about my business. Shall I leave you to talk?’

  ‘Oh, yes! Thank you!’

  Chryses turned to Kashta. ‘Thank you, sir, for the refreshment.’ And to Nubia: ‘I’ll return in an hour or two.’

  ‘I can see why they call it Elephant Island,’ said Flavia, as they approached the island. ‘It looks just like a big grey elephant!’

  ‘Except for the town and the trees on top,’ said Jonathan.

  They had reached Syene at dawn and were sailing through an archipelago of rocks and islands. They were near the first cataract and there were boats everywhere. Flavia saw narrow papyrus skiffs with lone fishermen, medium-sized sailing boats like the Scarab, and luxury barges with reed cabins near the stern.

  ‘Oh, look at that cedarwood barge,’ said Flavia. ‘It’s beautiful.’

  ‘That one’s bound down river,’ said Seth.

  ‘How can you tell?’

  ‘No sail. It will just flow with the current, so all it needs is the tiller. And when the Nile begins to flood in a week or two, it will go quickly.’

  Lupus grunted and pointed excitedly towards the elephant-shaped island.

  ‘Yes,’ said Jonathan. ‘I see them, too. Roman soldiers. There’s a garrison here. But it’s a big island. Where shall we start?’

  ‘The landmark mentioned by Strabo,’ said Seth. ‘That seems to be Chryses’s modus operandi.’

  ‘Which landmark is that?’ asked Flavia.

  ‘Those stairs cut into the rock,’ said Seth, pointing. ‘The Nilometer.’

  Nubia and Kashta were walking on a path between palm trees and the low retaining wall that ringed the island. A cool breeze had risen from the opalescent river below them.

  ‘Kashta,’ said Nubia. ‘My family . . . are any of them still . . .’

  ‘Alive?’ He looked at her. ‘Don’t you remember what happened?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Nubia, and forced herself to recall. ‘My mother and baby sister Seyala, they died on the road. The slave-traders killed my father and my dog. And one of my brothers died in the flames. Did the other one live?’

  ‘I’m sorry, Nubia. Your family all perished. You are the only one left.’

  ‘No,’ said Nubia softly. ‘Taharqo is alive—’

  ‘Taharqo alive?’ cried Kashta, his eyes full of joy. ‘My friend Taharqo is alive?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Nubia. ‘Now he fights as a gladiator for the Romans.’

  ‘The Romans!’ Kashta spat into the dust. ‘The Romans say there is nothing they can do about the slave-traders. The desert is too big, they say. But even with its dangers, the desert is better than this place. Still,’ he said, gazing into her face. ‘I am glad I was here, because now I have found you again.’

  *

  I lie between sun and moon, between Egypt and Cush, between ebb and flow. Seth ben Aaron, you have reached the end of your quest. I am your treasure.

  ‘What in Juno’s name does that mean?’ said Flavia. She and Lupus had climbed the stairs of the Nilometer to examine the riddle written on its wall. Now she looked down at Seth, waiting down below them in the Scarab. ‘Any idea?’

  ‘No,’ said Seth, frowning.

  Lupus pointed down, as if to say: here.

  ‘I think Lupus is right,’ Jonathan called up from the boat. ‘The Nile flood will soon begin, so we’re almost between ebb and flow.’

  ‘And if the east bank is the side of the sun,’ said Seth, ‘and the western the side of the moon, then an island is halfway between.’

  ‘And you said Cush is another word for the Land of Nubia!’ cried Flavia. ‘And that the first cataract marks the border. So this must be your final destination!’

  Jonathan nodded. ‘The treasure must be somewhere on this island.’

  Lupus had been looking around. Now he pointed towards a palm grove near one end of the island and grunted.

  ‘Seth!’ cried Flavia. ‘There’s a village over there with lots of Nubians. Lupus and I are going to go and investigate. We’ll be right back.’

  ‘Come back down and sail with us!’ Seth shouted up at them. ‘There’s a docking place at the other end. We can look together.’

  ‘No! You sail there and we’ll meet you! We haven’t a moment to lose! Nubia might be there!’

  She heard Seth curse and Jonathan call her name, but she ignored them and scrambled over the low parapet. Lupus was already trotting across scrubby ground towards a village of whitewashed mud brick surrounded by a palm grove. On their left loomed the town with its Roman fort.

  As they approached the village, Flavia could see children playing in the shadows cast by the huts. Village women sat nearby, chatting and preparing food. On a patch of waste ground in front of the huts, some youths were spitting a whole goat and others were preparing a large open fire. Another man had a bucket of water and was throwing handfuls of it to damp down the dust.

  ‘They must be preparing to celebrate something,’ said Flavia to Lupus.

  Then she saw the Nubian couple walking together in the palm grove: a tall young man and a girl with short hair and a long cream tunic. Flavia’s heart thudded. It was Nubia. She was not with the eunuch but with a tall Nubian youth.

  It seemed that her friend had found her family.

  The setting sun made long cool shadows of the palm trunks. Kashta stopped in one of these and turned to Nubia.

  ‘Marry me, Shepenwepet,’ he said softly. ‘You will cook for me and raise my sons. I will protect you and breed many fine goats. It will not be an easy life, but we have one another, and our people. You will be free. Truly free.’

  Nubia gazed up at his handsome, smiling face. Then she looked towards the others in the village: the young mothers, the men preparing her celebration goat, the grubby toddlers playing in the dust. She should have been happy, but she felt only dismay. Why? She had travelled nearly seven hundred miles to reach her own people and she had succeeded. Why did she not feel joy?

  ‘Shepenwepet,’ whispered Kashta again. ‘Marry me.’

  Flavia opened her mouth to call out to Nubia, but Lupus stopped her by gripping her arm with his left hand and shaking his head vehemently.

  Nubia and the young man were standing very close, gazing into each other’s faces.

  Lupus put his right forefinger to his lips, then jerked his head forward, as if to say: Let’s go closer, but quietly. Flavia nodded and together they walked nonchalantly forward then quickly ran to hide behind a palm tree.

  A hand on Flavia’s shoulder made her jump. But it was only Jonathan.

  ‘Why did you run off like that?’ he scowled. ‘Seth’s in the boat, down there. He wants you to come back right now.’

  ‘Jonathan!’ hissed Flavia. ‘We’ve found Nubia! There she is!’

  Jonathan’s eyes widened as he spotted Nubia and the youth.

  ‘Why are we spying on her?’ he asked in a whisper.

  ‘It’s a romantic moment,’ said Flavia. ‘Look at them!’ The scene before her blurred as her eyes swam with tears. ‘Look how happy she is.’

  ‘Marry me, Shepenwepet.’ Kashta pulled Nubia into his arms. ‘And I will take you home.’

  As he pronounced the word ‘home’, an image appeared in Nubia’s mind: the inner garden of Flavia’s house, with its bubbling fountain and the birds singing in the fig tree. Of Alm
a, humming in the kitchen. Of Captain Geminus working in his tablinum. Of her beloved Aristo, playing his lyre with his eyes closed. And of Nipur, her faithful dog.

  Nubia felt a strange bittersweet longing. Even with Flavia, Jonathan and Lupus dead, she realised Ostia was the place she now thought of as home.

  ‘Oh, Kashta!’ she whispered. ‘I came all this way to find my home. But I have seen Rome and Athens and Alexandria. I can read stories in Latin and Greek. How can a goatherd’s tent be home to me now?’

  His face grew dark. ‘You will marry me!’ he said in a low voice. ‘Otherwise I will lose face before the others. You must not think of the life you have lived these past two years. Rome is evil. Romans are evil!’

  ‘No, Kashta. Romans are not evil. They are like us. Some are good. Some are bad. Most are a mixture of good and bad. But their world is a wonderful one.’

  ‘What about slavery?’

  Nubia nodded slowly. ‘Yes, they have slaves. But I know a slave called Alma who is happier than any of the free women here. She goes only a few steps to the fountain. She chooses from a hundred types of food for dinner. She sleeps in her own little room on a bed with no fleas. She can go to the baths every day and sit in water up to her neck. She laughs at jugglers in the streets and talks with her friends at the public fountain and celebrates festivals with the family. And she is loved.’

  ‘You have become one of them,’ he said.

  ‘Yes!’ Nubia looked at him in wonder. ‘I have become Roman. I am Nubian, but I am also a Roman. Thank you for showing me that.’ She turned to go, but Kashta caught her wrist.

  ‘No!’ he hissed. ‘You will not go.’

  ‘Stop, Kashta. You are hurting me.’

  ‘I will release you when you promise to stay with me.’

  She stared up at him in horror. ‘You will not allow me to depart?’

  ‘No! You are betrothed to me and you must honour that. I will not allow you to return to Rome.’ He brought his face very close to hers. ‘My father,’ he said, ‘often had to beat my mother to make her obey him. Must I beat you?’

  *

  ‘Look,’ whispered Flavia to Jonathan and Lupus. ‘That must be the boy Nubia was betrothed to marry. They are almost kissing. Maybe we should just quietly leave and go back home.’