‘What?’ said Jonathan. ‘After we’ve come all this way to find her?’
‘But look at her! She’s home now, with her own people. If we tell her we’re alive maybe she’ll feel she has to come back with us.’ Flavia’s voice was hardly more than a whisper. ‘Maybe it’s better that she thinks we’re dead. It will help her fit back in to her old life.’
Lupus looked at Flavia angrily, but Jonathan nodded slowly. ‘Flavia’s right,’ he said. ‘If we suddenly appear, Nubia will be torn between her old life and us. She’ll have to reject either us or them, and that will upset her.’
Lupus swallowed hard. They had travelled so far to find Nubia, but now she had found her true family. It would be selfish of them to present themselves now.
‘Do you agree we should leave without telling her?’ whispered Flavia.
Reluctantly, Lupus nodded.
As the three friends were trudging back towards the Scarab, they passed a youth in a white turban and cream tunic going the other way.
Something about the young man’s way of walking made Lupus stop and turn. The youth had stopped too, and was looking back at them. He had catlike eyes and a small mouth.
‘Come on, Lupus,’ called Flavia. ‘Let’s go before we change our minds.’
Lupus shrugged and turned to go, too miserable to pay attention to the flicker of recognition at the back of his mind.
‘I do not want to beat you, Shepenwepet,’ said Kashta. ‘But if you speak again of leaving, then I will.’
‘Nubia!’ cried Chryses’s Greek-accented voice from behind her. ‘Oh Nubia! I’ve found your family!’
Nubia turned and saw Chryses standing at the edge of the palm grove with three turbaned boys. The setting sun was behind them and at first she could not make them out. Then she recognised two of them.
‘Jonathan! Lupus!’ she cried in Latin. She ran to them and flung an arm around each of them. ‘Oh, praise Juno! You are alive!’
‘What about me,’ said the third boy. ‘Don’t I get a hug?’ He looked at her with wounded grey eyes.
‘Flavia!’ Nubia embraced her friend. She was laughing and crying at the same time. ‘Oh, Flavia!’
Flavia laughed, too, and gave Nubia a fierce squeeze. ‘We’ve been following you all the way! Didn’t you suspect?’
‘No!’ Nubia shook her head. ‘No! I am thinking you are dead!’
‘Nubia,’ said Flavia, ‘you don’t have to come back with us. But Chryses said we should tell you that we aren’t dead, to put your mind at rest.’ Flavia swallowed hard and tried not to cry.
‘What Flavia is saying,’ said Jonathan, ‘is that we’ll miss you, but we know you want to stay here with your family.’
Nubia looked over her shoulder at Kashta, whose expression was a mixture of outrage and astonishment.
‘My family are all dead,’ she said, softly. ‘Only Taharqo remains, and he is in Rome. Her golden eyes were brimming as she looked from Flavia to Jonathan to Lupus. ‘Chryses was right. You are my family. And I am so glad I have found you.’
They emerged from the palm grove into the dusty golden light of late afternoon.
‘You!’ cried Seth, striding forward.
‘Seth?’ gasped Chryses, stopping dead in his tracks. ‘Seth, is that you?’
‘Who else?’ he growled. ‘You’ve led me on a wild ibis chase a thousand miles up the Nile!’
‘Oh, Seth!’ breathed Chryses. ‘You’re wonderful! You came all this way to find me.’ He ran forward and threw his arms around Seth’s neck.
‘What are you doing?’ cried Seth, recoiling. ‘Get off me!’
‘Oh, Seth!’ exclaimed Chryses. ‘Haven’t you guessed by now?’
‘Guessed what?’
‘I’m not a eunuch!’ Chryses took off his turban and shook out his silky brown hair. ‘I’m a girl.’
Seth stared in open-mouthed astonishment.
‘You’re a what?’
‘A girl. All those years I’ve been pretending to be a eunuch so that I could be a scribe in the Great Library.’
The two scribes stood only a handsbreadth apart, Seth a head taller than Chryses.
‘Great Juno’s peacock!’ gasped Flavia, looking at her friends. ‘Chryses is a girl! How could Seth not know that?’
‘Chryses is a girl?’ echoed Jonathan, in disbelief.
Nubia nodded. ‘I was knowing this.’
Lupus nodded and pointed at himself.
‘How did you know?’ asked Flavia.
Lupus imitated a girl’s graceful walk.
Nubia giggled and nodded. ‘Sometimes she forgets to stomp. Also, she does not have the bump here at front of her throat. And,’ concluded Nubia. ‘I peeked one day when she was doing latrine.’
‘How could he not have known?’ repeated Jonathan. ‘She’s beautiful.’
Lupus elbowed Jonathan in the ribs and gave him a grin.
Jonathan scowled down at his friend. ‘I’m just stating a fact,’ he said defensively.
Seth was gazing at Chryses. A look of wonder had spread across his face. ‘Then my dreams . . .? You weren’t trying to bewitch me?’
‘Dreams? You had dreams about me?’
Seth nodded, dumbly.
‘You should have trusted them, you silly fool.’
‘But I thought you were . . .’
‘Idiot!’ she rebuked him gently.
‘Cat worshipper!’ growled Seth.
‘Seth animal!’ hissed Chryses.
‘Mosquito!’
‘Spouter of water!’
Suddenly they were in each other’s arms, kissing passionately.
The four friends stared in open-mouthed astonishment.
Presently, Seth and Chryses drew apart.
‘Disgraceful!’ grumbled Seth. ‘Such a public display of affection!’
‘I’m surprised your god didn’t strike you down!’
‘Why did you kiss me?’
‘Why did I kiss you? You kissed me!’
‘I did not!’
‘You did, too!’
And suddenly they were kissing again.
Lupus mimed being sick.
Jonathan raised an eyebrow and grinned. ‘These Egyptians are crazy.’ After a while he added, ‘This could go on for some time.’
Flavia laughed and caught Nubia’s hand. ‘Let’s go back to the boat. We have lots to tell you,’ she added, as they started towards the riverbank.
‘And I have much to tell you,’ said Nubia.
‘Where’s our boat?’ exclaimed Jonathan. ‘Where’s the Scarab?’
Lupus grunted and pointed.
‘It’s in the shadow of that huge barge,’ said Jonathan, ‘which will probably crush it in a moment.’
‘Oh, isn’t it beautiful!’ exclaimed Flavia. ‘It’s painted with lotus blossoms and papyrus and it has a cabin with latticework windows and a palm leaf top where you could rest in the shade.’
‘And look!’ said Jonathan, pointing. ‘There’s a man at the very back cooking a meal.’ His stomach rumbled. ‘It smells delicious.’
‘That’s the way to travel,’ said Flavia with a sigh. Lupus nodded his agreement.
‘And that’s the way we shall travel,’ said a voice behind them.
The four friends turned to look at Chryses in amazement. She was holding hands with Seth.
‘That barge is yours?’ said Seth, staring.
‘Yes, it belongs to me,’ she said. ‘And in a week or so, when the Nile begins to flood, we shall all travel back to Alexandria in style.’
‘That barge belongs to you?’ repeated Seth.
‘Yes! My grandfather said all I had to do to claim it was to turn up with the papers.’ She reached into the neck of her tunic and a moment later brought forth a folded piece of papyrus.
‘The treasure map!’ cried Jonathan.
‘It’s actually a map of how to get here with a deed for the barge on the back,’ said Chryses.
‘Does that mean there is no fabulo
us treasure?’ said Flavia. ‘No countless gold of Ophir and of Cush?’
‘My name is Chrysis,’ said the girl with a shrug and a smile. ‘Chrysis means “a vessel of gold”.’
‘Then you’re the treasure?’ breathed Flavia.
‘If Seth wants me, I’m his.’
Nubia frowned. ‘You were not being rich lady’s slave?’ she asked. ‘Rich lady who is eaten by crocodiles?’
Chrysis laughed and shook her head. ‘I’m quite a good storyteller, aren’t I?’
‘And you are not afraid of crocodiles?’ said Nubia.
‘Of course I am. I’d be a fool if I wasn’t!’
‘And you’re rich?’ said Jonathan.
‘Yes,’ purred Chrysis. ‘Grandfather has built me a little house in Rhakotis with an inner garden and balcony overlooking the canal and a shop front. I will copy and sell scrolls. It will be my own bookshop.’
‘But if you’re rich, then why did you lead us on this wild-ibis chase?’ asked Jonathan.
‘For a wager.’
‘For a wager?’ croaked Seth.
Chrysis smiled up at him. ‘Grandfather said he didn’t think you had the backbone to be my husband. I thought you did. He said that although you were eighteen, you had never set foot outside the walls of Alexandria. So I said: If I can get Seth to travel seven hundred miles up the Nile to claim me, then can I marry him?’
Jonathan raised his eyebrows. ‘And he said yes?’
‘He said yes.’
‘But who in Hades is your grandfather?’ said Seth.
‘Oh!’ cried Flavia, and began to jump up and down. ‘I know! I know!’
Lupus nodded, too, and winked at Flavia.
‘Oh,’ said Jonathan. ‘Of course!’
‘Who?’ yelped Seth, looking from one to the other. ‘Who’s her grandfather?’
‘Philologus!’ cried Flavia and Jonathan together, as Lupus mimed the chief scribe hobbling along on his walking stick.
Chrysis grinned at Seth. ‘You have some very clever friends,’ she said, and kissed him on the cheek. ‘Grandfather even helped me make up some of the riddles and puzzles for the journey.’
‘Of course!’ cried Seth, hitting his forehead with the heel of his hand. ‘That’s what he meant when he said there were no rules to the game. I thought at the time it was a strange thing to say.’ He stared at Chrysis. ‘But you could have been killed!’ he said. ‘Hippos, crocodiles, scorpions, desert heat, ducks . . .’
Chrysis laughed. ‘And you can’t die in the city? Fevers, brigands, slipping on the stairs and breaking your neck . . .’
‘Yes,’ said Seth. ‘I’ve been meaning to ask you about Onesimus. Did he really slip or was he pushed?’
‘Of course he slipped!’ cried Chrysis. ‘I would never hurt him. If anything, his death was your fault!’
‘My fault?’
‘Yes. I told Onesimus I loved you, and not him. He ran away in tears. That’s when he slipped and fell.’
‘Did he know you were a girl?’
‘Does it matter?’
‘No, I suppose it doesn’t. You told him you loved me?’
‘Of course I do, you fool!’ Chrysis laughed and stroked his slim brown cheek. ‘I loved you when you were pink and pudgy, and I love you even more now that you are brown and muscular. I knew you could do it.’
They kissed.
Seth pulled back and cleared his throat. ‘You said something about marriage?’
Chrysis nodded. ‘Don’t you want to be a bookseller with me and raise lots of little scribes?’
Seth gave her his slow grin, then nodded. ‘Yes,’ he said huskily. ‘I do.’
They kissed again.
Jonathan cleared his throat and gestured towards Nubia. ‘What about her? Why did you take Nubia with you?’
Chrysis pulled back from Seth. ‘I was walking on the beach of the eastern necropolis one morning and there she was, dripping with salt water and tears. The daughter of mighty Proteus, Old Man of the Sea, met me as I walked alone along the strand . . .’ quoted Chrysis. ‘When I found out she wanted to return to the Land of Nubia and that she had skill with camels, I decided to put my plan into action immediately. It was as if the gods had brought us together.’
‘God,’ said Seth. ‘Not gods. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one. If we are to marry you must convert to my religion.’
Chrysis gazed tenderly up at him. ‘Of course I will,’ she said, and whispered: ‘Speak my name, and I shall live forever.’
‘Chrysis,’ he whispered. ‘My golden one.’
Jonathan looked at his friends and grinned. ‘These Egyptians are crazy.’
The annual flood of the Nile had begun and was carrying the painted barge away from the island of Elephantine, towards Alexandria.
Nubia waved goodbye to the Nubians from the village. Kashta was not among them. It made her heart sad, but she understood. She had changed so much.
‘Look!’ said Flavia beside her. ‘There on the right bank. That strange bird with the long curved beak.’
‘That’s an ibis,’ said Chrysis, who stood on the other side of Nubia. She looked cool and elegant in a green silk shift. Golden bangles clinked on her arms and her straight silky brown hair just brushed her smooth shoulders. ‘The ibis comes with the flood.’
‘It looks as if it’s writing something in the water,’ said Flavia.
‘Yes,’ agreed Jonathan, ‘using its beak as a pen.’
Lupus held up his bronze stylus.
‘Or stylus,’ added Nubia.
Chrysis laughed and turned to the four friends. ‘Now you know why the Egyptians gave the scribe god Thoth the head of an ibis.’
‘Of course!’ breathed Flavia.
‘That ibis looks so scholarly,’ said Chrysis, and sighed. ‘He reminds me of my dear old grandfather. I wouldn’t have been able to stay in the Library for five years without his help,’ she said. ‘But binding my chest became such a chore and we both knew I couldn’t keep up the pretence much longer.’
Nubia looked at Chrysis. ‘How long do you think it will take us to get to Alexandria?’
‘Three weeks if the gods favour us,’ said Chrysis, then corrected herself as two young men came to stand beside them at the rail. ‘If the Lord favours us.’
Nubia glanced at Seth and Nathan. Nathan had arrived back from Apollonospolis subdued but happy, his mission accomplished. He had convinced the authorities they were dead and no longer a threat. It meant they would have to return to Italia incognito, but at least they were safe for the time being.
Standing beside his cousin, Seth looked handsome in a dark blue linen tunic and a black turban. ‘You know,’ he said, ‘I’m glad I came on this wild-ibis chase. I learned something important.’
‘What?’ asked Chrysis, gazing up at him adoringly.
‘God’s instruction, his Torah, is not only written in scrolls. It is also written in the world around us.’
‘And a wonderful world it is,’ sighed Chrysis, catching his hand.
‘You, my cousin,’ said Nathan, ‘are a very lucky man. You have found something much better than all the gold in Ophir.’
‘I know,’ said Seth, and kissed the top of Chrysis’s head.
‘I have a big question for you, Chrysis,’ said Flavia. ‘And because it’s my birthday today, I’m going to ask it.’
‘Flavia!’ cried Seth. ‘Is today your birthday?’
‘Ooops!’ said Jonathan. Lupus gave a comical grimace.
‘Oh, why didn’t you tell me?’ Chrysis gave Seth a mock slap on the wrist. ‘Bad Seth-dog!’
‘Bad pussycat!’ he growled back.
‘I remember today is your birthday,’ said Nubia. She reached into her belt-pouch. ‘It is just something very little.’
‘Oh, Nubia!’ cried Flavia. ‘You remembered!’ She looked at the boys. ‘THAT is friendship,’ she said. ‘THAT is why I came seven hundred miles to find her.’
‘So did we!’ said Jonathan, in an inju
red tone, and added, ‘What is it?’
‘It’s a little faience scarab beetle,’ said Flavia. ‘It’s lovely.’
‘When we get back to Alexandria,’ said Nubia. ‘I will buy you chain for it.’
‘No!’ cried Jonathan. ‘Lupus and I will buy the chain, won’t we Lupus?’
Lupus shrugged; then he gave Flavia a mischievous grin.
‘What was your question?’ Chrysis asked Flavia.
‘Excuse me if this is rude,’ said Flavia. ‘But I wanted to know why you pretended to be a eunuch.’
‘I’ve been wondering that, too,’ said Nathan.
‘Ever since I was little,’ said Chrysis, ‘I wanted to be a scribe in the Great Library like my grandfather. I nagged Grandfather from the age of seven. Finally, on my thirteenth birthday, he said I could become a scribe, but that I had to pretend to be a eunuch.’
‘Hmmph!’ said Seth. ‘It’s an abomination.’
Chrysis stared at him in mock horror. ‘You enormous hypocrite! I hear YOU dressed up as a Greek matron!’
‘Twice,’ said Nathan. ‘He pretended to be a woman twice.’
Seth shrugged and gave her a sheepish grin.
‘And he also pretended to be an Egyptian boatman,’ said Jonathan. ‘He was so funny! Listen: I’ve come from vithiting my thick thithter in Diothpolith!’
Nubia giggled and Lupus guffawed.
Flavia pointed at Jonathan. ‘A thcorpion thtung your ear!’
All four friends laughed, Seth and Nathan, too.
‘I’m going to Theebth!’ added Jonathan. Lupus fell laughing onto the polished deck and kicked his feet in the air.
‘Master of the Universe,’ exclaimed Chrysis, rolling her eyes. She turned to Nubia. ‘Stop this silliness and play us your new song. Come, let us sit on the divan.’
‘A new song?’ cried Flavia, clapping her hands. ‘Oh, Nubia! Play it for us.’
‘Yes, play it,’ said Seth with a wink at Chrysis.
They all moved to sit on the striped silk divan which formed a semi-circle at the prow of the barge.
‘Wait!’ cried Flavia, when they were all seated. ‘What’s your song called?’
Nubia smiled and lifted her Egyptian reed flute to her lips. ‘My song is called Going Home.’
The Roman Mysteries Complete Collection Page 236