Ten for Dying (John the Lord Chamberlain Book 10)

by Mary Reed

  “It was only an amulet and a few frogs,” Felix said. “A lot of frogs, I admit.”

  “And there were demons involved?”

  “If Anastasia told you all about it, why ask me?”

  “She didn’t say whether you knew anything further about the demons, where they might have come from.”

  “From the underworld, I imagine. Well, that’s why I asked about Tychon. Anastasia told me that according to witnesses he cried out that he was being chased by demons. Why did he think that? Were they the demons—or so-called demons—who stole the shroud? Was Tychon perhaps—”

  “Where did the demons go after running out of the church?”

  “I wish I knew. I’m not even certain the workers I spoke to at the church were telling the truth about seeing demons. I’m not sure if anyone has told me the truth.”

  “Including me?”

  “Why do you think I’d suspect you of lying? About what? I merely came here for assistance with these spots—what I thought was a serious condition.”

  Felix’s heart beat faster and he began to feel hot. He’d hoped to grill Antonina but now he was the one on the grill.

  “What about the dead man in your courtyard?” Antonina pressed on. “Who was he? Didn’t you recognize him?”

  “No. Or do you suppose I was lying to Anastasia about that?”

  “You must have seen the man at the palace, Felix. He was an aristocrat, I understand.”

  “What does it matter to you who he was? Or what I know?”

  She reached out and playfully tugged his beard. “I am a curious person, Felix. You know that. I don’t like secrets, unless I share in them.”

  “Any secrets I might have to share, Anastasia has already shared with you, or so it appears.”

  Antonina sighed. “I would be less than honest if I didn’t admit to you that I also wondered if there was a connection between the demons that Tychon thought were pursuing him and those reputed to have stolen the shroud. So you can’t tell me where these fiends went, or who the courier was, or why the relic was stolen or who stole it?”

  “I wish I could. I would already have told the emperor.”

  “Tychon was not the most honest of servants. I would hate to think he became involved in anything illegal. And I would not want anyone to suspect me of wrongdoing because of the actions of a thieving servant.”

  “I can assure you, Antonina, I never suspected you of anything.”

  “What a bad liar you are, Felix. Do you want me to arrange for that horse now? There is still time to slip out of the city before the sun rises. I would hate for you to be arrested. Anastasia is upset as it is with her sister’s death. I will send some of my servants as an armed escort, for your safety.”

  Felix got to his feet. If he took her offer, would he make it as far as the city gates? He doubted it. “I appreciate your concern for myself and Anastasia, however my investigation isn’t done yet.”

  Whether Antonina would have called her guards to stop him from leaving, Felix never knew. At that moment Fate intervened, in the form of an ape bounding into the room.

  No, a demon, shouting weird incantations, waving a necklace in one hand, a wet sack in the other.

  Antonina screamed for her guards.

  The creature scuttled toward the painted empress. “I command you, Theodora, in the name of all the frogs of Heqt, to step down and obey!” it cried.

  The invader stopped dead, its nose practically touching Theodora’s garments. The thing’s fish-like mouth puffed in and out, revealing jagged teeth. A finger poked at the painted plaster. There was nothing in the least magickal about the next words to issue from the puckered mouth.

  Dedi pivoted and sprinted out of the room, straight past the sword-wielding guard who rushed in.

  “Never mind that one!” Antonina shrieked. “It’s this man who attacked me!”

  Felix had taken a step toward the door.

  The guard raised his sword and rushed forward.

  And crashed to the floor.

  Felix stumbled over the prone body. Slipping and skittering, almost losing his balance, he flung himself into the hallway and stumbled after the nightmarish creature, whatever it was.

  He didn’t pause to scrape the squashed frogs from the slippery soles of his boots.

  Frogs!

  The demonic creature had emptied frogs out of its sack, before chanting incantations at Theodora’s picture.

  In his excitement, Felix hadn’t put things together instantly. Racing through the darkened back garden he realized he was on the heels of whoever, or whatever, had invaded the empress’ mausoleum.

  The guard slumped beside the back gate looked up groggily, as if drugged, as Felix pounded past and into the street.

  He had been steadily gaining on his prey as they fled Antonina’s property. Now it took him only a few more strides to catch up. He grabbed the back of the small figure’s tunic and pulled it to the pavement.

  Half afraid he might find himself face to face with a demon, he forced the thing to face him.

  “Dedi!” He recognized Theodora’s Egyptian magician from performances at court. “You have some questions to answer. You’re coming with me.”

  “Where are we going?” gasped the little man.

  That was a good question. But there wasn’t time to waste. Antonina’s guards would be after them soon. What choice did he have but to trust Anastasia, for better or for worse?

  Felix yanked Dedi to his feet and began dragging him along the street. “We’re going to see a bear-keeper.”

  DAY EIGHT

  Chapter Fifty-three

  Maria flung a bucketful of dead rats over the railing into the bear pit. The bear reared up on its hind legs and batted at the falling rodents, its monstrous head looming so near Felix felt the animal’s humid breath. He could make out a crescent shaped white patch on the creature’s chest.

  The pit looked dangerously shallow. Felix glanced nervously toward the gate at the top of the ramp descending into the well-like concrete hole, reassuring himself it was securely chained shut.

  “Hercules does love his rats.” Maria was a ponderous ruin of a woman, her face wattled and wrinkled as if it had come partly loose from her skull. She had succeeded her long dead husband as bear-keeper. “Now then, sirs, since I have served Hercules, how may I serve you?”

  “We need a place to stay for a while,” Felix told her.

  Maria examined him suspiciously. “Is that so? I wouldn’t think this would be a suitable place to stay for a gentleman such as yourself, sir. As for your servant…” She peered at the magician with a mixture of distaste and horror.

  “We both need lodgings.” He handed her the copper ring. “Anastasia said if I showed you this ring, you would assist us.”

  Again Felix was beginning to have his doubts about this arrangement. Even if the old woman were trustworthy, what about all the people in the Hippodrome he had asked directions from? Would they remember him asking the whereabouts of Maria the bear-keeper if questioned?

  Maria drew the ring up close to her eyes. “Praise be! I always told the dear little sisters they could count on Maria, but now they are of high rank I never imagined any of them would ever need the help of a poor woman like me.” She wiped at the tears suddenly running down her wrinkled cheeks. “To think, little Anastasia remembers old Maria. A fine lady like her and the sister of an empress.”

  Remembered you when you could be of some use, Felix almost said, then chided himself for being unfair to Anastasia. Maria appeared to be genuinely moved. Nothing in her demeanor suggested that Anastasia had sent Felix into a trap.

  “Come along then.” Maria turned and waddled away. “You can stay with me for as long as you wish.”

  Felix followed, Dedi at his heels.

  The clammy air was disturbe
d by the occasional freezing draught slithering along the concrete floor.

  He expected Antonina’s guards to suddenly come running into the subbasement. After all, Antonina’s house was practically next to the Hippodrome. The sun had long since risen. The guards must be scouring the area.

  They passed several pits similar to that occupied by Hercules. He heard a cacophony of scrabbling, roars, hisses, grunts, growls. At one point he shuddered at what sounded like the dolorous cry of a distressed infant. Animal odors rose from the pits, each different yet equally foul. Who could say what beasts were confined in those noisome holes?

  The trio passed by a wall into which were built cages with iron bars. Grotesque shadows shifted in the dark corners of the barred dens. Felix made no attempt to look inside. He knew there was nothing here but the common animals which regularly performed or were displayed at the Hippodrome.

  After what felt like a long time but probably wasn’t, Maria said, “Here we are.”

  Where they were appeared to be a heap of planks, bricks, broken masonry, and even pieces of carts piled in a corner of the subbasement. Maria invited them to step through the doorway that opened, incongruously, into the pile.

  Felix hesitated. For no reason he could name he had a terrible premonition.

  Something was waiting inside for him.

  Antonina’s guards? Excubitors? Porphyrius’ murderous Blues? Or something much worse?

  He clutched at the chains around his neck. His fingers brushed past the cross and touched the amulet Anastasia had given him. The irrationality of his reaction shamed him, brought him back to his senses.

  Inside Maria’s home a clay lamp burned atop a table made from an overturned crate. The body of a chariot served as a couch. The walls were draped with ragged, stained hangings.

  Before Felix could assimilate all the details, Maria ushered them through another opening and into a smaller chamber, similarly lit by a guttering flame.

  “Make yourselves comfortable,” she told the pair, with no hint of irony. “I will be back soon with something to eat.”

  Felix blinked in the shifting light and fingered his amulet.

  He glanced around and abruptly realized he was staring into two black, bottomless vortexes. The eyes in the stern face of the Christian’s crucified god.

  His fingers left the amulet for the cross.

  Chapter Fifty-four

  As the day passed the icon’s baleful stare never wavered.

  Or at any rate Felix hoped and believed the day was passing. How much time had gonne by he couldn’t say. Now it seemed an eternity, now only a few heartbeats.

  As a young soldier he had often waited for battle, sometimes in the darkness of a tent, other times in the open under night skies. Now he felt the same unbearable tension, every muscle in his body, every thought, screaming to get on with the fight, to be done with it, to feel the sweet relief of victory or perhaps to feel nothing at all ever again. But at least to have it over.

  The future was always more frightening than the present. The present you grappled with as best you could. The future was a mocking, unreachable phantom.

  But this waiting was worse because Felix did not know what it was he waited for. What sort of fight? Or would he have any chance to fight?

  Felix tried not to stare at the icon, an image of Christ painted on a plank by an amateur hand. It had been half consumed by fire. The face wore a pointed beard, as black as the charred edges of the plank. The thin-lipped mouth evidenced cruelty and the enormous eyes were demonic in the flickering lamplight. Anastasia insisted her god looked into men’s souls. This god seemed to be skewering Felix’s soul. His head pounded.

  “It’s such a comfort to me,” came Maria’s voice from the doorway. “It reminds me that He is forever looking after us.”

  The bear-keeper had brought bread, cheese, and olives, along with a jug of wine. Felix thanked her. Perhaps if he got something into his stomach his headache would go away. Was it from being kicked or from the sleeping potion Antonina had slipped him?

  “I found the icon shamefully abandoned in the ruins of a burnt house.” Maria tapped the dented jug from which she had poured wine into a pair of mismatched ceramic cups. “The same place I found this jug.”

  “The authorities tend to frown on upon theft,” Felix noted

  “Theft? Rescuing useful items, you mean. Anyway, Hercules loves taking walks with me and no one seems to care if we pick up an item or two along the way.”

  “You take a bear out into the streets?”

  “On a chain, naturally.”

  Recalling the animal cages they had passed, Felix supposed Hercules could use the exercise. “Apes,” he said. The story of the watchman at Theodora’s mausoleum had come into his thoughts. “Do you have apes?”

  “We had an ape, but it escaped. Don’t look so alarmed. That was years ago. The ape’s long dead by now, or else married a rich woman and became a senator.” She gave a hearty guffaw.

  In speaking to her, Felix noticed the colorful wall hanging behind her shoulder. It showed several angels in flight. “Did you find that in a burnt-out building as well?”

  “Oh, no. My girls sent that to me. The sisters, you know. They have never forgotten their old friend Maria. I refused to let them be put out on the street. Imagine the cruelty of the Greens, refusing to help the family of their own bear-keeper after he died so untimely. The Blues will show they are better than that, I said. And so we did. Not that we were not benefited. The girls turned out to be splendid performers.”

  Indeed, their performances were the subject of a thousand salacious rumors, some of which might even be true, Felix thought.

  “They often sent me gifts,” Maria continued. “Alas, poor Theodora has left us already.”

  “Maybe not,” muttered Dedi, who had been keeping silent.

  Maria glanced at him with grim disapproval before turning her attention back to Felix. “I am happy to find you so much better. When I looked in before you were dozing and muttering about strange events. I fear you may have a demon inside you, sir, contending for your soul. I have been praying and I am sure you are doing the same.”

  Felix grunted in a noncommittal manner.

  Maria smiled at the icon. “You could not have come to a better refuge, unless it were the Great Church. Our Lord will surely expel any evil creatures that dare to come within His sight.” She frowned at Dedi again. “I will leave you and your servant alone for now. If you should kill any rats, I collect them for Hercules, so throw them into the box beside the outer door.” She lumbered away.

  Felix squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them the icon was still glaring at him. Or was it glaring at an evil creature inside him? “Did I doze off?” he asked Dedi.

  “Yes. Probably you are still feeling the effects of whatever Antonina put you to sleep with. She could as easily have put you to sleep forever. You’ve been lucky.”

  “Lucky. That’s my name, isn’t it?”

  Or was he only slow-witted? Maybe he should have taken Antonina’s offer. He’d have been safely away from Constantinople. Dedi was right, if she had wanted to kill him he’d already be dead. What would be the point of ordering her servants to kill him before they reached the city gates when it could have been done in private at her house?

  Well, Felix was often a step behind. But it didn’t matter so long as you kept going. If your opponent stopped before the end of the race, you’d end up ahead. Still, Felix wished his head would stop pounding. Would Julius Caesar have crossed the Rubicon if he’d had a bad headache that day?

  “Don’t excite yourself,” Dedi said. “Whatever vile potion Antonina’s given you will take hold of your thoughts if you let them get out of control.”

  “You know a lot about such potions?”

  “I studied much ancient lore when I lived in Egypt. How do you thin
k I pass by guards as though I were invisible? A bit of powder in their wine, or tossed into the air and they are oblivious to the world.”

  “Do you have a powder that will tell me what to do next instead of sitting here, rotting away in this dark hole while half the city is hunting me?”

  “I have explained how I shall bring Theodora back to save us.”

  “It seems to me you’ve already failed twice. An Egyptian amulet and frogs! Why frogs?”

  “Because frogs are sacred to the frog-headed goddess Heqt, who represents resurrection. Just as scarabs are involved with resurrection.”

  “But they didn’t work to resurrect the empress.”

  Dedi’s mouth puffed in and out in annoyance. “It is more efficacious to place the scarab directly on the body, which I could not do. Also, I stood on a frog. Since they were sacred in Egypt at one time that was a capital crime. I hope I have not offended the goddess.”

  Felix shook his head. “I’d hate to be hanged for a frog. I saved your life, Dedi. The least you can do is tell me the truth even if nobody else will!”

  “You saved me? It was I who burst in just as Antonina was about to finish you off.”

  “What are you talking about? She was offering me a way out of the city. And where would you have gone to hide, if not for me? You’d be in the dungeons by now.”

  Dedi patted the small satchel attached to his belt. “I was about to use the invisibility dust I keep here, but there wasn’t enough for two.”

  “I thought you said it was your sleeping potions that made you seem invisible to guards.” The self-styled magician had been making a living for years entertaining Theodora with his inventions and wild tales. “Look,” Felix said wearily. “Tell me honestly what you saw that night in the mausoleum. Did demons run out of the church?”