I arrived first, since my room was closer to the predetermined meeting place, and spotted Vettias entering the square several minutes later. He led me to a nondescript corner of the plaza where we stood with our backs against a wall, allowing us to converse unheard and unnoticed yet still be fully aware of the events transpiring around us.
“So you’re getting the hang of it?” Vettias asked with an inviting smile.
“I think so.”
“Well, your confidence will certainly waver by the end of today. Your head is going to be spinning by the time night falls.” Considering my mind was already in danger of reaching its limits of comprehension with all I had learned thus far, Vettias’ statement made me a little uneasy.
“So, look around this square. Do you know why I chose this location for us to meet?”
“Because it is crowded and will allow us to get lost in its commotion,” I answered.
“Good, but what good does that do if you led someone here who was following you and now they can anonymously hide in the sea of activity?” Vettias countered.
“I, I don’t know,”
“When you departed, no doubt excitedly running out of your inn this morning, did you even bother to look behind you?”
“No.”
“So you could have led someone to this square and now they are observing the two of us talking without fear of detection. So instead of one person of interest now they have two. Maybe they’ll follow me back to my room from here and see who I meet with. Maybe they’ll kidnap me out of my room in the middle of the night and torture me until I tell them what they want then kill me. Do you understand where I’m going with this?”
“I think so,” I responded unconvincingly.
“We’ll see. What if they are only suspicious of you? If you start looking over your shoulder every minute, you may identify your followers but now they know you have something to hide, which will only increase their interest in you because normal people don’t behave in that manner.”
“So I don’t want to know if I’m being followed?” I asked, thoroughly confused.
“Of course you want to know, but you want to determine it in a way that does not look like you are alerted to their presence. There are ways to accomplish discreet acts while being followed, thus achieving your overall goal and removing suspicion from those that may do you harm. What if you knew you had led followers to a meeting with me; how would you alert me to the danger in a way that would tell me to abort the meeting yet appear innocuous to your shadowers? Finally, what if you are being followed while you are learning the many streets of a new city? How dubious you would look to your followers then?” I stood without reply in hopes he would further elaborate without asking another question. I cursed Socrates under my breath for devising such a labourious method of study. “Now of course there are times when you must flee your shadowers and it doesn’t matter if they know you know or not. Other times you can leverage being followed into an advantage by leading them into an ambush.”
“We will go over all of these principles in detail today but we’ll begin back at your room. What if you are doing everything right? You are aware of your scrutiny, you have not alerted them to your knowledge of their presence, and you are travelling to a location that will allow us to briefly meet one another securely. But this time your followers mean to kill you. If you travel the same way each time out of your room to various locations, then your attackers need only choose the best place to lie and wait. In addition to being aware of followers, you must also change routes that you take from one place to another. But if you take different routes that do not appear logical to the persons shadowing you, they may assume you are hiding something. Keeping routines is very dangerous in this line of work but you must also appear as though you are not trying to avoid routines, understand?”
I looked at him with a blank expression, for Vettias had succeeded in confounding my meagre intellectual abilities. “Of course you don’t,” he continued, “but don’t worry, I didn’t learn all of this in a day either. We’ll do some training exercises that will illustrate these principles vividly. Now, show me the way you travelled from your room to this square.” I led him through the direct route of narrow alleys back to my room where he took inventory of every twist and turn along the way. We arrived at a small courtyard that had four alleys jutting off of it with my inn residing at the end of one of them.
“So this is where all possible routes to and from your inn converge,” Vettias concluded. “This is where your watchers will pick up your trail, either coming or going.” He further studied the space, pointing out two storefronts and several windows looking onto the courtyard. “What time do these stores open? How busy does this square get? During which hours is it quiet like it is now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Of course you don’t, but these are the things you must know about a place where you frequently travel to and fro. Planning your travels through this space when it is busy with people will make it very difficult to determine if someone has picked up your trail. However, if it ever becomes crushed with people during the day like Sandon’s square, which I doubt it ever would, this could be a good place to lose any followers you may have brought with you this far.”
“Now let us return to Sandon using a different path. It is clear why you chose the route we just took because that is the most direct. Now we must find an alternate way that would also make sense to a potential shadower.” We travelled to the monument using a different set of alleyways and small roads while Vettias surveyed our surroundings closely. I was unsure what we were looking for but held my tongue for fear of looking more inept than I was already portraying myself. He finally found what he was looking for and stopped at a food vendor along the street.
“Ah hah, this may work,” Vettias stated without further elaboration. We entered the venue, which was open at this early hour to my surprise, and spoke with the woman sitting behind the counter chopping food stuffs. “Hello madam, your store is open quite early; is this when I can find most storefronts opening in this neighbourhood? My nephew and I are travelling through and will be here a few days.”
“Ha, most shop owners around here are either asleep, drunk, or both,” the woman replied. They won’t open for another two hours.”
“I see,” Vettias continued. “And what does your store offer, other than hours consistent to when I rise, that others around here do not?”
“The best cheese in Tarsus,” she responded without hesitation. “Been making it the same way here since my great grandmother.”
“My nephew and I would like to purchase some.” The woman walked to the back of the store and produced the requested item. Once the transaction was made Vettias and I continued our walk towards Sandon’s square.
We arrived back in the square shortly afterward and Vettias turned to me asking, “So, here we are. Do you understand what just happened?”
“I will need further elaboration,” I admitted.
“We travelled a different, more circuitous route to arrive at the same location to avoid establishing a routine. Someone following would think that odd and thus take further interest in you unless there was a logical reason for your detour. That woman’s store offers the perfect alibi. Not only is it open earlier than many of the other stores in your neighbourhood, it also offers the best cheese- that is why you travelled out of your way to get here.
“I understand,” I answered, seeing the logic in Vettias’ explanation.
“Now that you have a basic understanding of choosing your routes, let us become the shadowers so we may view the target from their eyes.” Vettias pointed to a random man buying produce at a cart parked alongside the square. “Let us see where he goes without raising his suspicions. While he’s in this square we have the advantage, since he is unaware of our intention and we do not have to move in order to keep an eye on him. Once he departs this square, depending on the roads and alleys he travels, he will have the advantage. If he lead
s us down a solemn alley where we are the only three pedestrians, then he will have succeeded in isolating us from the crowd, making it easier to discern our intentions. If he sticks to heavily travelled thoroughfares, we will have the advantage of invisibility within the crowd.”
We observed the man walk between several produce carts purchasing various items before he began walking down one of the streets jutting out from the square. “That’s our cue,” Vettias stated. “Let’s begin.” We kept behind him about fifty paces. As congestion grew we shortened our distance to twenty-five paces. As he turned on to a new street, Vettias and I would quicken our pace to close the distance, turn the corner to establish visual contact, and then slow our pace again to keep an unassuming interval between us. During our overwatch, Vettias would point out good storefronts to utilize as part of a route or good alleyways to traverse that may separate out potential followers. Once, the man stopped at a street-side cart to procure more items, which forced Vettias and I to stop as well. We were compelled to stand against a wall and pretend we were conversing despite the location for our discussion looking odd and out of place.
“That is also a good tactic,” Vettias pointed out. “Making frequent, logical stops while travelling can identify people like us standing out of place. If he were to do this in a desolate alleyway he would spot us for sure. Stopping allows the target natural observation to his front, rear, left, and right while the transaction is being conducted. If you keep to the same routine, however, your followers will not have to actually follow you and can wait to acquire you in a stationary position along your habitual route.”
The man finished his transaction and continued along his path. “Every time he is out of our sight is an opportunity for him to pass a message or conduct a clandestine act. If he planned his route correctly, he would have someone waiting for him on the other side of a turn in the road. He could make a left or right, be out of our line of sight for thirty seconds, pass a note to a beggar, or shopkeeper, or passerby, and look completely innocuous by the time we reacquire sight of him. Since this man has no worry of being followed he is acting completely normal to the two of us. I want you to see what normal looks like to someone following you. A few days of normal activities and you will look completely ordinary; and your followers will look elsewhere to root out potential agents.”
The man made one last turn before entering a tenement building near a public water fountain in the form of some unknown ancient Cilician river god. “This will be my red scarf meeting place,” Vettias announced. “Tomorrow morning we will meet here when my red scarf hangs from my window. Understood?”
“Yes uncle,” I answered with a smirk.
“Good, midday is approaching, let’s find some solace from the sun and some decent food and drink, for we will need our strength. Tonight I have a surprise for you.” We found a venue not far from the water fountain that offered mediocre food and wine. Vettias and I relaxed while the midday sun beat down on the city. After finishing a jug we both dozed off for about ninety minutes while the worst of the heat passed by. Upon waking we departed the store and passed the time by walking up and down the streets of Tarsus, becoming more familiar with the city. In the late afternoon we found ourselves entering a neighbourhood filled with brothels- our arrival to this neighbourhood was no coincidence.
“Are we to visit a brothel this early?” I asked.
“It’s true, most of these establishments are brothels, but our proximity to the east and the largess of Tarsus yields another type of establishment, one as different from a normal brothel as water from a chamber pot is to a fresh stream. We are going to visit a pleasure house. I’m taking you here for more than just the obvious reasons. Someone as green as you has never experienced, nor could ever afford, a place like this. I need you to be familiar with them, however, for they will be prevalent in Triparadeisus and you will need to navigate them with dexterity and skill. Triparadeisus would be too much for a young know-nothing like yourself without a little practice first,” Vettias concluded with a smile.
The façade of our destination was clean and freshly painted. The portico was a semi-circle with four impressive Persian-style columns, each with a bull-head capital. A statue of the Babylonian goddess Sarpanit, wife of Marduk, stood over the pediment, harkening back to the days when Tarsus was ruled by Persians. Vettias said he thought it odd that a Persian Goddess associated with fertility would be chosen to stand over an establishment where conception was not welcome. The sculpted relief of the pediment demonstrated a myriad of sexual offerings available inside. We entered through the wrought-iron security gate manned by an imposing figure dressed in a loin cloth. Crossing the threshold I entered a world completely foreign to me. The luxurious decorations were of a quality and opulence my eyes had never witnessed before. The floor had an intricate tile design of a naked woman. Several marble statues stood throughout the foyer with elaborate tapestries in between. Lavish couches lined the walls with plush cushions and gold trim. The ceiling, lit by several gold lamps, boasted a large painting of sexual positions similar to the pediment outside. Vettias was right about my simplicity regarding establishments such as these.
We were greeted by the headmaster of the pleasure house, who wore a fine silk robe with several gold rings housing many jewels. He was bald with skin fairer then his age should have allowed due, no doubt, to excessive moisturizing and washing. His eyebrows were manicured in the thin eastern style.
“Gentlemen, gentlemen, welcome to The Fair Peach. I don’t recognize either of you; is this your first time to our establishment?” he asked, looking at my appearance to evaluate whether I was some poor traveller looking for a more reasonably priced experience who wandered into the wrong place.
“I have been here once before many years ago and now have the pleasure of returning with my nephew,” Vettias answered, while putting considerable coin in the man’s hand. “We will both take the full offering.”
“Of course,” our host replied with a smile, and clapped his hands summoning two very young girls of eastern features and exceptional beauty. “Laleh and Nyla will show you to the steam rooms.” We followed their slender bodies past the atrium and behind a thick red curtain. We entered a sauna where the two girls instructed us to de-robe and lie face down on the two wooden tables draped in cloth.
The girls departed and two older women entered to provide us a massage. My masseuse had deceivingly strong hands for someone of her stature as she rubbed oil into my now open pores. She certainly left no part of my body untouched, however she did not rub my genitals to the point of completion. After a truly relaxing hour we were given robes and led to the baths. Vettias and I took a quick dip in the cold plunge, which took care of my embarrassing erection.
Next we were brought to the warm baths where two beautiful women awaited us with enticing smiles. We entered the warm bath as our new companions readied their bathing instruments. Both wore jewellery around their waist and neck, and began bathing us with soap and scented oils. The water we sat in was saturated with rose petals while the room burned with sweet incense. After our bath mates finished washing us, excellent wine and fruit was presented while they began giving manicures and pedicures- something my extremities had never experienced. Upon completion of our grooming, our bath mates further massaged us. Whereas I could not help but wear a childlike grin on my face, Vettias sat with the stoic confidence of a man who believes himself deserving of such treatment. This symbolized why Vettias brought me here as opposed to one of the many brothels in this neighbourhood, and I strained to ape his composure. This effort turned immediately in vain once my bath mate took me in her mouth with a skill and sensuality I did not know existed in women. Vettias observed my aroused fidgeting and instructed my woman to go easy on me since I was not yet used to someone of her skill and he didn’t want me finishing before we got our full money’s worth. Both females laughed at my lack of sexual sophistication and my woman ended the rest of our splendid hour together keeping me right o
n the edge of ecstasy.
After the hour was up, six women were brought into our bath chamber. “There’s more?” I asked.
“Now it’s time for a real lesson,” Vettias proclaimed with a smile. “Which one do you want? Might I suggest an older woman with experience? Leave the girls to me.”
Each women was more beautiful than the next. I now understood the proprietor’s initial reluctance to believe me a worthy patron of The Fair Peach given my simple appearance. I followed Vettias’ suggestion and chose one that looked to be older than the rest, maybe all of thirty years old. Out of all Vettias had taught and exposed me to, that next hour was truly the most pleasurable experience of my life. I left The Fair Peach with Vettias a new man, whose eyes were now open to what the world truly had to offer. I felt an inch taller and there was a determined gait in my step. Vettias noted with a smile. “I have done all I can to ready you for our arrival at Triparadeisus, my young nephew. Even now you look to have matured ten years since we departed General Eumenes’ camp. There is still much to learn but I’m beginning to feel confident you will actually survive our journey.”
Chapter 23
Night had fallen since our entry to The Fair Peach and my body still reverberated with a euphoric glow from strong wine and carnal pleasure. What was I doing with women before tonight? I wondered to myself. It certainly wasn’t what I had just been introduced to by my talented and beautiful companion.
“We’ll get some food and wine there,” Vettias pronounced, pointing to a nearby tavern and brothel. The impressively furnished establishment was moderately full and looked cleaner than any hole Ilandra had to offer. The women working the floor were all of above average attractiveness and a young man played the lyre in the background, adding to the pleasant ambience. We sat at a sturdy table made of fine wood that had recently been cleaned. Vettias ordered a jug of wine with some bread and meat and the two of us ate in silence. The wine and food were excellent, thus every sense had now been indulged.
By the Sword Page 21