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- Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
- Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
- Sprache: Englisch
In "Purple Pirate," Talbot Mundy crafts a thrilling tale set against the vibrant backdrop of the high seas and the intricacies of early 20th-century imperialism. Through vivid descriptions and dynamic characters, Mundy employs a rich narrative style that resonates with the adventurous spirit of his time. The novel artfully intertwines themes of honor, betrayal, and the complex interplay of civilizations, as the protagonist navigates both treacherous waters and the moral dilemmas of piracy. Mundy's use of dialogue evokes the dialects of his characters, enriching the authenticity of their experiences and adding depth to the action-driven plot. Talbot Mundy, a British-American author born in 1879, lived a life filled with travel and adventure, which heavily influenced his writing. His experiences in India and his fascination with Eastern cultures permeate his work, often showcasing a blend of exoticism and realism. These encounters likely inspired the vibrant settings and multifaceted characters of "Purple Pirate," allowing him to explore themes of colonialism and identity in a captivating manner. Readers intrigued by adventure and historical fiction will find "Purple Pirate" compelling and thought-provoking. Mundy's ability to blend action with commentary on societal issues offers a rich reading experience. This novel is a must-read for those interested in classic literature that challenges the very notions of heroism and villainy in a world divided by cultural boundaries.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
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Purple Pirate
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I Alexandria, 43 B.C.
Hither I have found my real goal unattainable. But I persist, since the attainable is no more than a rung on the ladder of life, on which a man may climb to grander views, though it will break beneath him if he linger too long. —From the Log of Lord Captain Tros of Samothrace
There was a murmur of voices from the huge throne-room; it sounded as distant as the murmur of the sea through the open window. Charmion and Iras, Cleopatra's confidants, had been dismissed an hour ago. Olympus, the court astrologer remained, hugging his horoscopes in a corner. Tros, in his gold-embroidered purple cloak, stood staring through the window at his great trireme anchored in the harbor. Two deaf mutes, one by each doorpost, watched him; they were as motionless as mummies.
Cleopatra was heavy with emeralds because Caesar had liked her to wear them, but she was simply dressed in plain white. She sat in the ivory chair that Caesar had always used. Her elbow rested on the small table beside her, and her chin on her hand. Her eyes glowed with intelligence, but in that pose she was not very good-looking, and she was so small that she looked almost unimportant. It was only when she spoke that Cleopatra's strength of character commanded notice. Her voice was quiet but it held astonishing vibrance.
Tros had to turn and face her.
"Tros," she said, "you call yourself my friend. Perhaps you are. It is true you have served me well, when it has pleased your tempestuous heart—if it is a heart that beats within you, and not a battle-drum. But a queen has no real friends. It is for a queen to discover, if she can, why people wish to seem to be her friends. I would have made you admiral of all my ships—"
Tros interrupted: "As a friend, I am a free man." But he noticed the smile in her eyes. "As an admiral, I should have to leave my conscience in your keeping, Royal Egypt. I have seen the skill with which you use men's consciences!"
"Such as have any," she answered. "Well, you fume and lecture me, and reject my offers. You appear to think I should be proud to obey your phantastic advice, as you call it, that you hurl at Me like something or other from one of your trireme's catapults. But I know what you want, and you shall not have it unless you do what I want. Now, will you have a commission? See, I have it here, ready—admiral—"
"No," he answered.
"Then begone without one!"
He bowed. She smiled, then laughed—a gorgeous, golden note, resonant with courage.
"And I wish I were coming with you!"
He bowed again. Not for one second did he doubt she was telling the truth about that. At seventeen she had led an army. She had been born to the game of lead-who-can and serve-who-must. Daring had cost her a throne. Daring had won it again, along with Caesar's respect, which no one who wasn't fearless ever had a chance to command.
"Good fortune, Tros! No need to tell you to be brave!"
He kissed her hand, and as he left the room she threw a cushion at him:
"Flatterer! You behave as if I were heartless. I am unworthy of the compliment!"
He went out laughing, which was what she intended. Olympus followed him. The long line of notables waiting for an audience, with their backs to the Babylonian hangings in the heavily carpeted marble corridor, exchanged glances. They bowed politely. Some of them hated Tros because the Queen almost never kept him waiting. And some were jealous because it was time for somebody to step into dead Caesar's shoes, and Tros perhaps might be that man. Some of them even tried to overhear what Olympus was saying.
The astrologer-physician was a man they dreaded. He was too abstemious to be easily poisoned. He had all their birth-dates, all their horoscopes. It was said that he watched the stars and warned the Queen whenever any courtier's celestial chart suggested probability of treason. If not, how was she so swift to discover treason, and for such a young woman so deadly competent to deal with it?
Olympus's star-bespangled, black robes of office and his ominous tau-handled staff made them shudder. He looked as gloomy as a raven, as mysterious as death—tall, gaunt, solemn, shaven. But as a matter of fact he was simply showing his friendship for Tros in his own reserved way—a man of meditative peace encouraging a man of war, revealing, but not betraying.
"Are you wise thus to humiliate her? Tros, she wavers between magnanimity and anger. Half of her hopes she has dismissed you to your death, or that an error will bring you to judgment. Half of her hopes you will return triumphant."
"And?"
"Who else is there whom she could trust to share her throne?"
Tros answered gruffly: "There shall be a mother of sons of mine, I hope, Olympus, when the time is ripe. But I will not breed lads to play this game of kinging it. If she were love itself, I would go my way nevertheless—aye, even though I loved her. She brought forth Caesar's son, and one is plenty of Caesar's get. He may become a prig like Brutus, or a bloody rogue of the Ptolemy sort, or he may be a man. Let her see to it. If she craves a man for her bed, there are dozens eager to accept the post of he-concubine. As for me—"
"Well, I merely warned you," said Olympus. "Farewell, and beware of her pride. She is lonely. And in loneliness there lurk strange longings that beget cruelty."
"Farewell, Olympus."
Rumor credited Tros with being the Queen's lover, but many doubted it, although he was supposed to be closer in the Queen's confidence than anyone else except Charmion. He lived on his trireme, where he received all sorts of strange visitors, some of whom were undoubtedly spies. He could not be spied upon by Alexandrines because his ship was too well guarded. He knew as many languages as Cleopatra did—some said seventeen—and could always converse without an interpreter. If you can't bribe or torture an interpreter there is not much chance of learning what a captain has discussed in the privacy of his own cabin.
So Tros was an enigma, and though it was known that he wished to voyage around the world, no one could imagine why, and his wish was considered impious. Everyone remembered his coming, in his great trireme, hardly three years ago, when Cleopatra was young on the throne and as full of youth as a kitten. Some said she was still a virgin then, and many believed it, because in those days she was deeply interested in religion and undoubtedly in touch with far-off Philae, where the Hierophants ruled a realm of mystery. In accordance with the terms of her father King Ptolemy Auletes's will, and as a sort of traditional gesture, she' had been formally married to her younger brother Ptolemy, an impetuous lad who hated her as thoroughly as she despised him.
At about the time of Tros's arrival on the scene, the palace politicians had reached the sensible but dangerous conclusion that Cleopatra, though only about seventeen years old, was too clever for them. So she was. They couldn't kill her. She escaped from Alexandria. They put her younger sister Arsinoe on the throne in her place. Cleopatra made her way to Palestine, where she borrowed a riff-raff army from her cousin Herod and his Arab allies. Shortly after the Battle of Pharsalia, when the defeated and fugitive Pompey was murdered on the Egyptian beach, Cleopatra was leading her army in person in an attempt to invade Egypt and regain the throne. But she was opposed by a much larger and better supplied Egyptian army, and she was having difficulties with her Arab troops and with Herod, a youngster about as clever as herself, who made no secret of his purpose to become King of Egypt, with her on the throne beside him or without her.
Meanwhile, Julius Caesar, in pursuit of Pompey, had swooped into the harbor of Alexandria with a small fleet crowded with a couple of Roman legions. He had occupied the magnificent palace and was enjoying himself with very practical dreams of conquest. His arrival completely bewildered young King Ptolemy's and Queen Arsinoe's adherents, but Cleopatra's genius rose famously to the occasion. She abandoned Herod and her riffraff mercenary army. Tros appeared off the coast, and she accepted Tros's offer to convey her on his trireme to Alexandria. Tros had had no hand in introducing her to Caesar. She contrived her own introduction. Apollodorus, a Sicilian, brought her ashore in a fishing boat, rolled up in some Syrian rugs, and unrolled her at Caesar's feet as nearly naked as was necessary to arouse Caesar's immediate interest.
Apollodorus had died a natural death not long afterward. In Alexandria, under the Ptolemies, it had never been unnatural that a man should die secretly and suddenly who boasted of having been the Queen's lover. But Tros, who may have listened, certainly had never honored rumor even by denying that he and the Queen were on terms of amorous intimacy. He never even discussed the open secret, well authenticated, that the Lady Charmion, Cleopatra's confidante and Mistress of the Robes, had offered herself to him, and now venomously hated him because he had bluntly rejected the offer.
There was not a notable in all that long palace corridor who had not heard how Tros built his trireme in an improbable country called Britain, but none of them knew or cared where Britain was. Alexandrines liked to know the news from Rome, because Rome was their greatest ready-money market and their deadliest political danger. They hardly ever even visited their Egyptian estates, whence their affluent revenues came. They didn't know Egypt. Very few of them had seen the Sphinx or the Pyramids. They knew Alexandra, with its marble colonnaded streets, library, temples, lighthouse, theatres, schools of philosophy, chariot race, gardens, vivacity, women—and that was enough.
It was a symptom of Tros's unfitness to be an Alexandrine, that he believed the world was round and wished to sail around it. The world could be triangular for all the Alexandrine courtiers cared. Tros's interest in the world's shape was a source of obscene jests, songs and belly-laughter. The Alexandrines prided themselves on their ready wit; people even trained their slaves to sing slanderous songs outside their neighbor's windows. There were at least ten songs about Tros being currently sung whenever people gathered to amuse one another.
However, nobody laughed as Tros strode down the splendid corridor. He was a rather awe-inspiring man at close quarters. Alexandrines affected to despise warriors, because war was in bad taste and not worth the expense. But even to pretend to despise Tros, one would have had to be able to meet his gaze without flinching, and the people who could do that almost-liked him. Nobody had been able to poison him or to have him stabbed in the dark, because he was always well guarded by competent men. To kill him one would have to fight him; and not even among the officers of the Egyptian army—incredible collection of adventurers, soldiers of fortune and swashbuckling braggarts from almost every known country on earth—was there a man who would have cared to meet Tros in single combat. He was in the prime of life, probably something more than thirty years old; but it was difficult to judge the age of a man who had such thoughtful and mysteriously lambent eyes.
At the head of the magnificent malachite stairway a palace servant returned him his sword—a heavier, longer sword than any other man in Egypt could have used; when he had hitched that to his golden belt it was small wonder that men yielded him all the room he wanted on the stairs. He strode down, looking almost as if he owned the palace.
Whatever her motive, Cleopatra had seen fit to command that he should be honored; and there had never been a court on earth more capable than hers of wearing a man's patience with the solemn nonsense of ritual. There were salutes and formal farewell speeches by bedizened courtiers, who made an art of insincerity and who could barb politeness with the sly smile that gives it the lie.
Palace officials, studiously dilatory because they knew he was raging to be gone, strolled beside him through the splendid garden to the guardhouse at the palace gate. There the Captain of the regiment of Royal Guards, Leander, commanded a brilliant ritual of trumpets and clashing arms. Final formal speeches, insolent handshakes, then away at last, behind a Macedonian officer and forty plumed stalwarts cloaked with leopard-skin. Eight drums. A dozen trumpeters. At least a dozen sarcastic exquisites to keep Tros company as far as the Royal Wharf and to irritate with their palace-sharpened malice.
But at the Royal Wharf they left him. Tros strode on with his escort of royal guardsmen. There was always a noisy crowd in Alexandria, especially on a fine spring morning along the magnificent waterfront. The guard made no effort to protect Tros from the crowd, now that the courtiers, who might have reported them for neglect of duty, were gone.
Even without that splendidly useless escort Tros would have been a show by himself, with his raven hair bound by a broad gold band, and his magnificent stride that was so unlike the effeminate gait of a fashionable Alexandrine. His cloak made him look like an ambassador from some foreign power, or perhaps even a king, although a king or an ambassador should have been borne in a litter. Everybody knew who Tros was.
But Tros had no exact official standing. It was rumored, and many believed it, that he was a high priest of some secret Mystery or other; but it was common knowledge, on the other hand, that the priests of Isis, Osiris and Serapis disliked him intensely. The only priests who did like him were the officials of the Museum and Library, the splendid buildings that were actually part of the Royal Palace, and that made the waterfront of Alexandria the most magnificent on earth.
Thousands of men and women on the long Great Harbor front, and all the slave-gangs and their overseers, and the sailors on the decks of the long-prowed Delta sailing vessels that lay nose to the key, sent up a roar of noisy comment and conjecture. Something big was afoot, but none knew what, although t was known that Tros's trireme was ready for sea, anchored out in the middle of the Harbor of Happy Return—the western harbor, separated from the Royal Harbor by the Heptastadium seven furlongs of artificial causeway that connected Alexandria with the Island of Pharos. On Pharos, surrounded by a village and protected by forts, stood the colossal marble lighthouse, one of the world's prodigious wonders. But in its own way Tros's ship was as remarkable. It was a three-masted trireme, sheathed with tin, painted vermilion, purple sailed; and armed with the deadliest engines that had been invented.
Many of the pestering crowd were ex-Roman soldiers. Some were deserters. But the majority were destitute veterans whom Gabinius had left in Egypt to fend for themselves, in the days when he and a young cavalry officer named Mark Antony had led a lawless filibuster into Egypt to reestablish Cleopatra's drunken father on the throne. When old Ptolemy Auletes died, people remembered what they had had to endure from those Roman soldiers, so they found employment difficult to get. They had been prosperous again during Caesar's brief regime. But after Caesar's death they were out of work again. Caesar had left two regular legions, under an officer named Rubinius, to support Cleopatra; but they despised the Gabinians, and would have nothing to do with them. Even Caesar's legions had disintegrated. Hundreds of them had deserted. They were hardly better than a rabble, although their officers drew Cleopatra's pay and were an arrogant nuisance at court.
The Roman soldiers wanted berths on Tros's ship, no matter what his business might be, but piracy preferred. Anything for a leader, Anything for a few coins to jingle, and food, and the right to style themselves again miletes. Some of them displayed scars on their breasts in proof of bravery; one of them declared he had been the orderly of Pompey the Great. Tros advised them to join the Egyptian army, which welcomed all sorts of foreigners, deserters, and even runaway slaves. But the lower ranks of the Egyptian army were no temptation even to destitute men, who had once marched with the Roman Eagles. It was better to beg, although at that there was competition.
There were men and women of all nations with monkeys and parrots for sale. There were people of all colors, who offered to pray in the temples for the success of the voyage, at so much a prayer. There were vendors of magical charms for the cure of wounds and scurvy. There were map-sellers, who offered astonishing charts of unknown seas; and men who guaranteed to cast a fortunate horoscope for the voyage, as if a guess could guide destiny. There were women who wanted to touch Tros's cloak, because it was common knowledge that he had held Caesarion, the Queen's son, in his arms on the day the child was born. And was Caesarion not already accorded recognition as a god, as Caesar, his reputed father, had been? Surely, Tros's cloak must be a charm for human fertility and fortune. There were women who offered themselves for the voyage, for the use of the crew; crimps, who knew of drunken crews who could be dragged aboard in broad daylight at so much a head: agents with slaves for sale; and merely curious people by the hundred. Tros kept his temper with them all, his eyes alert for the face of some spy who might have news of value.
And at last Esias, old and dignified, with two young lusty Jews to help him, struggled his way to Tros's side. Reputed to be the richest man in Alexandria, and though he had privileges and a limited right of approach to the throne, Esias had to exercise discretion. There was no longer a Julius Caesar to treat Jews as Alexander the Great also had treated them. He would not have dared ride a litter or to be seen in public with a too-large following of slaves or personal attendants.
Esias wore the venerable looking robes of a Jewish oligarch, but his manner in public was modest; he was glad of Tros's protection as they followed the royal guards to the southern end of the Heptastadium. There some of Tros's crew were waiting—eight fair-haired Gauls, commanded by a Samothracian Greek named Conops, one-eyed, with a slit lip and hairy bow-legs. The useless royal guards looked on while Conops and his boat crew cleared the way. For half the length of the Heptastadium, to where the boat lay tied to an iron ring, the guards came last and unintentionally made themselves useful, since the crowd could not get past them.
But there was another crowd coming from the direction of the enormous Pharos lighthouse. And near the boat there were at least two score strumpets, popinjayed with carmine, the least gainly of them dressed in raggedly gaudy, semi-Oriental clothing and the better looking ones hardly clothed at all. Five of them claimed the one-eyed Conops as their debtor.
They were there to collect. Their bullies lurked at a discreet distance. They had their whole scandalous story thoroughly rehearsed and ready for Conops's master's ears. It was the ancient game of pay or be shamed in public. Conops stood them off with his knife, or they would have torn off his little gold earrings. Esias clutched Tros's arm in mingled nervousness and indignation.
But then the royal guard did do its duty. It formed two lines and stood off the crowd from both directions, butt-ending the screaming harridans out of the way. The Gauls scrambled down the steps into the boat and tossed oars. Conops faced his master, standing to attention smartly as Tros rebuked him.
"You dock-rat! You wine-swilling tavern cockroach! You godless, impudent, ill-smelling wastrel!"
"Yes, master."
"What have you done with your pay?"
"I got drunk. I was robbed. And now these wenches try to make out they were virgins and I seduced 'em—me!—that could be trusted with a—"
"Silence, you leper!"
"Yes, master."
Tros gave him a handful of silver coins and with an ominous growl commanded him to free the victims of his bestiality. He stood then to acknowledge the salute of the royal guard, and when the drum-roll and the trumpet clamor ceased he turned to help old Esias down the steps.
Conops pocketed most of the silver, somewhere up under his kilt, and thrust his arm between the guardsmen to give a small coin to each of the five obscenely screeching females. Then he followed Tros down the steps, let loose the painter and shoved off, taking his place in the stern at the steering oar. The Gauls, under Tros's eye, rowed like one oarsman and seven copies of him, with one inseparable thump of oars on tholes and a swing that made the longboat leap. Conops leaned forward over the back of the stern seat, thrusting his head between Tros and Esias.
"Master."
Tros made a courteous gesture to Esias and slightly turned his head to signify he was listening.
"A man named Lars Tarquinius—"
"The Etruscan? What of him?"
Esias looked startled. Tros irritated.
"He came aboard with a letter from the Queen's secretary, saying we are to give him passage to wherever he pleases. He asks more questions than a court scribe when the torturers put the hooks to a witness."
"Has he been in my cabin?"
"No, master. He said he had leave to sleep there. So I doubled the guard at the cabin door. I told him you reserve your spare bunk for the goddess Aphrodite Kallipygos when she's tired o' gods and craves a man to comfort her."
"You scurrilous rogue. Has he examined the war engines?"
"Not he, master. All the paulins are one and the crews standing by. The new deck decurion, Paniscos, let him kiss the butt-end of a crankbar, for sticking his nose where it didn't belong. But he'd two teeth missing when he came aboard; so if he lies about it, master, all that happened to him was a cut lip, and now you know."
"The magazines?"
"Nay, nay, master. I drew two chalk lines on the deck and bade him keep between 'em. I told off two young Scythians to treat him rough if he should set toe a skin-breadth too far. But I remembered what you've always said about hospitality, so I set a Greek—young Orodes, of the starboard after-catapult—to answer his questions. That's as likely a lad as there is this side o' Charon's ferry, so the biggest lies 'll be all used up by now, if I know Orodes."
"The young puppy dared to lie to me about the grease on the lower trunnions," Tros answered. "I have my eye on him. Well, what else?"
"Nothing, master; only that the Etruscan asked, as it might be casually, which is your scribe that writes letters for you and keeps the ship's accounts, and where does he sleep. So we fetched him up a blackamoor from the lower benches, and we showed him how a blackamoor has a ring in his nose to hang by, in the salt-fish locker, when he isn't writing poetry and love messages from the crew to the queens of foreign lands. And about the queens, too, we told him plenty. But he keeps on questioning. And, master, if, you should ask me, ours are seafaring lads and as simple-minded as fish. Sooner or later, unless you clap a hatch on him, he'll find out what he wants to know, and without us learning what that is until after the harm's done."
"Keep your eye on him. But I'll have no interference with his personal belongings. Mind that. Is his luggage aboard?"
"Yes, master. In the midship deckhouse. Two canvas packages, roped by a landsman. Nothing in them but some clean rolls of papyrus; fish-ink in a bottle; a set of pens; three suits of underwear; a pair of Gaulish trousers; three shawls; two pair of sandals; three changes of roman street-wear and two red togas, one soiled, a leather bag of money—total, including staters and tetradrachms, about eighty-three denarii; three—no, four tunics, one torn; a bunch of rings tied together with wire, all cheap stuff; two books in wooden boxes; a couple of spoons and a good dagger; lots of bits of cloth to wipe his nose on, some letters—"
Conops paused, about the space of seven oar-strokes. Then, as they neared the great vermilion-sided trireme, and since Tros made no comment, he continued:
"Similax wrote down what's in one of the letters. It's on your cabin table, underneath the box of books. The Etruscan's luggage is roped and sealed as he fetched it aboard."
The boat entered the trireme's shadow. Conops saluted:
"Tros oars, you tow-haired druids—do you think you're fishing?—smart, bow, with your boat hook—hold her!—deck ahoy! Lower the bight of a rope for the merchant Esias."
A trumpet sounded, then a roll of drums. There was a grand metallic thump and crash of arms at the salute, as Tros's head appeared at the top of the boarding ladder. Puzzled, impatient, worried, baffled and involved in invisible toils he might be. But on his own ship he was master. He was captain of the lives and wills and destinies of men whose pride it was to do his bidding.
CHAPTER II Tros takes counsel with Esias
I was born and taught upon the threshold of the holy Mystery, and all my days I have been faithful to the duty laid upon me to pursue peace—aye, and to forego my own advantage if thereby peace might come. But I have found no peace on earth, nor any honourable way of avoiding war. —From the Log of Lord Captain Tros of Samothrace
The cabin below the poop was dim, although it was painted with bright colors. The ports, which were slot-shaped and could be closed by bronze shutters and wedged tight, were narrow enough to protect archers aiming at the rowers of an enemy vessel. Across all the openings were bronze brackets for the big yew bows that were stowed in racks against the forward bulkhead, between boxes of bronze-tipped arrows.
There were broad bunks on either side of the cabin, some big chests, heavily hinged and strapped with bronze; a curtained closet where Tros's clothes were hung swinging in bags from a brass rail; and in the midst, with an armchair on each of three sides, was a heavy, oak table kept spotless, like the floor, by constant scrubbing. Barbaric embroidered hangings covered the after-bulkhead, and the bed-covers on the bunks were of Gaulish wool, dyed woad-blue—almost sky-blue. There was a box of books on the table—consisting of papyrus rolled on wooden sticks, each one thrust, end downward, in a circular container made from a section of bamboo.
Old Esias sat at Tros's right hand, leaning against the chair-back, with his eyes half-closed, watching Tros's face. His full beard and the locks that fell beneath his almost Arabian headdress were ash-gray. His ageing figure looked frail. But there was a very bright gleam beneath the lowered, wrinkled eyelids. He was a handsome old man, whose great wealth had not frozen his sense of humor, although it had made him suspicious and panicky. Salves,' of which he owned hundreds, had not flattered away his judgment. At the age of seventy he could enjoy power, and he plainly had it, of a kind that suited his temperament. He was much more than a typical Jew of the diaspora; he was an exceptional man in, any company, the richest merchant in Alexandria, with connections all over the known world.
A Syrian steward, whose other job, his battle station, was at one of of the starboard-side arrow-ports, entered and set wine before them, seaman fashion with brusque courtesy, and two goblets of turquoise-blue glass from a Theban tomb, which he took from a chest and unwrapped as carefully as if they were red-hot. Tros mixed the wine with water. He and Esias sipped, spilling no libation to anyone's gods, to the great scandal of the steward, who stood watching, his lips moving in silent supplication, or perhaps apology to invisible presences, until Tros ordered him to get forward and use his eyes on the dirt on the pantry floor.
"And mark me! Let me see a beetle when I make my rounds, and you shall eat it for supper! Ever let me catch you at prayers before your day's work's done, and you shall see whether praying balms a sore hide! Poseidon's trident! Have I shipped a crew of Osirian acolytes? Gods worth praying to love clean ships and diligent men. Fall away. Send in the deck decurion."
Old Esias sipped wine to hide a smile. Tros noticed.
"A good enough sailor, Esias, but if I let him, he would have me on my knees to half the gods of Homer."
A young Phoenician, from Sidon, with gold ear-rings and a knife at his belt, entered and faced Tros at attention. He was kilted like a Greek, in Tros's livery of unbleached cloth with a dyed border of Tyrian blue.
"Post your sentries six full paces from the cabin door with their backs toward it. No interruption except by Conops if he chooses, until I sound the gong."
The Phoenician saluted, fell away and shut the door with a thud. Tros waited until he heard the sentries ground their spear-butts at the proper distance. Then he grinned at Esias. He had a grand grin.
"Fifty corn ships, Esias! That means how much money?"
The old Jew made a wry face. "Too much. I and my syndicate had to pay higher than last year's price, though this year's crop is heavier. You know the law of Egypt. Corn is royal revenue—royal monopoly. They won't let us buy from the grower direct. The Queen's new finance minister forced us to buy at his own figure, and to pay in advance."
Tros nodded "That thought was the Queen's, not his," he answered. "That tricky eunuch would rather have borrowed the money from your people at twenty per cent, for the sake of a half per cent commission on the deal."
Esias corrected him: "One per cent! But she has eyes, ears, imagination. She learns quickly. Caesar taught her. But now Caesar has been dead more than a year and I think she remembers his daring, forgets his caution. Hey-yeh! Was there ever a woman of the Ptolemies like this one? Her elder sister Berenice was a wanton who thought of nothing but loans and lovers. She died the death of a Jezebel, and good riddance. Arsinoe, the younger sister is more beautiful, and in a way more dangerous, because more ignorant; but perhaps as Queen of Cyprus Arsinoe can't do much mischief. Cleopatra is not ignorant. No woman ever had vaster knowledge. None ever had greater difficulties. Instead of grieving for dead Caesar, Cleopatra emulates him. She seizes power. But what will she do with power? She has the grasp of a man and the guile of a woman."
"The courage of a lad," Tros added. "The imagination of a mystic. A man's love of power. A woman's sense of men's weakness. No womanly fears."
"A sphinx," said Esias. It was not a compliment. He had a Jewish dislike of graven images.
"Aye, but not silent! Cleopatra's voice is a weapon—a sweet sounding menace. Her riddle is hidden with laughter. Her moods are beneath the surface of gaiety. Beneath her soft speech and her flattering gentleness there is iron. Beneath her sensuousness there is strength."
"Can you read her riddle?"
"I must, Esias. Her throne hangs by a thread. She will play me like a stake on the board, unless I use intelligence."
"Well, you have it to use," said Esias. "Who is this Etruscan, of whom your man spoke? Do I know him?"
Tros raised the box of books. He withdrew from beneath it a strip of soiled papyrus, on which something had been hurriedly written in Greek characters. He scanned it once and then read it aloud:
"Many of the letters in his little leather case are unsigned but addressed to Lars Tarquinius reporting simply that his letters were received by those for whom they were intended. One letter is signed by a man named Felix, who writes from Rome, saying that Octavianus, Julius Caesar's nephew, is the leader to whom the wise are attaching themselves, because he is Caesar's legal heir, and because he reveals great common sense and shrewdness, despite an unpleasing appearance, delicate health and disagreeable character. Felix says Octavianus has offended many of the legions by condoning Caesar's murder, but the soothsayers nevertheless declare him to be invincible. "Another letter is from a woman named Flora, who implores Tarquinius to find her a post in the Queen of Egypt's household, adding that she will reward him generously. She writes from Messina in Sicily, where she says there is a strong party in favor of Sextus Pompeius who is said to inherit his famous father's gifts and to be of a gallant disposition. "Another letter is from a woman named Sappho, who writes Greek, saying she is in Rome, whither the proconsul Cassius sent her from Syria to watch certain people while Cassius makes ready to invade Egypt. But, says she, Marcus Antonius is the leader whose fortune it will pay to follow, seeing that he is in all respects a greater than Cassius, or than Brutus, who is in Macedonia, or than the degenerate Octavianus who is only a schoolboy, and at that a timid one with a perpetual cold in the head. Sappho adds that all the soothsayers favor Marcus Antonius, whose horoscope indicates brilliant success in all matters pertaining to politics, arms and money. "The other letter has been written in a clear hand by a secretary, but the signature is difficult to read. It looks like Gaius Xenobarus, legatus, S.P.Q.R. The letter is short. It says simply: 'Promises are of no more worth than threats. Neither will the one feed legions, nor the other win battles. Only deeds are worthy of a Roman's consideration. See to it that thou be worthy of my good will'"
Tros frowned. "That," he said, "is an important letter. Flora and Sappho can sink no ships at sea. If Xenobarus is, as I think, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, he commands a Roman squadron—perhaps even a fleet. There is no knowing where to look for him, but he is sure to be on the side of whoever he thinks strong enough to undo in Rome what Caesar did. Ahenobarbus's father was one of Pompey's captains in the war against the pirates. He led five ships against half a hundred and defeated them all in the Bay of Antioch. You remember? A ruthless victor. They say he crucified so many prisoners that he ran out of trees and nails and they had to cut the lucky last hundred's throats. Mark Antony slew him with his own hand at the Battle of Pharsalia. He always hated Caesar. The obstinate old die-hard believed Pompey meant to reestablish republican rule in Rome! Perhaps that gives you an idea of the son's mentality. He hates Julius Caesar dead even more than his father hated him before Cassius and Brutus and that lot stabbed him in the name of the Republic Rome, mind you, is hungry. So are Rome's legions in Italy. So are Brutus's legions in Asia. If Ahenobarbus is at sea with a squadron, and if I know Ahenobarbus, the cargoes of your fifty corn ships will be eaten by whichever side Ahenobarbus favors. And he will favor whoever he thinks will restore the Republic. But who then will pay you?" Tros grinned. "The Roman senate?"
"Lord Tros, what are the terms of your commission?" Esias asked.
"I have none."
"Eh? What? You have only the Queen's word? A Ptolemy's word? The word of a woman of the Lagidae who plays against Rome for a kingdom?"
Tros nodded. "The Queen's word, flatteringly murmured in the room with the tortoise-shell walls studded with turquoise, where she and Caesar once talked philosophy and plotted together to conquer the world. The room stank of rose-leaves in Persian jars."
"Hey-hey-hey! Lord Tros! A stout heart and a strong ship may prevail over winds and waves. But she—that woman—she had even Caesar in her net!"
Tros laughed. "She has me in a net that never could have held him. Caesar, to gain his larger purposes, would have abandoned a hostage. He often did it. I not. She has all my Northmen—splendid, loyal seamen. She sent them all—even my lieutenant Sigurdsen—to forced labor, I don't know where, for brawling in the Royal Area."
"She understands you!" said Esias. "Truly she understands you. A man's scruples can become a bridle and bit to his better judgment."
"Aye," Tros answered. "Not that she hasn't scruples."
"Of a sort," said Esias. "Of a sort."
"Feminine," Tros agreed. "But it was another woman who thought of this trick. Cleopatra's ministers were not picked for their righteousness, but a man can reckon with them, servile ingrates though they be. A man can out-think the rogues, as readily as she can. But her only intimate is a woman, whom none of her ministers dares to offend."
Esias stared, trying to read the thought behind the words. "The Lady Charmion?" he asked. "From a cub that could be petted, she has changed, since Caesar's death, into a she-lion, snarling mateless. I have heard it said, Lord Tros, and also contradicted, that she loves you. What is the truth of it?"
The stormy look came into Tros's eyes—the hint of red that boded unpredictable but limitlessly angry deeds.
"A bitter virgin's barrenness is not my business in life, Esias."
"But she has her fingers in all the Queen's business! She directs the Queen's spies. She knows the Queen's secrets. Tros, you should have pretended to love Charmion! At least you should have let her love you!"
"It is enough that she loves intrigue," Tros answered. "It was Charmion's idea to send your corn fleet to sea under escort of a war-fleet manned by officers and crews from Cyprus. Charmion knew—for who doesn't?—that the crews were mutinous and their officers as full of treason as a beggar's hair is full of lice. Sphaerus, the assistant minister of marine, had been blamed. It was a woman's trick to get Sphaerus in trouble. He was Charmion's enemy, or she his, no matter which. He commanded what she suggested. She blamed him, and he has now been sent to Berenice to cool himself on the shore of the Red Sea, waiting to tax the yearly Greek ship from Socotra and the spice fleet from Punt."
"And the meaning of that?" Esias asked. He knew, but he preferred to learn how much Tros did not know.
Tros surprised him. "It means this, Esias. The Queen's younger sister Arsinoe is Queen of Cyprus. Having once been Queen of Egypt, and having a double share of Cleopatra's energy, but less than half her statesmanship, she is not in love with a throne on an island that is actually ruled by priests, pirates and exiled eunuchs. Arsinoe has never forgiven Cleopatra for not saving her from being made to walk in Caesar's triumph through the streets of Rome. She was in golden chains, half-naked, jeered by the Roman mob. Spat on. I saw it. The two sisters love each other like a pair of poets at a competition. However, it was Caesar who made Arsinoe Queen of Cyprus. He did it mainly to annoy old Cato. But Caesar did it, so Cleopatra puts up with it. I think she has convinced herself that Caesar really was the god-upon-earth that she taught him to believe himself to be. If she can possibly avoid it she won't undo whatever Caesar did. However, Arsinoe's, minister Serapion—you remember Serapion?—big, handsome fellow with a voluptuous smile—is a fool who thinks he sees a chance to steal the throne of Egypt for Arsinoe again by intriguing with Cassius. The idiot believes that his cheap treachery is good enough to outwit a man who dared to stab Julius Caesar, made himself proconsul of Syria by force of arms and who now dares to imagine himself the coming ruler of the world. Cassius has six or seven legions in Syria and Palestine. They have devoured the country like locusts. They need corn, and so does Brutus. There is news, to hand this morning by a fast felucca, that Serapion has detained your corn ships in the port of Salamis. The crews of the escorting warships have declared for Cassius and Serapion has sent them to Sidon, to get in touch with Cassius. Serapion is supposed to be urging Cassius to invade Egypt, to put Arsinoe on the throne a$ a political puppet in Cleopatra's place, perhaps with Herod for husband, and to send your fifty shiploads of corn to Rome as Cassius's own gift, thus making Cassius popular in Rome, where Antony and Octavian are at each other's throats, creating anarchy and getting themselves hated."
"Does Charmion love Cassius?" Esias asked. "I have heard he sours all women with his mean smile. Does she wish to see Arsinoe Queen of Egypt? Do you mean to tell me that Charmion has turned against Cleopatra?"
"She has never even seen Cassius," Tros answered. "Charmion wishes first and foremost to convict Arsinoe of treason, for future reference. She hates Arsinoe, because Arsinoe once drove Cleopatra from the throne. She also hates a Jew as utterly as she detests me. You Jews—and to this the Queen agrees, as does half Alexandria—are too rich, too powerful, becoming too ambitious. Your corn can cost the Queen nothing. No matter what becomes of it, the Queen's treasury has received the money. It would not break her heart to see you and your syndicate bankrupt."
Esias nodded. "Her estimate," he remarked, "is lacking in imagination. Does the Queen not fear Cassius?"
"It might serve the Queen's purpose," Tros continued, "if Cassius should get possession of the corn. Cassius may be the coming man. She doubts it. She hates him. He slew her Caesar. But Cassius may be the coming ruler of Rome. She would like to be able to have in hand some sort of evidence that she intended the corn for Cassius, just in case Cassius should turn out to be stronger than she believes. But should Cassius fail, as she hopes and believes he will, she will now be in position to blame Arsinoe for having tried to misdirect the corn into Cassius's hands."
"Cat-and-mousing while Rome starves!" Esias commented. "Rome must not starve! That is the one thing that must not be allowed to happen! Are these women and their courtiers demented? There will come a Roman fleet to Alexandria to subject Egypt to the fate of Gaul, Pontus, Carthage, Syria, Palestine! Don't they know that Romans, like the wolves, are merciless when famished?"
"Aye, they know it. So the corn fleet lies in the harbor of Salamis. And the Queen sends me, with a fleet of ten vessels, to fetch it away."
"Ten vessels, Tros? Where are they?"
"God knows, Esias. Somewhere between here and Cyprus, unless they have already joined the other fleet and have followed them to Sidon. Or unless they have met with pirates, who are out in fleets again, and growing bold, since Caesar's death. Did you hear that a fleet of them gutted a Roman trireme off the south of Sicily a month ago? Or they may have run from Ahenobarbus. If he were short of provisions Ahenobarbus would fight an Egyptian fleet for its crew's rations!"
"Are the ten ships to be under your command?" Esias asked.
"No. I am to cooperate, particularly against pirates. There is no profit to the Queen in feeding pirates. To destroy pirates at sea, could hardly be interpreted as challenging the Romans' claim to rule the sea. Rome, Esias, is at civil war and none can guess the outcome. But sooner or later someone will prevail. There will be a new dictator of Rome, with an empty treasury. Cleopatra can't afford to give that Roman an excuse for making war on Egypt."
"Well? Then what?"
"I am to deliver the corn to the highest bidder."
Esias answered calmly: "It is my corn—our corn—my syndicate's. It is consigned to my agent in Rome, who is to sell it to the Roman corn commissioners. They await it. They expect it. They need it, to prevent the Roman mob from taking law into its own hands."
"The bids," said Tros, "are to be in terms of good will, not money. The Queen does not need money. She needs the friendship of the strongest Roman. The corn has been seized by Serapion, on behalf of Arsinoe, who has disclaimed allegiance to Egypt and is not a recognized ally of Rome. Neither is Cyprus any longer a Roman province. Therefore, any Roman commander who can seize the corn will claim it, unless someone out-thinks him."
"Think me your thoughts aloud, Lord Tros. I listen," said Esias.
Tros, with a gnarled forefinger, drew an invisible map on the oaken table.
"There is Lepidus," he began, striking the palm of his hand on the western end of the imagined map, "said to be strong in Gaul, with many legions and perhaps some money, but few provisions, and with vanity and luck in place of brains. Lepidus is aging and is probably not dangerous, but needs to be borne in mind.
"There is Pompey's young son Sextus, said to command a fleet of pirates, ravaging Roman shipping. Out for himself. A very dangerous young man. After Caesar defeated him at Munda and destroyed his army, he became a bandit in Spain. Now that Caesar is dead, Sextus reckons himself any Roman's equal. Sextus has nothing to lose and all to gain by almost any act of daring, and he is rumored to have seized some shipping, and to be cutting off Rome's supply of corn from Africa, Spain and Gaul.
"Then there is Cassius in Syria, with seven legions. A mean man. A murderer. Like Brutus, he would rather injure other men than win. He has his hands fairly full. He has ravished and plundered Syria, which is up in arms against him and swarming with bandits. Brutus wants him to march northward. But Cassius would like to invade Egypt.
"Brutus is in Macedonia. He is scavenging the land for corn and money, talking about high principles and honor, but burning cities and selling well-born people into slavery. Brutus knows he will have to fight whatever combination results from the civil war in Italy. He will have to fight either Antony or Octavian, and possibly even both of them if they can only come to terms with each other. So Brutus makes a great show of friendship for Cassius, whom he needs, detests, mistrusts and would like to restrain from invading Egypt, partly because he is jealous and partly because he needs the six or seven legions that Cassius would have to induce to march southward across the desert in order to invade Egypt with any chance of success. Is that clear?
"Meanwhile in Italy, Mark Antony and Octavian are at each other's throats. Incompatibles, loathing each other, but big men. Mark me: they two are the big ones. Antony is rumored to be having the worst of it. He is said to have won a battle but to have retreated northward. There is no knowing what has happened. The Queen secretly favors Antony, because he was Julius Caesar's friend, and because he dared to denounce Caesar's murderers."
"She has sent him money," said Esias. "She sent him a tenth of a year's revenue of all Egypt. She sent it within six weeks of Caesar's death—within a week of her return from Rome."
"And if I know Antony," said Tros, "he threw away the half of it on wine and women. Nevertheless, the man has something more than a mere appetite. He has faculties, courage, imagination, health, high spirits. He is a great cavalryman. But he is no Julius Caesar. Antony needs a master. Perhaps the Queen thinks she can master him."
"Well? And you—what do you do?" Esias asked.
"I go to sea. Now."
"At your own cost?"
"Aye. Should I accept her wages and become her catspaw? Or should she pay me and become responsible for whatever I do? In a certain sense, Esias, my predicament and hers are as well matched as the Heavenly Twins."
"I perceive what she perhaps—eh, perhaps—perhaps can gain," said Esias. "But, Lord Tros, what can you gain?"
"My men! She has taken hostages—my Northmen, who have stood by me in many a hard fight. The Queen wanted them for her bodyguard, but they and I said no to it. So Charmion snatched an opportunity to score off me. She had them sentenced for breaking the heads of the Roman officers of those two legions that Caesar left here to keep the Queen on her throne. A true charge, but a false reason."
"I was told of it," said Esias. "But it was said they were Gauls."
"My Northmen. The best seamen on earth—battle-ax men—stubborn, superstitious, hard drinking, grumbling, loyal-to-the-last-breath comrades-in-arms. The Queen was glad enough to have those arrogant Roman cockerels humiliated. They have served her purpose. They cost more than their insolence justifies. She would be glad to be rid of them. She even joked me about the thrashing my men gave them. The flowers that she sent to the injured roman officers were arranged in the shape of a Northman's ax. But Charmion saw a chance to clip my wings; she and the Queen had second thoughts. Northmen are heavy drinkers. It was no trick to arrange a trap and then a tosspot quarrel with a company of soldiers. And so now I may have my Northmen back if I succeed on this venture."
"And your Basques?" asked Esias. "Those saucy rogues who obliged me to double the guard over my slave-girls' quarters?"
Tros scowled. "They went on a raid of that kind once too often. But that wasn't Charmion's doing. My Basques conceived a passion for the wrong man's slaves. They were fortunate not to be sent to the mines. They were conscripted for the Berenice Coast Patrol. There are few women and fewer wine-shops on the Red Sea littoral, but I imagine they are finding ways of making trouble for their Greek officers."
"So you go to sea short-handed?"
"Short for a sea-fight, yes. I have a good crew—good rowers—good men for the catapults. But if I meet Ahenobarbus I shall sorely lack men for such a battle as he will bring on. If he can catch me, you understand. I can out-sail and out-row any Roman ship afloat, except for a few of their liburnians that are too lightly armed to be dangerous. There is going to be thick weather, and that is all in my favor."
"April? Thick weather in April?"
"Yes. I can smell it coming. And mark me, Esias, there is always dirty weather when the world's thrones are toppling and men's minds are a turbulent sea. Nay, I know not why. Shake your head as you please. I say it is so. And if I find that corn fleet, I shall have to escort fifty laden ships as slow as logs, in vile weather."
"Egyptian sailors are good," said Esias.
"Good, yes. They can stand hardship. But they scatter and run like thieves. If I should bully them, they'd surrender to the first Roman in sight and accuse me of being a pirate."
"Which you are!" said Esias. "If you have no Queen's commission, then you are a pirate. And this Etruscan with the letters in his luggage?"
"Lars Tarquinius is supposed to be a passenger for any Roman port where I can deliver him. He is supposed to be a spy, acting in behalf of Sostratus, the Queen's secretary. But he owes his appointment to Charmion, so I haven't a doubt he has been put on board to spy on me. Tarquinius is a man with a woman's malice and lack of scruples. He is like a camel, with incalculable treachery at both ends. He would betray even himself for sufficient reward. I suspect him of having warned Ahenobarbus to look out for that corn fleet and for me also."
"Can he swim?" asked Esias. "Could he swim in armor?"
"I may find a better use for him. And now about money. Esias, I shall need money."
"Lord Tros! Lord Tros!" Esias threw up his hands—beautiful old hands, as finely lined as Tros's fists were gnarled and hugely strong. "There has been no market for your British pearls. They are too big and too good to be thrown on a market that groans with the loot from Rome's wars and with the unsold eastern merchandise that gluts the warehouses. We must wait for more prosperous times. But no need to worry about them. They are safe. They are well cared for. My slave-girl Mariamne, at the proper intervals, cherishes them on her breast to preserve their life and lustre."
"I have no fear on that score," said Tros. "But do you think such a ship as mine, with all my men, costs nothing?"
"I can lend you a little."
"Nay, nay. I could have had a loan from the Queen, were I so minded. A borrower, Esias, borrows more than he gets, and pays more than he owes."
"Lord Tros," Esias leaned toward him pointing a finger. "Should as much as four-fifths of that corn reach my agent through your doing, so that he can sell it instead of its being stolen by a Roman fleet; or if you yourself can sell it, for four-fifths of its value—one-fifth of the money is yours. My word on it. I allow a fifth for spoilage, sinkage, shipwreck, accident or loss from any cause whatever."
"Your word is good, Esias."
"And in writing better." Esias produced a small roll of parchment. "Pen! Ink!"
Tros groped in a box and passed them to him. Esias wrote in Greek, and then the same in Latin, on the one parchment.
"There—from Esias, Jew of Alexandria, to the Lord Tros of Samothrace and of the trireme Liafail—authority to sell the corn and to receive the money."
"How much money?"
"It is written on the parchment—price, quantity, cost of loading, cost of freight per day from date of sailing, tax on export, harbor charges, interest per day—it is all written plainly. And now, Lord Tros, none can call you a pirate. You are an accredited agent."
"A Roman officer will call me anything he pleases, given a short enough range and a big enough prize!" Tros answered. "I will do my best: But the seas are wide in which to lose a fleet of fifty ships, and it is easier to bargain with Apennine wolves than with famished Romans making war on one another. Should I fail, Esias, I shall still need money, aye, and likely need it worse. I must sell pearls. I have no other resource against future need."
He got up and manipulated the cumbrous lock of a bronze-bound chest. He produced a small gold box, engraved with a barbaric design. He pushed the box along the table toward Esias.
Esias glanced at him for permission and then opened the box. He gasped. He held it to the light from the port behind him. He poked with his forefinger. He stuck his tongue between his lips and made peculiar sounds with his nose. His old eyes glittered. He glanced at Tros and then again stared, fascinated by the contents of the box.
"Lord Tros, I believed you had reached the end of your treasure of pearls."
"These are the end."
Esias poured eleven pearls into the palm of his hand. Two were as large as pigeon's eggs. One, that was almost as big, was as dark as the sunlit breast of an Ethiopian.
"How many lives, Lord Tros? How many lives have these cost?"
"None that I heard of," Tros answered. "I had the other pearls from the druids. These were a gift to me from Fflur, the wife of Caswallon, the king of a corner of Britain. He and she and I were friends and we upheld each other. There were twelve pearls in that lot. I spent the smallest on sending my homesick Britons back to their fog-bound island. Britons are good slaves but bad freedmen, and not Poseidon himself could make sailors of them."
"Lord Tros, who could buy these? There is only one possible purchaser."
"Take those two largest, Esias, and sell them to her, for the highest price you can imagine and your skill collect."
"Hey-hey-hey! Who shall appraise these?"
"Caesar made war on Britain because he had heard of them," said Tros. "But Caesar never saw them. Take those two big ones and sell them to Cleopatra."
"Be advised by me, Tros. Give them to her! Sell the others."
"Nay, nay, Esias. I have had my fill of that mistake. I have given her pearls, to my sorrow. Such gifts excite greed that devours the giver. She would think I am an oyster than can vomit pearls whenever ill-used."
"She could smother herself in the pearls she already has," said Esias. "Pearls and emeralds."
