Eight for Eternity

Chapter Twenty-Five

January 15, 532

Felix picked Eros up by his gilded wings and shook him.

“Don’t kill me,” screeched the costumed boy. “I’ll tell you how to get to Antonina’s apartments.”

Felix dropped the little godlet. One of the wings crunched against the tiled floor. A cloud of powder shaken off the boy’s clothing and face hung in the corridor.

Felix struggled not to cough.

The boy scrambled to his knees, the broken wing dangling pathetically from his narrow back. He was one of the court pages who decorated certain inner sanctums at the great palace. Only now he was not so decorative. Tears ran down his face and the rosy makeup on his cheeks was blotched. “Just turn right at the next hallway.” The boy snuffled. “Then right again. Not that you’ll be admitted.”

“I’m sure I’ll be admitted.” Felix felt for the sword at his belt.

The page got to his feet and wiped at his eyes. “You’re not going to put your sword into her, are you?”

“Of course not. I’m a friend of hers.”

“But not so good a friend as to put your sword into her?” The smeared lip coloring accentuated the boy’s leer. He started to back away.

Felix reached out and grabbed a scrawny arm. “I’m not letting you run off and alert the guards. Show me the way.”

He pushed the boy in front of him and drew his sword.

Suddenly the floor seemed to lurch beneath his boots, nearly throwing him backwards. He was almost overcome by dizziness. Why he could not say. He put his free hand out to the wall, steadying himself.

How had he managed to make his way so far inside the Daphne Palace? He couldn’t quite recall. A fog kept swallowing up the immediate past, as it had two nights ago, when he had been running around the gardens attacking statuary. Apparently the trained excubitors who usually watched these precincts had been sent to secure the palace walls against the rioters. It might also be that the emperor didn’t want the excubitors so close to him, given Captain Gallio’s practically treasonous stance. Whatever the reason, the usual guards had been replaced with doddering old silentiaries used to posing ornamentally at doorways and scholarae who normally paraded on horseback when the emperor required spectacle.

So far they had all been willing to let Felix pass on the basis of the orders from Gallio-orders intended to allow him to move freely enough to carry out his duties toward the Anastasius family. They didn’t give him the right to wander around the Daphne Palace, but Felix’s blade and demeanor discouraged any of the hangers-on from daring to actually read what was on the parchment beyond identifying Gallio’s official signature.

“Go on,” Felix told the boy gruffly. “Don’t try running away. My blade will move faster than you do.”

The boy went slowly down the corridor and turned left.

“I thought you told me to turn right?” Felix said.

“I didn’t, did I? You scared me so. I don’t know what I was saying.”

“No tricks, Eros. No one will care much about a dead page. They’ll be more concerned about the bloodstains on the floor.”

The boy emitted a faint whimper and continued on, his broken wing dragging on the floor.

Felix followed warily. It was all very strange. It occurred to him that he should be at his post at John’s house, particularly since John’s friend had been murdered a few hours ago. Possibly by an intruder. Poisoned? Had Felix been poisoned too? Had the intruder found his way into the kitchen? Was that why Felix felt so peculiar? What exactly had he eaten at John’s house most recently? He couldn’t recall. Oddly enough, it all seemed unimportant.

He may as well have been lying in bed, dreaming. How foolhardy could someone be, not only to abandon their post at a time of peril, but to do so to visit the imperial quarters to pay a surprise call on a woman friend of Theodora’s? It must be a dream and since it was only a dream-and a most entertaining one-he did not want to wake himself. Besides, he felt a compulsion that overrode reason. Just as he had in the gardens the other night.

After all, Antonina had invited him to meet her in secret. Now it was he who was arranging the meeting. She would surely be delighted and it would be as it had been in the Hall of the Nineteen Couches. However it had been there. He could not remember anything about it, except that it had been very, very good, until he woke up hacking at Emperor Constantine. That hadn’t been so good.

Another wave of dizziness hit him.

How odd. He had felt fine since John had hauled him out of the gardens after his tryst with Antonina. Until he woke up this morning. Then he had felt almost drunk, although he had not been drinking. It wasn’t surprising that he felt peculiar, though, since clearly he hadn’t really awakened yet.

The boy vanished around a corner and Felix lurched after him.

“Stop! Don’t go any further!”

Felix blinked. He had fallen into a daze. He swung his sword. The figure blocking in his path leapt out of harm’s way.

“You stupid man! Can’t you see? It’s me, Julianna.”

Felix gaped in horror at the slight girl dressed in blue, dark hair coiled on either side of her face.

Julianna’s eyes blazed with fury. “Not only did I just save myself, I saved you from a horrible death in the dungeons. What’s the matter with you? What are you doing here?”

“I need to see Antonina,” Felix stammered.

“Did she send for you?”

“Yes. Or, rather…not exactly.”

“Look at me, Felix.” Julianna stared into his eyes and gave a sniff of disgust. “I can see what the problem is. I should have guessed.”

“I’m not drunk.”

“No. You’re not. You’re…well…never mind.”

The haze that kept closing in on Felix dissipated a bit. He could suddenly see his surroundings more clearly. “Where’s the boy? He’s run off. He’ll fetch the guards.”

“Don’t worry,” Julianna said. “I’m appointing you to be my bodyguard. In case anyone questions why you’re here. Which means you use that sword on anyone who comes after me. Not on me. Put it away.”

Felix slipped his blade back into its scabbard. “But what are you doing here?”

“I’ve been to see Antonina. She’s a good friend.”

“Then you can take me to her.”

“I hardly think so. Belisarius’ men are protecting her, as they are the imperial couple and a few others. They aren’t traitors like the excubitors or incompetent cowards like the court fops who’ve taken their places.”

“But…I’m your bodyguard.”

“Believe me, Felix, Antonina doesn’t want to see you right now.”

Felix shook his head, trying to clear it. His ears buzzed. His surroundings were beginning to seem more solid, less dream-like. “But I am your bodyguard. I’m supposed to be guarding you, at John’s house. You shouldn’t be here. How did you get out?”

Julianna stepped past him and grabbed his sleeve. “Let’s worry about getting you out safely.”

“Have my guards been sleeping at their posts? Did you bribe them?”

She tugged his sleeve. “Follow me. It would be best if we weren’t seen.”

She hurried back in the direction from which Felix had come and pushed through some heavy purple draperies, which Felix had taken for wall hangings, revealing an arched doorway. Warm air issued from the narrow hallway beyond.

Felix followed. The hallway curved gradually. The air grew warmer and droplets appeared on the walls.

Abruptly they emerged into an enormous room whose high ceiling was obscured with mist. The air felt as hot and moist as that in the baths. Enormous potted plants with exotic-shaped and colorful leaves hid the walls. Shafts of light fell through the mists from windows far above. Felix could hear water gurgling and birds singing. As he gazed upwards there was a flash of yellow as two birds rose from the fronds of a tree unlike any Felix had ever seen.

The flash of yellow was followed immediately by a flash of red, the predominant color of the long tunic and loose trousers of the man who stepped from behind the tree. The man’s black hair hung to his shoulders in glossy ringlets. A pointed beard accentuated the length and angularity of his face. Ear rings dangled from both ears.

The stranger regarded Felix and Julianna with the eyes of a hawk, then walked straight past them and went out into the corridor without a word.

Felix stared after him in amazement.

“It’s the Persian emissary,” Julianna said. “Antonina told me he traveled here with Belisarius. Something to do with the peace treaty Justinian is negotiating. He’s staying somewhere at the Daphne and is always wandering about. I keep running into him. Gives me chills every time.”

“I’m not surprised,” Felix said. What other wonders might they encounter in this strange and secret place?

“Come on,” Julianna told him. “There isn’t any time to waste.” Her voice echoed in the huge space.

Then they plunged into another, colder, hallway. A door of intricately carved wood opened on a long room illuminated by a single lamp. The meager light glimmered on busts arrayed on pedestals all around the walls. An enormous central table receded into the darkness, more like the highway outside the Golden Gate than a mere piece of furniture.

Purple silk billowed from the walls and ceiling of the passageway beyond. The silk rippled constantly, like the windblown sea. Felix felt his giddiness returning.

He stumbled. Closed his eyes for an instant trying to regain his equilibrium. When he opened his eyes again he saw he was standing in a gilded alcove, in front of an archway guarded by a shining metal statue. Neptune, he supposed, judging from the trident the stern, bearded figure held upright. Beyond the archway a wide marble staircase curved upwards. Curious, Felix took a step toward the stairway.

There was a click, followed by a loud squeak and the trident came crashing down into a horizontal position, blocking his path. He recoiled in surprise and the trident sprang back into its original position.

Julianna giggled. “That stairway leads to the emperor’s private chambers.” She put her foot out and lightly tapped the floor in front of the archway. The trident came down again and then went back up. “It amuses him to have a pagan god guarding his door. Or maybe it was Theodora’s idea. The armed men at the top of the stairs are not mechanical.”

Felix shook his head in amazement. He knew that no one was admitted to Justinian’s private quarters, apart from a clergyman or physician. Not even high officials were allowed inside. No doubt a common excubitor should not even venture this close.

Without any urging, he followed Julianna away down another corridor. Before long vivid wall mosaics depicting classical myths gave way to painted scenes of the countryside and finally to plain, whitewashed walls on which hung the occasional silver cross.

Then they emerged into the crisp sunlit air beneath the portico in front of the Daphne Palace.

Felix took a deep breath. His head felt clear. He could hardly believe he had actually tried to see Antonina in her private rooms. His memory of it all seemed less substantial than the memory of a dream.

“You’re lucky you didn’t get any further,” Julianna said. “Do you feel yourself now? Can you get back to the house without deciding you want to drop in on Theodora?”

Felix grunted. He felt his cheeks reddening. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

Julianna’s eyes narrowed. “Only what you were told to think, I suspect.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just that Antonina can be very persuasive. I will have to leave you now.” She started toward the steps of the portico.

Felix took hold of her arm. “Wait. You’re not supposed to leave John’s house. I’ll forget I saw you here, since you assisted me, but I can’t let you roam around. You’ll have to come back with me.”

She tried to pull her arm away but Felix held tight. She glared and pursed her lips. He was afraid she was going to spit at him, but she didn’t. “Do you really want to see Antonina again?” she asked him. “I can arrange it.”

“No. I have orders to guard you and your family. Besides, it’s for your own safety.”

“All right. You’re hurting my arm. Please let go. Or do you think a girl can outrun you?”

Felix released his grip.

Instantly Julianna grabbed at his sword. He placed his hand on the hilt, to block her. But her hand never arrived. Instead she spun around and raced back into the Daphne Palace.

Felix cursed under his breath and went after her. She had already vanished down one of the hallways opening off the bare, marble atrium. He heard receding footsteps. From what direction?

He headed down what he thought was the right hallway.

A scholare wearing a ridiculous plumed helmet and holding a nasty looking curved sword stepped in front of him.

“Excubitor!” Felix barked. “Emergency. Here on orders of Captain Gallio.” He reached for the order tucked in his belt.

It was gone. Julianna hadn’t been trying to grab his sword. She’d stolen his orders, and with them his access to the Daphne!