Ten for Dying

Chapter Eighteen

In the morning as Felix rode to the Church of the Holy Apostles, the naked corpse he had hidden behind the statue of Aphrodite kept threatening to leap into his path. He couldn’t put the dead man’s specter out of his mind. The pallid revenant kept flickering into view, only to turn into a foraging cat or a slinking dog.

Anastasia, Felix’s personal Aphrodite, had found his solution amusing. Or at any rate she had laughed hysterically when he related his misfortunes with the cart and the eventual disposal of their unwanted visitor. A release of tension or a manifestation of horror. She had been drinking by the time he’d arrived home. He couldn’t blame her. He was shaking himself and not merely with the cold and wet.

Well, that was over now, he told himself.

Had the body been discovered yet?

Probably not. The streets were still nearly empty. The storm had passed but the morning remained dark. Ragged black clouds torn to shreds against the rooftops raced away across a slate-colored sky. Mist rose from puddles. From everywhere came the sounds of water, gurgling in gutters, dripping from colonnades.

The sound of something that should have been dead shuffling noisily through the standing water at the mouth of an alley.

No, Felix reminded himself. The victim-the intruder in his courtyard-had been perfectly and completely dead.

Inside the church it was as bright as a sunny midday. Felix blinked. Reliquaries glittered in the illumination of countless lamps, their gold decorations glowing. Felix’s vague speculations on why the Virgin’s relic had been taken and by whom, meant to banish thoughts of the dead man, were interrupted by rapid footsteps ticking across the marble floor.

“Captain!” Basilius appeared at his elbow. The priest looked ill, pale with red-rimmed eyes. “Have you brought good news?”

Felix shook his head. “I’ve only just begun my investigation.”

The priest gave a long sigh of despair. “By this time the thieves will have escaped far away. Already this morning I’ve been visited by the head of the urban watch and he thinks the same.”

“Justinian is extremely anxious that the shroud be recovered, wherever it is.”

“He would be, yes. The relic protects the city. Its theft is not only blasphemous, but involves a military matter, the defense of Constantinople.”

Felix nodded politely. The Virgin’s shroud might repel an enemy-as many believed-so long as it was accompanied by a thousand soldiers armed with steel. But then, he was a Mithran. Christians obviously felt differently. The emperor himself was anxious to have the shroud returned and he was a practical man notwithstanding his theological ruminations. If Justinian considered the relic a useless piece of cloth he wouldn’t have ordered Felix to investigate.

“I see you agree with me, captain.” Basilius gestured toward an emerald-studded reliquary. “We have many treasures, rich enough to tempt men to imperil their immortal souls. They would sell jewels wrenched from such beautiful works fashioned by the faithful, melt down the gold they are made from. Jewels can be replaced, but the holy shroud cannot. To think of it in evil hands!” Tears glistened on his cheeks.

It made Felix uncomfortable to see the man weeping like a woman who finds one of her best robes ruined by careless servants. “Would anyone buy such a famous relic?” He snapped. “Would it have any value? Who could want it?”

Basilius wiped his tears. “How would I know? I have nothing to do with affairs of the empire. Enemies of Constantinople might want to take it away.”

“You really believe it protects the city as people say?”

Basilius looked at Felix uncomprehendingly. “It is the shroud of the Virgin. How could it not protect us?”

“What evidence is there for it? Do you suppose we would be knee-deep in Goths or Persians if the shroud hadn’t been here all these years?”

“It is said that Emperor Anastasius carried it with him into victorious battle against the heretical rebels, many years ago.”

“I wasn’t aware Anastasius was a fighter.”

“With the protection of the Virgin it was not necessary.”

What did the priest mean? That one could fight the enemy from the comfort of one’s bedroom by simply holding onto a bit of cloth? There was no point pursuing the matter. If enough people thought an object was valuable, it was. “Does someone think he has a claim to the relic?”

“How could anyone? The church here has been in undisputed possession for almost a century. A pilgrim brought it back from the Holy Land.”

Stole it more likely, Felix thought.

“Could it really have been demons that took it? You heard what Mada and Peteiros said.”

“Have they remembered anything more? Do they still insist they saw these things out of a nightmare?”

“You sound skeptical? You don’t suspect them? They’ve always been faithful servants. Good Christians, both.”

“Gold answers prayers the gods ignore.”

Basilius looked shocked.

“As to these supernatural robbers they talked about,” Felix continued, “it strikes me as too much of a marvel to be true. Then there’s the matter of the frogs and the scarab. Is the mausoleum doorkeeper here?”

“Timothy? Yes. He hasn’t gone off duty yet.”

Felix was surprised to find the ancient down on his knees, washing the mausoleum floor.

“Don’t want any trace of them dirty frogs remaining, sir.” Timothy began to struggle to his feet, bracing himself against the sarcophagus.

Felix gave him a hand. “You remember me? The captain of the excubitors?”

Recognition came into the old man’s face. He dropped his scrubbing rag. Felix saw he was trembling. “Are you going to arrest me? How did you find out?”

Had the fellow been drinking or was he mad? “Find out what? About the demons?”

“You do know then! I was afraid, sir. Have mercy on an old man. I didn’t want to tell the truth when Basilius asked me if I had seen anything. It’s true, I only pretended I’d seen the demons the other two were talking about. I need this job to get by.”

“Go on.”

“To tell the truth I was asleep until the uproar in the church woke me. Then I saw an ape leaving the grounds.”

“An ape?”

“It looked like the ape that danced for its master at the shows at the Hippodrome. Like a man, yet not like a man. But I only got a glimpse.”

“Are you sure you didn’t dream this?”

“No, sir. I may doze, but I always keep one eye open.”

Felix cursed silently. As if demons and frogs and scarabs weren’t bad enough, along comes an ape. “Did the ape jump out from the mouth of a wine jug by chance?”

“Not so, sir. Not so!”

Felix’s malignant glare caused Timothy to cower backwards, as if he wanted to climb into Theodora’s sarcophagus with her. “I suppose I am under arrest now?”

“Not yet. But I may wish to speak to you again in case you remember anything else you’ve lied about.”

Felix stalked out deep in thought. There must be some connection between whatever had happened in the mausoleum and the theft which had taken place at the same time. If only he could discover what it was, the mystery would be solved. Wasn’t that how John would look at it?

As Felix rode away from the Church of the Holy Apostles the sky finally began to brighten. Light glinted off puddles and wet marble and further away in the cityscape stretched out below the hill upon which the church stood, the sun illuminated the gilded domes of other churches and mansions.

Was the shroud hidden in one of those mansions? Was a wealthy merchant gloating over his newly found power? With a relic potent enough to protect an entire city, what would any man need to fear?

He considered visiting the Jingler again. After all, Julian had acquired a new amulet in the form of the roundel on his garment. How much greater protection the missing relic would offer! But was it likely a man petrified of devils would even consider raising them so they could steal it for him?

Your humors are deranged, Felix chided himself. Demons are for terrifying children. If someone wants to steal anything they don’t need assistance from demons.

The Jingler might very well have been ordered by his superior to steal the shroud. If indeed he had a superior as he claimed. Whoever was involved with the theft of the relic would be in extreme danger, including an excubitor captain who had unwittingly agreed to assist in its delivery to its buyer.

And what was Felix supposed to say if the Jingler’s superior demanded to know whether the package had been passed along by excubitors as usual?

“No. I found the courier dead and disposed of the body.”

The next question would be: What had Felix done with the relic after killing the courier?