Three for a Letter

Chapter Nine

Greetings, dear Aunt Matasuntha.

Things here are very exciting! Poppaea was found dead in the garden, or so everyone thought because she was so still, but then they saw she was just ill and put her to bed. Livia screamed until she was hoarse and Zeno stood about looking as if he wanted to weep. Bertrada said not a word, although it would have been difficult to hear her if she had, because Godomar said a great deal and sounded worst of all. As for the Lord Chamberlain, he looked very stern and Captain Felix swore in the most awful way, or at least until he saw me listening.

Did I tell you about Captain Felix? He is a big soldier with a beard. He reminds me of the bear that Theodora showed me, the one she keeps in a cage at the palace. The estate is swarming with the soldiers Captain Felix commands. Justinian does have ever so many soldiers, doesn’t he? I would have thought with all the ones he’s sent to Italy he wouldn’t have any left, but they’re everywhere. Ever since Gadaric went away I can hardly go anywhere without someone watching me. It’s very tiresome.

Poppaea is still sleeping so I have nobody to talk to right now. Zeno doesn’t want to play dodge ball any more, Hero is busy in the workshop and that funny little man Barnabas has run away. Livia sits sobbing by Poppaea’s bed or gets into awful arguments with Bertrada and Calyce. I did try to listen to find out what they were arguing about (and why not, when they never tell me anything?) but Bertrada caught me and scolded me for ages.

After that she took me to the atrium and we sat there for hours and hours doing nothing at all. Captain Felix went by more than once and stared at Bertrada very boldly every time. She just pretended not to notice but she did really. When I asked her about him she scolded me again.

Well, since nobody tells me anything I’m not going to tell them that Porphyrio promised he is going to take me to Gadaric very soon. It was on the morning we went to the beach for our picnic. There was a great flock of seabirds sitting along the shore, just like a white carpet. Poppaea and I ran along the edge of the water scaring the silly things and they went flapping off in a big, noisy cloud.

By the time we had done that, Bertrada had unpacked our picnic basket and we started to eat all the nice things she had got for us. Then we saw Porphyrio, swimming out by the island where the goats live. He sprayed water up into the air, just like Hero’s whale does, or so Hero says. I still haven’t seen it working, you know. Anyhow, the water Porphyrio spouted sparkled like the jewels on Theodora’s robe, it really was very pretty. Then he swam right towards us.

Out in the sea he looks like a toy but when he got closer to the beach we could see how huge he is and Bertrada and Poppaea got scared and ran away. I pretended to follow them but hid behind a bush until I couldn’t see them any more because I knew Porphyrio wanted to speak to me privately.

How Porphyrio and I speak is magick and with his magick he explained how I shall soon meet my brother again. Don’t say anything about it yet as I want to surprise everyone, especially Bertrada. I expect she’ll cry a lot when Theodora finds out and she can’t explain where I went, but it will serve her right for being so nasty to me. After all, she’s just a servant.

Now I am going for a walk in the garden.