One for Sorrow

Chapter Three

As he gazed down at the bull-leaper, death had been as far from John’s thoughts as when he was twenty-three and watching Cornelia for the first time.

And now, only hours later, Cornelia’s dark eyes were replaced by the sightless eyes of John’s friend.

He caught only a fleeting glimpse of the face. The shutters of the window which had briefly illuminated the scene had slammed shut and he was alone with the dead man in Stygian darkness.

“Leukos,” John said to himself. “What were you doing here?”

He became aware again of the noise of the mob in the square. The shouts and screams had diminished. He heard the bear roar. It sounded far away.

As he peered toward the dim light at the head of the alley a line of fire shot through the night toward him.

He ducked and felt the heat of a torch fly past his face. The still burning torch clattered to the cobbles, leaving John exposed in a ring of light as heavy footsteps thundered toward him.

The murderer or murderers?

His hand went to the dagger he carried. He leapt up and faced a creature out of a nightmare.

A towering, bullish Persian with a braided beard. As the monster raised its sword the flaring torchlight sparkled off dainty wings sprouting from its wide shoulders.

John recognized Madam Isis’ doorkeeper.

“Darius!”

The Persian lowered his weapon.

“Lord Chamberlain. I wasn’t attacking you. I thought you might be in trouble but now I see….” His gaze went to the body lying on the ground.

“Leukos, the Keeper of the Plate. A friend of mine.”

Darius swore. “Let’s get him inside before the vultures strip him.”

John agreed. If the mob realized there was a dead man here he and Darius would find themselves fighting to defend the body like a couple of soldiers at the gates of Troy.

It was only as they got hold of their awkward load that John noticed Leukos’ killer had left a knife in his victim. Had someone scared the murderer off or had the mild palace administrator put up a fight?

John hope the latter had been the case.

They carted Leukos out of the alley.

“If it weren’t for these damnable wings I’d have simply thrown the poor man over my shoulder,” Darius complained. “Madam has me dressed as Eros.”

Luckily the square had emptied out.

Madam Isis greeted them in her brightly lit doorway. An ample woman, whose actual outlines were disguised by layers of billowing pink silks, her face showed traces of the beauty she had once been. “John, thank the goddess you’re safe! I thought I saw you when the riot broke out. Who do you have there?”

John explained.

Isis clucked with distress and ushered them inside into a fog of perfume and incense almost as choking as the poisonous stench in the streets. Several barely clothed young women peered at them with curiosity. They laid Leukos’ body on a couch in a side hall and Darius left to return to his post, fussing with his right wing which kept flopping forward.

“What were you doing observing the mob, Isis?” John asked.

“I went to the doorway to see the bear. It got away. Broke loose from the crowd. That’s why the square’s deserted. Everyone fled. Except the trainer.”

“Did you see Leukos in the crowd?”

Isis shook her head.

“Was he in here earlier?”

“No, John. I never saw the man, and you know I never forget a patron’s face.”

“Or remember a patron’s name. Yes, I know. I wouldn’t have expected Leukos to come here anyway.”

John felt lightheaded. The fever of battle that had gripped him as the mob turned violent was fading away and he was beginning to feel the pain of his loss.

“Did you notice anyone who seemed suspicious, looking for trouble, looking for a victim?”

“No. And I always keep a close watch. I pride myself on running the most civilized house in the city. During the celebrations the wolves come out and my establishment is a good place to find stray lambs.”

John knew Isis was right. But why had Leukos strayed into the alley next to her house? Unless he had been on his way to his appointment? “Is the Inn of the Centaurs near here?”

“Oh, yes. Just around the corner.” Madam described its location. She further agreed that the alley where Leukos died could have served as a short-cut along his route to the inn.

John would have thought Leukos was too cautious to go down alleys, but he had been excited about going to see the soothsayer.

“I’ll question all my girls and my guards as well,” Isis told him. “Someone might have seen or heard something. It might be one of them saw your friend. That bald head must have stood out in a crowd like the dome of the Church of the Holy Wisdom.”

John stared down at the still figure on the couch. It resembled Leukos yet already death had begun to smooth out the details. Leukos was gone and what was left was as hollow as a bronze statue. Had he reached wherever it was Christians imagined they went after dying?

“I will need to inform the urban watch, Isis. If it will be a problem….”

She waved a pudgy hand and her numerous rings glittered. “It’s no problem. I pay the prefect more than the tax collector.”

“Besides which, we’re here already,” boomed a voice from behind John. Three helmeted men wearing leather cuirasses and armed with spears clattered down the hall in hobnailed boots.

“We put the bear trainer-what pieces we could find-in the kitchen,” said the man who had addressed John. “A little more blood in the kitchen won’t make any difference. Someone will be round shortly to collect him.” The man directed his gaze to Leukos’ body. “And now, what have we got here?”