Six for Gold

Chapter Forty

“When your conclusions proved correct?” asked Europa.

“Of course Crispin wouldn’t admit anything,” replied Anatolius, “but from his reaction I could see I was on the right track. He claimed he had to attend a service and could not spare more time. Then he said he’d send for me in due course for further conversation, as he put it.”

Francio laughed. “Watch out! He might try to persuade you to his religious viewpoint, Anatolius.”

The trio were seated in Francio’s dining room. Anatolius had just completed a description of his visit to the Hormisdas and gone on to explain how he had reached his deductions concerning the events that had led to two deaths and John’s journey to Egypt.

Europa picked up her spoon and pointed it at Anatolius. “So your reasoning was the wording of the will demonstrated Symacchus, probably the most orthodox man in the city, viewed Crispin with great esteem whereas most would expect him to consider the bishop a raging heretic? And it was from this you deduced Crispin had converted Symacchus, who began aiding him in an attempt to obtain a relic from Egypt? And how did the senator hear about this relic?”

“According to Diomedes, from Melios, one of the senator’s many visitors from that country.”

Francio asked who Melios might be.

Anatolius beamed. “Ah! Mithra smiled on our labors, for Felix discovered this Melios lives in the very settlement where John and the others went!”

Francio stared down at his plate, as if reading some meaning from the geometric pattern in the ceramic. “I’ve thought of another possibility, Anatolius. The senator might have been disposed of because he had rashly spoken with Thomas, a man who lives in the Lord Chamberlain’s house.”

“And John is Justinian’s closest confidant,” Anatolius agreed. “Eliminating Thomas by arranging for him to be caught with the senator’s body would also mean grave suspicion would be cast upon John for harboring a murderer. I doubt whoever was responsible could have foreseen John himself being accused of the senator’s death, but it must have been an even better result from their point of view.”

“You’re forgetting the most important thing,” Francio pointed out. “This mysterious murderer will doubtless attempt to kill anyone who knows anything at all about what’s going on, which now includes all three of us. Dear me, this isn’t the sort of conversation to whet one’s appetite, is it?”

Europa ignored the remark. “What could this relic be and why do they want it? The churches here are already bursting with old bones and such like.”

“I’m hoping John can enlighten us when he returns,” Anatolius replied. “It can’t be a coincidence Justinian sent him to the very settlement where Melios lives.”

A savory odor filled the air as Vedrix carried in a silver bowl filled with meat in a dark sauce. A ladle protruded from the steaming mixture.

“Let us put aside this gloomy conversation and celebrate your successful visit to the bishop.” Francio gestured at the bowl. “Please help yourselves from this most amusing dish. The markets might be empty but the spice of imagination is inexhaustible!”

Anatolius peered into the bowl and blanched at the sight of tentacles coiled artfully around lumps of meat floating in the thick sauce.

“There wasn’t much to be purchased today,” Francio went on. “A rather mature octopus, a couple of fig-peckers, and an under-nourished partridge. So my cook and I devised this cunning dish. I call it The Wreck of the Ark.”

Europa gingerly ladled out one of the lumps and dropped it onto her plate. She poked at it dubiously with her spoon. “What’s that, Francio? Partridge?”

Francio leaned for a closer look. “I’m not certain. Oh, there’s also something in it that Vedrix caught in the garden, so that could be a tasty tidbit of weasel.”

Europa put a hand up to her mouth. “A weasel?”

“I wouldn’t swear to it on oath in a court of law, you understand.”

Europa pushed her plate away.

“Condemned without a trial,” Anatolius remarked. “Barring Francio’s testimony, I believe I could have conclusively proved these lumps are all portions of a succulent hare.”

Francio looked disappointed as he traded plates with Europa. “There’s more than one in this city tonight who’d be glad to have weasel boiled in sauce.”

Anatolius rescued one of the fig-peckers and a bit of tentacle from the wine-dark sea. “Surely vegetables are still available, even if there isn’t much meat?”

“Vegetables? What sort of meal can you make with vegetables? A peasant’s meal!”

“We’ve had this discussion before,” Anatolius grinned. “Justinian manages perfectly well without eating flesh.”

“That’s why he’s ruled by Theodora,” Francio observed. “A little red meat in his diet might do the emperor a great deal of good.” He popped a portion of suspected weasel into his mouth and chewed. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

“Nor do I want to.” Europa dropped her spoon.

“What’s the matter?” Anatolius asked.

“We really don’t know what we’re missing, do we? We don’t know what’s happening to everyone. Where’s Thomas? What’s become of my parents? What about poor Peter, not to mention Hypatia?”

“You’re safe here, Europa,” Francio said. “My home is an island of sanctuary in a perilous sea.”

“What will you do when Crispin decides to summon you to another interview?” Europa asked Anatolius.

“The bishop is nothing if not cautious. It’ll take a few weeks for someone to go to Egypt and back in order to consult his contacts there, whoever they might be. We’ll just have to hope John returns to Constantinople before then.”