“Oh, grim Belisarius! Can you not see that God is a dancer, and creation his dance of joy?”
Chapter 3
When he opened his eyes, Belisarius found himself kneeling, staring at the tiles of the floor. The thing was resting in his loosely clenched fist, but it was quiescent now, a shimmer.
Without looking up, he croaked: “How long?”
Cassian chuckled. “Seems like forever, doesn’t it? Minutes, Belisarius. Minutes only.”
Antonina knelt by his side and placed her arm over his shoulders. Her face was full of concern.
“Are you all right, love?”
He turned his head slowly and looked into her eyes. She was shocked to see the pain and anger there.
“Why?” he whispered. “What I have ever done or said to you that you would distrust me so?”
She leaned back, startled.
“What are you talking about?”
“Photius. Your son. My son.”
She collapsed back on to her heels. Her arm fell away to her side. Her face was pale, her eyes wide with shock.
“How did you—when—?” She gaped like a fish.
“Where is he?”
Antonina shook her head. Her hand groped at her throat.
“Where is he?”
She gestured vaguely. “In Antioch,” she said very softly.
“How could you deprive me of my son?” Belisarius’ voice, though soft, was filled with fury. His wife shook her head again. Her eyes roamed the room. She seemed almost dazed.
“He’s not your son,” she whispered. “You don’t even know he— How did you know?”
Before he could speak again, Cassian seized Belisarius by the shoulders and shook him violently.
“Belisarius—stop this! Whatever—whoever—this Photius is, he’s something from your vision. Clear your mind, man!”
Belisarius tore his eyes away from Antonina and stared up at the bishop. Not two seconds later, clarity came. The hurt and rage in his eyes retreated, replaced by a sudden fear. He looked back at Antonina.
“But he does exist? I did not simply imagine him?”
She shook her head. “No, no. He exists.” She straightened up. And, although her eyes shied away from her husband’s, her back stiffened with determination. “He is well. At least, he was three months ago, when I saw him last.”
The quick thoughts in Belisarius’ eyes were obvious to all. He nodded slightly.
“Yes. That’s when you said you were visiting your sister. The mysterious sister, whom for some reason I have never met.” Hotly, bitterly: “Do you even have a sister?”
His wife’s voice was equally bitter, but hers was a bitterness cold with ancient knowledge, not hot with new discovery.
“No. Not of blood. Only a sister in sin, who agreed to take care of my boy when—”
“When I asked you to marry me,” concluded Belisarius. “Damn you!” His tone was scorching.
But it was like the pale shadow of moonlight compared to the searing fury of the monk’s voice.
“Damn you!”
The eyes of both husband and wife were instantly drawn to Michael, like hares to the talons of a hawk. And, indeed, the Macedonian perched on his seat like a falcon perches on a tree limb.
At first, the eyes of Belisarius were startled; those of his wife, angry. Until, in a moment, they each realized they had mistaken the object of the curse.
Not often did Belisarius flinch from another man’s gaze, but he did so now.
“By what right do you reproach your wife, hypocrite?” demanded the monk. “By what right?”
Belisarius was mute. Michael slumped back in his seat.
“Verily, men are foul. Even so does the churchman who sells his soul damn the harlot who sells her body. Even so does the magistrate in robes of bribery condemn the thief in stolen rags.”
Belisarius opened his mouth. Closed it.
“Repent,” commanded Michael.
Belisarius was mute.
“Repent!” commanded the monk.
Seeing the familiar crooked smile come to her husband’s face, Antonina sighed. Her little hand fluttered toward his large one, like a shy kitten approaching a mastiff. A moment later, his hand closed around hers and squeezed. Very gently.
“I’m beginning to understand why they flock to him in the desert,” Belisarius quipped, somewhat shakily.
“Quite something, isn’t it?” agreed the bishop cheerfully. “And you can see why the Church hierarchy encourages him to stay there. Nor, I believe, have any magistrates objected recently to his prolonged exile.”