As he approached Blackfriars Bridge, Skelton looked up to his right to the dome of St. Paul’s.
God, how many years had it stood there, guarding its secret? How many years had it waited?
His steps slowed, and he stopped, his gaze riveted on the cathedral. He could feel the pull of the Game, feel the call of the labyrinth, feel…
He jumped, his eyes jerking to the shadows beyond the circle of light cast by a lamp.
Asterion stood there. Skelton could just distinguish his dark shape, but could make out no features.
Skelton kept his own face neutral, aware that he was spotlighted under the lamp. He nodded, acknowledging the Minotaur’s presence, then moved on.
Once past Blackfriars, Skelton moved down to the Embankment, and there she was, standing in her own pool of lamplight, waiting for him.
Genvissa.
oj’t’tie MESOPOTAMA, THREE MONTHS LATEREMBRICUS WALKED THROUGH THE
DIMLY LIT predawn corridors of the palace in Mesopotama. Warriors stood about at various guard points, alert but not overly so; the Dorians had been subdued many weeks ago, and now no one expected much more from them save the odd resentful glance.
Membricus nodded at the guards, knowing each man from the many years he had traveled with Brutus. In the palace, Brutus used only his own men for sentry duty; in the city Assaracus’
men stood watch.
He murmured a greeting to the warrior standing at the entrance to Brutus’ chamber, then slipped silently through.
The chamber was large, and even though no oil lamps burned it was dimly lit by the quarter moon whose light slipped in through the large unshuttered windows. It was enough that Membricus could see well enough for his purpose. He moved silently to the bed, and stopped at its side, looking down at its two naked occupants.
Brutus lay on his stomach half covering Cornelia, as if even in sleep he needed to subdue
her. She slept on her back, the moonlight glistening off her pale skin. Membricus could see dark shadows circling her eyes, and he wondered how many nights she actually slept, and how many she lay, wakeful but inert under the heavy weight of Brutus’ body.
Membricus’ eyes left Cornelia to trail over Brutus. He did not think he had ever seen a more beautiful man, and the sight made him draw in a deep breath… which he instantly regretted.
The warm night air was rank with the stale odor of sex.
Membricus’ nostrils flared in distaste, and his belly tensed in sudden jealousy. Many years ago it was he who would have been lying under Brutus’ weight… but as Brutus had aged into mature manhood his tastes had veeredfrom his boyhood tutor toward women, and Membricus had been left with only memories. He’d long ago realized that Brutus would one day take a wife, and had long ago resigned himself to it.
But to marry this bitch! Every time he saw her Membricus was reminded of the malignant evil he’d seen crawling down the Acheron toward Mesopo-tama. What was the connection, he wondered, between this Cornelia and the evil that had crawled from Hades’ Underworld?
Membricus looked back to Cornelia, and started.
She was awake, her heavy-lidded eyes staring at him with flat hatred.
‘Brutus,” Membricus said, not dropping his eyes from Cornelia’s stare.
Brutus woke, instantly and completely. “Membricus!” he said, half rising. “Is there—”
‘Nothing is wrong,” Membricus said, “but the first of the ships has arrived, and are at anchor beyond the bay. I thought you should know.”
‘Ah,” Brutus sighed in relief, and relaxed back to the bed. Over the past three months he’d forced Pandrasus to purchase or lease (with Dorian gold, naturally) every available ship from those eastern Mediterranean ports still operating. Now the first of them had arrived.
‘How many?” he said.
‘Eight,” Membricus said, then, as he was about to elaborate, he drew in a sharp breath, and sat down on the edge of the bed by Cornelia’s side.
She shrank away from him, and Membricus’ mouth curled in amusement.
‘What is it?” Brutus said, staring at Membricus’ face.
In reply Membricus laid his hand on Cornelia’s breast.
She hissed, and made as if to strike him, but Brutus held her arms. “What is it?” he said again, with more concern this time.
‘Her breasts are no longer those of the virgin girl,” said Membricus. “See how they have swollen, and their veins have become engorged. And see here, her nipple.” His finger brushed over it, and Cornelia’s
entire body twisted as she unsuccessfully tried to dislodge his hand. “It has darkened, and become more prominent.”
Membricus glanced at Cornelia’s face, then slid his hand to her belly. “And feel how her belly’s roundness has firmed from its girlish plumpness. Has she had her monthly courses since you have been sharing her bed, Brutus?”
‘No, I think not… or perhaps it is that I have just not noticed.”
‘She is with child, Brutus.”
Brutus’ eyes flew to Cornelia’s face. If she had known, and there was every reason to suppose she had, then frankly Brutus was not surprised she had neglected to tell him; they had not become the closest and most trusting of companions. He looked back to Membricus. “What do you see? Tell me, Membricus !”
Membricus drew in another deep breath, firmed the pressure of his hand on Cornelia’s quivering belly, and closed his eyes, searching for the vision. It came to him quickly: CORNEL,’A, GREAT BELLIED WITH CHILD, WRITHING ON A bed in the agony of birth.
Her face was twisted, but with terror as well as with pain.
MEMBRICUS FROWNED, AND PRESSED HIS HAND MORE firmly into Cornelia’s belly.
SHE LAY ON A BED MADE OF ROUGH WOOD AND COARSE blankets. It was dark night, but in the flickering torchlight Membricus could make out that this was no palace, but the sorry tumbledown hut of a peasant.
A midwife was crouched at the foot of the bed, her hands extended to the baby’s head as it emerged from Cornelia’s body. Her face was stretched in tenor as well, and Membricus wondered why, what it was about this birth that so—
Swords flashed, glinting in the lamplight, and there came the sound of close combat.
Both women screamed.
The baby slithered forth, and Membricus looked at it.
It was a boy, and on his arms and legs he wore the gleaming golden bands of kingship.
Then the visionary Cornelia screamed again, and Membricus’ eyes jerked toward her. A sword flashed down, and buried itself in Cornelia’s now flaccid belly.
Blood spewed from the wound, smothering both Cornelia and the baby that lay crying between her legs.
Cornelia jerked and twisted in her death agony, but the baby remained unharmed, warmed by the blood that bathed him.
He stopped crying, and as his mother died, waved his gold-banded arms and legs as if in celebration.
Or victory.
MEMBRICUS LIFTED HIS HAND FROM CORNELIA, AND looked at Brutus. “It is a boy, and he will be a king. All is well.”
Brutus smiled, first at Membricus, then, to Membricus’ horror, at Cornelia. At that moment Membricus had never hated Cornelia so much, and even I4G the knowledge that she harbored within her the manner of her own death did not assuage his jealousy.
SAFE WITHIN HER STONE HALL, FEELING BETTER THAN she had for many scores of years, Mag smiled at the small boy that sat under the arches framing the side aisles. He was regarding his toes as if they were the most fascinating things in creation.
She walked over to him, softly so as not to frighten him, and held out to him a red ball made of finely combed sheep’s wool.
He lifted his eyes from his toes and regarded her with solemn dark eyes—his father’s eyes.
Mag waggled the ball at him, and the boy smiled, and reached out his hands.
‘Silly, spiteful Membricus,” Mag said. “We can’t have your darling mother dying in your birth, can we?”
Now the boy laughed, and grabbed the ball.
‘What a dark ugly vision,” Mag continued, then paused to laugh herself at the boy’s joy. “I can’t think who could have put it into his dark ugly mind.”
CbAPGGR GUDG coRnelia speaksHAD KNOWN FOR MANYWEEKS ABOUT THE
CHILD but, naturally, had not told Brutus. It was one more reason to hate him. Hating Brutus had become the focus of my entire existence. If I didn’t hate him, if I didn’t concentrate on that hatred and nurture it with everything I had, then I was sure I would lose my mind.
Since that first night when he had raped me with such violence, and then wiped away my tears and was gentle with me (had he thought that would somehow appease me?), the daily ritual of my life was centered about him. Apart from Tavia, who came to me every morning and stayed with me until noon (when she was sent away to her new lodgings beyond the palace until the next day), Brutus was one of the few constants in my life in the first weeks since that disastrous day when Melanthus had been so abominably slain and my father and I had been so horribly humiliated. For weeks Brutus kept me relatively isolated; everyone I knew save Tavia was gone. The servants in the palace were replaced with Trojans, the courtiers were either dead or dismissed, my father imprisoned.