The Judgment of Caesar Read Online Free PDF Page A

told him. ‘You saw the Finder’s lemur.’ ‘No, the man himself,’ he assured me. And now you stand before me in the flesh, and it’s Domitius who’s become a lemur. Marc Antony chased him to ground like a fox at Pharsalus. Damn Antony! Damn Caesar! But who knows? Mark my words, Caesar will yet get his just deserts, and when he least expects it. The gods will abandon Caesar—like that!” He snapped his fingers. “One moment he’ll be alive, plotting his next triumph, and the next moment—dead as King Numa! I see you scoff, Finder, but believe me, Caesar will yet receive his due.”
    What was he talking about? Did he have spies and assassins close to Caesar, plotting to do away with him? I stared back at Pompey and said nothing.
    “Lower your eyes, damn you! A man in your position—think of those traveling with you, if not of yourself. You’re all at my mercy!”
    Would he really harm Bethesda to take vengeance on me? I tried to steady the quaver in my voice. “I’m traveling with a young mute of simple intelligence, two slave boys, and my wife, who is not well. I find it hard to believe that the Great One would stoop to exact vengeance on such—”
    “Oh, shut up!” Pompey made a noise of disgust and looked sidelong at his wife. Some unspoken communication passed between them, and the exchange seemed to calm him. I sensed that Cornelia was his anchor, the one thing he could count on now that everything else, including his own judgment, had failed him so miserably.
    Pompey now refused to look at me. “Go on, get out!” he said between clenched teeth.
    I blinked, not ready to believe that he was dismissing me with my head still on my shoulders.
    “Well, what are you waiting for?”
    I turned to leave. “But don’t think I’m done with you, Finder!” Pompey snapped. “At present I have too much on my mind to fully enjoy seeing the life torn out of you. After I’ve met with young King Ptolemy and my fortunes have returned to a firmer footing—then I’ll summon you again, when I can deal with you at my leisure.”
    Centurion Macro accompanied me back to the skiff. “You look as pale as a fish belly,” he said.
    “Do I?”
    “Mind your step, getting into the boat. I’ve been given orders that nothing untoward must happen to you.”
    “The dagger that was taken from me?”
    He laughed. “You won’t be seeing that again. Pompey says you mustn’t hurt yourself.”

CHAPTER III

    Night fell. The sea was calm, the sky clear. Far away to the west, beyond the low marshland of the Nile Delta, I imagined I could descry the Pharos, a pinpoint of light upon an uncertain horizon.
    “There!” I said to Bethesda, who stood beside me at the ship’s rail. “Do you see it? The Pharos.”
    She squinted and frowned. “No.” “Are you sure?” “My vision is dim tonight.”
    I held her close. “Do you feel unwell?”
    She grimaced. “It seems such a small thing, now. To have come so far for such a petty purpose—”
    “Not petty, Wife. You must be well again.”
    “Toward what end? Our children are all grown.”
    “Eco and Diana both have given us grandchildren, and now Diana is expecting another.”
    “And no doubt they’ll do a splendid job of raising them, with or without their grandmother. My time on this earth has been good, Master. . . .”
    Master? What was she thinking, to call me that? Many years had passed since I made her free and married her. From that day forward she had called me Husband, and not once had I known her to slip and address me as her master. It was the return to Egypt, I told myself, calling her back to her past, confusing her about the present.
    “Your time on this earth is far from over, Wife.”
    “And your time, Husband?” She gave no sign of noticing her earlier error. “When you came back today, I gave thanks to Isis, for it seemed a miracle. But the centurion forbade the captain to sail on. That means the Great One isn’t done with you.”
    “The Great One