Gladiatrix (21 page)

I stiffened. She knew. I don't know how, but she knew about me.

‘Why have you come here?' she demanded. She'd ignored everyone else to focus on me.

Lurco, petulant at the lack of attention, whined to Domitia, ‘So what can this little bitch really do? Other than warm cushions with her backside, and make small talk?'

Domitia ignored him. She was too busy watching Andromache watch me.

Andromache turned her stern gaze on Lurco. He was smirking at her as he lounged back on his cushions. Now that he had her undivided attention he tried to intimidate her. ‘You remind me of a little peach I had a few years ago. She was a tasty one.' He licked his lips, then said, ‘While she lasted.'

He waited, so very pleased with his cruel wit, for a reaction. It was becoming obvious that Lurco liked a little fear to season his more intimate social interactions.

Surprisingly, the tiny woman was unafraid; on the contrary she returned his gaze with a look as sharp as a knife. As though she knew something he didn't. And it was going to happen soon.

Lurco was completely disconcerted by her lack of reaction, his mouth slightly open in disbelief. He must be used to grovelling pleas for mercy from his targets. He didn't know what to make of her, but then neither
did I. What was going on here? And what did she know about me?

As Lurco remained silent, trying to work out what little plum of wit to come out with next, Andromache directed her next statement to Domitia. ‘I suppose you expect me to entertain you?' Her voice was low, deep even, each word said with a complete lack of respect.

Domitia chose to ignore the provocation, saying, ‘Lurco wants to go first.'

Andromache's eyes glinted. Gaius and Domitia exchanged a mocking glance; they were enjoying a very private joke at Lurco's expense.

Lurco, angry at the way he was being excluded but unwilling to confront his powerful host, threatened the little slave instead, ‘You'd better not waste my time, bitch. So make it good!'

Horace looked to his mistress for guidance, and when she nodded, he clapped his hands. Two male servants carried in a high table and placed it directly in front of Andromache. A third female servant entered carrying a large jewelled box and placed it on the left side of the table. After a nod from Andromache, the three bowed to us and backed out of the room.

‘What is it you think you want to know?' The way Andromache said it inferred that Lurco would be taking a great risk in giving her an answer.

He merely crossed his arms and, in a venomous tone, said, ‘I don't believe you can do anything.'

Domitia's patience came to an abrupt end and she sat up. ‘Lurco! You said that this is what you want. So get on with it!'

Gaius smirked at Domitia's display of temper, and taunted their guest, ‘If you want to test her why don't you just ask her a question to which you already know
the answer? She has other talents besides telling the future.'

Lurco, realising he had overstepped the mark, kept quiet while he struggled to find a suitably difficult question. When he'd evidently struck on an idea he liked his puffy face remobilised along more crafty lines. ‘I know,' he said smugly. ‘Tell me what I was just thinking?'

Andromache had been watching him carefully the whole time. As though he was some kind of insect she'd been paid to study. She opened the box in front of her and, one by one, took out four large dice, each larger than my fist. There were Egyptian-style figures painted on the sides of each die.

As one, we all leant closer to her chair.

‘Each face of the dice is a page from the Book of Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom,' explained Andromache. ‘It tells the story of our existence, from birth to death, from darkness to light. To roll the dice is a serious matter,' she warned Lurco. ‘You will gain knowledge. But in doing so you will also be judged.'

She gathered up the four dice, two balanced on each tiny hand, and focused on Lurco. She rolled them, shutting her eyes as soon as they hit the table. Though thrown with some force the dice merely twirled around on their points for a moment and dropped. We all leant forward to view the results.

It was not good.

I looked over at Lurco; he was shifting on his lounge, uneasy.

The four pictures formed a horrible story, each contributing its own little jagged edge to the overall message.

The first picture seemed innocuous enough. The main figure was Pharaoh surrounded by all the
symbols of his Earthly authority. He wore the double crown, held the crook and flail crossed across his chest, and sat on the winged throne of Isis. Looming over his splendour was the sombre shadow of the Great Pyramid. The Egyptian symbol of eternal life. The words underneath the picture said ‘The Power of the Hand'.

The second picture was of a black figure about to step off the top of a cliff. Beneath their feet was a dark, bottomless chasm. The title was ‘The Abyss'.

These first two pictures evoked a mixture of emotions, but it was the last two that were unnerving. The third picture showed a group of people dancing in a circle. They were all either hysterically laughing or crying. It was hard to tell which, as their features were stretched in a kind of rictus. Each figure was stabbing or hitting the person ahead of them in the circle. The image was designated ‘Consequences'.

The face of the final die was the worst of all. It was called ‘Addiction'. A man was sitting at a dinner table surrounded by plates of food and drink, but instead he was greedily chewing off his own hand. He was eating with such relish it was hard to look at.

Andromache opened her eyes and, without looking down at the dice, said, ‘Her face will be the first thing you see, Lurco. She will be there when Anubis decides your fate.'

I knew that the jackal-headed god decided the fate of the dead by weighing their hearts on a set of scales. So she was talking about Lurco's death.

At first he just blinked rapidly then started to shake, his eyes darting around the room as though searching the shadows. In those few, short words Andromache had evidently ripped open the gate to Lurco's deepest fears.

Domitia and Gaius both watched Lurco's disintegration with expressions of gleeful horror, hugging the pleasure to them. Seeing their response, Lurco became angry, the hot, sharp emotion helping him to get back in control. He turned on the attack and spat out, ‘That could mean anything, you little bitch. You don't know anything, so don't try and con me.'

Hmm. She had been vague …

Holding his gaze Andromache simply replied, ‘She was so young, Lurco, and so afraid. She pleaded, but you'd set your mind against all considerations but your own pleasure. When you finished you hid the body in the sea cave and your parents mourned her loss until their death.'

Lurco looked scared, but defiant. If this was all true then there was no repentance here.

‘That decision, that action, has moulded your life,' she said, with complete knowledge and authority. ‘Without releasing that burden, without a commitment to reparation, you will die as a consequence of that addiction.' Lurco's face flickered with fear. She sat back, judgement finalised. ‘It is your choice and your fate. There will be no other warning.'

The blood drained out of Lurco's now taut face. He looked like a cadaver.

Leaving him to consider his future, Andromache directed her gaze to me. ‘Traveller,' she said. ‘What is it you need to know?'

After seeing her take Lurco apart so accurately, the temptation to ask about Victoria was very strong. But Domitia was far too interested. At Andromache's words she had leant forward with bright inquisitive eyes.

I didn't trust this whole set-up; maybe they'd found out about Lurco's sister some other way and were using it to undermine him? He was still sitting there,
staring at the wall opposite. What a way to manipulate your business competition. Invite them to eat their fill, pour on the wine, and then wham, bring out the so-called psychic to perform emotional surgery at the dinner table.

Domitia was curious. ‘Why don't you ask about the fight, gladiatrix? Surely that is your prime concern?' She tilted her head on one side. ‘Or do you have something else on your mind?'

Andromache intervened, forestalling the inquisition. ‘Why don't we just see what they want to tell her?' Then before I could respond she rolled the dice.

The four dice spun, dropped and revealed a very different scene to Lurco's, but they were still disturbing in a way that was hard to explain. If Andromache was going to visit my past in the same way she'd dredged through Lurco's, then we were all in for a big surprise.

The first die showed a half-open eye. With stars twinkling in the black pupil like a mini cosmos. It was entitled ‘Awakening'. The second was ‘Justice', with Anubis, the noble dog-headed god, holding his scales. Well I was certainly seeking that.

The third one was more puzzling; I wasn't sure how to interpret it at all. It showed a golden ball streaming light onto the world. It was called ‘The Power of the Essence'.

The last face was Isis. Winged Isis. A beautiful woman wearing a horned crown and with her feathered limbs outstretched about to take flight. The title was simply, ‘The Protector'.

Domitia whispered something to Gaius, but he just shrugged.

Andromache opened her eyes.

Domitia cut in. ‘Will she will win her fight tomorrow?'

Andromache deliberately ignored her question. Instead she picked up the die showing Isis and twisted it to face me. ‘She knows you. And she knows your goddess.'

‘My goddess? I, I don't have a …' I stuttered, her words had caught me off-guard. ‘What do you mean?'

‘The deliverer of all who suffer.' I stopped breathing, but she continued naming the names. ‘The hearer of all cries for help. The one called Lotus Heart.' That was Yuki's favourite name for Kannon, the goddess of compassion.

Andromache smiled. She knew she'd hit the spot. That I'd listen to her now.

‘You must remember everything I tell you,' she demanded. ‘You have made this long journey because Isis chose it to be so. She has led you here from your earliest days.' Seeing my confusion she picked up a different die in her other hand. The one showing Anubis.

‘Isis sent him to you. To bring you here.' She pushed the die towards me. ‘Does he look familiar?'

I stared at the picture of the Egyptian god. The dog god. The black dog god. The black dog stared out at me!

I jerked my head up to her eyes. Images flooded my brain. The dog that wandered into Yuki's house after I was found and never left. Spud lying under my desk. The photo of Celeste by the pool holding …

She nodded. ‘That's right. He came for you.' She put that die back on the table, reverently, face up.

‘Now listen to me, girl.' Andromache's face was tense with her desire to make sure I understood. ‘When the time comes, do not give up! No matter what happens! No matter if there is no way through. Pursue this to the very end.'

She held up the die with Winged Isis on it again, and repeated. ‘Remember! To the very end!'

The eyes of the goddess seemed to stare out at me just as the dog god's had.

‘Isis is there now. Waiting for you.'

 

The second Andromache finished speaking, Domitia threw herself into a violent, no-holds-barred tantrum. Gaius had managed to steer Lurco up and off his lounge and out of the room before she began throwing things. But I'd had to stay and take it. Fortunately she was a lousy shot and I was good at ducking.

I didn't know why Andromache's speech to me had leveraged itself under her thick hide until I left, escorted at a trot by Horace. I could hear Domitia demanding of Andromache, ‘What d'you mean, Isis is waiting for … her!'

The last word was screamed.

I didn't catch the answer. But Andromache's words had completely thrown me, too. Back at the villa, I lit some oil lamps and sat on my bed wondering what on earth had just happened in there.

Alexander stalked in the door before I could reach any conclusions, wearing his usual thundercloud expression. Horace had ordered him to sleep in my quarters. Whether it was meant as a sexual favour to me, or worked as surveillance for Domitia I didn't know. But I was not happy about it, and he seemed just as disgusted. After working out where he'd put his bedding, that was under the window and as far away from me as possible, we'd ignored each other.

I ended up sitting outside, by the fountain, with one of the oil lamps flickering next to me. I watched the lights go out in the main house one by one. This place was crazyland! I couldn't tell what on earth was going
to come at me next, so I could only react as it did. I really needed a better plan.

What if I just went up to Domitia's bedroom with the Glock and had a quiet but firm chat with her about where the Hierophant lived? Would I then be able to make it out of the house and past the guards at the gate if I took her hostage?

Hmm. The answer to that was a definite no. I only had fifteen bullets, and no-one was going to find the gun threatening enough without explicit examples. Could I shoot five or more innocent people? Most probably slaves? No. So might as well not start down that path. And I wasn't sure she knew enough about the Hierophant's movements to be able to find him tonight anyway.

The choice was clear. I had to stay here and go through with this farce. For the moment.

The other thing that kept rolling around my mind was Andromache's message. How could she possibly know so much about Yuki's bodhisattva? Or the black dogs? What was that about?

And why did she claim Isis had brought me here? As if Isis was real. And made plans that stretched thousands of years into the future? Isiacs had certainly sent me through the portal. Was that what she meant?

I shook my head. I wasn't thinking straight. I don't believe in psychics. Never have. Never will.