Queen of Kings - Maria Dahvana Headley [70]
“And which are we to you?” Augustus asked him.
A sudden breeze appeared in the room, guttering the candles. In the flickering light, Augustus saw Agrippa’s hand tighten on his sword. The shuttered window flew open, rattling in a quick and drenching storm.
“We are friends,” said the Psylli. “Or have I misunderstood?”
“Certainly,” replied Augustus, shaken. “We are friends.”
“There is a price for my service,” Usem continued.
Of course. The emperor had been prepared for exactly this eventuality. He signaled to a slave, who wheeled in a barrow of treasure taken from Alexandria, but the Psylli laughed.
“I do not desire gold,” Usem said.
“Your people have always taken our gold.”
“Not for this task. It is too large,” the Psylli said. “If I deliver what you ask for, you will close the Gates of Janus. My people will no longer cower in their tents when they hear hoofbeats. We will no longer travel our desert fearing war, fearing poisoned waters, fearing kidnapping and slavery. My people do not fear the wind, and we should not fear Rome.”
Augustus was shocked. He looked at Marcus Agrippa. What had the man been thinking? This should have been negotiated and refused already. Since the founding of Rome, the nation had always been at war, fighting off invaders, yes, but also invading and gaining territories through bloodshed. The closing of the Gates of Janus by the emperor of Rome would announce that the empire was at war no longer. The Psylli demanded peace from end to end of the Roman world.
Agrippa shrugged.
“It was not for me to refuse. You requested sorcerers, and you knew that it would not be inexpensive.”
The emperor could not imagine it. The gates had been open his entire life. It was a ridiculous request.
“You require my assistance,” the Psylli said, standing before Augustus, his jaw tight. The wind whipped about Augustus, shifting his garments. “The wind has told me of your trouble with the queen Cleopatra.”
Augustus jolted. How did the man know?
Agrippa stared at Augustus for a moment and then collapsed back into the chair, where he rubbed his temples.
“I might have guessed this wasn’t finished,” Agrippa muttered. He raised his head to look at Augustus. “Her people may wish her alive, but we all saw her dead and buried. Her body did not walk from that mausoleum. Her people took her corpse, and I am sure it was for some rite common to Egypt. The dead are enemy to no one.”
Augustus ignored him.
“She walks,” Usem continued, and smiled, showing his keen, pointed white teeth. “And she is more than she was. You will not conquer her with soldiers.”
Augustus wavered for a moment, and then hurriedly thrust out his hand to the Psylli.
“Yes,” he said. “I swear it. I will close the Gates of Janus, if you deliver me the queen.”
Usem took Augustus’s hand.
“It will be done. Now I require accommodations and a meal. My snakes hunger, and so do I.”
“Take him to his room,” Augustus ordered. “And let him give his directions to the kitchen on the way.” A legionary led the Psylli from the chamber. Out of the corner of his eye, Augustus could see Agrippa seething.
“You make promises to such a man?” Agrippa asked when he was gone. “You swear to give him something you will not deliver? You ask him to hunt something that does not exist? Cleopatra is dead. What has gotten into your mind? This man will pretend he has conjured and beaten her, and then he will demand that you keep your promise. It is all a sham.”
“Are you a fool? I have no intention of closing the gates,” Augustus snapped.
Agrippa looked at him, his gaze steely. “We do not want the Psylli as enemies,” he warned. “They have warred against the strong many times before, and won.”
“They will not win against Rome. I have not yet met the last of our warriors,” said Augustus.
“This discussion is not finished,” Agrippa warned.
“Nicolaus the Damascene, then,” Augustus said. “What of him? Where is he? You say I have no enemies, but you have not brought me