"Why, when I have you to find out the truth for me?"

"Me, First Timouchos?"

"They call you Finder, don't they? Domitius told me all about you; how men are compelled by some strange power to tell you the truth. This was a gift the gods gave you."

"Gift, or curse?"

"What do I care, Finder, so long as you compel Zeno to tell you exactly what happened on the Sacrifice Rock? Do that for me… and then you may speak to your son."

XXII

In the small room where Zeno was being held, as in the room where Apollonides had interviewed me, a single window looked out on the distant silhouette of the city wall and the dying fires beyond. But this window, unlike the other, had bars across it. Apollonides had accounted for that when he chose this room for Zeno.

If, indeed, I possessed some unique skill at ferreting out the secrets of others, I had little need to call upon it with Zeno. Or perhaps it was as Apollonides suggested, and the baring of secrets was not so much a skill on my part as a compulsion placed upon others by the gods when I was present. However it was, Zeno was not reluctant to talk. It seemed to me that he desperately needed to talk.

"I should have had you killed, I suppose," was the first thing he said, staring out the window.

I was not quite sure how to answer that.

"I knew that you had witnessed… what happened on the

Sacrifice Rock-you and your son-in-law and the scapegoat. I overheard some of the soldiers talking about it, saying they'd been sent to question people in the vicinity of the rock, on account of what the scapegoat and his Roman guests had seen. Later that same night, I passed Apollonides in the front courtyard, and he mentioned it in passing, looked me straight in the eye and told me about some nonsense the scapegoat had reported about seeing an officer in a blue cape and a woman on the Sacrifice Rock. I thought my heart would leap from my mouth. But he wasn't testing me. He had no idea. He had too much on his mind. He never suspected."

"I thought it was Rindel on the rock with you, because Arausio thought so. But it was Cydimache."

"Yes."

"The scapegoat thinks she jumped."

"Does he?"

"Yes. My son-in-law holds a different opinion."

For a long moment, Zeno made no reply. He stared out the window and was so still that he seemed hardly to breathe. "I should never have fallen in love with Rindel," he finally said. "I never meant to. I desired her, of course, but that's not the same thing. It was impossible not to desire her. Any man would. You saw her tonight."

"Very briefly."

"But well enough to see how beautiful she is."

"Very beautiful."

"Extraordinarily beautiful."

"Yes," I admitted.

"But Rindel is a Gaul, and her father is of no account."

"According to Arausio, he's wealthier than your own father." Zeno wrinkled his nose. "Arausio may have money, but he'll never be a Timouchos. He's not the right sort. If I had married Rindel, I'd never have been anything more than a rich Gaul's son-in-law."

"Would that have been so terrible?"

He snorted derisively. "You're an outsider. You can't understand."

"I suppose not. But if you fell in love with Rindel despite yourself, I think I can understand that."

"I had almost reconciled myself to… marrying her. Then I saw… another opportunity."

"Cydimache?"

"The First Timouchos invited me to a dinner at this accursed house. It was a great honor; or so I thought, until my friends began to tease me. `You fool! Don't you know he's fishing for a son-in-law?' they said. 'You're not the first prospective suitor he's invited. All the rest-the monster gobbled up! Mind she doesn't get her fangs and claws into you! Or worse, drag you off to her bed!' They all had a hearty laugh at my expense.

"I dreaded that dinner. Sure enough, my place was next to Cydimache. She wore her veils, of course. I was nervous, at first. Cydimache said little, but when she spoke, she was actually quite witty. After a while I thought: This isn't so bad. I began to relax. I ate and drank. I looked around the garden. I saw the way they lived. I began to think: Why not?"

"You're hardly the first young man to marry for position," I said quietly.

"It's not as if I despised Cydimache! I came to care for her… a great deal."

"What about her ugliness? Her deformity?"

"We… dealt with that." He smiled ruefully. "Do you know the image of xoanon Artemis? Every Massilian boy is taught to revere that image, strange as it is. I told Cydimache that she was my very own xoanon Artemis. That pleased her immensely."

"And what about Rindel?"

He sighed. "As soon as I was betrothed to Cydimache, I made a vow to myself that I would never see Rindel again. No good could come of trying to explain myself to her; better to make a clean break, let her think the worst and forget me. I would have kept that vow, but Rindel wouldn't let me. As long as I stayed in Apollonides's house, I was safe from her. But once the siege began, my duties took me all over the city. Rindel sought me out. She stalked me like a huntress."

"Artemis with her bow," I murmured.

"In chance moments, when I would find myself alone-there was Rindel, suddenly before me, whispering, beckoning, drawing me into some hidden corner, telling me that she couldn't forget me, that she still wanted me even if I was another woman's husband."

I nodded. "Arausio said she would disappear from his house for long hours. He thought she was taking aimless walks, nursing a broken heart. He thought she was going mad."

"She was hunting for me. And after a while… our meetings were no longer by chance. We found a place to meet-a lover's nest. I had forgotten… how beautiful she was. Like Artemis, you say? No, Aphrodite incarnate! Making love to her-how can I explain? How can I expect you even to begin to understand?"

I sighed. Like all young men, he imagined that ecstasy was his own invention.

"The last time we met… like that… was on the day the Romans brought up the battering-ram. With all the confusion in the city, I was late, but Rindel waited for me. It was like never before. The excitement on the battlements-the sense of dread hanging over us-the constant pounding of the battering-ram against the walls; I can't explain. We seemed to make love that day with new bodies, new senses. She was unspeakably beautiful. I wanted to lie in her arms forever. And then…"

"Cydimache found you."

"Yes. She suspected. She'd followed me. She found us."

"And then?"

"Cydimache became hysterical. To see the two of them in the same room, side by side-Rindel naked and Cydimache in her veils, but knowing what lay beneath-it seemed hardly possible that two creatures so different could both be made of human flesh. I think Cydimache must have seen the look on my face.

She let out a cry that turned my blood to ice. She ran from the room."

"I thought she was lame."

"I'd never imagined that she could move so fast! Especially considering…" He was about to say something, but caught himself. "I threw on my clothes and my armor-I could hardly be seen out in the streets without it-and I followed after her. I thought she would run here, to her father, but then I saw her far away, heading toward the sea. I ran. I caught up with her near the base of the Sacrifice Rock. You saw… what happened next."

I nodded slowly. "It was as Hieronymus thought, then: Cydimache meant to throw herself off the rock, and you chased after her, to stop her."

I waited for him to reply, but he only stared silently out the window. "And afterward," I said, "Rindel took the place of Cydimache. A masquerade. Madness-"

"But it worked! In all the confusion of that day, it was a simple thing to sneak Rindel into this house. Once we were alone in Cydimache's room, I dressed her in some of Cydimache's clothes and veils. I showed her how to stoop, how to shamble. I told her to make her voice gruff and to speak as little as possible."