Pandora Gets Vain (Pandora (Hardback)) (21 page)
“This is the man you seek, little fish,” he said to Pandy. “This is Ankhele’s father, Asaad. He can hear you through the crystal and he is willing to answer any questions.”
Alcie, Iole, and Homer, not knowing that any of this had been brewing in Pandy’s brain, were simply struck mute.
“Good evening, sir,” said Pandy, putting her best effort into a formal tone of voice and speech.
“Good evening . . . Pandora,” Asaad said, staring at her through the crystal. “You bring greetings from my daughter?”
“Yes, sir, I do. Your daughter is well. She is one of the . . . best . . . acolytes in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. She sends her love to your whole family and she misses you a lot. I mean, a great deal.”
“I thank you for that. When we last heard from Ankhele, there was much trouble at the oracle. Something to do with the high priestess.”
“I tell you, this is why she should have never left home!” Ankhele’s mother spoke up. “Our gods are not exciting enough! Our daughter wants to ‘see the world’ . . .”
“Kesi! Hush!” cried Asaad.
“That trouble is all over now, sir,” said Pandy.
“So I am told,” Asaad said. “I am also told that you are responsible for resolving the difficulties.”
“Thank you, but we all did it,” she said, gesturing to her friends. “Sir, Ankhele said that you might . . . that you would be able to help me.”
“I have just been informed of your quest. You seek Vanity in its purest form, is this correct?”
“Yes, sir,” she replied. “The map I carry says that Vanity is somewhere here—I mean there—in Alexandria. Do you have any idea where?”
“This is what I know, Pandora,” Asaad said, his voice growing grave. “Several weeks ago, reports began to leak out from the royal palace here. As I am in a position of some responsibility, I have access to much information unknown to the average citizen. A strange illness had overcome our young queen, Cleopatra. She would not eat. Physicians were summoned and sacrifices made, but nothing has helped. She has continued to starve herself.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” said Pandy, interrupting, “but that sounds like she wants to die. I don’t know how that can help—”
“You must let me finish,” Asaad said. “She has also refused to sleep, or study, or walk among the people she rules. Instead, she does one thing and one thing only: gazes all day and all night, at herself, in her mirror.”
“Gods,” said Iole, coming up to stand alongside Pandy.
“Only her handmaidens and servants are allowed to approach. They brush her hair constantly; they apply rouge to her cheeks and the blackest kohl around her eyes. They adorn her with the costliest jewels and fabrics. According to some, she has become nothing more than a walking skeleton . . .”
Pandy’s mind flashed on the living corpse of Habib.
“. . . but she has the strength of twenty men. If anyone dares to paint her lips incorrectly or pin her cloak at the wrong angle, or worse, if they forget to tell her she is the most beautiful creature on the earth, she herself kills them instantly. But these tasks are almost impossible to accomplish.”
“Why?” asked Alcie, quietly.
“One of her handmaidens made the mistake weeks ago of trying to gaze into the mirror herself. Cleopatra broke her neck instantly. From that moment, she has allowed no one near it, and to ensure that no one else views their own face, she has had all her servants blinded.”
Standing next to Pandy, Iole slumped.
“Where is she now?” asked Pandy, the remains of the feast rising in her throat.
“If what I am told is correct,” Asaad said, “she has not ever left her royal apartments. Is this information of assistance to you?”
Pandy looked at Wang Chun Lo, who returned her gaze with a small smile.
“Yes. Thank you, sir,” said Pandy.
“It has been my privilege,” Asaad replied. “Knowing that you have spoken with our beloved Ankhele only recently has made us feel her absence slightly less. For that, I must thank you.”
Wang Chun Lo approached the crystal panel.
“We shall trouble you no further. May the remainder of your evening be pleasant.”
Asaad nodded his head as, with a wave of Wang Chun Lo’s hand, the panel cleared.
“That was brilliant,” said Alcie. “Using these . . . things, whatever they are, to find Ankhele’s father. Now we won’t have to waste time looking for him.”
“Or Vanity,” said Iole. “It’s her mirror.”
“Has to be,” Alcie agreed.
Wang Chun Lo and Pandy were staring hard at each other.
“Are you ready?” he asked quietly.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Truly?”
Knowing full well what he meant, she faltered for a moment. Then she nodded. “Yes.”
With that, he bowed very low.
“I honor you, little fish.”
She returned the bow respectfully. Then she turned to her friends.
“Do you have everything?”
“It’s all here,” said Alcie. “Why?”
“What do we do?” Pandy asked Wang Chun Lo.
“Each of you will take a panel. When I give the signal, you will all step through.”
“What?” said Iole.
“Cool,” said Homer.
“No,” said Alcie.
“Alcie, it’s the quickest way there. Period,” said Pandy.
“Just because he can do it”—she gestured wildly to Wang Chun Lo, her voice squeaking—“doesn’t mean we can. It’s magic. It’s a trick of some kind. I’ll end up with a cow in a field somewhere.”
She began to back away.
“No you won’t,” Pandy said, taking her friend’s hand and feeling it tremble. “I promise you, by the wisdom of the Great Athena and the honor of Zeus himself, that nothing will happen to you, except that one moment you’ll be here and the next you’ll be in Alexandria. Wang Chun Lo has promised and I believe him, Alcie. Plus, we have no time to lose. Alcie, if you have ever trusted me before, please trust me now.”
“Unhhh,” groaned Alcie, as Pandy led her to a crystal panel.
Homer and Iole slowly took their places as Pandy, grabbing Dido’s scruff, stood in front of the center crystal.
“Dido,” she said, looking into his face, “you come with me, ghost dog. Understand?”
He barked once.
“Ready,” Pandy said to Wang Chun Lo.
Wang Chun Lo waved his hands and the crystals grew cloudy. As the ensuing colors and shapes became more distinct, again each had a bird’s-eye view of Alexandria. As the city rose up, the view passed over homes, temples, and odd buildings the likes of which they had not seen in the great metropolis of Athens. Suddenly, an enormous structure emerged before them. The view took them into a dark passageway and down a torch-lit tunnel. Pandy, fleetingly, saw the same drawings she’d seen high in the air in the Chamber of Despair. Then the view took them up and down flights of stairs, down hallways, and through large rooms with many treasures and dozens of strange-looking caskets, only the caskets were empty, their lids thrown off and scattered about the room. Then they were out onto a terrace, down another hallway, into an antechamber, through a set of heavy privacy curtains, and into the royal apartments of Queen Cleopatra.
“Now!” said Wang Chun Lo.
They each stepped through their crystals.
Instantly, they were surrounded by opulence; marble and silk, fountains and gold. Alcie gave a whoop before Iole shushed her. Homer went to Alcie’s side. Dido sniffed the air. But Pandy had turned back to look at Wang Chun Lo immediately after crossing over.
He gazed at her from his tent.
“Did it . . . ? Do I . . . ?”
Wang Chun Lo nodded. Then, with a smile and one more low bow, he waved his hand and the panels disappeared.
“That was very interesting,” said Iole.
“Apricots, it was nothing!” said Alcie. “Pandy, that was—”
Alcie stopped. Pandy had turned to face them.
“Great Apollo! Pandy!” Alcie screamed.
She looked at her friends now from under cracked and wrinkled lids. Pandy, quite simply, had become an old, old woman.
11:17 p.m.
Every wrinkle, every line was there, just as had been foretold. Her hair was gray and flesh hung loosely from her arms. Although she was still thin, she had several folds of wattling skin under her neck. She looked at her hands: blue veins and mottled skin stretched thinly over each protruding knuckle and all the way up her arms. She felt aches and stiffness in every joint; she was hunched over and couldn’t straighten up. She felt her face; there were deep creases along the sides of her mouth and at the corners of her eyes. And she was beginning to realize the horrible actuality of her commitment.
“Pandy?” Alcie asked again.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“What happened?” asked Iole, trying hard to be calm and smart and unafraid.
“I don’t have time to explain . . . ,” she began, realizing that she had almost no teeth.
“Make the time,” said Alcie, with unusual authority. “There’s no one around. What happened?”
“It’s the crystals,” she said. “They’re enchanted. Every time someone steps through they have fifteen years taken off their . . . life, kinda. That’s why Wang Chun Lo looks the way he does. I’m still me. I’m okay inside; it’s just my body. It’s no big deal.”
“It’s a very, very big deal,” Iole said. “And that’s more than fifteen.”
“Everyone?” said Alcie, looking at her hands and feeling her face. “Do I look . . . ?”
“No,” Pandy said, looking at them through watery eyes. “I made an agreement. I got all of your years, so you guys are fine. We just all had to go through together. And we’re here! So, it’s good—it’s great!”
“You got . . . how many?” Alcie said, calculating. While she was thinking, Iole strode right up to Pandy, eyes blazing.
“You knew and you didn’t tell us? I think . . . I think . . . I am so angry with you I don’t even have the words. You asked us to trust you and then you do this.”
“Iole . . . ?” Pandy said.
“The bottom line is
you
don’t trust
us
! To make our own decisions! We should have known about that . . . this. I would have taken my years. I would have been responsible for myself. I didn’t come with you, Pandora, so you could baby me. We’re . . . we’re a team! We’re supposed to be. But you treat us like . . . like . . . you’re better than us. You keep secrets. And now look at you!”
Iole burst into tears.
Instead of feeling guilty or sorry, instead of trying to understand Iole’s point of view, it was Pandy’s turn to become very angry.
“Yes!” she screeched. “I did it alone, okay? I didn’t tell you! And if I make a decision that’s gonna keep you guys from getting even more hurt, then too bad! And I don’t care what you think, because I didn’t ask you to come with me in the first place. This whole thing is all my fault and I have to think about that every day. If I fail then I’m the one who’s going to spend the rest of her life in Tartarus, so I get to be the leader—me! Two weeks was way too much to travel. Something could have happened and I need to get these things in the box as fast as possible. So I chose. Me! I’m in charge. Not you. And if you don’t like it then you can go home!”
“Whoa,” said Homer, quietly.
“Oh, figs,” Alcie began. “She didn’t mean—”
“Shut up!” Pandy screamed, flecks of spittle flying from her mouth. She stood there, drained and immobile, because the very act of turning her head would have taken too much energy. She was completely at a loss. Even when she tried to do the right thing, somebody, somewhere, somehow was upset.
Iole just stood there with tears streaming down her face.
“Fine,” she said, after a moment. “I
will
go home.”
“Fine,” said Pandy.
“Fine!” Iole yelled.
In that instant, Dido began barking furiously, causing everyone to turn and look.
Five guards, each one larger than Homer, were rapidly advancing. They wore tight-fitting tunics with long gold sashes around the waist and snug gold caps covering their heads. Their short swords were raised high, ready for battle. And, from their vacant stares, they were each quite blind.
Pandy, Alcie, and Iole froze.
But Homer sprang into action.
He dropped the pouches and water-skins where he stood. Reaching up, he tore one of the nearby red silk curtains from its gold rod and threw it over two of the advancing guards. As they were stunned and thrashing about, Homer quickly snatched both of their swords.
And became a gladiator.
All the guards immediately turned on him. Homer, brandishing a sword in each hand and a warrior glint in his eyes, slashed and sliced and ripped and hacked, whirled and dove and ducked and leaped. He inflicted severe damage on the guards without sustaining so much as a scratch. He twisted his body, avoiding a sharp thrust, then twisted again, narrowly escaping a whistling downward pass. Three times he plunged his swords deep, three times a guard fell lifeless.