Shame of Man (37 page)

“Now we are free of them both,” she said, kissing him.

He felt her warm body against him, simultaneously lithe and voluptuous and altogether wonderful. She was inviting his physical love. Yet he was conscious of the violation he had committed against her only that morning, before confirming that she was safe. He had been afraid that if he did not conceal his knowledge of her survival, she and the children would after all be killed. So he had pretended, and the seductive Scilla had done her business with him. How could he now embrace his true love similarly? There had been logic in his action, yet there was also guilt. How could he reconcile the two? So he held Anice close, but did no more.

She did not insist. She kissed him again, then relaxed. He did the same, and in due course they slept.

In the morning they dressed in traveling clothing and left the temple. The Iberian slave was waiting, and joined them without a word, walking behind. Hucar had rather hoped that the slave would conclude that safe delivery to the temple of Tanit sufficed, and not insist on accompanying them farther. But evidently he had his orders, and would honor them literally.

The merchant ship was loading in the port as they got there. It was almost forty paces long and eight paces wide, with a stout mast in the center and a single bank of oars along each side. Chipu ran along it, counting the number of benches for the oarsmen: seventeen, he announced with pride. At the moment the oarsmen were on leave; their rough relaxation could be heard at the port tavern. They were not actually slaves, because slaves could not be trusted to do their best when there was need, but they were not far above slaves in status. A good oarsman was known for his muscle and his lack of imagination.

Carthaginian guards watched as Iberian laborers carried the heavy bags of silver ore and cinnabar aboard. New Carthage was located near the most productive silver mines, but it still paid to haul in the ore of lesser mines for processing there, increasing the total output. It was of course a lot of work to transport the ore, but that was what the native workers were for. The armies and labor forces of Carthage were mercenary, and generally untrustworthy, but the officers and supervisors were citizens whose loyalties were civilized. It was a feasible system, and Carthage and its colonies prospered despite the onerous reparations they had to pay to Rome. Hucar knew that the time was coming when Rome would have to be dealt with; it had won the war, but could not be tolerated indefinitely. Soon, when Punic strength was sufficient, there would be another reckoning. When Carthage was ready.

“You are thinking of war,” Minih said.

“Well, these are warlike times,” Hucar said.

“Tell us a story of war!” Chipu exclaimed excitedly. “With lots of blood!”

Anice shook her head. “I think your son will be an officer rather than a musician.”

“It must be that Iberian blood in him,” Hucar replied, teasing her.

“Don't start getting friendly with Mother,” Chipu said. “You have her at night. Now it's our turn.”

So it seemed. So while they waited for the loading to be completed, Hucar told them a bit of Carthaginian history, couched in dramatic terms. “Eight years ago, General Hamilcar besieged the rebellious town of Helike, not all that far from here,” he said. Actually it had been part of a campaign of conquest, but the official view was that any resistance in Iberia was rebellion. “But King Orison of Helike was a cunning leader. He had oxen hitched to carts filled with hay. Then they fired the hay, and that panicked the beasts, and they charged into the Punic lines, wreaking havoc.”

“Yes!” Chipu agreed, loving the action.

“Then, when Hamilcar's formations had lost their integrity—that is, got confused by the charging oxen and flaming haycarts—the Iberians launched a furious counterattack. It routed the besiegers. Hamilcar had to retreat suddenly across a river to safety, but he was wounded in the fighting, and drowned before he got across.”

“But—” the boy said.

“But the Carthaginians mounted another mission and subdued that town on another day,” Hucar said. “Of course. But my point is that the military life is not an easy one; there are real risks, and not just for the mercenaries. Carthage had to select a new general, and Hamilcar's son-in-law was appointed. Do you know who that was?”

“Hasdrubal!” Chipu cried. “Who we're going to see!”

“Exactly. Maybe he'll make you an officer.”

“Awww—” the boy said, realizing that he was being teased.

“Hasdrubal was in Carthage at the time, subjecting some rebels in Libya, but he wrapped that up and left immediately for Spain. He was more peaceful than Hamilcar, and preferred diplomacy, and when he lost his wife he—”

“Married an Iberian princess!” Minih put in, hugging her mother's arm. “Just like you!”

“I'm not a princess,” Anice protested.

“You are to us,” Chipu said gallantly.

They boarded, proceeding to the stern deck where the captain was overseeing the loading. The stern post rose high and curved gracefully back over the deck. Hucar paid the captain one small gold coin for their passage and that of the slave. “Good to see you again, musician!” the man said heartily, evidently remembering Hucar's prior ride on this ship. “This time you brought your family.”

“We are moving to New Carthage,” Hucar agreed.

“If the wind dies, maybe you will play for the oarsmen again.”

“Pray to Tanit the wind does not die,” Hucar said as they moved toward the hold.

“Next thing, he'll want me to dance above the oar deck,” Anice murmured, smiling. Such a performance would allow the oarsmen to peer up under her dancing skirt. Sometimes slave girls did it, but never Punic women.

The captain blew his piercing summoning whistle, and the oarsmen emerged from the tavern and came to the ship. There was no question of any skipping out on this work, because the pay was better than the men could get elsewhere, and each had his assigned place. Soon two men sat at every bench. The ship pushed off, giving room, and the oars came out and down. The cadence keeper beat his drum, and the oars moved in lovely synchronization, propelling the ship forward and out to sea. But when it was far enough out, the oars were shipped and the sail handlers took over, taking advantage of the wind. The children found the whole process fascinating, as they had never before traveled on a ship this size.

Then the guardship appeared, and now the children were truly awed. It was a trireme, a sleek warship with three banks of oars, one above the other, each bank as big as those of the merchant ship. It forged swiftly through the
water, its deadly ram leading the way. It made a pass at the merchanter, as if to ram it amidships, and the children screamed. The captain was not amused. “Veer off, oafs!” he bawled, shaking his fist.

The warship lifted its oars and turned, passing so close that the oars of both ships would have been sheared off if they had remained in the water. The wash of its passage rocked the merchanter. “Oooo!” Minih cried, delighted, as the merchant oarsmen chuckled.

The captain turned away. “The fools will have their sport,” he grumbled. But his scowl lacked force; he was used to this, and perhaps had even allowed it in order to give the children a thrill. One thing was clear: it would be a foolhardy pirate who thought to attack this vessel, protected as it was by a first line warship.

Safely ahead, the trireme benched its oars and spread its own square sail, satisfied to loaf along at the lumbering velocity of the merchant ship. They could see her oarsmen, now off-duty, drinking their cannabis tea. Chipu waved, and several men waved back, giving the boy another thrill.

Because silver ore was heavy rather than bulky, compared to a cargo of wood or crockery, there was room in the storage chambers. The slave would be able to sleep in one section, and the children in another, and Hucar and Anice in a third. But they were well rested now, and the children preferred to run along the decks, screaming. The slave got into a game of dice with some oarsmen. Hucar and Anice practiced their music and dancing. For them this was no chore, but business and pleasure. A number of the oarsmen were watching as Anice moved and turned and spun and leaped, but it didn't matter; her dance was meant to be seen, just as his music was meant to be heard.

Meanwhile the shoreline passed slowly by, as the ship proceeded northeast. The wind did change, and the oars did have to be used for a while, so Hucar did play. Anice didn't dance, then, but little Minih did, doing a credible job of it. She was only seven years old, but a lovely child, and she did know the moves. The trireme drew alongside so that their men could view the dance too. “They are watching her too closely,” Anice said, her eyes narrowing, and Hucar could only agree. The humor of tough oarsmen extended only so far; when they watched the dance through to its end, Hucar knew that they were seeing something that interested them. Minih's thighs were thickening and her waist was thinning; when she whirled, her hair and skirt flared together, becoming suggestive. Had the child been any older during the abduction, she would have been in the same type of danger as her mother. It was a sobering thought.

Captain Ittui came to join them for a while. “I am glad to see you and your wife safe,” he said to Hucar. “And your little girl,” he added, squinting at Minih. “I admit I was concerned, when the news came.”

“The news?” Hucar asked blankly.

“Did you not know? When General Hasdrubal learned of your wife's
abduction, and confirmed that it was the work of an Iberian faction, he not only sent a spy to rescue her; he had the headman executed. The whole thing was done in a day.”

“That was where our rescuer went!” Anice exclaimed. “To kill the chief.”

“Or to carry the order to the appropriate authority,” Ittui said. “The forms must be followed.

“So the slave guided you instead,” Hucar agreed. “And said nothing.”

“That was just as well,” she said. “If I had realized what was going on, I would have been terrified. That chief's people must be extremely frustrated.”

The slave approached. “They are,” he agreed. “There has seldom been such anger.”

“I never knew a thing about it,” Anice said, amazed.

“Neither did I,” Hucar said.

“That ignorance protected you,” the slave said. “But it will not protect the guilty one.” He walked away.

“I
knew
he had a secret,” Minih said triumphantly, returning from her dance.

“Yet I wonder whether justice was done,” Hucar said musingly.

“Howso?” Captain Ittui asked.

“As I understand it, few knew that my wife remained alive. The abductor's own sister seems not to have known. So probably the chief didn't know either. I was supposed to be the target of that mission: they wanted to bring me willingly to the chief's court.”

“So the chief was guilty,” Ittui said. “The one who gives the orders is responsible, no matter how they are carried out. I know. When I order a man overboard, I don't pitch him myself, but I am responsible.”

“But what of the man who actually abducted me?” Anice asked.

“He's guilty too—for not killing you,” Ittui said firmly. “For private lust he compromised his orders, and caused the mission to fail. But he probably disappeared the moment word got out. The sneaky ones are hard to nail.”

Anice nodded somewhat wanly. “He was guilty,” she agreed.

“I am glad of that guilt,” Hucar said, shaken. “It saved your life.”

“The gods work in meandering ways,” the captain said, and moved on to see to other business.

“That slave is angry too,” Minih said.

“Everyone should be angry about such a plot against a Punic family,” Hucar said. “It brought us endless anguish.”

“Yes,” the child agreed, but she seemed doubtful.

A suitable wind reappeared as evening came, and the sails came out again. They would travel through the night, rather than risk the valuable cargo in a port. It was safe enough, with no storm threatening and a competent captain and crew.

After the others were asleep, Hucar and Anice settled down together,
effectively alone. The gentle sway of the ship was pleasant. She snuggled close, and this time he had no pretext to avoid making love. Yet still the guilt weighed on him. He had lain with another woman during his wife's absence, and though there had seemed to be a rationale at the time, it poisoned his outlook now.

She knew it, of course. “Last night you let me rest,” she whispered. “But tonight I am rested. Am I not desirable to you?”

“Oh, yes! But—”

“Let's not speak,” she said. She was now naked beside him under their blanket, and he was too. She embraced him, and he felt her smooth breasts and thighs against him.

But there was that aspect of him that did not react. Appalled, he did not know what to say. This had never happened before.

“Or perhaps we should speak,” she said, drawing a little apart. “For it seems that I am not after all—”

“No! You are beautiful!”

“You believe that I was raped,” she said. “It has destroyed your love.”

“No!” he exclaimed, newly appalled. She thought that the failure was in her rather than in him. “That would not—”

“And you suppose that I would conceal this from you, so you can no longer trust me.” Her words were becoming blurred, and he knew she was crying.

“No!” he cried a third time. “That's not it at all! You could be raped a thousand times and I would still love you. And I do love you, no matter what—”

“Your body gives you the lie. Oh, Hucar—”

He realized that he would have to expunge the guilt between them; it could not be hidden. “Anice, I swear to you by the goddess Tanit and my honor as a man—” He realized that was invalid, for his honor was tarnished. “Anice, will you believe what I tell you?”

“Of course,” she said doubtfully.

“I love you. I desire you. There is no fault in you. But I—there is fault in me. I—the Iberian woman—”

“You have evinced a taste for Iberian women,” she said, with a trace of humor admixed with the tears. “It seems the plotters were aware of that.”

He realized that that could have been a factor. Scilla had been like Anice in some respects, being a beautiful Iberian dancer. But that did not absolve him. “I lay with her. Now I don't deserve you.”