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WHILE SEBASTIANUS WENT UP and down the line, checking camels and horses, giving last-minute instructions, patting men on the back and telling them a great adventure lay ahead of them, Timonides paid a secret, hasty visit to the Caravan Master, whom Sebastianus had visited moments earlier. Timonides knew Sebastianus had given the man a letter for Ulrika. Timonides could not help that. But he also knew that Sebastianus had given the Caravan Master a verbal message to give to a fair-haired girl should she come inquiring about the Gallus caravan. "Tell her we departed on the daybefore the Summer Solstice. Tell her we will wait at Basra until the next full moon. From there, we take the old northern route to Samarkand." He had given the man a silver coin for his trouble.
Now Timonides gave the man a new message, and slipped him a gold coin to help his memory. The astrologer returned to the caravan in time to mount his donkey and wave readiness to Sebastianus who sat high atop his horse.
And then Sebastianus, looking back toward the west one last time, to picture fair hair that framed blue eyes and to whisper a prayer for Ulrika's safekeeping, turned in his saddle and faced ahead, toward the east, where mountains and rivers and deserts awaited him.
And a fabled city called Luoyang.
THE MARDUK PROCESSION SEEMED to go on for miles, and Ulrika grew so impatient that she was tempted to abandon the dray and hurry to the caravan area on foot. But no one dared move while the supreme god of Babylon was making an appearance in public, and so she had to wait.
Finally, the last of the drummers and priests and mounted soldiers had passed by, and the flax merchant whipped his donkeys into forward progress. At the caravan staging area, which was vast and crowded with men and beasts, tents and enormous piles of merchandise, Ulrika went straight to the tent of the Caravan Master, who could point her in the right direction.
He wrinkled his bulbous nose. "Eh? The Gallus caravan? They left over a month ago. Long gone, by now." Gallus had given him a silver coin to tell the girl the truth. But the Greek had given him a gold coin to say they had departed a month ago. For this amount of money, the man would have happily made it a year! "And this is for you," he added, handing Ulrika a small scroll.
She quickly opened it and saw that it was a letter from Sebastianus, written in Latin. "My dearest Ulrika, the stars have decreed that we must depart early. It is with a heavy heart that I leave, for I had hoped to have you at my side on this journey into the fabulous unknown. But I go also with joy, knowing that I will soon fulfill my life's dream to visit distant China. I carryyou in my heart, Ulrika. You will be in my thoughts and in my dreams. And when I stand before the throne of the emperor of China, you will be at my side. I pray, my dearest, that you receive this letter, and that you will wait for me in Babylon. I love you."
"Do you know which route the caravan took?" she asked, her eyes filling with tears.
The man frowned. Gallus had left explicit instructions, but surely the gold coin warranted a false rendering of that information as well. So he said, "They were to board ships at the Gulf. They'll be far away at sea by now."
Crushed with disappointment, Ulrika thanked the man and turned away, toward the towering gates of Babylon, turning her back on the eastern horizon where still could be seen, in the dying light of day, dust rising up from the hooves and wheels and feet of the great caravan that had just departed for China.
20
ULRIKA HAD DISCOVERED THAT Babylon, being at the crossroads between east and west, was a cosmopolitan city, tolerant of all faiths. Here, any foreigner to the city would find the god or goddess of his choice. Greek visitors found shrines to Aphrodite, Zeus, and Diana. Romans, when not at war with Persia, were welcome in temples devoted to Jupiter and Venus. Phoenicians could offer sacrifice to Baal, Egyptians to Isis and Osiris, Persians to Mithras. And of course, Babylon's own gods, Marduk and Ishtar, resided here in the most magnificent temples.
Ulrika had visited them all, speaking with priests and oracles and wise-women, seeking to further her i
She had also searched for clues as to where she could find the Crystal Pools of Shalamandar, with no success.
But the whole while she had been in this great city on the Euphrates, Ulrika's heart had been with Sebastianus, who she prayed was making steady progress toward China.
She read his letter every night, and had developed the ritual of speaking to him before falling asleep, picturing his handsome face, his smile, sensing his strength and power, recalling the feel of his hands on her arms that last night in Antioch as he had declared his love for her. Ulrika would lie on her pallet as the city of Babylon stirred in restless slumber and whisper to Sebastianus in the darkness, telling him of her day, what she had achieved, assuring him that he was in her thoughts and heart from morning until night, hoping that Mercury, messenger of the gods and patron god of merchants and traders, would carry her words to her beloved.
Ulrika turned toward Enlil Street, where she rented a small room from a widow named Na
But Ulrika always took time to visit the caravan terminus at the south of the city, to inquire among traders returning from the East for any news on Sebastianus. The last report on the imperial diplomatic caravan to China had been six months ago, when a merchant of Bactrian camels had told Ulrika that he had heard of the Gallus expedition making a safe and successful passage through the treacherous passes of Samarkand. Ulrika had heard no word of Sebastianus since.
She stood now in the sunlight of the marketplace as people bustled around her, ignoring the young woman in plain homespun with a veil covering her hair. The only feature to distinguish Ulrika from other youngwomen in Babylon was a wooden box hanging from her shoulder on a leather strap, symbols in Egyptian hieroglyphs and Babylonian cuneiform identifying it as a medicine kit.
Thinking of the money she had just been paid for draining an abscess, and what she might purchase with it, Ulrika stopped suddenly and stared. In front of a vendor selling onions, leeks, and lentils, on the dusty ground before the display tables, a big brown hound sat on shaggy haunches.