“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.”
She was taken aback. “You don't deserve me? But I am the one who has been compromised. I was captive of a man who desired me.”
“And forced you,” Hucar said. “But you can not be blamed for that.”
“He didn't get to that. But he threatened to kill the children if I didn't submit. And I resolved to submit, rather than—”
“Of course you did,” he said. “You would do anything to save the children, and I would not have it otherwise. But I did not have any such excuse. I thought that you and the children were already—”
“So nothing remained to hold your loyalty.”
“But then I learned that you were alive, and I lay with her again.”
She was silent a moment. Her body was abruptly tense. She had finally discovered his point. But she didn't give up. “Why?”
“Because you were not yet free.”
There was another pause. Then she relaxed. “If I had lain with Zabub, lest he kill Chipu, would you condemn me?”
“No! But—”
“And if you lay with Scilla, lest her brother kill me, should I condemn you?”
His guilt began to thin. “But she—I—”
“She was good at it?”
“Yes.”
“I can not think of any man who would not enjoy being in her arms. But did you love her?”
“No. But—”
“You did what I was prepared to do. You said you would not condemn me. So do you condemn yourself?”
“There is more,” he said tightly.
Her body tensed again, then relaxed; she was learning control. “What more?”
“She—when I knew you were safe, and was about to kill her—”
“You killed her?” Anice asked, horrified.
“No. Because she said she—she carried my child.”
At last she appreciated the whole of it. “Oh, my.”
They were silent for some time.
At last Anice spoke again. “That woman is beautiful, but she would lie to gain advantage, and certainly to save herself. You threatened to kill her. She knew how to protect herself. So perhaps you were a fool. But it clarifies how you felt about her.”
“Yes.”
“I am glad there is no such blood on your hands. Let's yield this night to this discussion, and let it be forgotten tomorrow.”
“Agreed,” he said, much relieved.
They kissed, diffidently, and lay back. It did not take them long to sleep.
Hucar woke to Anice's kiss. It was dark, with only the wan suggestion of false dawn. “It is tomorrow,” she whispered.
For a moment he was confused. Then he took her meaning. They had agreed to leave his guilt behind with the prior day. There would be no more discussion of it. She had paid him the compliment of approaching him early rather than late. His love for her swelled explosively. He clasped her, and this time his potency was phenomenal. They had resolved their separation, in the closest way.
Just in time, for the moment the first glow of color showed across the sea, the children scrambled to join them. “You made up!” Minih exclaimed happily.
Hucar exchanged a silent look with Anice. That child was eerie!
The ship had made good time, and soon approached the harbor of New Carthage. They disembarked, and the slave followed.
The city was huge, compared to Baria, with people thronging the streets. All four of them gazed around in wonder. There certainly should be a good market here for the skills of a competent musician and dancer.
They made their way to the court of Hasdrubal. “Ah, Hucar!” the official at the entrance said. “And your family, all safe. The general wants to talk with you about that plot, to be sure complete justice has been done. He is at the altar now; you can see him the moment he is through.”
It was not surprising that General Hasdrubal was at worship. Religion was extremely important to civilized Carthaginians, and the many gods were constantly consulted and propitiated. Most of the ceremonies that Hucar and Anice performed at were religious in nature.
They followed the official, and the slave followed them, being part of their party. They came to an elegant temple annex, where there was a massive silver altar to Baal Hammon and Tanit, the leading male and female gods. Baal Hammon was nominally the most powerful one, but Tanit, as his wife and the Earth Mother, was perhaps the one most worshipped, and certainly she received the greatest number of human child sacrifices, the most valuable kind. Foreigners tended not to understand this aspect of worship, but the fact was that while small commercial offerings sufficed on a day to day basis, blood was required for ceremonial occasions, so animal sacrifices were standard. That was the mulk ‘immor, a lamb or kid. But when there was a very special event, the goddess required a very special offering, and there was nothing more precious than an innocent human being. Thus the mulk ba'al, the sacrifice of a child. Hucar understood and accepted this, but had been privately relieved when his own children passed beyond the age limit.
They waited beside a statue of Baal Hammon, in the aspect of a bearded man flanked by a bull and an eagle. Through the archway Hucar saw the general kneeling at the altar. Such devotions could not be hurried; they had to be done according to form, lest the gods be affronted.
br /> “That is Hasdrubal?” the slave inquired.
“Yes,” Hucar agreed absently. Surely it was time for the slave to go home, having delivered them safely to this site.
Minih screamed. Then the slave drew a wickedly long knife and charged into the sacred chamber.
“What—?” Hucar started.
“Stop him!” Minih cried.
Guards appeared from hidden crevices and ran after the slave. But they were too late. The slave dived at the kneeling man and plunged his knife into the general's neck. Blood spurted.
Then the first guard caught up. With one smart chop he split the slave's head and face into halves. The slave fell, dead. But General Hasdrubal was also dead.
Hucar and Anice exchanged a stare of absolute horror. They had brought that slave! He was an impostor, on a mission of Iberian vengeance. He hadn't cared about his own life, as long as he killed Hasdrubal. He had achieved vengeance for the execution of his chief.
What had they done?
When General Hasdrubal was assassinated in Iberia, in revenge for his execution of an Iberian chief, Hamilcar's son Hannibal was given the buckler and sword of Carthaginian leadership at the age of twenty-four. He had already served six years as a highly ranked military commander under his brother-in-law. He was well regarded by his troops, had a brilliant military mind, was an outstanding horseman, and as a soldier he excelled in all facets of the military existence. He dressed as simply as his troops, and had an Iberian wife. But he was of a more hawkish disposition than Hasdrubal. So perhaps it is not surprising that he led Carthage into the second Punic War with the powerful city-state of Rome, and consistently defeated the Roman armies, even in Italy itself, for fifteen years. The second Punic War lasted from 218 to 202 B.C., when Rome finally prevailed by attacking Carthage in Africa, forcing Hannibal to return to fight on ground chosen by the Romans. But even when Carthage was later destroyed, the Phoenician presence and culture remained along the southern Mediterranean region for centuries, as part of the Roman Empire.
CHAPTER 13
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