The Pirate's Legacy: New Beginnings

Chapter 21: Under the Veil

There was a slight problem with the final phase of the plan. It hadn't been anticipated beforehand that Daryl would break his arm, thus rendering him nearly useless as Dread Robin's assistant. The captain intended to steal the map himself while Em distracted Pasicrates, but Daryl had been assigned originally to come along with him should trouble arise. In spite of Roger's initial reservations, Daryl begged his way into being some sort of help to the captain.

Since Roger was going to work independently from Em, and Craig would take his place as her second guard, Roger allowed Em to make a plausible excuse for his absence.

"You would trust me on this?" Em asked incredulously after he returned from scouting Pasicrates's villa.

He perked an eyebrow mockingly. "Surprising, isn't it?" he remarked. "Don't mess this up or you'll have more to worry about than Pasicrates."

Even more shocking was Dread Robin's willingness to hire two exceptionally strong men to carry Em to the villa on a sedan chair. She'd heard about sedans from the Politickan Ambassador. Born on poles, the sides of the single chair were boxed in except for the front and curtained by thin silk made of the same material as her veil. When highborn women in the south didn't want to wear the veil, they used sedan chairs or its contemporary, the palanquin. The vehicle was meant to shield them from the view of outsiders when they couldn't walk great distances, but as Em traveled to Pasicrates's villa in her sedan chair, with the two bearers and Michael and Craig walking on either side of her, she quickly found the enclosed space more stifling than the heat outside of it.

When they finally arrived at their destination, it was all Em could do to keep herself from leaping out of the sedan chair on her own accord. Instead, she allowed Michael to take her hand and help her step out into the outer courtyard where her host awaited her.

"My lady, welcome to my most humble palace by the sea," Pasicrates greeted her. His eyes passed over her guards and stopped for a moment on Craig. "Why, I seemed to recall this man as much taller in the market."

Em stepped up to him with Michael and Craig in tow. Her voice floated, soft and musical, to the men's ears. "My guard, Brutus, underestimated the island's heat and fell ill shortly after we parted in the bazaar."

"Ah." The back of Pasicrates's large neck tingled to hear her speak. It sounded equal to the whisper of the wind. He pulled Em to his side. Her veil fluttered behind her. "Let us get you inside from prying eyes so that I may become more acquainted with you," he said eagerly.

They stepped into a grandiose atrium full of marble sculptures. The room's ceiling was opened up to the sky at the center. Directly below it was a large rectangular pool that collected rainwater. Around the bowl in the middle of the pool were statues of maidens and satyrs dancing around. Precious stones bordering the pool played with the light that the combined sunlight and water created.

"Very grand, yes?" Pasicrates's voice boomed and echoed as Em walked around slowly, gazing up at the mosaics all over the walls and pillars in wide-eyed wonder. "Come, my dear. This is merely the entrance!"

He took her through one of many hallways that led out of the atrium, Michael and Craig following closely behind. The next room that they entered was even more magnificently decorated than the first room. It was the main room where Pasicrates entertained and received his guests. This particular reception quarter enjoyed the most sunlight of any other room of the villa because it happened to have been built facing the sea.

"I have a spectacularly unblemished view of the ocean in this room," boasted Pasicrates as he swept his meaty hand over the scene beyond the portico outside. "No ships or boats to plague the eyes." He looked at Em, his eyes squinting slightly in hopes to see through the impenetrable side of the veil. Then he walked over to the table behind his guests where a pitcher of his finest wine and two cups sat and poured him and Em both a glass.