With that the Sea Wolves set about cleaning themselves; they bathed and shaved their matted beards and cut their hair, and cast off their filthy rags for simple mantles the amir provided. When they finished, much of their former swagger had returned.
The Britons, who had no silver to worry about, were also unwilling to go into the town. "I will not set foot in that accursed place," Dugal vowed.
"You have no purse," I pointed out. "Therefore, you have nothing to fear."
"Ha!" Dugal mocked. "Think you I would give the slave-traders a chance to seize me and sell me again? I never will."
Dugal was, perhaps, closer to the truth than he knew. In any event, I was prepared to stay in camp with the others and await the amir's return, but Kazimain insisted I go. "You must speak to Lord Sadiq!" she urged.
This is how I came to be standing in the slave market at Amida when I heard someone cry, "Aedan!"
The market square was awash in an uneasy flood of people, most of whom were shouting at the top of their voices, trying to make themselves heard over all the others. On this day, there were no slaves to be sold, but there were horses and donkeys, sheep and goats aplenty, and also, an animal I had seen but once or twice in Trebizond: camels; loud, shaggy, and ill-tempered creatures much favoured by those of the dry southern places. Sellers appeared to outnumber buyers, and as the sun was already stretching the shadows across the square, desperation had begun setting in. Most of the sellers were herdsmen and farmers who did not care to begin the long journey home with empty purses.
The shout came again, sharp and distinct: "Aedan!"
I stood stump-still and listened. If I was not certain I had heard it the first time, I heard it clearly now, and I began searching the busy marketplace for whoever had called me. Though the square teemed with people, no one paid the slightest attention to me. Well, the market was so noisy, I might have imagined it after all; I made to continue on my way, following the amir and Faysal about the chore of procuring supplies. Yet, even as I turned to hasten after them, out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed the slight, wizened figure of Amet, the magus I had consulted in Trebizond.
He moved towards me, holding up his hands in a peculiar gesture of greeting-as if he feared I would flee him before he could reach me. I hastened to join him, but before I took three strides, a herd of goats moved between us and suddenly I was surrounded by the bleating animals.
Amet stopped. Gazing intently at me across a distance of fifty paces, his hands still raised, palms outward in his peculiar greeting, he called out; his mouth moved, but his words were swallowed by the din of the market and the nattering of the goats.
Cupping a hand to my ear, I shouted, "What did you say?"-whereupon he repeated his call. I heard him no better the second time, and was only able to make out a single word: Sebastea.
"I cannot hear you!" I shouted, and started towards him once again, shoving my way through the goat herd, only to have him taken from my sight by a man leading three horses. They passed before me, man and horses, and when I stepped forward again Amet was gone.
I rushed to the place where he had been standing, but the little magus was nowhere to be seen. "Amet!" I cried.
His voice came to me one last time, but further away. "Come to Sebastea, Aedan! Sebastea…"
Nowhere among the mass of bodies pressing all around was Amet to be found. I called his name again, but received no reply. He had vanished so completely that I quickly doubted whether I had seen him at all. Making a last inspection of the square, I turned and hurried after Faysal and the amir, who were talking to a man standing beside a wagon loaded with sacks of grain.
I quickly rejoined them, taking my place behind Faysal just as Sadiq struck a bargain with the man for his wagonload of barley. While Faysal told the man where to deliver the grain, Sadiq turned his attention to the other matter on his mind: finding an escort to take Kazimain back to Samarra.
"The shaykh of this place will know men I can trust," Sadiq said.
"Lord Amir," I said, "if I may be so bold as to suggest-" I hesitated.
"Yes?" demanded the amir in a distracted way, his eyes searching the marketplace. "What? What? Speak."
"-to suggest that Kazimain should be allowed to continue the journey with us."
Amir Sadiq's eyes shifted to me; his mouth twitched into an instant frown. "Continue with us," he said, his voice leaden, "to Byzantium?"
"Yes," I replied, and could feel the resistance rise up within him.
But before he could draw breath to refuse me, Faysal spoke up, "Lord, if you please, this is the very thing I have been thinking."
Sadiq's baleful eyes swung from me to Faysal. "You are both mad." He turned abruptly. "It cannot be allowed."
"I believe she could be of great use to us," I persisted. "It may be that-"
"No," the amir said, moving away, "I have spoken and the matter is concluded."
