Chapter 9
A letter from Aristokles arrived the following morning. Damiskos was at breakfast with Nione and Tyra when the young slave Niko brought it in. The students, mercifully, were too hungover to be present, and their master had not come down either.
Damiskos and Tyra waited politely while their host opened the tablet and read its contents. Nione set it on the table by the basket of bread, frowning. She shook out her skirt as if to rise, then subsided into her chair and looked at Damiskos.
“I don’t want to embarrass you, Damiskos,” she said, clearly embarrassed herself, “only I wondered if you might have some idea why Pharastes lied to me about his master’s—his former master’s—whereabouts?”
Damiskos desperately wanted to unfold the full story to her on the spot, but he couldn’t do
