It had been the right thing to say. It put him on a level with the greatest. It told him he was above the strictures of ancient custom and could dictate his own rules to the world. It was what he had suspected all his life, and it was good to hear it affirmed by a peer. Then she stared past him and pointed. "What is that?"
He turned and saw that the flickering glimmer he had noticed just before her arrival was now a discernible fire. Then a tongue of red flame shot skyward, twisting in the wind until it was a writhing, spiral pillar. All around the harbor, alarm gongs began to thunder.
Teuta stepped to the parapet and swept the jammed expanse with her gaze. "How bad is this?"
"Our firefighters are very expert. Ship fires are a common occurrence." But he was deeply alarmed.
"It is at the northern end of the harbor and the wind is strong from that direction. Have your men ever been faced with this? Has the water ever been so packed with kindling-wood?"
"Never in living memory," he told her. "I'd better go and take personal charge."
"I'll come with you," she said.
"I appreciate it, but you cannot help."
"I do not intend to. I just want to view the spectacle at close hand." She said it with a hint of pleasurable anticipation. This one will bear watching, he thought as he shouted to his servants, demanding that swift horses be brought.
With a roar, a ship erupted like a volcano. Great amphorae flew through the air, spewing liquid fire over neighboring vessels. An oil ship, he thought. Already this was out of control.
Minutes later they were mounted and pelting down the wide, paved street that ran from the palace to the harbor. Before them rode guardsmen who cleared the street ahead, swinging huge whips to drive pedestrians from their path. The hour was late and at first there were few citizens abroad, but as they neared the harbor the crowd grew dense. The clamor of the gongs awakened sleepers and they rushed outside to see what was happening. Word of a fire in the harbor sent them down toward the water to view the flames.
Gawkers began to go down beneath the hooves of the guardsmen's mounts, and whips bit into flesh. The uproar from the harbor was so loud that few heard the royal party's approach until it was too late to get out of the way. The smell of smoke and blood and the general uproar made even the trained warhorses nervous, and the guardsmen resorted to using the weighted butts of their whips to drive them forward.
Hamilcar fretted impatiently. Already, the flames towered over the rooftops ahead. He looked to his side and saw Teuta, her horse under perfect control, her face ablaze. "I had not anticipated such excitement until we should see battle!" she told him. "This is proving a most entertaining journey!" Her Greek gown was not designed for riding and it bunched almost at her hips, baring her legs immodestly, but considering the density of her intricate tattoos, she looked fully clothed.
At last they burst from the streets onto the great plaza that separated the warehouses of the port from the water and the long, stone wharfs that ran far out into the harbor. The harbormaster stood atop a twenty-foot platform, shouting orders through a huge funnel of thin silver, one of the insignia of his office. Under his direction, firefighters ran along the wharfs carrying buckets of water and sand, some holding the axes and poles and long rakes used in their demanding profession. Hamilcar noted with approval their excellent discipline and courage. The men wore heavy fire cloaks of leather or linen and wide-brimmed helmets of painted rawhide.
Hamilcar and Teuta dismounted at the base of the platform and dashed up its steps. "How far has it spread?" Hamilcar shouted.
"The northeast quadrant is ablaze," the harbormaster said. He was a white-bearded man of many years' experience. He did not bow to his shofet or even look in his direction. At this moment his authority in the harbor was absolute. It was a law enacted before the days of Hannibal. Hamilcar stood behind him and to one side and motioned for Teuta to stay near him.
"Can the balance of the shipping be saved?" Hamilcar asked.
"We'll be lucky to save the harbor itself. If we do, you may thank your ancestors who decreed that only stone be used for construction here. We have enough firefighters to handle a fire perhaps one-tenth this size. Even that would be a large fire. This is unimaginable."
"How did it start?" Hamilcar asked grimly.
"It may have been an overturned lamp, or a cooking fire that burned after dark in violation of the law." Now he turned and looked at Hamilcar. "But if that is the case, it happened at the very worst time, and in the very worst spot, that it could have: among ships laden with oil and pitch, at the very spot where the wind would sweep the flames over the harbor."