"Now," he said, "show me some of your Babylonian depravities."
The twins smiled and did as they were bidden.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Queen Teuta's face twisted, making the tattoos writhe. Her breath wheezed between teeth clenched in a rictus of near-grotesque intensity. Her unbound hair flew wildly, her breasts swung, her hips churned and every part of her body was in abandoned motion. Then she shuddered, stopped as if suddenly stunned and cried out hoarsely as her fingers dug into his shoulders, before she collapsed upon Hamilcar in a sweaty heap.
The shofet, drained by his own, less demonstrative release, stroked her back as his thundering heartbeat slowly returned to normal. He knew that this passionate woman might well be the death of him, but no one else had ever made him feel more kingly. She seemed perfectly unconcerned about possible impregnation, and he gathered that she believed the two of them were above such petty considerations. That, too, gave him satisfaction.
Of course, she had some annoying peculiarities. For instance, she insisted on riding him, holding that as a queen of matchless horsemen, this was her right. He longed to mount her as a lion mounts a lioness, but this she had so far refused to permit. He resolved to enjoy her this way before consenting to a royal marriage. The woman would have to learn to make concessions.
At last she arose from the bed and called for her serving women. As they attended to their mistress with damp cloths and warm towels, he admired her superb body with its covering of tattoos. He had learned that, indeed, not a square inch of her flesh had been spared the needle save her eyelids and lips. A lifetime in Carthage made one a connoisseur of the bizarre, and this was as outré as anything he had ever seen. What made it even more stirring was that the woman was a queen.
Later, dressed and seated on a terrace in the light of a full moon, they spoke of their plans. From the distance they could hear the constant work of hammers and saws. The building of new ships went on day and night now, as Carthage sought to make up the losses from the tremendous fire. The work went swiftly, but harder to replace were the cargoes that had turned to ashes and smoke. The shofet had sent out to his provinces and to neighbor kings for the supplies his armies would need so desperately. He had called in favors going back many years, spending royal capital with abandon. No matter. With the success of this war he would be master of them all.
"Syracuse has fallen," Teuta said in her customarily blunt fashion. "When do we begin?"
"Begin? You mean counterattack?"
"What else could I mean?" she said impatiently. "So far, Rome has had all the advantage in aggression. Let them win any more, and they will think themselves invincible."
"They already think themselves invincible," he pointed out.
"So did the Spartans. Then came the battle of Leuctra. Epimanondas and the Thebans smashed the Spartans and never again did the Spartans or anyone else believe that they were invincible. Once a myth is broken it is never again recovered." She took a generous swallow of unwatered Chian wine.
The woman was a constant amazement. She ate and drank like a Gallic mercenary and could be as crude as a clay pot, but she displayed a fine knowledge of history and was an astute judge of men as individuals and in their masses and nations. But she was trying to rush him and he could not allow her to think she was in charge.
"When the time is right, I shall destroy Rome and its myth together. But one should never go to war without the fullest preparation. Grain and oil, nails, tents, lumber and a thousand other things are as important to a campaign as fighting men, horses and weapons."
"It is possible to be too cautious. Sometimes it is better to hit hard and fast with what you have, than to wait until you have everything you think you must have. Many campaigns have failed because a king has always needed just one more allied contingent, one more wing of cavalry, one more ship. They are usually struck by someone more aggressive and less concerned with preparation. I am not saying that you should go off foolishly unprepared, just that these Romans don't seem to hesitate to attack and you must hit back quickly. Deal them a major setback and they will stop to figure out what went wrong. Then you will have leisure to assemble your fullest force down to the last tent peg in order to fight a war of annihilation."
This was tempting. "I see. You are not, then, suggesting that I send my main army?"
"No."
Hamilcar clapped his hands and a slave stepped forward from the shadows. "Bring my war map and more lamps."
In the light of the new lamps they studied the large parchment. Upon it were drawn all the lands bordering the Middle Sea. Carthaginian possessions were gilt, and fortifications marked, with their garrisons enumerated. Ports and their naval facilities and fleets were likewise depicted. Hamilcar stabbed a finger at a spur jutting from the southern coast of Spain.