Rhita felt Oresias’s hand on her arm. He led her to the cab of a covered steam freight wagon. Seven such wagons waited to carry them and their equipment from the staging area in the garage to the aerodromos in the western desert, beyond the old nekropolis. “This had better be worthwhile,” he murmured in her ear, not in accusation, but in camaraderie.

Jamal Atta accompanied a tall, black-haired man with ruddy skin. Both climbed into Rhita’s wagon and found their assigned seats. When they were settled, and the wagons began to roll from the garage, the military advisor introduced the stranger. “This is your long-missing didaskalos, if I recall correctly,” Atta said. “He has just returned from Kallimakhos’s exile. Demetrios, this is your patient and disruptive student, Rhita Berenikē Vaskayza. She asked that you accompany us.”

Demetrios turned his genial features on Rhita and smiled with a mix of confidence and shyness that Rhita found disconcerting. “I am honored,” he said.

“As am I. I hope you weren’t…troubled by your journey. I seem to have been the reason for it.”

“Irritation, no more,” Demetrios said. “I’m still not sure what I’m doing here…. We seem to be going on a long journey, and the queen personally told me I was needed. I can’t imagine why.”

“Because you’re the mekhanikos with the most advanced ideas,” Oresias said. “Her Imperial Hypsēlotēs expects we’ll be seeing some real marvels, and hopes you can explain them to us, if our mistress Vaskayza cannot.”

“She did discuss wonders. I confess I couldn’t understand all she said…. Are we looking for the door that opened for the sophē to enter this world?”

“Maybe,” Rhita said.

“That would be a marvel, indeed.” He shook his head in wonder, and then looked at the box holding the clavicle. “Is that one of the Objects?”

Rhita nodded. Demetrios had the features of an aborigine from Nea Karkhēdōn, but with lighter, more olive-toned skin. There was perhaps some Latine blood in him, or Aigyptian.

“You will pardon my reverent curiosity,” he said. “Mechanikoi in my studio have been taught about the sophē’s Objects from childhood. To actually see one…” He seemed about to ask if he could touch it, but Oresias shook his head discreetly.

“I am pleased to meet you,” Demetrios concluded, smiling again. Rhita glanced at the other men in the wagon. She was the only female in this wagonload. There were only two other women in the entire expedition. She had hoped there might be more, but even under Kleopatra’s influence, the attitudes of Alexandreia were very different from those of Rhodos.