Chapter 5: Claudius' Return (Part II)
The white galleon set sail three days later, Calabis entrusted the affairs of the Acropolis and Ponticabion to Pop and Hebrida, and he and the princess went to sea and sailed in the direction of Colchis, the craftsmen and oarsmen all hired the men of the previous Pontic fleet, and kept it absolutely secret, the ship passed low-key from the cliff of the lighthouse island in the bay that Adiana said, and the lighthouse above constantly signaled with the reflection of the large bronze mirror, and the Pontic garrison here was also replaced, arranged by Calabis, and changed the defense here, It was Macmillan's men, and they knew everything at sea.
"This signal is that Pompey's advance fleet is coming, about ten rowing boats." Calabis on the side of the ship said.
Then he and Adriana saw Macmillan's purple sail fleet sail out at the sound of the trumpet, splitting the white waves and heading in the direction of Pompey's advance fleet.
"Soon Pompey will get the information that his great business is not finished, and that there are still powerful pirates on the northern shore of the Yukxing Sea." Calabis grinned with grin, and then shouted from the deck, "We don't have to wade through this troubled water, this water will soon become a battlefield for throwing stones, let's go around!" All the oarsmen shouted their trumpets to the beat of the drums, and marched diagonally in the direction of the helmsman.
The sun was rising, the stars were sinking, and the days of traveling on the ocean were extremely dull, until the oarsmen on the deck shouted and saw the plants floating in the water, and everyone knew that Colchis's land was almost there. In the bridge room, the curtain was pulled back, and Adiana wore her long hair parted in the middle of a Greek style, wearing a dark understated luxury loose robe, with her mother's small tiara. The eyebrows fly diagonally into the sideburns. The chin is slightly raised. Quiet and elegant like a statue of a beautiful god, "the crown moved back", and Calabis in front of the curtain held the crown of the princess with his hand, and frowned to help Adiana's crown adjust for a while.
In fact, looking at Calabis's serious appearance, Adiana was a little impulsive and wanted to ask him if he would miss the queen and his daughter, and she was curious about how Calabis thought of his woman. But after this period of time, she learned to be obedient, and after thinking about some things, she felt that she should not say them, so she would not talk more.
After fiddling with it, Calabis took off the Legion undershirt he had been wearing in front of Adiana, revealing the tendons all over his body, and then covered it with a white Greek gown and a gray smock, then picked up a razor and shaved off a lot of the beard he had always had grown, leaving only the corners of his mouth and chin. Combined with his long hair in the Acropolis, he looks like a Persian royal nobleman.
"Be ready to disembark." Calabis after the stolen. said to the somewhat flustered princess, the other party suddenly realized, and then nodded again and again.
"Pompey is stationed on the outskirts of Stola, which was originally the palace of Agasis, Adiana, you cover your face with a veil, this is the territory of the Acayans, let them find out, they will eat you alive." With such a warning from Calabis, Adiana put on her veil, sat down on the ornate sedan chair, and on the shoulders of sixteen servants, and landed on the staircase bridge on the deck of the ship, followed by several eunuchs, and Carabis dressed in white robes, and the indigo warrior Biduita, with twenty armed servants armed with clubs and banners, walked in front to open the way, and at the dock checkpoint, he handed the herald with the seal of the legion to the Pompey soldiers who guarded the pass.
When the soldier wanted to reach forward and lift Adiana's veil to see what was going on, Calabis slammed his hand and said angrily: "We are from the other side of the ocean, and we are also the guests of the great general Pompey, if my mistress is seen by you and insulted, I will kill you immediately, and then kill the mistress." The soldier's expression then retracted his hand as if he had seen a nervous disorder, and then looked at the beetle-shaped golden hoop on Adiana's half-exposed white wrist, which was definitely a young lady, and rolled his eyes and waved his hand to show permission.
In front of the palace, Calabis ordered the chariot to stop under the shade of a dense tree, and then he carefully observed the place where Pompey was stationed, and the princes, chieftains, and nobles of Asia Minor, West Asia, the Red Sea, and the Caucasus would come from all over the world every day to pay homage to the new power of Asia, Gnaeus. General Pompey, the soldiers who suffered from the curfew, were always blocking and inspecting.
Today seems to be no exception, Calabis took a deep breath, lifted the veil of the sedan chair, and said to Adiana: "The critical moment has come, you have to calm down Adiana, like a real princess, no, you are the real one!" ”
The veiled Adiana rolled her eyes down on Calabis and nodded.
Then, Calabis skilfully avoided all kinds of people and so on, and disappeared into the crowd, while Adiana ordered the servants to continue to lift her up until the door was under the steps of the palace, and when the soldiers came forward to ask, the eunuchs who accompanied her hurriedly stepped forward and spread the mats and carpets in front of the sedan chair, and she stepped on the back of a eunuch who was lying on the ground with great calmness, and stepped down the sedan chair, and then stretched out her slender fingers in front of a slave who seemed to be Pompey's butler in the gatekeeper, and the butler slave seemed to be shocked, Subconsciously bowed and grabbed the hand of the princess, "Trouble to spread the news of the respected general Pompey, the highest Roman Yuan in Asia, Mithridates. Eubert's daughter, Adiana, a Cappadocian noblewoman, took the liberty of visiting. Unveiled, Adiana, who was surrounded by everyone in the middle, swayed and mournful, and her hair was beautiful.
On the other side, Calabis, who was nestled in a narrow alley, stretched out his head from time to time to look, he calculated that Adiana had been entering Pompey's mansion for quite a while, and sure enough, not long after, several men dressed in cook's clothes and hanging slave nameplates came from the other side of the street in sweat, and after they had passed, Calabis pulled the lone one directly into the alley, and the other party was covered by him, and then he ripped off the nameplate of the other party, and stuffed the other party with a heavy bag of gold coins, "From now on, you are not a slave, take this money with you." , just go to that aristocratic family to work, redeem yourself with these guys, and the rest will be enough for you to live the rest of your life! Then Calabis tore off the lone cook's robe and put it on himself, pushed him to the other side of the alley, hung a nameplate around his neck, and turned and walked out.
At the side gate of the palace, several priests were inspecting these makeshift cooks who could serve as oriental cuisine, because the princess of Pompeii wanted to taste her favorite dishes in Sinop's palace at Pompey's dinner, which made Pompey go to great lengths to search for cooks throughout the city.
Calabis sat in the side of the door, and it was not until the first few had gone in that he walked slowly to the half-bald, gray-haired steward slave, and the old fellow looked at Calabis's countenance and nameplate, and said, "Take off your clothes, take them clean, and hang them naked." (To be continued......)