The Hermaphrodite's Curse Ch. 23

PART FOUR - BODRUM

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On a peninsula of dry land surrounded by deep blue seas and bright blue skies, the town of Bodrum has become in recent years a magnet for tourists seeking the sunshine and beautiful beaches of the Aegean Sea. The thousands of people who come from across the world to enjoy the universal sunshine of this stretch of coast are mostly unconcerned by the region's history. However, the peninsula's location on the southern part of Turkey's coast has made it strategically important for thousands of years. Before the tourist boom in the 20th century, the town was mostly populated by fishermen and sponge divers. However, a series of stern, square greystone towers overlooking the harbour give a suggestion of the peninsula's role as a stronghold in the age of the crusaders.

This castle was built on a site that had always been at the heart of the defences of the region. When in ancient times this was the kingdom of Caria, the ruling kings had their base here as well. It was here, in Halicarnassus, beside the modern town of Bodrum that the greatest of those rulers was buried in a grand Mausoleum whose construction and beautiful statues made Antipater of Sidon name it as one of his legendary Seven Wonders of the World.

Antipater's list, however, was written for the travellers of the second century BC and the Mausoleum that confronted Gabe and Saphy looked considerably less impressive as they arrived in Bodrum after a number of uncomfortable train journeys across France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and finally into Turkey after two days of travel. Given their need to be careful with money and the fact that using trains and other methods they could cross European borders without showing their passports, handy when they were still wanted by the authorities in England, they had had to rule out the much simpler option of a flight direct from Paris, resulting in their slow, uncomfortable journey and other nights sharing a bed in tiny cheap hotels in Budapest and Istanbul.

Despite all of this, Saphy had proved, for the most part despite occasional grumpy spells, to be far better company than Gabe had experienced on the journey from London. Solving the latest mystery seemed to have distracted her enough from her anger at the death of Jane Cavendish, her mentor, that she seemed in much better spirits.

That they had worked well together in the Louvre to uncover the latest clue meant that she was also beginning to trust Gabe more and to share her thoughts with him. There had not, however, been a moment of such intimacy as they had shared in the Paris hotel room. Saphy, although more open with Gabe now, was keen to talk classical history and not her own history or feelings. During the journey, she had been happy to read the many books she had taken from Cambridge and had passed the time explaining to Gabe about the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and its history.

"It was a tomb built for Mausolus, the ruler of Caria," she had explained as the train rumbled through Turkish hills, "We use the word mausoleum for all types of tombs these days, but that's where the word comes from, it was named after Mausolus. He was a satrap, a regional ruler in the Persian Empire. However, he was a greater admirer of Greek culture and the Greek way of life. He built a number of new Greek style cities along the coast. He also decided to move his capital from Mylasa, the old Persian capital of his ancestors, to Halicarnassus, where he could build a grand city of gleaming marble in the Greek style to reflect Mausolus' greatness as a king.

"Artemisia was Mausolus' sister, but, according to the rules of the Carian royal family, she also became his wife."

"Euhhh," Gabe made a disgusted noise, "That's pretty weird."

"It was fairly normal among royal families back then, they didn't want to dilute the royal bloodline," Saphy explained, "Hey, even today's royal families tend to marry their cousins and end up a bit inbred. Why do you think they're all so thick and funny looking?"

"Any of that sort of thing in your own aristocratic family?" Gabe couldn't help asking, but, when his companion had given him a frosty look, he had turned the conversation back to the ancients, "So, they were brother and sister forced to become husband and wife? I bet that was a bit of an awkward marriage."

"Not at all, apparently she was utterly devoted to him and the successes of their reign were partly down to how they ruled together. They were almost like two halves of same whole. Artemisia's grief on the death of her husband is legendary. Over the two years after he died, she continued to rule the country, winning a famous victory over the people of Rhodes through her shrewd tactical command, but she pined constantly for her dead husband and wasted away and died herself within those two years. According to legend, she mixed her husband's ashes in with her daily drink every morning so that they could truly become one together."

"Wow, that's pretty hardcore weird," Gabe responded, "It kind of tips over from being romantic into being creepy."

"But, that's not all she did for the memory of her beloved husband. She also decided to build him a tomb that would be the most incredible monument to his greatness and to their love. She sent for all the greatest artists, designers and sculptors from across Greece and they came and built this great marble tomb.

"'A huge flight of stone steps led up to it, flanked by stone lions and statues of gods and goddesses,'" she read from one of her books, "'The tomb itself was over 130 feet high and guarded by stone warriors on horseback at each of the corners. The bas-reliefs depicted battles with centaurs and amazon warrior women. The huge, heavy pyramidal roof was topped with a quadriga, a chariot pulled by four huge horses in which stood the figures of Mausolus and Artemisia together.'

"Look, there's a picture," she turned in the narrow, hard seat of the railway carriage to show Gabe the image, a modern recreation of the grand tomb.

"That's really something," Gabe marvelled, "But I remember Professor Gerard saying that it was destroyed."

"That's right," she confirmed, "Artemisia was succeeded by her sister Ada, but the city was besieged and conquered by Alexander the Great. The Mausoleum, however, survived this and attacks by pirates as the city declined in importance. However, a series of earthquakes six hundred years ago brought the whole weight of the roof and the bronze chariot crashing down.

"Still, the design has been copied and recreated hundreds of times in other buildings, in other times. Look at this," she showed him another, very similar looking picture, "That's the Masonic House of the Temple in Washington. The design is styled on the Mausoleum. It would seem that our white cross wearers aren't the first secret society interested in it!"

"So, it's in ruins then?" said Gabe, fascinated that he had heard so much about the Seven Wonders of the World down the years without really having any idea about what those wonders had been.

"Yeah, the earthquake pretty much destroyed it," Saphy confirmed, "Most of the Seven Wonders failed to last into modern times. The only one that's still in tact is the pyramids."

Even this warning of the Mausoleum no longer bearing much resemblance to its glory days could not prepare Gabe for the disappointment of seeing the ruins on their eventual arrival in Bodrum. A pile of rocks would, perhaps, be a generous description for the remaining ruins of the Mausoleum. A random spread of rocks, not even showing vague foundations, would be more accurate. There was almost literally nothing to be seen at the site of this once great tomb. Even Saphy, who had read up on it extensively before arriving, looked disappointed that there was not more there.

The bright light of the sun was almost blinding after the drizzling grey of London and Paris and two days inside a train carriage. Gabe rubbed his eyes and stared at the rocks in front of him as if doing so could conjure up an image of the Mausoleum's former greatness. He could not quite believe they had travelled all this way to see this. He did not quite know what they planned to do now they were here. His travelling companion appeared almost as unsure herself.

Saphy, her flame red hair matching the flushed look her pale English skin had taken on in the Turkish heat, fanned herself with one of her books. She was dressed in the ever present big black biker boots, a short denim mini-skirt and a baggy white t-shirt with "The Slits" written across the front. It was torn in a number of places and held together with safety pins that shone brightly in the hot sun. She began to wander among the slight ruins, idly eyeing up each of the stones as if they might yield their secrets that way.

"This is it?" Gabe said, breaking the disappointed silence.

"Yeah, this is all that's left," the letdown in her voice palpably echoed his, "No wonder nobody thinks there's anything left to find."

"What are we even looking for?" he asked, a note of frustration adding to his disappointment.

"Well, I don't know, do I?" Saphy's voice betrayed that aggressive streak that had seemed a little subdued over the last two or three days, "Do you expect me to always have all the answers?"

"Well, it was your idea to come here!"

"What else was I supposed to get from that fucking useless clue you uncovered?" she demanded, "It's just one word."

"I guess it was stupid of me to trust to your brilliant mind," he threw back angrily, the midday sun beating down on his sweating forehead was making him uncomfortable and irritable, "Stupid of me to think that we might actually be getting somewhere!"

He wiped the sweat from his brow and stormed off across to the other side of the ruins. Crouching down in the relative shade behind one of the larger rocks, he pretended to study it for any new signs or clues. In reality, he was upset and angry, with himself, with the heat, with the mystery they were failing to solve, basically with everything. More than anything, however, he felt annoyed at Saphy, more than he thought he ever would. He had not imagined the aggressive moods that he had seen in her from the first could upset him this much. Then, something happened that he had expected even less.

"I'm sorry," said Saphy from behind him, much to Gabe's surprise, not just at the fact that she had come up silently upon him as he was deep in thought about her, but also the fact that she had actually apologised, something he had never seen as the result of any of her angry moods before, "I think we got a little carried away there. Must be the heat or something. Anyway, I think we've been doing really well to get this far and I certainly couldn't have done it on my own. So, I guess what I'm saying is that I'm sorry for all the aggressive way that I behave sometimes, because actually I think we make a bloody good team and I think that if we work together we might really have a chance of cracking this thing. So, how about it, want to see what more we can dig up?"

She reached out her hand to him and pulled him to his feet, brushing the dusty Turkish soil from his trousers. Oddly, apart from that moment of intimacy in the Paris hotel room, this was the most physical contact that they had had in all the short time that they had known each other. Once again, like that moment, Gabe felt a sense of stripping away the layers of Saphy's complex personality to see the fragile, caring person beneath it all.

"Thanks, Saphy," he said, "I guess we can work pretty well together sometimes. Come on, there's a little museum over there. We've been good at museums before, maybe that's more the place to start."