The Barbary Pirates by William Dietrich Read Free Book Online Page A

celebrated the treaty between France and my own country,” I began. “He found a place in the Louisiana Territory, far beyond the frontier, which had Norse artifacts.” I decided not to mention anything more about the bewildering site. “One was a gold metal sheet, encased in a rotting shield, which had writing that bore that word. It stuck in my mind because it was so odd.”
    “What else did it say?” Bonaparte looked disturbed, almost queasy.
    “The inscription was in Latin, which I can’t read. I could only make out a few words and then a fight broke out and the foil was destroyed. It happened in a struggle with a British woman from the Egyptian Rite, actually—quite a long story.” No need to mention I’d been her lover. “Just as I was telling you, I was fighting the British, not spying for them.”
    “So you don’t know what it means?”
    “No. Do you?”
    He frowned, looking out across the pond. The cluster of aides and police were looking at us curiously from a distance, envious of my sudden intimacy with their leader. “Gage,” he finally asked quietly, “have you ever heard of the Little Red Man?”
    At the mention of that curious French legend I had the odd feeling I was being watched from an attic window of the pretty château. I turned, but there was nothing to see, of course: its small rectangular dormer windows were dark and blank. Josephine had withdrawn inside as well. “I’ve heard rumor. Everyone has.”
    “Do you believe in the supernatural?”
    I cleared my throat. “I’ve seen odd things.”
    “The Little Red Man is a gnomelike creature dressed and concealed in a red hooded cloak. His face is always in shadow, but he is short and bent with long brown fingers. Sometimes you can see the gleam of eyes. Watchful eyes. Disturbing eyes that know far too much.”
    “All France knows the tale, but it’s only a story.”
    “No, he is real. He first appeared to Catherine de’Medici, and by reputation lives most commonly in the attic of the Tuileries Palace that she built. He appeared to French royalty on occasion, usually in times of crisis. To me it was just a fable as well, the kind of myth to amuse children. But then I saw him in Egypt.”
    “General!”
    He nodded, lost in remembrance. “I’ve never been so frightened. It was shortly before the Battle of the Pyramids. He came into my field tent at the night’s darkest hour, when I’d exhausted all my aides and was the only one still awake. I’d just heard of Josephine’s infidelities and was beside myself with rage and sorrow, and couldn’t sleep.”
    I remembered in Egypt when Junot related to me his unhappy task of informing the general of his wife’s unfaithfulness, revealed by pilfered letters that had been sent from France.
    “A doctor would say it was hallucination, of course. But the creature spoke of the future in a deep, sly voice with a tone I’ve never heard before or since. He was not of our world, Gage, but as real as your three savants standing by the pond over there. And then he began to prophesy.”
    That day in Egypt, Napoleon had seemed possessed.
    “Later I had similar visions in the Great Pyramid—you’ll remember when I lay in the sarcophagus? But troubling ones as well! In any event, the Little Red Man promised me at least ten years of success to accomplish what I need to accomplish, which is why I was so confused by my loss to you and that obstinate Sidney Smith at the siege of Acre. I was not supposed to lose! But I didn’t lose, in the end, because my defeat ultimately directed me back to Paris to take charge here, thanks to your Rosetta key. The Little Red Man had known after all.”
    So was I some blind instrument of fate, setting in motion events I didn’t understand? “What has this got to do with Og?”
    “The creature said I should seek its ruins, because a machine of great power was at stake. If it fell into the wrong hands it could disrupt my destiny.”
    “Ruins