Chapter 10 #2
“Someone had to make sure it didn’t slither away and hide in some crack, only to bite someone later.” She said it like it was obvious.
“Where is it?”
She wiggled the lamp, which she was now supporting with two hands. “It’s in an alcove behind the lamp. Martin suggested we could use it to block it from getting away.”
Alexander decided not to say something like Why isn’t Martin Neill holding the lamp, then? and instead came forward to take the lamp from her, not moving it from where it hung in the air.
Saffron sighed with relief as her arms dropped to her sides. “Thank you.”
Footsteps thundered down the steps of the pit, and a moment later, Dunmore rushed into the room followed by two locals armed with shovels and a bucket.
Dunmore came forward, his round face bright with excitement and his hands clutching a metal rod with a hook at the end. “What have we here, then? Neill said we’ve got a viper! I didn’t expect to find one here in the agora!”
The assistant chose that moment to careen into the room with a specimen cage.
“Ah, good!” Dunmore waved the hook at Alexander. “Step aside, then, Ashton, and let’s see this little beauty!”
The Turks set down the bucket and raised their shovels. Dunmore glared at them. “None of that, now. Put those down.”
The Turks looked at each other. Dunmore looked at Alexander. “Tell them to put the shovels down. I don’t want them harming my specimen.”
“It isn’t a bad idea to be prepared in case—”
Dunmore’s mouth fell open. “No one is going to be hitting any of my specimens with a shovel!”
Neill looked between Alexander and Dunmore before saying brightly, “I’ll get Mr. Banks.” He dashed back out of the room.
Dunmore turned back to the Turks. Loudly, he said, “Put the shovels down!”
Next to Alexander, Saffron sighed. “I really didn’t mean for this to turn into a circus.”
But the sound of more feet coming down the steps told Alexander the real circus was about to begin. Neill had apparently summoned not only Banks to translate, but also Dr. Henry and Mr. Hayrettin. They packed into the tiny stall, pressing Saffron into his side.
“What’s all this about?” asked Dr. Henry.
“There’s a snake,” Alexander said.
“A viper!” Martin added.
“Tell these men they will not be harming the snake,” Dunmore told Banks.
Banks, who looked on the verge of laughter despite the fact he was tucked up against the wall, his head nearly brushing the ceiling, spoke to the Turks.
This led to an argument that lasted all of one minute, involving the two locals, Banks, and Hayrettin, who tried to gesticulate but couldn’t, being pressed between the locals and Banks.
Martin Neill was saying something to Saffron, and Dunmore was trying to speak over everyone about the potential importance of an urban specimen of viper.
Meanwhile, Alexander’s arm was starting to burn from holding the lamp up.
The last straw was when Clark appeared in the door, and with a barely concealed grin, asked, “May I be of some assistance?”
“Everyone out,” Alexander called, silencing the argument. “Except Dunmore. Neill, give me that specimen cage.”
To his relief, everyone filed out of the stall. Saffron gave him a sympathetic look from the open door, where she crowded around with the rest of the group.
Eagerly, Dunmore came forward, hook at the ready. Alexander slowly removed the lamp from before the gap in the wall, and Dunmore stepped forward to fish the snake out.
Alexander held his breath as the creature was extracted. It was small, but a small viper could still hurt someone badly.
But something was strange about the twisting body of the snake. It looked as if the bottom two-thirds of its body had been dipped in paint.
Dunmore scowled, swinging around to the door. “You said this was a viper!”
Saffron blinked. “I—”
“This is Platyceps najadum.” He lifted his hook where the snake writhed. “A whip snake!”
“Is it dangerous?” Alexander asked, wary of how insecure the animal looked, dangling from the hook.
“They do produce venom, but this species never developed fangs—” Dunmore squinted at the snake. “This—this is the same bloody one I caught earlier today! Neill! What the devil have you been doing with my specimens!”
Alexander couldn’t see past the group to Martin Neill, but he imagined the boy looked aghast. The rest of the group grumbled as they dispersed, apparently dissatisfied there wasn’t actually any dangerous animal at hand.
“Put it in here,” Alexander told Dunmore, and once the creature was settled into the cage, Alexander was able to get a better look at it.
Its head and the first few inches of its body were light brown, with darker spots on its sides.
The rest of the body was a ruddy tan, uninterrupted by pattern.
For anyone glancing into a dark cranny in the stone wall, it would appear to be a different kind of snake.
Dunmore took the specimen cage and muttered about wasting his time and mishandling his specimens. Just outside the stall, Clark was speaking to Martin Neill, who was looking at the ground, clearly crestfallen. Saffron stood several feet away, looking thoughtfully at them.
“Chin up, lad,” Clark was saying to Neill. “Not your fault the girl doesn’t know a viper from a harmless little worm.”
“But I—”
“He’s right,” Saffron interrupted. “I didn’t realize the snake wasn’t a viper. I’m happy to be wrong, in this case.”
Clark betrayed surprise for a half second before giving her a condescending smile.
“Don’t worry, Miss Everleigh. You’ll soon learn very little we will encounter on this expedition will be cause for putting up such a fuss.
You don’t want to be interrupting the entire crew every time a little snake crosses your path.
People will think you’re not up for field work. ”
“Of course,” Saffron said. “I do wish you would have warned us about the snake before you sent me into the stall. You were coming out of it just before we went inside. You must have seen it, since you recommended we examine the walls’ alcoves.
” She tapped a finger to her chin. “But perhaps you’d forgotten that was where you’d seen the snake, considering I saw you standing outside the tent with Dunmore’s specimens earlier. ”
Alexander glared at Clark.
“That sounds like you’re trying to make an accusation,” Clark said with the hint of a smile.
“I’m not trying to make an accusation—”
“You have no sense of humor.” He shook his head. “I can’t help it if you lost your head over a harmless little snake. You even had Neill with you.”
Saffron’s mouth hung open. “It is venomous—”
“It doesn’t have fangs,” Clark said, enunciating each word. “Surely you heard Dunmore say that just now.”
“That doesn’t mean someone couldn’t be harmed by it.”
Clark waved a hand lazily. “No one was harmed. It’s a bit of fun.”
Alexander cut in before either of them could provoke the other more. “Clark, you shouldn’t have taken one of Dunmore’s specimens, even a nonlethal one, especially not for a joke. We are here to do work.”
Clark glanced meaningfully between Alexander and Saffron. “Right. Work.” He laughed softly as he strode past them to the stairs. “I’ll be sure to remind you both of that, should you forget.”
He disappeared over the top, still chuckling.
Saffron’s face was red, and not just from the heat of midday. Fists clenched, she stomped up the steps after Clark. Was she angry at just Clark, or Alexander, too, for how poorly he’d handled that?
He pushed his hair back, frustration churning in his chest. The only way it could have gone worse was if the snake actually had been a viper.