by David Drake
“Will you at least come back and talk with me?” she whimpered. “Before the end? Please, I get so lonely.”
He swallowed. “I’ll try, Persica,” he said. “I’ll … yes, I’ll come back!”
The gate to the house opened. Varus strode through, beaming with success.
* * *
MANETHO REACHED THE SIDE DOORWAY from the central courtyard into the owner’s office. A footman stood there, blocking it, and Candidus trotted over immediately.
“Make way for Lord Varus!” Manetho said. The footman turned sideways, squeezing back against the pillar. He was letting the deputy stewards snarl at one another while a lowly footman pretended to be back herding goats in the Pyrenees.
“The consul is receiving his clients in his office,” Candidus said, carefully looking at Manetho and pretending not to be aware of Varus himself behind the servant. “No doubt he will attend to his household when he has finished his duties to the Republic.”
I wonder if he would take that line if I were Alphena? Varus thought. He certainly wouldn’t do this to Hedia.
The idea made him smile. If Candidus had been paying attention, the expression might have disconcerted him; but of course he wasn’t. Why be concerned about Saxa’s bookish, ineffectual son?
Varus tapped Manetho on the shoulder and gestured him aside. “Candidus?” he said pleasantly. “Get out of the way or I will ask my sister to have you tortured. I’m sure she can find something interesting to do to an uppity slave.”
Candidus blinked, stepped back, and blinked again. He wasn’t so much ignoring Varus’ order as too stunned to obey it.
Agrippinus appeared. Varus hadn’t raised his voice but the majordomo, overseeing the whole levee while his deputies handled specific areas, demonstrated his ability in a fashion that Varus wouldn’t have recognized till recently.
Agrippinus touched Candidus’ neck with his right hand; his fingers were pudgy and each had at least one ring, but the tips dimpled his deputy’s flesh. Candidus staggered—half propelled, half jumping—into a corner of the office.
Agrippinus nodded minusculely to Varus, then turned and announced in a carrying voice, “Clear this room for the honorable Lord Varus, who wishes to address his noble father, Consul Gaius Alphenus Saxa!”
The client in the office with Saxa was one of the Marcii Philippi, a distant cousin of Saxa’s first—and his second; they were sisters—wife; he was therefore a relative of Varus as well. Despite Philippus’ rank, he lived in straitened circumstances; though that hadn’t, Varus noted, kept him from eating himself into grotesque obesity.
“I say!” said Philippus in offended surprise.
Agrippinus walked toward him with his arms spread slightly and his hands raised, as though he were pushing the client’s considerable weight. He didn’t actually touch Philippus, but he moved the fellow back by force of personality. He said, “The consul will summon you when he is ready to receive you again, your lordship.”
“But I—” said Philippus. Four junior members of Saxa’s household moved toward him; one was the footman who had been in Varus’ path to the office. He acted with particular zeal, apparently concerned to redeem himself in the eyes of the son of the house. Philippus returned to the entrance hall, backing so hastily that he almost fell into the pool fed by the opening in the roof.
The hall would normally have been crowded with clients. Now all but two clients at a time had been relegated to the street outside, because the consul’s twelve lictors took precedence. Varus had considered the lictors a pointless complication, but he realized now that they might turn out to be useful.
Varus joined his father, feeling a mixture of amusement and disgust at the servant’s reaction to his threat. Alphena had a vicious temper. She had been known to throw things at people who had made her angry, and it wasn’t unimaginable that worse might happen if she flew hot when she happened to have a sword in her hand.
Alphena was not, however, cruel: torture would have been as unlikely for her as sexual congress with a donkey. If the servants had bothered to think, they would have known that as well as her brother did.
Varus had learned that generally people didn’t think: they just reacted. He supposed that should have pleased him, because it gave him an advantage over most of the world. Instead, it tended to make him sad.
Saxa was seated on his ivory chair. He faced the hall, the anteroom, and the street beyond on a single axis. The entrance was designed to put the householder in a frame, focusing all eyes on him.
Varus stepped around in front so that his father didn’t have to twist sideways; folding senatorial chairs weren’t very stable and neither was Saxa. He said, “I’m very sorry to trouble you, sir.”
“What’s the matter, b-b…,” Saxa said in concern. He composed his expression and said, “What’s the matter, my son?”
Rather than “boy.” Varus had risen in his father’s estimation—more accurately, had risen into Saxa’s awareness—when Commissioner Priscus had made a point of praising the boy when he met Saxa ahead of a session of the Senate five days recently.
“Sir,” said Varus. The office had a high ceiling and two mosaic scenes on the floor. The panel to the householder’s right showed Pentheus being torn to pieces by women maddened by their worship of Bacchus. To the left was Acteon, human-headed but with the body of a stag, being devoured by his own hunting dogs; the goddess Diana, whom he had glimpsed bathing nude, gestured angrily from a pool.
The room had been decorated by Saxa’s father. Varus didn’t suppose he would ever know what his grandfather had been thinking of when he ordered the mosaics.
At least a dozen clerks and other servants watched expectantly from the service aisles on three sides of the room. There was no privacy in a noble household, any more than there was in a poor family’s apartment where three generations were squeezed into two rooms and as much of the staircase they could claim against other tenants.
On the other hand, there was no reason why anything Varus was about to say to his father would seem worth repeating, even within the household. Not if he phrased it carefully.
“Father,” he said with quiet earnestness. “My studies have reached an impasse of sorts, and I need to enter the house of Marcus Sempronius Tardus. I was hoping that you might help me in this.”
“Tardus?” Saxa said, frowning in concentration. “Well, we’re not close, you know, son. Indeed, I probably know as little of him as I do any other member of the Senate. The ones who live most of the year in Carce, that is.”
He coughed into his hand. “Ah…,” he said. “And there was that business at the Temple of Jupiter a few days ago, when Tardus was there as Commissioner of the Sacred Rites. That was necessary, but it didn’t, well, endear me to him.”
Saxa was obviously hoping his son would say something to let him out of what threatened to be an embarrassment. When that didn’t occur, he grimaced and resumed. “I suppose I can send a note to him. What in particular is it that you wish to see? His library, I suppose?”
“Not exactly, sir,” Varus said. “My, ah, studies indicate that the Sempronii Tardi have a secret temple to Serapis in their town house. I would like to—that is, I think perhaps I must see that temple. In order to, ah, gather information of importance to the Republic.”
Saxa blinked. For a moment he looked like a fish displayed for sale on a marble slab; then his cheeks and the lines of his mouth became curiously firmer.
“Marcus Priscus spoke very highly of you the other day,” he said. “I believe it’s the first time he has addressed a word to me except in answer to a question of my own. He’s a very erudite man, you know.”
Varus bowed slightly again. “Yes sir,” he said. “The Republic is very fortunate to have men as learned as Marcus Priscus and yourself at its helm.”
Saxa snorted; his expression went sour for an instant, or as sour as someone as pudgy and good-natured as he could look. That cleared and he said, “Not me, my son, much as I wish it w
ere. But perhaps you in time; Priscus believes you will grow into his equal. I hope I may live to see that.”
Varus didn’t know whether or not he should speak. Since he was in doubt, he held his silence.
If more people followed that practice, he thought, the world would be a quieter and less obviously foolish place. His smile didn’t reach his lips.
“I was going to ask if Marcus Priscus intended to make the inspection with you,” Saxa said. He was trying to sound neutral, but there was evident hope in his voice. “I suppose you couldn’t tell me, though?”
Father is so in awe of Priscus that if I said this was his idea, my request would be granted immediately. I won’t lie, but if I tell the truth in the right form of words …
“I would not expect Commissioner Priscus to be present, sir,” Varus replied carefully. “I believe his friend—and my professor—Pandareus of Athens may accompany us, however. If you are able to effect entrance to Senator Tardus’ house, that is.”
“I believe that Tardus will respect the authority of a consul,” Saxa said. “And I rather think the emperor would have something to say about it if he did not. The emperor is notably traditional in his regard for the forms of government.”
His smile widened as he considered the situation. His replacement consulate was an honor, of course, but he probably hadn’t considered it to be a position of authority before this moment.
He sat straighter and looked firmly at his son. “We’ll go tomorrow afternoon, then,” he said. “Let’s say in the eleventh—” counting from dawn to dusk in twelve equal segments, regardless of the season “—hour. Please inform Master Pandareus of the plan. And anyone else you believe should be present.”
“Thank you, sir,” Varus said. “I had considered asking Publius Corylus to accompany us, as his different viewpoint might be helpful.”
Saxa smiled faintly. He said, “He’s the boy with an army background, isn’t he? Just as you like, son, though I hope that particular specialty won’t prove necessary.”
Before Varus could turn to leave, his father coughed and said, “Ah, son? As you doubtless heard, Senator Priscus and your Pandareus will be dining with me in two nights’ time. I hope you will choose to join us? Priscus was very complimentary about you.”
My father is willing to risk his life by using consular authority in a fashion he knows may be open to question, Varus thought. If all he wants in return is for me to add a little extra luster to a dinner which already glitters with intellectual capacity—so be it!
“I will be honored to join you and your guests, Father,” he said formally. Bowing, he backed from the office and turned toward the garden.
I’m risking my life too, I suppose, he realized, but I’m doing it to save the world from destruction by Typhon. My father is doing it merely on my word that it is necessary.
May the gods grant that I be the worthy scion of so brave a man.
* * *
ALPHENA HAD RETURNED to the house with Hedia, in the double litter. She found it odd but nonetheless comforting to regard her stepmother as an ally—a friend even—instead of a demon sent to torment her.
Hedia was the perfect lady: beautiful, her hair and garments in the current style; familiar with all the trivia of Carce’s highest social circle. Hedia had seemed all the things that her stepdaughter had been determined never to be.
Hedia was all the things she seemed, but Alphena had learned that her stepmother was also as hard as a blade of fine steel and every bit as deadly when the need arose. She had determined to bring Alphena safely through whatever troubles arose, no matter what her own risk was.
Alphena wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She prided herself on being independent. She was certain, though, that it was much better to have Lady Hedia as a friend than as an enemy.
There had been no place in particular where Alphena had to be after they reached the house. There was never anywhere she had to be, a realization that brought a familiar flush of anger to her face.
Varus was being educated in literature and the arts of rhetoric. All aspects of public life were governed by oratory. The most brilliant general would be laughed at—albeit behind his back—if he couldn’t report his accomplishments using chiasmus and litotes, praeteritio and asyndeton and a thousand other absurdities. Absurdities!
The empire had been won at the point of a sword, but Varus could no better wield a sword than he could fly. Alphena had practiced weapons drill as assiduously as any army recruit, but she would never be allowed to join the legions.
She didn’t want to spend her life reading poems that didn’t make any sense she could see, nor in learning scraps of history from eight centuries ago because they might make useful embellishments for her summation speech in a murder trial. She didn’t want to do those things—but she wouldn’t be allowed to, whatever she wanted. She was a woman, so she had no share in government or the army or in anything that mattered!
But while all that was completely true and completely unfair, Alphena found herself thinking about her stepmother. If Hedia set out to accomplish something, Alphena would expect it the way she would expect the sun to rise in the east. She couldn’t have given a logical explanation of why she was so confident of her stepmother’s abilities, but logic—
Alphena grinned. Logic was a matter for students, like her brother Varus. Hedia’s competence was real, which was a very different thing.
Alphena found she had walked the length of the house, to the private gymnasium and bath located between the courtyard and the back garden. She used the gym regularly, so it wasn’t surprising that she would find herself at the door if she wandered without paying attention.
She looked around. Her maid, Florina, was close behind but flinched back when her mistress turned. Six other servants were following Alphena, presumably people Agrippinus had assigned to her suite. They stopped dead when she did, their eyes focused on various things but never on Alphena herself.
I should slap their sniveling faces! Alphena thought, then felt a little queasy. She took a deep breath.
They’re treating me like a viper. Except that they wouldn’t be afraid to look at a viper.
Calmly, smiling slightly—she hoped it was a smile—Alphena said, “I believe I will take a little exercise now to settle myself before I have a light supper in my suite. Florina, you’re dismissed to eat something now before you’ll need to attend me.”
Alphena entered the small gymnasium, feeling virtuous. Hedia would be proud of me, she thought; but that wasn’t really true. She would never match her stepmother’s icy superiority to every one and every thing, any more than her chunky form would ever rival Hedia’s willowy beauty. It’s not fair!
“Your ladyship!” said Lenatus. He and his guest—Pulto, Corylus’ man—lurched to their feet. A wine jar leaned against a corner, and each man held a broad cup. A water jug was part of the gym’s furnishings, but Alphena didn’t see a mixing bowl: the veterans were apparently drinking the senator’s wine as it came from the jug.
Alphena looked at them. They weren’t frightened like the bevy of servants back in the passageway, but they watched her warily. They were freeborn citizens who as soldiers had fought the most dangerous of the Republic’s enemies … but from their expressions, they would rather be back on the frontier than in the center of Carce, facing a senator’s daughter.
I wonder if Florina thinks that life has treated Lady Alphena harshly? Alphena wondered.
Aloud she said, “Master Pulto, I didn’t expect to see you here. Is your master in the house as well? I suppose you came from the theater with my brother?”
“My understanding…,” Pulto said carefully. He wasn’t a member of Saxa’s household, but technicalities wouldn’t matter if Alphena lost her temper, as she had a reputation for doing. “Is that Lord Varus wished to have a conversation with his father, the senator. Publius Corylus chose to wait in the back garden, but he gave me leave to visit my old friend here.”
He gesture
d toward Lenatus with his free hand. His eyes never left Alphena’s face.
“Oh!” said Alphena, feeling a tiny jump of excitement that she hoped she had kept out of her voice. “Well, I’ll leave the two of you to your reminis—”
She broke off. She could see from the faces of both men that something was badly wrong.
“What is it?” Alphena said. She heard her voice start to tremble, which made her angry. She continued in an unintended snarl, “Is Corylus with someone, is that it?”
Lenatus looked at his friend, who in turn looked as though he had been stabbed in the belly. “Your ladyship,” Pulto said, “I got the impression that my master might be talking with somebody, yes.”
He’s with Hedia.
He’s having sex with Hedia in the garden!
Alphena blushed, then staggered as the stupidity of her thought struck her. Oh, Hedia’s reputation was deserved: she’d as much as told Alphena so when they were fighting for their lives and very souls. As for Corylus, he was a man, which meant he was a pig; and there was no doubt that he found Hedia attractive. The way his eyes followed her whenever she was in sight proved it!
But Hedia didn’t rub her husband’s nose in things he would be expected to object to. She was a lady, and Alphena had good reason to know that she loved Saxa—in her way.
Just as Corylus was a gentleman, if not an aristocrat. He would turn up his nose at actions which the perfumed wastrels of Hedia’s social set would have performed without thinking twice.
Alphena swallowed, then forced her lips into a smile. “Well, I won’t disturb him, then,” she said. “I will have some of that wine, though. But mix mine with two parts water, if you will.”
“At once, your ladyship!” Lenatus said. He and Pulto spun toward the wine jar so swiftly that they almost collided. Without a signal Alphena could see, Pulto took the other cup as well as his own and Lenatus snatched an empty one from a cupboard intended for bath paraphernalia.
Alphena expected the trainer to lift wine from the jar with a narrow, deep-bellied dipper, a wine thief. Instead he hooked his thumb in the handle, then lifted the jar on his elbow and forearm to pour. Returning the wine to its corner, he lifted the water jar in the same fashion and brought the level up to a proper distance below the rim of the cup.