by L. M. Roth
The sound of the sea not far away boomed as heavy waves crashed with a monotonous regularity on the shore. Gulls overhead screeched as they flew in their search for food. Only the sound of the waves and the gulls gave any indication of life in this place of bleak isolation. To a casual traveler it would appear that the place was uninhabited, left to nature to take it back following the volcano’s fury.
But they would be wrong in their assumption. For in the house was an inhabitant, and that inhabitant was at that very moment, conducting a school.
“Bless those that curse you,” said a clear young voice.
“Do to others what you would have them do to you,” said another.
“Honor your father and mother.”
“Forgive others, just as you have been forgiven.”
“Very good!” the teacher exclaimed. “What a good class you are! You have studied hard, and it shows.”
She suddenly clapped her hands in dismissal.
“That is all for today. We shall meet again after you break your fast in the morning.”
Her pupils bestowed joyous smiles upon her as they left. She returned them, delighting in the young girls who came for instruction each day from the village below. Soon they had all departed and she was left alone.
Kyrene sighed and stretched her arms overhead. How stiff remaining in the same position made one! Or perhaps it was merely a symptom of approaching age, she thought wryly.
She decided to step outdoors and enjoy what remained of the day before preparing the evening meal. She ambled leisurely around the hilltop and selected a spot under the shade of the acacia tree. The sound of the sea slapping the shore soothed her as she sat down and sighed again. She reached into the pocket of her robe for the letter that had arrived by post that morning.
“My dear Kyrene,
“It is with great sadness that I write to tell you of events that have lately transpired in Valerium. With the coming of the spring, a stranger arrived in our midst who was quickly welcomed by both the Alexandrians and the leading men of Potentus. His name is Iacomus Cornelius. There is a great mystery clinging to him, as I know from my girlhood in Lycenium that his family cast him out of it when he was very young. It is said in Lycenium that he died many years ago, yet here he has turned up in Valerium! Marcus and I felt some apprehension regarding him from the first, yet we bade him welcome as did everyone. How sadly misplaced our trust was we soon discovered.
“Iacomus rose rapidly in favor with nearly all who knew him. He started speaking in prophecy among the Alexandrians, yet they did not feel valid in their words. But how eagerly our fellow believers hung on his words that reeked of flattery! His opinion was sought in the city, and daily he was the center of attention among the men of importance. Only our old friend Justus Lucius shared our doubts. Emperor Urbanus, I am sorry to relate, took him in as though he were a friend he had not seen for many years.
“Alas, Emperor Urbanus seems to have exchanged one friend for another, as he cast Marcus and me out of Valerium, and seized our home. Yes, you may well be shocked, knowing as you do what a good and faithful friend Urbanus was to my Marcus when he needed one sorely. The Emperor, my dear Kyrene, has been told that the Alexandrians pledge allegiance to the Kingdom of Heaven and that must not be, as we place it higher than our allegiance to Valerium. And our commitment to Dominio is also a source of contention, as he does not like our pledging ourselves to the service of anyone other than the Emperor.
“As a result, the Alexandrians are forbidden to meet in Valerium. And any who pledge allegiance to the Kingdom of Heaven are regarded as traitors, and their lands and possessions are forfeit to the Empire. And this is what has happened to our family, Kyrene.
“Can you believe this? We have had to flee Valerium, as have our other friends who are scattered to I know not where. We hope and pray that they are safe, but we have not yet heard from any of them.
“Our comfort is Logos. When Marcus consulted the Sword, he was told, ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.’ As always, the Sword spoke Truth and seemed to know what is happening in our lives at all times. We must console ourselves that we did no wrong, and indeed, had the blessing of Emperor Urbanus to meet openly from the very beginning in Valerium. But those days are no more.
“We shall settle in Lycenium, where my mother still has an estate. We know that there are some Alexandrians in the city who have the freedom to meet openly, at least at present. Our son Lucius has been here for some time, studying and preparing for the day he will take his position in the Maximus family. Although what that will be now we do not know, as the estate in Valerium has been confiscated by the Empire.
“Our daughter Felicia is another matter entirely, and it is of her that my primary concern is in writing this letter to you. As you know, she has been exhibiting a gift of prophecy for a few years, and lately seems to be growing in that gift. Indeed, it was she who warned us of Iacomus through a dream she had not long after his arrival.
“It has been my desire for her to have a season in Lycenium to prepare her for marriage. She is adamant, however, that she wants no part of it, and would like to come to Solone and be mentored in your school for young ladies with similar gifting. I had denied her request when she first asked permission, but in view of what has lately transpired and how accurate her dream was, I have changed my mind and decided to grant her permission to come to you for a while.
“You know she will not be an easy charge, having a tendency to argue with authority at times, although done not from rebellion but a desire to be heard and to reason for herself in arriving at the truth. Also, she is over fond of food and indulges herself far too much at table. I wish this to stop, as she is becoming quite plump, and give you full permission to deny her food according to your discretion of an adequate portion of a meal.
“We shall be paying you a visit and if Felicia is acceptable to you, we shall leave her with you. I warn you that she will be difficult, but she is affectionate when content, and I do not think you would regret training her to become the woman Dominio desires her to be.
“I remain your affectionate friend,
Tullia Maximus”
Kyrene sighed deeply, letting her breath out slowly as she read the contents of the letter. How tragic! She found it incredible that Emperor Urbanus, the Governor Urbanus of her memory, who had been such a wonderful friend to Marcus, should so turn against him as to confiscate his property. Why, this Iacomus must be an instrument of the Astra themselves!
As for taking charge of Felicia, she found the prospect delightful. She knew that the girl’s plumpness and awkwardness were incomprehensible to Tullia, who had always been a great beauty. But Kyrene found her endearing, and as for challenging authority, had she not done the same all of her life?
A shadow fell upon her letter. So absorbed had she been in reading it, and so loud the boom of the waves on the shore below, that she had not heard the approach of footsteps. She glanced up, but someone stood between her and the sun, and she could not see his face.
She stood up and moved slightly to the side and turned to face her visitor. He seemed familiar, yet different, as though she might have known him long ago.
He was tall and lean, with dark waves of hair flicked with silver around his hairline. His brown eyes were warm and his smile of greeting went beyond the friendliness of a new acquaintance as he beamed at her. He bowed slightly and laughed as she studied him, whether amused at her bewilderment or whether glad to see her she could not tell.
Then he laughed and held out his hand.
“Hello, Kyrene. It is Stephanos. Do you still remember me? For I have never forgotten you.”
Chapter IX
A Romance Renewed
“Stephanos!” she breathed, her heart suddenly stopped its beating and her breath strangled in her throat. “It can not be!”
She sat down abruptly as the realization smote her. Stephanos merely laughed ag
ain and raised her to her feet, keeping her hands in his.
“Yes, Kyrene, it is! It is I, at last!”
She openly stared at him. How long has it been, she wondered. She had been sixteen, and he was twenty. Twenty-five years. How incredible! She used to dream of this day, yet when it came, she had not known him.
She recovered herself with an effort and returned his laugh.
“Oh, it is wonderful to see you again, Kyrene!” Stephanos sighed with a note of yearning in his voice.
“And it is good to see you, Stephanos,” she agreed. “But you must tell me all that has happened. For it is many years since we have met.”
“Yes, it is; too many years. All the fault of my father!” and a bitter chuckle escaped the lips of Stephanos as the corners of his mouth turned downward.
“But, I am free now; free to come to you,” he said softly and drew nearer to Kyrene as he held her hand in his.
Her heart beat faster, and she felt a sudden shyness fluster her as his nearness affected her as it used to so long ago. She withdrew her hand from his to hide her sense of agitation, and stepped back a pace. But Stephanos was not deterred.
“It is alright, Kyrene. Isadora passed away three months ago, and I am free. And now that my time of mourning is complete, I hastened to come to you; for I have never stopped longing in my heart for you, my love.”
She had the sensation that the world around her collapsed as the ground gave way beneath her feet. Her body slumped forward from its usual erect posture and she laughed, laughed until she wiped the tears from her eyes. Alarmed, Stephanos put an arm around her, but she gently pushed it away.
“Please, I am alright, Stephanos,” she assured him. “I am simply stunned at your coming, for I thought you had forgotten me long ago. And I am sorry to hear of Isadora’s passing. I know how fond of her your father was.”
A shadow darkened Stephanos’ face, and the bitter twist of his lips was evidenced once more.
“Yes, he was fond of her indeed. So fond that he would not permit me to marry where my heart lay. And I have lived in bitterness with his choice ever since!”
Kyrene was touched and oddly pleased. She extended a hand to him, and he took it and raised it to his lips.
For a moment they stood hand in hand facing one other, each examining the countenance of the other to determine what changes the years had wrought. Their clasped hands tightened involuntarily, and Kyrene realized that whatever had been between them in the past was not yet over…
At last Stephanos spoke quietly.
“Kyrene, will you give me permission to call on you, to court you as I once did? Believe me when I tell you that it was not my wish for our betrothal to be broken off. That was the will of my father, not mine. Will you give me leave?”
Kyrene’s eyes clung to him, and she was too dazzled to speak. For had he not been her first love, the one she thought she would love all the days of her life?
Slowly she nodded her head, and a smile of pure joy illuminated her face.
“Yes, Stephanos! Yes, I give you leave.”
It was true, as he had said, that it was his father who separated them. Georgios Zenobios was not about to permit his only son to unite with the daughter of a merchant, respected though he might be for his military service of the past. No, for Georgios had greater plans in mind for his son, namely, Isadora, the daughter of an old friend of his who was high in the local council. Stephanos had implored, rebelled, and ultimately threatened, but to no avail. Reluctantly, he obeyed his father.
Kyrene heard the news through her mother, Eunike. Her father had received a missive from Georgios, who firmly stated that the betrothal his son had unwisely made with his daughter was null and void, he having been promised to the daughter of an old friend. There would be no marriage, and no more meetings between his son and the daughter of Philokrates Nicandros.
For Kyrene, the loss was devastating. She and Stephanos had met by accident in the marketplace one day, she with a group of her friends, and his eye and heart had immediately been taken. He pursued her passionately, sending messages to her through friends, urging her to meet him in secret with only a friend in attendance. So taken was she with him that she agreed to this arrangement. They met on the shore and took long walks, exchanging confidences and their dreams for the future, with only her friend Agathe following at a discreet distance for the sake of propriety.
Then he had proposed, and it seemed that all of her desires would be granted, and there was no happier girl in the Isles of Solone than Kyrene. Until her mother shared the news that shattered her world. She who had been elated to the heights of happiness now sank into the valley of despair.
She was under no delusion. She had been rejected not because of a prior betrothal, but because her father was a mere merchant, a status not good enough in the eyes of Georgios, who had grand ambitions for his only son. This did not embitter Kyrene toward her father, but it left a sour taste of hopes dashed, and the knowledge that not all dreams came true after all.
If it had not been for Dominio, she did not know how she would have endured the despair that had threatened to engulf her in the following months. For she had grieved deeply over the loss of her love, and feared to lose her heart again lest she be rejected once more. But in those months when she wept in pain at night and suffered in silence by day, she had opened her heart to Dominio and vowed to serve Him. The ache in her heart had been filled with His warm presence, and she clung to Him to help her through the agony of those days.
She told herself that she could never love again, and it was years before any other man took her eye. And when it did, it was of no avail, as he had loved another…
Now as they strolled hand in hand along the shore, the past seemed to recede along with the ebbing tide. For a fortnight Stephanos had called on her, and in the evenings after school was dismissed they spent long hours together, walking by the sea even as they did in the days of their youth.
At first, Kyrene had been so overjoyed to be reunited with Stephanos that she had allowed her emotions to carry her along. But as they spent more time together she gradually became aware that all was not as it was in the past. In their youth they had been one in all matters. Now, however, she realized that while she was an Alexandrian, Stephanos clung to the old gods and the old ways.
She knew that this would be a barrier to their union, and it was possible that Stephanos might open his heart to Dominio and pledge to serve Him. But until that might happen…
The sun was setting with a blaze of orange glory that bathed the landscape in a surreal glow. Kyrene for some reason she could not fathom, recalled the sunsets she had seen with her friends on their journeys many years ago; those quests made at the command of the Empress Aurora, and her travels in order to mentor her friends. How long ago that all seemed now…
Stephanos appeared to notice her distraction, so sensitive was he to her every mood, and turned to her questioningly.
“What is it, Kyrene? Has something displeased you?”
Kyrene came back to the present and to the man beside her.
“No, nothing at all. I just had a flash of memory, as one does at times. But I am not displeased.”
“I am relieved indeed then, for I have a question I wish to ask you,” he said in a voice of utter tenderness. “Kyrene, we are too old to waste time, and surely you must know my heart by now. It is you I love, and no other. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife, as you should have done so long ago?”
Kyrene looked at Stephanos; odd that she did not feel any elation, nor did she feel flustered as she had upon their first encounter. The man who was her first love, whom she thought she would never forget, was asking her to marry him, yet she was surprised to feel nothing, nothing at all. Why was that, she wondered.
Stephanos noted her blank stare and furrowed his brow.
“Kyrene?”
Another face rose in a vision before her eyes; another set of brown eyes that belonged to a young man w
ho teased and flirted and shared a love of adventure with her. Together they had served Dominio and been swept away by the River Zoe to faraway lands and relished every new experience that crossed their path. But, alas, he was no more…
And suddenly she knew where her heart truly lay.
She struggled to speak, and slowly fumbled for words that would ease the pain she must inflict on the man who now walked beside her.
“I am sorry, Stephanos. But it is too late. It is far too late.”
Chapter X
The Arrival of Felicia
The girl before her was untidy in appearance, her forelock, as usual, tumbling down on her brow in a fashion not acceptable in the world of the fashionable. She was growing too plump, and she did not dress with the elegance of her beautiful mother. Yet Kyrene found her adorable, and already felt a warm affection flooding her heart.
The daughter of her old friends Marcus and Tullia Maximus had arrived for mentoring, and her presence brought memories of youthful adventures shared, and birthed a longing to have those days renewed. How she fretted at her enforced settlement, it not being acceptable for a single woman to travel alone. But Kyrene sometimes fretted at the shrunken horizons of her life, and yearned to explore new lands and meet unusual people again.
The sight of Marcus reminded her vividly of the days when they traveled at the mercy of the River Zoe, who took them on a course that she had plotted, and trusted to the power of Dominio to see them safely on their journey.
“Kyrene!”
Marcus momentarily forgot his customary dignity and bounded into her tiny house to envelop her in a brotherly hug. Marcus had no sister of his own, and Kyrene had always held that place in his heart. He picked her up and swung her around before returning her to her feet. No sooner had he put her down than Tullia wrapped her arms around her and held her close in sisterly tenderness and murmured a greeting in her ear.