Etruscans Read Free Page A

lay a huddled body. Desecration! When Vesi leaped to
her feet with a yelp of outrage she accidentally dropped her dagger. It struck the soft earth point first and stood there quivering.
    She was quivering herself, with indignation. Injured or not, the man had gone beyond all bounds of decency! The most Sacred Space of all had been defiled. The priests would not use it now; the lengthy process of selecting another site for the city would have to be undertaken. It might be many seasons before an equally propitious location was determined.
    To add to Vesi’s dismay, she glanced down to discover that her knife was stabbing the earth. With a soft moan the girl stooped and withdrew the blade. She removed the clinging soil with reverent fingertips, then tenderly pressed the tiny particles back into the ground as she murmured a prayer to the goddess Ops. “May the earth spirits forgive my carelessness; I meant them no harm.”
    Straightening, she drew a deep breath.
    The blood-smell was stronger than ever. The figures lying in the center of the templum space was not moving.
    Keeping a firm hold on her knife, Vesi trotted down the hill toward the spura. When she reached the edge of the first marked foundation she stopped, reluctant to cross the invisible line that bordered the most dangerous of Sacred Space: unhallowed ground, designated but not protected from the more inimical inhabitants of the Otherworld.
    Pacing along the line, she stared at the man lying on what should have become the floor of the templum. From a distance she had thought he wore a tattered cloak; now she saw it was the flesh of his naked back, torn in bizarre strips. Vesi wondered what animal could have inflicted such wounds. Neither bear nor boar nor aurochs, whose marks she recognized. Could it be one of the legendary monsters said to inhabit the mountains of Latium? Would such a creature have come this far into Etruria in search of prey? Surely not.

    Yet obviously some predator had been at work. The injured man must have been caught and mauled and then dragged here, suffering terribly.
    Vesi caught her lower lip between her teeth as she pondered a new mystery.
    Where was the trail of blood?
    Crimson had seeped from the man’s body to puddle beneath him, yet there was no gory pathway across flattened grass to the place where he now lay. An animal dragging him would have left one. Instead there were only spattered droplets, indicating he had walked there by himself. Furthermore he looked wet, as if he had recently emerged from the nearby Tiber. Swimming? So wounded?
    Suddenly the fallen man gave an appalling shriek and convulsed like a fish on a hook. Fresh blood began oozing from his wounds.
    His anguish was so acute Vesi could almost feel it herself. She could go for help, but by the time she returned he would surely be dead. Fortunately she was not afraid of blood. Had she not watched from hiding as the purtani set the silver plate into her father’s crushed skull after the hunting accident that eventually claimed his life? She could help this man if he was not too far gone, if he had not lost too much blood.
    Vesi looked over her shoulder. The rolling hills were tapestried with flowers, many of them possessing healing properties. She could cleanse the wounds and apply a poultice to staunch the bleeding. The purtani would criticize her for usurping their healing functions and probably punish her for entering unhallowed Sacred Space. But if she were to allow a man to die needlessly when she might have saved him … was that not the greater crime?
    Vesi pressed her forefinger and middle finger to her lips, kissed them, and bowed her head in reverence. “Culsan, the god of destiny; Tuflas, goddess of healing, guide me. What I do now, I do through you.”

    Then she stepped over the line.
    Walking through the unmade city was terrifying. In unhallowed Sacred Space the fabric between the worlds was very thin. Vesi was certain she could