Pilate's Wife: A Novel of the Roman Empire Read Free Page B

head.
    "Having children is our duty to the family and to the Empire," she reminded me. "Now, why don't you visit Agrippina? Perhaps she'll allow you to hold her newest princess."
    The edge was back in Mother's voice. I guessed that Agrippina was her haughty self again.
    Weeks passed without news of the army. Then a messenger finally arrived. A slender boy in his teens, he told us how Germanicus had subdued the savage Germans. I listened, bursting with pride and excitement. Forging on, Germanicus's troops had reached the Teutoburg Forest where six years earlier one tenth of the Roman army had been slaughtered. "When we went to bury our dead, we saw skeletons everywhere." The boy shuddered. "Their heads were pegged to tree trunks. We didn't know if the bones belonged to friend or stranger, but what did it matter? They were all our brothers."
    I opened the door a few days later to another breathless courier. Bloodshot eyes fearful, he described a situation grown desperate. Arminius, the general responsible for the carnage, lurked in a treacherous swamp near the battle site. Germanicus was determined to find him.
    Soon the rumors began. Wounded men stumbled to our gate. The army had been cut off, surrounded. Fleeing deserters shouted that German forces were on their way to invade Gaul. Soon it would be Rome itself. All around us, panic-stricken villagers insisted that the Rhine Bridge be destroyed. Agrippina, dragging herself from bed, put a stop to that. "In the absence of my husband, I am the commander," she announced. "The bridge will stand."
    The wounded, returning on foot, using sticks for crutches, would soon have need of it. Agrippina improvised a field hospital, using her own money and soliciting everyone, from noble to peasant, to help. I eagerly fetched bandages and water, washed wounds and held water to the lips of feverish men. Then the visions started. Though I had no medical knowledge or even aptitude, it seemed that I could tell by looking at the wounded who would survive and who would not.
    Late on my second day at the hospital, I sat beside a soldier not much older than myself. His wound seemed slight, a relief after so many gory ones. I smiled as I offered him water. His lips moved in an answering smile as he reached for the cup. Then slowly his round face changed before my eyes into a skull. Horrified, I staggered to my feet.
    "What's the matter?" he asked, taking the water, looking at me curiously, normal again. Muttering an excuse, I hurried outside. Forcing myself to believe I'd imagined it, I continued with my rounds. The next day I learned that the boy had died in the night.
    It happened again. Then again. Despite the increasing proficiency of Agrippina's hastily assembled staff, the men whose skulls I saw invariably died. When this happened to a merry young soldier of whom I'd grown fond, I fled the hospital sobbing.
    Climbing onto a large crag overlooking the river's dark waters, I struggled to compose myself. It was here that Agrippina found me. I looked away, not knowing what to say. Auntie, with her regal self-assurance, would never understand the dread I felt each day, the sense of helplessness at being suddenly possessed by this unwelcome knowledge. I nodded politely and rose.
    "Don't go," she said, touching my hand lightly. "I see that you are troubled. It has to do with the sight, doesn't it? You have the gift."
    "Yes," I whispered. "This is no 'gift,' it's a curse."
    "Poor child." Agrippina shook her head sadly. "From what I hear, the sight chooses you . It can never be removed."
    "What good is knowing something terrible if I can't change it?"
    "Such knowledge could bring you power," she suggested.
    "No! I don't want to know bad things," I said, fighting tears that stung my eyes.
    "Then pray," she suggested. "Ask that you not be shown more than you can bear. Ask for courage to face your destiny."
    "Thank you for understanding. Mother and Marcella don't like to talk about the sight. It makes them