Uptown Local and Other Interventions Read Free Page B

something cool and heavy against his palm. It wasn’t easy to look away from her, but when he did he goggled at a glinting disc—a whole denarius —with the Emperor’s head on it, round and thick-necked and bald.
    “Lady…” he said. “Thank you!”
    “Her, certainly,” Hilarus said, with a smile at the lady. “But perhaps you should thank Queen Venus too. Any wise man is glad to be in her debt.”
    The lady straightened up, draped the rosy veil over her head and drew it down in a gesture of amused modesty that hid nothing. “Only the wise ones?” she said, and gave the gladiator a look that Lucius had seen often enough on the girls up in the stands….
    Even overwhelmed as he was, Lucius had the presence of mind to bow again, to both of them. Then, blinded by the absolute wonder of the moment, he hurried back toward the Colosseum gates, his fist clenched around the coin.
    As if by some evil magic, a tall thin form stepped out of the shadows and straight-armed him. Lucius staggered, caught his balance again, and found himself staring at Catharis. “You’re gonna get it,” the bigger boy sang softly, smiling his usual nasty smile. “You’re gonna get it…”
    “I wouldn’t get anything if you weren’t opening your big yap all the time.”
    Catharis snickered. “Master says, where’s the silk he sent you for?”
    “I haven’t been to Milla’s yet. I’m going now.”
    “So where’ve you been?”
    Lucius scowled. “None of your business, you squatsponge!”
    Catharis’s eyes went narrow. “You can’t talk to me like that! I’ll tell Master—”
    “Tell him whatever you want,” Lucius said, and ran off in the direction of the Forum. Just this once he was completely unmoved by the threat. I don’t have to take this squat. Five minutes ago I was talking to Hilarus! And that great lady, like some kind of foreign queen!
     “You come back here!” Catharis yelled, but Lucius ignored him. He’ll go right back and tattle to Mancipuer. So let him. I’ll take my beating. I’ve got something to make up for it! As he ran, Lucius reached inside his tunic, pulled out the little amulet-bag that hung hidden around his neck, and hid the denarius in it.
    He made his way through the Forum to the arcaded side alley where Milla the cloth-seller had her stall. It was a multicolored forest of bolts of cloth, mostly standing on end, some stacked up like cordwood, and usually one or two rolled out on the marble of the streetside slab. As Lucius approached he saw with astonishment that the slab was covered with thin crimson-colored silk. That was when he started thinking he might not get beaten after all. “Milla—how much of this have you got?”
    “How much do you want?” she said, emerging from the back of the stall. As usual, Lucius wondered how so round a woman could be invisible in so small a space.
    “Thirty ells. On the Master’s account—”
    “Lucky you. Thirty is what I’ve got,” Milla said. “Take it. I’ll send the tally sticks around later.”
    She rolled up the silk and loaded it into Lucius’s arms. He staggered under the weight, but didn’t care: as he made his way back out through the Forum, Lucius had the strangest feeling that his luck had changed. Even in the dark warren of the tunnels, some golden outside light seemed to have followed him in—even when he turned the last corner and found Mancipuer examining the badly-done paint job on a snorting pygmy elephant.
    “See, master!” Catharis said. “I told you. He didn’t even start for the stall until I went out and told him to get moving. And now he’s back with some shoddy—”
    “Thirty ells of crimson, sir,” Lucius said, bringing the bolt over for Mancipuer to see. “Just the kind you wanted.”
    Scowling, Mancipuer reached out to finger the fabric—then turned that scowl back on Catharis. “I don’t mind if he takes the time to do the work right,” he said. “Unlike some people, in so much in a rush to get