Venus Preserved (Secret Books of Venus Series) Read Free Page B

were taking up their evening lives.
    Tonight she would not be going back to the school to sleep. Her owner would be showing her off, with some of his other successes. In the arena baths she had become clean and scented, been skilfully shaved of all bodily hairs but for the hair on her head; this, kept short and waxed to spikes when she fought, freshly hennaed. Jula Flammifer they called her, Fiery Jula, for her combats and her hair. But in reality she was a blonde from the backlands of Gallia. None of her was really quite her own belonging. She was a slave. Even her forename came from that of her owner, Marcus Libinius Julus, though she had been titled by him, in recognition of her worth, as his daughter would have been, if he had ever had a legal one.
    In the tradition of what she was, a gladiatrix, off-stage as it were, she still wore the garb of a man, a rich actor’s clothes, of course without the town toga, or ring of citizenship.
    Four bodyguards attended her, also gladiators, now freed. They never spoke to her, nor she to them. Their instructions had always already been given.
    There was a litter. She got into it and the curtains fell, and the bearers began to run, her escort trotting to keep pace.
    Her thoughts were slow and obstinate tonight. They kept going back to the man she had killed.
    In Rome, generally, women were not matched with men. But here in the provinces, it was different. She was a secutor, a
pursuer
, and she was paired always with men. In Rome too, she had heard, women fighters were sometimes mocked, or brought on for a laugh, like the clownswho entertained the crowd between the serious matches. But there were famous women fighters in Rome, too. One of these was the Emperor Narmo’s favorite.
    Jula started. She had half fallen asleep on the cushions, lulled by the throp-throp of running feet. The fight with Phaetho, the loss of blood, had wearied her. But it would be a long evening, Julus’s dinner starting late and going on probably until the sixth hour. She parted the curtains and looked out. The Via Gracula, a fine road closely paved with mathematically cut and placed stones, ran from the stadium to the town gates. It passed through woodland at first, cleared back a hundred paces on both sides, and here and there a marble tomb stood, catching, as the woods did, the slanting westering light. Behind, the other way, lay the sea, dark blue in its readiness for evening.
    Julus’s villa reclined just off the Graculan Way, where the woods mantled rising land.
    A pillar marked the entry to her master’s estate. From here a track ran up the slope, wide enough to take two chariots, and lined with the same stone pines that clustered around the stadium.
    The sun was very low now, red and flashing like a tarnished sword between each tree.
    They passed the little temple to Temidis, goddess of prosperity-through-chance. The escorting gladiators sang out to Temidis some raucous salute of their own, in their secret jargon.
    Beyond the temple the land leveled, and over the brow of the hill, the villa gardens appeared below, basking in sunfall among olive orchards and vineyards. The villa itself, long and scarlet roofed, showed vivid lights. The guests would already have arrived.
    A waft of music blew up the hill.
    Jula left the litter. It was Julus’s wish that she approach on foot, with only two of her escort.
    As they stood a moment, one of the men swore softly. Across the deepening upper sky, a shooting star traced like a runner’s torch, high over Stagna Maris. The Romans were made uneasy by such stars. The Christiani would say, however, such a falling flame was something to do with angels …
    This Jula knew. But she thought the fallen star marked the Ethiopian’s death. Maybe he had been royal in his own land. Perhaps his own gods, that he did not deign to pray to before the mob, had honored him instead.
    He had left an impression on Jula. She had made an offering for him at the altar of Judging Fate,