Roma.The novel of ancient Rome - Saylor Steven (книги онлайн полные версии бесплатно .TXT) 📗

Through the little window, very faintly, they heard the cry of “All clear!” from the nearest sentry. The cry was echoed from various points around the perimeter of the barricades and cliffs. In the silence that followed, a goose let out a single, plaintive honk. To save them from the Gauls, the sacred geese of Juno had been brought from the goddess’s new temple on the Aventine and were being kept in an enclosure beside the Temple of Jupiter.

“We shall have to eat them soon,” said Pennatus.

“The geese? They’re sacred to Juno,” said Pinaria.

“But what good are geese to a goddess if all her worshipers die of starvation?”

“No one would dare to touch them.”

“Yet I’ve noticed that their ration of grain has been cut. Those geese are getting awfully skinny. Soon there’ll be no meat on them worth eating. Better to eat them now, while they can still give us some sustenance.”

“People would sooner eat the dogs!”

“But the dogs at least serve a function. They keep vigil at night, along with the sentries. My old master was especially fond of goose liver. He said it was quite delicious.”

“Pennatus, what terrible things you say!”

He snuggled close. “Like the things I whisper in your ear when I’m inside you?”

She shivered, and clutched his sex, which was full and firm in her hand. They had finished only moments ago, and already he was stiff again. He cupped her breast and kissed her nipple. A wave of sheer pleasure rippled through her.

She sighed. “Long before anyone considers eating the sacred geese, Camillus will come.”

This was the hope on everyone’s lips. Only a few days earlier, an intrepid soldier from the outside, Pontius Cominius, had managed to pass through the Gaul’s defenses and reach the defenders on the Capitoline. He had filled his tunic with bits of cork and floated down the Tiber, and then, by night, stole through the streets and scaled the Capitoline at a point so craggy and steep that the Gauls kept no watch on it. The Roman sentry who witnessed his arrival had been amazed to see a human scrambling like a spider up the sheer rock face, and even more amazed when the man called out to him in Latin. Pontius Cominius brought word that the Roman forces were gradually regrouping under the leadership of the exiled Camillus, who requested that the handful of senators trapped atop the Capitoline should formally invest him with the powers of a dictator. The senators had sent Pontius Cominius back to Camillus with a pledge of their full support and promises to pray for his victory. Had the messenger passed safely through the Gallic forces to return to Camillus? No one knew, but the news from outside had brought fresh hope to the Capitoline. Camillus was on the march and might arrive any day. Camillus, the conqueror of Veii, would rescue them and drive the Gauls from Roma!

Pennatus rolled away from her, onto his back. His member became noticeably more pliant in her hand. “And then what? You shall go back to being a Vestal, and I shall go back to being a slave.”

The sweat turned cold on Pinaria’s body. She released his sex and pulled the coverlet over her breasts. The future that Pennatus suggested-a resumption of the way things had been before the Gauls came-was far less horrible than the one she envisioned. Pinaria knew all too well what was done to a Vestal found guilty of breaking her vow, and what was done to the Vestal’s lover.

“Who can say what the future will bring?” she whispered. “Who knew that Camillus would be exiled, or that Brennus and the Gauls would come and change everything? Who knew that you would become my lover-who could imagine such a thing! Who knew that I…”

The sudden break in her voice caused him to furrow his brow. “Go on, Pinaria. What were you about to say?”

She drew a sharp breath. “I may be mistaken. It may be the strain of the siege that caused the interruption. I think that this happens to women sometimes-when there’s a terrible crisis, or if they go hungry…”

“Pinaria, what are you saying?”

“The full moon has come and gone, and come again, and yet…no blood flowed from inside me. I don’t know much about such things-but even I know what it means when a woman’s menses is interrupted!”

He rose onto his elbows and stared at her. Shadows hid his face. “Are you with child?”

“I don’t know, not for certain. As I said, perhaps there’s another explanation…”

He moved closer. The moonlight revealed his awestruck expression. “But this is wonderful! Terrible and wonderful, at the same time!”

Pinaria shivered and hugged herself. “Sooner or later, it will begin to show. What will I do then?”

“Perhaps no one will notice.”

“Not notice? I shall grow fatter while everyone else grows thinner!”

“You can loosen your robes. You can say that you need seclusion. I’ll wait on you, and not let anyone else approach. And maybe Camillus will come soon, and set us free, and we can leave the Capitoline-”

“And go where? I could never hide my condition among the others in the House of the Vestals.”

“Then we shall go into hiding. Or run away. We’ll flee up to Gaul and live among godless savages! I don’t know what we’ll do, Pinaria, but we’ll think of something. It’s just as you said, no one can know what the future will bring.”

He slipped beneath the coverlet and lay next to her. His hand sought hers and held it tightly. Together, they stared into the dark corners of the room. “I know you’re afraid,” he said. “Afraid of what the others will do to us if they find out. But…is it more than that?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you unhappy because…because it’s the child of a slave inside you?”

“Pennatus! I never expected to carry any man’s child. I don’t know what I’m feeling. I never said I was unhappy-”

“Because…because there’s something about me that you don’t know. It might make a difference.”

She turned to face him. She touched his cheek and looked into his eyes, which reflected the pale moonlight. “I know that you’re very brave, Pennatus. And very funny. And wicked sometimes-the things you say! I know that you’re not like anyone else I’ve ever met, and that I love you. And I know that you love me. Such a precious thing, this love between us! Sometimes I think it must be a gift from the goddess, even though I know that’s impossible. I could never regret that you’ve given me a child, Pennatus. I only wish-”

“I wish things were different, too. I wish that you weren’t a Vestal. I wish that I wasn’t born a slave! If it weren’t for the bitterness of fate, I might have been as high-born as you, Pinaria. I have the blood of patricians in me.”

“What do you mean?”

“This talisman I wear-it’s more than it appears to be. And so am I!” He held up the image of Fascinus. The black amulet gleamed dully in the moonlight. “It’s not made of lead, Pinaria. It’s only been dipped in lead, to hide what’s beneath, so that no master would bother to take it. If you scratch through the lead, you can see the pure yellow gleam underneath. It’s made of gold, Pinaria. It’s an heirloom. It’s very ancient, older than Roma itself-older than all the gods and goddesses of Roma! Fascinus was here first, even before Jupiter.”

She shook her head. “More blasphemy, Pennatus? This isn’t funny.”

“It’s neither blasphemy nor a joke. It’s the truth, Pinaria. Before she died, my mother told me where I came from and who I really am. I was born a slave, yes, and so was she, but her father was the son of Titus Potitius, a Roman of the most ancient patrician blood, and Icilia, the sister of Lucius Icilius, who was a tribune of the plebs. The son of Titus Potitius and Icilia was illegitimate, and he was made a slave at birth because of the spite of his uncle. But even as a slave, he wore the talisman of the Potitii around his neck, and Titus Potitius himself, in secret, told him the tale of his birth. That slave passed the talisman on to his daughter, my mother. She was born a slave in the household of Icilius, but was later sold to my master, in whose house I was born. Before she died, she passed the talisman to me. It represents the god Fascinus, the most ancient deity worshipped by mortals in Roma. Fascinus was known even before Hercules and Jupiter, and long before the gods who came to us by way of the Greeks.”