[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
She'd certainly puzzled Livia Plurabella. How do you manage that? the banker's
wife asked. When do you sleep? When do you bathe?
We just do what needs doing,, as best we can. Amanda thought she could ask one
of her questions now:
How do you own people who are just like you?
They aren't people just like me. They're slaves/!' Livia Plurabella said,
completely missing Amanda's point. This had to be the first time anyone had
ever questioned slavery in the matron's hearing. She hesitated. She was
polite, too, in her own way. Then she asked, You're Christian, aren't you,
dear?
Page 50
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Yes, Amanda said. Imperial Christian.
I know Christians have some... some different ideas. Yes, Livia Plurabella was
working very hard to be polite. She went on. Do Christians have some sort
of... interesting notion that slavery is bad? I never heard they you did.
No, they uh, we don't, Amanda answered. That was true for all kinds of
Christians in Agrippan
Rome. It had also been true for Christians in the Roman Empire of Amanda's
world. The New Testament didn't say one thing about putting an end to slavery.
People hadn't really started opposing it till the rise of democracy in England
and America and France suggested that all men should be equal under the law
and till machines started doing work instead of slaves. Even then, America had
needed a war to get rid of slavery.
But Amanda had only perplexed Livia Plurabella more. What have you got against
it, then? she asked.
We just don't think it's right for anyone to be able to buy and sell someone
else, Amanda said. And it's always worse for women everybody knows that. If
the Lietuvans took Polisso, would you want them selling and buying you!
Such things did happen after cities fell. Livia Plurabella turned pale. She
leaned towards Amanda and set a manicured hand a hand probably manicured by a
slave on her forearm. Is there going to be a war? she whispered, as if she
didn't dare say it out loud. Is there? What have you heard?
She'd missed the point again, or most of it. But war was no small thing,
either. I haven't heard anything new, Amanda said. All I know is, everybody's
worried about it.
Some of the matron's color came back. Gods be praised, she said in a voice
more like her own. A sack is the worst thing in the world. Pray to your own
funny God that you never have to find out how bad a sack can be. She got to
her feet. I will send the slave with the money. No, you don't need to show me
out, dear. I know the way. Off she went, the hem of her long wool tunic
sweeping around her ankles.
Amanda wanted to know how she knew about sacks. She also wanted to ask her
more questions about slavery now that she had the chance. But Livia Plurabella
had done all the talking she intended to do. She opened the front door, then
closed it behind her. Amanda sighed. The chance was gone.
Jeremy was tossing a ball back and forth in the street with a boy named Fabio
Lentulo and nicknamed
Barbato the guy with the beard. Fabio was Jeremy's age, more or less. He was
a skinny little fellow, a head shorter than Jeremy. He'd been apprenticed to
the silversmith whose shop stood a few doors down from Jeremy's house. Jeremy
had got to know him the summer before. Even then, Fabio had had this thick,
curly, luxuriant beard on cheeks and chin and upper lip. Jeremy didn't know if
his own beard would be that heavy when he was thirty or ever.
Playing catch in the street here was an adventure. They had to do it over and
through traffic, which paid no attention to them. The ball was leather, and
stuffed with feathers. It wasn't especially round. It would have made a crummy
baseball. For throwing back and forth, though, it was all right.
Jeremy dodged a creaking oxcart. He lofted the ball over the sacks of beans or
barley piled high in the back of the cart. Fabio jumped to catch it. When he
came down, he almost got trampled by a horse with big clay jars of wine tied
to its back. The man leading the horse called him several different kinds of
idiot.
Fabio gave back better than he got. Grinning, he sent Jeremy running after the
ball with a high lob.
His foot splashed down in a smelly puddle the instant he made the catch. The
dirty water he hoped it was water, anyway splattered him and three or four
people around him. They all told him just what they thought. Since he was as
disgusted as they were, he couldn't even yell back.
He flung the ball right at Fabio's nose, as hard as he could. It wouldn't have
Page 51
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
hurt much had it hit. But it didn't. The apprentice snatched it out of the
air. He grinned. His teeth were white, but crooked. Got you!
he said, and threw the ball back.
This time, Jeremy caught it without disaster. So Fabio thought landing him in
trouble was fun, did he?
Why aren't you at work? Jeremy shouted. My boss is down sick, so he didn't
open up, Fabio answered.
Why aren't you?
I will be pretty soon, if you don't get me killed first, Jeremy said, and
Fabio Lentulo's grin got bigger.
Jeremy threw the ball high in the air. Fabio had to look up to follow its
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]