"I'm sorry," said Declan. "The answer to my question has caused you pain. I shall ask no more. If you would ask any of me, I will be happy to…"
"1 have a question," said Sinead, looking up at the enormous figure beside her. In a quiet but very serious voice she went on, "If Declan had decided to attack you, as a Christian would you have, well, turned the other cheek?"
Klum'bgaa looked uncomfortable for a moment, and Declan decided that if his face had not already been as black as ink he would have been blushing as he said, "Perhaps. But I confess to not being a very good Christian."
Sinead and Declan laughed quietly and, after a moment of uncertainty, Klum'bgaa relaxed and joined them. They were still smiling together as they arrived in the surprisingly large and comfortable slaves' quarters, and Declan was answering one of the guard's questions to the effect that it was only certain deranged Britons rather than the Hibernians who painted their skins with blue woad before going into battle when the other held up a hand for silence.
"That is fortunate," he said, still smiling, "because otherwise you would have been asked to scrape your skins clean and wash yourselves from basins in the yard before entering the baths, lest a foreign dye should permanently stain the master's decorated tiling which is of exceptionally beautiful craftsmanship. The baths are in that direction, you can see the steps leading down to the pool, and there is an antechamber where you both may disrobe and leave your travel-stained clothing to be freshened, after which you should follow that corridor; your noses will give you the direction as well as your eyes. In the kitchens you may rest and eat and talk about yourselves, bearing in mind that the more you satisfy the slaves' curiosity, the more generous will the refreshments be… Is there something amiss?"
Sinead was shaking her head firmly and slowing to a stop while she looked in the direction of the kitchens. "I- I would prefer to eat and rest now," she said, changing to Gaelic speech and staring at Declan. "You bathe first."
He shook his head and made a sound that had too much impatience in it to be a laugh. "Brian tells me that in Rome the baths are public places, whether large and maintained by the city or those within homes that are privately owned. It is the custom here. Do you want these people to think that you have unclean habits? You can hear the voices of others who are already bathing…"
"That," she replied in a quiet, angry voice, "is not what concerns me, and well you know it."
"Don't be an amadan entirely!" he said angrily. "You are not a fool and should not talk like one, and I am not a rampant animal in heat who would lose control of myself at the sight of the wet, scrawny body of a near child…"
"Scrawny!" she broke in angrily. "You have the decorum of a, a… And you should talk. That time I saw you in Cashel, I thought your body had more stitches than a patchwork quilt…"
The angry words raged between them until Klum'bgaa raised a hand and cleared his throat loudly.
"Normally it would be considered unmannerly for you to speak in my presence a tongue that I do not understand," he said when they fell silent, "so I assume that you are having a personal dispute of some kind that is no concern of mine. From the heat of your faces and anger in your voices it is fortunate that neither of you are armed. When the disagreement is settled you know where you are to go and what is expected of you.
–
"I must now return to my post."
In the event it was Sinead who bathed first while Declan talked to the kitchen and household slaves. It was plain from the beginning that the limbs revealed by their short, sleeveless clothing bore no marks of the whip and that their love for their master far outweighed any fear of him. They ranged in age from mature adults to young children and it was obvious that some of them had been given permission, which they told him was unusual for a slave, to marry. Declan was hoping that he would get a chance to meet the strange pagan saint who was their master when Sinead reappeared muffled in a white, togalike garment, and it was his turn to bathe.
He found that Sinead had elected to await his return before eating, and so had the others. It became a very pleasant evening among people who behaved as if they were the friends and family he had never known, but it was cut short by the arrival of Klum'bgaa who no longer looked like a gate ornament.
The sharp, bright weapons were still at his belt but the white plumed helmet and matching cloak had been replaced by darker and less decorative wear and with boots that did not shine and trod the floor without sound.
"Your master, Ma'el, has expressed the desire to visit the catacombs under the Via Latinum at a time before dawn when few citizens will be about to see you, and my master has acceded to his wish. The noble Marcus Grappilius and the other Hibernian visitor, Brian, are engaged in conversation and feasting that will doubtless last the night, and I have been instructed to serve as a guide and guard to your master and yourselves during this excursion.
"Your weapons will be returned to you at the gate," he added, looking at Declan. "You are advised to wear them."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Ma'el Report, recall and review for sociological comparison purposes of Days 36,511 to 36,549 in the local calendar year 67 Anno Domlne…
Even though the peoples of this world are merely subjects for investigation and evaluation, I am finding it increasingly difficult to remain emotionally indifferent to individual members of a species that is capable of such extremes of nobility and depravity. In spite of the fact that they have conceived and formulated a structure of Roman law that will be the standard of judiciary practice for many centuries to come and their arts, culture, and philosophical breadth of mind is wholly admirable. I must continually remind myself that they are nothing more than a potential Taelon resource and I am here to observe them. "Without feeling.
'Today I watched a bloody naval engagement that was not fought at sea but inside the shallow, land-locked confines of the Circus Maximus. Four vessels took part, two war galleys on each side, and their masts were bare because they did not need the wind to move them in the restricted space, and sails would have obscured the view of the battle for the occupants of the higher terraces. Instead they carried armed galley slaves who were expected to fight when they were no longer required to row.
"My understanding of these events is due to the knowledgeable freedman, Severus, who I have employed to guard my person. He was himself a renowned gladiator who fought so fiercely and well, and earned so much gold as a result of his master's gambling on him over the years that, his owner out of gratitude first appointed him as instructor of the gladiatorial team and later gave him his freedom. According to Severus, no long-range weapons such as slingshots, bows, or ship-mounted catapults were being carried in case one or more of the gladiators, the majority of whom were expecting to die anyway, should in a fit of vexation aim his weapon at the august person of their Emperor and self-declared God who had decreed that this battle should take place for the entertainment of his beloved but unruly citizens of Rome. Severus added that the tunics of the contenders, white on one side and yellow on the other, had been chosen the better to display the flow of blood from the combatants' wounds.
"The tactic favored by both sides was to overcome the initial inertia of their vessels and to build up as much speed as quickly as possible with the oars so that they would be able to pierce the hull of an opposing craft with the submerged, pointed ram in the bow and sink it to the bottom. Since the engagement was taking place in the muddied waters of a flooded arena rather than at sea, the stricken vessel did not sink very far and simply became immobilized with its decks awash. This meant that its crew had to fight either clinging one-handed to the upperworks or while stumbling and splashing waist-deep over an unseen deck. When one of the vessels suffered this fate a few of the spectators were amused by the incongruity of the sight of gladiators behaving like the most unsubtle of clowns, but the majority seemed to be bored by it and shouted loudly for more blood.