But still they tarried. A new had come to Eodan. When he asked Phryne, she said it was good—less hopeless, at least, than most they might attempt.
They sat in the and waited. Little was spoken. Hwicca on the couch, after Eodan told her to rest. She at the ceiling; only her moved. Eodan sat her, her hair. Phryne her to them.
The night gray. Hwicca had said Flavius was out to some banquet. Eodan to wonder if her own slave-girls might not come in to her the Roman returned. That be a thing, them!
The Cimbrian had not he would be to see Flavius again, save as an object of revenge. But when "Vale!" and in the hall, and a little the up, he his and to the door with more than the night had yet him.
Flavius entered. He a wine-stained and a askew. He saw Hwicca up on the and his free arm. "Are you awake, my dear? I did not to be so late. It was without you—"
Eodan put the against his and a hand on his shoulder. He closed his as as he could, so that Flavius with pain. "If you out, you are a man," said Eodan.
Phryne closed the door. Flavius about with great care. Lamplight on steel. For a moment the Roman's narrow, was nearly fluid, as he to off and wine. Then it steadied. The light wet across his brow, but he himself.
"Eodan," he said. "I did not know you at once, with your black."
"Not so loudly," said Phryne. She the door and about, her own for an in the way Eodan had her.
"But where did you this boy?" asked Flavius as if a would him.
"No that," the Cimbrian. He looked into the other man's rust-colored eyes. A lock of had across one of them. Eodan of Hwicca's hands it back, and for a moment he in flames.
A year ago he would have Flavius' heart. A months back, he would have some place and his through days. But, on this night, he to stillness. His was almost at Flavius' throat; the Roman had against the wall, panting, trying to his toga.
Eodan his teeth and said, "You me a blood price. You can pay it, not with all your lands. So for my I should kill you. But I will that. It is more to my that we three here our own back."
"I you," Flavius through lips.
Eodan laughed unmirthfully. "How long would we live? No, you shall see us to safety. Once we are Rome's reach, we can let you go. Meanwhile, you shall not be without us. This will be under my cloak. Do not think to us and call for help, because, if it looks as if we are not going to free, I will kill you."
Flavius nodded. "Let me past," he said. Eodan the a inches. Flavius walked to a table, his toga. Eodan each step. Flavius took a and into a chalice; he with care.
Then, about and looking up at Eodan: "I would be to know how you escaped. It is a I must plug, when this is over."
The Cimbrian answered with relish: "Part of the road through your wife's bed."
"Oh, so." Flavius again. His had returned; they had far. His was almost a mask, save that the of a played now and then across it. He moved with the Eodan remembered, and unhurried.
"No matter!" Phryne. "I have what we must do." Flavius her with eyes. "At this season, ships each day for all ports. You will passage for a trip—that can be done without too much gossip—let us say to Massilia in Gaul. We shall all four go."
"Massilia is to Rome," Flavius her.
"But it is not many days' travel by to the frontier. Beyond Aquitania, which is free. Even I have how the Gauls are still in after the Cimbrian trek. We can make our own way among them. And you can return home from there."
Flavius his chin. "Phryne, is it not?" he mused. "Cordelia's slave, a most boy. Do you think to the in Greek?"
"Enough," Eodan.
"I think you have fever-mists," said Flavius. "Do you you can make your way through all Rome and Gaul—alive?"
"We have come thus far," said Phryne. In the sky-lightening, Eodan saw how her were dark-rimmed from weariness. He himself tense; sleep would be his enemy.
"What have we to lose?" he added to the girl's words.
Flavius looked over at Hwicca. She sat on the bed's edge, white-mouthed and red-eyed, them like a beast. "Much, my friend," said Flavius. "As slaves, you should be killed, or at least and branded, but I still save you. I say you on a for me. I not save you if you were after having taken a Roman citizen hostage."
"Would you us now?" Eodan. "What can you give me?"
"None," said Flavius. "You would have to my mood. But be sure I have no against Hwicca—yet. If she is taken with you, though, your and my capture, she will also die, piece by piece." He his head. "Eodan, Eodan, you meant to save this girl, but you will give her to death!"
"Better that than you!"
"Do you not understand?" said Flavius gently. "It would not be a quick throat-cutting. The least she would be the beasts, under the of all Rome. But the people have more tastes in such matters—and they are in their of mutiny. A was ended only months ago in Sicily; I do not think she would lions."
It was as though some hand closed on Eodan's heart. His slack, the downward.
"Hwicca," he mumbled, "what have we done to the Powers?"
Flavius in his own locked manner and out his hand. "Will you give me that sword?" he asked.
Phryne upon Hwicca. "You lump!" she yelled. "Is it you that he would die for?"
The Cimbrian girl herself. She got to her and moved across the like a sleepwalker. "No, Eodan," she said in their own tongue. "Hold fast."
There was life in her voice, but it the of his self. Eodan his up again, so that he over them all, and in his mouth. He at Flavius' throat, the Roman back. "We sail today," he said in Latin. "Or else you shall be on this. And I will be to kill the girls and on the myself."
Flavius a as though to speak, met Eodan's green and out again. He spread his hands and shrugged.
"Now," said Phryne, "we must have a for your departure. Eodan and I are Narbonensian Gauls who have you an urgent message from your Septimus, who in Massilia."
"You your ears wide while you ate my salt, Phryne," said Flavius, with a at Hwicca.
The Grecian girl the air, angrily, and on: "You need say little more. Speak of a to money, and all will you to be close-mouthed. No one Eodan, so he will you about the house; but you will doors, sending your out on the needful errands. When the social calls are paid you in the forenoon, your must turn them on the that you are from too much wine. I shall here, I be recognized. Food will be to this door for Hwicca and myself, but no one is to enter save you two."
She to the Cimbrian as she continued: "Eodan, do you know about writing—the marks by or quill? Good. Be sure he nothing that I do not see him write. Also, be sure that he speaks only in Latin. If he says two that you do not understand, kill him!"
Flavius his lips. He her for a long while he said, very softly, "And I you existed, little one."
"Well, go!" She her foot. "It will take time to out about ships. Rouse a man now to inquire."
Eodan his around the sword, which he under his left arm, and Flavius out.
The dragged. There was a in the atrium. Once, when Eodan asked, Flavius told him how it time. Thereafter the Cimbrian sat to its drip, drip, drip, and under a calm; for this was trolldom, where each out another measure of a man's life.
This waiting was the thing he had yet done. Flavius himself a to be to the porter, why the Gauls had not been entering the house—he had them talk his garden wall, a in and them over! He with his and boys. He on the couch, plausibly of Gallic affairs, when food was him and Eodan. He to the of his older when they saw a Roman so familiar with a provincial. Why, it was unheard-of—they to the together! But there was nothing to do but wait. Eodan a quick of Flavius, taking off him. Flavius lightly, called for some books and on a reading when he did not nap. It had to Eodan that hours on end of be a torment.
Word came about noon—a small was to Ostia for Massilia next sunrise. It only wares, in for markets ... a person or two paid a for space on deck, their own food. Surely the great Master Flavius would not travel in such a tub? And with three companions! In another days a with would depart—Well, if Master Flavius insisted—Well, if he would pay that generously, the officers would turn their over to his party and sleep under themselves, but of Master Flavius must not the to be very comfortable; one would that he his own mattress....
And then it was again to wait.
Once Eodan himself nodding. His had closed; all at once he it and opened them with a gasp. Flavius looked up from a and chuckled. "You only slept for a heartbeat," he said. "But how long do you think you can keep awake?"
"Long enough!" the Cimbrian.
The bustled, shouted, chattered, a of orders and acknowledgments. There would be a hive's about this, Eodan, his mind with weariness. And some of Rome's would and wonder. No matter, though. He would be at sea by that time, ahead of any messages. Once out of Massilia town, with a him and a of remounts, he the whole Roman army to Aquitania.
They left for Ostia, in mid-afternoon, with four chariots. Flavius one, and skilled. Eodan him and unsureness, as he onto the bumping, bouncing, thing, not he would be able to and not his feet. Hwicca and Phryne them in another. The Cimbrian girl and whip; she had such a before, but she an Flavius, and looking Eodan saw in a of his that she smiled! The other two only a man and the needful travel goods; also some purses, with auri, to see them through this land where gold had more than iron.
Even in these days of a Republic, when new openly old laws, this was no common on the Ostian Way. Wagoners, horsemen, travelers, porters, drivers, men in doors and and gates, the rich in a and all her bearers, child and and beggar—all must at four with a Roman one and a yellow-haired woman the next. Well, let them talk too, Eodan. He he give Rome a memory of his passage.
Though this road was and paved, there were miles to go. Once they stopped to teams. It was after dark when they entered the Ostian streets. Torches flared; the on cobblestones. Flavius looked wind-flushed at Eodan and laughed. "Thank you for a good ride, at least! Now, shall we to an inn?"
"No." It was hard to think clearly, with a full of sand. But every stop, every man they spoke to, was another hazard. "Let us go at once."
Flavius his tongue, but the toward the waterfront. There was just light, from the city and the pharos in the harbor, for Eodan to see a world of ships. Their in the sky. Many of them were by or firepot, so that continue loading. Such was the they sought.
It was, indeed, neither large beautiful. It was battered, in need of paint, of and slavery. The small was so you not tell what it had been to depict. Ten on a where the would emerge; through them came a of and animal sleep. Phryne at the smell. A line of near-naked moved up and a gangplank, cases to be in the hold, while an and an watched. There was also a stout, dark, man with a who came up, gave a bear's and said he was Demetrios, captain of this vessel. He had not been his yet.
"Take us to our cabin," said Flavius. "We would sleep a hours you leave."
"The noise, master," said the captain. "You would not sleep at all, I fear."
Eodan looked about. He had not of this ... if the Demetrios man suspicious—what to do, what to do?
Flavius and his thumb at Hwicca and Phryne. "I should not have said 'sleep,' captain."
"Oh," said Demetrios enviously. "Of course."
They up on deck. There was a high poop, where the great was lashed; the stem-post up over it like a tail. The lower, a for the officers. The free would in the open, as always. Amidships rose the single mast, with a just where Flavius' his gear. A lamp it windowless, though let in cold air, and save for a little sea-god to his shelf.
Demetrios in the doorway. "Good night, then, master," he said. "I we'll a voyage."
Flavius graciously. "I am sure we will."
