Eleutheria

XXV

XXV

“I beg your forgiveness, your grace!” The man who had attacked Erasmos – who she found out through Charmides was called Pammon – cried out as he threw himself down before Hypatia. His head slammed into the stone floor of her villa when he did so, and she couldn't help but wonder if he had busted his nose from his over zealousness.

She had just walked back inside her villa. Erasmos was standing just behind her, helping her remove the himation draped elegantly over her body. The celebration after the race that had started without warning for the four remaining contestants had lasted longer than she thought. She was tired, eager to get back to her room, and hopeful that Erasmos wasn't too tired out from his efforts today that he couldn't take her in his arms.

“Pammon, if I'm correct?” she started, stopping to look at him.

“I'm not worthy to be remembered by one as glorious as you.” He was actually shaking.

“Your children are safe then, I assume?”

He nodded with his head still to the ground. “Thanks only to your grace. You're kind and wise and-”

“Enough,” she cut him off quickly. She didn't want to spend the next hour being heaped in compliments by anyone. She was already tired of that from the celebration. “I take it then that Galen has shown you to your room?”

He nodded again, not daring to speak this time. Hypatia couldn't very well allow Loxias to hurt this man's kids. That would make her no better than him. So she had extended an invitation to the man and his children to work in her household. It was a high honor for one so low born to serve as high a family as hers. Even his two daughters were going to be maids here, after they had matured a bit. They, according to Charmides, were eager to do it now.

Hypatia didn't see it as undue kindness though. She merely sought to save their lives. The side effect of that was a new family servant and this prostrating business that she was already bored of.

Still, “I do hope that you're going to be more willing to talk to me now, Pammon.”

“Anything, your grace. Ask of me anything. I would lay down my life for you.”

“No need for dramatics, they don't impress me. The one who hired you?”

“Lord Loxias, as you so cleverly deduced, high one.”

“Hypatia will suffice,” she was going to need something for her headache if he kept this up. “What were his orders exactly?”

“Yes, High Lady Hypatia. His orders were to maim or kill your slave. He wanted to ensure that he could not win this race. If you had not saved us, my daughters would be dead now for your victory. Which was magnificent-”

“Stop. Why did he hire you?”

“I am a skilled fighter, milady.”

“You are?” He looked too impoverished to be a skilled fighter. He was muscular to be sure but he had to look of one that didn't get to eat often. Besides that, she had bested him a little too easily. She hadn't fought in a great deal of time, there was no way she was that good.

He nodded against the stone. “I used to be a mercenary before meeting my beloved wife. She died giving me my two daughters. They are all I have to remember her by. I had no choice but to abandon my old profession though, for their sake.”

“How skilled are you at fighting?”

“I am best with daggers, milady. Though clearly not as good as your slave or your own glorious self. Truly, you are glorious and wondrous and...”