Carnage
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Chapter Five
Unfortunately, Arie did not get a chance to find out. For nearly one month, Nadu swamped her with as much as she could. Buying clothes, decorating all the rooms of the house and finding new slaves. Nadu had wanted the stones in the bath changed as the aging bricks had mold and produced a lot of dust from the thinning plaster. Arie was meant to look for a few strong pair of hands.
"Get some Carthigian men to do the construction work," Junius instructed.
"Why not hire men from those factories?" Arie asked grimacing.
"Don't be so simplistic. Once they done doing the princess' bidding, they will be our guards," he answered. Having guards should have been the first thing they did when they arrived, Arie wanted to retort but she held her tongue.
The work itself was unpleasant in it's extreme. The Forum had a section specifically catered to their sale. The area was almost completely closed with small alleys out of it. Each alley had two burly men standing guard. The ground itself was not paved like most parts of the city and Arie felt suspicious at the copious amount of grey-green dirt on the ground. She had learnt to breath through her mouth as soon as she steps out of the villa.
The slaves were kept in groups of five in one wooden cage not big enough to hold three, with chains around one leg tied to the bars. It was difficult to see their skin color despite wearing only loin skins. A single adult male slave went for twice the amount of three female slaves. Children, there were more female ones than males, were nearly worthless and had the same starved, bloated look with sunken eyes.
"Step forward," a rather thin slave master yelled. Obediently, fifteen slaves shuffled forwards. "Inspect my wares and you'll find none better in this market."
A large man wearing a bright red tunic that barely reached his knees scoffed and spat in the space between. He gestured to his own set of cages.
"Do not listen to him," he said in enunciated Latin. "I have men and women from Sparta. You know Sparta?"
She did and they were, it seemed, because one of the slave men nodded as if in agreement. There was a look of desperation in his hollow eyes. Arie glanced at them separately and found they were all under-fed but fit, including the twelve year old boy who was glaring right back at her.
"How much for them?" Arie pointed at both the man and the boy.
"Wait," the first slave driver all but grabbed her arm. He hit the bars in front of a deeply tanned man. "He can read, write, teach and he is good for any type of work you have."
Before she could reply, there was a loud crack followed by a muffled scream behind her. She turned around and saw a woman tied to a stake with her upper body naked. A long leather whip hooked at the end arced and landed on the skin. Blood gushed out and there was another scream. Every fibre of her body wanted to interfere but the law, as stated by Junius while he was administaring punishment, was that a master can do as he wished.
"She tried to escape," the thin one explained. "You'll always find those ones in a pack but not mine," he added quickly.
"But isn't the sentence for escaping death?"
"If the owner chooses to, yes but look at her. She would still fetch a fair price," he said. "Forget about that one, you see those men. They are waiting to buy her,"
Sure enough there were three men wearing plain white togas hurdled a small distance from the stake. As the whip landed again, one of them protest. The owner went up to him but Arie did not get a chance to see what they would talk about when the fat master shoved the Spartan man towards her. He grabbed the boy's bony arm with one hand using his key to unlock the chain. As easily as if he weighed nothing, the man then lifted the boy before setting him down forcefully before her. Not once did the little boy's fierce gaze waver. To the first man's bunch, she chose a bulky man who had fighting experience. By the time she had gone to the next slave driver, the girl had been untied and was now being pulled by the ropes tied around her wrist. At least she had something on her, Arie thought bitterly looking at the thin material she was wearing.
"Prisoners of war! From the great Tiberius' own lot!" A voice rose above the drone. Paying quickly for them, Arie followed it until she saw the announcer. He was already surrounded prospectors. It was an auction she guessed. Behind him and to his side was bigger cages than the others mounted on wheels. The men inside was taunt with muscles. Arie was split; it looked to be both dangerous and beneficial to have them. For the former, they were trained to kill. Junius' guards would probably not stand a chance but in case Orodes' mercenaries attacks, their chances of survival would increase. There were a total of five men and one woman who wore a dirty tunic with her breasts nearly out in the open.
"The bidding begins now!"
"I'll take them all for what ever price you want," Arie yelled so suddenly it surprised.
"If I asked for a hundred and fifty guineas?" the auctioneer asked.
Arie held out her purse and raised her eyebrow.
"I'll give you two hundred," a reedy voice declared and Arie met the eyes of a effeminate man. He was in the same situation of the woman soldier, needing clothes to re-affirm their gender.
Arie held out the purse even further and said, "Three hundred for each of them."
The auctioneer waiting for any objection but he was met with relative silence. His hands reached out to take the purse but Arie pulled back.
"I have a few of them back there. How much more for shipping them all?"
Junius would be furious when she returned and that somehow made the sight of human being pushed in cages more easily to swallow.
New slaves proved have an expected problem. Junius, who had earlier said that he would supervise the reconstruction, suddenly changed his mind.
"I have too many things to do," he told her.
"Then who should-surely, you're not asking me to watch over them?"
"Who else than the princess' right hand? Did you know she referred to you as that?" he asked with a smile before going on in a much more chilly voice. "But with me around, she will learn to use both her hands,"
"What did you say?" Arie said alarmed. "Are you threatening-"
"Aren't you so eager to have something against me? I am not threatening her Highness, that would be ridiculous and beneath me. I will simply teach her how to stop relying on people like you,"
"You are not better than me just because you made all of this possible," she retorted. "You're only here because in the end you stand to gain a lot,"
He brushed a speck of dust off her shoulder. "That would be true,"
"And you stand to lose the most," Arie finished. His hands were gripping her shoulder again in what he imagined was re-assuring.
"There is nothing to lose," he said. She balled her fists at the condescending tone he used.
With a vicious smile, Arie pushed him away. "How can you teach her when you know so very little yourself? You must have asked yourself why royal relative would be wandering the streets,"
"Not unheard of but, yes, I have," Junius answered dismissively.
"Do you even know the truth?"
He smiled as if he knew what she was trying to do. "Nadu had told me everything. Believe it or not, we have built trust in one another,"
Her forehead furrowed despite Arie being so careful so as to not show much emotion. Built trust? How after such a short time? Nadu did not treat her like a confidant until weeks later while they headed East up the Silk Road. They were standing at the foot of giant statue of Buddha carved into a mountain when she finally spoke up.
With what she had hoped was a triumphant smile, Arie said, "You do not have trust. It is convenient that you stay by her side-"
"Is that so?"
"Open your eyes. I have been with her longer than you; she doesn't value you more. She did not abandoned me in Pompeii," Arie said loudly. "Regardless of how long you act like you are only ray of light in our poor, bleak existence, I am still here,"
"If you do not want that to changed, you stay out of my way."
He bumped against her shoulder hard enough to nearly push her down but Arie struck out her leg and managed to stay standing. The men she had brought stood around the bath. None of them looked interested in what transpired. They had been given some old clothes to wear, an axle, barrow and oilskin bottle full of very diluted wine each, and a very long, detailed speech about crucifixions.
Frankly, Arie knew very little about construction and cared even less. The house they had bought had just a bit of extra land between it and the apartments. There was a wall separating them and the space between the wall and the domus was meant to be a bath. The current one had been knocked down a bit but they had to be careful as there still was a bit of hot water warming the walls. The grass surrounding it was almost dead and caked with pieces of stone and dust. She was supposed to create a cold room since the bath lacked one and somehow connect it to the main house. The princess had been complaining about the heat and Junius had apparently wanted to please her. Arie pushed back any thoughts about Nadu's sudden demanding behaviour when she remembered it was the first time in a long time that she was being treated a noble.
The two of them got by with the help of a few individuals. Usually, the two would stay for a few months before going back on the road again. The only one they had remained with for more than a year was a Han merchant named Chu Bang. He charged them rent while they slept in the servants' quarter and provided them with some essentials. Arie worked as trader as pay for their accomodations when she learnt enough Chinese to bargain with the natives. She usually handled a stall in the market selling pottery and rolls of silk.
On their last year there, Arie went along on what was supposed to be a month long trekk through the Jade Gate to Dunhuang. The journey took longer than usual as Chu Bang wanted to trade as often as he could. By the time they had arrived at Dunhuang, they had sold half their wares and Arie picked up on a lot of new skills as such how to weild a sword. Her father taught her how to use a dagger. Although she preferred the smaller weapon, the sword was rather interesting and she learnt all the basics just before they had reached the city. Nadu had stayed behind with the man's wife who, according to gossip, had treated her as a sister-wife. The princess was not too happy about it and complained for a half a night when Arie returned. She was even less pleased when she saw all that Arie returned was Papyrus scrolls from Egypt and parchment from Alexandria and Greece.
"This one might be from ruins of Corinth...and this one," Arie held up a fragile clay tablet," might have been in Aristotle's own collection,"
"How can even you read it?" Nadu asked squinting.
"Father taught me a bit," Arie answered touching the barely comprehensible glyphs. "Besides having it is better than not. Just imagine how much I would learn if I knew how to read it. The Sumerians were a smart lot."
"Why does it matter? You should have used the wages wisely, Arie. Reading won't help us survive," she said before flopping down on their beds carelessly and rolling in pain soon after when her head hit the wall behind her. Arie wanted to tell Nadu that her wages were already being used as rent. The money she given was the commission. She felt guilty because they could have kept it safe for later use but when she was through the make shift library, she felt excited just touching the materials. There was a chance it was all fake, Arie knew that as she inspected the scrolls, but some of them seemed authentic enough to study from. The silk and bamboo scrolls took a while to translate from Han as she had to learn from Chu Bang himself.
They left immediately she had made enough commission to take them back towards Parthia. Along the way, Arie learnt to speak Aramaic from the groups they joined as they went back to Aksum just before the Moonsoon. Nadu grudgingly picked up some words just in case they would need to cross Persia. She did not, however, bother learning how to fight. Although Arie did managed to drag her along whenever she met with soldiers roaming the route after a war or retirement, she stopped immediately she learnt to disarm attesting to Arie's numerous injuries as discouraging. Eventually, after a very tumulous journey that featured robberies and a near rape attempt, they reached Pompeii in the middle of the night being dropped off by their paid guide in front of a gambling house.
As reckless as it felt, Arie passed the work onto the older slaves and went back into the house. Nadu was in her bath having her back scrubbed by Jithra, a teenager Junius had bought from a brothel. She had an odd way of speaking, pausing every few words to wheeze especially whenever she was near smoke.
"Mama said. I was lucky. I was alive. They burned. The whole village. Down,"
It irritated Arie up to no end but the girl could do nearly everything. It was uncanny how fast she caught on to something and how quickly she adopts to all kinds of situation. Junius favoured her, of course, and never failed to mention the girl whenever he went into his drunken tirades.
"Jithra, go help Musha in the kitchen,"
The girl grinned, set the hardened sponge and practically skipped out of the room. Nadu raised an eye brow but gave no indication she was displeased when Arie knelt beside the marble and limestone master piece. It was beige with more splashes of colour towards the foot end of it. Nadu fit inside comfortable though Arie would have a bit of a problem. The whole house had assess to warm water with the under ground heating. Despite the heat of the summer, although the temperature was going down with each day, Arie made sure to bath with scalding hot water while Nadu had a penchant for it being near freezing. The servant hissed lightly when she inserted her hand into the water to soak some water before scrubbing Nadu's bare skin just strong enough to elicit a sigh.
"I thought you were occupied,"
"I don't mind someone else doing some of the work," Arie said. Lately, however, it felt like their time together was so limited that it was the only time they ever talked properly. "Do you?"
"Not really," Nadu whispered, giggling quietly. A small smile found it's way onto Arie face. Somethings you can not change.
"I hear he has you building this entire thing yourself," Nadu said gesturing all around. "Must be hard. We never had to fix or make our living quarters permanent before. It feels really odd. I'm a bit afraid." She confessed quietly. "I can't imagine how you must feeling seeing that you are doing all of this by yourself."
"It would be fun if it was not for Junius." Arie said, moving to her shoulder blades. "That man drives me insane."
"I know you are unhappy but this is what I want," Nadu said with some finality. Arie did not know whether to be glad their entire conversation ended before it was done. "There is not much we can do on our own and we have a foundation Arie now. You must know by now how important that is,"
Luicuis had told her many things about the earth and what to use to strengthen it first before you dig a hole for your foundation. The truth was that they spent so long focusing on living that they had not really lived. The experience the girls garnered was extensive for most things but not this. Politics was venomous regardless of who used it. Her father, who was once sweet, wise and kind, was bitter at first, then he became angry, spiteful and a drunk. And yet he was praised for his humanity. If that was humanity, Arie did not want know how it would look on them if they do attempt the impossible.
"Shift a little, your arm is too far away,"