Slave Girl: Chapter 54 (Patreon)

We walk and eat our breakfast under a partially cloudy sky.  Over the course of a few hours farmland slowly makes way for ranch land.  Fields of waving grain and the neat rows of orchards become herds of cattle and flocks of sheep dotting the green hills around us.

Travel along this road was much different than the Appian.  The road itself was narrower meaning that we had to step off to make way if we saw a mounted rider or chariot coming from the other direction.  It is in relatively good condition but there were rough patches of cracked cement and temporary patch jobs.  The majority of the traffic are locals and far more prone to stop and chat with a couple of strangers in their region.  Most were friendly and only too happy to offer advice or tell us where we can fill our waterskin.  Rosa gets a lot of looks but except for a few scowling bigots most were more curious about her than hostile, unless the Amazon thing was raised that is.  This was going to be a constant we were going to have to get used to.  As I had been told to I always make sure to introduce Rosa first and I found it kind of exciting to be signaling our relationship despite the fact that nobody thus far had caught the cue.

Along the stretches where we saw no others Rosa would pull out the bracelet to play with and experiment on.  We had agreed that the extremely valuable magic item must be kept a secret between us for our own safety.  Using sticks and pebbles she tries various different things to try to discover if the item could ever pose a danger.  She didn’t want to become an amputee or worse.  What we discover is that the magic of the item was crafted with safety in mind.  If something physical was moving through the portals the other sides of the hoops showed gray and could not be penetrated.  If you put something through the non-gated side of a hoop the magic would cease until the object was removed.  Based on the letters glowing and fading we estimate that the item could be in continuous use for about an hour and half and that it seemed to take ten times as long for the item to recharge when placed back together.

At one I point I stop, look left and right to make sure nobody was coming, and say.  “I want to try something.”  

Rosa hands over the twin hoops.  I place one flat on the road then hold the other directly above it then line a round smooth stone up between them and drop it.  Rosa and I watch as the rock falls through the hoop to come out of the other to fall straight back into the first again.  We laugh as we watch the rock fall faster and faster and faster.  “Look at it go!”  Rosa squeals.  As I go to say something back my hand tilts just slightly, hurtling the rock into one of the stones of the road with a deafening CRACK!  We look at each other in surprise then back to the road.  When the dust settles we find the rock itself is pulverized and a circular crater an inch deep had been left in the paving stone!  Rosa takes the items back and clips them back together again.  “Let’s not do that again, hmm?”

“Wow.”  I say as I kneel down to stick my thumb into the fresh hole in the solid rock.

“It could have broken your leg, or worse.”  Rosa says as she pockets the bracelet and continues on.

“Yeah.”  I stand and hurry to catch up.

Along the way I tell Rosa of what I learned about our route.  She listened intently, especially concerning the short cut to Grumentum.  Again I ask her if she preferred we take the longer and safe route and again she chooses the quicker more dangerous path.  Her patience for this life had worn even more thin than my own.  We needed to get home.

Her hearing about Grumentum having a theater brightens her mood greatly.

“A theater?  A real theater?  Out here?”

“He said that his cousin is an actor there.  That’s all I know.”

“Do they have proper baths?  A forum?  A circus?  What is the shopping like?”

I chuckle.  “I have no idea Rosa.  I’ve never been there.”

“How close is our farm to the town?”

I never got tired of hearing her refer to it as ‘our’ farm.  “Again, I don’t know.  Once we get there I have to find the basilica and talk to a magistrate.  Show my papers and stuff.”

“Basilica, I like the sound of that.  Sounds like a proper town.”  She ponders a moment.  “I wonder if they have a temple to Venus?”

“I thought you were looking forward to being a farm girl.”  I tease.

“Yeah.”  She says.  “But a trip into town once in a while might be nice.”

“City girl.”

She giggles and jabs me with a horn.

“Ow!”  I laugh.  “Watch it with those things.”

“Sorry.”  She rubs the spot.  “They are starting to get long, aren’t they?”

“They look great.”

And on we go.

It is just past midday as we pass by another walled villa.  The gates were wide open and in a front courtyard I see a bearded man leaning against a well speaking with a woman who was sweeping the terracotta tiles of the yard.  He sees me and nods.  I nod back and call into him.

“Would you mind if we had a bucket of your water?”  I hold up our near empty waterskin.

He stands and waves us in without hesitation.  As he turns to greet us I could see why he was so confident to allow strangers in.  At his side he wore a gladius in a leather and brass scabbard, very similar to the one my father wore.  Just in the way he stood told me he was likely adept at its use too.

“Military?”  I say cordially.

“Retired.”  He says in a distinct Greek accent.  He looked to be in his late thirties or early forties, a touch of gray coming out in his thick dark beard.

Taking the waterskin I say.  “Thank you for this.”  Turning slightly toward my slave I say.  “This is my slave Rosa.”  I pause as Rosa nods at the pair and they nod back.  “And I am her Master Quintus.”

I turn to look at the man to see his left brow raise as he looks from me to Rosa and back again.  He seemed curious and mildly perplexed.  There is long and strange silence before he at last speaks.  “I am Peisandros.”  He says, followed by a similar pause to mine, then motioning to the woman.  “This is my girl Aemelia.”

The pause gives it away.  They are like us.  In the blink of an eye the entire dynamic in the yard shifts.  I notice Aemelia’s blue eyes go immediately to me.  It is then I notice around her neck a tight necklace of a familiar vermilion.  Our eyes meet and she smiles.  She had that same look of calm as the woman I saw wearing that special color back in Beneventum.

Peisandros shifts his full attention to Rosa.  “You are a slave?”

“Yes.”  Rosa steps forward just in front and to the side of me, establishing her proper station in this context.  “But still a Lady.  It is a complicated story.”

“Fascinating!”  He grins.  “A pleasure to meet you.  I see so few Ladies out here.  Can you stay a time Lady Rosa?”

“I’m afraid not.”  Rosa shakes her head.  “We are anxious to move on Master Peisandros.  My apologies.”

“Of course.”  He says, speaking to her as an equal despite their vastly different social classes.  “Would you share a drink with me at least.  Wine?  Tea?  Beer?”

“Beer?”  Rosa’s ears perk up.  “You have beer?”

He chuckles.  “I developed a taste for it while serving in Germania.  I brew it here.  It is much different than what you would have had in Egypt.”  He seemed to recognize her accent too, subtle as it was.  “Would you like to see?”

“Are you sure you wish to invite an Amazon into your home?”

There is a momentary tension in the air.  “You are truly a one of a kind Lady Rosa.”  A quick look is exchanged between he and his girl and I sense something silently exchanged between them before he says.  “I would be honored.”

To my surprise Rosa then replies to him in flawless Greek.  Or I assumed it was flawless, I hadn’t a clue what she just said.

“Ha!”  He answers her back in his native tongue and motions her toward the door.

Rosa looks to me and I see my strong Lady come out in her.  Noble, proud, elegant.  Despite her petite stature and common clothes her power shines through in her posture, expression and in the way she moved.  In that instant I could see her in the beautiful flowing silk gowns of a meretrix back in exotic Alexandria.

“Put down the pack my boy.”  She speaks her order kindly yet firmly.  “You earned a rest.  Stay with Aemelia and help her if she asks.”

All three of them look at me, Peisandros and Aemelia particularly interested to see how a Roman free citizen would respond to his Amazon slave girl.  I take in a breath and say proudly, and definitely too loudly.  “Yes my Lady!”  I bow my head toward her still feeling their eyes on me.  Oh, that felt good.

“Your boy is enthusiastic Lady Rosa.”  Aemelia laughs.  Despite being a free woman her body language toward Rosa is deferential.  She didn’t look at Rosa directly, careful to keep her eyes slightly lowered.  “If you excuse me saying so Lady.”

“He hasn’t been collared.”  Rosa explains.  “He is in training.”  She turns to me and runs her hands across my shoulders.  “And he is doing very well.”  Looking up into my eyes she whispers.  “You okay?”

I nod, unable to hide my grin.

She pats my cheek then turns toward our host and heads off to see his brewing facility.

Aemelia, a tall stout dark haired woman of around thirty with a local accent, comes up beside me and helps me set the pack off to the side then loops her arm into mine.

“Ohhh. I am so happy to meet you Quintus!  I have so many questions.”  She says in a bright way, as if we were already long time friends.  “I’ve met so few Ladies or boys.  And you are still earning your collar?  It is such an exciting time.”  Aemelia’s enthusiasm is infectious.  “So exciting!”

“Um, yeah.”  I say shyly.  This was new, talking about this stuff to others.  New and exhilarating.  I might not be able to shout my love for Rosa from the center of the Colosseum as I wished to, but at least I could be her boy here in this villa.  “Very exciting.”

“Your Lady is so very beautiful.”

“Yes she is.”  I say as I allow my fellow submissive to lead me into the house that our dominants had just disappeared into.  “The most beautiful.”

Chapter 55