Tales of Ancient Rome: Salidia and Lydia Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Making New Friends and

Diana Come to Earth

The rush of victory over the Phoenicians was still fresh in her mind when she returned to her villa, as well as her bet with Selenius. She intended to dominate the forty Goths. Bend the rebels to her will. She would kill the ones who wouldn't bend and use the ones she broke to farm the land of her new villa. The bet and the prospect of field slaves were trivial to her. Dominating the men was a burning desire, sparked by the heart pounding thrill she got defeating the Phoenicians. Salidia now had a thirst to defeat men who opposed her. She had just learned how much fun it could be.

She planned on softening up the forty by giving them each a session in the torture room, one by one, and she intended to revisit each one after giving them all their initiation. To her way of thinking, the pain and fear of torture would destroy their wills, and make them into cowering cowards who would be too frighten to resist whatever she demanded of them.

She would have to rush. The up coming planting season would demand all her attention as she devoted her time to organized her new villa, and she would only have a month or so to get the Goths started. She wanted to have two or three torture sessions with each one before she had to shift her focus to the villa and fields. At least working one in the morning and one in the afternoon, more if she could manage, until all were done. (The "torture room" was really a building within the villa grounds that had been pressed into service as a torture room. The stable had also been pressed into service as the slave quarters but it continue to be called the stables even thought it housed the slaves.)

The 8th. day into this, as Talig's men were pulling one of the slaves into the torture room, a tired Salidia walked into the kitchen to grab something to eat, and she caught one of the new scullery maids, a tallish girl, staring out the window, a scowl on her face. The maid had interrupted her work and stood transfixed by the scene outside, while the other maids worked. Caught staring, the maid gave Salidia a furtive glance, then turned her head down and went back to work cleaning pots. Intrigued by the angry glare the maid cast on the Goth outside (and, simply, Salidia was getting exhausted by the hard work involved in dealing with the Goths morning till night, and she wanted help with the task), Salidia said, "Would you like a new job?" The angry glare the girl cast on the Goth sparked the idea that the girl might be good as an assistant. The maid's eyes widened in surprise. She asked, "In the torture room?" Salidia noted that the girl didn't think of a likely occupation, such as milking the cows, but her mind went straight to the torture room.

"Come here. Sit down. What's your name?"

"Lydia."

"Pretty. Do you know what happens in that room?"

"You torture and punish the Goth men."

"Why were you staring so angry at the Goth outside?"

"When the Goths came to my valley, they killed my family and the whole village, and took the land for themselves. They sold me and the rest of us that were still alive into slavery. I want to see you torture and kill every one of them!"

The world was full of people who had been treated unfairly, as well as women who resented how men treat them, and Salidia thought she had just found another to add to the long list. Most were too timid to complain. This one was unusually vehement.

"You're an Aedui?"

"Yes!"

"Ah. Selenius told me the story of the Goths, and what happened to your valley when the Goths got there. That was a busy valley you had up there."

What wasn't being said was how deep the anger was that Lydia held against the Goths who had killed her parents, and ripped her from a happy life to a life of slavery. After she had been sold as a slave, she was repeatedly raped by every man, from slave to owner, on the farm where she lived. And she was brutalized by every man there, from slave to owner, every day. Her life had become a living hell punctuated by beatings. Lydia had a grudge against men in general, and Goths in particular.

Also, that five nights ago as twilight was falling and the domestic servants were preparing to go to bed, Lydia said she was going out to go to the outhouse. Instead she snuck into the torture room and walked through the empty building, looking at the things there. Some things she didn't understand. Some things simply looked cruel and dangerous. The caged rats startled her, and made her walk down the other side of the hall. When she got to the heavily constructed lattice, she saw the straps attached to it, and from the straps she knew the Goths were tied there. She saw the heavy bull whip, and knew that kind of whip wasn't used on horses or cows. It was only used to whip slaves. Dried blood smeared the floor beneath the lattice.

Lydia imagined her Mistress in that place whipping Goths, and she was in awe of Salidia as if she were a Goddess on earth. They said Salidia was a Patrician, a great and powerful Roman. She knew Salidia wasn't really a Goddess but the emotion she felt about Salidia was the same as if Diana had come down to earth. In her whole life she had never seen a household ruled by a woman. From the first moment Lydia had seen Salidia, every man bowed to her, even the powerful and dangerous man Talig, who was the leader of soldiers. They said he was a ferocious gladiator who killed five men all by himself when they went to get the slaves workmen, and he obeyed Salidia! Most, the Roman soldiers did her bidding, something that was inconceivable to her. To her, the Romans were implacable killing machines whom everyone feared, yet they obeyed Salidia. Where Salidia was the world as Lydia knew it was turned on it's head: a women ruled and the men obeyed.

The torture room was like a palace of justice ordained from Mount Olympus by the Furies. Here men were punished for how they treated women; and her enemies, the Goths, would be tortured to death, Lydia gloated. This godlike mistress punished men and gave them what they deserved. She made them hurt for what they had done. She wasn't sure what a Patrician meant, but to Lydia it made Salidia the most powerful women on earth, and she was in awe of her. When Lydia walked through the torture room she longed to see this powerful Patrician punishing the Goths. She never imagined that she could be a part of it. Only Salidia, this Roman Patrician, was that powerful. But she longed to be able to just see it. When Salidia mentioned a new job, Lydia hoped the job might be in the torture room where she might catch a glimpse of Salidia punishing a Goth. She imagined some menial task which was her wont in life: sweeping, cleaning, some dreary task. But she might catch a glimpse of the powerful women reeking vengeance on her enemies in the torture room, something her heart cried for.

"Would you like to help me in the torture room?"

Lydia's eyes went round, and she simply nodded, "Yes," not able to speak, her wish come true.

"You would be helping me torturing the men. Could you do that?" Lydia was stunned. She stopped breathing. "...help torture men." She couldn't imagine that. She thought sweeping, cleaning, something like that. Not actually being a part of it. She didn't ever think she could part of it. She wasn't powerful like Salidia was. Any time she fought back against her abusers, which was most of the time, she was badly beaten. She just hoped to be in the torture room where she might be able to watch Salidia punish a Goths. But her? And what if she had the chance to do some of it herself?

"Me?"

"Yes."

"Help you do it?"

"Yes."

"I could be right there with you? See it happen, right next to you?"

"Yes."

"Every day?"

"Yes."

"Yes, Mistress."

"Are you sure you can do this? I like to make them hurt and suffer. It can be mean and cruel. Can you do that?"

"Yes, Mistress!" The girl was so emphatic, it made Salidia laugh.

"I'm making you my maid," said Salidia, amused by the girl's enthusiasm and emotional personality. "You are no longer a scullery maid. Take Miridia's room next to mine. Since I've come here I've gotten into the habit of doing much for myself, simply because no one here is capable of doing what I want. I will show you what I want. Pay attention. I don't like repeating myself. Make sure you're clean. Tell Miridia she is to get you two new dresses, and decent sandals. From now on you will be with me."

"Yes, Mistress."

In one fell swoop, Lydia had been changed from one of the lowest status slaves to one of the highest, the one who stood at the side of Salidia.

"Come." Salidia walked outside, Lydia trailing behind. She stopped at Talig. "I've made this girl my maid. She will be with me in the torture room." "Yes, M'Lady." They walked into the torture room, and the Goth Lydia saw a few minutes ago was tied to the lattice. When Lydia woke up that morning and started her tasks in the kitchen, she never imagined she would ever be standing along side this powerful women in the torture room. Now she was actually there in the room and there was a Goth tied up before her.

"Lydia, do you think this man should be punished?"

"Yes, Mistress."

"Good girl."