Tales of Ancient Rome: Salidia and Lydia Chapters 13 & 14

Chapter 13

One Summer Morning

Usually in the morning, Lydia would try to rise before Salidia, and she would go into Salidia's room to be there when Salidia woke up. Miridia, the housekeeper, had already laid out Salidia's clothes for her the night before, but Lydia like to be there to help Salidia in the morning. This morning Salidia was already up, and standing at the window watching the sun rise on a beautiful morning. It was a warm late summer morning with birds chirping merrily outside. In the far fields, young calves ran across the meadow for no other reason than that they were young and it was morning.

Lydia approached Salidia. Salidia started talking without turning to see who it was. "When I came here, my world and my life were destroyed. My best friends, my brother, my aunt and her children had all been killed. And all the others, my allies, my other relatives. I had everything else, my revenue from Tuscany, my villa in Rome, a place at court, but without the people I cared about I had no life left, and no safety. I came to this hell hole and only had one thing: my safe harbor, my ever constant Selenius."

"And look now. This is my home now. And it is you and Talig and the men that made it home. I don't go to banquets anymore, or stand by Caesar as our Legions bring their spoils of war to lay at our feet. I talk to slaves and gladiators and lowly freeman. And I am happy."

"This will be my home from now on. When someone finally kills Caligula, I will not return to Rome. I'm selling my villa in Rome, and bringing my people up here. Some of them are like you and Talig. Good and trustworthy. It will take some time. Caligula has left many vacant villas on the Hill, and little reason people would want to move up there close to him. But soon, when he is gone, I will sell it."

"I will do what you said. I will use the money from the Phoenician to bring the men's families up here, and build them houses around us. There will be children laughing in the fields as well as calves gamboling."

"You are free, Lydia. You have not been my slave for a long time now."

From the side, Lydia took Salidia's left hand in both of hers, and lay her head on Salidia's shoulder.

"Where would I want to go? You and Talig and the men are my family. From the beginning you and Talig have not been my masters, but my mother and father. You are the people I love."

Later that morning, when she finally left the villa, Talig and Caius were waiting outside. They had stayed there the whole morning waiting for her. Salidia had told them what she was going to do. Talig walked up to her and didn't say anything; he just fondly stroked her hair and smiled at her. She hugged him and cried. Caius stood to the side, just smiling. He reached up and put his hand on her shoulder. It was the same when the rest of the men found out.

Chapter 14

Weeding the Garden

Lydia continued to watch the Goths Salidia tortured, now that they were getting down to the end. If these thirteen men were used as field slaves, their supervision would be reduced to that of ordinary farm slaves, and she didn't trust them.

Lydia walked up besides Salidia at the start of one session. "You're a liar, Goth."

"Look at his eyes. When you have a torture implement in your hand, there is fear in his eyes. When you have nothing in your hand, there is no fear. He is afraid of the torture, not us. When we're done with the torture, and he is in the fields, he will plot to escape or seek revenge."

Looking at the Goth, Lydia said, "I want to do him."

At that, Salidia turned to Lydia, and eyed her a moment, with a slight smile. She was proud of her charge's judgment on the best way to deal with slaves. Lydia was becoming a competent officer for her. "All right, if that's what you think should be done," Salidia said, accepting Lydia's judgment as final. Salidia turned and left the room, leaving her officer to finish up business for her. Then Lydia left the room also, leaving the Goth alone.

Ten minutes later, two of the men came in. They untied the Goth, shackled his hands behind his back, and took him outside. Lydia was astride a horse with her dagger at her side, and a sword slid beneath her belt in the back. She held the reins of a second horse. The men hoisted the Goth onto the back of the second horse, and opened the side gate. Lydia lead the Goth out, and they walked to a small knoll a good distance from the villa. The horse's hoofs provided a "clop," "clop," "clop," background to the slow walk, while their bodies swayed to the rhythm of the horse's gate. It was a quiet 12 minute ride.

When they got to the hill, Lydia dismounted and told the Goth to slide off. The free horses started to graze. Lydia unlocked the shackles, and walked to face the man from about three body lengths in front. She threw the sword at the man's feet. "If you kill me, you can take the horses and escape. If you look, the gate to the villa is closed and no one is looking over the walls. You can ride one horse, and pull the other behind you. When your horse gets tired, you can change to the other fresh mount. No one from the villa will be able to catch you. You can pick up the sword first before we begin."

Lydia was developing a preference for single one on one combat to handle problems. Her training had produced a solid confidence in her abilities. Taking someone alone to some quite place and fighting was now how she wanted to do things. It replicated the one on one training sessions she had with the men, and she was confident in what she could do in that setting. She had complete confidence in her speed, and assumed, with only a few exceptions like Talig, that she would be the fastest person in any group. By a long shot. With a knife in her hand, she felt she could kill anyone in front of her. Or three or four people for that matter. She understood how fast she was. The man in front of her may have a sword, but Lydia thought of this as no contest. After all, she could take most of the men, and they had all proven they were the best of the best, in the arena or battlefield; and none of the Goth warriors were half as good as any one of Salidia's men. Lydia knew she could beat men more than twice as good as any of the Goths.

She was just playing with him. This killing was to be a display of her power to the Goths who had raped and beaten her. Killing him was the modern equivalent of Lydia saying, "How do you like me NOW, GOTH?" This man was to be killed to suit Lydia's ego. She felt he was like all the men who had raped or beaten her, and now she wanted to triumph her skills over him and all his kind.

The man was no coward. The Roman's had captured him when a dying man had fallen against him, and he lost his balance, falling forward into Roman hands. He was no fool. He didn't want to die a senseless death, like some of the others. He would survive the torture, and be put into the fields as a slave. Then he would wait for his chance. He was disfigured, but if he could return to his people in the North with the blood of Salidia, Lydia, and Talig on his hands, he would be a hero. The night would come when he could escape, and he would go and kill them in their sleep.

Now she had found him out. Like all warriors, he knew the day would come when he had THE FIGHT: the one he wouldn't win. He was prepared to die. But now! No matter what they said about her, she was just a girl! And the vain little strumpet had been foolish enough to stand in front of him with a dagger while he had a sword. He would run her through, take her head, get the horses, and return to his people in the north with his bloody trophy. He picked up the sword and grinned, thinking of her head hanging from his hand.

"Whoa! Ha! Ha!," she thought. "You're left handed! This is going to be interesting! No strike and spin to the right, blocking with the left. Well, I've practiced this often enough." She shifted position, right foot and shoulder leading, and double stepped in toward him, keeping her left arm across her stomach and her right straight down by her leg. The downward position of her arm allowed her to "snap" her strike upward, developing more terminal velocity than if she held hand higher. The fool kept a left shoulder lead, pushed off his right foot, and struck up toward her heart. The moment she saw the movement of the sword in line with her body, and not a swing from the side, Lydia smiled and thought, "Easy!" (Not incidentally, the downward position of her arm was also intended to induce this strike, reducing the chance of a swing from the side.)

She pushed off her left, her upper right arm coming up and then down, while her forearm rotated in a circle to knock his sword to the side, and as a check to her momentum on the right side. From it's downward position, she snapped her right arm up to strike the throat. The momentum of that move anchored her shoulders, allowing her to snap the left shoulder forward, while she pushed off her right foot to the inside. SHE WAS NOW IN FRONT OF HIM, SPINNING TO HER LEFT. Her previous moves had imparted momentum to her shoulders. She brought her right arm down and back, her left arm forward; their movement adding to her rotation, while her right leg swung around and to the back, as she pivoted on her left foot. SHE WAS NOW ALONG SIDE OF HIM, FACING IN THE SAME DIRECTION. She checked her rotation by planting her right foot solidly, and allowed herself to be carried straight back. There was no need to check her movement and swing behind him for a second strike; the throat was cut on the first pass. She allowed herself to take a few steps straight back to gently come to a stop behind him. SHE WAS NOW MORE THAN A BODY LENGHT BEHIND HIM ON HIS WEAK SIDE, FACING HIS BACK. He was holding his throat, and had dropped the sword. The whole thing was executed in a blur of spinning motion that started the moment he brought his sword within range for her to block.

She went to get the horses first because sometimes they can be a pain in the ass to catch, deliberately walking away from you to avoid being caught; and then the sword and shackles.

There was a slight cut to her right forearm where she blocked his sword thrust at her. It was a problem she overlooked while practicing with wood swords. She realized she should add arm guards to her equipment to cover this problem in the future. But, overall, she was happy with this kill. It had gone just like practice, except for the cut on her arm.