Saint-Germain: Burning Shadows Part 1

Burning Shadows.

By Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.

A NOVEL OF THE COUNT SAINT-GERMAIN.

For Christine Sullivan.

with additional nods and catnip to Crumpet, b.u.t.terscotch.

and Ekaterina the Great.

who helped whether I needed it or not.

The Huns set all the huts and barns outside the walls afire shortly before sunset, then rode around the town walls, firing arrows, many of them deep-barbed, some of them aflame, into the town.

In spite of our attempts to strike them down from the top of our walls, we had little success against them, for the firelight and smoke turned the mounted warriors into burning shadows, and we could not see them clearly for long enough to take good aim at them.

Gregorius Mirandus, Secondary Praetor of Mursella.

Report on an attack near Aquinc.u.m, May 441.

Author's Note.

Until the rise of Attila (p.r.o.nounced, despite all you have heard to the contrary, AH-teel-lah), the Huns had been just another one of the many groups of barbarians moving toward Europe through what are now the Crimea, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Carpathian and the Balkan Mountains. They were known as raiders and looters, no better and no worse than many others but for their persistence. Although the stirrup had not yet been invented, the Huns had superior saddlery that gave them a significant advantage against the divided Roman Empire in combat. The Huns who did not ride traveled by tall carts, and those who did, did so on st.u.r.dy Steppe ponies, bringing their flocks of goats and sheep and their herds of ponies with them, looking for undisputed pastureland. To support their westward expansion, they hired out as mercenaries to the newly flouris.h.i.+ng Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire, particularly in its remoter outposts where many ambitious Constantinopolitans preferred not to serve; in general they were well regarded by their Byzantine employers, and often achieved high rank as well as a generous portion of any spoils they gained while in Byzantine service. Compared to what the Vandals were doing in Spain, North Africa, and Italy, the Huns before Attila had been hardly more than an annoyance, worth the inconvenience of occasional raids so long as they continued to fill the distant Byzantine ranks as mercenaries.

Recent discoveries have revealed that the Huns were more ethnically mixed than originally thought; some had blue or gray eyes, and many of them had brown or reddish hair, not unlike the mysterious mummies found in western China. Apparently they began as nomadic herders in the Asian Steppes; certainly their early style of fighting was based on their herding, rounding up their opponents with cavalry and picking them off with arrows.

Attila changed all that, taking on the conquest-intentions of the Romans, with the purpose of establis.h.i.+ng an empire that would reach from the North Sea to the Middle East. Following in the footsteps of his uncle, who had sought to gain political and economic control of the Carpathian region as well as permanent military conquests there, Attila intended to gain dominance of as much of Europe as he could. In the nearly twenty years from the time he murdered his brother Bleda (around 433a34) and a.s.sumed total leaders.h.i.+p of his people until his death (453), Attila was the absolute authority for the Huns; under him they became a formidable army, preying on the remnants of the Roman Empire. Rome itself was still recovering from the sacking given to the city by Alaric the Goth in 410, and had lost a great many of the Legions as a result of Alaric's conquest.

The high mobility of the mounted Huns gave them an advantage against the better-trained but less flexible and largely infantry Roman Legions, which were already stretched thin fighting the Vandals, the Longobards, and the Goths, as well as being less willing to undertake protracted campaigns due to reduced wages and limited arms and materiel. At the height of his power (447a452), Attila had taken military control from central Gaul to Persia, from Serbia to Poland. Once he died, it took less than two years for the Hunnic Empire to fall apart.

Huns were only one of the many problems confronting the Roman Empire, East and West. In the three centuries since its maximum expansion, the Roman Empire had been losing ground steadily to various barbarian peoples; even parts of the Empire that were still nominally Roman were in actuality fiefdoms of barbarian groups who encouraged the Roman presence because Romans improved trade, maintained financial continuity, and honored standards of exchange, weights, and measures. The Byzantine Emperor continued the Roman practice of appointing non-Roman regional guardians for borderland territories to continue Western Roman policies after the Romans and Byzantines were officially gone from the edges of the Empire. Much of what had been the Province of Dacia in what are now Hungary and Romania had been lost to the Germanic Gepidae, the Ostro (Eastern) Goths, and Visi (Western) Goths, who in turn were being pushed west by Avars, Alans, and Huns coming in from Central Asia.

As I have mentioned before, in Blood Games, at the suggestion of my editor, I set up the names of the fictional characters along present-day name order-personal name, family name, clan name (Atta Olivia Clemens), instead of the Roman order: personal name, clan name, family name (Atta Clemens Olivia)-but by the time of this novel there had been considerable s.h.i.+fts in Roman nomenclature traditions, and only the oldest aristocratic families in the Western Roman Empire kept to the old personal-clan-family order.

By 400 CE, while Rome itself was being hard-pressed by the Goths, the Hungarian plains and most of the Carpathian Mountains had fallen under the control of the Gepidae, one of the Germanic tribes driven down from the north toward the Black Sea, and the might of the Roman Empire in the East, which was increasingly separate from the Roman Empire in the West, despite continuing high-flown rhetoric about unity. During most of the fifth century CE, exact boundaries and territorial borders in the region were far from fixed. The Gepidae seized most of the Roman towns and camps in the former Province of Dacia, but left a few larger installations and strongholds to the remaining Romans as a means of bolstering the region's defenses and to ensure ongoing trade with major commercial centers from Hispania (Spain) to Gaul (France, Belgium, and western Germany) to Carthago (northern Africa). Most of the Germanic tribes were structured along kins.h.i.+p-and-clan alliances as well as complex obligations arising from issues of honor and vengeance. These Germanic societies lacked the infrastructure of Roman governance, with its emphasis on civil order, standardizations, and laws, which made early Germanic society far more difficult to preserve over time than the Roman was, and which is why over time much of what was Roman was absorbed into the various Germanic societies.

By 435, much of both parts of the Roman Empire were officially Christian-sufficiently so that conflicts had arisen within the Christian communities about issues of Christian dogma and the nature of heresies. Most liturgy was not yet fixed, and the t.i.tles and structures of the Churches, Roman and Greek, were still in flux. Yet paganism of various kinds, and other religions, hung on throughout the two portions of the Empire. Mithraism was popular with soldiers; so popular, in fact, that many of the hero stories of Mithras were taken over by the Christians and told about Jesus, such as being born at the Winter Solstice of a virgin mother, persecuted by corrupt officials, killed for the benefit of all mankind, and resurrected at the Vernal Equinox. Islam was still two centuries in the future, yet in addition to Mithraism, Zoroastrianism flourished in the Middle East, especially in Persia. Coptic Christians in northern Africa were increasingly forced away from Mediterranean ports by the Christianized Vandals, and down into what is now southern Egypt and Ethiopia, where they remain to this day. Mediterranean Christianity, in theory cohesive, was in fact fiercely divided between the Orthodox (Byzantine Rite) and the Catholic (Roman Rite) Churches. And within the Orthodox Church, there was an increasing dispute as to whether the nature of Jesus was more divine or more human, arguments that led to riots, slaughter, and persecution by each sect of the other.

As the Roman Empire continued to break apart, those territories near the fracture-points tended to be left to fend for themselves against invaders, since the intense political rivalry between East and West inclined the military to avoid actions in areas where Empire divisions were most acute, and where they might be at risk from the very folk they were supposed to protect from harm. The Eastern and Western Roman response to the early campaigns of Attila tended to be relegated to local military garrisons, often composed of barbarian mercenaries, who often as not defected to the Huns; by the time the Western Roman Empire awoke to the danger Attila represented, he was raging through central Europe and northern Italy. The reputation of the Huns was so frightful that many towns and cities in Europe bankrupted themselves to prepare to defend against Hunnic armies that never arrived.

In the first century BCE, Julius Caesar had reformed the Roman calendar, but by the 430s, it was already running a little slow again, and there was a degree of discrepancy between the Western and Eastern calendars. For the sake of this book, the calendar is solidly based on the modern calendar, the seasons and dates balanced with a leap year that makes a more regularized progression of years. Whenever possible, the dates are given in terms of proximity to solstices and equinoxes, which was a common practice at that time.

For those non-Roman guardians appointed in former Roman provinces, there was more responsibility than authority in their offices, but without such men, the Roman Empire erosion would have been more catastrophic, and barbarian conquests more total. By setting up a system that allowed the advancement of responsible foreigners, the Eastern and Western Romans were able to avoid the burdens of dealing with disputed regions, and provided a wonderful scapegoat for any corrosion of already reduced Roman authority in areas that were no longer actual provinces. In addition, the Christianization of the various barbarian groups would have been markedly less than it was had the Roman Empire not become officially Christian under Constantine. The eventual development of Europe as a specific ent.i.ty would probably have taken much longer to occur without the cohesion of Christianity. It can also be argued that when the Church became a political/military power in the West, it opened the door to widespread corruption and influence-peddling, even while it extended its authority into all aspects of European life, which proved both disastrous and beneficial through the Dark Ages and the Medieval Era. Personal rights and property rights that were the hallmark of Imperial Rome (especially as regards the rights of women and slaves, and the upward mobility of freed-men and freemen) gave way to Christian dogma and a policy of repression and fixedness that defined and supported the religious status quo. One of the Roman Church's earliest political/military acts was the bribe Pope Leo I paid to Attila to take his typhus-stricken army and leave Rome; that act set the Roman Church firmly on the path that led to the politicization of the inst.i.tution; it is a path that many sects of Christianity follow to this day.

Thanks are due to a number of people who supplied needed information for this book: to Thomas Byrne for his material on the split of the Eastern and Western Roman Empires; to Emily c.u.mmins for the loan of two texts on the barbarian invasions, and for filling in some regional gaps for me; to Paul Gonsalves, S.J., for sharing his vast knowledge of early Christianity, including liturgies and Church hierarchical structures; to George Hope for access to a raft of fascinating, if spotty, records of the deurbanization of the Roman Empire, the decline of the Roman courts, and the development of protofeudalism in border regions of the Empire; to Eric Hunter for providing much insight into the rise of Byzantium; to Perry and Genevieve Ognissanti for wonderful references on language drift and regional dialects of the fifth century, which combined elements of Byzantine Greek, vulgate Latin, and Germanic dialects, as well as coming up with Rotlandus Bernardius' occasional garbling of Imperial Latin; to Diane V. Razelton for the loan of her thesis on the development and collapse of Attila's armies; to Beatrice Tully for providing her translations of Greek doc.u.ments of the period; and to Hal Wainwright for delineating conflicting versions of fluctuating borders from eastern Europe into the Balkans. Errors in the text are my own and should not be attributed to these most helpful people.

On the publis.h.i.+ng side of the ledger, thanks are due to my agent, Irene Kraas, for her staunch support of this series; to Tor and my longtime editor, Melissa Singer; to the incomparable Wiley Saichek, who handles so much of my online promotion; to Paula Guran, the designer and webmaster for ChelseaQuinnYarbro.net; to Lindig Harris () for her newsletter Yclept Yarbro; to the Lord Ruthven a.s.sembly and the ICFA for their continuing enthusiasm; to Elizabeth Miller of the Canadian chapter of the Transylvanian Society of Dracula and Dracula expert; to Sharon, Stephanie, Libba, Brian, Steve, and Maureen for their sharp eyes for errors of all sorts; to Delilah Crosby, Jim Estrander, and Corrie Nahum, the recreational readers for this book; to Alice, Megan, Peggy, Charlie, Gaye, Lori, and Marc for useful feedback; to Peter and David in England; to RC for being RC; to my redoubtable and doughty attorney, Robin A. Dubner, who watches over Saint-Germain's legal welfare; to the book-dealers who have done so much to sustain the series for three decades; and to Saint-Germain's faithful readers, without whom the tales would not continue. On to #24.

CHELSEA QUINN YARBRO.

Berkeley, California.

9 January, 2008.

PART I.

ATTA OLIVIA CLEMENS.

Text of a letter from Demetrios Maius, merchant of the Porolissensis region of the old Province of Dacia, to Gnaccus Tortulla, Praetor Custodis of Viminacium in the Province of Moesia, written in Latin vulgate with fixed ink on parchment and carried by Estephanos Stobi, private courier for Dom Feranescus Rakoczy Sanctu-Germainios, regional guardian of Apulum Inferior, in the company of Maius' fleeing family members; delivered in ten days.

Ave, Praetor Custodis Gnaccus Tortulla: may G.o.d and the old G.o.ds hold you in their favor. On your recommendation, we have appealed to the Goths who now rule in the southeastern quarter of the old Dacian region, seeking protection for those of us who are Romans still living here, from the increasing ferocity of the Huns; the small raiding parties of three decades past are still growing in numbers, and increasingly they are forming more extensive fighting companies. More than continuing their search for grazing lands, they are determined to hold the land they have over-run as their conquest rather than pa.s.sing on to broader pastures as they have done before, unless this is a ploy to drive the last of the Roman settlements away from these mountains so that they will only have to fight the Gepidae and Goths. We have lost the good-will of the region, for it's said that the Huns follow the old roads to settlements and towns, as merchant-travelers do, and these are all Roman.

If you will not provide us some relief from these Huns, and maintain some level of military presence around us, we must flee or die. Already one in five of our people is gone, and those numbers are steadily increasing as the Huns become a stronger force. The Gepidae are occupied with protecting their own clans, drawing in to their territories, setting up patrols and guards, and are in no position to offer us any protection. There are more than thirty merchants in this region, and all of us have the same risks, so it will be wise if we bring our causes together and through bargaining as a group, ensure our protection and the preservation of our stock-in-trade. We may also enlist other Romans remaining in this region in building up fortresses and strengthening towns.

Roma is far away, to be sure, and Constantinople's Generals are unwilling to risk their fighting men by taking action against the Huns while they have employed so many companies of Huns to reinforce their border garrisons. We must find support through other means than Byzantine fighting men, or we will be killed and our lands overrun by Huns, who will strike westward and south from this place, farther into Christian lands. We are not a garrison-town but a trading center, and we are not in any position to become a regional fortress, for we have lost so much of the goods in which we trade that we cannot cover all the costs of constructing a proper stockade for all Porolissum, at least not as quickly as we are likely to need it. Surely there are devout men in Moesia who would be willing to fight for their salvation, and would come north to join with us in our battles. I beseech you to tell your soldiers of our plight and to appeal to them to help us. I have carts and mules I can provide for those who wish to help us. You have only to send word and I will dispatch muleteers to bring fighting men to us. If the men serve well, at the end of our fight they may keep their mules if they had them from me.

It has been a hard year so far; half our crops have been ruined by marauding Huns, and what has not been trampled or burned has been seized; when the harvest is made, we will have very little to lay in against the hards.h.i.+ps of winter, and what little we do bring in we have small hope of keeping. Our herds and flocks have also been raided. More than a third of my stores have been looted, and most of the merchants here have suffered a similar fate. The tiered mills have been burned and the grain within them taken. Shepherds and goatherds have been killed in their summer grazing up the mountains, their animals confiscated by the Huns; the few remaining flocks have been moved to the enclosed fields of two local monasteries in exchange for twenty percent of the numbers of the animals to feed the monks.

As we are about to enter the month of Julius, we will have to look to our defenses, and attend to them before autumn arrives. Once the weather turns, our prospects for saving all of us from our enemies will be diminished to a dangerous degree. Already nine of our local merchants have announced their intention to s.h.i.+ft their center of operations westward. If you will not provide those of us who seek to remain here some soldiers, we will find ourselves more in danger than we are now, with no prospect of relief. If you cannot spare men, then I implore you to send us weapons at least, or prepare to open your gates to your Roman brothers, for we will have to abandon our Porolissensis towns, either for Viminacium or the old fortress near Apulum Inferior, a.s.suming we can restore its walls in time, or even to the monastery in the high valley between Ulpia Traiana and Apulum Inferior where we will have to retreat when the Huns return if no other fortification is made available to us. I pray you will grant us aid in this desperate time, for without some help we are all dead.

A Roman widow whose horse-farm to the south of the town has guaranteed us fifty horses for our defenders when they arrive. She has also provided silver and gold to help us pay for the strengthening of our walls, and arranged to move many barrels of food to wherever we Romans are to winter this year. This generous woman is the n.o.ble widow Atta Olivia Clemens, a blood relative of the foreigner Feranescus Rakoczy Sanctu-Germainios, serving as the regional guardian for Apulum Inferior, and he has pledged to see that her wishes are carried out. After this summer, Bondama Clemens will remain at Lux Perpetua Chapel, inside the northern gate of the monastery, where women stay. When she leaves the protection there, she will carry letters for us.

The monastery of Sanctu-Eustachios the Hermit, nearer the old Roman garrison-town of Ulpia Traiana than Apulum Inferior, may provide us shelter through the winter if we receive no help from other Romans, but it is unlikely that the monks would allow us to stay on past the thaw if our presence would serve to attract more Huns without also gathering more Roman soldiers to protect us from Attila's forces. The monks will fight to defend the monastery and their faith, but as I have said already, they are unlikely to do anything more than that if the barbarians follow us to their door. Yet we have an obligation to see that the monks are spared the risk of death that must be the destiny of soldiers. In this, Priam Corydon agrees, and as head of the monastery, his cooperation is essential to our purpose.

To secure the protection of more than Christ, I will leave a sacrifice for Mithras, and one for the old Greek Ares, whose temple is on the eastern side of the city. We have two churches here in Porolissum, and three private chapels. This is not so minor a place that everyone beyond Roma has no reason to pay attention to our plight, for it is towns like this one that will hold back the Huns if they are given aid now. The Church sends its priests here, and allows monks to man their monasteries, so it is not so remote that all the Christian world has no cause to be concerned for us. Seharic the Goth has allowed the region to support Christians, so long as the men will defend their lands, to which the Bishops of Porolissensis have consented. The priest who is a.s.signed to our garrison will say his Ma.s.ses for our fighting men-and tup our wives for us, if the rumors are right. There will be a home for us beyond the setting sun, as is always the end of men who fight.

There has been notice sent to us from Thracia that reports on another series of fearsome raids and the information that the Huns are stealing horses and food. Virginius Brolanor, a merchant from Odessus who had just left Serdica when the attack began, claims he would not be surprised to see more raids in winter than the Huns had ever made before. His house in Odessus was burned to the ground, and most of his family has vanished. Brolanor has declared that he will walk every road in the old Empire if it means he will have his family back. His father-in-law has promised Brolanor a new house so long as Brolanor brings back one of his grandsons; he has sworn an oath here that whether he lives to see that goodly day or not, the sum for the house will be settled in the Church of the Evangeloi, to be held against the restoration of Brolanor's family. We are encouraging those with land or gold to put them in trust to the Christian Church so that there will be a chance to salvage some of the valuables and treasures that supported our way of life before the Huns arrived.

This is being carried by seventeen members of my family: my two younger brothers and their wives, six children of theirs, four children of mine, my widowed sister, my wife, and my half-brother, whose mother died last winter; he is very young. With them are such servants as are required for this journey. I ask you to receive them well. Furthermore, I hope that you will allocate housing for them, and see that they make a place for themselves in Viminacium, unless the region becomes over-run, in which case, pray send my family south to Narona or Aquileia. The Church has funds in trust for such travels.

I will soon depart for Illyric.u.m and Macedonia, and plan to stop and visit with you in about a year. Whatever remarkable pieces I have found I will offer you at minimal profit for me, to show my appreciation for the kindness my family has enjoyed, thanks to you. In such uncertain times as these, it is a great relief to know that the old standards of Roma can still be found in such a man as you.

Demetrios Maius.

merchant of Dacia.

region of Porolissensis.

town of Porolissum.

four days after the Summer Solstice in the 438th year of the Christ.

1.

"Why should I leave if you refuse to?" Atta Olivia Clemens stood with her arms folded as she faced Feranescus Rakoczy Sanctu-Germainios across her withdrawing room, her features set with determination, her hazel eyes snapping; she knew she was being unreasonable, but she also did not care: she would not admit to fear or misgivings, not even to her oldest, most trusted friend. "This place is as much my home as it is yours."

"We might say that of a dozen towns," he remarked. "You have a good number of holdings where you may go."

"You know what I mean," she said in an uncompromising tone. "But look out there. Summer is glorious here, in spite of everything. If I can't be on my native earth, this is a very pleasant second choice-the more so for you." The Latin they spoke had a heavy admixture of Greek, and a sprinkling of words borrowed from the local Germanic tribes, as well as a little Dacian.

He gave a single, sad laugh. "To reach my native earth, you must travel east along the Danuvius toward the bend in the mountains and then turn north at Durostorum Minor: it is a good deal closer than Roma, but it is still distant."

"How literal you are," she said, tweaking his sleeve.

"You are not safe here, Olivia," he said somberly.

"Probably not," she conceded. "But I still think it would be best to remain." She brushed her fingers together as if to rid them of dust; she was staring directly at him, daring him to contradict her. "Think, Sanctu-Germainios, what would be the point of leaving Porolissum? The roads are dangerous and we would not be welcome in many Roman towns, not with so many people trying to find protection."

"The point would be that you would not have to fight the Huns," he said bluntly. "I cannot believe that you would want to engage them in battle, not with so much to lose to them."

"You needn't remind me of my risks, but leaving Porolissum is no certainty that I won't have to fight the Huns," she said, and then, in an attempt to s.h.i.+ft the subject, she looked at his silver-and-black paragaudion and his diamond-patterned Persian femoralia of the same colors. "Very handsome. Elegant without gaudiness, and not so elaborate that everyone must point you out. Gravitas, beyond question. Has anyone tried to rob you of the silver?"

He smiled and reached out to brush her cheek with his hand. "You will be safer in Aquileia, Olivia. Ask Niklos, if you doubt me; he still has ties in Thracia and Moesia, and he knows where the Huns are active, and what they have done," said Sanctu-Germainios, annoying her by refusing to fight with her. "Better to leave now, in accordance with your own plans; that way you won't be cast adrift in a crumbling world. Since you have another horse-farm on the west side of Aquileia where you can continue as you do here, with the advantage of being in Roman-Gothic territory, and therefore protected."

She gave him a wide, insincere smile. "You make it sound as if this move is a step up in every way."

"It is better than trying to reinforce your fences with stones high enough to keep the Huns out-a.s.suming you have time enough and masons to build the walls before winter."

"So you think I may have to lose my estate if I remain here; it is much more certain that it will be lost to me if I leave, isn't it?" she challenged him. "You don't believe there will be enough reinforcements provided for these towns and fortresses to stop the attacks. Why are you so convinced of it?"

He still would not be lured into open argument. "This is more than a simple matter of fighting off a band of marauders. Where your land here is concerned, you may have to make swift arrangements to keep your herds from being decimated by neighbors as well as Huns; the Huns are stealing more horses, and yours will be much sought-after by them. If it becomes necessary to leave hurriedly from Aquileia, you can take to the sea. The Huns are not known to be sailors." He made a minimal bow and then smoothed out the small tablion on the front of his paragaudion.

"I don't like the sea any more than you do," she said brusquely. "Running water and tides." She shuddered to make her point.

"Do you prefer the Lux Perpetua Chapel and monks around you day and night?" He asked it lightly enough; he knew she found the Christians stultifying and that it was the only part of the local monastery where women were allowed to shelter.

"Certainly not-I want to stay here, in my house, on my land. I like Porolissum. I don't mind the Gepidae, or the Goths, nor do they mind me." She started to walk away from him, then relented and came back to his side. "If I could remain here without danger . . ."

He did not quite smile even though he felt relieved. "But for the sake of your household, you will go to Aquileia, out of harm's way. Please do it, Olivia. Your servants will appreciate your concern on their behalf. They have no wish to stay here to be taken as slaves or killed by the Huns, and who can blame them. You have the option of returning to Roma, whether the Goths are there or not. Since you are a Roman, you cannot be denied the right to return to Sine Pari."

"How am I to travel with so many? Won't that make us all the more vulnerable to attack by robbers, if not Huns?" It was a genuine concern, for she had lost a fair amount of money to robbers in the last six months, and the need to carry large sums on the road made her uneasy.

He took a pouch of coins from his belt, extending it to her. "Something more that may make your present circ.u.mstances less straitened: if you want to pay your household's wages before you leave, you may return me the sum when you like, or use it for lodging and food. I would not like to have you become a mendicant, not with so many in your care. Use as much as you need and when you have harvests and herds, then requite what I tender." He knew her well enough to know she would only agree to use his money if he were willing to have her return the sum.

Olivia accepted the pouch, saying as she did, "Thank you. This will be most useful. I have to admit that I'm much obliged to you for your kindness. It would be awkward, after my courier was taken by the Huns and my semi-annual payments from Lago Comus along with him, to have to compensate the entire household as well as the drayers and muleteers from my strongbox, thin of gold as it is. This will make my situation a bit easier, and provide a modic.u.m of sustentation during our travels." She sighed in exasperation. "But since you continue to insist that I leave, I suppose it's fitting that you help me arrange it."

"Yes, it is," he agreed, knowing that her overbearing manner hid her increasing anxiety; his blue-black eyes were s.h.i.+ning with relief.

"I imagine that Niklos worries almost as much as you do on my behalf. It's kind of you to be concerned for me, even though you insist on my departing." She said this as if by rote while she fussed with the maniakis where it fanned out over her shoulders. "It's the very devil being a widow this last century. No entertainments. No bright clothes. No jewels beyond pearl mourning-rings, and moonstones for earrings. And a dark ricinium over my hair, so that I will not be thought a loose woman." She turned her palms up in a show of helplessness. "How I long for red and ruby and amethyst and luminous greens, or brilliant yellow and gold. But no, being a widow, I must perpetually mourn; the Bishops require it. That I should mourn for Justus!" She made an emphatic gesture at the mention of her depraved husband, executed during the reign of Vespasia.n.u.s. That his name could still distress her after nearly four hundred years!-she turned toward the upholstered bench under the window, thinking as she did that her long, loose-sleeved tunica was much the same color as the clouding sky beyond the opening. Over the tunica she had wrapped a trabea of dull-blue Antioch silk, darker than the maniakis, and secured it with a pearl-encrusted pin. "We'll have thunder and lightning before day's end."

"Very likely," he said, and waited for her to go on, letting her persuade herself.

She pursed her lips in thought. "How am I to watch after my estates if the Bishops keep limiting what I am allowed to do? I am mandated, as the owner of the land, to ensure it is in good heart, but that means going against the Bishops' strictures, inspecting the herds and the flocks and the fields, but that means being seen about my land without the escort the Bishops compel widows to have. It is most inconvenient to have to accommodate the demands of the Church. You may be guardian of this region, but you are also a successful merchant, and the Bishops do not impose upon you as they do me."

"I would be as disheartened as you are, were I in your position," he said with genuine sympathy.

"I'm not disheartened, I'm furious," she said calmly. "The Bishops are martinets, to a man."

"That they are," said Sanctu-Germainios, who had spent much of the previous day trying to persuade the Bishops of Porolissum to allow the farmers of the region to be permitted to use some of the more remote monasteries as look-out posts; two of the Bishops refused absolutely, for it would turn a religious building into a military one.

"None of them will be party to lessening the restraints they impose on women," she said, unable to keep the disgust out of her tone.

"Surely you can appeal to the local officials to modify your constraints," he said, but found himself doubting that Olivia would be made an exception to the rules the Bishops had inst.i.tuted. "If you were in Apulum Inferior, I would lift all your restrictions, since you are a land-owner, but my authority does not extend to Porolissum."

"And our Praetor here is a Bishop as well as our district administrator. It's useless to appeal to him." Her stern gaze softened and she said conciliatingly, "I know, my oldest, dearest friend. I am expecting trouble and that makes me contentious. I have to arrange to do what I can to see my horse-farm remains intact, whether I am here or not. Those of us here in Porolissensis who intend to preserve our lands, one way or-"

"Most of the people here are Gepidae, not Roman," Sanctu-Germainios reminded her. "They are dependable enough in their way, but they will be preferential to kin."

"That is the way of the Goths, as well," she said dismissingly. "All barbarians are like that."

"For no Roman ever showed preferment for his clan," Sanctu-Germainios said, making no excuse for his sardonic tone.

"Of course we did, and do. But we value the Empire as much as we value our families. Or we did."

Sanctu-Germainios smiled enough to show he was not deceived. "You learned your conduct in another time."

"So did you," she said back to him; she glanced toward the door. "Niklos," she called, "will you ask the household to meet with me in an hour?"

A tall, athletically lean, gloriously handsome man in a dark-orange Persian kandys, femoralia of deep-brown knit goat-hair, and wooden-soled peri, who appeared to be about twenty-five, came and stood in the door; a slight glint of amus.e.m.e.nt in his eyes made it clear that he had been listening to their wrangling. "Where would you want us to gather?"

"In the old courtyard. It won't rain for a while yet; we might as well enjoy the afternoon while we make our arrangements." She accepted his salute, watching him stride off to alert the household. "You were good to provide me a bondsman, since you and I cannot remain together. He has come to be more worthwhile than my family: with all the new limitations put upon women, I have needed him very much."