"Tell me," said Cinnamus, "how is young Marcus now?"
Corax was not an easy man to talk to but their business such as it was completed the steward did not intend to sit in silence and he anyway felt he had an interest in the boy since Marcus had spent the first few months of his life in his own house. Apart from that Cinnamus had a favour to ask.
"Doing well I suppose although he's not too happy about having to live in Rome." Corax replied .
"You have taken no action about that clause in your deed of manumission. There is I think only three years before it becomes effective?"
"I have taken all the action I need to. Julius Cornelius's debts to me far exceed the value of his assets. If he is foolish enough to try to enforce that provision, and sometimes I think he is stupid enough to do so, I will foreclose on him and I will obtain possession of all his assets including my own son and he and his family will be destitute."
"Julius is a foolish bitter man and drinks too much as well," Cinnamus replied emolliantly. "I am afraid that, apart from the drinking too much, applies to his wife and eldest son as well."
"There is another boy?" Corax enquired carelessly.
"Yes, Gaius, born a year or so after Julius was exiled here, he is just nine years old. I wished to talk to you about him."
Corax said nothing so Cinnamus, after a pause, continued. "He's not a bad boy, as boys go, but the atmosphere here is poison. If he stays he will turn out as bad as the rest of them. He has family in Rome and I know they will take him in and care for him and give him a chance in the big world."
"I thought Julius and his family were under sentence of perpetual exile from Rome?"
"So they are but no one will care too much about a nine year old boy once he's in Rome. They'd try to stop him getting there no doubt but once he's there they'll just put up with it I'm sure. There's even a different Emperor now from the one who banished him. The biggest resistance will come from here in Britain. Julius has of course managed to upset both the legate and the procurator."
"There are," Corax said coldly, "two things I do not understand. Why should I involve myself in this matter. How, supposing I do so, are we to get the boy out of Britain without the authorities stopping us."
"You have a chance to help the lad make something of his life and it will cost you nothing to give him that chance."
"And the means?"
"He will travel disguised as a slave. You have a reputation and nothing would be more in character that you should return from a visit to one of your business ventures with a pretty young slave boy who has caught your fancy."
"As you say I have a reputation and I am not ashamed of it. Boys for pleasure wives for duty as the saying goes. But I do not force free boy's flesh however presented. I cannot see what there is in this for me."
Cinnamus sighed he had hoped to avoid this argument..
"There is," he said carefully, "a debt between you and I."
"True. Marcus would have died were it not for you. I will take this boy to Rome but I do it Cinnamus for you, not for any other reason, certainly not to help a son of Julius Cornelius."
"Does the boy know he is to travel as a slave and does he agree to it?"
"He does not know but he will have no choice."
"He must be told before we start and he must agree. It will not be easy for him. If the disguise is to succeed he must be a slave all the time we journey together not just play at it when he thinks people are looking. He will be exempt only service in my bed. Now where is that boy of mine?" --------------
Marcus felt the shingle under his heels. The current tore at his legs as he scrabbled backwards up the bank hauling himself and the other boy out of the water. Once clear he dropped exhausted to his knees. Recovering slightly he glance across to where the other boy lay motionless on his back on the pebbles. He wondered if he was dead. He crawled over to him and pulled his tunic up about his shoulders. The force of the current had pulled the boy's loincloth, a skimpy garment at the best of times, so that it hung loose about his crutch leaving him all but naked.
Marcus put his ear against the side of the lads ribcage. He thought he could hear very faintly the beat of the boy's heart. He rolled him over onto his front and kneeling beside him began to press down on either side of his chest trying to pump the air in and out of his lungs as he had seen sailors do once or twice in the past with men who had been taken from the sea.
As he worked Marcus looked the boy over. He had noticed there were cuts on the lad's shins and knees but no more than an active boy picks up in the coarse of a days adventures. There were bruises too on his side and back but these were no doubt caused by the buffeting he had received in the river. His thin shoulders and the smooth tight curves of his bottom were free of the long livid welts that a cane or lash left. He felt certain that this was no slave but a free boy, poor perhaps to judge from his clothes, but free born.
Water flowed from the boy's mouth and nostrils, he began to cough, rolled over and struggled to sit up. Marcus put an arm round his narrow shoulders to help him and the boy vomited down his chest.
"Sorry," the boy said weakly and began to shiver.
"That's all right," Marcus replied. "Now if you can manage alone for a moment I'll just clean this stuff off. We ought to get your clothes off you. They're soaking and perhaps the sun will warm you up."
The boy held up his arms and Marcus pulled the tunic over his head. It was he noticed a scruffy coarse garment which had once been dark blue but now had faded. He clambered down the bank on the down stream side where the current was less strong and mopped the sick from his chest and thighs with his own wet loin cloth. He rinsed it out and climbed back up the bank. The boy had shed his loin cloth and was sitting naked, his head resting on his knees.
"I'm going to fetch my things," Marcus said. "You stay here I'll be back in a minute."
"I'll come with you," the boy said. He got unsteadily to his feet and then sat hard down again on his bare bottom. "You stay where you are," Marcus said with a laugh.
Pegasus had not strayed far. Marcus bent over to pick up his clothes and the pony trotted over from where he had been cropping the grass at the edge of the path. Slipping on his gold armlet he collected the reigns from where he had knotted them behind the animals head and carrying his tunic lead him along the river bank to where he had left the other boy.
"Stand up," he said, "and I'll dry you off with my tunic."
"What's your name," he asked as he dried the boy's back. Mine is Marcus."
"Gaius. What's happened to the boat?"
"Last I saw it was heading out to sea."
"I'll catch it for that when I get home. It was my brother's and he told me not to take out."
"Well," Marcus replied judiciously transferring his efforts to Gauis's bottom, "if you were told not to take it out you deserve a beating. But not today. He should give you a chance to get over being almost drowned."
"You don't know my brother. He's just waiting for a chance to get at me. Usually my mother sees he doesn't but she won't be able to stop him this time."
"Well, we'll see about that," Marcus said. He felt very protective towards the younger boy. "We better get you home anyway. Hold the clothes they're much too wet to wear, while I get up on the pony and then you can ride in front of me."
"This your pony?" Gaius asked when he was settled in front of Marcus on Pegasus's back. "You must be rich. We used to be once but now we've lost all our money. Everything we had belongs to an ex-slave of ours called Corax. He's got lots and lots of money."
"My father," Marcus said with a laugh.
"Oh I'm sorry"
"What for?"
"For calling him an ex-slave."
"Well he was and it's not what he was that matters. It's what he is." Marcus tightened his grip round Gaius's waste and gave him a hug to show he was not angry with him. "I'm glad you saved my life," Gaius said wriggling his little bare bottom more tightly into Marcus crutch.
"Well I'm glad you didn't drown," Marcus replied lightly. He realised that he was beginning to harden, something that was happening to him more and more often, and hoped that the smaller boy would not notice, although with his bum pressed up close against him he though it unlikely that he would not.
"No, I mean I'm glad it was you and not anyone else that saved me," Gaius insisted. If he was aware of Marcus's increasing excitement he did not show it.
"Look there's our villa over there. I bet you anything that my brother does take the whip to me he likes hurting things. He's always beating the slave boys."
"Slave boys are different," Marcus said seriously. "They expect to be beaten. It's different with free born boys like you and me."
With that comforting though he rode into the central courtyard of the villa. A heavily built black haired youth was sitting on the low brick wall built about the central well.
"My brother, Titus," Gaius said nervously as the young man stood up and walked towards them a whip coiled in his right hand.
"What have you done with my boat?" Titus's voice was thick with rage.
"I...it's..."
"Get down off there you thieving little tyke... I'll teach you to go stealing things from me."
Titus grabbed one of his brothers ankles and pulled, tumbling the boy onto the ground. Gaius rolled onto his front and began to get up. Titus stepped back and brought the whip hissing down across the boy's shoulders knocking him back to his knees. Gaius screamed and the whip cut down a second time catching him across his bottom. Marcus shouted and began to dismount but the pony, fortunately, for neither of the two boys would have stood a chance against the much bigger youth, alarmed by the whip whistling about near him, turned and lashed out with it's hind legs. Both hoofs caught Titus in the chest knocking him backwards. Marcus fought to control the pony, turning it to face scene of action. As Titus scrambled back to his feet Pegasus reared and lashed out with his forelegs. Marcus seeing the terror on the youth's face urged the pony forward tightening the reigns and encouraging it to rear again. Titus's nerve broke. He turned and ran.
"'Arma virumque cano [of arms and the man I sing]'", a man's voice said. "Marcus, I am Cinnamus, the last time I saw you was more than nine years ago. Give your pony to the slave. Your father wants to speak to you and you too Gaius. Come with me." "Can we get some clothes first?" Gaius asked.
"No, come on. It was a famous victory but a wise general knows when to retreat as well as when to attack. Your brother will recover his courage such as it is pretty soon and it would be best if you were out of his way before he came after you again."
Cinnamus lead the two boys two his study.
"This," he said seating himself behind his desk in his study, "is the boy I spoke to you about Corax. Gaius the younger son of our mutual acquaintance Lucius Cornelius."
Corax looked up from the chair in which he sat and fixed the boy with a cold stare. He said nothing and Gaius, conscious of his nakedness, stirred uneasily under his unwavering inspection.
"Gaius you know I think you would be better off away from here. Corax has agreed to take you to Rome."
"To Rome," Gaius explained and in his excitement did a little jig on his bare feet. "But.. but how father always saying we're banished here and cannot leave. He goes on and on about it. It's boring..."
"Don't let me hear you criticising your father again boy," Corax said sternly wiping the smile off Gaius's face. "If you come with me you will come as a slave. It won't be play acting. From the time we set out to the time I hand you over to your relatives in Rome you will be a slave. You will look like a slave, act like a slave, talk like a slave and think like a slave and," he said dropping his voice for emphasis, "you will be treated like a slave. That is the only way it will work. If you play at it we will be caught out. Do you still want to came."
"Yes. Yes please, "Gaius said without hesitating and then added, "please could I be Marcus's slave?"
The two men laughed.
"That is not a bad idea but don't think that will make your life easier. If you are to be Marcus's slave he will have the right to name you. We can hardly call a little slave brat by a good Roman name like Gaius. What will you call him Marcus ?"
Marcus hesitated a moment thinking and then said. "Pisclus Father because he's tiny and I got him out of the river". [ Pisclus is short for Pisciculus which means a little fish from pisces with the addition ulus - but the addition ulus also bears a derogatory implication it implies the fish is not only small but skinny, unimportant and so on. Furthermore Pisciculus was the word employed to describe Tiberius's catamites at Capri who were taught to swim between his legs and kiss his private parts when he was bathing. The adults if not the boys would have known this.]
"Very good Pisclus is what you will answer to Gaius . Now tell me what happens to a slave who is lazy or slow or stupid?"
"He gets beaten," Gaius's said very quietly.
"Yes. Have you been beaten Gaius?"
Only sometimes. Just once or twice."
"It looks to me as though you've felt the whip recently?"
"Yes Titus caught me with it a couple of times."
"Good, a few whip marks on your body to start with will make you look more like a slave. I have no doubt quite a few more will be added before we reach Rome. Do you still want to come with me?"
"Yes. Yes I do please.
"Cinnamus, how do you plan to arrange our leaving here?"
"I've got a slave sorting out clothes for the boys now and another saddling up a mule. Once that's done Gaius will set out on the mule ostensibly to look for Titus's boat. Marcus will go with him apparently planning to accompany him to the river and then to go back up to the bridge to meet you, Corax, who will set off along the road. You all three will meet up by the bridge"
"Gaius, before you leave you will write a note saying that you have decided to run away because you are frightened of being beaten by Titus. I will find that note in your room much later on tonight. By then Gaius you will have long ago been transformed into a little slave."
"That sounds all right," Corax said. "I will need a small cheap tunic for Gaius or perhaps I should say Pisclus, a slave collar and a pair of sheers to crop his hair."
"You had better," Corax said quietly after the two boys had left the room, "add a leather strap to that list of mine."