The Centurion's Woman

Chapter 3

THE OPTIO SHOWED up quickly, as if he'd been waiting.

        "Tell me what you know," Ixillius said simply.

        Brasus suddenly looked innocently at his friend and commander. "What I know about what?" he asked.

        "Don't be a dick." Ixillius pulled out two skeins of wine and almost handed one to his friend, holding it just out of reach. He nodded at the woman on the ground and drank from his own skein. "What do the villagers say about her?"

        "I'm never a dick." Brasus reached for the wine, but it was pulled farther away. "Ahh, yes, what I know about that." It appeared that Brasus's memory had returned. Ixillius passed over the full skein.

        "Thank you," Brasus said. "As for her, the best I can get is that the underworld spit her out in the middle of the forest, she brought death and injury to the men of the village, and her magic was so strong that she was able to defeat the local holy woman." He took a drink. "Oh, and you've now got a pact with Him We Don't Mention because you let her out of the pit."

        Ixillius pondered on the new information for a moment. "So I'm a partner to the Underworld? That should assist with keeping the new slaves in line on the way back to Bonna."

        The two men remained in companionable silence for a moment. "I may have elaborated on the pact. The story seemed better that way," Brasus admitted, mischief tugging at the corners of his eyes and mouth.

        Ixillius nodded in agreement. "I assumed so. You've reported that I've made that same pact after every battle for the past year."

        "True," Brasus drank more wine, both of them studying the woman. "On further recollection, I can also say that the slaves taken from the village warn us that she was in the pit for five nights, and this was her fifth day, after gutting one of their warriors. His ..." Brasus paused, considering his choice of words, "amorous advances upon this newly acquired village slave were rejected definitively." He finished, adding after a considering pause, "She's not much to look at."

        "Not really," Ixillius agreed, suddenly unsure if he was in agreement or not. They drank for a few moments in companionable silence as he decided whether or not to speak further on the subject of the woman. "She did save my life, though," he said, choosing to talk to Brasus.

        Brasus stopped drinking and stared at his friend.

        "That barbarian woman had clubbed me down onto my sword arm; I wouldn't have been able to recover in time to make the strike before she'd flattened one side of my helmet into the other. She," he pointed at the sleeping woman, "took up my knife and stabbed the barbarian in the foot clean up to the hilt, giving me the time I needed and I killed her from my knees. Then this woman crawled over to the edge of the pit and scouted out the battle."

        "And then?" Brasus encouraged, after a moment of silence.

        Ixillius took another deep swallow from his skein and stared hard at the woman on the ground. "She looked back at me from the edge, grinned like a bitch tasting fresh blood, and winked at me. She took my knife and that damn club and climbed out of the pit on her own," he finally turned away. "You saw what happened then," he said, not turning back. "She scared the piss out of me. Three strides away from me, limping and starving, and I was terrified of her."

        It was Brasus's turn to process the new information, and he sipped at his wine while doing so. "Has she said anything?"

        "Some words. Nothing I can understand," he paused. "Except that she asked for her father."

        "You want me to watch her for a while?" Brasus offered, seeing the strain on his friend from having the strange woman around after their encounter in the pit.

        Ixillius straightened and glanced over at her. "No," he said, turning to his friend. "I doubt she'll even live long enough to see Bonna."

        A wide smile spread slowly over Brasus's face. "Ahh, Bonna," he sighed, knocking his skein against Ixillius's as if clinking glasses and smoothly changing the topic of the conversation. "I cannot wait to see those walls."

        "I doubt the walls will hold your attention for more than a fleeting glance," Ixillius cocked a single eyebrow at his friend.

        "True. I've more of a desire to see the women held inside than the stones and mortar themselves," he sighed deeply. "But my heart resides in Rome, so even those Bonna women are a pale comparison to my lovely slave awaiting my return."

        Ixillius laughed. "You haven't freed her and married her yet?" He asked.

        Brasus drained his skein and held it out for a refill. "I can't bear the thought that she might say no to me if she knew she was free to do so."