Eutopia (First version)

Chapter 15

Eirene never had the chance to say goodbye to the wrinkled old Phoibe, browned and twisted with age and plump with the extravagant lifestyle she had shared with the Master and Mistress, before she and Aisha were escorted to Senator Cato’s later that same day by Liviana or so Eirene assumed. Alexis had retreated to his cubiculum following the scene that had spilled from his study and into the garden and Eirene had remained at his side. She had declined the offer for him to accompany her to her room to gather her things, since she had no things to gather now that her nightingale was gone. Besides, she didn’t think she could bear the sight of Aisha’s perfectly made bed that would never again be slept in. To Eirene’s mind the girl had already been folded carefully into the creases of her heart, along with her mother, the old scholar and the little brown bird.

‘Is she angry?’ Eirene asked into the dusk soaked silence that seeped in through the bare window of the large but simply furnished room. Alexis was perched on the edge of his raised bed, the frame of which was cast in shining bronze, polished to the burnished tones of sunlight on autumn leaves, scowling darkly at an official looking scroll which was embossed with two thick words that she couldn’t make out from where she remained sprawled out at his feet. Eirene had busied herself copying words with painstaking precision from a piece of papyrus that he had inked them on, onto a wax tablet, in the hope that keeping her mind occupied would fend off the sadness she felt at losing the closest thing she’d had to a friend since being separated from her brother. Eirene had made such a mess with the ink when Alexis had first taught her to write that he had resorted to directing her to the much cleaner, if less impressive, scribing onto wax. He lowered the scroll to look at her and she thought she caught sight of a flicker of worry in his eyes.

‘More at me I think, rather than you,’ Alexis almost soothed, without having to clarify which ‘she’ it was that Eirene was talking about. He tossed the papyrus to one side, letting the sheaf curl gently upon itself as it fell to the floor. Eirene sat up; laying down the stylus she had been using to carve her clumsy words into the soft surface of the wax as she watched Alexis pace the length of the room. An ethereal nymph, lithe and graceful as she peeked from between the boughs of a tree surveyed Eirene and Alexis with flat, painted eyes from the mural that graced the wall, running the whole length and width of the room in a swirling riot of greens and browns and pale yellows. Eirene had never seen the inside of her Master’s room until then and at first the fresh colours had induced a sense of outdoor freedom and merriment, which she supposed was the desired effect. Though as the minutes had slipped by to morph into hours, consumed as they were by careful studying, Eirene had found the expanse of green foliage oppressing, a constant and unfriendly reminder that she was not actually outside. The nymphs that she caught sight of here and there between the trees, frozen forever in time by the artist’s hand, became mocking, all traces of the beauty she had first associated with them was drained from their painted faces with each moment she was contained by those four walls. ‘It is still best if we give her space to gather her thoughts for now. She will still be sore that I sent Phoibe and Aisha away, but once we are out of Rome she will no doubt find some new distraction that will detract from the lure of being waited upon hand and foot.’ He sighed heavily, running a hand through his short, black hair as though trying to dislodge some other thought from his mind with the gesture, coming to rest in a backless wooden seat that curved up into elaborate scrolls on either side to enable him to rest his arms, crooked at the elbow.

‘My brother?’ Eirene asked, half hesitant, half demanding as she shoved the wax tablet to one side and raised herself up onto her knees. ‘You promised you would help me look for him before we leave.’ Alexis gave her a long studious look, his chin resting on one hand as he took in the sudden flare of passion that sharpened Eirene’s tone.

‘Yes, I did. I will hold to that promise, Eirene, don’t think for a second that I won’t.’ He looked thoughtful as his gaze drifted to the papyrus he had let drop to the floor moments earlier. ‘But we will go tonight. I have a feeling that Liviana will want to stay at Senator Cato’s this evening since he will no doubt provide her with the utmost sympathy and have his household bending backwards to please her.’ There was a stiff resolution in his eyes as he stood to cast a glance out of the window where the hazy purple of dusk was darkening slowly, allowing deeper tones of blue to layer the shadows that crept into the garden beyond. ‘You need to be outside,’ he said softly as he stood again and moved to the doorway.  It wasn’t a question. Alexis had seen how the bright awe that first burned in Eirene’s eyes had edged into bitter resentment as she looked up at the mural again and again. The girl ducked her head at his observation.