Roma Mater (24 page)

She regarded him for some while before murmuring, ‘So you understand that also. Few are the men who’d show your regard for a woman’s feelings. Oh, mine were never hurt; well did I see why you must stay absent. Yet it gladdens me what you have revealed of yourself.’

The compliment made Gratillonius flush. He had been returning her look with pleasure. She was simply clad, in a grey-blue gown with silver stars embroidered on the neckline and sleeves. A belt of crimson mesh snugged the cloth around fullness of bosom, hip, and thigh. He admired the strong bones in her face, and her eyes were like those of Dahilis, her half-sister. There seemed to be no tensing, no qualms in her. She took his hand as
naturally as if they had been man and wife for years. ‘Come,’ she said, let us talk.’

They passed from the entryroom to the atrium. He saw that, while its floor was antique Roman, the frescos were not. Their colours bright and fresh, they depicted a vividness of dolphins in waves, sea birds skimming overhead. The style was not quite representational; elongated lines and curves hinted at more than this world knew. Seeing him notice, she said with a touch of diffidence, ‘Mayhap I should not have covered up the old art. I did first copy it on to vellum, that future generations may have a record. But it was tedious stuff. Whoever inherits this house from me can get rid of mine if she dislikes it.’

‘What?’ he exclaimed. ‘You painted it yourself?’

‘I dabble at things. But come onwards. ’Twould be most honorific to receive you in this chamber, but ’twill be more – real – if we seek to my scriptorium.’ Bodilis laughed. ‘Besides, Semuramat is not allowed there, not till she grows older and more careful. She’s a darling, but she’d pester the life out of us.’

‘I gather you’ve other daughters.’

Bodilis nodded. ‘Two. They are both wild to meet you, of course. But Talavair is standing vigil at the Nymphaeum, and Kerna is at her studies in the temple. She’ll be home for supper.’

‘The girls are … Hoel’s?’

‘All three. The Sign came upon me in Lugaid’s reign, but he fell almost immediately afterwards. Talavair will finish her vestal term this year. She has a young man picked out for herself. A year hence, I may well be a grandmother!’

‘What of – Kerna, is that her name?’

‘Oh, she’s just fifteen, and studious. She intends to renew her vows at age eighteen and become a minor priestess. Not that that debars marriage. However, most
men are reluctant to take a wife whose duties will often have her away from home. Former vestals who enter the priestesshood most commonly do so after having been widowed.’

They had left the atrium and gone down a hallway beyond. The layout of this house was similar though not identical to that of Dahilis’s or Forsquilis’s, and unlike the usual Roman. Bodilis opened a door and led Gratillonius through. He found a room nearly as spacious; later she would explain that she had had the wall removed between two former bedchambers. Lamps of a shape as graceful as her gait brightened the dullness that today seeped through windowpanes. One burned on a table, beneath a legged small pot that it kept warm. The oil was olive, nearly odourless. Flagons of wine and water stood beside it, glass goblets and earthenware cups, a plateful of titbits. Shelves around the walls held scrolls, codices, the portrait bust of a woman solemn and beautiful, ivory and bone miniatures of fleet animals. A much larger table filled the far end of the room. Writing materials littered it, open books, brushes and paints, botanical specimens, shells, rocks, a flute, a cat asleep in the middle of everything.

Tray be seated,’ Bodilis said. ‘Would you thin your wine according to your taste?’

‘What’s in the pot?’

‘An herbal infusion. I seldom drink wine save at supper, and then little.’ Bodilis smiled. ‘I fear you’ll find me drab company.’

‘Contrariwise, I think.’ They took chairs. ‘I’m no heavy drinker myself, most times. May I try a cup of your brew?’

The tisane was fragrant and sweet-acrid, good on a chilly day like this. ‘I heard aright; you are a scholar,’ he remarked.

‘Well, I enjoy learning things. Also out in the open – I love to ramble about the countryside or go forth in a boat
– but nearsightedness does somewhat hinder me there.’

‘You seem at work on something literary.’

Translating the
Agamemnon
into Ysan. A pity that scarce any of us today read Greek, but better my poor words than no Aeschylus at all.’

‘How did you learn?’

‘I taught myself, from a textbook and lexicon I had sent me. Eucherius, the Christian minister, gave me more instruction, and corrected my pronunciation. They still use Greek where he hails from in Italia.’ She grew quietly ardent. ‘Oh, Gratillonius, you have so much to tell too! What the folk of Britannia are like, their tales and songs and – For me ’tis twice wonderful that you are come.’

He dropped his glance downwards, into his cup, as if to seek an omen in its murkiness. ‘I think you will be mainly the teacher,’ he murmured. ‘The Ysan language – ’

‘Already you handle it rather well. I might be able to help with vocabulary. We make much use of synonyms, for example.’

‘And the history, the lore, everything below the surface. That is why I – I wanted to visit you first.’

‘Ask me what you will,’ she sighed, ‘but remember I lack the wisdom of Quinipilis, the forcefulness of Vindilis, the witchcraft of Forsquilis, the charm of – Well, I’ll try my best.’

He heard pain in her voice, raised his eyes, and saw lines at the corners of her mouth, as if she struggled not to show what she felt. It came to him: I’m a blundering ass. She thinks I don’t see anything in her but her mind. I never meant that. Jupiter thunder me, no! But if I instantly say she’s lovely, she may suppose I’m only snorting after yet another new female body.

He groped his way forward. ‘Ah, let’s talk a while like ordinary human beings. I want to know you, Bodilis. Tell me of your life.’

She shrugged. ‘Naught to tell. ’Tis been well-nigh eventless.’

He guessed that, of the Nine, she had had the most resources, the broadest reaches of escape for her spirit, during Colconor. He did not care to think about it. Instead – He tugged his chin. The whiskers were still too short, but he oughtn’t scratch his face. Slowly, he said, ‘You remarked on your middle daughter’s wish to remain with the temple after she’s free to leave. Was that yours too, when you were a girl?’

The glance she gave him was startled. Then, inch by inch, she leaned back, smiled on him, finally found words. ‘Aye. The Sign did come upon me when I was the age that is Kerna’s now; but ever had I been a child moody and solitary.’

‘Was that because of … the circumstances of your birth?’

Again she regarded him closely for a spell. ‘Gratillonius,’ she breathed at length, ‘you are a remarkable man. You truly are.’

‘Nay,’ he tried to laugh, ‘’tis but that a military officer must needs gain some skill in guessing about people.’ He sobered. ‘Would you liefer not talk of this? I shan’t press you.’

She reached to stroke his hand. ‘Why should I hang back? Dahilis must have told you things, and … and if the Gods are willing, we will be together, you and the Sisterhood, for many years.’ Her look drifted off and came to harbour at the bust. ‘You know my father Wulfgar begot me on his daughter Tambilis. It was the will of Belisama, no sin among the Gallicenae, but I am told he fell to brooding, and within a year lay dead at the hands of Gaetulius. Certain it is that this left a shadow on my mother, who did not regain gladness until Hoel came. By him she had Dahilis-to-be, you recall. But hers had
been a sombre house for me to grow up in. I fled into my books and my walks and – all you see around you. My wish was to become a minor priestess, for life.’

‘Instead you became a Queen,’ he said low.

She coloured. ‘Hoel made me, too, happy. Not that his was any great intellect. He confessed I could bewilder him. But he was gutsy and kind and well knew how to make a girl purr. And his friends, his visitors, how they could talk of marvellous things and mighty deeds! He loved to invite foreigners to the palace; they blew in like winds off the sea. Later I began to frequent Star House – ’

She broke off, snapped after air, finished bleakly: ‘Under Colconor, the Symposium kept my soul alive.’

‘Oh, my dear!’ he said in pity.

She shook herself, confronted him, and retorted, ‘I ask for no balm, Gaius Valerius Gratillonius. My life has been better than most on this earth, despite everything.’ Her tone softened. ‘And now you are King.’

Silence fell. He drained his cup and filled a goblet with wine, undiluted. Once more she looked away from him. Blood went in and out of the cheek he saw, like drumbeats. He knew what she was thinking of, and surely she knew that he did.

He cleared his throat. ‘Well. I see. Um-m … whose is yonder bust?’

‘Why, Brennilis.’ Her relief was plain to hear. ‘Brennilis of the Vision, Brennilis of the Veil. ’Tis uncertain whether the portrait was done in her time or is imaginative, but I like to believe this is indeed how she appeared.’

‘Who was she?’

‘You know not?’

‘I am an ignoramus, remember.’

‘Well, then,’ she said cheerfully, ‘what better way to
pass the hours ere we dine than for me to relate a little of the history of Ys?’

2

The oldest records were fragmentary, but tradition held that the site was discovered by Himilco when he came exploring up from Carthage some eight and a half centuries agone. Returning, he recommended that a colony be founded there. What Carthage required was a way station and naval base for its trade with the far North. Britannic tin, Gallic furs, German amber, honey, hides, tallow, timber, walrus and narwhal ivory, together with the Southern goods which paid for them, needed protection as well as transport.

No mere outpost could long be maintained at such a remove. Hence it must be a town, capable of feeding and defending itself. Since few of the then prosperous Phoenicians were willing to leave home, they recruited widely about the Mediterranean lands. Prominent among those who immigrated in the early decades were Babylonians fleeing the Persians who conquered and destroyed their city, and Egyptians resentful of Persian rule.

Legend said that when Himilco was first investigating the region, men of his were slain in their camp every night. At last he tracked down the monster that was doing this thing, and the sailors put an end to it. The creature had laired in a passage grave. The Old Folk whose bones lay there, grateful to be at peace again, promised that settlement here should flourish as long as the dwellers were likewise at peace with the Gods; but if ever there was a falling out, the sea would reclaim its own.

Perhaps because of this, the city was consecrated to
Ishtar, for She was powerful over all the elements and was the Star of the Sea. Soon afterwards the mixed colonists identified Her with Isis and established an order of priestesses to serve Her.

Otherwise the community was subject to Carthage, though at its distance this was nominal, amounting to little more than a governor from the motherland. As it grew and enlarged its own trade, wealthy men began to chafe under even so light a yoke.

More or less at the same time as the founding of the city, the Celts had arrived, overrunning the aboriginal population and intermingling with it to produce the Gauls. The aristocrats of the new tribes were generally descended from the invaders. It was natural for the city to make alliance with neighbour natives against further newcomers. Wars and raids had harmed those nearby folk enough that they were willing to accept Punic leadership.

By now the name ‘Beth-Ishtar’ or ‘Beth-Isis’ had become shortened to ‘Ys’.

The city was often endangered, more than once besieged. Yet, supplying itself by sea, it outwaited the enemy Celts, who never were very good at sitting still. Water was the worst problem, a fact that may have enhanced the sacredness of its sources in the minds of the people – although the Gauls venerated springs and streams too. The constant need for fighters and workers, in a commonalty still small, bred repugnance for the practice of sacrificing children to Baal Melqart, and eventually its discontinuance. However, prophecy and tradition agreed that from time to time some great blood offering must be made the Gods.

Gradually warfare eased off. While rivalry with the seagoing Veneti remained strong and occasionally flared into battle, Ys developed ties to the Osismii, as that mingled breed of Old Folk and Celts called themselves.
Intermarriage became frequent, deities were identified with each other, rites and institutions conjoined, the very language of the city Gallicized.

In Ys the Triad became paramount among Gods. Ishtar-Isis most often bore the name Belisama, which meant ‘the Brightest One’. Melqart assumed the name and attributes of the Celtic sky God Taranis. Lir, Whose cult was more ancient than colony or tribe, took unto Himself the awe and dread of the sea.

These evolutions were not barbarizations. They went hand in glove with political changes. Increasingly occupied against Rome, Mother Carthage gave Ys ever less consideration. Finally the magnates expelled the governor and established a Council of Suffetes on the Phoenician model. For the head of state, they took from various Gauls the idea of the King of the Wood – who was ordinarily no more than a figurehead, and whose death in battle replaced the former sacrifice of children.

The Sisterhood of the Nine grew from both Punic and Celtic roots. It was recruited from among the daughters and granddaughters of Queens, albeit most of the latter were born to ordinary men. Such a girl took holy orders at age seven and served as a vestal until age eighteen. She generally lived at home, but went to temple school and, when old enough, spent days and nights on end in religious duties within the city or at the Nymphaeum. At the close of her term, she was free to do whatever she liked – unless first the Sign had appeared on her and she had been wedded to the King and enrolled in the Gallicenae. After the third generation a given line of female descent was released from all obligation, for then the blood of Incarnate Taranis was thinned down to mere humanness.