the soldier, the slave and the king

THE SOLDIER, THE SLAVE AND THE KING

BY

T.C. ELOFSON

500 B.C.E ROMA

“Lucius, let me ask you a question?” asked the captain of Roman guards. Are you planning on keeping Appia for yourself? Do you love her?” Lucius was put off by the question. Did he love her? He was sure that he did, but the words still sounded intimidating to him. He was not even sure he could say the words yet. His head ached more and more as he thought about the question just put forward to him by his friend the captain to the King of Roma. Then he shook the feeling of and answered.

“Yes, if she wants to be with me and do I love her well I have never loved a woman since my wife died, but I might be able to, I really just don’t know. And if nothing else she will be free from the king.”

“You have taken a terrible risk steeling her from King Tarquin. It means death to use all you know.”



***

Suddenly Lucius awoke, the words of his friend, the Captain still ringing in his ears. It was not long until the King and his family rose that morning. Shortly after that the King walked out of his bedchambers and into the war room. As Tarquin walked out, he pushed the silk aside, wiped sleep from his eyes and almost tripped over the murdered body of the King’s night guard. He lied dead just to the right of the king’s doorway, killed by Lucius, the King’s personal day guard.

The king stood there frozen for a moment, his eyes wide and refusing to look away from the man. His mouth gaped open and for a moment unable to get the words out. Finally the king let out the alert.

“Guards, guards!” yelled King Tarquin. Suddenly the room filled with men in black armor the sounds of their heavy foot falls echoing down the halls as they rushed to their king. “Find the one responsible for this,” he ordered. Several of the men turned and ran from the room to investigate while two guards stayed at the king’s side.

An hour later a soldier appeared before the king with upsetting news. He did not want to be the one to deliver the report. The king may just kill him out of rage, but he had no choice in the matter.

“What is it, out with it already?”

“Sire, Lucius and your slave girl, Appia are not in the palace,” the guard said dropping down to one knee hoping not to be struck by the king.

“What? Find them kill them!”

His favorite slave was gone. He ordered his men in to the city and ordered them to kill her on sight. The King was not happy when they returned empty handed. Lucius snuck his way through the darkness of the trees and made his way over to the captain’s home knowing that the King had sent assassin’s to kill his friend. Lucius knew he owed his friend this one last favor. When he let himself in to his home Lucius made sure that the home was as dark as he could make it. Lucius posted himself in a dark corner just right of the door.

It was hours before the killer hired by the king made their move into the house. Lucius had his body pressed up tight against the right wall just next to the door and held one of his daggers in his right hand, the other sat under his belt.

With a squeak of the wooden door Lucius watched as a man in plan close entered the room. He held a sword in his hands and moved with slow soft steps trying not to be heard. Lucius narrowed his eyes and fixated on the back of the man’s neck as he moved. Lucius walked up behind him in a low crouch. He could smell the man’s musk and sweat as he got close to him. Lucius reached up from behind him and grabbed him by the mouth with his left hand and thrust the knife into the right side of his back, puckering his lung. He didn’t make a sound as his life spilled to the floor. Lucius looked down to him for a moment and felt satisfied as a small pool of blood began to leak onto the floor of the house. Lucius dragged his body to the side of the room and left him bleeding on the wood floor of the darken corner of the house.

Lucius then stepped to the far wall were he kneeled down on the left side as he heard a man walking down the hallway as boards began to creak under the weight of the man. Lucius didn’t move he held the knife up to his face and waited for the man. Lucius heard his steps as he walked closer to him through the doorway. His eyes followed as he came closer and closer. Finally he stood next to Lucius and Lucius stepped up powerful and swift swung out his knife hand and sliced the soldier’s throat with little effort. His eyes widen for a moment and his mouth opened as if to grasp one last breath before death, then the man fell forward and blood spilled on to the floor. Lucius stood over the dead soldier for a few seconds and looked around the room before letting himself relax.

Lucius checked the rest of the house for more but that was it. With little effort he slipped out the back of the house and into the cover of darkness never once seen by the Roman patrols and made his way out of the city never to see his friend again.

II

 

Appia and Lucius settled into this life together, but it was difficult for them she had been a slave her enter life, never once thinking she could have more then what she had and now the future looked different for her.  Lucius had come home to find her in a corner of the house crying in the dark.

“Oh no,” he uttered out loud to himself. Lucius ran to her side and pulled her close to his chest. “Are you alright? What has happened?” he asked.  She shook her head and tried to look at him but she was blinded by her tears as they filled her eyes and ran down her face. Her lips began to quiver and tremble as she looked up at Lucius. She then pushed her head into his chest and held him as tight as she could. Lucius worried for the worst as he waited for her to speak to him.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know how to do this,” she sobbed.

“My sweat, girl what do you mean?” tears ran off her cheek as she tried to look up at him.

“I never learned how to cook, clean or love. I don’t know how to be anything but a slave for other men.”

“You will learn, I will be by your side, and we will find love together don’t you think?” Lucius asked her. She looked up into his eyes and tried to give him a nod. Lucius wiped her tears away with his finger and planted a soft kiss onto the skin of her forehead. The two held each other close for a very long moment and listened to the soft rumbling of their heart trying to find the others tempo.

Lucius was beginning to feel happy for the first time in years. He felt as if he was just a boy playing in the back hills and engulfing tree lines of his village. The happiness and joy that he felt as a child just running through the fields filled him once again as he held her close to his chest. Was this his chance to have a family again? Was this fair to her? Lucius trusted her enough to share all his secrets but would she stay after they were told. He did not know but he wanted to risk it.

Soon after settling down for the night Appia and Lucius retired for the evening. She laid him down on the bed and unrobed him, he felt as his fur wrap was slid off of his back. She leaned over and blew out the single candle that dance next to their bed and with a blast of her breath, blackness over took the room except for the moon light pushing its way in a widow in the back of the house. She removed the silk that she had worn around her body and dropped it to the floor. Lucius watched as her wrap fell from her body. She stood there almost just to show him her naked body. She crawled up on top of him and sat forward. She put her breast into my face. Itticuss felt her legs wrap around my hips and her lips probe his neck. Lucius could feel his blood begin to pump in to his manhood, stiffening him. She reached down and grabbed hold of his erection and Lucius could feel it pulsate in her small hand. His eyes rolled into his head and he lost the ability to take in air for a moment as she leaned forward fast and came down on top of him. His eyes widened as he slid inside of her. He lay on his back and looked up at her and watched as her breast swing over him. He reached up and grabbed them gently at first as if he was asking consent to touch them and then as she did not protest he enthusiastically embraced them. Lucius felt her hips tighten around his body as if she never wanted to let him go, and at that moment Lucius would have been content to never let her release him.

Then she shuddered as her body gave in to friction of his penis. Then a few moments later Lucius felt her shudder again. He watched as she bounces up and down on him and he could feel his seed working its way up his penis wanting to give in to her skills as a lover. Lucius closed his eyes as he filled her with his seed.

After a few minutes he felt his body shutter as he emptied his soul in to her. She then rolled next to him. She closed her eyes and tried to lock in his sent into her mind. She lay on top of him with his penis still inside of her and they fell asleep together.

Later that night Lucius was awoken by the sound of several foots steps of men sneaking threw the field. He jumped up and dressed himself and grabbed his sword. How is it they found us? The house is three hours from the city. He could hear the sound of many men making their way closer and closer to the house through the long blade of dry grass that sat around his home. I should have taken her out of Italia for out of Italia. The horrible king will kill her if I don’t do something; I’m going to have to kill them all.

Lucius woke Appia and said in a whisper, “Appia, Roman soldiers are here. Get out of the bed and hide yourself in the dark.” Her eyes opened wide as Lucius pulled her up by her arm. She put her hands to her mouth in an effort to silence any sound that may desire to slip from her lips.

She got up and went to the darkest corner of the left side of the house. Lucius went over to the ledge where he kept his long dagger and grabbed it up in his hand. Lucius propped his body up against the wall next to the doorway on the left side. He held his dagger up in his left hand and the sword in his right. Lucius pressed his ear up to the wooden wall and could hear the sounds of many men talking on the other side.

Before he could think on a course of action the door flew open and almost hit him as he hid behind it. A soldier ran in and stopped just past the entryway and Lucius rolled off the door and slammed it shut and thrust the dagger deep into the right side of the man’s neck. Before the man’s dead body could hit the ground Lucius was hidden to the right side of the doorway.

Lucius pressed his back up against the wall and watched as the door flew open and two more soldiers ran into the room of his home. Lucius ducked down low as the soldier backed up out of the darkness looking for him. With his sword held high Lucius came up vicious and swift with his right sword arm and sliced one of the man’s arms off at the elbow. Blood flowed to the ground and screams filled the air as the man fell to the ground. The other man lunged at Lucius with powerful concentration and determination. Lucius stepped forward without fear or apprehension of his life and put his sword into the man’s throat. The man stumbled back a few steps and just as he fell to his knees Lucius’ home was flooded with Roman soldiers and they seize him and dragged him outside where he was thrown to the ground.

Lucius got up fast and saw that a dozen men surrounded him. He stood in the middle of a circle of soldiers all with their sword pointed at his face, their blade almost pushing into his neck. A man Lucius knew to be the king’s other guard, Claudius then dragged Appia outside with a knife to her throat. Lucius’ eyes got wide and he push and grinded his teeth together with such force it’s a wonder they didn’t break apart in his mouth. He could still feel the ivory handle of his Roman sword in his hands and debated fighting to the man. He would have snatched the man up by the throat and killed him if he could have gotten to him.

Claudius looked at Lucius and yelled, “Lucius Marcus, surrender or she dies.” Lucius would have done anything to save her life but if he knew what was about to take place he never would have given in. But he dropped his bloody sword to the ground and was rushed by all the soldiers. Lucius was grabbed by the arms and had them bound behind his back with thick rope and pushed down to his knees.

Claudius the man that held Appia then said to him, “Lucius look me in the eye. By order of the king I seize this home and all property connected to it and have been ordered to carry out the execution of the slave girl Appia.” He then grabbed her by the hair and exposing her neck and in one smooth motion he sliced her throat clean. Her eyes opened wide and she struggled for one last breath of air as she stared at Lucius as if he could save her. Blood flowed from her mouth and her throat as she closed her eye and fell to the ground. Tears flowed from Lucius as stared at her dead body only feet from him now.

“NO!” Lucius yelled and tried to push his way at him but was held back. Lucius watch as the soldiers walked over her body kicking fresh mud onto her, and a river of blood moved closer and closer to Lucius.

Claudius the man that killed Appia then looked at Lucius and said, “Put her body in the house and burn it to the ground.”

Lucius gritted his teeth again and yelled to him, “You better kill me now because I will not let this stand, in this life or the next I will have my vengeance.” The man gave him a smile a put his black armored helmet back over his smooth face and walked off of the field.

A soldier walked up to his home with a torch in his hand. He held it high into the air and threw it through the doorway of the house and landed on the dead body of Appia. Tears continued to run down Lucius face as wood caught fire and a blaze took over his home and burned the flesh off of her body.

“Take him away,” Claudius yelled behind him as he walked off. The soldiers marched Lucius away and took him back to Roma. As Lucius walked he turned his head around and looked at his home as it continued to burn. Lucius watched as the glow of the flames lit up the hillside and the morning red sky. A cloud of black smoke billowed up in to the heavens as Lucius was marched back to the palace. Lucius was taken to a hand dug pit just next to the palace and held in a holding cell just outside the back of the palace. 

Lucius was well guarded by five soldiers with long spears who smelled of old water and wine. The cell was a hole in the ground dug down about eight feet down and a wood barred door on top. It rained down on him for most of the night causing the walls of dirt to turn to slick mud and a collection of water to form at his feet. As the moon was high and bright for most of the night Lucius could see the black water forming around him.

The next morning Lucius was brought in front of the king. Two soldiers walked him into his war room and he looked at Lucius for a long moment and would not blink or look away from him.

King Tarquin sat in his chair and the guard at his side looked at Lucius with angry eyes, “Lucius you will pay for your treachery,” he said. Lucius said nothing to his remark as the king looked at him.

“Where is the captain, I know you had something to do with this.”

Lucius pressed his lip together as his brow tightened and said, “The captain is dead and so is his wife your men saw to that, they did. I came to find two soldiers dead on the floor and the captain dying and his wife dead in the next room. I would say that the captain got the best of them after they murdered his wife, before dying from his wounds. I took the captain and his wife deep into the woods and gave them a proper Roman barrel. There with the gods now.” Lucius stood proud and a man of good charter awaiting his judgment. His back was straight and he held his head up refusing to look away from his accusers. He stood as he always had even as a child awaiting the punishment from his father for pulling the basket of fruit onto the floor of their home. His father would call him into the room to scald Lucius, and he would stand front and center like a good little soldier. His father always knew he would grow up to be a great man.

“You will join them soon, you have committed too many crimes against Roma. You stole my slave, killed my soldiers and I will kill you for that,” said the king.

Lucius looked at him with an evil stare, “I love this city more then you or any other man in Roma. I committed no treason against Roma. I committed treason against and evil king that will soon get what is coming to him,” Lucius spoke patronizingly and proudly, and then the king jumped out of his chair and slapped him across the face knocking him to the floor.

“Silence you fool. You will be executed, death by drowning to be carried out immediately.” ordered the king.

He then turned to his soldiers and said, “Men, take him away and carry out my orders.” Lucius was taken out of the palace and over to the Tiber River where Lucius had his feet and hands bound and large stones tied to his body. He stood atop a large wooden bridge that sat just above the water line in the darkness of the bridge. Lucius looked down over the water as the people of the city cheered for his death and he could see his reflection in the calm water. Lucius had no fear in what was about to happen in fact he welcomed his death, soon he would be with the woman that he loved and away from this evil King. This would be a fine end to this horrible chapter of his life. His lovely Appia is gone, taken from him and he may never see his friend again. Lucius closed his eyes as his leg shook and wobbled on the edge of the bridge, a tear began to roll down his cheek, it felt hot and wet on his cool dry skin.

The soldiers that stood next to him then picked Lucius up over their heads and threw him into the river. With a splash his bound body impacted the water. The water was wet and cold. His cloth soaked in the water immediately and the heavy stones carried him right to the bottom of the river. The river must have been thirty feet deep as Lucius sunk and sunk. He lay on to the sandy bed of the Tiber hanging on to his last breath of air, not wanting to release it for fear of what might happen. He gave one last smile and then he was gone.

THE END.