Steven Saylor - The House Of The Vestals

"He would! If you knew my son, how cheerful he is by nature, you'd realize just how desperate his situation must be for him to even mention his suffering. If he says he's lost a little weight, he must be half starved. What can such men be feeding him-fish heads and moldy bread? If he says these monsters are 'not too cruel,' imagine how cruel they must be! When I think of his ordeal-oh, I can hardly bear it!" She stifled a sob.

"Where was he kidnapped, and when?"

"It happened last month," said Quintus Fabius.

"Twenty-two days ago," said Valeria with a sniffle. "Twenty-two endless days and nights!"

"He was down at Baiae with some of his friends," explained Quintus Fabius. "We have a summer villa above the beach, and a town house across the bay at Neapolis. Spurius and his friends took a little skiff and went sailing among the fishing boats. The day was hot. Spurius decided to take a swim. His friends stayed on the boat."

"Spurius is a strong swimmer," said Valeria, her pride steadying the tremor in her voice.

Quintus Fabius shrugged. "My son is better at swimming than at most things. While his friends watched, he made a circuit, swimming from one fishing boat to another. His friends saw him talking and laughing with the fishermen."

"Spurius is very outgoing," his mother explained.

"He swam farther and farther away," Quintus Fabius continued, "until his friends lost sight of him for a while and began to worry. Then one of them saw Spurius on board what they had all thought to be a fishing vessel, though it was larger than the rest. It took them a moment to realize that the vessel had set sail and was departing. The boys tried to follow in the skiff, but none of them has any real skill at sailing. Before they knew it, the boat had disappeared, and Spurius with it. Eventually the boys returned to the villa at Baiae. They all thought that Spurius would turn up sooner or later, but he never did. Days passed without a word."

"Imagine our worry!" said Valeria. "We sent frantic messages to our foreman at the villa. He made inquiries of fishermen all around the bay, trying to find anyone who could explain what had happened and identify the men who had sailed off with Spurius, but his investigations led nowhere."

Quintus Fabius sneered. "The fishermen around Neapolis- well, if you've ever been down there you know the sort. Descendants of old Greek colonists who've never given up their Greek ways. Some of them don't even speak Latin! As for their personal habits and vices, the less said the better. Such people can hardly be expected to cooperate with finding a young Roman patrician abducted by pirates."

"On the contrary," I said, "I should think that fishermen would be the natural enemies of pirates, whatever their personal prejudices against the patrician class."

"However that may be, my man down in Baiae was unable to discover anything," said Quintus Fabius. "We had no definite knowledge of what had become of Spurius until we received his letter a few days ago."

I looked at the letter again. "Your son calls the pirates Cilicians. That seems rather far-fetched to me."

"Why?" said Valeria. "Everyone says they're the most bloodthirsty people on earth. One hears about them making raids everywhere along the coasts, from Asia all the way to Africa and Spain."

"True, but here, on the coast of Italy? And in the waters around Baiae?"

"It's shocking news, I'll agree," said Quintus Fabius. "But what can you expect with the problem of piracy getting worse and worse while the Senate does nothing?"

I pursed my lips. "And doesn't it seem odd to you that these pirates want the ransom brought to Ostia, just down the Tiber from Rome? That's awfully close."

"Who cares about such details?" said Valeria, her voice breaking. "Who cares if we have to go all the way to the Pillars of Hercules, or just a few steps to the Forum? We must go wherever they wish, to get Spurius safely home."

I nodded. "What about the amount? The Ides is only two days away. A hundred thousand sesterces amounts to ten thousand gold pieces. Can you raise that sum?"

Quintus Fabius snorted. "The money is no problem. The amount is almost an insult. Though I have to wonder if the boy is worth even that price," he added under his breath.

Valeria glared at him. "I shall pretend that I never heard you say such a thing, Quintus. And in front of an outsider!" She glanced at me and quickly lowered her eyes.

Quintus Fabius ignored her. "Well, Gordianus, will you take the job?"

I stared at the letter, feeling uneasy. Quintus Fabius bridled at my hesitation. "If it's a matter of payment, I assure you I can be generous."

"Payment is always an issue," I acknowledged, though considering the yawning gulf in my household coffers and the mood of my creditors, I was in no position to decline. "Will I be acting alone?"

"Of course. Naturally, I intend to send along a company of armed men-"

I raised my hand. "Just as I feared. No, Quintus Fabius, absolutely not. If you entertain a fantasy of taking your son alive by using force, I urge you to forget it. For the boy's safety as well as my own, I cannot allow it."

"Gordianus, I will send armed men to Ostia."

"Very well, but they'll go without me."

He took a deep breath and stared at me balefully. "What would you have me do, then? After the ransom is paid and my son released, is there to be no force at hand with which to capture these pirates?"

"Is capturing them your intent?"

"It's one use for armed men."

I bit my lip and slowly shook my head.

"I was warned that you were a bargainer," he growled. "Very well, consider this: if you successfully arrange the release of my son, and afterward my men are able to retrieve the ransom, I shall reward you with one-twentieth of what they recover, over and above your fee."

The jangling of coins rang like sweet music in my imagination. I cleared my throat and calculated in my head. One-twentieth of a hundred thousand sesterces was five thousand sesterces, or five hundred gold pieces. I said the figure aloud to be sure there was no misunderstanding. Quintus Fabius slowly nodded.

Five hundred pieces of gold would pay my debts, repair the roof on my house, buy a new slave to be my bodyguard (a necessity I had gone without for too long), and give me something left over.

On the other hand, there was a bad smell about the whole affair.

In the end, for a generous fee plus the prospect of five hundred pieces of gold, I decided I could hold my nose.

Before I left the house, I asked if there was a picture of the kidnapped boy that I could see. Quintus Fabius withdrew, leaving me in his wife's charge. Valeria wiped her eyes and managed a weak smile as she showed me into another room.

"A woman artist named Iaia painted the family just last year, when we were down at Baiae on holiday." She smiled, obviously proud of the likenesses. The group portrait was done in encaustic wax on wood. Quintus Fabius stood on the left, looking stern. Valeria smiled sweetly on the right. Between them was a strikingly handsome hazel-haired young man with lively blue eyes who was unmistakably her son. The portrait stopped at his shoulders but showed that he was wearing a manly toga.

"The portrait was done to celebrate your son's coming of age?"

"Yes."

"Almost as beautiful as his mother," I said, stating the matter as fact, not flattery.

"People often remark at the resemblance."

"I suppose he might have a bit of his father about the mouth."

She shook her head. "Spurius and my husband are not related by blood."

"No?"

"My first husband died in the civil war. When Quintus married me, he adopted Spurius and made him his heir."

"Spurius is his stepson, then. Axe there other children in the household?"