Harry Turtledove: Gunpowder Empire

“See you,” Amanda said. She'd done plenty of worrying about herself, too. Nice to know somebody else was also doing it for her. That was a big part of what parents were for.

She didn't want to leave the cellar. Going back into the world of Agrippan Rome, the world of stinks, the world with slavery and without electricity, reminded her of everything she'd left behind. She'd get it back again, though. And she and Jeremy would get Mom and Dad back, too. It was like living in a fairy tale when you got three wishes.

But the three wishes hadn't happened yet. She just had the promise that they would. What to do in the meantime? The only thing she could see, was to get on with her life. She felt like Cinderella, back with her stepmother and nasty stepsisters before the Prince came along with the glass slipper.

The next morning, she put a water jar on her hip and went to the fountain. She would never be able to go there without thinking of the Lietuvan cannonball ricocheting through the crowd of women that one dreadful morning. She noticed local women also looking at the scars it had left behind on the stonework. The real damage it had done, though, had nothing to do with stonework.

Maria was at the fountain. She and a couple of free women were talking about the victory the Romans had won against King Kuzmickas. People in Polisso hoped it meant the Lietuvans wouldn't invade again any time soon. Past that, they didn't much seem to care.

One of the free women waved to Amanda. “What do you think?” the local asked. “You went out there and gave the King presents. Will he try again soon?”

“How can I know that?” Amanda said reasonably. “I just met him for a little while. I don't know how badly the legions beat him, either. If they really smashed up his army, maybe he'll stay in his own country for a while. If they didn't, though, he might think he'd have better luck next time and try again.”

“Sounds sensible.” The local woman seemed surprised. Maybe she wasn't used to logically thinking things through. Even back in the home timeline, a lot of people weren't. That never failed to startle Amanda when she bumped into it, which probably wasn't sensible on her part.

Maria smiled at her. Amanda cautiously smiled back. The slave girl seemed willing to be friendly, at least to a certain degree, no matter what she believed. Maybe that meant Maria wasn't quite so strict herself as Amanda had thought. More likely, it just meant the slave couldn't help being a friendly person even if her beliefs were strict. Maria said, “You seem happy.”

Amanda nodded. “I am happy. I just got a message from my mother and father.“ She didn't have to say the message had crossed timelines to get here. ”They ought to be back in Polisso in a few days.“

“Oh, that is good news.” Maria set down her water jar and gave Amanda a hug. Yes, she was a friendly person, all right. “I know you and your brother have been worried about them.”

“A little.” Amanda didn't want to say how much. She couldn't say all the reasons why she and Jeremy had been worried, either.

“They will have worried about you even more, what with the two of you under siege here. I'm sure they will reward the messenger when he tells them you are all right,” Maria said. “I prayed that everything would turn out well for you and for them. I'm glad my prayers were answered.”

Amanda didn't quite know how to take that. “Thank you,” seemed the right thing to say. Stammering a little, she added, “Don't you, uh, pray for yourself, too? For your freedom?”

“Oh, yes,” Maria answered calmly. “But God hasn't chosen to hear that prayer yet. In His own good time, He will. Or, if it pleases Him, He will leave me as I am. His will be done.”

She means it, Amanda realized. Understanding that, believing it, was a bigger jolt than seeing how some people wouldn't think logically. Maria believed, no matter how friendly she was. Believing helped her accept her place. Accepting a low place wasn't something Americans were used to. Instead, they went out and tried to make it better. People in Agrippan Rome usually didn't. They couldn't.

“How do you stand it?” Amanda blurted.

“What can I do about it?” Maria still sounded calm and reasonable. “Nothing, not by myself.” After echoing Amanda's thoughts, she went on, “Since I can't do anything, what's the point of getting upset? It would only make life harder, and life is hard enough as is. I'm more ready to be free than I used to be, I think. Now that you showed me how the alphabet works, I can read more and more, though it's still not easy for me. I go on from day to day, and I pray, and I hope.”

“Would you like enough silver to buy yourself free?” Amanda asked impulsively. “I have it, you know.”

Maria smiled again and shook her head. “I would rather be your friend than your debtor. It would take me years to pay back that kind of money, if I ever could.”

“I didn't mean as a loan,” Amanda said. “If you want to be free, I'd gladly pay your owner what you're worth.” She couldn't change the whole Roman Empire here. But she could help a friend. If she got in trouble for that with Crosstime Traffic, too bad. She and Jeremy had piled up an awful lot of silver. Freeing Maria counted for more with her than buying grain. She'd had second thoughts about it before. Now that she was leaving… Yes, things seemed different somehow.

The slave girl's eyes went big and round when she realized Amanda meant it. “You would do that for me?” she said. Amanda nodded. Maria hugged her again. But then, worry in her voice, she asked, “What would I do if I were free?”

“You could go on working for your master, but as a freed-woman,” Amanda answered. “You know his business. Wouldn't he be glad to have you? You'd be your own person, though. You wouldn't be his.”

Even that wasn't a hundred percent true. Freedmen and freedwomen had obligations to the people who'd once owned them. But they couldn't be sold or mistreated, the way slaves could. And their children would be wholly free.

“I hardly believe my own ears,” Maria said.

“Well, you'd better,” Amanda told her. “I meant it. Take the water back, and I'll do the same. Then I'll meet you at Pulio Carvilio's shop.”

Maria's owner, a cobbler, was a short, stocky man with a broad face, hairy ears, and scarred hands. “What's this I hear?” he said in a gruff, raspy voice when Amanda came in. He pushed the sandal he was repairing off to one side and set the awl he held down on the table. “You want to buy Maria from me?”

Amanda shook her head. “No. I want to buy her freedom.”

Pulio Carvilio stuck out his chin, which made his jowls wobble. “She's a good worker. It'll cost you. She's worth five pounds of silver if she's worth a copper.”

“Five pounds!” Amanda exclaimed. “That's robbery!” The haggle that followed was the strangest one she'd ever known. She was dickering over the price of another human being. When she let herself think about that, it made her sick,

I don't want her for myself she thought. I want her to be able to have herself.

She got Pulio Carvilio down to four pounds of silver, but no further. He had the advantage in the bargain. The only reason she haggled at all was that he would have been shocked if she hadn't. If he wanted to think he'd skinned her in the deal, she didn't mind a bit.

Once they'd agreed, she and the cobbler and Maria had to go to the city prefect's palace to make everything official. It turned out to be more complicated than Amanda had expected. Almost everything in Agrippan Rome turned out to be more complicated than people from the home timeline expected. There were endless forms to fill out, most of them in triplicate. Pulio Carvilio couldn't read or write. That meant the clerk at the palace had to read everything to him, which made the whole business take twice as long as it should have. (Maria could hardly read, either, but the clerk didn't care about that. Till all the paperwork got filled out, she was just a piece of property with legs.) The clerk and Amanda both had to witness Pulio Carvilio's mark again and again and again.