As Sure as the Dawn(94)

“He’ll be walking soon,” Rizpah said.

“I know,” Atretes said grimly. “In a graveyard.” He picked his son up and sat him on his knee, holding him there and studying him. He had Julia’s eyes and hair. Caleb flapped his arms and made happy garbly sounds.

Rizpah laughed. “He’s trying to talk to you.”

How could she laugh in this place? How could she sit and look serene, talking to Theophilus and the others as if they were sitting in a villa or in a banquet room instead of an underground cemetery? Surroundings didn’t matter to her anymore than they mattered to the baby. Wherever she was, she would be the same. He wanted his son to learn to walk on new grass, not on the dark earth of a passageway walled in by death.

Rizpah saw the troubled look on Atretes face and came to sit beside him on the edge of the fountain. “We won’t be here forever.”

Forever. Like death. He had never allowed the fear of death to plague him. It would weaken him, shift his concentration, give an opponent an opening. Now he could think of nothing else. And it was because they were in this place!

He thrust Caleb into her arms as he rose. “We’ve been here long enough.” Caleb’s cry filled the cryptoporticus.

“Where else can we go and be safe?” Rizpah said, holding the child close and patting his back. She kissed him and murmured comforting words to him.

Watching her pour all her affection upon his son made him angry. “Anywhere would be better than this!”

“Even a dungeon?” Theophilus said to draw his anger elsewhere. Atretes was itching for a fight, and Rizpah wouldn’t give him what he wanted. “Or perhaps you’d feel more at home in a cell, one about five feet wide and eight feet long.” He earned a dark look, but nothing more.

When Caleb stopped crying, Rizpah set him down on a mural of a dolphin. Distracted by the colors, shapes, and textures of the tiles, he cooed in delight again and began to crawl around until he came to a spot of light. Sitting up, he tried to grasp hold of the beam of sunshine, which came down from a small opening in the painted dome ceiling.

Atretes watched him bleakly. “He should be up with the living, not down here with the dead.”

“He will be, Atretes,” Theophilus said.

“Send Rizpah up from this Hades, or are she and my son prisoners, too?”

“We’ll stay with you where we belong,” Rizpah said firmly.

“None of you are prisoners,” Theophilus said, noting how Atretes ignored her. The only time he ever looked at Rizpah was when she was looking elsewhere, and then his perusal was intense and revealing to anyone who chanced to see it. “As to moving to a different place, ask Lady Alphina when you see her this evening.”

Atretes looked around the large chamber with its arches and frescoes. “This is better than that other place you’ve put me. I’ll stay here.”

Theophilus laughed. “Lady Alphina offered you the use of this chamber the first day you arrived.”

“She offered it to Rizpah and the babe.”

“The invitation included you. She’ll be pleased you’ve decided to be in here. She was surprised you preferred the cubicula. It depresses her.” Amused by Atretes’ look of consternation, he stretched out on a marble bench, put his arm behind his head, and crossed his ankles in comfort. “I much prefer this place myself.”

Atretes’ eyes narrowed. “What do you find so amusing?”

“The way God works.” Theophilus gave a soft laugh and closed his eyes. The Lord had plunked this stubborn, mule-headed gladiator right down in the middle of his sanctuary.

* * *

Rufus and Lady Alphina joined them that evening, two servants following with trays of food and wine. Lady Alphina was delighted they had decided to stay in the cryptoporticus. “It’s so much nicer here,” she said. “More air.”

Rufus grinned as Atretes took an apple from the tray and bit into it. “I’m pleased to see your appetite’s returned. We were beginning to worry.”

“Should any soldiers come to search the villa, one of the servants will come to warn you,” Lady Alphina said.

“Some of the soldiers are being called back. There’s a fire in the city,” Rufus said, as one servant poured wine. Theophilus took two goblets, handing one to Atretes. “It started in one of the poorer insulae south of the Tiber, and I’m afraid it’s spreading fast.”

“You can see the smoke from the balconies,” Lady Alphina said grievously. “It reminds me of the Great Fire during Nero’s reign.”

“Titus has sent more legionnaires to help the firefighters, but it’s burning out of control,” Rufus went on. “The problem is some insulae are so old, they explode. Hundreds of people are dead, and even more are without shelter.”