Pandora Gets Greedy (11 page)

“Thank you,” Alcie huffed. “… accompany you, Pandora, and if so, which one?”

“Stop it, you goof,” Pandy said.

“I wasn't going to be kept from seeing my Homie.”

“And I wasn't going to miss seeing Alcie see Homie,” Iole said.

“I know,” Pandy replied. “I've just been so … so …
Iole, what's the word for not feeling like doing anything?”

“Unmotivated.”

“Right, unmotivated for days, that the first time I do feel like taking action, it puts you two right back in danger.”

“Danger is my second-to-last middle name! Bring it on!” Alcie said, following Pandy as she stepped out into the now empty street and slashed at the air in front of her in a mock fight.

“Shhhhhh!” Pandy cautioned.

“Iole, are you sure we're still going the right way?”

“I told you,” Iole said. “Melania was very specific about where Caesar grew up. Subura is just ahead. There are a few older Vestals we come to visit, we bring ginger cakes, et cetera. I know the route.”

“I know what you told me,” Alcie said. “It's just hard to imagine that Caesar likes living in this pit.”

“Guys, quiet,” Pandy said, scanning the buildings. “Okay, we're looking for the biggest building we can find.”

“I wish there were more of a moon tonight,” said Iole.

“They all look the same to me,” Alcie whispered.

“There!” said Pandy, her finger pointing.

Across a square, a black form rose up behind a large
building, nearly invisible against the night sky. Pandy led the way around several corners until the insula was only a few meters away. But all was dark and silent inside. Pandy was desperately trying to determine a way in when they all heard the sound of scuffle, then a horse's whinny farther down along the road. Creeping quietly along the front of the insula, they came to a narrow alley where they all saw a light spilling from a small doorway into a wooden stable.

“Come on, horse,” a voice said, low but clear. “I have to sleep here, too. Don't take up the whole stall. We have to share!”

“Homie!” Alcie nearly shrieked, and ran down the alley.

She moved so fast that when Pandy and Iole finally reached the doorway, Alcie was already holding a very surprised Homer tight in her arms—although they didn't go quite all the way around his waist.

“You have no idea what I have been going through, Homie,” Alcie said. “Pandy and Iole were worried too. But I … I thought I'd … And then, today, when we saw you fight, I thought that if you lost I was just going to take the end of my palm fan and plunge it right into the senator's heart for sending you away. And then I'd do the same thing to that walking sack of ooze, Rufina! But then, you won! Okay, you didn't win, but you're alive!
Oh, Homie, I was so proud of you, wasn't I, Pandy? Wasn't I proud?”

“Very proud,” said Pandy.

“Hi, guys,” said Homer.

Pandy stood still for a minute, then rushed in and threw her arms around Homer and Alcie as far as they would go. Iole joined in, realizing that, since she'd become a Vestal, she hadn't really had any physical contact with anyone; she hugged everyone as hard as she could.

“How'd you guys find me?” Homer asked.

“We saw Caesar mouth the word ‘stable' when he took you away from Valerius,” Alcie said. “And since this is Caesar's home … had to be, right?”

“Alcie and I also overheard Valerius talking to Juno tonight about a plot to kidnap the artist, Varius, that Caesar's had living and working here. It's a long story, but I think it has something to do with Greed.”

“You mean the guy who's living out back?” asked Homer. “The guy who carved Caesar's face on the new coin? I ran into him when I was watering the horses earlier; seems like an okay youth.”

“Lucius Valerius is going to kidnap him and force him to create a new coin with Lucius's face on it,” Pandy said, speaking rapidly. “Lucius is somehow gonna make a switch and Caesar will present the new coin at the
final feast, which will then force the Senate to make Lucius ruler; and it only gets worse from there. Oh, by the way, we're ten years in the future, but right now, we have to stop the kidnapping. Where's the little building?”

“I'll show you,” Homer said, grabbing a lamp and leading the way back out into the darkness.

“We're
what
in the future?” he said, stopping halfway across a barren patch of dirt.

“That took too long even for you, Homie,” Alcie said.

“Later,” Pandy said acidly, moving ahead of him. “I'll explain it all later; or maybe I'll just get Great ‘We Didn't Think It Was Important' Hermes to tell you.”

The first door of the little storage shed was open to the touch; Homer swung it easily back on its crude hinge revealing only blackness beyond.

“Not a good sign,” Pandy said.

“He might be asleep,” Alcie offered.

Once inside, Homer's lamp gave a dim light, but it was all they needed to see that the artist's room was in utter shambles. His sleeping cot was overturned as were the table and two chairs. His engraving tools were strewn all over the floor, a privacy curtain from his room to the next was lying in a heap off to one side as if it had been grabbed at, and a plate of food had obviously been flung against one wall, remnants still clinging to the mortar and stones.

“Look!” said Iole, pointing to the floor.

Two long lines were dug into the dirt with a messy collection of sandal prints on either side. They followed the lines from artist's room, through three storage rooms, and finally into the lavatorium where Pandy took the lamp from Homer and began to check the stones close to the floor.

“Here,” Pandy said, motioning for everyone to look at six large stones, which, judging from the loose mortar around them, had been hastily replaced.

“Gods,” Homer said. “They took him down
there
? How come I didn't hear anything? I would have helped him!”

“They dragged him,” said Pandy. “From room to room. All the way.”

“That means he was unconscious,” Alcie said.

“You couldn't have done anything, Homer,” Iole said, touching his arm gently.

“Not a chance,” Pandy agreed. “These men—the ones who work for Lucius Valerius—Homer, they're good at this. I have heard about men like this when I've heard Lucius talk about Rome's past. These are the same kind of men that were used during proscription; men who would sneak into a home at night and the next morning, someone was just
gone
. The neighbors didn't hear, sometimes the family didn't even hear. These men were that good. Just like the ones tonight.
And they would have killed you, Homer, without a second thought.”

“I'm glad you didn't hear them,” said Alcie.

“What now?” asked Homer, visibly disturbed at not having come to Varius's aid. “Do we follow them?”

Everyone looked at Pandy, who was silent for a moment.

“I'm going,” she said at last. “Alcie, you and Iole get back to the house.”

“As if!”

“I am dumbfounded into near silence that you would actually think we would let you proceed without us,” Iole said dryly.

“What she said,” Homer agreed.

“Well … then we can't,” Pandy sighed. “We can't tonight, anyway. We left the senator's house well after the middle of the night. If we follow now, it could be hours before we find the right path down there and we have to be home before the sun comes up. Alcie, you remember that slave girl? The one they caught outside the house after sunrise? Rufina accused her of trying to escape and you remember what they did to her?”

“I woke up shaking just the other night thinking about it,” said Alcie softly. “I have never heard anyone make sounds like that.”

“It's rumored that she still can't walk,” Iole murmured.

“Okay, enough,” Pandy said. “If it were just me, I'd go, but I won't do that to you two. We'll try again tomorrow night. The artist will need more than just one night to create a whole new coin and they wouldn't kill him before then. Would they?”

“It's doubtful,” Iole said. “But we should waste no time tomorrow evening.”

“And I'll see if I can't learn anything from the senator during the day,” Pandy agreed.

They headed back toward the stables and the alley that would lead them to the street. All at once, they saw a light moving in the stables and heard a horse whinny from inside one of the stalls. Homer rushed into the stall ahead of Pandy, Alcie, and Iole. Just as Alcie was about to turn the corner into the stall, a voice rang out: clear and oh-so-girly with just a touch of malice.

“Hi, Homer!”

Pandy yanked Alcie back from the stall entrance in the nick of time.

“Oh, I am soooo glad I finally found you!” Rufina said, sounding to Alcie as if she'd swallowed a beehive. “You have no idea how hard it's been, roaming these streets all alone. There were several guards on street patrol who wanted to take me away to someplace dark and cold, I'll just bet! Oh, let's get out of this stall with this smelly old horse. Bring that lamp!”

Rufina marched out of the stall and headed back down toward the stable entrance. She was too fast for Homer to stop and he knew she'd spot Pandy, Alcie, and Iole in the corridor. But when he went to follow her, he found the corridor empty. Passing one of the stalls on the other side, he felt some hay straws hit his leg. Looking into the darkened stall, he saw six eyes glinting back in the lamplight.

Rufina clomped into an empty stall almost directly across from the one hiding Pandy and the others; they could see everything quite clearly.

“Oh, this is much better … for a horse stall, that is. Where was I? Oh yes, the guards. Of course, when I told them who Daddy is, they said I was out too late for a young woman of my standing and they almost insisted on taking me home! Then I never would have gotten to see you.”

They all saw Rufina move in, run her fingers up Homer's massive chest, trying to get very,
very
close. Homer had no idea what to say and was far more concerned that Alcie was going to come crashing in at any moment.

“Uh …”

“‘Uh, uh' … is that all you can think of to say to me? Hmmm? When I have walked these oh-so-dangerous streets all alone just for you? I think you should be a little glad, Homer, maybe even a little grateful. And you will be when I tell you of the plans I have for you. Oh, I have missed you so much, and I know you've missed me. I think about you all time. Do you think about me?”

“Uh …”

“Of course you do. I think you should kiss me now.” Alcie gagged in fury. Pandy put a hand over her mouth, but not before a tiny sound escaped. Homer
stared straight ahead, pretending not to notice, but Rufina whipped her head toward the stall entrance, staring across the corridor.

“What was that? Is there someone else here?”

“Mice,” Homer said, matter-of-factly.

“Mice! I
hate
mice!”

“They're all over the place,” Homer replied. “Rats too.”

“Great Jupiter! Hold me, Homer! Protect me!”

“I could protect you from the mice and rats,” Homer said, thinking faster than he ever had before. “It's just the snakes I'm worried about.”

“
Snakes!
”

It was then Homer realized his mistake; Rufina not only did not flee from the stables as he'd hoped, but she climbed on top of him, using his broad back as a staircase until she was sitting on his shoulders.

“Okay, good,” she said. “Now anything will have to go through you to get to me. Now, where was I … oh, yes! Here's my plan …”

Homer turned Rufina away from the stall entrance and waved furiously behind his back, hoping that Pandy or anyone would see him motion them to run away.

“I know it's not common or normal—or even smart—for a young woman of my noble birth to marry a slave, but I've seen the way you look at me and you know
how I feel about you and I'm sure I can convince Daddy, because Daddy always gives me what I want and I want you! He'll give us a big piece of land and a big house and once we get rid of that ridiculous Pandora and her disgusting friends, you can have her job and be my daddy's page!”

Homer began to get angry. Then he spotted something on the wall: a large hook for tying the horses' reins, or anything else anyone wanted to tie up. Slowly he began to maneuver over to the wall.

“Get rid of them?” Homer asked softly. “How do you plan to do that?”

“Oh, who cares!” Rufina said. “I'll just have them executed for any old reason. Of course Mother likes them, so I'll have to get around her but she's such a simp … Hey, where are you going? Are you taking me for a ride? You're sort of like my own personal horsey! Are you my horsey?”

“That's me,” Homer said, turning around so that Rufina's cloak was only millimeters from the hook.

“Oh, think of the fun we'll have. We can play games like this all the time …
Homie
.”

That was when Alcie had heard enough. She flew across the corridor and burst into the stall just as Homer deposited Rufina onto the hook where she was held fast, high, and completely immobilized.

“Nobody calls my Homie ‘Homie' but me, you cow!”

“Agghhhhh!” screamed Rufina. “Get me down from here,
Homie
!”

“That's it!” spat Alcie, balling up her fist.

Pandy and Iole were on Alcie in a flash, but with strength she didn't know she had, Alcie threw them off and began rooting around in the straw.

“Oh, just
wait
till I get home! Now I really will have you executed! All of you. Even you, Vestal. And Mother won't be able to say a thing about it! Get me
down
from here, you stupid stable boy!”