After Rome by Morgan Llywelyn

Author:Morgan Llywelyn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The atmosphere in the public bathhouse was permanently damp. A small army of slaves was dedicated to the ceaseless battle against mold and mildew. The warm rooms were vaulted with concrete rather than timbers as a precaution against steam. Hot air from the furnaces below the floors was circulated through flues lined with tile, while the furnaces themselves were safely ensconced in chambers carved from the living rock.

Quartilla was right; the baths would not burn.

Cadogan recruited several men to help him and Esoros seal the main entrance and ransack the surrounding chambers until they had a mountain of tables and benches to barricade the two massive doors. “If the Saxons try this they’ll soon give up,” Cadogan said with an assurance he did not quite feel. “They’re ignorant barbarians; they’ll go for the easier targets.”

Seated on a bench in the apodyterium, under the watchful marble eyes of the goddess Fortuna, Vintrex began to shiver violently. The other refugees milled about the chamber like a herd of spooked horses ready to bolt.

“Fools,” Quartilla commented. She gathered an armload of towels from the nearest table and wrapped them around Vintrex.

The old man looked up at his son. “My house,” he said plaintively.

“I know, Father, but don’t think about it now. Lives are more important than houses.”

“Are they going to slaughter us all?” In his unwonted vulnerability Vintrex sounded almost childlike. Cadogan had an urge to put his arms around the old man but restrained himself. He knew his father. When the danger was over Vintrex would never forgive him for taking advantage of a moment of weakness.

“No, Father, they’re not going to slaughter us,” Cadogan said reassuringly. “I doubt if they’ll even try to break in. A public bathhouse isn’t much of a target for looting, not with so many wealthy houses in the area. But in case the fire comes close to this building, I’m going to take you to one of the pools as a precaution against the heat from outside.”

Esoros hesitated. “I really do not think we should move from here. Let us take a little time and think about this. Perhaps…”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Quartilla said sharply. “At least Cadogan has a plan and that’s what’s needed. I’m with him. You will be too, if you have any brain at all.”

Esoros was not immune to her insulting remarks; every one of them was marked and remembered. But this was no time for reprisals. “I’m coming,” he decided. “Lead the way, Lord Cadogan.”

When they left the apodyterium the light changed. Illumination in the bathing chambers was provided by oil lamps depending on chains from the ceiling. As Esoros explained to Quartilla, “In very moist air oil burns more steadily than torches.”

The status Esoros enjoyed as steward to the chief magistrate allowed him access to many of the facilities the baths offered, and he was familiar with all the main areas. However, some chambers were off limits to all but the highly privileged. There were corridors he might glance down, but not follow.

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