Perchance to Dream by Mack Reynolds

Author:Mack Reynolds [Reynolds, Mack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sci-Fi., Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780441659487
Publisher: Ace Books
Published: 1977-04-14T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

The Etruscan City of Volsini—Horatius

It was in the city of Volsini that the probing of the alien mind came for the fifth time. And once again it seemed to be searching my recent memories, besides experiencing my current actions. I put up with it as always, though mystified. What else was there to do?

I had been assigned by Tarquin to accompany his two sons, Lucius and Aruns, on a tour of the twelve cities of the Etruscan Confederation. It was a goodwill tour but also one on which they were to familiarize themselves with the allies, since one day one or the other of them might be elected rex.

“And my duties, sir?” I had asked in my interview with Tarquin in the Regia.

And he had said, “Your role is that of an assistant, a military attache. However, it will also be your duty to assimilate such military information as is possible. The system of construction and the strength of the walls; the number of men fit to bear arms in each city you visit; the machines of war available; the extent to which military engineering seems to be utilized. You realize, of course, that the state of military competence differs largely between the cities in the league. I wish to know details of this. Such information as this is always valuable. One never knows when our relationship with any of these cities might change for the worse.”

My heart had sunk. So I was to be utilized as a common spy. We were not to leave for several days after my interview with Tarquin and I was able to meet Carmenta on two more occasions. Such brief moments, a few hours at a time, in our nook on the Capitoline hill, overlooking all Rome. Such pathetically brief hours. But this time, I assured her, my being away would not be for so long a period and while I was gone I would surely come up with some answer to our problem, for now that she was truly mine and all mine, that answer must be found.

She clung to me and cried, and I could not reassure her. She wailed, “You do not understand. You are all I have. You are my love and my only love.” And much more of the same. And our parting was agony.

Our party had rode forth bravely, well mounted, well uniformed, well equipped as befitting Romans embarked upon a state visit to the twelve great cities of the Etruscan Confederation. Lucius and Aruns Tarquin, the sons of the rex, rode ahead, on two white horses; and the rest of us, some twenty in all, followed on blacks. And although both of these offspring of Tarquin had studied in Caere in their time, neither of them were so well acquainted with the old language as I, nor were they so well met with the great families of Etruria though they themselves theoretically belonged to the greatest of all. In reality, the Tarquins had now resided in

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