Chapter 15

Corvus Gallicus didn't have a hangover exactly. The whiskey he and Canus had drunk was too expensive to give something as quotidian as a hangover. Instead, he woke feeling like a man with the flu - every hole in his head stuffed up as if someone had drilled into his skull, filled it with molten lead, and let the lead cool into a solid mass. He groaned and shifted that massive weight long enough to open his eyes. The sun, like some eternally-patient assassin, took the opportunity to drive in twin daggers of pain. He slammed his eyes shut again, planning to regroup and sleep until sunset.

"How may we serve?"

Corvus groaned. and considered asking his slaves to put him out of his misery. Only one nostril seemed to be working and it wouldn't be that hard for Clover to hold it closed for a few minutes. But if he asked, she'd probably start wailing about iron knives. He should ask Rose.

"Are you unwell?" Corvus felt Clover's weight settle on the edge of his bed and a cool hand on his cheek. After a few moments, she added, "You don't seem to have a fever."

She sounded faintly disappointed. Corvus was starting to suspect that his body slave enjoyed taking care of sick people a little too much and viewed robust health as something of an imposition. "Not sick, just overdid it ... good of the empire."

On the other side of the room, Rose chuckled. "Should I have a bath drawn for you?"

"And have someone pour me into it, please," muttered Corvus.

"John is here this morning. I can send for him," offered Clover.

"No." Corvus had forgotten he shouldn't joke with his slaves like that. "I'll manage on my own, I think. Just ... give me a minute."

He dozed a little and woke to Rose returning to inform him his bath was ready. Corvus was still sprawled face-down and naked across his bed. By force of will, he rolled onto his back and sat up. The assassin-sun was still there, but Corvus supposed he would get used to being stabbed in the eyeballs after a while. He gestured to both girls to help him up. Once they had him up, they shifted to support him with their shoulders, but Corvus stepped away. "I can walk on my own, thank you."

They stepped back, but gave him uncertain looks like they were ready to leap forward and catch him if he tumbled forward. The looks pricked his male ego a little. "I can. I'm ... undiminished." He straightened himself up and strode into the bathing chamber, doing his best to appear dignified and statesmanlike while bare-ass naked.

He got to the edge of the pool before it registered who was waiting in the room for him. Nerida and Datura knelt side-by-side at the far end of the pool dressed in the translucent, diaphanous gowns of bath attendants. With the slave formerly known as Regula Vitellius dressed so simply, her hair down and loose, her makeup minimal, the two of them could have been sisters. As he stood uncertain at the other end of the pool, she raised her head and looked at him. "How may we serve?"

Corvus took a sharp right turn and strode back into his bedroom. Rose and Clover looked up from stripping the barely-touched sheets from his bed.

"Coffee first," he announced and sat down at one of the small tables that dotted his rooms. "And one of you go ask Paphian Nova to join me - once you've found me a robe."

Corvus stoically drank his first cup of coffee black. The bitter, faintly acrid brew was more a punishment than a stimulant, but it braced him and made him feel more Roman for having survived drinking it. His second cup he sugared and creamed normally. Being a stoic was one thing, but there was no point in being a masochist.

Paphian Nova burst into the room dressed only in a robe and her makeup half applied. "Has something happened?"

Corvus frowned, puzzled. "I ... no. Nothing's happened. Would you ... like some coffee?"

Paphian pulled a sour face, but it only lasted a second before her more gracious demeanor returned. She lowered herself elegantly into the chair and allowed Corvus to pour her a cup. "Yes, thank you. Rose made it seem like there was some rush. I was afraid something had happened."

"No. I was just surprised. She must have picked up on that," admitted Corvus. "Did you send Datura to serve in my bath this morning?"

"Not specifically. I told her and Nerida to come here and serve where they were needed. Did she do something wrong?"

Corvus gave a faint shake of his head. "She hasn't done anything yet. But I was naked when I realized it was her."

"That is ... traditionally how one dresses for the bath," Paphian pointed out.

Corvus frowned. "Is she ready for that? I thought it would take ... longer."

"To serve or to see you naked? As I told you in the beginning, every slave progresses at a different pace, but Datura has been making great strides ... unless she did something wrong?" Paphian frowned. "Did she respond in some way displeasing to you?"

Corvus shook his head again. "She didn't respond at all actually. As I said, I was startled to see her this morning, not displeased."

"Your father's man said every hand would be required here today," said Paphian. "I asked him about Datura and he said yes. Lily and Perry are here as well, helping with the wedding preparations."

"Will they be in my bath as well?"

"If you wish, I can send them. I think Perry's in the kitchen and..."

Corvus raised a hand. "No. I'd rather not have them in my bath actually. I was joking."

"Oh." Paphian made a face suggesting she didn't get the joke. "And Datura?"

Corvus winced. "Let her stay. If she's ready to start serving, I guess this is one place to start. How long until she's completely trained?"

"Years?" Paphian sipped her coffee. "She has a lifetime of habits to unlearn and there's a chance she'll never really be a proper slave, although I'll certainly make every effort to see that she does."

"I didn't mean that," said Corvus. "I meant ... when will she be trained for what I originally hired you to train her for?"

"Bed service? She's ready when you say she's ready."

"I know that. But when do you expect she'll be ready to your satisfaction?" Corvus poured himself another cup of coffee.

"She's ready now," said Paphian. "At least, I've trained her in all the basics. She understands the mechanics and some technique. She'll be more ready after her next lesson and even moreso the lesson after that."

Corvus closed his eyes, rubbed his temples, and wondered if Paphian was deliberately drawing this out to punish him for calling her away from her morning preparations. "All right. But when will she be completely ready?"

"After she's been doing it a while. No girl's ever completely ready for bed service until then, particularly if she starts out intact."

Corvus decided to try another tack. "You said you had a training program you'd designed specifically for her. How far along is she?"

"A little more than halfway through the first phase. As I said, she's making excellent progress. Of course, we can certainly move some lessons into the first phase if need be. It's up to you."

Corvus felt like he knew less than he had before he'd asked the question. "I ... trust your judgment on her training. Proceed as you see fit."

Paphian gave him a considered look. He wondered if she'd learned it from Lucretia or the other way around. Lips slightly pursed, eyes searching his face as if seeking and failing to find any signs of intelligence, it was a look that suggested he was being unforgivably dense.

"I can keep training her for a while with the other girls. Goodness knows the girls seem to enjoy it well enough. But, the skills don't really transfer to serving in a man's bed. And I can't even start her on boys until you've deflowered her. Otherwise, I'd be ready to start some time next week."

"Slave boys?" Corvus raised an eyebrow.

"They're generally best for training. Yes."

"I don't want her trained with slave boys," said Corvus. It wasn't really a conscious thought, just an impulse, but once it was out of his mouth, he made a snap decision and pressed on. "Once this wedding is over and I've graduated, I should have time for this slave owner's training you've offered me. We'll do it in parallel. You can teach her how to serve a man and teach me how to be served at the same time."

"You'll have blooded her by then?"

Corvus paused only a moment before nodding. "Yes."

Paphian's smile held a hint of satisfaction. "As you wish."

Fortified with coffee and Paphian's words, Corvus returned to his bathing room. Datura and Nerida were just where he'd left them.

As much work as he'd gone to in order to put a robe on, it only gave him a few seconds of too-late modesty before he was stripping out of it and sinking into the steaming-hot water at one end of the pool. Almost in synchronization, the two slaves stripped out of their gowns and dropped into the far end of the pool.

Corvus only caught a moment of Datura's naked body before it was just a reddish-brown streak under the water, but it was enough to shock him into a moment of sharp arousal. Datura swam with a sleek grace like she was born to the water. A faint scowl crossed Nerida's features, but Corvus was entranced. He'd never seen Regula do anything that could vaguely be considered athletic, never imagined the power and grace she showed in those few seconds approaching him at speed. He'd thought of her as something light and ethereal and, even when he'd fantasized about having sex with her, it had been an act more ephemeral than carnal.

She emerged at his side, hair slicked down, eyes bright like she'd kept them open underwater, water beading on her skin and hanging in fat droplets on her eyelashes. Rivulets ran down her chest to coalesce into a stream between her breasts that split again as it flowed out to her hips.

"How may I serve?"

Corvus looked in her eyes, searching for some sign of distress or fear, even if only to torture himself with it. The faintest smile quirked Datura's lips and he found himself returning it. "Just a bath today."

Nerida waded up to him on the other side, washcloths piled neatly in her arms. Her motions were elegant and sensual as wading went, but the look she gave Datura as the other girl extracted soaps and toiletries from a sunken compartment next to the pool said she knew she'd been outshone.

Still, she smiled at Corvus as she exchanged a cloth for a soap and lathered up a wet washcloth. As she leaned in to wash his neck, she moulded herself against Corvus's arm and Corvus put it around her waist, drawing her close. She rested her head on Corvus's shoulder and he could draw in a light musk overlaid with notes of honey and fresh-cut grass he was certain he'd never smelled on her or anyone else before.

Just as he was leaning in to get a better draw of Nerida's scent, Datura pressed herself in on the other side and a little electrical thrill went through Corvus. He turned and looked at her, lifting his arm to draw her closer unblock his own view. Water still beaded on one dark nipple and fell as he watched it gather and fall as if the weight of his gaze drew it downward.

Datura looked down at her own body where Corvus was looking, then moved in close. When Corvus's arm went around her waist and came to rest on her hips, she glanced down again momentarily, then back up at his eyes, another faint smile quirking her lips. It wasn't a slave smile, expressing pleasure in service or the polite, detached smile he'd seen her wear so many times when she was still Regula and he was nobody. It was a smile that said she found something pleasant when she'd been afraid she wouldn't. It was an honest smile and Corvus returned it, leaning in to better catch the scent she wore. It made him think of lemon, black pepper, and some sort of spicy incense. It made her smell exotic and foreign. He leaned back, still drawing it in, trying to catch both fragrances at once.

"Paphian has been teaching us how to choose scents that complement our body chemistry in a way we think will be pleasing to our master," Datura said in response to his unspoken question and smiled like she knew a secret. "She said you probably wouldn't even notice it."

"It's ... not anything I remember either of you wearing before." Corvus reminisced. Quickly, he added, "Not that I followed you around the halls trying to get close enough to smell you, but when I did catch anything, it usually smelled like flowers."

"We can smell like flowers if you prefer," offered Nerida. "You seem to like them well enough, but since you didn't name me after one, I thought you might want me to smell like something else. This scent reminded me of summer."

Corvus drew it in again. It reminded him not just of summer, but very sharply of summers when he'd been younger, before his mother had gone back to Europe, mowing the lawn outside the little house they'd lived in together on the outskirts of the capital. At twelve, he'd thought he hated mowing the lawn, particularly when the summer was at its hottest. It was hard, sweaty work to push the mower back and forth across the uneven terrain of their relatively tiny front and back yards, but he found he missed it when he moved deeper into the city. His aunt's house had no lawn at all and no excuse to strip off his shirt and feel the burning sun on the muscles of his back as he exerted himself unless he wanted to go down to the park and engage in the always-violent contests that his cousins and their friends thought passed for sports.

He hadn't thought about his cousins much since being elevated. When he'd been preparing to move into Gaius's house, he'd played with the idea of using some of his newfound wealth to make them as miserable as they'd so often made him. But those days seemed to be a million years ago now and his aunt had in fact taken him in so that Lucretia could resume her career. Without his aunt's help, he likely never would have been elevated at all. He owed her something for that and, if his cousins benefitted from any largesse he might send her way, that didn't seem like the tragedy it had once.

He looked up and saw Nerida looking down at him with a curious expression on her face. "I like it very much. Thank you." It occurred to him that he'd never offered to let Nerida or Gwen pick new names for themselves like he had Merula and Pera and he wondered if he should correct the oversight.

Nerida's hand went to his cheek and she turned his head so their lips were close together. Corvus kissed her, but only softly. "Just a bath today, please. I'm feeling kind of ... toxic inside."

On his words, Datura released some hidden tension she'd been holding and pressed closer to him, one arm settling around his waist with the other hand washed the side of his neck.

As awful as he felt in some ways, Corvus started to seriously consider taking Datura this morning. She wasn't really ready. He could feel that in the hesitations and the tension. Even as she'd changed so much from their last couple of meetings, there was still some core of resistance that wouldn't accept what was coming next. But that core would be there for a long time and he wasn't helping her shed it by restraining himself.

He turned and looked at Datura, really looked at her. Already, it was easier to think of her that way than to remember her as Regula Vitellius. That proud, imperious young woman would never have served like this, not for love or money. She worked and watched him watching her until her eyes dropped from his eyes to his lips.

And that was when he remembered he'd kissed Aquilina Herennius last night. A wave of panic rolled over him. What on earth had he been thinking kissing Aquilina Herennius?

He was pretty sure his media relations director had started it, but he'd returned the favor more than once. He felt like he'd just caught himself cheating and had to sternly remind himself that Crispa had a suitor now and was probably playing him and Atellus Rufius off against each other. If a beautiful, vibrant woman like Aquilina Herennius wanted to kiss Corvus and Corvus wanted to kiss her back, there was nothing for him to feel guilty about.

Datura's scent was tickling Corvus's nose as he thought about what he'd done the night before. It triggered another memory and he looked in his slave's eyes. "Why lemon?"

Datura gave him an uncertain smile. "In another life, there was a boy I went to school with. The first day of high school, he had a lemon in his lunch bag, cut into quarters. After he finished whatever he'd been eating, he popped one quarter into his mouth and ate it like it was an orange or something. The other boys made fun of him for it, but it just made me wish I'd brought my own lemon."

Corvus's eyes locked with hers and she didn't look away. If he'd seen even a hint of mockery there, he might have had to sell her or beat her and then sell her, but there was a different message there. He couldn't read it, but it wasn't mocking him.

He smiled and kissed her forehead softly. He'd never brought another lemon to school or even finished that first one, but four years later, when he'd left the school, a week still didn't go by without someone mentioning that damned lemon.

"Corvus, your parents have invited you to join them for lunch."

Corvus looked up to see Clover standing at the edge of the pool, hands clasped behind her back. He groaned and closed his eyes. He didn't really want to deal with Lucretia or Gaius while he still had last night's poisons slowly draining out of him, but he could hardly refuse. He gestured to the two girls attending his bath to give him a bit of room and they both floated a short distance away.

"Please send back word that I'll be along shortly," said Corvus, rising slowly from the pool. "And find me a good pair of sunglasses, please."

As Corvus stepped onto the pathway edging the house's main courtyard, Armand appeared out of the shadows. "Citizen Corvus, good of you to come. Should I announce you?"

Corvus shook his head at his father's assistant steward. "I'm pretty sure they'll still recognize me, Armand. Where's Malcolm?"

"I ... was led to understand he was at your house, sir. Was I mistaken?"

That got a frown. "No, maybe not. I just thought he said every hand was needed to prepare for the wedding. I guess he didn't mean his own hands, though."

"That ... wouldn't be entirely out of character for Malcolm. Should I call and tell him to get over here and help out?"

Corvus caught the quick smile before Armand could hide it and one flashed across his own features as well at the thought of ordering Armand to bawl Malcolm out for laziness. He wondered how common it was for slaves to express their rivalries by trying to get each other in trouble with their owners. It was probably one of those things Paphian Nova would teach him eventually. Still, he felt the need to shake his head. "No. I'm sure there's plenty to keep him busy at my house. Thank you, Armand."

With one more deep breath, he stepped onto the lawn surrounding the large breakfast table where his father and mother sat and ate.

"There he is!" Gaius boomed cheerfully. Corvus tried not to flinch. His mother watched him approach with a small frown on her face, but didn't say anything.

Something about that obvious look of disapproval on his mother's face irritated Corvus and made him bold. She'd often managed to unnerve him by looking at him like that until he started confessing things she hadn't known about. He wasn't going to play that game today and decided to pretend he didn't notice. He sat down, poured himself a cup of coffee, and speared a slice of muskmelon with a serving fork. "This is nice. We haven't had many opportunities to sit down together over breakfast."

"This is lunch, dear," said Lucretia pointedly.

"For you maybe," Corvus persisted, spearing another slice of fruit and ignoring the slave hovering nearby, trying to figure out how to get the utensil away from him so he could do his assigned job. "I've had a number of long nights this week and have just learned the valuable lesson that no mortal man should try to match Canus Petronius drink-for-drink."

Gaius chuckled. "That's a valuable lesson to learn while you're still young enough to survive it."

"Why are you spending so much time with Senator Petronius?" Lucretia demanded as if she didn't know the answer. "You do know he's retiring soon. Don't you? There are plenty of active senators you could be making friends with - the sort who might actually be useful to your future plans."

Corvus stared at his mother wondering if she hadn't woken up feeling miserable this morning as well. Her tone was a shade too shrill and her words a touch too chiding. It wasn't her style at all. It was like someone trying to imitate her style.

He decided not to rise to the bait, choosing instead to pop a grape in his mouth, chew it slowly, and swallow while he decided how to play this new game of Lucretia's. "Well, I do have plans to meet Atellus Rufius at the dance performance tonight. I doubt we're going to be friends, though. He's courting Crispa."

Gaius and Lucretia exchanged a look and, for just a moment, their postures changed becoming more tense and alert. In an eyeblink, they were back to their original attitudes - Gaius in a pose of relaxed camaraderie, Lucretia glaring at Corvus with more than a hint of annoyance. The transformation was so fast that Corvus wasn't entirely sure he'd really seen it, but it put him on alert that whatever his mother was playing at, they were both in on it.

Gaius laughed. "That's probably for the best ... not the part about courting the Widow Iunius of course. I thought she was your mistress?"

Corvus had used the tactic of following a controversial statement with a quick question often enough to recognize it when it was used against him. Gaius was telling him not to make friends with Atellus Rufius, but immediately changing the subject to avoid arguing about it. If he followed up on the technique, in a few days, he would remind Corvus that they'd agreed he wasn't going to make friends with Atellus Rufius and, had Corvus not been alerted that something was up, he probably would have fallen for it.

"I thought she was too," Corvus admitted. They were out in the open, away from the courtyard walls. Unless the table was bugged, it seemed unlikely that anyone was listening in. But that seemed like the only explanation for the shadow play Gaius and Lucretia were engaged in. They were almost certainly teaming up to manipulate him, but they were performing for an audience too.

That could mean only one thing. The table was bugged and they knew it. He rapped sharply on the hard wooden surface with his knuckles as if frustrated with the topic of conversation and saw Gaius jump a little in surprise. "At least, I thought she was going to be my mistress, but I was a little slow on the draw."

"You're better off without her," said Lucretia. "Everyone in your life is important to your career, including your mistress. You can do better."

"I don't know. I think she'd make a fine mistress for Corvus," said Gaius.

Lucretia narrowed her eyes at Gaius. "Don't you get any ideas."

Finally, it became painfully obvious what they were doing. Corvus usually worked alone, so he didn't immediately think of good constable-bad constable. But, it was textbook. His mother was backing him into a corner, making demands. Gaius was being chummy and sympathetic. If their script played out, Corvus would do everything his father suggested and reject everything his mother demanded. It was brilliant in its simplicity and time-worn effectiveness. He admired it even as it pissed him off. He wasn't going to stand for it, but he could admire it nonetheless.

He reversed gears. "Maybe you're right, mother. She hasn't been a very good influence, I'm afraid."

He could see Gaius's eyes twitch towards Lucretia, seeking guidance, but aware that too obvious a look would give them away. Lucretia opened her mouth, ready to slap down whatever he'd said, then was forced to close it as she realized he'd agreed with her. She locked eyes with him.

"A man your age can use a few bad influences from time to time." Gaius went on gamely, but Corvus ignored him, watching Lucretia. She didn't break eye contact, but rested her thumb under her chin and extended a forefinger up the side of her nose. It looked like a thoughtful gesture, but he'd never seen his mother make it before. She pursed and extended her lips fractionally, turning the thoughtful look into the universal symbol for "keep quiet" or as Corvus interpreted in the moment, "play along." His heart started to beat harder, but he gave only the smallest nod of acknowledgement. Lucretia returned it, then went back to scowling at him.

Corvus looked at Gaius, who seemed to be waiting for an answer. For a moment, he panicked, trying to recall what they'd been talking about only seconds before. He stirred his coffee, trying to think back.

"Corvus has more than enough bad influences already," Lucretia picked up where she'd left off.

"It's not really up to me now," said Corvus like he'd just remembered his next line in a scripted drama. "Crispa has a decision to make. Maybe she'll make it before I get involved with someone else."

He didn't know who was listening or why his parents hadn't clued him in. It would have been nice to think they'd deliberately slipped up, but it was too convenient an excuse and implied too much omniscience on the part of anyone spying on them. If they'd meant to tell him, they could have found a way. There were plenty of places on the estate where they could speak without fear of recording devices. They hadn't planned on coming clean today. They'd planned to manipulate him into action and he'd forced the issue by catching them out.

"I suppose there are worse ways to waste your time than with an unsuitable mistress," grumbled Lucretia. "For instance, you could spend hours and hours in a senatorial office when you're just going to hand over your proxy to your father's factor as soon as you leave for the Academy."

"I haven't decided on either of those points yet, mother," said Corvus, unsure whether his adversarial tone was an act or real. "If you're just expecting a rubber stamp, you can find someone else to take Petronius's seat. I've been training my whole life to join a senator's staff. Now that you've been good enough to provide me with an opportunity to do even more than that, I thought i would put some of that training to good use."

Gaius's face split in a broad grin. "That's commendable. I wasn't really expecting you to do more than put your name on the door when I offered you the seat, but an ally with a strong voice would be much more welcome."

Corvus looked at his mother, who seemed displeased, but didn't say anything. Choosing his words carefully, he addressed Gaius. "I'm most grateful for the opportunity to serve. And I certainly hope I can prove a strong ally."

"Of course you're grateful," insisted Lucretia. "If it weren't for your father, you'd be in your aunt's house right now studying for final exams instead of talking about what you're going to do with your vote as a senator."

Gaius caught what Corvus hadn't said and looked thoughtful for a long time before speaking. "I helped keep Canus Petronius in office for the last twenty years. Sometimes, I was the only one supporting him when everyone else wanted to see him gone. Even Canus and I didn't always end up on the same side of every vote. But what Canus did do for me was to come and talk whenever we were going to be on opposite sides of an issue so we could look for a compromise or at least not go at each other hammer-and-tongs on the senate floor."

Corvus considered some of his possible answers. Gaius prompted. "I hope you'll keep me updated on what you're up to."

That got a chuckle out of Corvus. "I'm going to have to. Marcella Herenius resigned yesterday."

Gaius burst out laughing. Lucretia looked back and forth at the two men. "What's so funny? Who's Marcella Herenius?"

"One of my spies in Senator Petronius's office," admitted Gaius, still chuckling.

Lucretia turned to Corvus. "Why are you spending your time upsetting how things work? Everybody spies on everybody in Rio."

Gaius laid a hand on the back of her hand. "Don't be too hard on him, Lu. It's good to see he's inherited your political acumen. And like I said, it's better to have a strong, active political ally than a passive one."

Corvus continued to grin. He was reasonably certain Marcella had been Gaius's only spy in his office, but he appreciated that his father had attempted to sow the seeds of doubt by implying there were more. He had a sense that the game they were all playing had just gotten a lot deeper and it was good to know that his allies were on their game.

Lucretia pursed her lips and sat back. "Sometimes, I think you boys don't enjoy your victories unless you've had a good brawl on the way to them. But I do hope you'll at least play nice with each other."

"We'll see," said Gaius. He shot a smirk in Corvus's direction. "If your head's still a little fuzzy after trying to go toe-to-toe with with Canus, you can use the steam room in the basement. I find it quite soothing when I've pushed myself a little too hard."