Page 110 of Firebird
I bit my lip, then said, “I can’t tell you.”
I didn’t trust herthatmuch. But Rhea seemed to take no offense when she turned to me, wearing a soft expression. “Is it a serious favor?” She frowned when she caught sight of my trembling.
“Very,” I admitted.
She stepped closer and eyed the doorway before she grabbed me by the shoulders and whispered, “Then we’ll need dragon skin.”
Blinking, I asked, “What?”
She hugged me tight and tried to calm me with a brush of her hand on my spine. “I can see that you need something more than a mere favor from the goddess. You need a miracle. So you’ll need dragon skin.”
I still didn’t quite understand, so she explained it to me. I hugged her back and kissed her on the cheek, which made her laugh.
“Hurry! If we leave early, we can be done with our shopping and at the temple by noon.”
Then she urged me to get changed into a fresh tunic to wear out of doors. Thankfully, Ciprian allowed his slave women to wear something more modest on the streets. Probably only to keep others from trying to touch or take his possessions. But I was glad of the small reprieve.
Doro wasn’t one of the slaves who’d accosted me on the street with the bearded one that day with Stefanos and Ivo. I hadn’t seen much of him or the others I’d cursed since I’d arrived. They were probably still terrified of me, witch that I was.
Doro was tall and wide as an ox, but he had a soft, tender look for Rhea. I noticed that she covertly touched her fingers to the back of his hand as she passed him with her basket. She said that Doro liked her, but I got a quick sense that she liked him as well. They obviously had to keep that a secret from their master.
“Time to go, Doro.”
“Yes, Rhea.”
“Watch them carefully,” said Cook.
“I will.” Doro followed us out onto the street.
When I turned toward the direction of the forum, Rhea looped her arm through mine and turned us in the opposite direction. “No, this way.”
“Where are we going?”
“To the Aventine. That’s where I get the best bargains.” She glanced sweetly back at Doro, who walked in our wake. “Besides, that’s where all the plebs live. The free folk. I like walking through their neighborhood and pretending I’m one of them.”
“That is a nice fantasy.”
She whispered, “One day, I want to live there and actuallybeone of them.”
“How could that happen?”
She simply shrugged, but it seemed Rhea wasn’t without a bit of plotting and dreams of her own. I couldn’t imagine her planning to run away. The punishment if caught was torture and death. But Iwasn’t about to discourage Rhea or destroy whatever hopes she had for a happier future. After all, I knew for a fact that Ciprian would be dead soon.
“Well,” I whispered back, “you never know what could happen.”
She gave me a questioning look, then simply laughed. “Come on. I’m going to show you where to find the juiciest peaches in Rome.”
“Peaches? That’s quite a delicacy.”
“There’s an old lady whose son has an orchard in the country. He provides her the best fruit you could imagine. Doro and I always sneak one and share it on the way home.”
We spent the next two hours popping into one shop, then another. I watched Rhea haggle with a toughness I didn’t know was in her. She seemed at home among the streets of the Aventine where life was busy and bustling and loud.
Women laundered clothes at the public fountain while they fussed at young children not to stray too far. Men hauled carts of all kinds of wares—grain, carpets, clay oil lamps and pots. Two young boys herded five goats right down the middle of the street. The clatter of carts, the clopping of hooves, and the shouting of vendors filled the busy morning.
Finally, we finished. Doro carried the sack of leeks, turnips, parsnips, cabbage, and endives. Rhea and I each carried a satchel of fruit.
“This way,” she told me as we took a narrow street off the wider one we’d been traveling most of the day.
