Harry Turtledove Gunpowder Empire

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did. If they wanted to go to the arena to watch beasts fight or gladiators go
at each other, how could you say no all the time? They thought that was good,
clean fun. If you didn't, how could you stay friends?
It got worse, too. She and Jeremy were both young. If they had to stay in
Polisso, they might they probably would end up getting married. Marriages
here were usually business arrangements,, not love matches like the ones in
the home timeline. Even so, how could you live with somebody when you couldn't
tell that person what you really were?
And here, if she and Jeremy did marry, they would be bound to marry somebody
with money. In Polisso, if you had money, you had slaves. That would have put
them nose to nose with something they fought to keep at arm's length. Amanda
didn't see any way she could persuade a Roman husband slavery was wrong. Since
she couldn't... Could she be a good mistress? Maybe. If she were, would it
make her feel any less unclean? She doubted that. She doubted it very much.
She also had one worry that Jeremy didn't. What would having a baby be like in
this world without hospitals? Women did it all the time. Polisso wouldn't have
had any people if they didn't. But mothers died here from childbed fever.
Babies died, too. More than a third of the babies born in Agrippan Rome didn't
live to be five years old. How could you love a child if you knew you might
lose it the next minute?
How could you not love it if it was yours? She didn't see an answer to either
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question.
Now she wouldn't have to look for one. Let's go upstairs, she said.
Okay. Jeremy's voice came from far away. Had he been thinking about all the
reasons he was glad not to be trapped here? Amanda wouldn't have been
surprised.
The door slid shut after she and Jeremy left the secret part of the basement.
There they were, back in
Agrippan Rome. Amanda sighed. Staying here for another week or two was going
to be hard. But staying forever would have been a lot harder.
Jeremy was playing catch in the street with Fabio Lentulo and trying not to
get smashed when he heard somebody say, They're going! He didn't have much
chance to worry about who was going. The apprentice had thrown the ball so
that he had to catch it without banging into either a mule or the soldier who
was leading it.
Watch yourself, kid, the soldier growled with the sour disapproval so many
grownups had for anybody younger than they were.
Sure, Jeremy said. Even if the soldier's whiskers were turning gray, he could
probably whale the stuffing out of somebody who didn't fight for a living.
Besides, Jeremy had just made a great catch. He wasn't going to be fussy with
anybody about anything.
He tossed the ball high in the air, so that Fabio Lentulo would have time to
run under it if he ran right into the middle of another bunch of soldiers. He
didn't. One of the soldiers picked up the ball and flipped it to him. Thanks,
he said the legionary could have kept it just as easily.
When he threw it back, though, he tried to take Jeremy's head off with it.
Jeremy had won a point in the game, and he didn't like it. Jeremy won another
point or at least kept from losing one when he snatched the ball out of the
air. Fabio Lentulo sent him a gesture that was anything but complimentary.
Same to you, with olive oil on it, Jeremy said. They both laughed. Buddies
could insult each other as much as they pleased. But if Jeremy had aimed his
gibe at Fabio Lentulo's mother instead of the apprentice, he would have had a
fight on his hands. In some ways, Polisso and Los Angeles weren't so
different.
Two men came up the street toward Jeremy and Fabio Lentulo. One of them said,
Are you sure they're pulling out? By the gods, you can go up on the wall and
see for yourself if you don't believe me, the other man replied. They haven't
got the nerve to stay and fight it out, the first man said.
His friend shrugged. I don't know about that. If you ask me, they're going off
to fight the relieving army when it's still too far from Polisso for the
garrison here to pitch into 'em from behind.
They walked on, still arguing in a good-natured way. Well? Fabio Lentulo said.
You going to throw me the ball or not?
Here Jeremy tossed it to him, soft enough for a six-year-old to catch. Did you
hear what they said?
Sounds like the Lietuvans are leaving. To the crows with the Lietuvans. Fabio
Lentulo threw the ball so that Jeremy would have to splash through a puddle to
go after it.
But he didn't go after it. He just let it fall with a thump. It didn't have
much bounce to it. He said, If they let me, I'm going up onto the wall. I
don't know about you, but I want to see King Kuzmickas leave.
Why? So you can wave bye-bye? Fabio Lentulo knew Jeremy and Amanda had gone
out to give the
King of Lietuva presents.
Jeremy sent back the gesture the apprentice had given him. No, so I can be
sure he's gone. Or didn't you worry about a cannonball coming down on your
head or getting sold into slavery?
Me, I kept hoping a cannonball would come down on my boss's head. He already
treats me like a slave, Fabio Lentulo answered. He probably wasn't kidding, or
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