“ ‘Oh, always,’ she said. ‘Now weren’t you a student of old Rome? There were countless women gladiators. I was only one of the finest, and always a favorite of the crowd. I was as you know me now, vicious. I stayed alive in those years by viciousness. It was natural. It was expected. And I took to it with a raging simplicity.’

“She beamed as she looked at me.

“ ‘It was Arion who tamed my heart,’ she went on. ‘It was Arion who turned me from vicious pursuits, from mockery and meanness into the making of cameos. Oh, you’ve never seen the fine things I made for Arion. Arion gave me rubies and emeralds, and I made whole stories for Arion in shell—the victories of emperors, the progress of legions. My work was famous throughout the empire. All day I bent over my workbench, dressed carelessly as a boy, my hair tied back with a rawhide string, nothing before me but that work, that all-important work, whatever it might be. Then night would come and so would Arion. Then I became the woman for him. I became something soft, something decent, something fine for Arion.’

“ ‘What is decent?’ I asked.

“ ‘You know, you’ve always known.’

“ ‘But what is it now?’ I asked. ‘I knew what it was before, yes, but now I don’t know what it is. I killed that wretched girl, that murderous girl. That wasn’t decent. Tell me.’

“ ‘Oh, come now, it’s much too early for such questions. We have hunting to do. Your night’s going to be long. As I told you, I’ll make no mewling fledglings. You’ll be very strong when I’m finished with you.’

“ ‘Will I be decent?’ I asked. ‘Will I be honorable?’

“ ‘See that you are,’ she said. Her face grew sad. ‘Use your intellect for that,’ she said quietly. ‘Don’t imitate me. Imitate those who are better than me. Imitate Arion.’

“We went into the big room again, where Manfred rose to meet us and to look at me and embrace me and to be separated from me only by the loving arms of Arion, whose fine black face utterly charmed me. How lean and caring he seemed, a creature of such miraculous contours and expressiveness.

“ ‘Drain him, Master,’ said Petronia in the tone of a request, and now the Master took me into his arms, and, pressing his teeth to my throat, did as Petronia had requested.