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Back Emperor
Chapters (76)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. I
  4. II
  5. III
  6. I - INVADER AD 43-70
  7. I
  8. II
  9. III
  10. IV
  11. V
  12. VI
  13. VII
  14. VIII
  15. IX
  16. X
  17. XI
  18. XII
  19. XIII
  20. XIV
  21. XV
  22. XVI
  23. XVII
  24. XVIII
  25. XIX
  26. XX
  27. XXI
  28. XXII
  29. XXIII
  30. XXIV
  31. XXV
  32. XXVI
  33. II - BUILDER AD 122-138
  34. I
  35. II
  36. III
  37. IV
  38. V
  39. VI
  40. VII
  41. VIII
  42. IX
  43. X
  44. XI
  45. XII
  46. XIII
  47. XIV
  48. XV
  49. XVI
  50. XVII
  51. XVIII
  52. XIX
  53. XX
  54. XXI
  55. III - EMPEROR AD 314—337
  56. I
  57. II
  58. III
  59. IV
  60. V
  61. VI
  62. VII
  63. VIII
  64. IX
  65. X
  66. XI
  67. XII
  68. XIII
  69. XIV
  70. XV
  71. EPILOGUE
  72. I
  73. II
  74. III
  75. IV
  76. Afterword

Volisios looked at him blankly. ‘Of course it’s the only way. This is the way things are. This is the way they have always been, and always will be.’

‘Must they, overseer?’ Thalius, if unworldly, was an imaginative, deep-thinking man, and it had been a day of vivid impressions for him: the hellish conditions of the mine, the miserable condition of his slave cousin, the mighty churning engines in the mine shaft. Now he plucked a speculation out of the air. ‘Consider this. Down there you have men digging out ore, and waterwheels pumping out the shafts. What if you installed more waterwheels, and used them to dig out your ore?’

‘Impossible,’ Volisios said immediately.

‘Not to an engineer ingenious enough to make a water-powered organ, surely. What if the mine could mine itself, as an amphitheatre organ plays without human hands? Can’t you see it? With such a source of wealth, isn’t it possible that the empire could grow rich again, rich and strong - and nobody would have to suffer for it?’

Volisios frowned. ‘Are you a fan of gadgets, then, Thalius? I myself have always been drawn more to episteme than to techne— true, deep knowledge rather than to low cunning and trickery.’

Thalius was irritated by this Greek-quoting snobbery. ‘Must we be so limited in our thinking? I’m more interested in a single waterwheel than a thousand long-dead Greek philosophers!’

‘Well, that’s up to you.’

‘Yes, but what if—?’

‘Besides, what would we do with all the slaves? Free them? They would butcher us in a heartbeat.’ And, laughing, Volisios turned away.

Thalius peered out of the window, listening to the grinding noise of the giant machines deep underground and the groans of human misery, and his rudimentary vision of a technological future evaporated.

At last Tarcho brought in the boy.

IV

IV

Audax had been washed, that pale hair cut and brushed, and he was dressed in a fresh tunic. He was probably as clean and presentable as he had ever been in his life, Thalius reflected. But he was nothing but skin and bones, and there were marks, like the bruising around his mouth, that no amount of water would wash away. But Audax clung to Tarcho’s hand, and Thalius saw that Tarcho was finding a way to win his trust.

It struck Thalius that he had not yet heard the boy speak, not one word.

‘Apart from that scarring on his back his health is reasonable,’ Tarcho said now. ‘Nothing a bit of sunshine and some decent food wouldn’t cure.’ He said more cautiously, ‘He has some bruising around the thighs, however. His mouth and throat are damaged, and—’

‘Enough,’ Thalius snapped.

Tarcho said to the overseer, ‘I know what goes on in these places. A pretty boy like this will be traded for a morsel of food.’