Tales of Ancient Rome: Salidia and Lydia Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Surveying New Territory

And Loosing Sight of the Old

Without actually thinking about it, Salidia felt as if she had a companion in Lydia who shared her purpose. Before beginning with the Goth, she said to Lydia, "Get me some wine. Get a cup for yourself, too."

Twenty minutes ago Lydia was in the kitchen staring at a pot, and facing the prospect of spending another of her endless days staring at more pots. Her one aspiration was to catch a glimpse of one of her enemies being singled out for torture by, from Lydia's point of view, the most powerful woman in the world. Now she was about to share wine with the woman she considered a demigod, while her enemy was tied nearby, awaiting torture by this powerful goddess and her. Her stomach was doing flip flops, and her pulse raced. As Lydia ran to get the wine and cups, she repeated time after time, "Pay attention to everything she saids and does." In years to come, Lydia would be able to recall this day moment by moment.

When the girl returned with the wine, Salidia noticed the adoration in the girls eyes, and the way she hung on every word that she spoke. Salidia began to feel warmly toward the girl, and she was glad she made her a maid. She began to take the girl into her confidence and began to talk to the girl, something she missed since leaving Rome months ago. Since she left Rome, she had been surrounded by nothing but soldiers, and had not sat and talked to another women the whole time.

"These men are destined to be field workers. They're all proud and independent, and will rebel, and be useless to me. I'm going to break their spirit with torture. Some will break and be useful slaves. Some will not. They will remain defiant and rebellious in spite of the torture. They will be killed in this room. It doesn't matter to me if some are killed since I didn't pay anything for them, and any few I make into good slaves will be pure profit to me. What is important to me is that I break some of them."

"It's simple. We just torture them. And then we do it again and again until they either break or die. If some of them look too strong to break, we'll kill them and waste no more time on them. The ones we break go to the fields to help the Steward."

Well, it sounded like a simple plan to Lydia. Lydia simply wanted to torture and kill the bastards, and Salidia's plan got straight to what Lydia wanted to do. And Lydia could live with seeing a few of these arrogant bastards bent over and dirty working in the fields as slaves for the rest of their miserable lives, their spirits broken and humbled.

"Have you ever been involved with torture or punishment before?"

"No, Mistress."

"Let me tell you some things. We're here to torture and break these men. They must always be afraid of you. In this room or before these men any place else, you are no longer Lydia, the scullery maid, but my surrogate. You have a job to do in this room: to break these men for me. You are here to make this easier for me by taking over some of the work yourself. You must act like me, Mistress of all the slaves, with the power to kill whenever you wish. You must make them afraid of you. Can you do that, Lydia?"

With a big beaming smile on her face, "Yes, Mistress!", Lydia said emphatically. Salidia laughed. The girl pumped so much emotion into what she did, it was hard not to smile over it. She was so animated and emotional it endeared her to Salidia. Salidia liked this girl who wore her emotions on her arm for all to see. From that moment, the bond between the two women was formed.

"Come on." Salidia got up, grabbed a stool from against the wall, and went over to the man, throwing the stool between the man's legs. She took out the dagger from her waist.

"That reminds me, when we're done here, go to Talig and tell him to give you a dagger like this one. Always wear it whenever you're around these men.......Better yet, always wear it."

"If any of these men start to escape from the straps, kill him immediately. There are weapons in this room, and he might hurt one of Talig's men if they have to come in here to catch him. Unlikely, but I don't want to gamble with the men's lives."

Salidia put her finger against the man's carotid artery. "Feel that. Feel it's position and how deep it runs." "Go ahead, Lydia, and feel it." Lydia stepped up to the man and felt the pulsing artery in the man's neck. "Feel it's position in the neck. Run your hand up and down the neck so you can see it's position. See how it runs from top to bottom of the neck. Now try the other side."

"It's his life's blood. Cut it, and he'll stop moving in a few heart beats, and be dead moments later. It's one of the fastest ways to kill a man. Talig showed me this. You don't have to aim to hit it exactly. You might miss it. This is more certain. Aim to just slice your dagger any where across here." With her hand she indicated a wide swath from jaw to clavicle. "It's a big target. You only have to get a finger width deep into the throat near the top, a little deeper as you go down, and your blade will be sure to catch the artery. Just slash the throat like this." She made a swinging motion, so her hand swung across the man's neck, but didn't put her blade to skin. "As soon as we decide to kill one, I want you to practice it for me so I can see that you can do it. Can you do that?"

"Yes, Mistress," very seriously, without hesitation the girl answered. Salidia thought, Good. The girl understands this is a life and death issue, and she treats it seriously. She's not a feather brain when it comes to serious things.

"Talig can do it so fast the men don't have time to block him. But you're not Talig. If the man has his arm free, don't try for the throat. He might block you and grab your arm. If the man has an arm loose, call Talig's men immediately. DO NOT try to get the heart. You're angle might not be true, and the blade might travel to the side. And you might hit a rib which can stop the blade. The men can drive through the ribs without a problem. You don't gamble. For you, the throat is a surer and easier kill."

She repeated, "Slash the throat if the man is starting to get free. If he has an arm free, call the men. Do you understand, Lydia?"

"Yes, Mistress. Move fast to kill him, but don't take chances."

"Good Girl, Lydia!" Salidia was impressed that the girl grasped the wider implications of what was said.

She pushed her dagger between the man's legs, hooked it behind the man's balls, and plopped them onto the stool. She poked the cock and balls with the dagger. "This is the most sensitive part. It's easiest to hurt him here, and it won't damage him for field work. Avoid things that ruin him for work."

Using the dagger, she pushed the cock to the side. Indicating the balls, she said. "If we cut these off, he'll become easier to handle, just like gelding a horse. But I'm not doing that immediately. It's too valuable to have the balls to torture. I want to use the balls for torture first before they're finally cut off."

"The same goes for the cock. Sensitive. It's easy to hurt him there, and it doesn't hurt his value as a worker if it's cut off. Don't cut it off yet. I still want it for torture first."

"An eye or a finger or a toe can go and he'll still be a good worker. But not the big toe or thumb and not a bunch of toes and fingers. Do you understand?"

"We're looking for ways to hurt them the most, but we want to keep them fit for the fields."

"My good little scullery maid!" The two women beamed at each other. This girl has got potential, Salidia happily thought, maybe she'll turn out to be more than just a 'step and fetch it'. This one might turn out to be another Casper.

Salidia went to the man and grabbed his jaw, twisting his head to face her. "We're going to torture you, until you pass out. It may kill you. You may care about that, but I don't. I expect to kill a few of you in this room. And when we finish, you'll be sent back to the stable to heal. And when you're healed, we going to bring you back in this room and torture you all over again. And that is your future. To come here and be tortured by us time after time after time. Hour after hour of torture, and then waiting in the stable for it to begin all over again." With that Salidia raised the dagger, and stabbed it down into the man's penis, pinning it to the stool. She looked into the man's eyes, and asked, "Do you understand?" And then she began......

Later that night when Lydia went to bed, she couldn't sleep. She lay shaking at all that had happened that day, from being made Salidia's maid, to that bad incident when she lost her temper, to people being nice to her. What had happened to her was wilder than anything she had ever dreamed. Once she dreamed she was swift Mercury and could fly. Now she lay in her OWN room, and she wasn't Mercury, but Mars, the taker of men's lives the god of war, with a weapon of her own, which lay under her pillow now, ready for her to grab if any man came into her room during the night. From now on, she would always have a weapon at her side to protect herself if some man tried to hurt her. She stood next to this powerful women, and tortured a Goth, murderer of her family and her village, who had sent her into slavery and rape. She lost her temper when the Goth started to shake off the torture as if it were unimportant, and she was ashamed of that, but Salidia said it was all right. And soon when one of the brave Goths came into the torture room, one who couldn't be broken, she would kill him with her own hands.

Earlier when she finally felt strong enough to leave the torture room after having lost her temper, she went up to Talig, with her heart pounding, and said, "Please, Sir, Mistress said I was to get one of the small, thin daggers." (She couldn't believe she actually said that particular sentence to anybody.) All the men stopped what they were doing to stare at her, and that made her feel very uncomfortable and self-conscious. They all just stood still staring at her with serious or troubled expressions. Talig turned and looked at her for a long time with a grave look on his face, and then turned and went into the villa without saying anything.

Maybe he had found out she lost her temper. She feared the look meant he disapproved of her and that right now he was in the villa telling Salidia she should not have a knife. She didn't know if she should follow him. When he left, did that mean he refused her request and was ignoring her? She didn't know what to do, and she was afraid of doing something wrong. She just stood there because she didn't know what else to do. In ten minutes he returned with a belt, sheath, and dagger, and saying, "Here," he gave it to her; but he continued to stare at her with a serious, troubled look on his face. Terrified he disapproved of her, she scurried away, head down.

Within a few steps he called, "Wait." Her heart sank. He's going to take it away from me! He knows I don't deserve it; he knows I'm just a scullery maid. He decided I should not have it. She turned, with fear and disappointment flooding her face. With tears starting to brim in her eyes, she handed it to him. He took the dagger from her. And then he opened it and ran his thumb along the blade. Her mind said, He's not going to take it from me, but her heart still pounded in fear and tears still threatened her eyes. He turned to one of the men and said, "Andeocene, sharpen this for the girl." He looked at her again and then returned to his men. Not knowing what to do, she stood in the same spot without moving for a half hour until the man returned with the blade, which he gave to Talig. Talig winked (????!!!!!!!) at her, nodded his head in the affirmative, smiled, and pleasantly said, "Now it's good for you, little one!" He turned and went to his men. Stunned by his unexpected pleasantness, she turned and slowly walked away, in shock, to find Salidia.

Later that night when the shock had worn off, she though, I talked to Talig, and he listened to me! And I asked him for something, and he actually got it for me!! And HE WAS NICE TO ME! Reinterpreting his stare in light of his niceness, she now thought, He treated me like I was important! She hadn't had any sort of pleasant relationship with a man since she was a little girl with her family.

In months to come, Talig would show the girl tricks to using a knife, like never doing the same thing twice unless it's a trap; or how to spring forward and to the side while she struck for the throat, and then position her arm to stab the back of the leg as she landed behind the man, so all the parts came together as one quick leap and turn. And variations: spring and turn for the leg if she missed the throat, or spring forward and continuing on to the next target if she was certain she got her target. Or practice trying to accurately hit a target, like the eye, and still be fast. And he showed her ways to become faster like practicing with a heavy weight in her hand. She had to practice time after time two fast strikes to use when two men were standing close to each other. But most of all, he had her train, over and over again, how to whip out the dagger fast and catch a man by surprise.

And finally, when her arm had become stronger from the heavy weights, Talig showed her the three main ways to train the body to move faster, speed training, which he never taught anyone else but Salidia. He made both women promise never to show anyone else what he taught them, and he made them practice in the villa with no one in the adjoining rooms so no one else could see. Lydia practiced what Talig had shown her for six months and didn't get much better. Salidia was already starting to become fast because she had been practicing with Talig for months before Lydia came along. And then one day, ONCE while Lydia practiced her arm flashed out in a strike. But try as hard as she could, she couldn't do it a second time. It took her three more weeks of practice and then it happened once again: her arm flashed out at blinding speed. And then it happened more and more frequently, until every time Lydia stuck, her arm flew forward with stunning speed. It had taken a long time, a lot of training and practice, but eventually Talig's training methods had trained her body to move fast. Then she understood why Talig had her train to strike two men standing close together. Now she was fast enough to strike two men before either could move to block her. And she remembered the story of Talig on the Phoenician galley, killing three before the third took one step, and she understood how he did it. Talig used that technique in a real fight with men, and he won; and Talig taught her the same technique so she could be in a real fight with men and win.

Salidia and Lydia never became as fast as Talig, but they became faster than Caius, the other fast "small shield" gladiator.

Talig never showed another man how he trained his body to become fast, because then they might become as fast as Talig and might kill him in a fight. Talig never taught another man, but he taught the two women. When Talig was finally killed at 42 in a senseless fight in the village with two fast young men, the two women went alone into the village to find the men. The first young men was fast enough to avoid Talig's first strike, and while Talig move to strike again, the second young man stabbed him in the back. The women found the men and killed them. After they killed the men, they fell on their knees and cried for Talig. The two women tended Talig's body, with his men standing around. They only let his men touch the body. But that was all many long years in the future.

Talig also had the men practice with the girls so they could become faster at dodging and blocking, and sharpen their reflexes. The men were always respectful to Salidia, although her sense of humor kept everyone laughing; but the men loved practicing with the spunky, spirited young girl. They loved her for her courage. When she fell or was hit by one of the wood training swords, she would get right back up and start training again. And when she was hurt, she would still practice the next day, even if she was limping or had pain when she moved her arm. For all the training, the laughing and smiling that went on made it seem more like children playing together. Several days a week both women would practice with the men, and it was the high point of the men's week to practice and laugh with the women.  And the man strictly enforced a rule to rotate who would train with the women, so each man would have his turn.  Lydia noticed this and talked of it with Salidia. and it would come to pay the men back for all they did.

    In a few months of laughing and joking with the women on the training ground, the men became so fond of them that any of the men would have died to protect them.  The laughing together had moved the women into the men's hearts. ((continued)