Doctor Who_ Byzantium! - Keith Topping [75]
The sex, when it happened, was cold and impersonal, Edius clawing at the skin on Felicia's back as she moaned softly and bit into her pillow.
Then, as Edius cried out in triumph at the climax, the door burst open once more and he turned, naked and embarrassed, to find a dozen soldiers silhouetted in the doorway, most of them with wicked smirks on their faces.
Despite the circumstances, Edius felt powerful enough to scream an obscenity at them. Exhausted and drained, Felicia continued to lie on the bed, face down, sobbing into her sheets.
`What is the meaning of this?' demanded Edius in a shrill, almost feminine voice. Red-faced, he stood from the bed and began to walk towards the door, but stopped in his tracks when the guards parted to let Gaius Calaphilus through.
`Caught in a somewhat injudicious moment, seemingly, tribune?' asked the general.
Edius stared back defiantly and ridiculously, stark naked.
But he still saluted in the presence of a superior officer. 'Hail Caesar,' he said flatly, before adding, 'Do you think that this is an appropriate moment to invade someone's privacy, sir?'
he asked casually. 'As you can see, I'm busy giving this slave a moment that she will not forget in a long time.' He turned and poked Felicia in the side with his finger. 'Face the general when you address him, slave,' he ordered.
But the tribune's amusement turned to horror as his paramour spun around, her face lined with tears, and screamed loudly. 'That beast raped me,' she said with a mixture of pain and guilt. ‘I said no but he would not stop.'
`She is lying,' shouted Edius, aiming an open-fisted blow to the handmaiden's face before anyone could stop him. 'You deceitful she-bitch, I shall have you dragged through the streets for your insolence.' He turned back towards the general, but as he swung around he was himself knocked back by a hard punch to the jaw, He skittered backwards, falling head over heels and lay in a crumpled heap at the foot of the bed.
`Seize him,' said Calaphilus, as the guards poured into the room and pulled up their naked tribune, still shouting and protesting his innocence. 'Take him to the dungeons,'
continued the general. 'I shall be down to make an example of him later this day.'
As the screaming Edius was manhandled from the room, Calaphilus dropped a bag of coins on to the handmaiden's bed. Èxcellent,' he told the girl, who was dressing herself quickly and drying her tear-stained cheeks. She picked up the bag, weighed it in her hand, opened it and tumbled the coins onto the bed where they lay, glittering in the dim candlelight.
`Thank you,' she said, her face cracking into a smile. 'And kindly thank Caesar for his generous bounty.'
Without another word, Calaphilus turned and left her alone with her money.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Culture Bunker, Part Six —
Jehovahkill
For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders,
to seduce... But take ye heed: behold, I have foretold you all things.
Mark 13:22-23
This is wrong,' the Doctor said, loudly, catching the attention of the scribes.
‘I beg your pardon?' asked Amos, haughtily. ‘What are you saying?'
This translation is wrong,' repeated the Doctor. 'Inaccurate.
Incorrect:. Substandard. Would you like me to elucidate further?'
Reuben took the manuscript from the Doctor's hand and read the passage to which the Doctor was pointing. 'He is referring to the story of Jesus curing the apostle Peter's mother-in-law from a fever,' he told his colleagues. ‘And what, please tell us, is wrong with it?'
The Doctor waved the two scrolls in Reuben's face, angrily `Don't take that tone with me, young man, I've been translating ancient languages into other ancient languages since before you were born. And long after you've died as well!' He paused, and pointed again to the Greek translation.
'This is all nonsense. "Immediately he left the synagogue, and then he entered into the house of Simon and Andrew along with James and John. When he got there he found that Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a nasty