To Love Again - Bertrice Small [124]
“I have never seen chariot races,” Cailin said. “Who will be racing today? There was an amphitheater in Corinium for games, but my father never took us. He said the games were cruel.”
“Some are,” Aspar admitted, “but there will be no gladiators today, I have been told. There will be actors, and wrestlers, and more gentle amusements that do not take away from the racing. We have four chariot teams here in Constantinople, the Reds, the Whites, the Blues, and the Greens. They will be racing, and the passions they arouse in the collective breast of the populace is oft-times terrifying. Wagers will be placed, and you are apt to see a fight or two between the adherents of a particular team and their rivals. You are safe in the box.”
“Which team to do you favor, my lord?” she asked him.
“The Greens,” he said. “They are the best, and the Blues come after them. The Reds and the Whites are nothing, though they try.”
“Then I shall favor the Greens as well,” Cailin said.
They had reached a small landing where the staircase divided into two sets of stairs, and taking the three steps up to their left, they entered Aspar’s box. An awning of cloth of gold striped with purple roofed the box. There were comfortable marble chairs with silken cushions, and benches set about, all with a good view of the arena. The public stands were beginning to fill up, but no one noticed them, and a quick glance showed Cailin that the imperial party and the important religious personages were not yet in their boxes.
“There are no steps going to the emperor’s box,” she said to Aspar. “How does he enter it?”
“There are stairs directly into the box that lead from a tunnel beneath the palace walls,” he told her. “It allows our emperor a quick exit should he find he needs it. I’ve always thought it an excellent place for an ambush, but there is really nothing one can do should that occur.”
“Cailin!” A young woman had entered the box behind them.
Cailin turned and recognized Casia, looking particularly radiant in scarlet and gold silks. Cailin held out her hands in welcome. She had wondered how she would feel seeing Casia again, but the young woman had always been kind to her. “Fortune has smiled on you, I am told,” she said, greeting Casia. “I am happy you could come.”
“My lady Casia,” Aspar said with a smile, and Cailin felt a surge of jealousy race through her. His eyes were too warm and too knowing.
“My lord, it is good to see you once again. I owe you a debt of gratitude for introducing me to my prince. I had not intended to buy my freedom from Villa Maxima until next year, but when the prince offered me his favor, I surprised my masters and purchased myself from them, that I might avail myself of the prince’s munificence.” Casia smiled warmly at them both, and settled herself comfortably next to Cailin.
Aspar bowed again and replied, “Then you are both happy with the arrangement, and for that I am glad, Casia. You are wise enough still, I trust, to look to your future? Princes are often fickle.”
Casia laughed merrily. “I am a frugal woman, my lord. If Jovian and Phocas had had the slightest inkling of what I had saved during my three years with them, they would have set my price higher. They did not, however, and I came away quite comfortably fixed. The house in which I reside is also mine. I insisted. Basilicus understood, and was generous. I will not end my days in the streets like a foolish woman.”
“I would be unhappy were it so,” he answered her.
There was no time for Cailin to interrogate her lover, for the rest of their guests were entering the box, being introduced, and bowing over the ladies. Bellisarius, the famed classical actor, and his current lover, the ribald comic