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"Know me Knoho I ae into me which I couldn't deny I would have turned away from it if I could I hated her that o
"Long, long centuries ago she had been born to an actress ladiator father in the Rome of Caesar, a freakish child, halfto be destroyed by ordinary parents but kept by hers for the theater, in which she grew to be a gladiator of great strength by the age of fourteen
"Before that point, a thousand times she'd been shown privately to those who could pay for it, for those anted to touch her and have her touch them Never had she known love for her own sake, or privacy, or athat wasn't for show
"In the arena she was fierce andfor her I saw the sand red with the blood she shed She won every reat her opponent I saw her in her shining armor, her sword at her side, her hair tied back, her eyes on Caesar as she al bow!
"Years passed during which she fought, her parents coher fees At last, when she was still a girl, she was sold to aagainst the fiercest of wild beasts Even these could not defeat her Niers, thrusting her spear deep and true to the mark
"But she grew tired in her heart, tired of combat, tired of lovelessness, tired of misery The croas her lover, but the croas nowhere in the dark of night when she slept chained to her bed
"Then Arion had come, Arion had paid to see her as had so many Arion had paid to touch her, as had so ht dresses to pose her Arion had e black hair Then Arion had bought her and set her free Arion had given her a heavy purse and said, 'Go where you please ' But where could she go? What could she do? She couldn't bear the sounds of the circus during the galadiatorial schools What was there for her? Was she to be pied after Arion, loving him
" 'You are my life now,' she had told hiave you the world,' he had answered her Unable to bear her tears, he had given her more money, a house in which to live But still she ca
"And finally he took her under his wing He brought her to his city He brought her to beautiful Pompeii His was the cameo trade, he told her He had three shops of cameo makers, the finest in all of the empire 'Can you learn this art for me?' he asked her 'Yes,' she said 'For you I would learn anything Anything at all ' She set to ith a passion she'd never known She wasn't fighting forfor her oorthless life She was fighting to please Arion, a fragile and total thing Her eneer She studied with all the masters in his shops She watched She imitated She worked in shell, in stone, in precious jewels She mastered the chisel, the small drill She learned all that she could
"Finally, at the end of two years, she had her speciatherings of gods and goddesses like unto the friezes on the temples She had done portraits like unto the finest in the Forum She had made art out of a craft Never had he seen such work, he told her He loved her And such happiness she'd never known
"Then came the terrible days of Vesuvius, the eruption of the mountain and the death of the idyllic little city where they had all known such happiness Arion had fled the night before to the far side of the Bay of Naples He'd sensed early on the evening before the eruption as to
happen It had been her duty to see that the slaves of the shops escaped But only a feould listen to her
"And when it was all over and the air was full of ash and poison and the sea was full of bodies, when nothing remained where Pompeii had once stood, she had come to Arion's villa -- the very place where ere noeeping and with only a handful of followers, to tell him that she had failed
" 'No, my beloved,' he said 'You have saved ht that all was lost What can I give you for this, iven her the Blood that she was givingme
"She let o My lips stroked her cock as I withdrew