Fanina, Child of Rome Read online

  Fanina, Child of Rome

  by Pierre Sabbagh & Antoine Graziani

  Freed from the tomb where she was buried alive, in accordance with Roman law, the young vestal virgin, Fanina, is only briefly reunited with her lover, Caius Vindex. In this, their glittering second novel, Pierre Sabbagh and Antoine Graziani vividly describe the intrigue, the treachery, the passion, which circumscribe the life of this beautiful girl.

  Thrust into a maelstrom of terror and adventure, her path leads her from Rome to the strange and desolate wilderness of Vulci. Hounded by the agents of her enemy, Brazen-beard, shadowed by he monstrous dwarf, whose identity she cannot suspect, she faces here a more subtle danger: the passion with which she inspires Sejanus, the darkly handsome commander of the Praetorian Guard and the rival of the Emperor Tiberius.

  It is here too that Fanina perceives the oppression of the Emperor’s rule, and begins her fight to re-establish the just Republic. Her great mission is acknowledged, but her emotions are still those of a woman, whose love for Caius never falters. Her struggle to save her country and her own happiness takes place against the absorbing background of Imperial Rome in all its splendour and decadence.

  Prologue

  One chill winter morning in the year A.D. 30 in the reign of the I inperor Tiberius a huge crowd, gathered around the Field of Evil-doers in Rome, stood in stunned silence. From a litter descended a sixteen-year-old girl of surpassing beauty, Fanina, ‘the blonde vestal’. To the accompaniment of mournful litanies chanted by the pontiffs, she was conducted to a tomb, which was closed behind her. The crowd dispersed. All was over for Fanina. Such was the decree of the harsh laws that governed the city. For, although a vestal and sworn to chastity, Fanina had been false to her vows, and now, enclosed in a vault twenty-five feet underground, she was to be left to die of starvation, despair and terror.

  But there was still love to be reckoned with, love which would always change the course of Fanina’s destiny. It was love that had been her undoing; perhaps love would also be her salvation....

  The sentence passed upon Fanina was the culmination of a pitiless contest between the various political factions which were vying for the mastery of Rome. With her radiant beauty, Fanina, the sole surviving descendant of the oldest and most distinguished family in I lie Empire, might have seemed destined for happiness. Unfortunately for her, her father, the upright Senator Faninus, had dared to oppose the powerful debauchee, Domitius Brazen-beard. In order to avenge himself upon the senator for having courageously denounced his crimes, Brazen-beard, assisted by his cousin the odious Pontiff Calvinus, had succeeded in arranging for Fanina to enter the order of vestals.

  For centuries the soothsayers had been prophesying the coming of a woman who would several times decide the fate of Rome. Now the Emperor Tiberius, who was a devotee of astrology, discovered that this woman, ‘the elect of the gods’, was none other than Fanina. She became the most important person in the Empire, and everything was done to ensure that she became the most accomplished of the priestesses of Vesta. Vibidia, the Supreme Vestal, looked upon her as her own daughter, and a glorious destiny seemed to be her lot — until one day she met a young Gaul, the handsome nobleman Caius Vindex.

  It was love at first sight, and the beginning of the trials and perils that were to disrupt the even course of Fanina’s life. Brazen-beard and Calvinus, who had been on the watch for a favourable opportunity, saw the advantage they stood to gain from the passion that was drawing the two young people together. They set out to contrive their downfall by every means in their power. Slowly, cruelly, deliberately, they spun about the pair a web of intrigue, in which Fanina and Caius, blinded by their love, were finally caught. Caius was condemned to death, and after an inhuman mockery of a trial Fanina was buried alive in the Field of Evil-doers.

  Fanina was awaiting death when Caius arrived by means of the underground passage Vibidia had had dug in order to save ‘her own’ girl. There in the sinister tomb the two young people were at last able to give themselves to each other for the first time.

  At nightfall they emerged from their prison. They were alone, cut off from all their friends. Waiting for them was the city, a veritable jungle dominated by their enemies, in whose streets there prowled a deformed dwarf, ready to pursue Fanina.

  And in that city a powerful conspiracy was being hatched which would sweep them up in its eddying vortex of blood and destruction....

  Chapter One

  The chill, dry air of the December night nipped Fanina’s long bare legs beneath the coarse, unbleached pallium that brushed against her as she walked.

  She could not help shivering. Until the terrible experiences she had been through, she had scarcely ever felt cold. People had always gone out of their way to spare her the slightest pain, to shield her from the minor discomforts of life. They had always looked after her as a particularly precious and delicate being.

  But now, with her hand clasped in Caius’s, she stumbled against the stones and twisted her ankles in the potholes in the rough surface of the Field of Evil-doers. The thorns of unseen bushes tore her calves and she was short of breath, but still Caius pressed on.

  A silvery glow was spreading over the horizon. The moon would shortly rise over the hills and flood them in its unearthly light, but meanwhile darkness lay thick about the two young people, and the wasteland across which they were blundering seemed to go on for ever.

  From time to time they came across a shapeless structure, an abandoned shack with ruined walls which they skirted or clambered over, but the outlying houses of Rome itself seemed always to retreat before them.

  On and on they went. The sounds of the city, not yet fully asleep, were borne to them in waves: the hoarse bark of a dog, distant shouts, and the rumbling of heavily-laden carts in the streets.

  Sometimes they would stop and Caius seemed to be listening and taking his bearings. Fanina pressed trustingly up to him and waited. She had almost forgotten the risks they were running, for ‘he’ was there, and she marvelled to feel the play of her lover’s long, hard muscles beneath her fingers. How wonderfully strong he was there beside her! As long as he was there, she would have nothing to worry about, for he thought for her, decided for her. She would conform to his every decision without demur, and carry them out down to the last detail; and every time she did so would be yet another way of giving herself to him.

  From time to time he asked:

  ‘How do you feel, darling? Not too tired?’

  And straight away the weary ache in her back, the biting cold, her bruised, sore feet, and the agonizing scratches that ran in stripes across her calves ceased to matter.

  She looked up at the beloved dark silhouette towering above her and replied:

  ‘I should be asking you that, my love; you have done so much for me.’

  Then he bent over her and she reached up on tiptoe, and she was as one with him. His lips sought hers and they met in a passionate kiss. Then they would set off once again.

  Suddenly Caius stopped dead, drew Fanina to his chest, stood motionless for an instant, then in the merest whisper, murmured:

  ‘Listen!’

  Fanina held her breath and listened.

  They had reached a low wall, along which a road presumably ran, for the ground was firm, and more even, and it was devoid of vegetation. On the other side of the wall, Fanina could make out the black silhouettes of several bare trees, and beyond, a group of tall houses, through whose closed shutters there filtered a faint glimmer of light.

  ‘Listen carefully,’ Caius whispered again.

  With every sense alert, Fanina strained her attention. A few moments passed, then she thought she heard the snap of a
dry twig.

  ‘Did you hear that?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s been going on for some time. As if someone were following us.’

  ‘It could be a dog,’ whispered Fanina, her heart pounding in her breast, as she gazed intently in the direction from which the sound had come.

  In the hollow where they stood, the moon, whose pale disk was rising over the top of a dark mass that cut off the horizon from them, was beginning to cast patches of silver here and there. With wide eyes Fanina examined her surroundings.

  That shaggy outline over there was a bush. And that shape a strangely contorted tree-trunk. That one was the base of a ruined wall. And that ... a squat shape that broadened towards the base and came to a point at the top. She was not able to identify it. Was it a rock, was it a bush ? ...

  Slowly and cautiously Caius unfolded his arm, and the keen blade of the dagger he had drawn from his belt cast a cold glimmer.

  Close against her Fanina felt him grow tense and draw himself up like a wild beast stalking its prey. He was about to pounce. Suddenly afraid she clung to him to hold him back.

  ‘No, don’t go, darling!’

  The shape had not stirred. Fanina persisted:

  ‘It’s a boulder!’

  ‘You think so?’

  ‘I’m sure it is.’

  ‘Let me go and make sure all the same.’

  ‘No, don’t leave me! Let’s get away from here! We’ve no time to lose!’

  She was crazed with anxiety. Caius relaxed, almost regretfully, and said:

  ‘Come on, then.’

  But before they set off again, he clasped her to him and said: ‘No matter what happens, you are to shelter behind me.’

  They walked a few steps backwards, but the shape remained motionless. With a shrug, Caius drew Fanina away. They could walk more easily now, for all they had to do was to follow the low wall. The path began to go downwards. Perhaps it would lead them to the Way of Evil-doers. Once they reached that they would turn off to the right and would soon be in the part of the city they knew well.

  Fanina stole a glance over her shoulder. The path along which they had just come stood out clearly in the darkness.

  Her heart gave a bound ...

  The dark shape had vanished and — was this her imagination playing her a trick, — she thought she caught sight of a furtive shadow passing rapidly along the adjoining piece of land parallel to the track they were following.

  Then a dog barked, and a second barked in reply, then a third, and for a while there was a noisy chorus that brought the two fugitives to a halt, holding their breath and clinging to each other. A shutter creaked, and a loud, rough voice hurled a volley of abuse at the dogs, which fell silent.

  Suddenly everything seemed to grow brighter. Emerging in the gap between two blocks of houses, the full moon now cast long, blurred shadows before the two young people. Without realizing it, they had reached the centre of a vast complex of dwelling-houses; huge black buildings rose up on all sides, and the acrid pestilential smell characteristic of the low-class districts of the city stung their throats.

  They could hear the rumble of a heavy cart over the cobblestones. The noise grew louder until they could make out the soft footfalls of the yoked oxen and the pounding tread of the metal-studded shoes worn by the man who led them.

  Caius and Fanina went on another fifty paces or so, almost at a run, and plunged into a narrow passageway, where they stumbled over heaps of refuse strewn over the beaten earth, before emerging into a broad avenue at the end of which flashed the yellowish light from the lantern on the cart as it proceeded noisily towards the city centre.

  They leapt into a doorway and huddled there, for someone was approaching on the opposite footpath, a cripple by the sound of his steps.

  Where had Fanina heard that uneven tread before? An icy shiver ran through her. It sounded like the tread of the dwarf with the russet leather cape, the monstrosity who had appeared terrifyingly to herald every misfortune that had befallen her. ...

  Caius, dreadfully tense, every muscle straining, was gathering himself up again, ready to spring forth, when all grew quiet once more. The nocturnal wanderer must have reached home.

  How foolish they had been! As if the dwarf were the only man in Rome with a limp! Everything took on a disproportionate importance at night, and that night in particular. They would certainly encounter more than one passer-by in the streets on their way across the city, and if they reacted as violently on every occasion it would be a long time before they completed their journey.

  Something seemed to give way in Fanina’s head. The unreasoning terror that had seized upon her was too strong to vanish in a mere moment, and she threw herself into Caius’s arms, trembling all over, and clutched convulsively at him as she tried to stifle the exhausting sobs that rent her throat.

  ‘Quiet, now, quiet, my love!’ the young man whispered tenderly.

  But she could not control herself. Her nerves were overwrought and were giving way. The only way she could be the person she wished to be, strong, ready for anything, was by burying herself wildly in the arms of the man whose breath came to her in short, burning gasps as he clasped her more and more passionately to his broad chest. She would only be herself again after she had quenched the urgent, imperious desire that had set her aflame.

  She took her lover’s head in her two hands, drew it down towards her, laid her lips passionately on his, taking them, releasing them and taking them again, feverishly prolonging the exhausting caress that increased tenfold the desire to which she was abandoning herself.

  ‘Here?’ Caius breathed.

  ‘Yes, here!’

  Here, face to face with the cruel city that had condemned them, and that still threatened them . . . without further delay, as if it were a retaliation, a challenge....

  Hand in hand with her lover, her heart still hammering in her heaving breast, deliciously tired, but buoyant and relaxed, Fanina walked on in the direction the cart had taken.

  ‘If this road is the Way of Evil-doers,’ she remarked, ‘it comes out behind the Forum Augusti. After that we go round the Roman Forum and cross the Tiber by the Palatine Bridge....’

  ‘And then?’ asked Caius.

  ‘And then, my dear,’ she said radiantly, ‘then we shall go to Gaul.’

  He gave a little tense laugh, and clasped her to him.

  ‘Yes, you’re right! Once in Aquitania no one will be able to do anything to us any more!’

  Aquitania! The end of the world! Hundreds and hundreds of leagues to be covered in snow, cold and wind, over towering mountains, through districts infested with bandits, with wolves and all manner of wild beasts, patrolled by a police force that pitilessly hunted down vagrants, runaway slaves, indeed all who were unable to account for their movements.

  Hundreds and hundreds of leagues to cover ... How? And under what conditions? By what routes? Neither Fanina nor Caius probably had the slightest idea. At that moment, for the two young people, Aquitania was the very image of paradise, and it seemed to them that no one could possibly prevent their reaching it.

  She, city-bred as she was, a girl who had never been outside the walls of Rome, for whom nature, the countryside and the woods were empty words, already saw herself taking refuge with Caius in the depths of one of the vast forests he had described to her in her tiny room in the House of Vestals where, throwing caution to the winds, he had dared to come to her.

  As they strode down towards the centre of the city, full of lurking dangers, she conjured up in her imagination the rustic cottage in which they would lead the simple, happy life of shepherds and peasants, whose tranquil toil was sung by Virgil in poems that she had known from her earliest years. Little by little they would forget all about Brazen-beard, Calvinus and all their enemies. They would forget Rome and Tiberius as well, the treacherous old man who had refused to protect her after sending her to her doom through his sacrilegious trickery.

  As the months and the years w
ent by, things would straighten themselves out again, and they would be able to re-establish their old links with those things of the past they did not disown. They would see their parents again, and Vibidia, the Supreme Vestal, and all who had not abandoned them in their darkest hours.

  ‘Who goes there?’

  Fanina gave a violent start as a gruff voice rang out, freezing her to the spot at Caius’s side.

  ‘The watchmen!’ whispered the young man.

  A hundred yards from where they stood, men wearing helmets and heavy boots had sprung into view at a street corner, out of the shadows where they had been waiting in ambush. At this hour of the night it could only be the watch whose many patrols regularly scoured Rome keeping watch over the safety of its citizens and keeping a look-out for fires.

  Uncovering the dark-lanterns they had concealed beneath their cloaks, they moved slowly towards the young couple, their iron-studded shoes ringing on the cobbles.

  ‘Come on now, we won’t eat you,’ went on the man who had challenged them. ‘Come here and let’s have a look at you.’

  Pressing close to Caius, Fanina whispered:

  ‘What shall we do?’

  Caius seemed hesitant about the decision to take.

  ‘They might recognize you,’ he murmured at last. ‘We’d better disappear down one of these side-alleys.’

  ‘Do you think so?’ asked Fanina. ‘Who would ever suspect that ...? And we’re probably not the only pair of lovers abroad in the streets of Rome tonight. Perhaps it would be best ...’

  Again the voice rang out, rougher this time:

  ‘By the guts of Silenus, do we have to come and fetch you?’

  ‘Come on then!’ said Caius, with swift decision, and he put his arm round Fanina’s shoulders and drew her quickly towards a nearby alleyway.

  Immediately the watchman bellowed:

  ‘Stop!’

  As if the lash of a whip had struck them, the young couple dashed down the dark passageway.

  They shouldn’t have ... They shouldn’t have ... Fanina kept repeating to herself as she ran. But Caius had decided.