The Pirates of Pompeii scroll I :: The Roman Mysteries

The Pirates of Pompeii
Scroll I

On the other side of the cove were the Baths of Minerva, the red roof-tiles pale pink under a coating of ash. Between the baths and the boathouses were hundreds of tents and makeshift shelters. The refugee camp.

Another wail rose from the beach below and Nubia heard an anxious voice behind her.

'Who's dead? It's not him is it?'

Nubia turned to look at the girl with light brown hair who was hurrying back down the slope. Behind her, three dogs sent up clouds of ash as they pushed through the oleanders and myrtles on either side of the path.

'I don't think it is him,' said Nubia, turning back to gaze down on the beach.

'Doctor Mordecai said he wouldn't live much longer...'

The girls watched a coil of black smoke rise from the funeral pyre on the shore. Around it, tiny figures lifted their hands to the hot white sky and cried out to the gods. Nubia shuddered and reached for her mistress's hand.

Flavia Gemina was more a friend than a mistress. A freeborn Roman girl, she had bought Nubia in the slave-market of Ostia to save her from an unimaginable fate. Since then, Flavia's kindness had been like a drink of cool water in a desert of pain. Even now, Nubia took courage from Flavia's steady gaze and the reassuring squeeze of her hand.

After a moment they turned wordlessly and continued up the grey mountain, a dark-skinned girl and a fair-skinned one, wearing torn and dirty tunics, searching among the ashes for the plant which might save their dying friend Jonathan.