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what it would have in
Los Angeles. Nobody in Agrippan Rome would know what to make of abstract
painting or sculpture.
Hardly any cultures that hadn't invented the camera produced art that didn't
try to represent reality.
Photographs reproduced the real world more exactly than painters and sculptors
could hope to do. That let them in fact, it almost forced them to try other
things.
What the city prefect called modern art were pieces done by artists of
Agrippan Rome from the past couple of hundred years. Even that made him
unusual. For most collectors here, the older, the better. If they had an early
Roman copy of an ancient Greek original, that was good. If they had the Greek
original itself, that was heaven. But Sesto Capurnio was different.
Several busts of recent Emperors stared at Jeremy from behind the city
prefect. The effect was eerie, not least because they were painted to look as
realistic as they could. Eyes of ivory and colored glass added to the effect.
Jeremy had seen the head of Honorio Prisco III in the temple. He still had
trouble getting used to the style.
Sesto Capurnio also had several paintings on his wall. Some were landscapes,
others scenes taken from mythology. One showed Christ and Mithras beating back
a demon together. Official Roman belief mixed faiths in a blender.
And he had a pot made in the shape of a dog's head with a rabbit in its mouth.
You drank from the dog's left ear. Jeremy was no art critic, but he knew what
he liked. The best thing anyone could have done with that pot was break it.
Into little pieces. Lots of them. The more, the better.
It is good to see you, young Ieremeo, Sesto Capurnio said. Jeremy could have
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done without that young.
But then, Sesto Capurnio was a pompous fool. He spoke neoLatin in a way that
suggested he'd start spouting the classical language any minute. He never
quite did, but still....
I thank you, most illustrious prefect of the great municipality of Polisso.
Jeremy laid it on with a trowel, too. If he sounded as educated as the
prefect, Sesto Capurnio couldn't score any style points off him. He went on, I
am glad to see that city garrison has been reinforced. The barbarians will
surely know better than to trouble us now.
Of course they will, Capurnio said. They were both lying through their teeth.
They both knew it, too.
Nobody wanted to see new soldiers coming into the city. If they were here,
that meant Polisso was liable to need them.
Jeremy picked up a heavy leather sack full of silver. I know these men will
need supplies, he said. Here is my family's small gift to the city, for the
sake of the soldiers who have just come. He set the sack on the table behind
which Sesto Capurnio sat.
You are generous. The city prefect picked up the sack. One of his eyebrows
jumped in surprise at the weight. By the gods, you are generous.
He didn't seem to want to set the money down. Jeremy wondered how many denari
would stick to his fingers. Some, no doubt. This was a world that ran on
nudges and winks and greased palms. Come to that, most worlds did. This one,
though, was more open about it than a lot of them.
With a small sigh, Sesto Capurnio said, I am sure the soldiers will be
grateful for your bounty. That meant he knew he couldn't get away with lifting
the whole sack. If Jeremy told an officer he'd given Capurnio money and the
soldiers had seen none of it, that could make the prefect's life difficult.
It is the least we can do, Jeremy said. By that, he meant, It is the most we
can do. Don't ask us to do
anything else.
Very generous. Very kind. A gift whose like I wish we had from every
prosperous citizen of Polisso, the city prefect said. By that, he probably
meant, I will have a gift like this from every man who doesn't want soldiers
in his house, drinking the best wine and coming on to the slave women or to
his wife and daughters.
The town needs to be as safe and secure as it can, Jeremy said. And now, most
illustrious prefect, if you will excuse me...
Instead of going through the usual polite good-byes, Capurnio said, Wait one
moment, Ieremeo Soltero, if you would be as generous with your time as you are
with your silver. There is something I would like to know from you, and I hope
you will be kind enough to tell me.
If I can, I will, Jeremy said. I should not speak about the secrets of my
trade, any more than any other merchant would.
Of course not, the city prefect said. What I want to know is, why are you
making this generous gift, and not your father?
Oh, Jeremy said, as if he'd expected just that question. In fact, it did not
surprise him all that much. My father and mother went out of Polisso a few
days ago. That is why.
I see. Sesto Capurnio shuffled through sheets of papyrus and paper and
parchment. I have no record of their leaving the city.
Jeremy gulped. In Agrippan Rome, not to have a record of something was serious
business. Records proved a person was real. They proved that things had really
happened. By contrast, not having records meant something hadn't happened at
all. That could be a problem. If Jeremy and Amanda were stuck here in Polisso
with no escape through a transposition chamber, it could be a big problem.
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