The first bright rays of the dawn brushed Eirene's tawny skin as she slipped over the wall leading into the vineyard. Her bare feet thumped softly on the tilled earth as she skipped between the twisting vines and raced the sunlight to the small window of the room she shared with Aisha. Panting and flushed from running, her eyes shining and alive, Eirene stretched up on her tiptoes to hook her fingers over the ledge of the opening that was almost out of her reach, one foot braced against the smooth stone of the villa wall as she prepared to hoist herself up. A sudden flurry of movement, dust against dust, caught her eye and made her pause. At the base of the old olive tree that stood guard over that corner of the villa, beneath the scrubby branches of a bush lay a little bird. Its small feathers were the same dusty brown as the earth beneath it and it squirmed, wings outspread as it tried to stand. The girl came to kneel beside it, parting the low scrub with one hand as she scooped the other beneath the tiny bird, causing it to flap in fright.

'Hush, little one, I won't hurt you,' Eirene muttered gently, carefully folding her hand around the delicate body to keep it still. She could feel the thundering, fluttering beat of the bird's frightened heart in the very tips of her fingers. 'What's the matter, can you not fly?' All thoughts of getting back to her bed before it was noticed that she was missing again had flown from her mind now, her curiosity captured completely by this weak little creature. Kneeling on the hard baked earth that hadn't seen rain for weeks, Eirene forgot everything else but the little pulsing life in her hands. 'Did you forget you had wings and fall from your tree?' she asked, peering at the black glassy eye that regarded her with just as much interest. 'I sleep walk sometimes too,' she confided to the bird in a whisper as she uncurled her small fist, letting it settle on the palm of her hand where it barely stretched from the heel to her fingertips. Its wings lay still, its beak parted slightly as it panted. Eirene could feel the tiny beat of its heart steadying against her skin as it calmed. 'Let's have a look at you then,' she said, gently stretching out one of the birds brown wings with her other hand to examine the feathers. The bird gave out the tiniest peep of discontentment but showed no sign of distress so Eirene let the wing settle again before stretching out the second one. 'Hm. Well, your wings seem ok, so why can't you fly?'

'Eirene, is that you?' a cautious whisper hissed down from the window above, Aisha's eyes, as black as the little bird's in Eirene's hand, peering from the darkness within.

'Yes,'

'What are you doing out there? Who are you talking to?'

'I've found a bird, I think it's injured.'

'What?'

'Never mind, I'm coming in, move back from the casement.' Eirene quickly tucked the little brown bird into the neck of her loose toga, feeling it settling its insignificant warmth against her smooth skin beneath the strip of cloth that bound her breasts beneath. She glanced up at the window where a gauzy curtain fell, covering the space where Aisha had just been and then reached up to grasp the ledge, half pulling herself up and half jumping into the room beyond.

Aisha stood in between the two low mattresses stuffed with straw and covered with plain woollen blankets. Phoibe, being significantly older than the two girls, had her own room in the cubiculum beside their own. Aisha's bed was rumpled from her sleep. Eirene's bed on the other side of the room was perfectly made, un-slept in. Aisha sighed and shook her head, causing the blue turban she always wore to wobble precariously on top of her head. She reached out a smooth black hand to pluck at the vine leaves tangled in Eirene's loose, dishevelled hair.

'Eirene, you're impossible. Why do you keep running away? Do you know if you're caught they'll brand an f on your forehead?' Aisha said, jabbing the space between Eirene's eyebrows with a long, bony finger, a little harder than was really necessary.

'How can I be classed as a fugitivus if I keep coming back, Aisha?' she demanded.

'Yes,' Aisha agreed in puzzlement, 'why do you keep doing that? If I made it out I certainly wouldn't come back.' They looked at each other for a long moment. Both girls knew that Aisha would never run. As much as she missed the hot barren land of her home, their life in Rome was extremely pleasant, luxurious even, compared to most. Aisha had once confided in Eirene that she believed her family, her mother, father, three sisters and one younger brother to be dead. Either through famine or the slave trade, she had said one night with a shrug. Neither was any better than the other. Like Eirene, she had nowhere else to go. Unlike Eirene, she held a soft spot for their imperious, strikingly beautiful mistress. Often it would seem the feeling was mutual, as like this morning, Aisha would be summoned to Liviana's room at the break of dawn to spend a long time twisting, curling and braiding the mistress' sunny locks into elaborate styles.

'I don't know what will become of you, Eirene, I really don't.' Aisha said, finally breaking the thoughtful silence that had settled upon them both. She turned to swiftly tug her blanket over her mattress and smoothed it into a more presentable state. Not that it really mattered; it was only ever poor old Phoibe who ventured into their room for spot inspections every so often.

'Once I've found Germanus we'll be leaving Rome for good. Find a little farm somewhere in the country, take you with us too if you ask nicely,' Eirene smiled as Aisha sighed again with the patience of an indulgent mother listening to a daydreaming child. She'd heard the line too many times before.

'I'll be going out with Mistress once she's dressed, Master has commissioned another piece of jewellery for her and she wants my advice on whether it matches the yellow linen he bought last week. ' Eirene rolled her blue eyes and laughed humourlessly.

'That woman is vainer than Venus!'

'If you were the human embodiment of Venus, wouldn't you be just a little bit vain?' Aisha asked. Eirene ran her hands down the length of her body, which was not at all unpleasing beneath the draping folds of her once white toga. 'Perhaps,' she grinned, 'I'll probably see you at dinner, Aisha.'

'Maybe. Phoibe will be coming with us I think, so you'll have to take care of everything yourself. Will you be ok?' Aisha eyed Eirene carefully from the doorway, pausing in the act of lifting the curtain. 'You haven't been up all night have you? You do look a little tired,' Eirene smiled, waving off the other girls concern.

'I'll be fine.' Eirene sat down on her bed as Aisha left. The clear early morning light lit up the small room now, filtered by the filmy curtain at the window and warming the walls. She carefully hooked the little bird out from its spot in her toga to lay it on her blanket, watching as its closed eyes fluttered open for a moment. Brown feathers were ruffled, indignant at being disturbed and Eirene suddenly noticed how awkwardly the bird sat, one scrawny twig like leg stuck out from beneath the tiny body at an angle.

'Ah! Is this the problem?' she asked softly, wincing as the bird gave a pitiful cry as she touched the broken leg. Eirene lifted the bird in both of her hands, raising it to her eye line to catch the flicker of life in the bead of its eye. 'Don't worry, little bird, I'll get you better. You'll be flying out of that window in no time. Just like me,' she smiled, nuzzling the round feathered head with the tip of her index finger.

'You'll probably find it will die soon. Most injured birds do. It's the shock that gets them,' the smooth, masculine voice cut right across the room and caused Eirene to gasp and jump to her feet as the small feathered mass, clasped in her hand, trilled in pain at her sudden movement.

'Master!'

'Eirene,' Alexis walked further into the room, taking up most of the space with his frame. He wore his usual uniform colours of clean white layered with dark red, his black hair cropped as close as fashion dictated which highlighted the chiselled plains of his strong features. Eirene had not seen him for three days, not since he had saved her from further humiliation at the hands of his sister. Her back still twinged, despite the many poultices and lotions Phoibe had applied. 'May I see it?' he asked, holding one hand out to her. Eirene placed the fragile creature onto his outstretched palm without hesitation as she looked up at Alexis, trying to catch his dark eyes.

'I think his leg is broken. This one, see?' Eirene pointed out the birds left leg as it lay on his hand, looking even more insubstantial amidst the sea of his palm.

'How do you know it's a he?' Alexis asked in surprise, raising one eyebrow, though he kept his eyes on the bird that lay limp on his hand.

'He looks too sorry for himself to be female,' she smiled very slightly. Alexis nodded and turned away from her. 'Where are you going?' Eirene called as a few long strides carried him away through the curtain of her doorway. 'Master, wait.'

Alexis said nothing and did not slow down as Eirene followed him along the hallway that led from the back of the villa towards the atrium.

'What are you going to do?' Eirene hurried quickly along beside him, her small feet pattering noiselessly against the cool mosaic floors as his heavy sandals rang with each step he took. Alexis remained silent as they walked briskly past other empty rooms and parted the curtain at the doorway of his study. A large beautifully carved desk stood in the middle of the room, covered by rolls of scrolls scrawled with Latin and Greek and littered with other scholarly debris. It was on this desk that Alexis lay the trembling little bird.

'It's a nightingale,' he said, examining the plain brown feathers. 'Have you ever heard one sing?'

'Yes,' Eirene said, looking at the plain, unremarkable bird in awe. 'They sing beautifully.'

'They sing for love. You wouldn't think from its dull feathers that it could be such a magnificent musician,' Alexis agreed, lifting the lid of a long marble box inlaid with gold that rested on his desk. 'Leave me, Eirene,' he commanded. 'Mistress Liviana will be out all day with Phoibe and Aisha, as I'm sure you are aware of. You won't be required for anything today, so may I suggest you get some sleep? No doubt your excursion into town last night and your romp through the vineyard this morning was exhausting. Though perhaps you might wish to take a bath first?' Eirene thought she caught the hint of a smile on his lips as she remained where she stood. Alexis glanced up from the box he was still rifling through, a stream of sunlight from the window behind him emphasised the black of his eyes and his hair, the smooth whiteness of his skin. 'Eirene? I said go.'

'What will you do with the bird, Master?' she asked, her eyes large with concern and yet full of trust as she looked up at him. The nightingale had tucked its wings up around itself, its little beak nestled in the tiny brown feathers. Alexis pulled a slim dagger from the box and lay it on the desk. Golden winged horses danced on either side of the sheathed blade, rearing on their back legs as the finely wrought feathers curved up to form part of the hilt; a clear, cold diamond was set into the pommel and caught Eirene's eye. She crossed the room in a few short strides and swept the bird up in her hand once more.

'No,' she said in alarm, pressing the tiny thing to her breast. 'You can't kill him because he has a broken leg. That's barbaric!'

'Ending its pain and suffering is barbaric?' Alexis asked, genuinely surprised at the girl's reaction.

'The leg will heal. Bones heal, I know they can.' Eirene lifted the nightingale to her cheek, hearing the frightened little cheep the bird made, feeling his heart fluttering in her hand as if she were holding her own between her fingertips.

'And if it doesn't? What if it dies before it has a chance to heal? You will have extended its suffering for nothing, for the sake of your own self-righteousness.'

'You're the self-righteous one, Master,' Eirene muttered venomously, 'collecting slaves to educate them for no other reason than to prove your superiority as a scholar in a strange land. I know you aren't from Rome, despite your flawless pronunciation of our language. You and your narcissistic sister, who flaunts the stola of a married woman despite there being no husband to speak of.' Eirene's cheeks flushed crimson as she ranted, the loose tongue that so distressed Phoibe spoke almost of its own accord. The girl could feel the thud of her galloping pulse as Alexis' set his strong jaw.

'You're remarkably perceptive for a slave. Go. Bathe, Eirene. But leave the bird with me.' His tone was brusque and almost terrifying in its coldness, his wide shoulders solid as he rested both his palms on the desk in front of him. Eirene narrowed her eyes, sapphire in colour as a sudden sunbeam struck a hard light in them, tossing her head in a gesture that made her dark hair ripple over her shoulders left bare by the stained and dusty toga she wore.

'No!' she turned and fled before Alexis could blink. Eirene had lived in the villa long enough now to have memorised every elaborately mosaicked walkway, she knew there was no fast and easy route to her room. The curtained doorway would offer no protection from the man following close behind anyway. But she felt she owed it to the nightingale to try. That little bird represented so much to her, its fragility, the inner beauty of its song hidden beneath the dull facade and its frail wings. Most of all its wings. Eirene knew by sheer circumstance of her situation she would never be able to fly away but that would never stop her trying, or dreaming at least. Before she had even made it to the end of the corridor Alexis had spun her on her heel and pressed her against the wall with one hand at her shoulder, gently, despite the anger flashing in his black eyes. The nightingale, its head tucked safe beneath its wing again as though it could not bear to witness any more, was clutched safely in Eirene's hand.

'Give me the bird.' Each word was spoken with soft deliberation. They both knew Alexis could take the little creature from the equally small girl that remained still beneath his hand that seemed to burn against her hot skin, holding her against the cool marble.

'Why? So you can sacrifice it to your strange god? I've heard those prayers you say and I know the things that the mistress tells Phoibe. You both make me sick, twisting an old lady's mind like that!' A dark frown creased his usually smooth brow as he reached out to catch Eirene's wrist in his hand, steadying it as she held the bird carefully. He tugged her forwards and ducked as he slung her slight frame over his heavy shoulder in one fluid movement.

'Put me down!' she cried in fright, extending her legs to beat her bare feet pointlessly against his chest.

'No,' Alexis growled, stalking purposefully through to the atrium, around the fountain and out to the most north-western corner of the villa where Eirene knew the private bathhouse was. She had never lived anywhere that had boasted its own bathhouse before, the old scholar had preferred, as most did, to visit the public baths. Once, at Phoibe's insistence, she had made a brief visit to the strange rooms that varied in temperature and were fed with hot water that bubbled up from beneath the villa. Eirene had found it an exact replica of the most frequented baths in the town, right down to the sky-blue, gold-starred domes in the ceiling and the woodland mural painted on the walls, but on a much smaller scale. Alexis strode right through the cold, warm and hot room without bothering to remove his sandals or his clothes. There was a brief moment when he stood Eirene on her feet, gently prising the bird from her hand before he lifted her with one arm and dumped her into the water with an unceremonious splash. He waited for her to rise from the surface, dripping and spluttering, her delicate features twisted with anger and her toga clinging to every curve of her lithe frame. Alexis pretended not to see that the thin white fabric had become transparent in the water to reveal everything that lay beneath, even under the band of fabric that wound around her breasts. His own beautiful face reflected her fury, his narrowed eyes dancing with rage at her outburst. He cupped the bird in one huge hand. Dripping and wet as she was, the defiance that danced in her dark eyes had not been quelled. She met his intense gaze steadily, though she trembled with fear at her open display of disobedience.

'Wash,' he barked, and for a moment Eirene thought he would watch, but he turned sharply and left her alone in the steaming water.

When she returned to her room sometime later dressed in a fresh toga, the light scent of perfume clinging to her clean hair and skin, it was to find Alexis standing in the centre taking up most of the space. A small ornate cage made with lace-like golden bars sat on her bed. Eirene lowered her eyes swiftly, her cheeks burning brightly as she felt Alexis' eyes settle on the small bruise beginning to form on the creamy skin of her bare shoulder where he had held her earlier. She thought she saw a little spark of sorrow in his face.

'Dominus,' she acknowledged. His gentle fingers slid beneath the point of her chin to tilt her head up so he could meet her dark eyes, fingertips brushing the silver circlet at her throat as he then lowered his hand. 'I beg forgiveness for my insolence.'

'Come, come, Eirene, we both know you don't mean that,' Alexis said, his tone stilted though his lips lifted slightly in what she believed to be amusement. 'Why does it mean so much to you, Eirene, the nightingale?' Alexis asked.

'Because he is a living, breathing creature. He has hopes and fears and dreams. That little bird is another person, except he has feathers. You don't have the right to take his life because you judge it best, no one does,' she said with a passion that coloured her gentle voice and caused her cheeks to flush hotly.

'You envy it, don't you?' he asked softly, moving his head to the left to catch her wandering eye as she glanced over at the cage. 'Its wings.'

'Yes,' the girl admitted, her fierce eyes focusing on the floor again and refusing to meet his curious look.

'You want wings, but you don't know how to use them.' He watched in fascination as a lone tear left a sparkling silvered trail down her soft cheek. Eirene shook her head helplessly at his words, frustrated at crying in front of him again.

'I'm not sure I would want to use them, Master, even if I did know how.' Her words were barely a whisper, but Alexis heard them perfectly as his hesitant hand caressed her dark head, lightly.

'You may keep the bird, Eirene' Eirene looked at the pretty cage on her bed to find the nightingale nestled safe in the straw at the bottom and her heart leapt suddenly with a joy that Alexis could see on the girl's face. 'We will forget this ever happened. I was expecting you to come to me this evening after dinner for some more studying. I have been extremely impressed with the determination and the passion you have applied to your reading lately,' he smiled, having noticed a number of his scrolls had disappeared of late from the organised mess that littered the shelves and his desk in the study. Alexis had also caught sight of Eirene hunched studiously over parchment and papyrus when she should have been setting the table for dinner or spreading out the clean linen to dry in the hot sun. He never had the heart to admonish her, or to see her reprimanded for trying to better herself and so had redirected anyone that may have come across her as her fingers skimmed over the scrawled writing and she mouthed the words silently to herself. 'But perhaps you should get some sleep instead.'

'No!' she said quickly, her eyes darting to the yellow edge of a papyrus sheaf poking out from between the straw mattress of her bed and the floor. 'I have been practicing a lot by myself. I was hoping I could show you what I have learned, Master, since our last lesson.'

'You don't think my teaching you will only serve to boost my feelings of superiority?' Alexis asked in mock surprise, which caused Eirene to chew her lower lip and shuffle her bare feet uncomfortably.

'I shouldn't have said that. I apologise. I do appreciate what you are doing for me and it is utterly unforgivable of me to have implied otherwise. Sometimes my tongue gets the better of my sensibility.' Alexis fought as hard as he could to keep the grin of amusement from his face.

'Very well. Bring all of the material you have been studying and meet me in the pergola. I will return to my study first to collect some ink and a pen. I think you should learn the finer points of writing, as punishment for your outburst and for stealing from me,' Alexis said, his eyes cast down for a moment to light on the flattened scroll that was trying to escape from beneath Eirene's bed, the smile on his face was wicked as he caught sight of the delight that danced in her eyes as he turned and walked from the room.