Chapter One

An Edict of the Emperor

Julia walked slowly down the hall, running one hand along the rough stone wall, her footsteps echoing eerily in the near-silence. She had walked this passage so many, many times that she knew it by heart. But she had never walked it without reaching out toward the wall for support. Twelve years of darkness… she knew she should be able to move on her own by now. But there was always this fear somewhere deep inside of her that kept her clinging to the wall.

She paused as she reached the door, putting a hand out to ensure she didn't walk into it. That had happened before… and it wasn't pleasant. Heaving her heavy basket to the floor, she slipped the iron keys from her pocket and slipped one into the lock with deft fingers. In another moment, the door swung open, creaking on rusty hinges, and she stepped into the passageway beyond. This was the outer corridor of the prison… the only one she was allowed to traverse. Her father would never dream of letting her closer to the center of the prison where the most dangerous prisoners where kept. Only the guards were allowed into those depths of horror and Julia was thankful that this was so. Her soul shrank from the thought of those desperate men entombed down there in an even thicker darkness than the one that defined her world.

She moved slowly but surely as she walked through the hallways, stooping to slide a plate of food through the trapdoor at the bottom of each of the cell doors and remove the plate from the day before. The men here were mostly silent as she walked her rounds, although she knew that they could see her for a wide window, set with bars, was cut into each of the cell doors. They ignored her for the most part, although a few called out rough insults and bawdy comments. She, too, had learned to ignore and so she steeled herself against their words, continuing on, no matter what anyone said to her. One man reached out between the bars and grasped her wrist as she passed.

"Oh, ain't ye the pretty one?" she could feel his grip tighten around her wrist as he pulled her closer, her body colliding with the rough door.

"Let me go!" she cried angrily, twisting her arm violently in a desperate effort to get free. All at once she managed to break away as he loosened his grip and she fell along the passageway, biting back angry words as she rose unsteadily to her feet. The man was laughing, and other joining in as she groped for her basket, turning her face so that they wouldn't see her tears. She berated herself, silently, for standing too near the window. This had happened before. Would she never learn? With an indignant gesture, she brushed her tears away and lifted her head higher. She would not act foolishly. Best just to quickly finish her work and make her way back home again.

The little house where Julia lived with her mother and father was built onto one side of the prison. This was her entire world… except, perhaps for the meadow just beyond the prison walls… the meadow she loved above any other place she had ever known. Sometimes she ventured out to the temple of Jupiter… but she hated going there. So many times she had prayed and never once an answer of any kind. But she visited the marketplace as often as she possibly could. She never did it alone… it was too dangerous… always with her father, or with Daniel. And she much preferred going with Daniel. He was the one person in all the world, it seemed, to whom her blindness did not matter. He never seemed to cast it up to her in any way, as her family did constantly, although they didn't mean to hurt her by their careless words. When she was with Daniel, she somehow seemed to forget that she was different.

Julia pushed open the back door to her little home, setting down her basket of empty plates with a sigh of relief as she turned toward the fire. She couldn't see the slightest flicker of light but yet its comforting warmth and cheery crackling always served to make her feel better. She knew the room by heart… the seventeen steps it took to cross from one side to the other… the table in the far right corner, the loom sitting to the left of the fire. She knew just where each kind of dried herb and fruit hung in its own assigned place from the rafters and where the respective cups, bowls, and plates were stacked in the cupboards along the north wall. And she knew, too, that someone was in the room that day… someone other than her mother, whom she could hear working the loom by the fire.

"Who has come?" she called out as she turned expectantly toward the door, for she could sense someone standing there. She no longer felt it strange, this ability of hers to sense what she could not see. It had developed quickly once her sight had gone and was a part of life to her.

"It's me, Julia," a familiar voice answered with a friendly laugh. "The wind has died down and the sun is warm… will you come for a walk in the meadow?"

"Aye, Daniel, gladly!" she moved forward, reaching out into the darkness, smiling as she felt his hand, strong and reassuring, close around hers.

oOo

It was early spring and the world was beautiful then... just breaking forth from the grey of winter gloom. Julia felt it as she lifted her face to the sky, relishing the warmth of the sun and the fresh breezes of the spring winds. But the streets were crowded and she could scarcely wait to break free of the city limits… out to the meadow where everything was quiet and peaceful and calm. The crowds were pressing, surging through the streets and the conversation was so confused, so jumbled, that no clear words could be heard.

"Aren't there more people on the streets than usual?" Julia frowned. "Has something happened? I am certain there are no games at the Colosseum today."

"I didn't hear of anything happening at the Colosseum," Daniel answered uncertainly. "But something must have happened. I can't remember when I've seen so many people… seeming so upset."

"Hi there, watch where you're going, wench!"

Julia cried out as someone pushed past her roughly. She reached out, instinctively, felt Daniel's arm around her shoulders as he pulled her back, heard him yelling angrily.

"You watch where you're going. She's blind, she can't see you!"

"Have you heard the emperor's new edict?" another voice asked, but hurriedly moved out of range. Julia lifted her head sharply, alarm shooting through her heart.

"An edict?" she turned toward Daniel who was hurrying on, gripping her hand firmly. "What do you suppose could have happened?"

"I'm not leaving the city until I find out," Daniel answered as he pressed on, meandering his way through the crowd. The noise by now was frantic and people seemed to be terribly angry. What could it be? War? Invasion? A plague?

"Hear ye, hear ye, good citizens of Rome!" someone was calling from a street corner and Daniel stopped abruptly.

"Here's one of the emperor's heralds," he whispered. "Now we shall hear something."

"A new edict from Claudius, the great and powerful, the emperor of Rome, May Jupiter bless him forever! Henceforth, shall all marriages be banned throughout the empire of Rome and any priest or person who performs a marriage ceremony be put to death. By order of the divine emperor of Rome!"

A murmur of horror swept the crowd and Julia winced as Daniel's grip tightened on her hand.

"This cannot be true!" someone cried from the crowd. "An edict against marriage? No one can do that! Marriage is an institute of God… by attacking marriage, the emperor is attacking families… and families are the backbone of our society!"

"Watch your speech, Valentine!" came the angry answer. "You're speaking treason."

"Has the herald gone?" Julia murmured. "That man, whomever he is, will surely be arrested if he is heard by the wrong person."

"Aye, he's gone." Daniel answered absently. "I… Julia… I don't know what to say. What can be done?"

"Nothing, I suppose," Julia shrugged. "But I, at least, am one person whom this edict doesn't affect. As father says, I have no chance at marriage anyway. But this is indeed a horrible thing. And why? Why would he outlaw marriage?"