[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
you might as well be a potted plant.
That stung, especially because it was true. Amanda's chin went up. So what?
Jeremy held up a hand. Look, I know it's no big thing. Everybody you've
skinned on a deal here knows it's no big thing. But if you go try to talk to
the city prefect, what will he and his flunkies see? A girl. Guys like that
are like principals they can't see past the end of their noses.
The principal at Canoga Park High was a woman. That didn't spoil Jeremy's
point: Ms. Williams definitely couldn't see past the end of her nose. Amanda
sighed. All right, she said. No, not all right, because it isn't. But I can
see why you've got to be the one who goes. Macho! She spat that out as if it
were the dirtiest word ever invented. Right then, she felt it was.
Most alternates that haven't had an industrial revolution are like this,
Jeremy said. If you don't have machines, size and strength count for more than
they do with us. Guys don't have babies, either.
It's still not right/' Amanda said.
Did I tell you it was? Her brother gave her a don't-blame-rne look. But even
if it's not even though it's not it's real.
And that was also true,, and also stung. But the next day, Jeremy went to see
the city prefect. Amanda went to the public water fountain with a jug on her
hip to listen to the talk there. That's what people here think women are good
for, she thought. Carrying water and gossip. And I can't even rock the boat.
There was gossip, too plenty of it. A plump woman with an enormous wart on
the end of her nose spoke in important tones: I hear the city prefect ordered
all the Lietuvan traders out of Polisso last night.
No, that isn't true, the slave girl named Maria said. A lot of them are
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
leaving, but they're leaving on their own.
How do you know so much? The woman with the wart not a regular at the
fountain looked down her nose past it at the slave.
Maria didn't get angry. Amanda had never seen her get angry. Maybe that was
because she was a slave and couldn't afford to. Maybe it was because she was a
Christian what they called a strong Christian here, not an Imperial
Christian and didn't believe in it. Or maybe she was just a nice person. She
said, I pray with a girl who serves at the inn where the Lietuvans stay.
That's what she told me.
Well, I heard my news from someone who heard it from the city prefect's second
secretary's cousin's hairdresser, the plump woman said.
Amanda laughed out loud. If that woman thought her account trumped what an
eyewitness said... But a couple of the other ladies filling water jugs were
nodding, too. They must have believed it did. Both of them were free and
fairly prosperous. As far as Amanda could see, both of them were also fairly
dumb.
Too bad they'll let the Lietuvans go, one of those ladies said. We could hold
them for hostages in case the barbarians attack.
What would the Lietuvans do to Romans they caught, then? Amanda asked. She
didn't call the woman a jerk, no matter what she thought.
Well, they'd do that anyway. They are barbarians, the woman answered. All the
women gathered around the fountain nodded this time. Maybe the Lietuvans
really did do horrible things to any Romans they caught. Maybe the Romans just
thought they did. How was anybody supposed to know for sure? Go out and let
the Lietuvans capture you? That didn't seem like a good idea to Amanda.
A squad of soldiers marched by. Nobody in Agrippan Rome had ever heard of the
wolf whistle, but the men in the dull red surcoats had no trouble getting the
message across. Guys in Los Angeles usually weren't so crude. Amanda turned
her back on the soldiers. That only made them laugh.
Some of the other women just ignored the men's leers and gestures and
suggestions. A few of them smiled back, though. That horrified Amanda. If they
encouraged the soldiers, those men would go right on acting that way. They
would think they were right to act that way.
How could she say that, so someone who'd spent her whole life in Agrippan Rome
would understand? It wasn't easy. People here took lots of things for granted
that nobody in the home timeline would have put up with for a minute. The best
Amanda could do was, If you give them a smile, they'll only want more.
Maybe I will, too, dearie, a woman twice her age said. Everybody except Amanda
laughed. And she didn't push it any more. What was the use? She wasn't going
to change this alternate single-handed.
She wished she hadn't had that thought. If she really was stuck here, how much
would this alternate end up changing her?
Six
The city prefect was a moon-faced, middle-aged man named Sesto Capurnio and
nicknamed Gemino, which meant he was one of a set of twins. As far as Jeremy
knew, the other half of the pair didn't live in Polisso. Jeremy didn't know
whether that meant he lived in some other town or wasn't alive at all.
Sesto Capurnio collected modern art. That meant something different here from
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
Page 42
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
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
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 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl ocenkijessi.opx.pl
you might as well be a potted plant.
That stung, especially because it was true. Amanda's chin went up. So what?
Jeremy held up a hand. Look, I know it's no big thing. Everybody you've
skinned on a deal here knows it's no big thing. But if you go try to talk to
the city prefect, what will he and his flunkies see? A girl. Guys like that
are like principals they can't see past the end of their noses.
The principal at Canoga Park High was a woman. That didn't spoil Jeremy's
point: Ms. Williams definitely couldn't see past the end of her nose. Amanda
sighed. All right, she said. No, not all right, because it isn't. But I can
see why you've got to be the one who goes. Macho! She spat that out as if it
were the dirtiest word ever invented. Right then, she felt it was.
Most alternates that haven't had an industrial revolution are like this,
Jeremy said. If you don't have machines, size and strength count for more than
they do with us. Guys don't have babies, either.
It's still not right/' Amanda said.
Did I tell you it was? Her brother gave her a don't-blame-rne look. But even
if it's not even though it's not it's real.
And that was also true,, and also stung. But the next day, Jeremy went to see
the city prefect. Amanda went to the public water fountain with a jug on her
hip to listen to the talk there. That's what people here think women are good
for, she thought. Carrying water and gossip. And I can't even rock the boat.
There was gossip, too plenty of it. A plump woman with an enormous wart on
the end of her nose spoke in important tones: I hear the city prefect ordered
all the Lietuvan traders out of Polisso last night.
No, that isn't true, the slave girl named Maria said. A lot of them are
Page 41
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
leaving, but they're leaving on their own.
How do you know so much? The woman with the wart not a regular at the
fountain looked down her nose past it at the slave.
Maria didn't get angry. Amanda had never seen her get angry. Maybe that was
because she was a slave and couldn't afford to. Maybe it was because she was a
Christian what they called a strong Christian here, not an Imperial
Christian and didn't believe in it. Or maybe she was just a nice person. She
said, I pray with a girl who serves at the inn where the Lietuvans stay.
That's what she told me.
Well, I heard my news from someone who heard it from the city prefect's second
secretary's cousin's hairdresser, the plump woman said.
Amanda laughed out loud. If that woman thought her account trumped what an
eyewitness said... But a couple of the other ladies filling water jugs were
nodding, too. They must have believed it did. Both of them were free and
fairly prosperous. As far as Amanda could see, both of them were also fairly
dumb.
Too bad they'll let the Lietuvans go, one of those ladies said. We could hold
them for hostages in case the barbarians attack.
What would the Lietuvans do to Romans they caught, then? Amanda asked. She
didn't call the woman a jerk, no matter what she thought.
Well, they'd do that anyway. They are barbarians, the woman answered. All the
women gathered around the fountain nodded this time. Maybe the Lietuvans
really did do horrible things to any Romans they caught. Maybe the Romans just
thought they did. How was anybody supposed to know for sure? Go out and let
the Lietuvans capture you? That didn't seem like a good idea to Amanda.
A squad of soldiers marched by. Nobody in Agrippan Rome had ever heard of the
wolf whistle, but the men in the dull red surcoats had no trouble getting the
message across. Guys in Los Angeles usually weren't so crude. Amanda turned
her back on the soldiers. That only made them laugh.
Some of the other women just ignored the men's leers and gestures and
suggestions. A few of them smiled back, though. That horrified Amanda. If they
encouraged the soldiers, those men would go right on acting that way. They
would think they were right to act that way.
How could she say that, so someone who'd spent her whole life in Agrippan Rome
would understand? It wasn't easy. People here took lots of things for granted
that nobody in the home timeline would have put up with for a minute. The best
Amanda could do was, If you give them a smile, they'll only want more.
Maybe I will, too, dearie, a woman twice her age said. Everybody except Amanda
laughed. And she didn't push it any more. What was the use? She wasn't going
to change this alternate single-handed.
She wished she hadn't had that thought. If she really was stuck here, how much
would this alternate end up changing her?
Six
The city prefect was a moon-faced, middle-aged man named Sesto Capurnio and
nicknamed Gemino, which meant he was one of a set of twins. As far as Jeremy
knew, the other half of the pair didn't live in Polisso. Jeremy didn't know
whether that meant he lived in some other town or wasn't alive at all.
Sesto Capurnio collected modern art. That meant something different here from
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
Page 42
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
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
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 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]