Athenian Slave (Book 2)

Chapter 43

AN - Hi everyone, thanks so much for being so patient, i know it has been sometime, but between moving house, having no internet connection, sorting out the new house and having the characters from my Highland series driving me mad with the events all coming to me quicker than i could write, i have only just got around to this once more! Hope this lives up to the expectations, and you enjoy it! Azx

Chapter 43

Life was a strange, beautiful and confounding thing at times. It never truly made sense, and you were never fully in control of it, not really, and if you thought you were, it was never for long. As much as Charmion was swept along with the direction the current of life was taking her, she could not fully understand or grasp what was happening until it was done. Her life was set out by fate from birth. Set to follow a certain path in a certain way, and now she knew for certain that whatever each and every one of the people upon the earth thought, they could never fully understand what was to come. No matter where you thought you would end up, even if you follow the path you thought would be, the outcome was never predictable.

So as she stood in a new tunic of the softest material she had ever worn, looking out over the vista before her from the window in the room she now owned along with Alexios, in name as well as heart. Seeing the sun set in a blaze of reds and purples staining the sky in a glorious show, as if to show the world that as big as a man thought he was, the world itself was bigger, and more majestic. Putting the ambition of the proudest most powerful man to shame.

Her three day wedding was over, the party still going on in the main courtyard. All the slaves owned by Alexios freed, her smile was soft upon her face as the colours of the setting sun hit her face as the sun rays caressed her with their dying warmth. He had claimed it was a gift to his new wife, that if he had freed her to marry, he had to prove that he was not ‘one of those men’ who only saw a beautiful face and offered and ultimatum. His proof of this was to free all, they would be given a piece of gold for each of their years of slave hood. Any who wished to leave the household could do so, but they had to leave on the morrow. Any still left by midday, would be employed by him and given coin for their servitude. The looks upon their faces had shown the varying emotions which Charmion herself had gone through upon being told she was free.

She had to admit, her new husband was exceedingly clever in how he worded a situation to gain the outcome he wished. For she was sure that not one of those she had shared a common fate with would leave upon the morrow. He had made certain of that with the promise of more than most of those paid in the city would achieve in a life time. By the end of his little speech he had invited them all to dine together with the other guests of nobility which had descended upon them. As freemen and women they had rejoiced, but some had seen it their duty to carry on serving as it was now with pride…and pay…they serve the household to which they freely belong.

Having being dedicated to the gods and goddesses, and pledged themselves before the shrines as the offerings were made, they had pledged themselves to each other, the feasts had been decadent and beyond her very imaginings. She had never expected anything to happen to her the likes of this. As a child the best she had dreamed of for herself was to be married off to one of the village boys. Sharing a friendship with them as she could vaguely remember her eldest sister Elpis had had with her betrothed. She had a momentary pang in her heart as she thought about the family she could hardly remember, not knowing whether they were alive or dead, or if they were alive would they wish to be dead? She had wished herself that way plenty enough times, had her family as well? Closing her eyes against the pain building in her chest.