Saul’s voice faltered song as soon as he realized he wasn’t alone. Disappointment crossed the faces of those gathered around his bed, charmed by his simple yet gloomy melody.
The slaves were not the only ones attracted by the song. Flavius opened his eyes and realized that he wasn’t dreaming; that the melody must have been real. Who is singing at this time of the night?
He stood up and walked toward the door of his room, trying to determine where the music came from. When he realized it was emanating from the slaves’ quarters, he immediately thought that Saul was probably the singer and smiled.
He went back to his bed, closed his eyes, and let the melody soothe his soul, hoping Saul would sing it again, but only for him.
Marcus Tiberius awoke at the same moment that Saul stopped singing. He looked at his wife, peacefully sleeping by his side, and felt unsure whether he just had a dream or if someone was singing in their house.
“Saul, darling, that was the most charming song I've ever heard, or maybe it was just your voice that made it magic,” Nana said as she walked to him.
Saul stood up from his bed and looked at her as if he was waking from a dream. He didn’t realize that somebody had heard him. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t want to disturb anyone.”
“You didn’t disturb me at all, but I hope none of our Masters heard it and were annoyed, or you might face your first punishment.”
Saul felt regretful and afraid that their Masters had heard him; his heart was beating faster in anticipation of what sort of punishment he had to expect for such behavior. The curious thing was, he had never sung before.
Cassandra entered the room, looking around whether she could hear any noise coming from the rooms of their Masters. “Nana, now you are the one who is scaring the boy. Apparently, nobody heard him, or they would have been here already.”
“My mother used to sing it when I couldn’t fall asleep.” He couldn’t stop the tears pooling in his eyes. “I miss her so much.”
Nana sat on his bed and held him tightly against her. “Saul, darling, I am so sorry. Please don’t cry. Everything will be fine, and we will be your family. I know I can’t be like your mother, but I will be whenever you need me, when you can’t fall asleep, or whenever else. We all feel like that sometimes; we all miss our families, our houses, our countries, whatever meant home to our hearts, but rules are rules,”
Cassandra motioned to the other slaves to leave the room. “Come on, you all, let’s leave them alone, and not a word about it to our Masters. If none of us heard that song, then there will be no trouble for Saul.”
Nana continued to caress Saul, tracing soothing circles on his back. “Shh.”
Cassandra whispered. “Everything is calm. It is time for us to go to rest as well.”
“Shh, he just fell asleep.” Nana eased him onto the bed.
“He’s so cute.” With a gentle hand, Cassandra removed the ribbon from his hair. “Tomorrow, I will fix his hair before he goes to school.”
The rest of the night passed peacefully, yet too soon, Rufus came to wake Saul up.
“It’s time to get prepared for Master Flavius,” he said, gently shaking his shoulder.
Automatically, Saul got up rubbing his eyes with the back of his hands. He tried to recollect his thoughts, and as he realized where he was, he grabbed his new clothes and walked to the same pool where he bathed the day before to wash his face. He glanced the surroundings still immersed in the semi-darkness of the dawn, slowly waking up from the drowsiness, and walked to the kitchen.
He felt already hungry, and he got something to eat, while Cassandra combed his hair the way she did the day before. When he was ready to present himself to Flavius, Rufus accompanied him.
“Good morning, Master,” Saul greeted, shaking Flavius on his bed warily.
Flavius opened his eyes and yawned. “Good morning, Saul. Are you ready for your first day of school?”
“Yes, I am.” The lump in his throat eased when Flavius said nothing about hearing singing.
As Saul helped him dress, Flavius chuckled, “I noticed someone singing last night, and I guess I know who it was.”
Cold shivers of fear traced a path down his backbone. “I am truly sorry. Did your father wake up?” He tried to control the trembling that was taking over his body.
“Don’t you worry. You are not in trouble, and I am not going to tell anyone,” Flavius reassured him.
“Thank you. I promise it will never happen again.”
“I hope it will. I love your voice, and I liked the melody. You have to sing for me when I ask you.”
“When you order me, I will obey,” Saul lowered his head, unable to hide his smile of relief.
“Let’s go to school,” Flavius said rushing to dress up and get ready to leave, helped by Rufus.
Saul grabbed the bag with the waxed tablet and slung it over his shoulder. His knees threatened to buckle under the weight, but he could not withdraw his words; therefore, he had to carry them at least for that day. He hoped that the school was not too far from their house.
They started their journey in the semi-darkness of the early morning hours, proceeding silently. Saul concentrated on carrying the bag.
“That bag must be heavy for you to carry,” Flavius said, stopping for a moment at the side of the road.
“It is; Rufus allowed me to carry your tablets for today, but I am wondering whether this was a good idea,” Saul said between pants.
“Or I can carry mine.”
“No. It is my task.” Saul placed the bag on the ground, massaging his aching shoulder to rest a bit.
“I don’t care what I am or what I’m not supposed to do. I do what I want, and you shall not question me,” Flavius warned, taking his tablets from the bag.
Saul hung his head. “Thank you. I thought I could do it.”
“Now it will be lighter,” Flavius said, starting to walk away.
Saul lifted the bag on his shoulders, relieved at how much lighter it felt. He rushed to catch up to Flavius.
As he caught up, Flavius said, “I like Rufus not being with us. Let’s do this every day. When we arrive at this exact point, I will carry my tablets. Since I’m not going to tell anyone, nobody will know that I am helping you.”
“It is very kind of you. You are totally different from your father,” Saul observed. He understood he should have been more diplomatic in his statements and wondered whether giving such an honest opinion about his own Master could be considered disrespectful.
“I don’t like his attitude either, but he is very demanding toward me as well. This is his way. I've heard some people treat their slaves more cruelly than their horses. I guess it was only by the favor of the gods that your people were enslaved rather than us. Maybe one day I might be sold as a slave; the gods can be vengeful,” he said as they walked the streets, past vendors setting up their stalls.
The sun rising in the sky promised a hot day as it chased away the chilly air of dawn.
“Here we are. This is our teacher's house. He was once a slave, but then he was freed,” Flavius explained as they approached the entrance divided from the street by a simple curtain made of rough canvas. The curtain was leading to a room. A heavy wooden door divided that room from the house of the teacher.
For a moment, Saul wondered whether he could also hope for freedom one day.
A young boy greeted them, with a disdainful smirk on his face. “Flavius, you are late.”
“Caius, maybe you arrived earlier than usual, rather than I am late. Anyway, this is Saul.”