Rule of God (Book Three of the Dominium Dei Trilogy) Read Online Free

Vineyard.”
    He couldn’t hide his disappointment, and this seemed to surprise her.
    “Your prayer is answered, Samuel. No more hellholes like the rest of us. You get to live at the estate, serve the visiting dignitaries and drink the same wine as the Dovilins.”
    “Why me?” he asked her.
    “Well, you’re not a woman, Samuel, and you’re certainly no follower of Christ,” she explained. “So why shouldn’t the Dovilins judge you worthy enough to join them? Now get yourself to the stables behind the villa. Leave your counting scroll. I’ll be your relief for the rest of the day.”
    He watched her sink her knees into the wet soil by the ditch and start counting to herself. She looked like a little girl, so small and frail and yet made of iron. He stood there a while, wanting her to say something else, anything. But she didn’t, wouldn’t even acknowledge he was still lurking. Finally he walked away across the vineyard toward the villa.
    When he reached the stables behind the Dovilin villa, his pack from the caves was already waiting for him in a large bunk room built to house a dozen or so of the “First Fruits,” who were all muscular, clean-shaven and well-scrubbed young men in crisp staff tunics. The head of staff was big Brutus himself from the house. Athanasius wondered if he had gone through his pack again, but when he opened it he found his small lead vial of poison still in its hidden pocket.
    “We have everything you need here,” said a lilting voice, and Athanasius closed his sack and turned to see Cota, Dovilin’s daughter-in-law and Vibius’s wife, looking at him with an arch smile and holding out a folded tunic for him. “Even a bathhouse. Let me show you.”
    Aware of the stares of Brutus and the other First Fruits, he followed her out back to indeed find a bathhouse and beyond it the outdoor kitchen where the young women of the estate prepared and cooked food.
    “You’ll need a good bath before dinner, Samuel. It’s time to get the dust of the field off that body of yours. Some Roman officials have arrived, and you’ll help with the service.”
    Athanasius nodded, although the mention of Roman officials worried him. “I appreciate the honor of working at the villa, but I am afraid I am depriving you of my greatest gift.”
    “Now what might that be, Samuel?” she asked with exaggerated interest.
    “If we could meet privately in the Angel’s Vault tonight, perhaps I could show you.”
    She frowned. “What could you show me in the Angel’s Vault that you couldn’t show me out here?”
    “What I can do with your amphorae,” he told her innocently. “I know a way to create an amphora with walls half as thin and twice as strong. Smaller amphorae on the outside allow as much or more wine on the inside, and enable Dovilin Vineyards to transport almost a third as many amphorae for the same weight and price as yours do now.”
    “That is interesting,” she said, absent of any interest in the subject at all, but moving closer to him and putting a finger on his chest. “What else could you show me?”
    “If you would be amenable to opening just one amphora, I could see if you are coating the insides with the proper quality and quantity of resin. I have a formula that not only preserves the wine during transport but can help in aging it properly during its travels.”
    “I do think taste is paramount,” she said, licking her painted lips. “You’ll let me taste this resin of yours?”
    “Absolutely, Mistress Cota. I want you to be satisfied with my labor above all else.”
    “Well, then, let me see what I can do, Samuel. And if this new formula works, and I am satisfied, then perhaps we can discuss it further with my husband and father-in-law.”
    Athanasius put on a big, earnest smile. “God bless you.”
    “Now let Cassiopia help bathe you, and Brutus can massage those hard, tired muscles.”
    “I don’t think that’s necessary, Mistress Cota,” he said shyly. “But a