Dreams of a Kitten by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Dreams of a Kitten

Page 562

wounds, overhears and stabs Apaecides to death; he then pins the

crime on Glaucus, who has stumbled onto the scene. Arbaces has

himself declared the legal guardian of Ione, who is convinced

that Arbaces is her brother's murderer, and imprisons her at his

mansion. He also imprisons Nydia, who discovers that there is an

eyewitness to the murder who can prove Glaucus's innocence—the

priest Calenus, who is yet a third prisoner of Arbaces. She

smuggles a letter to Glaucus's friend Sallust, begging him to

rescue them.

Glaucus is convicted of the murder of Apaecides, Olinthus of

heresy, and their sentence is to be fed to wild cats in the

amphitheatre. All Pompeii gathers in the amphitheatre for the

bloody gladiatorial games. Just as Glaucus is led into the arena

with the lion—who, distressed by awareness of the coming

eruption, spares his life and returns to his cage—Sallust bursts

into the arena and reveals Arbaces's plot.[a] The crowd demands

that Arbaces be thrown to the lion, but it is too late: Vesuvius

begins to erupt. Ash and stone rain down, causing mass panic.

Glaucus rescues Ione from the house of Arbaces, but in the

chaotic streets they meet Arbaces, who tries to seize Ione but

is killed by a lightning strike. Nydia leads Glaucus and Ione to

safety on a ship in the Bay of Naples, as because of her

blindness she is used to going about in utter darkness while