When we searched Varinia's house we didn't have to look far to find the scrolls and letters she held dear. She had a room, which was the same the Senator had used as an archives room. It was all there, the scrolls, the letters, the parchments. A treasure of information, mostly dealing with the doings and commerce of the Senator and later the woman he loved, Spartacus' wife.

There were deeds to the lands she owned and to the slaves she held. I was surprised to find that all of the slaves in her household were free. They remained faithful servants, but they were free and some even had deeds to portions of the land and rights to the use of what they produced on them.

Was that the way she was raising her army? Rewarding her people with lands and freedom?

I could no longer ask her most trusted servant.

I grabbed, again, the servant's head, after the hitting with the thin rod. She was still crying in pain, begging for mercy but was not answering my questions.

"Where does your lady keep her secret documents?", I demanded again.

"There are no se..se...secret documents, e...e.....everything isss...in..in..the room....the....archives room....", the woman cried out in pain.

"I.. I have no...no..nothing to say....you..you...can kill me now...my...my lady is a good woman.....".

I don't know if I was angry at her for her refusal to divulge what she knew, or to myself for trying to force a confession that didn't exist, but I screamed again.

"Tell me, who is the leader of her army!", and ordered the torturer to tighten the rack another level.

The man moved the wheel to the second level, stretching the woman beyond her capacity to resist, I heard the creaking of the wood and her piercing scream, as the shackles cut into her skin.

The crowds witnessing the execution of the Thracian woman were getting restless, I was afraid they were going to overcome the guards to rescue their leader. Even if they were divided and sometimes even fought each other in bloody confrontations, the Thracians were a proud people.

Watching one of their own, and one who was such a symbol to them, executed in this cruel and slow way was good cause to fight us, I feared. But they were not reacting openly, just growing restless.

Still, I called a guard and ordered him to go for reinforcements.

When the guard parted to carry out my instructions I turned back to the woman who was the victim of my clever plotting.

I didn't have mush information to go on, so I had to invent some and make it sound credible. That's how I came up with a clever plot.

I ordered the torturer to push the wheel to the third level. He did. The wheel creaked painfully, as it was forced into the third teeth of the gear, I heard the snapping sounds of the woman's bones breaking out of joint. She screamed in agonizing pain and fainted.

The torturer threw water at her to make her recover, but she didn't. He took a hot, red iron and applied it to her breast, the searing sound of burning flesh gave way to the shrill scream of the woman as she woke to the new pain.

I rushed to grab her head again, to question her.

"Tell me now who the leader is!" "Is it Rhescuporis?", I asked. "Have you seen him in the house?".

"Nnnno....", she replied. "I only have one leader...she whispered...My Lady Varinia...she's the only one for me...".

"Does she have an army?", I asked.

"I'm her army.", she replied, before fainting again.

Varinia was having a difficult time standing straight with the heavy log on her shoulders, from time to time she leaned to the sides, her body, at least, since her neck was always in place.

She was the leader, of course, the leader of a small group of servants and friends who obeyed her every command, her faithful army of nobodies who were not an army of soldiers but a small group of loyal followers.

But they were the seeds of an army.

I was convinced that Varinia was working towards that goal, that she was plotting to join the rebel tribes against the Empire, and under her leadership.

After questioning her servant, I no longer believed that she was a pawn in the ambitions of one such as Rhescuporis,or anybody else. In fact, I thought she was more a threat to them than to the Empire.

The lash cut more of Varinia's flesh as I moved towards her, to watch her suffering up close.