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Jessica Stone
Category:
Historical Fiction
Publisher: Eloquent Books
Pages: 171
A story set in ancient Rome, this book follows Fulcna through her capture and search for her family. As she learns what Italia holds for her as a slave, the land holds another surprise...in Vesuvius.
My Name is Fulcna is the first in a series staring Fulcna as she searches for her family. Fulcna, an African slave in Pompeii, holds herself responsible for what happened to her family and is determined to find them and reunite their family.
Adriadne, Fulcna's mistress, is struggling to find her place in the world. She believes that she cannot slot in with the other women, but when she is forced into paths that flow away from a woman's position, she finds it harder to scandalize society and still have her heart's desire than she thought.
Nathalia, Adriadne's stepmother, does whatever she can to make life hard for the girls, to the point of poisoning Adriadne's father to gain control of the family. But when she kidnapps the girls, they are all in the gravest danger yet.
My Name is Fulcna is a children's and young adult's novel that portrays life as it was 2000 years ago. It is coming soon to places such as Amazon.com.
Excerpt
Part of Chapter 4
Wandering around the garden, Fulcna found a small pool of water with a statue of a young girl holding a tiny flower rising from the middle of it. A marble seat ran around the outside of the pool, so Fulcna sat down and trailed her hand in the water, feeling the dust wash off her hand and the skin on her fingers slowly wrinkle. The birds sang in the trees outside the garden and from a bush near her back, a single bird called to its mate with a piercing song. The warm sun beat down on Fulcna’s back, lulling her into a dream of home.
Some time later, Adriadne bounded into the garden, startling Fulcna out of her dreams by saying, “Semi for them.”
“Oh, sorry, Adriadne; I didn’t know when you finished,” Fulcna apologized hastily.
“That’s all right,” Adriadne said. “I guessed you’d probably be out here when you weren’t in my room. What’re you dreaming about?”
“Oh – nothing much,” Fulcna said. “Nothing worth talking about.”
“Sure it is.” Adriadne slid onto the cool seat and curled her legs up underneath her. “Anything you’re dreaming about after this length of time here is something I don’t know about. Come on; please tell me.”
Fulcna relented. “All right. I was thinking about home. The hot sun, the golden sands, the feeling when you saw an oasis after a week with one gourd of water left – there’s nothing that can equal it. I love Africa. It’s all I’ve ever known in my life, and my heart’s there, even while I’m here. Life was hard, but we battled through. And the land grew to be a special part of me in a way that this land will never be.” Fulcna paused for a moment. “Adriadne, I don’t even know where I am. I know there’s a mountain behind the town below this villa and a bay below the town, but I don’t know where I am in relation to where I was. The slave traders never told us, and we were only worried about surviving then. Now, I need to know.”
“I never thought of that,” Adriadne said slowly. “I guess I never thought about that slaves have family as well as free people, that you’ve got a past life as well as me. You’re in Italia, Fulcna, many miles north of Africa. The town below is called Pompeii. The mountain is named Vesuvius. The bay’s the Bay of Naples. It’s really busy. Pompeii and Herculaneum are near each other, but Herculaneum’s for the rich and famous to have yet another villa for their holidays, whereas Pompeii’s just a normal town. Pater named our villa ‘Vista Villa’ for the view we have over the town and the bay and Vesuvius. We rarely ever refer to it as that, though, unless we’re sending someone a message and giving an address for them to reply to. We just call it home.”
“Home to me is still in the dry desert,” Fulcna said, “with sand flying behind my camel and Havanna scolding me for acting younger than I am.”
A swallow swept across the grass from a bush in the garden. It pecked a bug from the ground, then soared into the air and flew out of sight.
Fulcna sighed. “I wish sometimes that I were a bird. An eagle, to fly above the storms, or a raven, always waiting for dry land to appear, but strong enough to wait it out. Then I could fly away and find my family. As it is, I’m stuck here, not knowing if their masters and mistresses are kind or cruel, what sort of work they’re doing, not knowing if I’ll ever see them again.”
Adriadne did not speak for several minutes. Fulcna glanced over, fearing that she had offended the girl. But Adriadne sat still on the seat, staring over the water of the pool, as if she had not heard Fulcna.
“I never realized,” Adriadne said eventually. “I never thought – I’ve always had slaves around me and I never thought about them as people. They were just things to order around and do as I wished. Their duty is to ensure my happiness. I have no need to worry about them. They don’t really matter in life. If a slave dies or is too old to do any good, you just buy a new one and get on with your life. I never thought about how it affected the slaves themselves as people.”
“It’s the way you’ve been taught,” Fulcna said. “I was brought up in freedom. I am the daughter of the clan’s leader. I held a position of respect and responsibility. Our clan was respected throughout the desert because we were great in number and in strength. It’s hard adjusting to being a slave.”
Adriadne twisted her hair around her little finger on her right hand for a minute before speaking. “I’ll help you find your family, Fulcna. If there’s any way, we’ll do it together.”
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