Chapter XXII Lela
XXII
LELA
They both entered the bedchamber as I tied a rope belt around the loose tunic and stepped out to greet them. Koska was drenched from the rain and wearing a hooded cloak. He flicked it back before noticing me and started in surprise.
“Why aren’t you at Fausta’s?” he asked me.
“Because she’s dead,” I answered evenly.
Koska froze and looked at Trajan. “Bellona?” he asked fearfully. “Is she—”
“She’s okay. She’s alive and well,” Trajan assured him.
“Bona dea.” Koska clutched his chest. “What happened?”
“One of the guards who stopped us in the litter on the way to Fausta’s last night recognized Lela,” Trajan added. “He showed up and executed Fausta on the spot.”
Koska blinked. “So now what?”
Trajan stepped around us toward his wardrobe. I heard a drawer open and close then the jingling of coins. He returned and handed over a small pouch to Koska.
“Find Euphemia’s port worker.”
“And what am I to tell him?” asked Koska.
“We need a ship, to go out right after sunset. One that can carry and hide three people.”
“Three?” I asked.
Trajan held my gaze. “Lela, my grandfather … and me.”
I swallowed and tried to still my pulse, relieved beyond belief that he was coming with us. Then I asked, “Is your grandfather in danger now?”
He nodded.
“Because of me?” I asked.
“Because of me. I chose to involve Fausta. Now she’s dead.” Pain was etched in his brow. And guilt. “Euphemia’s smuggler isn’t ideal. We don’t know that he’s trustworthy. But all we need is for him to get us out of the city tonight, and then he can say whatever he wants.”
“Wait,” interrupted Koska. “Does that mean you’re leaving for good? That it’s all over?”
“Why would you say that?” Trajan asked.
“Your and Julian’s plan was always to infiltrate and attack from inside of Rome. To get close to Caesar and attack from within.”
“It was,” he said coolly. “But now that I know how many spies he has, it’s simply too dangerous. We’ll have to do it another way.”
“You have a plan?” I asked.
“Yes.” His mouth ticked up in a cocky smile. “We discovered another plan together. In the dungeons of the Mamertine Prison.”
“Alaric,” I stated.
Trajan nodded.
“What if he refuses?” asked Koska. “I mean Euphemia’s smuggler.”
“He won’t. He’s been smuggling for small purses. He’ll definitely take the risk for a big one.” He pointed to the pouch in Koska’s hand. “There’s enough there for him, his captain, and the entire crew to retire after this one job.”
Koska gulped and tucked the pouch carefully away within the folds of his cloak. “Do I give him a name or a code so that he knows you’re the purse?”
“Bloodsinger,” said Trajan.
I returned his smile this time, noting how extraordinarily attractive he was, standing there so confident and brave when it could all fall apart tonight. When we could die tonight.
“I see,” said Koska. “What … what would you have me do in your absence? Or are you finished with my services?”
We both turned to Koska. He hid it well, but there was a subtle dip to his inflection. He was sad to lose Trajan.
“Koska.” Trajan stepped toward the brawny man, and yet Trajan still towered over him as he gripped his shoulders.
“You will keep your eyes and ears open and stay safe. I’ll return by Lupercalia and will need your help.
Then you can leave the city with me, if you so choose.
I’ll always need a good, trusted man like you. ”
The bull of a man looked down and blushed, his cheeks growing pink.
“Yes, sir.” He cleared his throat and puffed out his chest, looking up at Trajan with earnestness. “I won’t let you down. I’ll be your eyes and ears here in the city. You can find me at my apartment in the Aventine when you return at Lupercalia.”
“Thank you, my friend. I need you to also get word to Horatius right away. Ask him to send a litter tonight with my grandfather in it. Just a minute.”
Trajan left the room toward his study, taking a few moments before returning with a few things in his hands. He handed over a folded piece of parchment to Koska first. “Tell Horatius to use a nondescript litter with no markings of any dragon house. Everything is explained in there.”
“Certainly, sir.”
“One more thing.” He lifted two scrolls from his tunic.
He must’ve gotten them from his study when I was dressing.
“Give this to Alba an hour after we’ve left for the party tonight.
It will tell her where I’ve stashed denarii for each of the slaves in the kitchen and to urge them to find a safe place to hide in the city.
I doubt Caesar will bother looking for them, but if they’re here when it’s discovered I’ve escaped the city, the praetorians will most assuredly torture them for any information. Make sure they understand that.”
Koska nodded. “It will be done. I know people who will help them.”
“Good. Thank you. That reminds me. I have something for you as well. While I’m gone and when you speak to the plebs in the Aventine, let them know a revolution is coming.”
Trajan handed him a scroll. Koska unrolled it and read. I could see the blue Sapphirus wax seal on the page. Koska cleared his throat again, shifting nervously.
“You do me a great honor in trusting me with your seal and confidence, sir.”
“And if that’s not enough, show them this.
” Trajan handed over his gladius in its scabbard.
“This will be proof when you are gathering the plebs, assuring them that a new, better age is dawning. They must trust us, that we, my grandfather, Julian, and the other liberators of dragonkind, want a new, free Rome.”
Koska’s eyes widened as he took the gladius in both palms like it was a sacred object. To the Romans, I suppose it was.
“I-I don’t know what to say, Tribune.”
Trajan patted him on the shoulder. “Say you will guard it well. And tell all the plebs who will listen to be ready when the time comes. Trust me when I tell you, Koska, war is coming to the capital city of Rome. Everyone must be ready. And if they’re brave enough, they must fight. With us.”
Koska clasped the gladius to his chest, and his face reddened with a deeper flush. “It will be done, sir. I promise.”
He dipped his head to Trajan and then to me. “Best of luck, my lady.”
“And to you, Koska.”
He hurried out of the door, leaving Trajan and me alone.
“So you plan to come back and break the German king out of prison on your own?”
“By that time, there will be no point in keeping it quiet. After tonight, Caesar will know I’m a traitor, just like Julian.” He huffed a laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“I’d just love to see his face when he realizes he was fooled twice.”
“And if he knows you’re a traitor, how do you expect to get into the prison without being detected?”
“I don’t.” He walked toward his wardrobe. “I plan to kill my way into the prison.”
“You have a long way through the city first,” I reminded him.
He returned and laid one of his formal blue silk togas on his bed. “Not if I enter at the height of Lupercalia. The whole city will be in the thrall of the fertility festival.”
“That will help?”
He sat on the edge of the bed and clasped his hands, examining me with a curious expression. “Have you ever seen the festival?”
I shook my head. “I’ve heard stories, but Valerius never let me out of the house at that time.”
His eyes glazed cold the way they always did if I mentioned my former master. “Trust me when I tell you, the entire city will be in a state of aroused frenzy. No one will take note of me.”
I glanced at the toga he’d laid out. “Who is Horatius?”
“A tribune in the senate. And an ally. He also has two strong sons who are on our side as well. In that letter I sent with Koska, I’ve asked Horatius to send his sons dressed as litter-bearers to help us get through the city to the harbor tonight.”
“You’re expecting a fight?”
“Preparing for one. Just in case. All of Palatine Hill will be heading to the celebration at Caesar’s palace tonight. The praetorians will be in need there. Hopefully, we can slip by without any trouble.”
“Hopefully,” I agreed, stepping toward the open archway leading to the terrace, the rain having stopped. “The sky is clearing.”
There was a break in the storm clouds, the first stars glittering as the afternoon drifted toward night. Trajan stepped up behind me.
“Let’s hope that’s a good omen. That the gods are with us.”
“I’m not sure the gods care about us,” I admitted.
He wrapped his arms across my chest and pulled me back against his, pressing his mouth to the crown of my head. My pulse fluttered at yet another tender gesture from this man. That I craved it.
“They do,” he assured me.
“How do you know?”
He said nothing for a moment, the damp air from the rain misting the terrace. “Because they brought you into my life, Lela.”
Closing my eyes, I let his heartfelt words sink into me. I hadn’t thought to want another man to care for me again. I hadn’t thought that I’d ever want another man at all. Still, I couldn’t give him any tender words back, my heart still bruised from being so long in a master’s brutal vise.
I wanted no promises between us, for I knew better than anyone that promises didn’t keep people alive. Vows didn’t hold hearts together. Death was the only assurance any of us truly had.
So I stepped out of his arms and turned for the bedchamber. “Time to get ready. The sun is setting.”
He said nothing as I walked away, keeping his eyes toward the sky until it was time to go.
Dressed in an ocean-blue stola, a gossamer veil covering my face, I crept toward the awaiting litter within Trajan’s courtyard. There was a stern-looking woman watching us from the back veranda near the kitchens where I’d never been.