Chapter 22. Before Maris #2
“This will take time. And until the gods return the fruit of our fields, we will all make sacrifices,” the Consul continued. “And by the favor of Aster, the very goddess our city is consecrated to, the strength of our legion will feed our city.”
Slowly, his meaning began to take shape. Aster was the goddess of war, and the only way for our legion to feed the city would be to take from someone else. Like we’d done to Valshad. Isara was going to war.
The consul turned to Nej, who rose from his seat, scroll in hand. I knew what would come from his mouth even before he began to speak.
“It is the recommendation of the Consul, along with the advisors to the Citadel, that the dole be amended to withstand the next harvest. This amendment will constitute a decrease of one-quarter to the Citadel District. And one-half to the Lower City.”
A collective gasp rang out around me and my slick palms slipped from the railing. Behind me, Luca was made of stone.
Nej let the parchment close in his hands before he took the small sealed scroll from his desk. When he opened it, he began to read.
“In his absence, Magistrate Matius has submitted his response by messenger. He votes in favor of the amendment.”
I reached for Luca’s hand, encircling his wrist with my fingers. I could feel the race of his pulse beneath his skin as, one by one, Magistrate Matius’ faction turned their stones. Their white faces gleamed across the Forum floor.
This was the moment my mother had been waiting for.
“They won’t get the majority,” I whispered, knowing the damage had already been done.
It did little to dispel the look of disgust in Luca’s eyes.
But I held on to him, my grip on his wrist tightening as I watched my mother.
My heartbeat began to slow as she reached for her stone, her delicate fingers moving over the smooth surface before she took it into her palm.
And then she did the thing that no one, not even I, saw coming.
She closed her hands over the stone, turning it slowly. And when she opened them again, the white marble face was shining.
Like a ripple through water, they turned one by one, until every single judgment stone was cast. The Consul didn’t need a three-quarters majority. Not when he had the whole.
I shoved away from the railing as the verdict bled through the throng of onlookers, a feeling of suffocation pressing in around me. I was gasping for air, the light from the open doors bending until my head was dizzy with it.
Luca stopped me on the steps, turning me to face him. Outside the Forum, the sound of the shouting was muffled.
“Look what they can do, Luca.” I flung a helpless hand toward the Forum, where the gavel was knocking in a frantic rhythm.
Luca stared at me, the same look of defeat in his eyes that I could feel swelling in mine.
“None of this matters. Nothing we do matters.” My voice broke.
“That’s not true.”
“It is,” I said, believing it for the first time.
“We don’t have to be like them. We won’t be.”
“This is pointless. All of it,” I whispered, not talking about the Forum anymore. And he knew it.
On some level, he agreed with me, because he didn’t argue.
We might have been born on opposite sides of the river, but our fates were the same—a lifetime of doing exactly what we’d just seen down on the Forum floor.
The Citadel was a labyrinth of schemes. A maze we were foolish to believe we could escape from.
Pretending otherwise was just a self-inflicted wound.
One day, we’d be down in those seats and we’d be forced to choose.
I didn’t want to find out how that ended.
“Are you saying we don’t have a chance?” He searched my eyes.
“I’m saying we never did,” I said sadly.
I turned back down the steps, pain blooming in my throat.
Luca called my name, but I could hardly hear it over the sound of the rising voices.
Outrage was swiftly turning into panic as the implications of what had just happened began to settle in everyone’s mind.
I followed the steps down from the gallery as listeners in the portico ran past me, and I wedged myself along the wall as the crowd pressed in tighter.
“Maris.” Luca’s voice was louder now.
Behind us, the Forum was erupting in chaos. There was a sudden, terrifying sense that the ground was cracking beneath us. Like it was seconds from opening enough to swallow us whole.
Somewhere in the portico, someone screamed just as one of the hanging tapestries snapped from its dowel, rippling to the floor at the bottom of the stairs, and the doors of the Citadel burst open before a tide of people pushed through.
The crushing flow of the crowd picked me up, forcing me in the opposite direction.
I stumbled, nearly falling to my knees before a pair of hands grabbed hold of me tightly.
It was Luca. He pushed me forward into the wall of people until we were pressed so tightly that I couldn’t breathe.
I tipped my head back, trying to find air, and Luca wrapped one arm around me, pulling me with him.
Dozens of red cloaks appeared as the legionnaires began to fill the Citadel, and the screams multiplied before my foot slipped on something wet.
I looked down to see a thick smear of blood across the marble and the battered, swollen face of a man on the ground.
Luca lifted me over him and the man vanished from sight.
When we reached the locked iron gates that opened to the gardens, I gasped. As far as I could see, the mob was devouring the Citadel. There was nowhere to go.
Luca planted his feet as the crowd parted around us, searching for a way out. When his eyes locked on something only a few feet away, we were moving again. We reached the gate and Luca pinned me against it, pressing his body tightly to mine before he hooked his arms through the rods.
“Hold on to me,” he rasped.
I slid my arms around him, burying my face in his chest, and he curled around me.
I pinched my eyes closed as the roar grew louder and the gate shook on its hinges, threatening to break free.
The mob turned into a hungry, snarling thing, a monster that ate up the light.
Its darkness pooled in the air around us, and I could feel it changing—the city.
I could feel us changing. And somewhere inside me, I knew. There was no going back.