Chapter XXXVIII
XXXVIII.
Torren
I run down to the ground floor and call out for Julian.
No response.
Fear slickens my palms, but I need to keep calm. This palace has a massive footprint; he may not have heard me. But I sent him alone after a dangerous assailant. There is another possibility for his lack of response.
I swallow the lump in my throat and brace myself. If the worst happened to him, it would be all my fault, but I have to know. Now is not the time for cowardice or hesitation.
I begin to search.
Lamps illuminate the halls at intervals, but it’s far darker down here than on the upper floors. I grab a torch and walk with it in case his body is on the ground.
Gods…he could be on the floor.
My pulse pounds in my throat, but I force myself to breathe, to lose all emotion. I lean on my training. I am nothing more than the Praetorian, searching for a missing person.
I sweep the halls from right to left, looking for the sheen of a blood trail.
“Julian!” I sharply whisper.
No signs of blood or struggle. Nothing at all.
I follow the hall into the thermal baths. As I open the door, I keep my back to the wall and proceed slowly, walking through the entry room, the changing room, and into the tepidarium.
Then my heart stops. I see him.
There, across the lake-like pool, is Julian. Not drowned or stabbed, just searching with his back to the wall, like me.
Relief floods through me, making my chest numb. He’s alive. He’s unharmed.
My heart hammers in my rib cage, and I rush over to him. “Thank the gods.”
“Nice to see you, too.” He laughs. Then he looks me over. “You seem…surprised to see me.” He pauses, his smile fading. “Well, that’s not good.”
I shake my head at his levity, but now that I found him, I’m trembling.
“I finished sweeping the armory, the servants’ quarters, and the smaller rooms of the baths,” he says. “Did you find her?”
I nod. “Kerasea was in the library. It wasn’t her, though.”
His eyebrows rise as high as they can go.
“She swore on her god,” I say. “And the robe belonged to a standard priest—it wasn’t one of hers.”
Julian’s eyes narrow as he stares at me. “And you believe that—despite finding her on the first floor?”
Slowly, I nod because it sounds remarkably foolish. But I have interrogated people for years. I felt her honesty and shock. It was real.
“I never saw who did it.” I sigh.
Julian shakes his head like he’s clearing water from his ears. “Tor, what is going on? You have hated the Vestals for as long as I’ve known you. And now, suddenly, you doubt yourself? You trust her?”
“I am conducting an investigation. It’s too convenient the robe was left there—the same as the weapon in the fountain. She is many things, but she’s not sloppy.”
I try to sound logical, not defensive. His questions are valid and nothing I haven’t asked myself.
“It’s rather convenient it wasn’t a High Priestess robe,” he counters. “Just as the sickle knife was too convenient. And whatever else you found that you haven’t disclosed to me.”
I look away. At times, Julian knows me too well.
He sighs loudly, and it echoes in the space.
“All right, let’s say it wasn’t Kerasea,” he continues. “If not her, then who?”
“I’m not sure yet. It could’ve been any of the senators’ sentries, and I think her servant is hiding something. No…I’m certain of it.”
Julian quirks an eyebrow. “The teenage girl?”
“That one.”
He sighs again like I’m a fool to believe Kera, which puts me in the terrible position of defending her.
“River of Death, Julian. You were the one trying to convince me of Kerasea’s innocence!”
“In that she didn’t kill Verhardt or Antinous. Don’t make the mistake of trusting her, Tor. You’ll end up discharged or with a blade in your back.”
I shake my head. “I’m not the one who needs to worry.”
Julian tilts his head, and then he pales.
“Think about it,” I say. “Foreau and Paolo have reason to bring you both down. Your vote made the conclave continue, and her abstention gave Terrance control of the Senate. Revenge is a great motivator.”
Julian runs both palms over his face, but he pauses to consider my theory with his hand over his mouth.
“They believe I’ll run for Verhardt’s empty seat, though.
If elected, I’d be new guard like them, and they have always been able to overlook vendettas when it suits their interests.
Medea hates Terrance, and yet they’re aligned—which is suspicious behavior in and of itself.
” He stares into the distance. “I suppose it would actually make a certain amount of sense for Foreau to get rid of me.”
“Interesting,” I say. I’ve never heard him say anything negative about Senator Foreau. But we need to consider every possible angle.
“There’s a rumor Foreau, like his father, is taking bribes from Arthago. If that’s true, he would not want the general’s nephew on the Council.”
Foreau is taking money from our greatest enemy? Julian said it so casually that I’m slow to react. He’s accusing Senator Foreau of the deepest treason with nothing more than a shrug.
“Is this only conjecture?” I ask.
Julian nods. “It was just whispers and rumor until he opposed the declaration of war today. It’s an odd vote for someone worried about them advancing on his own coast.”
Foreau has been a senator for two years. He is a nobleman from a family who owns half of the fourth province, but unlike Suh, Eyo, and even Paolo, he never served as a sentry. Instead, his renown came from sending his private merchant ships to Hadrian’s aid during a battle in the Hundred Year War.
Foreau was hailed as a patriot for shouldering the cost and swept into office after the death of the last senator, but he never bled for the republic. Could Arthagian silver have tempted him? He certainly has the strength to drown Antinous, but then again, so do my half sisters.
“Why would he have killed Eyo, though?” Julian asks. “They were allies.”
I blink at him. “Who says it’s the same person?”
Julian closes his eyes, and his whole body appears to deflate. “So what do we do now?”
I look around, but there’s nothing to do. The trail has long gone cold.
“We get some sleep,” I say.
He gives me a quizzical look because he doesn’t believe I’ll give up this easily—and he is correct. But we need to regroup, and I need to go back to Antinous’s papers.
It’s time to examine the affairs of Foreau.