The receiving rooms have always been as big a part of the colosseum as the arena floor.Where the sands feature the blood and sweat of the gladiators, the receiving rooms represent the corruption bound up in the games.They’re a place for the wealthy and the powerful to meet with gladiators, and one another, a place stocked with fine food and wine, couches to relax on and side rooms for nobles to take gladiators to for pleasure.In the old days, they were a place for gladiators to search for patrons, or to meet with those who’d already forged that connection with them.
Today, they’re filled with nobles and merchants, gang leaders and senators.People Selene wants to influence, I suspect.She moves through the crowd there smoothly with Marcus by her side, the two of them stopping to smile and clasp hands with one person after another while I’m forced to follow them like a shadow.I can feel the eyes on me, silently judging me in my new position.
Olivia is there, lounging on a couch while a handsome servant feeds her grapes.
“Did you enjoy the show, Lyra?”she asks.
“Didanyoneactuallyenjoyit?”I counter.“Watching a man burn to death?”
Domitian might have been my enemy once, but I still hate the way he died.I can’t believe Selene really thought the people would want to see that end for him.
“Careful how you speak to your betters,” Olivia says.“You’re not a senator now.”
She stands, pushing aside the young man.
“It’s a pity I wasn’t the one who got to claim you,” she says.“I would have shown you your place.Although maybe Marcus wouldn’t be averse to me taking you into one of the side rooms for a while.”
Marcus is there beside me then.“As you say, Olivia, youweren’tthe one who got to claim her.I was.And I think the time has come for me to take Lyra home.”
“Planning to leave us so soon, Marcus?”Selene asks, stepping up beside Olivia.“Are you that eager to enjoy your prize?”
Marcus shrugs.“Wouldn’t you be?”
Selene looks me over.“Personally, I can’t see the appeal, but you have done so much for me to earn her.I guess I can hardly begrudge you this.Very well, Marcus.I’ll speak with you soon.”
Marcus takes me by the arm, leading me away from the receiving rooms quickly, heading down through the colosseum.
“What’s your plan, Marcus?”I ask him.“Take me back to your villa and simply throw me into your bed?”
Marcus shoots me a look.“You know, you could be alittlegrateful that I played a part in getting you out of prison.”
“Only to make me your prisoner in turn,” I point out.This is better than the constant threat of violence from the guards, but only by a little.It doesn’t make my current situation something I should be thanking him for.
“You don’t know what I had to do to get you here,” Marcus says.
But the truth is I don’t want to know, because I’m almost certain Marcus has been doing everything Selene wants while I’ve been locked away.Even today, he happily stood by her side, as if the two of them are the closest of allies, rather than doing anything to try to stop her.
When I don’t answer, Marcus tightens his grip on my arm slightly, continuing to march me through the colosseum until we reach the gates and the waiting palanquin.
“My villa,” he snaps to the waiting bearers as he bundles me inside.They lift the palanquin and set off before we’re even fully settled.It means I’m thrown against Marcus by the jolting of the conveyance, feeling the strength of his muscles beneath his toga.
I pull back from him hurriedly, as far as the palanquin allows.Marcus looks a little hurt, but doesn’t say anything as we keep going through the city.
“It could have been you out there on the sands, you know,” Marcus says, after a minute or two.“Selene told me several times that she thought it might be better if she had you killed.”
“And you don’t think she was doing that to get you to do what she wanted?”I say.“Or maybe just to see how you reacted?I bet she was using psychomancy to look into your mind the whole time.”
“You think I don’t have protections against psychomancy?”Marcus demands.“After what happened to my family?”
Marcus’ family was a wealthy merchant house under the empire, at least until Marcus’ father upset the emperor.Tiberius had Marcus’ father killed, but he wasn’t done destroying the family even then.He sent a psychomancer to influence Marcus’ mother, getting her to sign away most of the family wealth before finally driving her to kill herself.It’s a horrific fate that makes me feel a twinge of sympathy for Marcus every time I think about it.Which is why I don’t want to think about it now.I don’t want to feel sympathy for Marcus after all he’s done, and with what he mightstilldo to me.
The palanquin comes to a halt and we step out in front of Marcus’ villa within the city.It’s a walled compound of white marble, with a red slate roof.Marcus leads me inside, into a space that’s an elegant display of wealth, with mosaics on the floor depicting ships crossing the sea and painted statues set here and there in niches.There are servants waiting for Marcus, but he waves them away.
“Come with me,” he says to me, leading me upstairs.Worry rises in me with every step we take.Ishe planning to take me to his bedroom?Does he think that because I’m his prisoner, he can do as he wishes with me?
Yet it isn’t that room to which he takes me.Instead, Marcus leads me to a small, empty bedroom at the rear of the villa, with a view out over a couple of olive trees in the compound.There’s a bed, a chest, and a small table.
“This space is yours,” Marcus says.“There’s water in one of the jugs if you want to wash, and clothes in the trunk.”
