She spotted Ovidius sitting outside her room. They weren’t even letting him in to sit with her?
That didn’t bode well.
She rubbed her pinky finger against her thumb. She paused and looked back over her shoulder at Eleni’s husband dozing in his seat.
Aimilia didn’t like what was going on, that was certain.
She made it back to her room and focused first on cleaning up, working through her thoughts.
What if Cyprian was trying to sabotage more than just Aimilia?
But what had Commander Eleni done to deserve his ire? Everyone knew she wasn’t a threat to him. And how exactly could he have sabotaged her when he’d been fighting his own cerberus on the other side on the stage?
Aimilia tied off her braid and looked at herself in the mirror. Maybe she was being paranoid.
A knock sounded on her door, and she called out over her shoulder, “Unless you’re here to tell me congratulations on making it to the next round, Mother, I think we’re better off waiting until after the tournament to do this whole charade again.”
The door creaked open and in the reflection of the mirror, she saw Turpis lean against the doorframe to watch her. “Should I be offended you thought I was your mother?”
Aimilia really needed to stop doing that. The number of times she’d guessed wrong was starting to get embarrassing.
“You should be offended it didn’t occur to me you would come here to my room. Are you checking up on me, Lieutenant?” She turned in her seat at her vanity to face him. “I promise you a little scratch like that on my arm doesn’t merit all this fuss.”
He took a step farther in, crossing his arms. “Can’t you let a man have an excuse to come see you? Maybe I am here to congratulate you. You showed up all the other commanders. They’re all sweating now.”
Aimilia certainly knew Cyprian was, if he was desperate enough to poison her.
She smiled at him. “Good to know. Have you been spying for me in order to get that information?”
He shrugged. “Maybe. Are you in the market for an informant?”
Now that he mentioned…
The necklace weighed heavily in her pocket. If she confided in Nikias, he’d want to stop the tournament, or at least her participation in it. Or worse, he’d ask her how she knew he was trying to poison her, and she’d have to reveal Cyprian’s plan and the poisoned tea.
And what if he put the pieces together that the only way she could recognize Cyprian’s plan was because she’d used it herself against his father?
What would he do if he learned it?
Clearly there wasn’t any love lost between Nikias and his father, but Aimilia’s actions had been the catalyst for Nikias being subject to Hypatia’s torture. Could he ever forgive her for that?
“Aimilia, is everything alright?”
She looked up from the ground, Turpis’ voice shaking her out of her reverie.
“Actually, I’m not certain it is.”
If Turpis was offering… why shouldn’t she take advantage of it?
Turpis came fully into the room and to her side. “What is it? Can I be of service?”
“I need you to look into something for me. Can you find out what is going on with Commander Eleni’s injuries? No one is telling me anything, but I’m starting to wonder if there’s something more going on here.”
Turpis looked over his shoulder at the closed door and lowered his voice. “I’ve already been asking. Some people suspect she’s been poisoned, and that’s why the healing isn’t working.”
“Poisoned?” How was that possible? Cyprian wouldn’t have been able to give her poisoned tea, as she would have had a healer with her since she’d been taken away and her husband now sitting vigil. He would have had to sneak into her room in order to keep dosing her, and Aimilia knew from experience that was not as easy as it sounded.
“That’s what the rumors are saying, but I’ll dig deeper, Commander.”
