“What did he poison her with?”
“Arsenicum,”Marcianus said.“I think.”
My fears rose.“You aren’t certain?”
“Such a poisoning can resemble other things.But I’m fairly sure.There was a large dose in the cup, but she didn’t drink all of it, and much of the poison would have settled into the bottom.Thank the gods you didn’t down a cup in one go, or it would have killed you.”
My heart gave a stricken beat.“Cassia took only a few sips.”
“As I said, that is good.It gives her a chance.”
I flexed my hand, which stung from the cut I’d made.I seemed to feel the woodenrudisI’d clutched as I’d walked out of the ring for the last time, until my hand had frozen around it.Cassia had gently pried it free, letting me begin my new life.
The beam of sunlight moved to touch her eyes.Cassia made a soft noise and again frowned.
“Must fetch the water,” she whispered and started to push at the covers.
“Cassia.”
She turned toward my voice and blinked open her eyes, forehead puckering.“I’m sorry, Leonidas.I’ll bring the bread.”She pushed at the covers again then fell back, letting out a quick breath.“I seem to be so very tired.”
I rested my hand on her shoulder, over the dried smear of my blood.“Never mind.Rest, Cassia.”
She opened her eyes and smiled at me, then drew a long breath and drifted into a quiet sleep.
Marcianus closed his bag, his cheerfulness returning.“She will be all right.Let her sleep, and take her home.”He looked me up and down.“You’d better sleep too.I don’t want to have to carryyouanywhere.”
I was too exhausted to respond to his humor.I left the bed to stretch out on the floor beside it.I curled around myself as I’d done many a night in my life, when I’d had nothing but a hard slab and no blankets.Within moments, I was fast asleep.
I woke with a grunt when something poked my side.
“Wake up, Leonidas.”Cassia stood over me, in her palla and stolla, a slender piece of gilded wood tapping me.A blanket covered my body, a pillow under my head.
While I stared muzzily up at her, Cassia let out a breath of relief.
“Thank the gods.I’ve been trying to rouse you for hours.It is long past time for us to go home.”
Our apartment wasmusty and stale from being shut up all morning, and noisy—the wine shop was open, with customers lined up to collect their drink for the day.
Cassia immediately lifted the water jar from its place in the corner and headed for the door, ready to fill it as she did every day.She staggered under the clay pot’s weight, and I took it out of her hands.
“You are not well,” I declared.
“A bit dizzy, yes.”Cassia pressed fingers to her temple.“Marcianus said I would be ill a while yet.”
“Rest.”I pointed at her bed.“I will fetch the water.”
She began to laugh.“You, go to the well?That’s a woman’s task.”
“Then the women will have something to talk about today.”I hefted the jar to my shoulder and strode through the door and down the stairs.
“Wait, I must tell you …”
Cassia’s voice drifted behind me.Whatever it was could wait—I’d fetch water and then bread from the bakery.She could talk to me as we ate.
I felt light as I walked, lighter than I had even when I’d been handed my freedom and departed theludus.Then I’d been stunned, uncertain.Today I knew I’d been given a gift.
Marcianus had brought Cassia back to life.He’d done it not by the magic of my blood or his invocation of the gods, but by his expertise.I would have to find some way to repay him.
