“Greetings, Tribune,” said one senator then another as I passed, everyone wearing grave expressions.
As long as I’d been alive, a consul hadn’t been removed because he was murdered. Valerius had been appointed to his position when Emperor Igniculus had come to power; his predecessor had died of natural causes. Or so it was reported.
It was more likely that Igniculus had him poisoned so that he could put Valerius in the chair next to Kato, the oldest dragon living and a firm enforcer of Roman power. But since only a few of us suspected poison and it was publicly stated he died naturally in his sleep, Valerius would be the first consul on record to be murdered.
I settled next to Grandfather while others milled about, chatting in hushed tones.
“Did you disobey me, my boy?” Grandfather whispered, holding my gaze.
He thought it was me who’d actually killed Valerius and covered it up by putting blame on the slave girl.
“I did disobey,” I admitted.“However,”I added quickly at his darkening gaze, “I did not do the deed.”
There was no relief in his expression, except for the slightest relaxing of his shoulders. He was glad I didn’t do it, but was obviously still concerned.
“No matter how it happened, it is done.” He faced forward, nodding hello to another magistrate passing up the aisle. “And it will rouse suspicion.”
“I don’t see how,” I added, watching as Horatius—one of our close allies—entered the senate house and glanced toward us only briefly as he climbed the steps toward the top where the Griseo magistrates sat. “The slave woman can’t possibly be plotting against Caesar. It was a crime of passion. Nothing less.”
“You don’t know Igniculus if you believe that. Anything that upsets the order—his order—is at the very least a bad omen that must be punished. At most, it is a cunning plot to eliminate one of his most powerful allies in the city. Perhaps she was working with someone else. That’s what he’ll think.”
True. Valerius was Caesar’s pawn, and he held ultimate power as aconsul, putting forth the laws the emperor demanded and encouraging the rest of the senators to support them. Lest they go against the will of Caesar.
And while Consul Kato was also a staunch supporter of Caesar and Roman rule, he didn’t have the sway with the senators as Valerius did. Everyone knew that Kato had one foot in the grave. Caesar would want to fill this position swiftly and with someone he could trust.
But I had other plans.
The muttering died down as Kato in his long, black robes trod across the senate house floor. His knotted cane tap, tap, tapped, echoing up to the domed ceiling. His hair was fully white, cut short to his massive skull—somewhat malformed, as if he’d not been able to mutate entirely back into the man the last time he shifted. His back bowed with age, and even so, he was easily seven feet tall. His claws were eternally out, clicking on the wooden cane as he maneuvered it across the floor.
He settled slowly into his throne-like seat, glancing at the empty one, his golden eyes always glowing with his dragon. Though the room was completely silent, he rounded his palm over the bronzed dragon head on the arm of his chair and banged it against the metal plate beneath it.
Three reverberating bangs of the dragon-head gavel then he announced in his craggy, wheezing voice, “This house… is in order.”
No one moved, waiting for what we knew was coming.
“We are all shocked at the brazen actions of a disgruntled, disobedient slave girl, which have brought us to this floor today.” He inhaled a labored breath. “Caesar has decreed that this senate must fill the noble Valerius’s empty seat at once.” He hacked a phlegmy cough then added, “The floor is now open for nominations.”
Instantly, Leto stood from off to the right of the auditorium. “I nominate the honorable Quintus Chrysocolla Mentius.”
Someone hissed in disagreement. Other murmurs of discontent echoed in the domed hall. This must be Caesar’s choice. It made sense. He was Valerius’s biggest supporter and lackey. He’d be an easy puppet for the emperor.
Leto glared in the direction it came from then went on. “Quintus has proven himself both a noble soldier and prefect on the battlefield under General Drussus’s army. He has also proven his loyalty to Rome and to Caesar by upholding all of the laws that protect the sanctity and might of this noble empire.”
“Hear, hear!” shouted one then another.
“He has indeed!” yelled someone down below.
“Let us vote,” called another.
Kato banged his dragon-head gavel. “Order!”
When they simmered down, Kato finally spoke. “We have one nomination put forward. Do we have any others?”
Blowing out a calming breath, I rose to stand.
“What are you doing?” muttered Grandfather.
I ignored him as eyes swiveled to me.
