“Will we make it in time?”
Siro raised his gaze skyward. “With Neptune’s blessing, yes. I will accompany one of the boats.” He paused.
“And I will join the other.”
“Felix would wish me to warn you that it may be dangerous. One never knows with pirates.”
Lucretia raised her chin. “I would tell Felix that as half of that silver is mine, I will see it safely delivered.”
Siro dipped his head. “Of course, lady. We will both accompany the ransom.”
“And then we’ll bring him home,” she murmured.
Chapter 35
As afternoon set in on the second day of the ransom deadline, Felix allowed himself to abandon any scrap of hope he’d been clinging to. The sun dipped closer to the horizon with each passing moment. The pirates grew restless. They didn’t relish sitting at anchor for this long, doing nothing, and in his moments on deck he overheard some low conversations in which they debated leaving early.
If Felix had maintained any hope of the money arriving, he would have interjected that organizing a sum of money as large as fifteen talents took time. A guard would have to be hired, and it would have to be transported in separate carts if going by land or separate boats if by sea, due to the weight of the metal.
But he knew there would be no money. His time as a free man was running out, the last drops of water slipping through the water clock.
Now, in his spot in the bow hold, he heard raised voices from the deck, and an increased pattern of footfalls sounded on the wood over his head. It was difficult to tell the hour down here inthe dark, but he bet that either sunset had arrived, or the pirates had given up and decided to leave early.
Footsteps thumped on the ladder that led below deck. A moment later, Felix squinted as one of the pirates entered the hold with a flickering lantern. Felix braced himself, expecting to be thrown into the aft hold with the rest of the captives.
The pirate hauled Felix to his feet and dragged him into the small corridor that separated the bow and aft holds. But instead of thrusting him into the aft hold, the pirate shoved him up the ladder.
“What’s going on?” Felix asked in Greek as he climbed, his weakened muscles protesting the effort.
Maybe they weren’t moving him into the other hold. Perhaps this was the moment the pirates decided to exact retribution for wasting their time. Maybe their frustration had outweighed their greed and they were about to slit his throat. He imagined his blood spilling out onto the deck, his lifeless body splashing into the water, quickly sinking beneath the waves.
A shiver of dread ran through him, and he stumbled on the ladder before catching himself, his hands shaking where they gripped the wooden rungs. He drew in a deep breath—perhaps one of his last—and forced himself to be calm. There was honor in facing death with equanimity, like the defeated generals who chose to fall on their swords rather than be slaughtered or captured by an enemy. If the only remaining thing in his control was giving himself an honorable death, he’d do it.
“Your money is here. Finally,” the pirate growled as he followed Felix up the ladder.
“What?” The pooling dread ignited into shock. Felix climbed faster, emerging onto the deck to squint in the light of a brilliant sunset.
It was impossible. Perhaps Siro hoped to convince the pirates to accept a smaller ransom, but Felix knew that wouldn’t end well.
Felix hurried to the rail, and what he saw on the water below made his heart stop for a moment. Two small boats bobbed on the waves, each riding low in the water, laden with crate after crate. Siro was in one of the boats, nearest the ship. And in the boat further back…there was a woman. A palla covered her head, but the wind caught it, tugging it back.
Golden rays of light shone on auburn hair. Felix’s breath stuttered in his throat as a fresh surge of shock flooded his body.Lucretia. She was here? And how—?
Eyes moving with frantic speed, he counted the crates. Enough to make up fifteen talents of silver.How? How did they manage it?
Siro waved to him. “Good afternoon, sir,” he called, sounding for all the world as if he was greeting Felix on any other day. “Are you all right?”
“Fine,” Felix replied. “Is it—is it all there?”
Siro patted the crate closest to him. “Fifteen talents, as requested.”
“But—how?”
Siro glanced back at Lucretia, who had risen to her feet despite the swaying boat. “I’m not entirely sure myself, sir.”
As soon as Lucretia saw Felix’s pale face appear over the rail of the pirate ship, she shot to her feet. The boat lurched beneath her.
“Sit down!” barked the boat’s pilot, who had sailed them the distance from Ostia to this hidden cove.
