Kallias stiffened. Had someone been reporting his comings and goings to the emperor?
“I have been indulgent,” Gaius continued, “but just think of yesterday. What might have happened if you were gone when we needed you most?”
Nothing, Kallias wanted to shout. Nothing serious had been wrong with Drusilla. But he remained silent.
“You are hereby relieved of any obligation to tend anyone besides myself and Drusilla,” Gaius declared. “I trust you’ll have no further reason to leave the palace.”
The threat humming behind Gaius’s words made Kallias’s heart sink. He knew what it meant: he was confined to the palace for as long as it pleased the emperor. His chance to see Lea—today, certainly, and possibly ever again—slipped away, like a leaf fluttering in the breeze that he couldn’t quite catch.
What would Lea think, with him absent last night and today? She’d either believe that something terrible had happened to him, or that he had simply abandoned her.
Either option was intolerable.
With that, Gaius swept from the room.
Kallias stood by in defeated silence as Drusilla ate her porridge. When she was halfway through, she waved him away. “I’m fine, clearly,” she said. “I’ll summon you if I have need of you.”
He murmured a goodbye, then headed for the door. Outside, Sextus still waited, an anxious expression on his face.
Kallias had momentarily forgotten that Sextus was there. “How much of that did you hear?” Kallias asked grimly as he turned toward his office.
Sextus hurried to keep pace with him. “Forgive me, sir, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. Does he—does the emperor really mean to keep you here? Like a…” Sextus’s voice trailed off.
Like a prisoner,Kallias finished in his head. “Such moods often overtake the emperor. He will change his mind in a few days, no doubt.” Though even a few days away from Lea would be torment.
They entered the office, and Kallias closed the door behind. Sextus held himself with a tense, unhappy posture. “Would he—would he do that to me?” Sextus asked hesitantly, his face paling. “Prevent me from seeing my family?”
Kallias wished he could summon a convincing reassurance, but he could only manage a strained smile. “I hope you’ll give him no cause to be displeased with you.”
Kallias turned away to tidy the containers he’d used last night for Drusilla’s salve. He desperately wanted to be alone, and he tried to devise some errand for Sextus.
Sextus took a deep breath. “When I first started working for you, we agreed on a month-long trial. And if I’m not mistaken, it’s been about a month.”
Kallias laid one clay container on the shelf and turned around. “It has.”
Sextus straightened his spine. “I’m grateful for all that you’ve taught me, but if you mean to continue working here, I…I don’t think I can do it.”
Sextus’s words hung in the air. Kallias slowly seated himself on the stool next to his worktable. “You want to leave?”
Sextus nodded glumly. “Maybe I should be honored to work for the emperor himself. But I didn’t realize…it would be like this.” He bowed his head. “After last night…and this morning…I don’t think I can work for someone who makes threats like that to innocent people. Who forbids his physician from leaving. What if I should anger him one day?”
Even as dismay filled him, Kallias had to respect Sextus’s decision. There were many who’d be too blinded by the prospect of living in a palace and working at the emperor’s side to recognize the drawbacks of such an arrangement. Sextus had a good head on his shoulders for one so young.
Too good for Kallias, apparently. It seemed he was to lose his entire escape plan in one fell swoop.
Kallias forced a smile with the last shred of his composure. “I understand, Sextus. I’d never want you to work somewhere that didn’t make you happy.”Because, unlike me, you have a choice.
Sextus twisted his fingers together. “Does this…does this position make you happy, sir? I mean no disrespect, but often it doesn’t seem that way.”
Kallias attempted a careless shrug. “My circumstances are somewhat more complex. But not your concern.” He rose from the stool. “Let me fetch the wages you’re due. And I’ll write you a letter to describe the training you’ve received, in case you’d like to work for another physician.”
“I’d greatly appreciate that, sir,” Sextus said.
“Would you do me one favor—take a note for me to Penthesilea? I can give you directions.” At least he could try to explain why he wouldn’t be at the games today.
“Of course, sir.”
Kallias fetched Sextus’s wages, wrote up a brief summary of the training Sextus had received, and then drafted a note to Lea with a hasty apology. He explained Drusilla had been taken ill and that he would not be able to leave the palace for some time. He refrained from mentioning that he’d been outright forbidden to leave, as he didn’t want to worry Lea or cause her to do anything rash.
