“We are different, you and I,” Medea remarks.
“How so?”
“You are dismissed because you’re young and beautiful. I am dismissed because I am no longer those things.”
She is still beautiful, but she means the beauty of a young person they want to use. I’m trying to think of how to respond when the Praetorian returns. He looks around the room with a stern expression, but when his gaze lands on me, he doesn’t quite meet my eyes. Something has changed. The rich cheese sours in my mouth. He found something.
Suh looks up from his third luncheon plate. The former general has barely said a word to me, but maybe with my father having passed, he feels no alliance to me.
“Have you completed your investigation, Praetorian?” Senator Terrance asks from the chair beside Suh.
Torren nods. “Of the body.”
Foreau and Eyo exchange glances.
“What more is there to investigate?” Paolo asks. As the youngest senator, he also sits with the new guard.
“I will continue to investigate the circumstances, as I have found his death to be suspicious,” the Praetorian says.
Everyone in the room stops eating, a couple of forks clattering onto plates.
Eyo sighs and tosses down his napkin. “The man drowned in a hot pool—what is suspicious about that?”
Medea sips her wine. “The timing, Eyo. It was a day after Verhardt’s murder. Let the man do his job and report his findings.”
Terrance shakes his white head. “I don’t feel there’s a need for a full investigation.”
“If I am following the Praetorian,” Paolo says slowly, turning his ring, “he believes Antinous might have been killed by someone in the palace. Surely he needs to investigate such a possibility.”
“Harass everyone based on an inkling? No.” Suh shakes his head and wipes his oily mouth and goatee.
Three of them against an investigation and two for it. If Foreau wants the Praetorian to investigate, I may have to serve as the deadlock vote already. But this isn’t a resolution, so perhaps not.
Still, I have to swallow twice to choke down a piece of bread.
I wipe my mouth, then ball the cloth napkin in my fist.
Foreau strokes his square jaw, delaying as he soaks in the attention of the group. He is the most recently elected senator, so the one most often dismissed. “I don’t see the harm in letting the Praetorian question the staff and sentries.”
I close my eyes for a long blink. They are deadlocked.
“Let’s put it to an official vote if we must, so that we can return to our meal.” Terrance manages to sound both condescending and put out. His tone is once again a little too loud for the room.
The senators cast an official three to three vote. If this were a resolution, they would revote up to twice after debate and backroom bargaining, but I’m not sure what the protocol is now.
“Well, High Priestess, it looks like you’ll need to break our tie for the first time,” Eyo points out. “What say you on this matter?”
All of them turn and eye me sharply, except for the Praetorian, who continues to stare straight ahead—the perfect soldier.
Underworld take me.
My pulse flutters in my neck, and I grip the napkin in my hand. I’d love to scratch my wrist again, but the bangles stop me.
“I… This isn’t a resolution… I don’t think I’m qualified to speak on matters of the Praetorian…”
I suppress a wince. I couldn’t sound weaker if I tried. Mirial would faint if she could hear me. Even Medea slightly frowns.
Bloody lies, how do I get out of this?
