Emperor: The Gates of Rome E#1 (30 page)

CHAPTER 24

Gaius leaned on the stone window ledge and watched the sun come up over the city. He heard Cornelia stir on the long bed behind him and smiled to himself as he glanced back. She was still asleep, her long gold hair spilling over her face and shoulders as she shifted restlessly. In the heat of the night, they had needed little to cover them, and her long legs were revealed almost to the hip by the light cloth that she had gathered in one small hand and pulled closer to her face.

For a moment, his thoughts turned to Alexandria, but it was without pain. It had been hard for the first months, even with friends like Diracius to distract him. He could look back now and wince at his naïveté and clumsiness. Yet there was sadness too. He could never be that innocent boy again.

He had seen Metella privately and signed a document that passed Alexandria's ownership over to the house of Marius, knowing he could trust his aunt to be kind to her. He had also left a sum of gold pieces, taken from his estate funds, to be handed to her on the day she purchased her freedom. She would find out when she was free. It was a small gift, considering what she had given him.

Gaius grinned as he felt arousal stir once more, knowing he would have to be moving before the household came awake. Cornelia's father, Cinna, was another of the political heavyweights Marius was flattering and working to control. Not a man to cross, and discovery in his beloved daughter's bedroom would mean death even for Marius's nephew.

He glanced at her again and sighed as he pulled his clothes to him. She had been worth it, though, worth the risk many times over. Three years older than he, she had yet been a virgin, which surprised him. She was his alone and that gave him quiet satisfaction and more than a little of the old joy.

They had met at a formal gathering of Senate families, celebrating the birth of twin sons to one of the nobilitas. In the middle of the day, there was nothing like the free license of one of Diracius's parties, and at first Gaius had been bored with the endless congratulations and speeches. Then, in a quiet moment, she had come over to him and changed everything. She had been wearing a robe of dark gold, almost a brown, with earrings and a torque of the same rich metal at her throat. He had desired her from the first moments, and liked her as quickly. She was intelligent and confident and she wanted him. It was a heady feeling. He had sneaked in over the roofs to her bedroom window, looking on her as she slept, her hair tousled and wild.

He remembered her rising from the bed and sitting on it with her legs drawn up under her and her back straight. It had been a few seconds before he noticed she was smiling. He sighed as he pulled on his clothes and sandals.

With Sulla gone from the city for a whole year as the Greek rebellion grew in ferocity, it was easy for Gaius to forget that there had to be a reckoning at some point. Marius, though, had worked from the first day for the moment that Sulla's standards became visible on the horizon. The city was still buzzing with excitement and dread, as it had been for months. Most had stayed, but a steady trickle of merchants and families leaving the city showed that not every inhabitant shared Marius's confidence about the outcome. Every street had shops that were boarded closed, and the Senate criticized many of the decisions made, pushing Marius to rage when he came back to his home in the early hours of the morning. It was a tension Gaius could barely share, with the pleasures of the city to distract him.

He looked over at Cornelia again as he tightened his toga, and saw her eyes were open. He crossed to her and kissed her on the lips, feeling the rush of longing as he did. He dropped one hand to her breast and felt her start against him as he broke for air.

"Will you come to me again, Gaius?"

"I will," he replied, smiling, and found to his surprise that he actually meant it.

"A good general is prepared for every eventuality," Marius said as he handed the documents to Gaius. "These are money orders. They are as good as gold in your hand, drawn on the city treasury. I do not expect to have them repaid; they are a gift to you."

Gaius looked at the sums and fought to smile. The amounts were large, but would barely cover the debts he had run up with the moneylenders. Marius hadn't been able to keep a close eye on his nephew as the preparations for Sulla's return continued, and Gaius had run lines of credit in those first few months after Alexandria, buying women, wine, and sculpture—all to increase his standing in a city that had respect only for gold and power. With borrowed wealth, Gaius had come onto a jaded social scene as a young lion. Even those who distrusted his uncle knew Gaius was a man to be watched, and there was never a problem with the ever larger sums he required, as the rich struggled to be next to offer finance to Marius's nephew.

Marius must have caught a hint of Gaius's disappointment and interpreted it as worry for the future.

"I expect to win, but only a fool wouldn't plan for disaster where Sulla was involved. If it doesn't go as I have planned, take the drafts and get out of the city. I have included a reference that should get you a berth on a legion vessel to take you to some far post of the empire. I... have also written documents naming you as a son of my house. You will be able to join any regiment and make your name for a couple of years."

"What if you crush Sulla, as you expect?"

"Then we will continue with your advance in Rome. I will secure a post for you that carries life membership in the Senate. They are jealously guarded, come the elections, but it should not be impossible. It will cost us a fortune, but then you are in, truly one of the chosen. Who knows where the future will take you after that?"

Gaius grinned, caught up in the man's enthusiasm. He would use the drafts to pay off the worst of his debts. Of course, the horse sales were next week and the rumor was that Arabian princes were bringing new breeds of warhorses, huge stallions that could be guided with the gentlest touch. They would cost a fortune, a fortune very like the one he held in his hand. He tucked the papers inside his toga as he left. The moneylenders would wait a little longer, he was sure.

In the cool night outside Marius's town house, Gaius weighed up his options for the hours before dawn. As usual, the dark city was far from quiet and he didn't feel ready for sleep. Traders and cart drivers swore at each other, smiths hammered, somebody laughed in a nearby house, and he could hear crockery being smashed. The city was a place of life in a way the estate could never match. Gaius loved it.

He could go and listen to the orators in the forum by torchlight, perhaps joining in one of the endless debates with other young nobles until the dawn made them all go home. Or he could seek out Diracius's home and satisfy other appetites. Wiser not to venture alone through the dark streets, he thought, remembering Marius's warnings about the various
raptores
who lurked in the dim alleys, ready for theft or murder. The city was not safe at night and it was easy to become lost in the maze of unnamed, twisting streets. One wrong turning could lead a wanderer into an alley filled with piles of human filth and great pools of urine, though the smell was usually enough of a warning.

A month before, he might have gathered companions for a wild night, but the face of one girl had been appearing more and more in his thoughts. Far from dwindling, his longing for her seemed to be fired by contact rather than quenched. Cornelia would be thinking of him in her father's estate rooms. He would go to her and scale the outer wall, slipping past her father's house guards one more time.

He grinned to himself, remembering the sudden fear as he had slipped during the last climb, hanging above the hard stones of the street below. It was getting so he knew every inch of that wall, but one mistake would earn him a pair of broken legs or worse.

"Worth the risks for you, my girl," he whispered to himself, watching the night air frost his breath as he walked through the unlit city streets to his destination.

CHAPTER 25

The Cinna estate began the bustle of the working day as early as any other in Rome, heating water, firing the ovens, sweeping, cleaning, and readying the clothes of the family before they awoke. Before the sun had risen fully, a slave entered Cornelia's room, looking round for clothes to be collected for washing. Her thoughts were on the thousand chores to be completed before the midmorning light meal, and at first she noticed nothing. Then her eyes strayed to where a muscled leg sprawled over the side of the bed. She froze as she saw the sleeping couple, still entwined.

After a moment of indecision, her eyes lit up with malice and she took a deep breath, cracking the still scene with wild screams.

Gaius rolled naked off the bed and onto the floor in a crouch. He took in the situation in a second, but didn't waste any time on cursing himself. He grabbed toga and sword and bolted for the window. The slave girl ran to the door, still screaming, and Cornelia spat oaths after her. Thundering footsteps sounded, and the nurse Clodia came into the room, her face full of outrage. She swung her hand and connected with the slave girl's face, cutting off the scream with a dull smack of flesh and spinning her right round.

"Get out quickly, lad," Clodia snapped at him as the slave girl whimpered on the floor. "You'd better be worth all the trouble this is going to cause!"

Gaius nodded, but turned from the window and came back into the room to Cornelia.

"If I don't go, they'll kill me for an intruder. Tell them my name and tell them you're mine, that I'll marry you. Tell them, if anyone harms you I'll kill him."

Cornelia didn't answer, just reached up and kissed him.

He pulled away, laughing. "Gods, let me go! It is a fine morning for a bit of a chase."

She watched with amusement as his white buttocks flashed over the windowsill and away, trying to compose herself for the drama to come.

Her father's guards entered the room first, led by the dour captain who nodded to her and crossed to the window, looking down.

"Get going," he shouted to his companions. "I'll cross the roofs after him; you men intercept him down below. I'll have his skin on my wall for this. Your pardon, lady," he said as a farewell to Cornelia as his red face dropped out of sight.

Cornelia fought not to giggle with tension.

Gaius slipped and skittered on the tiles, scraping skin from elbows and knees as he sacrificed safety for breakneck speed. He heard the captain shouting behind him, but didn't look back. The tiles offered precious little grip, and all he could really do was control the speed of his fall as he slid toward the edge and the street below. He had time to swear as he realized his sandals were in the room above. How could he make any kind of jump in only his bare feet? He'd break bones for sure and then the chase would be over. He lost his grip on the toga to save the gladius, by far the more valuable of the two items. He managed to cling to the edge of the roof and inched along it, not risking standing up in case archers were waiting for him. It would not be unusual for a man of Cinna's wealth to have a small army on his estate, much as Marius had.

Crouching low, he knew he was out of sight to the swearing, puffing captain behind him, and Gaius looked around desperately for a way out of the predicament. He had to get off the roof. If he stayed, they would simply search each part of it until they found him, and either pitch him off onto his head or drag him before Cinna for punishment. With the heat of betrayal on him, Cinna would be deaf to pleas, and death would quickly follow for the charge of rape. In fact, Gaius realized Cinna would not even have to bring charges; he would simply summon a lictor and have the man execute Gaius on the spot. If Cinna was of a mind to, he could have Cornelia strangled to save the honor of his house, though Gaius knew the old man doted on his only daughter. If he had genuinely believed she would suffer, he would have stayed to fight it out, but he thought she would be safe enough against old Cinna's rage.

Down below, where the roof overhung the street, Gaius could hear shouting as the house guards formed a ring that blocked all the exits. Behind him, the scrabbling of iron-shod sandals on tiles was getting closer, and so he took a deep breath to calm himself and ran, hoping his speed and balance would keep him on the treacherous surface long enough to find safety. The guard captain cried out in recognition as he broke cover, but Gaius didn't have time to look back. The nearest roof was too far away to leap onto, and the only flat place on the whole complex was a bell tower with a small window.

He made the sill with a desperate jump as his legs finally lost all grip, and he heaved himself up and over it, panting in great gulps of the cold morning air. The bell room was tiny, with steps leading down inside it to the main house below. At first, Gaius was tempted to run down them, but then a plan surfaced in his mind and he steadied his breathing and stretched a few muscles as he waited for the captain to reach the window.

Moments after his decision to stay, the man blocked the sunlight and his face lit up at the sight of the young man cornered in the bell house. They looked at each other for a moment, and Gaius watched with interest as the thought of being killed as he climbed in crossed the other man's face. Gaius nodded to him and stood well back to allow him entrance.

The captain grinned nastily at him, panting from the run.

"You should have killed me while you had the chance," he said, drawing his sword.

"You would have fallen off the roof and I need your clothes—especially those sandals," Gaius replied calmly, unsheathing his own gladius and standing relaxed, apparently unaware of his nakedness.

"Will you tell me your name before I kill you? Just so I have something to tell my master, you know," the captain said, moving lightly into a fighters crouch.

"Will you give me your clothes? This is too fine a morning for killing," Gaius countered, smiling easily.

The captain began to reply and Gaius attacked, only to have his sword batted aside. The man had been expecting such a move and was ready for it. Gaius realized quickly that he was facing a skilled opponent and focused, aware of every move in the dance. The floor was too small a space for ease, and the stairwell loomed between them, threatening to send one of them tumbling.

They feinted and struck around the space, looking for weaknesses. The captain was puzzled at the young man's skill. He had bought the position in Cinna's guard after winning a city sword tournament and knew he was the better of most men, but time and again his attacks were driven aside with speed and precision. He wasn't worried, though. At worst, he could simply hang on until help arrived, and as soon as the searchers realized where they fought, more would be sent up the stairs to overwhelm the intruder. Some of this confidence must have shown in his face, as Gaius went on the offensive at last, having got the measure of his man.

Gaius lunged through the captain's guard and pierced his shoulder. The man took the wound with a grunt, but Gaius knocked his riposte aside and opened a gash in the leather chestplate. The captain found himself with his back to the wall of the little bell tower, and then a bruising blow on his fingers sent his gladius down the stairwell, clattering and rebounding in its fall. The hand felt useless and he looked into Gaius's eyes, expecting the cut that would finish him.

Gaius barely slowed. He turned his sword at the last second so that the flat of it slammed against the man's temple and dropped him senseless onto the floor.

More shouts sounded below and he began to strip the captain, fingers working feverishly.

"Come on, come on..." he muttered to himself. Always have a plan, Renius had advised him once, but apart from stealing the man's clothes, he hadn't had time to think the rest of his escape through.

After an age, he was dressed. The captain was stirring and Gaius hit him again with the hilt, nodding as the twitching movements ceased. He hoped he hadn't killed him; the man had been doing what he was paid to do and without malice. Gaius took a deep breath. Stairs or window? He paused for only a second, put his own gladius into the captains scabbard, now strapped to him, and strode down the stairs back into the main house.

Marius clenched his fists at the news from the breathless messenger.

"How many days behind you are they?" he said as calmly as he could.

"If they force-march, they can't be more than three or four behind. I came as fast as I could, changing horses, but most of Sulla's men had landed by the time I set off. I waited to be sure it was the main force and not just a feint."

"You did well. Did you see Sulla himself?"

"I did, though it was at a distance. It seemed to be a full landing of his legion returning to Rome."

Marius tossed a gold coin to the man, who snatched it out of the air. Marius stood up.

"Then we must be ready to greet him. Gather the other scouts together. I will prepare messages of welcome for you to take to Sulla."

"General?" the messenger asked, surprised.

"Ask no questions. Is he not the conquering hero returned to us? Meet me here in an hour to receive the letters."

Without another word, the man bowed and left.

The captain was found by the searchers as he stumbled naked from the bell tower, holding his head. There was no sign of the intruder, despite the exhaustive search that went on all morning. One of the soldiers remembered a man dressed like the captain who had gone off to check down a side street, but he couldn't remember enough detail to give a good description. At midday, the search was called off, and by then the news of Sulla's return had hit the streets of Rome. An hour later, one of the house guards noticed a small wrapped package leaning against the house gate and opened it, finding the captain's uniform, scabbard, and sandals. The captain swore as he was handed it.

Gaius was summoned into Marius's presence that afternoon and had prepared a defense of his actions. However, the general seemed not to have heard of the scandal and only motioned Gaius to sit with his centurions.

"No doubt by now you will have heard that Sulla has landed his forces on the coast and is only three or four days from the city."

The others nodded and only Gaius had to try to hide the shock he felt.

"It is a year and four months to the day since Sulla left for Greece. I have had enough time to prepare a suitable homecoming."

Some of the men chuckled in response and Marius smiled grimly.

"This is no light undertaking. You are all men I trust and nothing I say here is to leave this room. Do not discuss this with your wives or mistresses or most trusted friends. I have no doubt that Sulla has had spies in the city watching my every move. He must be aware of our preparations and will arrive fully warned of Rome's readiness for civil war."

The words, said at last in the open, chilled the hearts of all who heard them.

"I cannot reveal all my plans even now, save to say this. If Sulla reaches the city alive, and he may not, we will treat his legion as an attacking enemy, destroying them on the field. We have supplies of grain, meat, and salt to last us for many months. We will seal the city against him and destroy him on the walls. Even as we speak, the flow of traffic has ceased in and out of Rome. The city stands alone."

"What if he leaves his legion in camp and comes to demand his rightful entry?" asked a man Gaius didn't know. "Will you risk the wrath of the Senate, declare yourself dictator?"

Marius was silent for a long time, then he raised his head and spoke quietly, almost in a whisper.

"If Sulla comes alone, then I will have him cut down. The Senate will not brand me a traitor to the state. I have their support in everything I do."

This much was true: There was not a man of influence who would dare to put a motion to the Senate condemning the general. The position was clear.

"Now, gentlemen, your orders for tomorrow."

Cornelia waited patiently until her father had finished, allowing his rage to wash over her, leaving her untouched.

"No, Father. You will not have him tracked down. He will be my husband and you will welcome him into our house when the time comes."

Cinna purpled in renewed anger. "I'll see his body rot first! He comes like a thief into my home and you sit there like a block of marble and tell me I will accept it? I will not, until his body lies broken at my feet."

Cornelia sighed gently, waiting for the tirade to slow down. Shutting her ears against the shouting, she counted the flowers that she could see from the window. Finally, the tone changed and she brought her attention back to her father, who was looking at her doubtfully.

"I love him, Father, and he loves me. I am sorry we brought shame to the house, but the marriage will wash it all away, despite the gossips in the market. You did tell me I could choose a man I wanted, remember?"

"Are you pregnant?"

"Not as far as I know. There will be no sign when we are married, no public show."

Her father nodded, looking older and deflated.