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Suddenly, Sebastianus laughed.

“What is it?”

“My uncle will be so disappointed. He won’t value any of this. He won’t see a profit in it. And my aunt will want to ban it all.”

I jerked my head up. “We can’t tell your uncle about this.”

His forehead creased in confusion as I continued, “This isn’t about your uncle, or you, or even me. This doesn’t belong to any of us.”

He tapped his walking stick impatiently on the floor. “Tell me, then, to whom does this ancient storehouse of knowledge belong?”

“It’s obvious.”

Even at a distance I could see his raised eyebrow.

“It belongs to the women of Corlivo, who have guarded it with their bodies for centuries.”

He said nothing.

I gestured around the room. “We may have forgotten our own history, but we still keep this place a secret. We make sure that everyone who visits is too distracted by pleasure to wonder what else this place could be hiding.”

He crossed the chamber, closing the distance between us in a few brisk taps. He put down his lantern and lifted my chin gently with his thumb. “Anna. I admire this sentiment. I really do. And I have to say, you’ve been right about all of it. You’ve discovered something incredible. But there’s a company of soldiers upstairs who are going to drag us back to my uncle one way or the other, and the conversation with Jovinian will go much better if we have a discovery to offer him.”

I thought of the murals in the antechamber. One of them, at least, could lead someone to Mareus. “We can’t. You’ll have to trust me, because I can’t explain all of it, but revealing this to Jovinian could endanger the lives of many women. I can’t let that happen.”

He was silent for a few seconds, studying my face. “I can’t see any other way out of it. We’re likely to be executed. At least I am. The gods only know what he’ll do with you.”

We looked at each other.

“You’re asking me to trade our lives away for this secret,” he said.

I took in his clear, blue gaze, the cloth around his head, the stubble on his jaw. I loved him so much. The silence in the cavernous room stretched out.

He shook his head gently and sighed. “All right. For better or worse, it’s time I stopped trying to appease my uncle. We’ll close it back up and tell no one.”

I realized I had been holding my breath. I exhaled in a rush. “Thank you.”

“Let me think for a moment.” Sebastianus closed his eyes. I watched him quietly. Once again, silence settled over the huge, empty hall.

“There might be another way,” he said. “The airflow is good down here, better than it ought to be. It’s at least worth a try. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

To my surprise, he thumped away, back in the direction we had come, through the bronze doors, and into the antechamber beyond.

While I waited, I explored several of the niches. Some of the scrolls were in Kish, but many others were in languages I had never seen before. So many languages. Cassius would marvel at this place. I hoped he was all right, that the Imperator’s soldiers had not harmed him or Cornelia.

After a few minutes I heard a deep grinding sound, stone moving against stone. Sebastianus came back into the chamber, wiping his silver knife on the cloth of his toga. He paused to pull the bronze doors shut.

I sat down on a carved step. “What did you do?”

He shrugged. “We couldn’t let Fabius figure out what we’ve discovered and go running to my uncle.”

“You killed him? Gods, I thought I might have killed him.”

“He was still breathing, but he’s not anymore. He’s caused enough harm, don’t you think?”

I considered for a few seconds. “You just—?”

“I’m a soldier. I’ve killed many people.”