Page 36

I followed him through the garden, breathing in the heavy scent of lush flowers. He pulled open the door to a sitting room. We walked across the mosaic-tiled floor that glittered in the faint light and stepped out onto a balcony. The moon illuminated the harbor below, where the dark shapes of huge galleys creaked and rattled in the light breeze.

“This is the great port of Panpirion. Ships come and go from here to every known harbor. This, right here, is the center of the world.”

I stepped forward, taking in the overwhelming sight, breathing in the salty tang of the air.

He came to stand beside me. “Quite a different view from what you’re used to in the mountain city.”

“I’m grateful for a different view.” I reached up to trap the tendrils of my loose hair that blew around in the breeze. “I’m not sure I’ve really thanked you for helping me leave Corlivo.”

He stared out at the water. “My motives were selfish ones, as you said yourself. Straba’s letter.”

“Selfish or not, the result is that I am somewhere new, and that’s what I’ve always wanted.”

“There’s not a lot here to entertain a bright young woman. A few old men and a pretty garden.”

I gave up trying to corral my hair. “What city could be more exciting than this one? And you’re not an old man. You are only a few years older than I am.”

He shrugged off the comment with a quick jerk of his shoulders.

“I’d like to see a chariot race,” I said. “It sounds thrilling.”

“I promise you,” he said, “you don’t want my uncle to see you. And he could if I take you to a public race. He always attends.”

“From what I’ve heard so far, I don’t want to see him either.” I turned my face toward the gentle wind. “Your father was his younger brother?”

“Yes.”

“Did you grow up at the palace?”

“I did.” He rested his forearms on the railing.

“Is your mother still alive?”

“No.”

“What happened to her?”

He hesitated for long enough that I thought he might not answer. “That’s a sad and complicated question.”

I looked up into his face. “Tell me, please. I lost my mother too, even before I knew her.”

He reached down and touched a moving tendril of my hair, twirling it around his finger for a moment before sliding it behind my ear. His thumb lingered in the soft hollow behind my earlobe. My pulse quickened.

“My uncle took her. He covets beautiful women, even his brother’s wife, and he had her. Against her will, I’m sure. Not long after, she fell from a balcony like this one.”

I forced myself to breathe. “How old were you?”

“I was thirteen.”

“What did your father do?”

He dropped his hand. “Nothing. He did nothing. What could he do, against the great Jovinian? He faded into drink and was gone by the time I left for the university a year later.”

“Have you ever confronted your uncle about it?”

He gave a derisive laugh. “Have I confronted the god-man with thirty-three legions and an Empire as vast as the continent? No. I fought for him, and when I was no use as a soldier anymore, I traveled the continent seeking treasure for him to claim.” He pounded his fist gently on the railing. “I do my duty to him and to the Empire. I’m clawing my way back into his good graces.”

A ship’s bell clanged faintly in the harbor.