Aurelia should have been as tired as I was, but she spent the next half hour tapping her feet or fidgeting with her nails, maybe out of frustration at being trapped in here. Not me. I was glad for the chance to rest. Aside from the hunger, which was already bad enough, the magic I'd used underground had drained me, and the stinging in my back was growing worse. It felt like hundreds of needles were poking at me all at once, going deeper each time. I shifted around in hopes of relieving the discomfort, but movement only seemed to make it worse. Probably that was Caesar's reminder that he didn't want me here in his temple. As if I wasn't already perfectly clear on that.
By early evening, the temple patrons had grown tired of their worship, and had cleared out, leaving us entirely alone. Aurelia had fallen asleep and I finally dared to take out the bulla and really look at it. The soft glow that had drawn me to it from the very first was still there. When I opened it up, I saw why. The jewels inside were the finest stones I'd ever seen. The largest was a bright green emerald, set between a purple amethyst and a blazing red stone that I didn't recognize. All of them were glowing.
The bulla was cool now, and I was beginning to understand that the magic only worked when it was warm. But I didn't know what caused it to heat, or how it was connected to the mark on my back, or how its power was supposed to be controlled. Maybe it couldn't be controlled, at least by a human. If Venus had abandoned Caesar and withdrawn her powers from the bulla, then someone else was giving it power now. But who? Hopefully it wasn't any of the gods who considered my life their personal game of dice.
I stood and walked over to Caesar's statue, expecting the bulla to warm when it came closer to him. But it didn't. The magic in it was no longer his. For reasons I could not explain, it was mine now.
"Are you sure that Senator Valerius has your sister?"
Unsure of how long Aurelia had been awake, I immediately hung the bulla back around my neck and hid it. "I told his son that before I agreed to talk, Valerius would have to get Livia from the mines. She's got to be with him."
"Why would he do that for you? He must want something big in exchange."
"Of course he does." That gnawed at me. It was something to do with the magic, obviously, but that's what everyone wanted, so I couldn't avoid it forever. At least Valerius was willing to help me too.
"Why do you trust Valerius? You're so opposed to Horatio, but both men are senators, and both are loyal to the emperor."
I moved back to the wall and scuffed my bare foot against the floor. "When Valerius first saw the mark on my back, he tried to protect me." Then I looked up and met her gaze. "He was hiding it from Horatio."
She didn't seem to like that and only turned away. "Well, maybe Valerius seems nice now, but in the end, there'll be a price for it."
I smirked back at her. "Probably, but I already know the price for you being nice to me."
She chuckled. "It's a good theory, Nic, but you and I both know I haven't been at all nice to you."
No, she hadn't. Which made it all the more of a mystery why I hoped she'd stay. To her, I was a pocketful of coins, a ticket to a better life and nothing more. But to me, she was turning into more than a guide back to my sister. Whether I liked it or not, she was becoming my friend.
Aurelia took to pacing again. "We need to escape this temple. The soldiers can outlast us. If one gets tired, they can just change out guards."
"Maybe you should've suggested a better hiding place."
"Maybe you should've chosen different enemies!"
I opened my mouth, but no argument came. She was absolutely right about that.
She leaned beside me against the temple wall. "If you want to bring Radulf down, then you must understand the fight it'll be to get to him. Romans love him. They believe in him, far more than they do the emperor."
"He's a villain, Aurelia! Maybe they don't see what kind of person he really is, but I do. When his voice is in my head, it's so cold it turns my blood to ice. Back at the mines, he told me if I didn't bring him this bulla, he'd leave me to die in the cave."
"Maybe he was saying it for your own good." Aurelia's eyes settled on the bulla, still in my hand. "Maybe he knew that if you tried to keep it, all of this would happen."
I brushed past her, frustrated with the fact that she was actually making sense.
She called after me, "You're not alone, Nic. I'm here to help you."
"You're here to get a reward. I am alone."
"You're not." She walked up and put her hand on my shoulder. "But you have to look at this from the emperor's view. So far, only one person has done anything to threaten Rome. That's you. As presiding magistrate, Horatio could defend you before the emperor."
"Or deliver me to him. Felix said anyone loyal to the empire would kill me."
"Felix should know. He actually tried to do it!"
"And maybe Horatio would succeed." My fists tightened. "You can't possibly expect me to trust him."
"I don't expect you to trust anyone!"
"Even you?"