Page 4 of Sea of Love

Troy felt a little smug, until he saw the fat man uncoil a short whip and lash one of his slaves across the shoulders. Without thinking he started after the caravan, but Elettra tugged him back.

“They are his property,” she reminded him. “As such they have value, so he will not kill them. But if you interfere, he can have you beaten or jailed. You know this, and you will see worse in the city. You must blind yourself to it.”

“Can you?” he demanded.

“If we are to find RainLance, then yes. I can. I must,” Elettra said and nodded toward the city. “‘Tis not a piece of cake, Atwater. If we fail, there will never be cake.”

Troy looked ahead at the fat Roman and his slaves. He had lived in eras when the use and abuse of enslaved mortals had been commonplace, but he had forgotten how much he despised the practice. He lifted his gaze to Vesuvius and felt his temper cool. In a week the magma chamber inside the saddle-backed volcano would erupt and wipe out two cities and thousands of mortal lives.

And RainLance, the crystal of water hidden by the Fae, would somehow be the cause of it.

Chapter 2

“TWENTY DENARII FOR the rooms, and another six for meals,” Floronius told Troy. The swarthy innkeeper didn’t look up from the round loaves he was shelving. “No whores or gambling.” He glanced at Michael and Shelton. “And no brawling.”

Elettra wanted to step in to dicker, but she had instructed Troy on how to do it. Sometimes she wondered if she would ever be permitted to do something besides shocking or amusing her new Wiccan friends.

“Fifteen denarii for the rooms, and no meals,” the dark warlock countered, earning a narrow look from Floronius. “We’ll dine out.”

The innkeeper dusted some flour from his hands. “I have the finest rooms in the city. Eighteen denarii, and your prayers that my children do not starve.”

“Sixteen, or we will take rooms at The Golden Wheel,” Troy said. “Where they cost fifteen.”

“Jupiter rot that Lucius Bergilla,” Floronius said and spat on the grimy floor. He picked up a bronze stylus and scratched some Roman numerals on the wall beside him. “Agreed.”

The innkeeper led them upstairs, where their rooms occupied a third of the second level. Elettra checked the pallets for vermin and the roof tiles for holes before she nodded to Troy, who handed Floronius the coins.

As the others unpacked their gear Elettra went to the window and tugged aside the fly drape to look down on the crowded street. Farmers hauling their crops to market had to stop their mules and wait on clusters of soldiers and gladiators barreling their way toward the taverns. From other second levels, house slaves shook out dusty rugs and cloths, while a few prostitutes leaned out to show their bare pendulous breasts. She watched a fist fight, a purse snatching and a pair of giggling shop girls tag-tailing a huge African who sported dozens of thick pink blade scars. He carrying the wooden sword that proclaimed his freedom from the arena.

Summer joined her. “It’s hard to believe this will all be gone next week.”

“You will be tempted to warn them, but you cannot,” Elettra reminded her. “Those who died must still die, or they will change the future. Also, they will not believe you.”

“I know,” the witch said and grimaced as she looked down at a young boy chasing a barking dog along the walkway. “I saw a photograph of Adolf Hitler as a baby once. He was chubby and wide-eyed, and looked nothing like the monster he grew up to be. He murdered millions in his death camps.”

Elettra heard the pain in her voice, and knew for all her power the emerald witch still felt deeply.

“Yet if you encounter this Hitler during our journey through time,” the Fae woman said, “you cannot kill him anymore than you can save that child down there.”

“Ladies,” Bowers said. “Will you join us?”

Elettra went with Summer to sit with the men on the floor. In the middle of their circle was a new copy of a very old paper drawing. She felt Shelton’s dark eyes watching her arranging her skirt, but she ignored him. Captain Banning had told her that Templars were celibate warrior-priests. Shelton had no business looking at her, nor she him. Even so, she sighed. If only Allan had told her that before she had first beheld the big, stupid fool.

As a girl Elettra had often taken chunks of the smoky topaz discarded as too dark by the miners and carved them into rings and cuffs. Her sisters had scoffed at them as ugly. But whenever Elettra wore them they had captured the sunlight and held it in tiny golden arcs that shimmered and danced within the dark stone. That Shelton’s eyes were the exact same shade as those dark crystals made her think that he, too, was only waiting for something to illuminate his heart.

But Elettra could not care about his heart. She had been ordered to end the Templars as soon as the treasures had been recovered. If she did not kill Shelton and Bowers, and steal the crystals from the Wiccans, the Fae would bury her alive again––this time for eternity.

“This is the last Roman map of Pompeii made before the eruption,” Shelton said, and pointed out a square in the center. “At present we are here.” He moved his finger to another spot. “A visiting Egyptian priest lodged here with a man he described as a god fallen to earth. The priest kept a travel journal in which he claimed the god-like man carried a spear with him everywhere. On his final day here, the man left for several hours and returned without the spear. He told the priest he had left it as an offering at the temple of Neptune. We believe that man to be Kember, and that spear to be RainLance, the first treasure.”

“Where is the temple of Neptune?” Michael asked as he studied the map.

“We don’t know,” Bowers admitted. “But it should be simple to find. The innkeeper will know it. Then we can discreetly search the temple until we locate the spear.”

Summer gave Elettra a warning look. Bowers and Shelton still had no idea she was Fae, or the last of the GemSage clan. She had been forbidden to tell them that she could also sense the crystals when they were near.

A rumbling sound came through the window, and the floor under them shook. Elettra batted away some plaster dust that sifted down from the roof, and suddenly found herself in Shelton’s brawny arms. He folded himself over her in such a way that his head and body protected her. She saw Troy and Michael doing the same for Summer.

Being pressed against the Templar made her own insides quake. This close she could feel the comely contours of his chest, and the firm resilience of his flesh under her hands. He smelled clean and salty, like an ocean wind, but the heat pouring from him added an earthy warmth that made her thighs tighten.