Page 80 of Brother at Arms

I expected a flood of relief and peace to fill me as I spoke the words, the knowledge that I’d exacted retribution for a man I grieved.

But the room remained gray and gloomy, the pattering rain outside turning to hail. Tiny balls of ice beat on the roof and bounced inside through our open windows.

The scroll with Xerxes’s name was just a scroll with letters on it, sitting on a table against a wall. Xerxes was gone, and knowing how he’d died and who had killed him did not restore him to the world.

You’re an idiot, Leonidas, I thought I heard him say. It doesn’t matter anymore. You have so much now. Enjoy it and bless your luck.

I miss you, I sent silently back to him.

Of course you do. I was an amazing friend. But you have Cassia now. Only a complete fool would trade her for the likes of me.

While his words rang of truth, Xerxes had been a better friend than he would admit. He’d put my wellbeing above a lucrative trade that could have made him wealthy enough to buy his freedom and keep Marcella like a queen.

Thank you, I said. For what you did for me.

Now you’re growing maudlin. What good is money if everyone you love is dead?

He had a point. Xerxes’s voice faded, leaving me standing with my fingertips on his name.

I felt a warm presence at my side and looked down to see Cassia watching me, understanding in her eyes.

Xerxes was right about one thing. I was incredibly lucky to have this woman in my life, and when I had my way one day, she’d never have to fear anything again.

I wanted to take her hands, touch my forehead to hers, and thank her for finding me today. She’d saved my life once again.

But Lucius hovered, looking too much like Xerxes and not enough like him at the same time.

“I’m going back to Marcella’s,” Lucius announced. “And pray she doesn’t slay me on sight. She needs help, that lady. She pretends she can run the farm and raise all those children on her own, but she can’t, not really.”

“Xerxes would have given her everything he’d earned from your silk trade,” I said. “Before he gave it up, he must have hoarded a fortune.”

Lucius shook his head. “Not by the looks of things. Marcella is good with the farm, but there are no riches there.”

I frowned, softer emotions fleeing. “Then what happened to it? He never spent much of anything, always made someone else pay for his drinks.”

“Who knows?” Lucius shrugged. “He might have gambled it on the chariot races. Xerxes never had much of a head for money. It was more of a game to him, like being a gladiator, to see how far he could rise before he was stopped.”

I heard Xerxes’s whisper on the air once more, laughter tinged with mockery. My brother doesn’t know me at all, does he? But you always did.

I lapsed into thought while Cassia and Lucius continued the conversation.

“You won’t return to Antioch?” Cassia asked him. “You were growing rich there.”

“No, I think that part of my life is over.” Lucius sighed. “Herminius and Fulvius will have blackened my reputation, even if Arsakes and his friends convince him I’m innocent of embezzling. I have decided I will return to where I began, a farm. Besides, Marcella’s offspring are my nephews and nieces, and it is time I cared for my family.” He unpinned his cloak and removed it with dramatic flourish. “Sell this for me, Cassia. It is hardly fit for mud and goats.”

Cassia caught the cloak and folded it into a neat bundle. “I will make certain you get a fair price.”

Lucius smiled weakly at her. “Wish me luck.”

“We will accompany you,” Cassia announced. “I love to visit Marcella, and the country air will do Leonidas good. We can depart as soon as⁠—”

“No.” My harsh word made them both stop and stare at me in astonishment. “There is something I must do first.”

I was still weak and let Cassia push the bread and eggs on me that Marcianus had prescribed, but as soon as the rain slackened, I left the house.

Cassia insisted on coming with me, as did Lucius. While they badgered me with questions about where we were going, I couldn’t answer them. I led them silently across the Campus Martius to the Pons Agrippae and across the bridge to the street that led to the ludus.

Plinius, guarding today, let me in without question, though he gazed in curiosity at Cassia and Lucius.