The metal shards sit just beneath my shirt. I could end this travesty before anyone could do anything about it. And I want justice for my friend.
“Are you suffering?” I ask Antonius quietly.
He nods. Tears in his eyes. “Yes.” Barely audible. Rasping. Rattling.
“Vis,” warns Emissa.
I ignore her. Walk up to him. He trembles at my approach. I lean in close, my mouth at his ear, so that only he can hear.
“Good.”
His plaintive, weeping moans follow us into the darkness.
XXXIV
“YOU KNEW ALREADY, DIDN’T YOU.”
Emissa’s the first of us to speak as we reach daylight again, finally departing the nightmare of Military’s prison and emerging back into the fresh air and solemnity of Agerus’s fields. I am lost in thought. Shaken and sad and outraged and vengeful. Almost don’t register that she’s spoken; when I do, I suck in a long breath and finally look up from my introspection. “I had no idea.”
“No. Not that. Not … what they do here.” She’s focused on the gravel path ahead. “You knew what he was going to say.”
I don’t answer for a long few seconds. She knows—knows me too gods-damned well. It doesn’t mean I have to admit it. I’m tempted not to.
But there’s something else that’s occurred to me, since we left the bowels of the Necropolis. Shedoesknow me too well.
“And you wanted me to come here.” Clarity of thought returning as we put distance between ourselves and what just happened, solidifying my certainty. What I saw in there confirms her story about her actions at the Iudicium more than anything she could have said, more than anything Veridius could possibly tell me.
It’s not something I think I would ever have truly believed, until I saw it for myself.
She smiles, just slightly. Still not looking at me.
I snort, then reflect the expression. Genuine, even if it’s one of chagrin.Vek. And here I was, mildly guilty about using her to get access to the prisoner. “I didn’t know all of it,” I say eventually. “But I’ve heard things. Enough to guess.” No details—she couldn’t have expected that—but it’s an admission. A relenting.
And from the way her smile briefly touches her eyes, it’s enough.
“How did you find out about this place?”
The smile fades. “You heard what happened in the Senate, straight after the attack?” I nod. Military bringing motions to try and force their way into Solivagus, under the pretext of helping Religion secure the island. Ugly scenes when Religion and Governance united to block them. Not the start of all thetension, but certainly one of the reasons it all boiled to the surface. “Military heard Religion had recovered bodies, but by that point there wasn’t a lot of cooperation going on. And with Indol defecting, I was the closest thing they had to someone who had Veridius’s ear. So my father told me about the Necropolis. Got me to sign a Silencium, gave me one for Veridius, and sent me back.” She exhales. “In the end, Governance and Religion agreed to give up the one body they had, but only if their Dimidii got to be part of the interrogation. You can probably guess the rest.”
I grimace. I can.
Silence for a while, and then I glance across at her. “You were right about the blood test, by the way. Thanks.”
She nods. “Eidhin, I assume?”
“Eidhin.”
“Good.” She smirks. “And you even managed to win a chariot race after it all.”
“You heard about that?”
“Gods.Everyoneheard about that. Catenicus, standing up to senators so jealous that they tried to take away his title. Beating everyone in his Placement exams while missing an arm, then doing it again in the race. People wouldn’t shut up about it.” She rolls her eyes ostentatiously, though her humour quickly fades. “And then there was Iro.”
I wince. “Have you seen him?” The ongoing rift between the senatorial pyramids means I’ve barely heard anything about his condition, let alone had the opportunity to check on him personally.
“No. Last I heard, he was still in a Vitaerium. Healing, but … he hasn’t woken up yet.” Her eyes are sad. We both know that after this long, the chances of him waking at all are slim.
I exhale. Nothing unexpected to the news. “Are people still saying I did it deliberately?”
