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I wanted to send magic to open the grate, but for whatever it mattered now, I worried it might hit Livia. Besides that, I had exhausted my magic and all my energy on getting us this far. There was nothing left now.
Livia continued moving, up and down, almost angrily. Then as if there had been another explosion below us, the grate opened and we fell from it into the sewer water below.
I coughed on water as it emptied from my lungs, not caring about the sewage around me or the total darkness that we had entered.
Beside me, Livia put a hand on my back. "Not everything is done by magic."
So she had kicked the grate away. She had saved us, in a way my magic could never have done, and I nodded to thank her.
Ahead of us came a voice, and it brought a wide smile to my face.
"I should've expected that," Aurelia said, lighting a small torch in her hands. "Now I know why you wanted to meet here."
It took several minutes before I was strong enough to say more than a few words of welcome to Aurelia. She returned my gratitude by saying, "You both are going to smell horrid, and now I'll smell too. Honestly, Nic, I'm beginning to wonder what your attraction is to sewage."
"It's not what attracts me down here as much as what repels me up there," I said. Despite being covered in filth I didn't even want to think about, I felt only happiness for being here now. This was the second time the Cloaca Maxima had saved my life. And much more than the second time that Aurelia had come to save me.
I stood and helped Livia to her feet. She was obviously disgusted by the smells around us, but hid her revulsion as well as anyone could. When she faced Aurelia, I made the introductions.
"Your brother has told me so much about you," Aurelia said with a polite bow to Livia.
Livia bowed back. "And the same for you. From Nic's descriptions, I feel as if I already know you."
"He described me?" Aurelia glanced my way with a broad grin. I felt myself blushing and hoped it wasn't visible in the torchlight.
"This is a terrible place for such silly talk," I said. "Let's go."
Aurelia and Livia began walking, with me trailing them. "What did Nic say about me?" Aurelia asked.
"That you're loud and you ask too many questions," I replied before Livia could speak.
Livia giggled. "No, that wasn't it."
Then Aurelia giggled too, which left me thoroughly confused. What did giggling mean anyway? It sounded happy, but it certainly wasn't making me feel any better. Considering they had just met, what unspoken joke could they already have in common?
Oh. It was me.
Aurelia led us through the sewers as easily as if she were strolling a garden path. She knew the turns and the dangers and even the places where freshwater poured in, giving us a clean shower. Somehow, when I had been lost in here before, I had missed all of that.
After another mile, she pointed out a freshwater basin ahead that had gathered in last night's rainstorm. Livia went there and began cleaning herself again. While she did, I caught up to Aurelia. She had snuffed out her torch to conserve it for the night, but the moonlight still came in through the grate overhead. With that light, I could see her plenty well. She was in a shorter, plainer tunic than she'd worn in the circus and her brown hair fell loosely over her shoulders. This was the Aurelia I remembered. Over the last two months, I had thought about her constantly, though I'd never admit that. More important, I saw the crepundia around her neck, and I couldn't help but stare at it.
"Thank you for being here," I said. "We wouldn't have made it out otherwise."
"You're welcome." Her eyes darted to Livia and then back to me, more serious than usual. If there were things she wanted to say, I wondered if she wanted to do it privately and so I took Aurelia's arm and we went a little farther away.
Livia took the hint. "I'm tired, Nic. Is it all right if I rest for a while?"
Aurelia answered for me. "No one will search for us down here, so this is where we should sleep. We can get an early start in the morning and be out before anyone else is awake."
Then she and I sat together on a wide ledge above the water with our backs to Livia. In a hushed voice, Aurelia said, "Crispus wanted to come and help. He's worried about you."
"You told Crispus I'd be here?" I scowled. "Why?"
"I couldn't just disappear and leave him wondering where I was."
"Now Crispus will tell his father about me, and then his father will tell the Praetors. Are they planning to meet me here too?"
"I told Crispus, nobody else! You forget that he's done nothing to you. Your quarrel is with his father."
