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I had forgotten what it was like to fly with Caela. During my last ride on her back, I had been half-dead from Radulf, furious with Crispus and Valerius, and heartbroken from my failure to save Horatio. I barely remembered the ride.
Until now.
Caela soared over Lake Nemi, beneath a moon bright enough to make the water look like black glass, only smoother. The mountains around us were equally dark, but the shadows of their ridges came in the form of tall cypress trees and the outline of Diana's temple, lit from within by candlelight. As we came closer to it, I also noticed a woman standing near the temple, watching me. Waiting for me. Now I was nervous. Caela had not taken me on a pleasure ride.
Caela landed beside the temple, and the woman, a vestalis, walked up to us and stroked the griffin's neck as if they were old friends. She whispered something to Caela, who promptly dumped me off her back by arching it and then shuffling her wings. Then Caela flew away without so much as a glance backward.
I stood and called after her, but the vestalis touched my arm. "Don't worry, Nicolas. She'll return when I call for her."
My eyes narrowed. "You have magic?"
She smiled. "You may have the power of the gods, but I have their ear, and that is enough. Do you remember me?"
Humbly, I nodded. This was the same vestalis who had granted Aurelia and me asylum in Caesar's temple. With her hair nearly as white as her robes, she was old enough to be my grandmother but still as beautiful as I imagined the goddesses to be. There was a kindness in her expression and in the tone of her voice, but a firmness too -- she would have little patience for fools.
"I warned you back then not to cause trouble," she said. "You didn't listen."
"I did listen. You should've warned the empire not to cause me trouble."
Her smile was brief. "Perhaps so. I worry that more deaths are coming."
She probably didn't know about Valerius. I had tried to save him. And failed, just as I had failed with Horatio. Every death cut at my heart. If the Praetors struck out against Crispus, or Aurelia, or Livia, or my mother, it would be too much for me to bear. And if I lost the race in four days, all of them would suffer for it.
"You must find a way to stop this," the vestalis said.
I wanted that more than anything right now, more than even my own freedom. "How can I do it?" I asked, absolutely certain that if anyone had the answer to that question, it was her.
She grabbed a torch that was placed against the wall of the temple. "Come with me, Nicolas."
Since the day I had stolen the bulla, my life had felt like a deep hole in the ground. I'd tried everything I could think of to get out of the pit, but instead, it only deepened the hole. If the vestalis had any way to help -- even a pebble that might raise me higher, then I would gladly follow her.
As it turns out, it wasn't a pebble exactly. But it was close.
I followed her behind the temple to a large field on a slope that was scattered with loose rocks, each about the size of my fist and all of them as white as Callistus's fur.
"The Jupiter Stone is here," the vestalis said.
I shook my head. "I won't create one of those, not for the Praetors, or Radulf, or even you, my lady."
She closed her eyes and nodded in approval. "You must never create one for the Praetors. They will use it to control the gods. And if you create one for Radulf, he will use it to destroy the gods. And you must not create one for yourself. For it will destroy you."
I looked sideways at her. "What about you?"
She smiled. "I am not asking."
"I don't have the Malice," I replied. "Without it, I can't create a Jupiter Stone, even if I wanted to." And I definitely didn't want to. Creating a Jupiter Stone would require me to challenge a bolt of lightning, and I knew how that encounter w
ould end. There were whole body parts I'd rather lose before I wanted to create a Jupiter Stone.
"The time hasn't come for you to create the amulet," the vestalis said. "Only to find the stone intended for that purpose." Then she motioned toward the rocks. "One of these is the Jupiter Stone. The others are merely rocks. You must learn to tell the difference between them so that when you are returned here -- and you will be -- you will know which stone not to select for your captors."
"My captors?" I asked. "Who will that be?"
"The captors you choose." Then she shrugged. "Though I cannot tell who that will be. You have not chosen them yet."
I wouldn't be choosing anyone -- that was the whole point of my bargain with Brutus. I had no intention of letting things get to the point of my capture.
"How do you know all this?" I asked. Because I wanted her to say that she really didn't know, and that she was just good at making guesses.
