“It’s real,” I told him.
“I would expect no less from a princess of Egypt. Was it the queen’s?”
I blinked away my tears. “Yes. But if Octavia accepts the payment, I don’t want you to tell Gallia who it came from.”
“How charitable.”
“It isn’t charity!” I was the reason for what had happened to Gallia. She had defended me once when I had refused to wear Livia’s beaded dress, and made an enemy of a woman who wished to see everyone else suffer. “I owe this to her,” I whispered.
If it hadn’t been the start of Lupercalia and the beginning of a week’s holiday from the ludus, I would never have woken in time to meet with Vitruvius the next morning. When I opened my eyes, Alexander had already left the chamber, and the windows, which usually looked over a dark and richly wooded garden, were brightened by the winter’s milky sun. I listened for a moment for sounds outside my chamber, wondering what time it was and where everyone had gone. Did they know about Gallia? Would Juba be punished for killing a senator?
I dressed as quickly as I could and simply pushed back my hair with my diadem. When I looked in the mirror, only the golden
I opened my door and listened for Marcellus, but the halls that were normally filled with his laughter were silent. When I peered into the library, I saw Octavia and Vitruvius sitting together. As soon as Vitruvius saw me, he rose. “Octavia would like to speak with you,” he said quietly. I searched his eyes for some indication, but his face was a mask. When he shut the door behind us, I looked at Octavia.
She motioned for me to sit, then she folded her hands and heaved a heavy sigh. “A terrible thing happened last night.”
“Yes. Very terrible,” I said quietly.
“But you may have helped save Gallia from death.”
“I did nothing. It was Juba,” I said, just as it had been Juba who had saved Octavian from assassination.
She studied me with her soft eyes. “And it was Juba who came this morning with enough denarii to manumit Gallia.”
I lowered my gaze to my lap.
“So I freed her.”
I looked up swiftly.
“I am ashamed to say that for all my charity, I was not as generous as you were to Gallia.”
“It was my fault she went with Gaius. I should have stopped her!”
“And defy Livia’s command?” Octavia laughed mirthlessly. “There’s nothing you could have done.”
“We could have found her sooner!”
“You found her before Gaius strangled her, Selene. And if he had succeeded, there would be no one in Rome to tell the tale. Do you think his guards would have given him away? His slaves?”
“Where is she?” I whispered.
“She will live with Magister Verrius now.”
“And you aren’t angry?”
Octavia didn’t say anything. She clasped her hands, then unclasped them. “I am sad that I had to tell Gallia she was free when it wasn’t my generosity that freed her. And I am sad that I will be losing my closest friend. I have been selfish in wanting to keep her a slave. Perhaps I have been selfish in many things.”
“No. You are the spirit of Empanda,” I said earnestly, thinking of the goddess of charity. “And even Empanda must have coveted something.”
“At the expense of a life?” She stood, and I wasn’t sure whose life she meant. That of Gaius, who had died by Juba’s sword, or Gallia, whose life had been given to slavery. “It is possible that Gallia will return,” she said. “But not before she has recovered.” I rose from Vitruvius’s chair and followed her across the room. At the door, she paused. “However, if there are other slaves you wish to free, Selene, I would save your denarii. Gallia may be a friend to me,” she warned, “but I am no Red Eagle.”
I missed the Festival of Lupercalia. While Alexander and Marcellus sacrificed a goat in Romulus’s cave and watched while young men were putting on the skins of the sacrifice, running down the Palatine, and whipping anyone in their path with strips of goatskin, I sat alone in my chamber and sketched. From my room, I could hear the shrieks of the women. They were the ones who stood in the path of the whip to ensure fertility over the coming year, and when there was no more screaming, I heard Marcellus’s voice and assumed that everyone had returned.
Alexander was the first to enter the chamber, and when I saw his face, I jumped from my couch.
“What happened?” I cried.
He laughed. “It’s not mine. It’s goat’s blood.”
“What for?”
“The Lupercalia! And if you hadn’t been sleeping, you could have come. But I felt too sorry to wake you.”
“Sorry for me, or sorry for Gallia?” I demanded, and immediately he sobered. “You think you’re going to be King of Egypt someday, acting like this? After you saw what endless feasting and drinking did to our father?”
“It isn’t endless,” he said quietly. “It’s just one morning.”
“Which happens to come after a night of bloodshed!”
“I heard what you did,” Marcellus whispered. “My mother said you bought Gallia’s freedom.” Behind him, Julia and Alexander both exclaimed, “You freed a slave?”
“And Octavia let her go?” my brother pressed.
“It appears that way.”
“Do you think Gallia will return?” Marcellus asked.
“Your mother said it was possible. If I were Gallia, I would leave Rome altogether.”
“Livia was happy this morning. But when she hears what you’ve done, she’ll be beside herself,” Julia said fearfully.
“Then no one will tell her,” Marcellus replied firmly. “Gallia doesn’t know who it was, and Livia won’t either.”
But my brother scowled at me. “You never cared about the slaves in Alexandria.”
“And in Alexandria, we had a kingdom. Here, what’s the difference between us and Gallia?”
“Citizenship,” Julia said.
“No,” my brother said. “A roll of the dice. We could just as easily have been made slaves.”
“The children of a queen?” Julia exclaimed.
“Wasn’t Gallia the child of a queen?” my brother asked.
She made a face. “The Gauls are barbarians.”
“And what if tomorrow your father decides that Egyptians are barbarians?” I asked.
Marcellus and Julia were silent.
“Please promise you won’t say anything,” I begged, but even though Julia nodded, I wondered whether she could keep such a secret.
That evening, as we walked to Octavian’s villa, Marcellus waited until my brother was ahead of us to whisper, “You have a very kind heart, Selene.”
I was glad there was only a sliver of moon. That way he couldn’t see the rush of blood to my cheeks.
“I had always hoped to set Gallia free when I became Caesar. I wasn’t sure how my mother would take it. You’ve done what I was afraid to do.”
“It was nothing.”
“I don’t think so,” he said tenderly.
Our eyes met, and I wondered for a moment if he was going to kiss me. Then Julia, in one of her new silver
