breaths, as he died!
Feeling the violence welling up within him, he rose quickly and shut the library door. Then turning back into the room, he began systematically to destroy everything in it. Furiously he flung the furniture against the beautiful frescoed walls! Every piece of pottery was smashed, and only the book scrolls escaped destruction due to Dagian's timely entry into the library.
'Marcus!' She looked about her, horrified at the terrible disaster the room had become. 'Marcus, what is it?'
Somehow through the red mists of his fury he heard her, and slowly his glazed eyes cleared. 'It was either this or I would have killed
Dagian did not need to ask who. She simply inquired, 'Why?'
He told her, and Dagian's eyes quickly filled with tears. 'Poor Zenobia,' she said softly, and then, 'Marcus, you are not angry at Zenobia?'
'No, Mother, I am angry for her. Rome is truly a sewer, and none of us belongs here any longer. The gods only know how badly I want to take Zenobia from this place.'
'You will have to wait until Aurelian has embarked from Brindisi, Marcus, and then it will be another week after he has left. We cannot at this late date take the chance of anyone discovering our plans. You must remain calm, my son.'
'I know, Mother, but when I heard what he had done to my wife… The gods curse him! I hope he never returns to Rome. I hope they kill him!'
Aurelian, however, at that moment was far from dead. At Zenobia's villa in Tivoli, he held his beautiful captive within the circle of his arms and kissed her passionately. She forced herself to eagerly return his kisses, nibbling teasingly at his lips to further arouse his desires. His hands fondled her full breasts, taunting the nipples to hard peaks. 'You are so beautiful,' he murmured against her ear, and she purred against him in apparent satisfaction. 'Do you know yet, goddess?' he asked her. 'Can you be sure yet whether you carry my child?'
'It is much too soon, Caesar,' she said, and then she lowered her eyes coyly. 'I promise to send a message to you the moment I can be certain. These things cannot be rushed, Roman.'
'I do not like leaving you, goddess, but I do not want you exposed to the rigors of travel in your condition.'
'I understand, Caesar,' she replied, 'and I agree with you. 1 am not a maiden in the first flush of her womanhood. It is better this way.'
'If only I could be sure!' He was so anxious, and for a brief moment Zenobia almost felt sorry for him. Then she remembered the rites, those unholy rites he had held within his Temple of the Unconquerable Sun, publicly shaming her.
'You were so virile and potent that night, Roman,' she murmured wickedly. 'Surely if it is written you cannot doubt the outcome?'
'No, no!' he answered, visibly upset lest his lack of faith cause the gods to turn upon him. 'No, you are with child, I am certain!'
'Then kiss me again, Aurelian, and be on your way, for the sooner you leave me the sooner you will return to me-and to our child.' She looked him straight in the face now, her silvery-gray eyes dancing with their haunting golden lights. Never had he seen her so beautiful, he thought. Swiftly his mouth descended on her, possessing her lips fiercely, but she would not be subdued, and kissed him as fiercely in return. He was strangely breathless when they parted.
'The gods go with you, Roman,' she said.
He could do nothing but leave her now, but he did so feeling strangely dissatisfied. Climbing into his chariot, he turned to look at her once more, and the sight of Zenobia in her flaming red kalasiris, her long black hair blowing free in the afternoon breeze, her proud head held high, was a vision that remained with him. He raised his hand in a gesture of farewell, then slapped the reins upon his horses' rumps, and departed, his chariot wheels rumbling up the drive and onto the Via Flaminia.
She also raised her hand in farewell, wondering if he could hear her laughter following him. 'I will never see you again, Roman, and may my memory haunt you through all eternity!' she cried softly, and then she whirled around and re-entered her house.
The time went slowly, the days long and dull, the nights longer and lonely. The only relief for Zenobia during this period was her monthly show of blood. She had never truly believed that the emperor could father a child upon her when he had never before sired one; but the insanity of the Temple of the Unconquerable Sun had left her shaken.
The Praetorian guards about her villa were removed at her request to the senate through Claudius Tacitus.
'I have no wish to cause the government undue expense on my behalf when it is not really necessary,' she told him. 'It is enough that Rome houses me.'
'Perhaps,' Tacitus said, 'it may soon be possible for you to have your complete freedom, my dear. The senate, however, needs certain assurances.' His kindly old face was bland with detachment.
'What assurances?' she demanded.
'The emperor made some rather interesting statements concerning your condition prior to his departure; and there was some gossip about fertility rites in his Temple of the Unconquerable Sun several weeks back.'
'If you are referring, Tacitus, to the night in which I was drugged and then raped by the emperor upon the high altar of his temple, then allow me to assure you that nothing came of that night other than my acute sense of shame. Aurelian chose to believe that I was carrying his child before he departed. I chose to allow him to believe it so I might be spared the boredom of accompanying him to Byzantium. If the senate does not believe me then let them question my women, or call a physician in to examine me. I am not with child.'
'Do you love Aurelian?' Tacitus asked bluntly.
'No,' she replied in kind. 'I am his captive, and that is all I have ever been.'
'He believes that you love him.'
'He also believes that I am the goddess Venus incarnate, but I am not, Tacitus.' She looked shrewdly at him. 'You have all but said aloud that there is a plot against Aurelian. I care not! Why should I? Aurelian has taken everything that I ever held dear from me. My sons are gone from me, my people, my city! All I have left is my daughter, and all I want is to be left alone in peace to raise her. You may tell the senate that, Tacitus! I simply wish to be left to myself!'
'Your reputation was not a lie, Zenobia of Palmyra. You are indeed a wise woman,' Tacitus replied, and then he bid her farewell and withdrew from her.
When he had gone Zenobia called for parchment andher writing materials, and quickly wrote a note to Dagian. The note was then taken immediately to Rome by a Tiro, a young slave of Zenobia's. He was a skilled chariot driver, who had been injured in the arena. No longer any good for competition, he had been sold by his master, but he could still drive skillfully enough for the road. She had purchased him, given him a lovely slave girl as a wife, and now Tiro would have died for his mistress.
When Tiro returned after dark that night Marcus Alexander Britainus was with him, muffled in a dark cloak as he slipped into the villa and made his way to Zenobia's bedchamber. Adria gave a small shriek as the large, black figure entered the room without warning; but Marcus flung the long cape off, and Adria sighed, 'Oh, master, you gave me such a fright!'
Marcus chuckled deeply. 'Did you think I was Aurelian returned?'
Adria made a face that caused Marcus to laugh aloud. 'That one,' Adria sniffed. 'Praise the gods we shall not have to put up with him again, master.'
'You sound more like old Bab every day,' he teased her.
'Then the girl is finally getting some sense, which is more than I can say for you, Marcus Alexander Britainus! Are you mad to come calling, and the emperor not gone from the country yet?' Bab stood glaring at him, hands upon her plump hips.
'Aurelian sailed two days ago, old woman; and besides, it was your beautiful mistress who summoned me here. Where is she?'
'Here, my love!' Zenobia stood in the doorway of her bedchamber. 'I was in the gardens walking-and
