Page 82 of Firebird
Then Ivo, Stefanos, and I left for yet another trek to the butcher. The butcher she used actually had a shop in a neighborhood outside the forum. It would be quicker to get the fruit first, then stop at the butcher’s on the way back.
The streets were busy today, people bustling everywhere. The forum was uncomfortably packed, especially for me and Stefanos carrying the empty baskets for the fruit. Kara didn’t want it packed in sacks because it would bruise too easily. She was planning a monumental feast for tonight and wanted everything perfect for the aristocratic guests.
“Over there, Malina.” Stefanos pointed to a cart with a canvas top to the left.
I nodded and we wove through the crowd together, Stefanos in front, me in the middle, and Ivo at my back.
The town crier shouted news again from his dais toward the center of the forum. His droning voice blended with the other noises of the forum until the mention of Julian’s name caught my attention.
“Julianus Ignis Dakkia will host the honorable Rite of Skulls for the newly appointed general, Ciprian Media Nocte Seneca. This is a great honor for the house of Seneca. The emperor and exclusive guests will attend to witness Pluto’s blessing upon our new general and the might of Rome will grow greater in the light of the gods.”
He passed a scroll to his assistant beside him and took another in hand and began his loud oration again on a new topic of the senate. But I didn’t hear any of it. Julian had told me there would be a ceremony at his home and there would be guests, including the emperor, and I was aware he wasn’t happy about it. But he’d never mentioned this Rite of Skulls.
We reached the fruit vendor and made quick work of haggling, filling one basket with pears, figs, and dates, and the second with pomegranates as Kara had instructed. Then Ivo led us through the thick of the crowd and down an emptier lane to the butcher’s shop.
“What is the Rite of Skulls?” I asked Stefanos when we were mostly alone along the narrow street.
Stefanos frowned, which he rarely did, and said, “It is one of the ceremonies Emperor Igniculus started. That’s what Ruskus told me.”
“What is it for?”
“It’s to celebrate a Roman who takes the life of a leader or king of our enemy.”
“What happens at this ceremony?” The name of it sounded rather ominous.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Never seen one myself.”
Suddenly, someone grabbed my arm and jerked me down an alley, my shoulder nearly popping out of the socket as the basket of pomegranates tumbled to the stone pavement. Stefanos yelled while Ivo launched himself at the one trying to drag me farther down the alley.
He was a big, brawny man in commoner clothes, his face bearded and eyes cold. “Get him!” he yelled at a third man who wasn’t nearly a match for Ivo.
“Stop!” I cried out. “I belong to Julianus Dakkia!”
The man with an iron grip around my forearm chuckled darkly. “We know who you are.”
That was when I had the presence of mind to see he was wearing a slave collar. I couldn’t make out the full name but I saw enough. It was the name I’d just heard shouted in the forum by the crier.
Ivo tussled with one of the men while my captor continued to drag me farther away. Then a chill ran down my spine as Stefanos erupted with a bellowing, inhuman roar. It froze everyone in the alley, all heads swiveling to the boy.
The man facing off against Stefanos backed away, his palms up. “I don’t believe it.”
Stefanos’s nails extended, curling into black claws, his body swelling bigger. I managed to pull free from my dazed captor and ran to him, pressing my palms to his face and making him look at me. His eyes glowed red, his pupils split like a serpent’s.
“No, Stefanos,” I murmured, pushing a wave of calm into him. “Don’t do it, love. Calm down.”
He trembled, fuming, his eyes closing, as he accepted my balm of peace, the force of my magic soothing his inner beast.
“That slave boy’s a fucking dragon,” spat the bearded one who’d attacked me.
At once, I turned to face them and snapped my tether out like a three-headed viper. They jolted as I grasped hold of their souls with frightening speed.
“Hear me now,” I commanded, my voice resonating with fury.
Ivo slid away to my side, an arm around the shoulders of the shaken boy.
“If any of you speak of what you think you saw here, you will becursedforever by the gods.” My voice trembled with power. “You and your families will be plagued by illness and death. But you yourselves will die in pain and agony. You mustneversay a word to anyone or you will suffer dire punishment.”
I pushed terror through the line, injecting them with a taste of the agony they’d suffer if they disobeyed my command.
