I stormed from the room and headed toward the baths. Using the bulla, it was nothing to open the locked door to the courtyard, which flew apart at its hinges. Callistus was standing in the center of the courtyard as if he had been waiting for me.
Radulf ran in behind me. "You'll never save her on your own. And worse still, you'll let them destroy you too."
I grabbed the saddle from the fence post and set it on Callistus's back, then whispered my apologies for asking such a humble task of him. In response, he arched his head and angled toward me, making my job easier.
Radulf stepped closer. "I am the only one who can help you."
"You've already helped me too much," I said, climbing into the saddle. "And my greatest hope is that you never help me again."
With that, I released enough magic from my hand to break open a hole in Radulf's courtyard. As usual, the bulla's overflowing power collapsed most of the wall and leveled several trees in my path. I gave Callistus a brief pat on his neck, and then we rode away.
Radulf released a flare of magic as I left, lighting a tree in his courtyard on fire. I wasn't sure if that came from his anger or his frustration at not being able to control me. And I really didn't care.
Chariot racing had taught me better control of horses than I might have otherwise learned in a lifetime, but I quickly discovered that Callistus needed none of that training. I didn't have to speak to him, as I did with Caela. He knew my thoughts, and understood instinctively that I needed his help to find Aurelia and Livia again. And after that ... well, I didn't know what.
Aurelia always had everything fully thought out before the first breath of an idea had ever entered my mind. So I already knew that she would find a safe place to hide Livia. But though I had a good idea of where she wasn't, I still had no idea of where she would be. Would they return to the sewers? I hoped not, because I couldn't find my way through them and didn't like the idea of going there yet again. My present goal was to limit my sewer visits to no more than once a month.
Aurelia probably had a thousand places to hide in Rome, which was a good thing for both her and Livia. If I didn't give the Praetors a key tomorrow, my mother would pay the price for it. Livia was next on their list. Aurelia would follow.
As I considered my options, it bothered me to realize that there had been some wisdom in Radulf's plans. Without a key to give the Praetors, there really was no choice but to trick them. I closed my eyes, trying to imagine what I could come up with by tomorrow. The Praetors were no fools.
But I certainly was, a truth I felt running through every vein of my body.
Was it possible that Callistus knew about the key to the Malice? There was no reason he should, but if the key had come from the gods, and so had this unicorn, then maybe he knew something. But when I asked, Callistus only snorted, which I took as a sign that I was still on my own.
The biggest problem I faced was in convincing everyone that I didn't have the key. If they knew the despicable way Horatio had treated me every time we were together, they would understand why he never would have chosen to give it to me. The only thing Horatio had ever given me was a handful of insults and a nasty sword wound from his soldiers. Even after I tried to warn him that Valerius wanted him dead, Horatio went into the arena anyway. Despite my best efforts, Valerius succeeded with his plan. If Horatio gave away the key before he died, it wasn't to me.
Then why did he announce in the arena that he had?
Shortly before he sent me into the arena, Horatio told me he had the key with him at all times. We'd exchanged a few more words before he actually sent me into the arena, but that was all, just meaningless words. No codes, no cipher, and certainly nothing I'd consider a key. Up through the moment he entered the arena, Horatio planned to give the key to Radulf, right after my death. But much to his frustration, I had lived, so I doubted Radulf ever received the key either.
No, what Horatio had announced in the arena was that he had given me the key, and kept it for himself. What did that mean?
I became so absorbed in thinking about Horatio and the key that the clatter of Callistus's hooves against the paved stone road had become background noise. When it quieted, I realized we had left the road and were now far from Radulf's home. Callistus had us outside the center of Rome, in an area that might not have been familiar to most people, but I knew it well. Callistus was bringing me to Valerius's villa.
I didn't want to go there, which surely Callistus already knew, and yet despite my attempt to prod him back to the road, he was intent in his course. Then it occurred to me why. If anyone in Rome knew where Aurelia might have gone, it was Crispus.
That thought dug into me like a knife. For all I knew, Aurelia was staying here in his home. It wouldn't be frowned upon for her to have her own room here ... if she were viewed as his future wife.
But Aurelia didn't seem to want that any more than I did. She said she would leave Rome with me. Maybe they were only words to get me to leave the fight with the Praetors. But maybe not.
The only thing I was certain of was that Crispus did not deserve her.
For that matter, neither did I. Yet she had eaten dinner with him, and had come to the circus with him.
Callistus suddenly reared up, and I realized I had wound his reins so tightly around my fingers that they were pulling against him. Why was I so angry? It was jealousy obviously. The jealousy Diana felt toward Venus was flowing through the bulla and into me.
Either that, or Diana had nothing to do with this. Maybe the beat of my heart whenever I saw Aurelia had nothing to do with magic.
I whis
pered an apology to Callistus, who began running again, and in only minutes, we were at the property at the rear of Valerius's home, a place I had not been for the past two months. I saw his villa in the distance, already lit from within. If Aurelia was in there, I wanted to find her at once. Or alternately, never have to see her again, where I'd be forced to face my own stupidity. I wasn't sure which was worse.
At least here in Valerius's fields, I could hide amongst his many rows of vines, which were thick with ripening grapes. In another few weeks, I'd have filled my belly with them, but for now, I had to be content with inhaling their delicious scent.
Valerius had a vast amount of property. Most of it was these thick vineyards at the far end, but off to one side was a wooded area on a hill, and nearer the villa was an empty field. That was where I had first experimented with controlling my magic. Back when Crispus and his father had seemed like friends to me. And when I had been naive enough to believe there was an easy way to gain my freedom from the empire.
While we were still on the outskirts of the field, I asked Callistus to halt. A sound had caught my attention; I could've sworn I'd heard something. Quiet as a breeze, but deeply disturbing.