Well, I did. I wasn't weak. Though I did have to lie back down again as dizziness swarmed my head.
"You need food." She twisted behind her and then returned with a bowl in her hands. She thrust it at me and whatever was in there looked gray and mushy, but at least it was warm. "Eat this."
"What is it?"
"Only people with money get to ask such a question. It will do you good. Now eat."
I smelled it first, and happily realized it didn't smell like the sewers, or wherever we were. Not that the stuff in the bowl smelled good -- it was some sort of porridge that probably had gone sour. But I began eating anyway. She was right, about the poor not being choosey.
"Before you fainted, you said you were drowning." Aurelia pursed her lips.
"No, I didn't," I said with a mouthful of food. "I wasn't."
"Well, you said it," Amelia insisted. "What did you mean?"
Then I remembered the bulla. I felt for it at my hip, and tried to find the strap at my neck, but it was gone. My temper instantly rose. "Where is it?"
She folded her arms. "I hid it. How did you do the magic in the amphitheater?"
That was none of her business. I put the bowl aside and sat fully up in the bed. "Give me the bulla."
"Not until you explain what happened. Magic belongs to the gods. Not to humans, and certainly not to a slave boy."
"And the bulla doesn't belong to you!" I said. "Give it to me and I'll go."
"Go where? You're lost down here. Besides, I felt the bulla myself. There's nothing different about it than any other trinket. You just want it for the jewels inside. I think the magic is in that mark on your shoulder. We would've cut that off too, if I'd known how."
I'd had enough of her. I threw off the blanket and swung my feet to the floor, but the effort was too much and made me dizzy again, so I had to stop. My arm was wrapped in a tight bandage from my shoulder down to my elbow and was wet with a peculiar smell.
I touched it, then sniffed my fingers. "What'd you put on there?"
"Olive oil and oregano, for the infection." She smiled. "It stings at first but it works. You were worse off than you might've realized."
Seeing her smile softened my own anger. I reached for the bowl and finished the rest of the porridge, then she said, "Let that sit for a while. If you can handle more, then we'll get you some bread."
I would've liked the bread now, but I wanted the bulla even more. Once again, my hand slid to my side where it should have been, and wasn't. I felt its absence as intensely as I would've felt a missing arm or leg, and wished I had enough energy to fight Aurelia for it. "Give me the bulla and directions to get out of here," I said tiredly. "Then I'll go."
Aurelia cocked her head at a couple of young children in the room with us, ordering them to leave. When only she and I were left, she said, "While you were asleep, I went back to the surface and asked around about you. There's nowhere to go, Nic. Nowhere. Everyone is looking for you. The emperor ordered his soldiers to kill you on sight, and they've blocked every gate to this city. The Senate wants you brought before them for questioning. Then yesterday, General Radulf gave a speech in the forum. He promised to drag you back to the amphitheater to answer for your crimes. He said he will overturn the city to find you. A million people live in Rome, and by now, every single one of them knows there's a reward for turning you in."
I looked down and kicked my foot against the ground. By now I should've been used to bad news, but this was even worse than expected.
Aurelia moved from her chair to sit beside me on the bed then placed a hand on my forearm. "In the forum, Radulf said you stole something from him -- the bulla, obviously -- and that you want to use it to overthrow the empire."
"That's not true!" I said, and then clicked my tongue. "Well, it's not true about overthrowing the empire. And I didn't plan to steal the bulla -- it's just that once I had it, I knew I couldn't give it to him."
"So you admit to being a thief," Aurelia said. "Radulf was telling the truth about that?"
"Yeah," I mumbled. "I guess I am."
I hated the sound of it spoken aloud. One of the last things my mother ever said to me was that no matter what else was lost, I must always keep my honor. That was gone now too.
Aurelia nodded, and then I felt the cold blade of her knife at the back of my neck. Her hand that had brushed across my forearm was now locked around it, and she called for the other children to come back in with a chain. I cursed under my breath. And then cursed a second time, louder, in case she hadn't heard me before.
"This isn't personal," she
said as two girls hurried in. They started by locking manacles around my wrists and next moved to my feet. "I've stolen things too -- every one of us down here has done it when there's no other choice to live. But you did have a choice with the bulla, and so the crime is different."
"This isn't about what I stole," I said angrily. "You want that reward money."