Every Sacred Thing: The Angel in the House, Part Two

[aithne]

The garden outside was very well-kept, full of different kinds of trees and shrubs, late-blooming flowers, and bees buzzing from bloom to bloom. She could see a few bird nests in the trees and shrubs, and to one side a fountain or spring bubbled quietly. Livia couldn't help thinking that she wished Optata were here. She'd love it here, in this garden. There were even a few trees that had spaces beneath their low canopies that would be perfect for a child Optata's size--places that would be nearly hidden from view from adults.

She began to walk around the garden, Darius doing the same. Smaller than I can imagine, but larger than I might think. And he went there every day. Look for traffic patterns.

There were paths winding through the garden. All but one led to doors into the house. The exception led to a tall tree with an arching canopy, one that had a couple of benches underneath of it. A place for quiet contemplation, she assumed.

Maybe something more. She inspected the tree trunk, stepping around it and out of view of Darius. She ran her fingers over the trunk, looking for a catch or something like it. Then she glanced up into the canopy of the tree.

There was a birdhouse there, just within reach if Livia stretched and stood on her tiptoes. It was a plain little thing, made of rough wood, but the open doorway sparkled strangely.

Livia frowned, stretched herself, and touched the doorway.

The world vanished.

She was suddenly in a room, a larger room than she ever could have imagined existing. It ran for what might be miles in every direction, stone floor stretching away. The ceiling was glass, allowing the sun to shine in, and Livia could see snow-capped mountains through the glass. The air was warm, and there was nothing at all in the room that she can tell.

She turned around, looking for an exit. She felt uneasy when she saw nothing. If there was an exit, it was miles away, and she chuckled as she imagined using the mirror to tell Darius that she was trapped inside of a birdhouse. "Constans used this room, and he was no mage. Let's see--"

She visualized a control, something that would help her understand this place. Suddenly, in front of her, appeared a man.

It was Constans. Livia jumped back. "Um. Hello?" she said, shakily.

"Hello, Livia," said Constans.

He looked solid enough. Was this really Constans? "I take it this is your place, then?"

He shrugged. "Was, it's yours now."

Livia shook her head, confused. "You died. I think, anyway."

"Yes, Constans is dead." He was standing there, simply looking at her. Livia felt uncomfortable, but persisted.

"You look an awful lot like him. Who are you?"

He shook his head gently. "The keeper of this place."

"What is this place, anyway?"

Constans spread his hands. "A place of peace."

Livia looked around. A flock of birds passed overhead, beyond the glass. "Did Constans have this built?"

"No, it has been here from a time long before Constans."

She remembered why she'd come here in the first place. "I've heard that it can be use to purge magic. Is that the case?"

"It can be used to purge any magic brought to this place. But not from afar."

Livia was starting to get used to the fact that a dead man was standing in front of her. "Ah. So whatever needs to be purged must be brought here?"

"Yes, that is the nature of this place. It purges for whoever owns the entry."

"There's only one entry?"

"Correct," replied Constans.

"Did anyone other than Constans ever come here? During Constans's time, I mean."

He shook his head. "No one in Constans time."

"Before him were others, I assume," she said.

The keeper nodded. "Thousands."

Livia looked around again. Her eyes kept on thinking she was seeing things just at the edges of her vision. Something about the huge emptiness made the eye think there should be things there that there weren't. "How long has this place existed, and do you know who made it?"

"Since before man arose. The gods built it."

This is the sort of thing I'd build if I were a god, all right. "Oh. Does it do anything besides purging magic?"

He shrugged. "It used to."

"Why doesn't it now?"

"Lack of faith."

Livia drew in her breath. "Let me guess. Did that lack of faith start about the time that Constantine decided to purge the Empire of pagans?"

The keeper nodded. "Yes."

"I figured. What was it able to do, before?"

He gestured at the room around them, the space that did not echo even though it felt like it should. "The things it could do were only limited to the imagination of the owner."

To have seen it in its glory days... She felt a touch wistful. "Interesting. Can I bring someone else here, if I want?"

"If you wish, just be in contact with them when you enter."

"And how do I leave?"

The keeper shrugged. "Just ask."

Livia nodded and fingered the edge of her palla. "All right. Tell me, if you're not Constans, why do you look so much like him?"

"When the old owner dies, I assume their form. When you die, I will be you for the next owner."

"Ah. So you don't know everything Constans knew, then." Too bad, she thought ruefully.

"No, just what he told me."

She raised her eyebrows. "He came and talked to you?"

"Sometimes."

Livia bit back a sigh of frustration. The keeper was who the keeper was. He probably couldn't really volunteer any information for her. "What about?"

The keeper spread his hands. "All manner of things. Life, love, the true nature of the gods. Sometimes just the weather."

"He must have been lonely," she said, shaking her head.

"He was. No one he could trust."

She made a wry face. "There was a tragedy going on in the household that nobody ever really knew about. Now that I've mostly unraveled it, it really saddens me."

"It saddened him, but he was caught."

She turned around, her gaze sweeping the horizon. "As we all are, sometimes. Who did you appear as, for him?"

"Her name was Maris, his mother."

She turned back around again. "No wonder he came to talk to you. It must have been very comforting."

The keeper was looking at her with a neutral gaze. "I think it was."

"Does time pass in here like it does outside?"

He nodded. "It does."

It had been about five minutes. Livia probably had another five minutes before Darius would completely tear the garden apart looking for her. "Did Constans ever talk to you about someone named Diya, his son's betrothed?"

The keeper's gaze went past her, to the horizon. "He did."

"Did he ever mention making her his heir?"

"No, he didn't. He did like her but he couldn't let her marry Esayis."

"Why not?"

He said, "He couldn't let his only heir marry a commoner."

"True. Did he ever talk about Aranis, and what might happen if she regained her senses and went back to Faydren?" she asked.

"He spoke of war coming and he couldn't find a way out. Aranis was the key."

"What was her importance?"

The keeper spread his hands. "He knew of Geras and his collusion with Faydren. But he also knew that if Faydren found out about what Geras did to her, his rage would be beyond anything that he'd ever seen. Faydren would destroy Constantinople searching for Geras. He also knew that if she ever awoke and regained her mind that he would be killed in Faydren's effort to reclaim her."

"So he was stuck, then," she said.

"He was tied and so he kept the mage Pollius to keep her quiet. He knew that Geras owned him."

Livia's heart skipped a beat. "Geras owned Pollius, as well?"

The keeper nodded gravely. "Yes, it was the calming effect for her and the insanity effect for Magentius."

"So Pollius was the one driving Magentius mad, then." She started to feel the tangle that had been this household in her mind begin to unravel. "And Faydren didn't have any part in that?"

"He never knew."

"Did he ever say why Geras wanted Magentius to be mad?"

He replied, "No, but he did say that Aranis was the ace in the hole for Faydren. Only Geras and Linaeus could remove the process."

She sighed. "Indeed she is. Interesting. Poor woman. A few more questions, and then I need to go before I'm missed. Did Constans ever mention a man named Sextus?" The keeper nodded. "Did he mention why he was meeting with him?"

The keeper said, "Constans wondered if Diya was Sextus's child."

"What did Sextus say?"

"Sextus sidestepped the question, by replying, does it matter. She can not marry Esayis even if she was. Constans believed her to be."

Livia frowned. "Well, she's noble, but illegitimate. Sextus never married her mother. Were they meeting about anything else, or just that?"

"They held several meetings on the subject of Linaeus."

"What about him?"

His gaze went distant again. "Constans believed that without Linaeus, Geras would be less effective as a foe. Constans wanted to put a price on his head as well as Geras. He wanted Sextus to be the person that brought him down. Sextus thought that Linaeus could be turned and redeemed."

Livia nodded. "He was correct. Well, mostly."

"Sextus died before too many meetings between the three of them had taken place."

Her eyes went wide. "The three of them? Sextus, Constans, and Linaeus?"

The keeper nodded. Livia closed her eyes. Oh, Sextus. You were playing a game I'm not sure you had a hope of winning. I'm not sure I have much more of a hope. "I think I'd better go. If Darius tries to find me and can't, he's going to get worried. Can you put me back where I was?"

"It is the only way in or out. Goodbye, Livia." A door appeared before her, standing open, shimmering.

"Goodbye, Constans," she murmured, then stepped through the door.

She opened her eyes to see Darius standing right in front of her, staring at her, a deep scowl on his face. She glanced around, but evidently Darius hadn't begun uprooting things looking for her quite yet. She gave him a small smile. "Um. Sorry about disappearing like that."

His scowl didn't fade. "I assume you found it?"

"I did. It's...interesting. And the person who keeps the place is talkative."

His eyebrows went up, and his frown began to fade. "All right, that must have been interesting."

Livia grinned. "It was. Constans talked a lot to him, because he didn't exactly have a lot of other people to talk to. I found out some very interesting things. Geras owns Pollius, and Pollius was the one driving Magentius crazy."

The frown was completely gone now as he began to think about what she was saying. "That is useful. So does Faydren know?"

She shook her head. "No. He knows nothing of it."

"Interesting. So Geras has a spy on the council," he said.

"He does, and a very well-placed one at that."

"Nice." He glanced around, but they were the only people in the garden at the moment, and the tree shielded from view of most of the house. "One more person to kill."

"Well, we knew that we might have to, anyway. That's not really new." She gave him a half-smile. "Constans was of more or less of the same opinion as Linaeus when it came to Aranis. If he finds out, Faydren will destroy the city in order to get to Geras."

"So do we continue, and chance his wrath?"

She looked away from him, and leaned against the tree. "I don't know. The thought has occurred to me that Aranis might well be the excuse we need to get Neera out of Faydren's house for a while, though."

Darius nodded. "That is a thought. If we can rid ourselves of Geras forever, it might be worth the cost."

Livia still was looking away from him, at a sparrow that was hopping around in a flowerbed, scratching at the earth. "But if the cost is Optata's life, or Diya's? That's where I'm stuck. Almost anything else is worth paying. Their lives are not. Neither is yours."

"Nor yours, Livia." She looked up at him, a protest forming and then dying on her lips as she saw the look in his eyes. She might be willing to die for what needed to be done, but he wasn't going to give her up without a fight. "Our choices are limited, though. We have the means to take him down but we can't use it."

She put her back against the tree, feeling the rough bark through her dress. "We have Collita still. I think I want to see if that gambit works, first. Especially if we can get Neera into our household, Aranis is possibly more useful crazy than sane."

"Maybe. Think he will kill less people for his mother?"

She shrugged. "Possibly. I'm sure he loved her, but he also hasn't been waiting for twenty years for the chance to get her back, either. He might choose to target his rage."

He inclined his head. "No, that's true. He may just target the killer."

"I can only hope. Otherwise, we may find that Constantinople's crumbling around our ears," she replied. "It's very, very risky."

Darius nodded. "So the next step is?"

"Planting the evidence, and seeing what Neera can do for Aranis. If we can set it up so that she comes over every night and morning for a little while, I'll be able to use her to get word back into Faydren's ears."

"And see if Faydren takes the bait? What about Aranis?"

"Yes. Aranis we can leave as she is for a while. The only problem is, if Linaeus gets killed, that's her last hope of ever regaining her sanity. Only Linaeus and Geras can undo it."

Darius shrugged. "And Geras isn't going to want to do that."

"Never." She gave the big mage a small smile. "Giving Faydren a little hope, a little glimpse that Aranis might get better one of these days, can only work in our favor. I may be able to use that hope. We'll see." She pushed herself away from the tree, and sighed. "There are things that need doing."

She started to walk away from the tree back towards the house. Darius followed her. "I saw that you were having the room on the other side of yours prepared. Who for?" He was referring to the fact that across the hall from the regent's chambers where Diya would be sleeping were the chambers that Livia and Darius were taking. They were linked by a door, not unusual in households where important family members would have their own retinue of guards. On the other side of Livia's bedroom was the small bedroom that had been Magentius's. Livia had ordered it stripped and pretty furnishings brought in, fresh linens and a bed with no straps. She'd also ordered the doorway that linked her bedroom to that room unbricked, and a real door installed.

Livia gave him a tired smile. "Optata." At his surprised look, she shrugged. "We all have to have hope, Darius. If I keep acting as if she'll be with me any day, then I can keep hoping."

He laid a hand silently on her shoulder for a moment, and she took a deep breath. Then they walked into the house.

*****

Neera replied to her message, saying that she would visit that night. Faydren almost did not allow me to go, but when I told him it was for Aranis he relented. Iraeus, too, replied to the message she'd sent with a pair of Ares priests. One was male, small and wiry but loaded down with more weapons than it seemed possible for one man to carry. The other was a woman nearly as large as Darius, almost as muscled as she remember Iraeus himself as being. Both were heavily scarred, and very ugly.

Livia introduced Diya to her new bodyguards, and then shooed them out. "I have something to talk to you about," she said to her stepdaughter. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Darius press his lips together and sidle towards the door. Fat lot of help you are, sometimes, she thought.

After he was gone, Diya asked, "All right, what now?"

Livia took a breath. "You're the heir to a powerful position that you can't yourself occupy, Diya. There are too many people whom your death would directly benefit. We need to shield you from that. I've taken the precaution of finding someone who you being linked with wouldn't put in more danger than they had been."

Diya's voice was sweet, and Livia winced. Diya only used that tone when she was thinking about being difficult. "And who might that be?"

"Constantine's son Cyricus."

"Esayis's cousin? He's boring!" Diya jumped up and began pacing. "I just lost both of the men I've ever really loved, and you propose to marry me off to some regent's son like I was just some cow you're going to trade away? I don't want to marry anyone, much less some pompous brat who doesn't know a spell from a hole in the ground!"

Livia watched her stepdaughter. "It's only an informal betrothal. Something to keep the wolves away from the door and give us something plausible to say when people come sniffing around. Unless you'd like to marry Faydren instead?" Her voice was low. "He knows a spell from a hole in the ground, I hear."

"Faydren? But he's old!"

"You're right. He's your father's age, about."

"No," hissed Diya. "No. I won't. I won't marry anyone. Esayis was the only man I ever wanted to marry, and he was willing to give up everything he had for me."

"That is just about enough of that, young lady." Livia rose, and her voice was as cold as a mountain wind. "You've just inherited a title you cannot bear, and a position you cannot occupy. It is not fair, but it is the law. You have been acknowledged as a noblewoman, and that comes with a number of responsibilities. Among them is the need to marry for political connections, and for children."

Diya's eyes widened, and she fell back a step as Livia stepped forward. "Noblewomen never have a choice of who they marry on their first marriage. Some marriages are good, others bad, and you never know beforehand which you'll get. Who knows? Cyricus might be boring, but he might also be kind. You might come to love him eventually. As your father did me." Livia saw tears fill her stepdaughter's eyes. "I wasn't his first choice. I knew I wasn't, even at the time. But he was the man my father had chosen for me to marry, and so marry him I did. It was only later that I discovered that I loved him, and he me."

Diya turned away. Livia said quietly, "I'm sorry, Diya. I wish I'd been able to give you more time to deal with everything else before springing this on you. But I needed to see you settled, in case--" She broke off.

"In case? What do you think's going to happen?"

Livia met Diya's eyes. "In case I go out one of these nights and don't come back."

"You can't. You can't die on me, too--" Diya took a few stumbling steps and threw her arms around Livia. "Everyone else is gone!" Her voice rose into a wail. "You can't leave me, not now, not yet--" The girl finally broke down into inarticulate sobbing, and Livia held her, murmuring to her. She got the girl sat down on a low couch and stroked her hair.

"I promise I'm going to do my best to live through this, Diya," she said. "For you and your sister, if nothing else."

Diya sniffled and wiped her eyes and nose on the hem of her dress. "I want to meet him before I agree," she said. "For all I know, he could be ugly, or mean, or have a hare lip or something."

"I've seen him, he's perfectly pleasant-looking, and, well, he seems nice enough. A bit spoiled, I thought." Livia squeezed her stepdaughter's shoulders gently. "All right. I'll see if I can arrange something for a few days from now."

The girl nodded and wiped her eyes again. Livia rose, and said, "I'll give you a few minutes to pull yourself together, and then I think Darius wants to get some instruction in." She walked out to find Darius on the other side of the door. He reached out as if to steady her, and her whole body sagged for a moment.

"She didn't take it well, I take it?" he asked.

"No. Not really. She wants to meet Cyricus before she agrees to the betrothal. That's not particularly unusual, and can be done. Maybe three or four days from now."

He nodded. "Busy days, Livia."

"And not like to get better any time soon. I have some work I need to get done, and you wanted to lesson Diya this afternoon, correct? Give her a few minutes to collect herself before you go get her."

"I do, and I will. I will set Diya her lesson and then come stand guard on your door. You'll be in the library?"

She nodded, and they parted. Neera came at about three hours after sundown, harp in hand. she was shown into the library, and Livia rose to greet her.

She explained the situation with Aranis, giving the impression that she thought her condition was the result of well-meaning attempts to fix her. "I was hoping, first of all, that you might be able to help her at least sleep, without causing any further damage."

Neera nodded. Her dark hair was braided away from her face; she was dressed in Roman garments, a change from before. "Sleep is pretty easy, lady. I should be able to without causing any damage whatsoever."

"The second thing I was wondering about is if you've ever used your talent to block memories, at all," she said, keeping her voice steady.

Neera's reaction was to wince. "I have, but it isn't all that pleasant."

"For you, or the subject?"

"Either." The harpist shrugged.

Livia took a breath. "Ah. The theory is, Aranis has twenty years' worth of memories of being insane. Blocking out those memories might help her recover. It's not something I want to do quite yet; I want to see if, without the treatments that she was having done to her, she'll get better on her own. It was mostly just something I was thinking about."

Neera looked at Livia, her dark eyes thoughtful. "As I said, it can be done, but it will break down. The subject will probably not remember them clearly but they may do strange things and not know why. Follow a different street for no reason. Maybe even leave themselves clues to their old life and not realize they are doing it."

"Well, I'd like to see if she'll start getting better on her own. Do you think Faydren would be all right with you coming over every morning and evening for a while? If it works tonight, I'd like to try that for a while and see."

"I am certain he will," she replied, nodding.

Livia smiled at her. "Good. After you're done with her, could I impose on you to play for me tonight, perhaps?"

"Certainly. I think if she follows your pattern, it will be just a few minutes."

She tilted her head at the harpist. "Other people take longer to play to sleep?"

Neera's smile was wry. "Faydren can take hours."

"Odd. What makes the difference, do you think?"

"In your case, exhaustion plays a large part I believe, lady. In the second part, your bracelet flares about five minutes into my playing and you are gone from that point on."

The bracelet was responsible for the dreams? How strange. I don't think Julia designed it like that. "Ah. Interesting. I wonder why it does that? Strange thing, that bracelet is."

"Seems to be, lady. Please ready yourself for bed. I will be there shortly, I believe."

About ten minutes later, Neera came in to find Livia in bed and ready for sleep. A few minutes after that, she was soaring through dreams.

Familiar voices rang in her mind, and she opened her eyes. Pollius and Constantius were sitting in the regent's study. "She has dismissed me from helping Aranis," said Pollius.

Constantius shrugged. "That's fine. her mind will continue to warp and all sense of reality will spin in on her. Your propping up of her mind and keeping what's left of her sanity alive will fade within the week." He smiled viciously. "Then all that will be left is a drooling idiot for Faydren."

That scene dissolved and Livia felt herself moving, stopping this time at Faydren. The thin mage was alone, standing at a table, maps spread out before him. She moved around until she was looking over his shoulder. The maps he was looking at were maps of the city, and of the sewers that ran beneath the noble section of town. He was tracing with his finger the paths that the sewers took into the noble quarter.

Livia felt herself falling and didn't resist the tug. When she opened her eyes again, she wished she had.

Linaeus was tied to a stake, burning. Though he was not screaming, he was thrashing, still very much alive. Livia could smell the odor of burnt flesh coming off of him. His hair had burned away, she noticed, and felt sick.

Her touchy stomach tumbled her away from that scene, into another. A woman, heavily veiled, sat in a small room, looking at a crystal. In it was Livia's image. Aphe, she thought. Why is she looking for me?

Aphe spoke. "So that is you that disturbs the balance. Faydren will be wondering about this. Why do you do it?"

Livia muttered to herself, "To protect my daughters. For vengeance."

She started as Aphe responded to her words as if she could hear Livia. "Vengeance you may get, but maybe at the cost of your daughters. How much of this is about them and how much of this is about you?"

Livia's voice was sharp. "I am between a rock and a hard place. I am afraid of what Constantius will make me do, using Optata as leverage. I am afraid of what happens if he no longer has her to use against me. And now, Diya has been thrown into play. It is about me, and about them. I protect my people. I play because I was given a choice, and I chose to do what Sextus wanted me to do."

Aphe shook her head. "Sextus didn't leave those clues behind for you. He left them for himself."

Her eyes widened. "Himself?"

The mage raised her hands, then lowered them. "His mind was not his own."

"Whose was it?"

She could not see Aphe's face, and her voice was entirely neutral. "Think, and you will see the path back."

Livia turned it over in her mind. Who had you, my love? Then she sucked in her breath. "Constantine. The path leads back to Constantine."

"She sees in the darkness around her." Aphe raised her hand again. "Time is running out. Come to me and I can show you the path."

Suddenly, Livia seemed to wake up a little. In horror, she realized what she'd been saying to the mage. "What about Faydren?"

Aphe's shoulders moved in an apparent shrug. "Faydren is but a beginning."

"He's a beginning who will kill me for the things I've told you."

"Yes, he will. But he will never know."

Livia shivered. "Ah. Soon, then."

The mage spoke. "Death approaches but not for you, for someone close and someone you hate."

The smell or burned hair and skin came back to Livia, and she gritted her teeth. "Linaeus?"

"Yes, but only if you don't trust Faydren."

Grimly, she said, "Trusting Faydren is going to be a tall order."

Impossible to tell what the woman was thinking. Her voice was still neutral, her posture the same. "Just once may be all you need."

"Ah. Soon, Aphe." Livia kicked herself away from the dream and fell tumbling into the darkness of sleep.

When she woke in the morning, it was nearly an hour before she could get her hands to stop shaking.

The funeral was set for late morning. Diya had been coached on her role, and Livia hoped that giving the girl something to do would distract her from the things that were bothering her. The funeral procession wound outside the city to the burial grounds, and it seemed like most of the nobility in the city was out to see the regent and his son buried. Collita's death was announced, causing mutters to spread through the crowd.

Livia shed a few tears herself as she saw Constans and the body that looked like Esayis lying in state. Gods, Constans. You were trapped but good, weren't you? Saddled for years with a lover who was going mad, and when he wasn't screaming, he was very unlike the man you fell in love with. Trapped in a dying body, knowing that without Linaeus's treatment you'd die, and knowing that the cost of his treatment was far, far too high. And you died without knowing for certain if your son was alive or dead. I pity you, Constans. You may not have been a particularly good man, but you endured things almost nobody will ever know.

As agreed, Diya threw a spectacular hysterical fit in the middle of the speeches for Esayis. Livia and Darius each took one arm in a firm grip and marched her away from the burial, murmuring apologies to those they passed. They loaded Diya back into the chariot they'd come in and took her back home, the girl weeping piteously as they rode.

Livia couldn't tell how much of Diya's behavior was an act, honestly. They went back to the regent's house, deposited Diya in the workroom to regain her composure, and Livia pocketed the vial of digitalis that she'd taken off of Zaran. Darius and she walked down the street to Constantius's house, the guards letting her in without question.

She and Darius had discussed the plan beforehand, and silently they put it into motion. They collected the obviously restless child from her nursery, Hedea handing her over gratefully, and wandered towards the library. Livia distracted Optata with a book while Darius inspected the secret door for alarms. When he came back into view, he shook his head gently.

Livia nodded. She handed Optata off to Darius, telling her, "Go out to the garden with Darius, sweetling. I'll be with you in a little bit." Optata made as if to protest, but the idea of being out in the garden was so appealing that she didn't complain too much.

When her daughter and Darius were gone, Livia steeled herself. She needed to do this and be quick about it. Every moment she spent in the secret room was a moment that someone might decide to wander into the library. She pulled on the catch and the bookcase swung open.

Linaeus had been right. There were weapons of all sorts in here, shelves and racks of them, Livia dropped to her knees. Geras was a relatively tall man, and the best place to hide things from such men was to keep them low. The bottom shelf was only about eight inches off the floor, and as Livia inspected the underside of the shelves, she saw a brace that was a little loose on one of them.

She pulled the vial of digitalis out of her pocket and wedged it between the brace and the shelf. She wiggled it to make sure it was good and tight, stood and glanced around once more, then stepped out of the secret room and closed the door after her. Her heart was pounding, and she couldn't quite believe that she had just pulled what she had off.

She straightened her palla and stepped out of the library, walking towards the garden. It's almost too bad Geras will never know who planted that. But that's his death warrant, right there. Signed, sealed, and almost delivered.

She walked out into the sunshine, and joined her daughter and Darius, who were inspecting a beetle, serious looks on both of their faces. Livia joined in, and they spent an hour or so playing. Livia saw no sign of Julian or Gallus, and then realized that they had been taken to the funeral with Constantius's household.

Afterwards, when they walked Optata back to the nursery, Darius looked at the walls with a speculative glance. He said, "The protections are still on the room. The other lockets weren't finished, I'll bet."

Livia nodded and lifted the locket she wore over her head. She draped the chain around Optata's neck. "Remember what I said about this?" she asked. The child nodded, her dark curls bobbing. "You must always wear it. It's magic. It will keep you safe."

Optata smiled and threw her arms around Livia's neck, kissing her. "It's purring still!" she said. "Are you going to come to live with us, Mama? It's nice here, but I miss you."

The shadow of pain crossed Livia's face. "I don't know, sweetling. Maybe. Keep being a good girl, and I will see you tomorrow or the next day, all right?"

The child nodded gravely, and Livia handed her to Hedea and took her leave.

Back at the regent's house, she dropped into a chair in the study and let out a long breath. "Well, that's done."

"For good or for ill," Darius agreed. "Are you going to go see Aphe?" She'd told him about her dreams when she'd woken that morning, about actually speaking with the veiled mage in her dream.

"I think so. Tomorrow morning." She grimaced.

"You trust her?"

"Not a bit. She could be just trying to get what information she can about me, and I don't know if she's telling the truth about Sextus being under control. But if she can give me something I can confirm--Darius, I don't like where this is going. If Constantine had Sextus under control, what about his son? And the regent's no mage so far as I know. Who was helping him?"

"Do you have a theory?" he asked.

"I do, and it's not one I like. Which mage was Sextus seeing on a regular basis for years, and which mage did Constantine pull strings to have reinstated to the council? And who set my feet on this path, and who can't seem to tell me the whole truth to save her life?"

"Julia."

She nodded. "I hate to think of it, because I do like her. But until I have more information, she's my first suspect. So I need to go talk to Aphe. She might lie, but the lie might be interesting to hear."

They sat together in silence for a time after that, before Orla came to fetch Livia and she was once again absorbed into the busy life of the household...