Garden of Embers: Beneath Devouring Eyes #2

Chapter 5, Part C

They met in a cellar three miles outside Vola Apertus's northern wall.

"Are you sure that this is the place?" Arbita whispered to Valens as their party crept through the woodland.

Her new husband grunted, shifting the drowsing Princeps Worldholder draped over his back. The stubborn kid had insisted on hiking the first mile and a half from the skyhaven, down the paved walkways that traversed beneath the aqueduct, and along the less-traveled roads to beyond the capital city's great wall. But weariness had won in the end, and he'd let his aedificans carry him at last. He was not completely asleep, judging by the calm flickers of the Trellis above, but the poor kid had to be exhausted.

"This is what his brother's team showed us in the Caeles," Valens said. "Not exactly one of his most spectacular holdings, is it?"

Technically they were just within the southernmost tip of Provincia Fulminis, the hereditary lands of the Princeps Worldholder that stretched from the Onyx palace straight north out of Vola Apertus.

Domi's lands, now. Arbita shook her head. It all still felt so unreal.

"Now, I know I'm just a Pullatus and don't know diamonds from dust," Merula said. The faint biting tone to her voice warned everyone not to make the mistake of agreeing with her. "But when they said 'cottage', I was imagining something a bit more... simple but elegant. Not this."

Arbita could not help but agree with the Pyrrhaeus. In fact, the cottage looked like something in which a Pullatus would live. The thatched roof appeared to be rotting and she dreaded to think what creatures had crept inside through the broken windows and ill-fit door.

"They want it to stay unremarkable," Radix pointed out. They were carrying a stack of books for Aix, trying surreptitiously to read the top one as they walked. Sidus, rolling his eyes, kept reaching out to steady them as they stumbled absently over roots and rocks.

"Well, they succeeded." Bellus was holding his tunica and paenula up to his knees to keep them from the mud.

Arbita's foot found a dead branch, which snapped under her shoe.

And just like that, they were no longer alone.

A tall man slipped between the trees, humming hilts clutched in both fists. Promenia wavered, a violet blur, where a blade would be and a crimson laurel smoldered at his throat.

Valens tensed, and Arbita drew back at the look on his face. She'd never seen him look so fierce. He was well known for his cool disdain, but this hot anger was new and disturbing.

"Pa!" Sidus said, his cheerful voice breaking the tense silence.

Arbita blinked. This must be Astricus, Sidus's father and Daedalus Adurere's foster father. The man who had consorted with Cercitis to kill Arbita's puer.

The man flicked a narrow-eyed look at his son, who sobered, and sheathed his weapons. Then he turned to Valens, or rather to Domi, and pressed a hand over his laurel. "Basilicus," he said, bowing his head.

Valens scowled at the man but lowered his alumna to the ground at the pointed glance from Bellus. Steadying the boy, he murmured something in his ear dryly.

Domi drew a deep breath, straightening. "May the Eyes pass over you." His voice was small but steady.

"And you also, Basilicus," Astricus said, lifting his head and dropping his hand.

Merula stepped forward, face stony. "I assume you're Astricus?"

The starholder frowned. "I am, and I am to be addressed as 'Prome', Eru--"