Lucilla--NaNoWriMo2014

Chapter One

"Lucilla, they're coming to kill you!"

Lucilla looked around to make sure that no palace guards were listening, and she took gentile hold of Priscilla.

"Come, into my bedroom, and tell me. Then you must get out of here without anyone suspecting you have warmed me."

Once into the bedroom, they sat down. "Now, Priscilla, tell me everything."

"I have this friend Portia, who is the personal servant of Emperor Commodus. She overheard his order to send assassins to here to Capri, even to this palace of Tiberius, to kill you, Plauta, and your personal servant."

"How long do you think we have?"

"The Emperor signed the order. The order includes your husband first. That gave me enough time to take the fasted boat from Ostia. I bribed the other boat owners to delay sailing for Carpi as long as they could."

"Priscilla, can we escape on your boat?"

"No, my Augusta, all ship captains have had standing orders not to take Lucilla as a passenger on pain of death."

Lucilla asked Priscilla to wait while she reached into her near by chest under the floor. She took out gold coins with the image of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, her father. "Thank you so much, Priscilla. You yourself may be in grave danger. Bribe a ship's captain if necessary. But get yourself to safety. Let things return to normal." She hugged her friend and escorted her to a secret passage behind her bedroom.

"Priscilla, follow this passage that will take you safely on the other side of this palace well beyond the water fountains. Then be careful as you approach the ships in port. If it is not safe, then see my friend Aquilla, who will put you up until the Emperor's guards have returned to Rome."

Lucilla hugged and kissed her friend before she left.

Then she stepped out into the main part of the house, and spoke to Plauta and Calpurnia in low tones by the atrium. "We are going on a journey, where I am not sure."

"Are we in danger, mother?" Pauta asked.

"Yes, and that is why the secrecy. I have been friendly with Petronius, the guard commander. But I am not sure if I can trust him." She hugged them. "You must pack only what you can easily carry. We will have to travel fast, and I do not know how long or where we will be going."

"Oh, mother, I am afraid."

"I must go into the village to see Nerva, the Senix. He is the only one who can help us now." Lucilla hugged and kissed her daughter. "Mother loves you, and I will return as soon as possible.

As Lucilla began to make her way out of the palace and down into the town below the palace of the late Emperor Tiberius, she was confronted by Petronius, the centurian in charge of the palace guard.

"What brings my lovely Augusta out at this time of day that she needs to go into town?"

Lucilla looked left and right to make sure none of the guards could see them.

"Petronius, have we not shared nightly pleasures?"

"Yes, my Augusta."

"Can you escort me safely to town to the house of Nerva?"

"You mean the old man skilled in the magic arts?"

"Yes, it's important to me."

The centurion then gave orders to his guards and accompanied Lucilla, who hid her fear as much as possible, as they made small talk all the way into the town. At last they came to house of Nerva.