She gazed at him in awe. “I pledge mine. My fidelity and love is for you only.”
This moment meant more than all the treasure in the world. Neither money nor power could ever buy the joy she experienced in the arms of Taurus, her one true love. She guided him into her willing body, shivering in ecstasy at his touch. With slow and deliberate strokes he took her beyond the brink of joy as he poured out sweet assurances of his devotion.
Afterward, in the golden glow of their union, Taurus stroked her arm with his long fingers. “I will find a proper place for us to live. Not this hovel I’ve called home for months.”
Kallie bit her lip.
“What?” Familiar with her manner when matters gnawed upon her mind, he waited.
“Your son enjoys a gift of property from the emperor and his wife. It is ours until Magnus is old enough to claim it as his own.”
Taurus nodded. Wealthy nobles normally received expensive gifts bestowed at birth. “And where is this land?”
“Not too far,” Kallie waved in a vague gesture.
“Not near Panua. The emperor would not give land reclaimed by Rome after twenty-odd years.”
“Silver Lake!” Kallie’s eyes shimmered.
Taurus’ mouth twitched slightly as he digested the news. He gave no other reaction, and she couldn’t tell if he was pleased. Taurus slowly shook his head.
“You don’t want to live there?”
“Yes, I want to live there, and I am pleased Magnus is the heir to a fine estate and an equally fine upbringing, but surely you are set on Greece or Actinium. What about your home and your family?”
“I intend to see my family often, but the thought of Silver Lake as our home pleases me. I asked for it when Caius suggested bestowing a property. Virga favored the idea immediately, and the emperor trusts his wife’s instincts.” Kallie slid her hand across his hard-muscled belly. “We will visit Greece and Actinium, but our children will thrive and grow where we are happiest.”
“You have more babies planned?” Taurus laughed.
“Judging by our reunion, it will not be long before Magnus has a sibling.”
“Whatever you want, Wife.” He grinned. “We’ll leave for Silver Lake in the morning. Atticus is welcome to come along and help us settle in.”
Kallie giggled. “Did I ever tell you I often dreamed of a wolf when I slept in your bed?”
“No.” Taurus frowned. “What does it mean?”
“You are the wolf, the untamed life I have always wanted. Our family will be happy and full of joy, like mine when I was a little girl.” She sighed and laid her cheek on his chest.
“The moon is full tonight, Kallie. Perhaps it’s a sign.”
They got up to look out the small window at the moon eerily washing them in a silvery cast of pale light.
“Yes,” Kallie muttered superstitiously. “Legend says the wolf rules Rome.”
She picked up their son and held him securely in her arms. No harm would come to him, she silently promised. Her beautiful boy embodied the center of her world. A shiver ran down her spine.
Magnus will be Emperor one day.
Her son, the son of Taurus, would someday replace her brother, Caius. The dearest wish of Lidia Paulinus, to end Gregorian rule, had become a tangible possibility. The heir of Paulus Paulinus would rule the Roman Empire.
Was it the old woman’s plan all along? Lidia had waited twenty years to fulfill her dream, and in Kallie’s arms rested the male heir to both families. Her hand gently rubbed Magnus’ back as he tipped his little head with partially opened eyes, and gave his mother a toothless smile, happily slumping onto her chest.
Taurus need not know of her vision. Caught up in the happiness of becoming a father and a husband, Lidia’s manipulating hand might change his views. For now, they had a child to raise and a new family to create together.
Taurus reached out and circled the two of them, mother and child, in his strong embrace. Kallie sighed in complete contentment and leaned her body against his. Who would have thought she held the key to the empire? The future was set, the path hers to follow. Magnus, Emperor of Rome!
She smiled up at Taurus. “Are you sure you want this life? You are exiled forever more.”
“I’ve never been more sure of anything.” He hugged them both gently. “My heart belongs to you.”
Epilogue
Ten Years Later
A watercraft hove into view and Kallie waved at the five passengers returning from an afternoon on the lake. Magnus and Maximus sat in front, and Marcus, her four-year-old, sat by Taurus, who watched all three of his boys with the vigilance of a loving father. Atticus poled the craft along the edge of the reeds, older but still strong and vigorous.
Kallie held the latest addition to their happy family. Carissa Attia Taura, affectionately named Catia.
The older boys jumped from the skiff and ran to their mother, yelling and laughing over their exciting adventures, dutifully waiting until their little brother Marcus released his father’s hand and kissed his mother. They took him to the house, where Kristokus patiently waited for his charges to wash the dirt off their bodies before allowing them near the kitchen.
Taurus eyed Kallie as she bit her lower lip with her perfectly white teeth.
“What has happened?”
“News from Rome,” she said thickly.
Atticus motioned to leave, thinking she preferred to speak to her husband alone.
“No, Uncle, stay! This concerns all of us.”
Atticus froze. “You know me as superstitious. To see fish floating on the lake and a rotting bird this morning was a bad omen.”
“A letter arrived from my parents this morning. Virga delivered twin girls a week ago.” Kallie trembled as she spoke, her voice a thin quiver of its usual strength.
Taurus lifted Catia out of her arms and handed his daughter to Atticus. He offered his open arms to his wife and she stepped into his embrace, chilled even though it was a warm summer’s day. “And?” Taurus asked, knowing she had dreadful news.
“Virga is dead. She died having the twins. Caius is distraught. He is in seclusion and will not see the babies.”
Kallie’s eyes widened with horror as she spoke. Every woman knew having a baby was a life-threatening situation, but Virga had birthed one daughter successfully. She and Caius were in the prime of their lives, both healthy and happy. And now this!
“I am shocked by this news. We have four children, and for each one I prayed to the gods for your life, and every time my prayers were answered. The wife of the emperor, the subject of every prayer in the empire, should not succumb to childbearing.”
Kallie wrapped her arms tight around her husband, sobbing quietly.
“We must go to Rome,” Taurus said with a surety that caught Kallie off guard.
“Why?” Kallie asked, unwilling to leave their perfect world at Silver Lake.
Atticus spoke up. “He’s right. Your boys are the heirs to Rome. Caius needs them to pull out of his distress. And the new babes need a proper mother, not servants.”
Taurus agreed. “My sister would want us there for Caius and the girls.”
But the foreboding in Kallie’s bones frightened her. Years ago she had envisioned Magnus as ruler of Rome, and now the wheels of fate turned in an unstoppable motion. Magnus, favored nephew of Caius and the eldest male heir, was bound for imperial greatness. Clever, well educated, strong and handsome and, most of all, a natural leader, he ruled his peers with an innate sense of entitlement. Not cruel or unkind, he nevertheless possessed a gift for knowing how to make his will be done. Not only a blood nephew of the emperor but also a blood nephew of Virga, he was a natural choice for Caius as a successor.
Kallie returned to the house with Taurus and kissed their darling baby daughter before the nursemaid took her for an afternoon nap.
“It is true. The blood of Paulus Paulinus will inherit Rome.” Emotion deserted her voice.
Taurus turned to her in curiosit
y. “I am not Paulus Paulinus’ true son. Just an orphan, remember?”
Kallie’s eyes slowly moved to his. “Paulinus sired many children.”
Her husband shrugged. “I’m sure he did. What of it?”
“You’re one of his…his children.” She fumbled the words marking him a bastard.
“No, I am not his child. Lidia paid my mother. Virga and I were the youngest; she couldn’t afford to keep us, and she sold us to Lidia for a price.”
Kallie understood more than Taurus. Lidia had taunted her with the truth years ago at the fortress in Panua. Taurus carried the true blood of Paulinus, sired as a result of his infatuation with Taurus’ mother, a dark-haired beauty and widow of a minor noble. Paulus conveniently kept her as his mistress. Her youngest children were of Paulinus’ lineage.
After recounting the story from Lidia all those years ago, Kallie sat quietly.
Taurus paced at the floor. “Why then would Lidia not tell me such a thing?”
“If you were adopted as his heir, it would not matter much whether you truly were his blood. The laws are the same in Rome. A man adopts his heir, gives his name, and the deed is done. Lidia preferred to keep you under her thumb, believing you owed her your allegiance because she chose to elevate you. But your privileged position was your birthright from the beginning.”
“Are you not afraid I’ve inherited my father’s monstrous reputation?”
“The day I laid eyes on you I wanted you. I asked your name because I intended to find you. How many generals named Taurus, with your looks, are in the ranks?”
“When you held me captive, you knew even then?”
Kallie raised her eyebrows. “When I held you in my sights in the forest I knew. A heartbeat away from pinning you to a tree, I changed my mind when I saw your face. I pinned Barca instead.”
Taurus laughed. “If you had pinned me to a tree, would I have been so lenient with you? I was an unforgiving, unrelenting fool back then. Why did you seek me out after Magnus was born? You could have taken him to Rome and lived as a wealthy woman in your own right, avoiding the stigma of Paulinus.”
“Because I love you, Taurus, and I care not whose blood runs in your veins. We have united bitter enemies, and they both have won the war. One child, our child, can change the world.”
“Lidia should have told me Paulinus was my true father.”
“Lidia’s insecurities ran deep. She kept many secrets, even from her son when he ruled Panua.”
“I wonder if the old crow is dead,” Taurus said, curious of her fate. “If not, she must be closing in on eighty annals.”
“It is likely she is dead.” Kallie remembered Virga, and fresh tears welled in her eyes.
Taurus tugged her into his arms and held her for a long time. “Thank you,” he whispered after a while.
“What for?”
“Finding me and giving me a life with you and the boys, and Catia.”
“Change will come when we move to Rome.” A warning note chilled her voice.
“We go together, and that’s all I care about.”
“Me too.” She and Taurus could survive anything. They had weathered ten years of marriage, with four children. As long as they were a family, it would work out for the best.
He cupped her face in his hand and kissed her tenderly. “I love you, Kallie. Nothing will change my mind.”
She sighed, wrapping her arms around him, burying her face against his broad chest, enjoying the strength and warmth he exuded.
“Nothing will ever change us, or my love.”
The story continues. Here’s an excerpt from Book III of the Imperial Desire series:
Magnus
by
Christine Elaine Black
Imperial Desire Series, Book Three
An old woman sat with the high priestess and waited, her time coming to an end. “Do it,” she hissed firmly.
“Once done it cannot be undone,” the priestess cautioned.
“Good,” the old woman muttered. “This is my only chance to take what is rightfully mine.”
The priestess gave a signal and the gathering of women slowly wound into a rhythmic trance. Chanting and swaying simultaneously, a hundred female seers, priestesses, sibyls, oracles, and others with ancient mystical powers joined with one voice to intone the rites of the transforming. The old and ancient rite forgotten by many, a few knew the beginning and a few knew the ending, still fewer recalled the core, but, recited in full during the second moon of the same month in the bosom of their holy shrine, it granted absolute power to the high priestess.
The old woman stayed perfectly still during the transforming. A young girl lay on the altar beside her, drugged and quiet. The process, arduous and long, must be exact, and she managed to endure it. Finally the priestess looked up, holding her arms high in the air for silence, and pronounced with gravity, “She is gone.”
A quiet reverence filled the stone chamber. The young girl on the altar stirred. Her hand moved to her forehead as she rose up and surveyed the room, her gaze coming to rest on the lifeless body at her side. Her rosy lips curved in pleasure and her outstretched hand reached for the priestess. Long shapely legs slid off the cool slab, and her lithe, supple body stood naked and nymph-like before the assembly.
A gasp of appreciation echoed off the walls. The women waited solemnly, watching the girl.
“Welcome. Are you well?” the priestess whispered, handing over a parchment and a reed pen.
The girl nodded and wrote three words in a dark foreboding scrawl, awaiting scrutiny.
I am Ereshkigal.
A second scroll scribed in an identical hand lay open on the altar.
I am Ereshkigal.
The priestess, satisfied the transforming had proved successful, touched a taper to the bright flame of a single candle and set fire to the scrolls.
“Bow to your new mistress, women of wisdom.” A murmur of accomplishment rippled through the chamber before the gathering complied.
The priestess addressed the girl. “What is your wish, Mistress?”
A charming smile graced the young girl’s divine features. No one could guess what lay under her exquisitely self-possessed exterior. “We go to Rome. My destiny waits in Rome.”
A word about the author...
Christine Elaine Black, born and raised in the West of Scotland, currently resides in Ontario, Canada. Her favorite stories to write are romantic fiction with an ancient Roman theme.
Christine's daughter provided the inspiration for her foray into writing. Both mother and daughter enjoy an exciting tale with a happy ending.
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Taurus Page 14
