by Lynne Gentry
“Thanks.” Maggie turned her attention to her grandparents.
G-Pa was sitting on the bed and doing his best to care for Jaddah. He looked old and tired as he concentrated on tending his wife’s bloody knees. His trembling hands picked dirt and gravel from her wounds with the same care he’d used to soothe Maggie’s cuts and bruises growing up. While he worked, he whispered assurances that eased Jaddah’s breathing.
It had been so crazy these past few hours Maggie hadn’t taken a moment to savor the sight of seeing her grandparents reunited in the same century. They’d waited so long to be together. They deserved better. She couldn’t let her inability to help them ruin whatever time they had left.
“Tomorrow I’ll figure out a way to get to my parents,” she told her grandfather. “Mom will have medicine for Jaddah and she’ll know what to do about that tube hanging out of Kardide’s head.”
Her grandfather pulled his attention from tending Jaddah’s knees. “It’s not safe for you to go alone.”
He was right, of course. Maggie hadn’t thought through the details. How would she navigate the city and find her parents? For all she knew, soldiers had taken her father prisoner and her mother had died from that blow to her head. Maggie’s knees turned rubbery. She’d been so focused on saving her father, it never occurred to her she could lose her mother. She joined her grandfather on the bed.
Her grandmother reached for her hand. “You’re as brave as your mother, Maggie.” Tears spilled onto her rosy cheeks.
The constriction in Maggie’s chest wasn’t her normal anxiety from being trapped inside the small dye shop with no easy exit. It was the suffocating regret of her impulsive actions causing everything to fall apart. She’d felt it the first time she jumped into the portal after her mother. Then the night Ruth died because Maggie had gone in search of a doll. This time the squeeze to her conscience was ten times worse: her entire family was in danger because she’d come here to rescue her father without a plan.
She stroked her grandmother’s trembling hand. “I don’t think ‘brave’ is the word Mom would use to describe what I did today or any day.”
Maggie’s skirmishes with her mother usually weren’t the knock-down, drag-out kind. Their disagreements were more civilized, always stopping far short of drawing blood. But that didn’t mean they didn’t manage to cause each other damage. Neither of them ever gained any ground, Maggie realized, because the truth of it was that she was not going to roll over, and her mother was never going to lift her iron fist or unlock her shackles.
Maggie had detected the familiar signs of war the first time she mentioned that she’d Googled her father and found out the truth. “What do you mean, we’re not going back to save my dad?” she’d argued. “They’re going to cut off his head!”
“Don’t you think I did everything I could to keep that from happening?” Mom had immediately shut down any more questions. The finality in her tone indicated the subject was closed.
Permanently.
Once Maggie learned the whole story about her dad she’d changed from the occasional strong-willed child to someone who couldn’t leave the idea of time traveling alone. The rebellion growing inside her had blossomed into a raging inferno she couldn’t douse if she’d wanted to. So she’d let the fight die down with her mother and secretly started counting the days until she turned eighteen. Somehow, some way, she was going to Africa. Once she got there, she wouldn’t stop until she saved her father from his fate in the third century.
Funny, now all she could think about was how she was going to save her mother too.
Maggie kissed her grandmother’s forehead, cringing at how fiery it felt beneath her lips. “Let me sit with her, G-Pa. You won’t do her any good if you get run down.”
His mouth gaped in a yawn. “I’m good.”
“Liar, liar, pants on fire.”
He looked at Jaddah. “And you thought you wouldn’t recognize her.” He kissed Jaddah’s weak smile, then turned his attention back to Maggie. “You’ll wake me if there’s any change.”
“I promise.”
Her grandfather was too exhausted to keep up his arguments. He rolled off the bed, dropped to the floor, leaned his head against the wall, and closed his eyes.
Maggie checked the room one last time. If she weren’t scared out of her wits, she’d rank spending the night with both of her grandparents under the same roof right next to having both of her parents in the same century. She blew out the lamp and slid down the wall beside her grandmother’s bed. Every muscle in her body ached and her head hurt from the questions demanding more brainpower than she had available.
What if Barek didn’t show up? She’d led everyone to an abandoned shop with no food or water. How was she going to keep them alive? She didn’t know that Barek could come up with a solution, but it had been Barek’s quick thinking years ago, when he cut through the Tophet carrying her and his mother’s burial urn, that had saved them from being caught after curfew. At the very least, if Barek were here he’d know how to escape before they were discovered by the troops scouring every inch of the city.
Enough, she told herself. Her brain was so full of questions that adding one more worry would make it explode. Eyelids heavy, she let her head fall back against the bed. She’d just started to drift off to sleep when a noise outside the shop whiplashed her upright. She grabbed her stick and joined Eggie in a defensive stance at the door. Behind her, she could hear the others doing their best to silently surround Jaddah’s bed.
Someone outside was fumbling with the latch. Her mother would have planned for a possible invasion—slid something in front of the door for protection. A barricade of furniture might not have stopped the army of Rome, but it would have at least slowed them. With the windows boarded over, they weren’t even able to peek out so they’d have an idea of how many soldiers to expect.
The latch lifted. Maggie braced herself and poised her stick the way a Little Leaguer crouched over home plate would. The door creaked open. Someone stepped inside. She reared back and swung for the fence. The intruder groaned, doubled over, staggered into a stool, and then hit the floor with a thump.
“Drag him in,” she told Eggie.
She and Eggie secured the intruder under the arms and hauled his limp body across the threshold. Kardide closed the door. Tabari lit the lamp.
“Maybe we should tie him up,” Kardide offered.
“He doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere anytime soon.” Maggie prodded the guy with her foot. When he didn’t respond she bent down and rolled him over. “Oh. No.”
42
EGGIE RIGHTED THE STOOL Barek had toppled when Maggie turned him into a foul ball. “Sorry, my good man.” He dusted the seat with such skill no one would have ever guessed Eggie was third in line for the throne. He eased Barek onto the chair. “Are you hurt?”
Barek rubbed his stomach and scowled at Maggie. “I think she broke a few ribs.” He was mad. But for now, she didn’t care. Barek was safe. He was here. And having him close enough to touch settled her.
“I’m sorry.” She dabbed at the gash Barek’s fall into the stool had left on his head, pressing a little harder than necessary so he wouldn’t be able to detect her tremble of relief that he had lived. “Where have you been?”
Barek stayed her hand. “Saving your backside.” His gaze grabbed her and held on as tightly to her wrist. “I managed to get in a lick that dropped the redhead. Then two other soldiers started for me. I was outnumbered and underarmed. They would have taken me down and come for you.”
“So you ran?” Maggie asked.
“I decided to provide a diversion. So I set out in the opposite direction of the Tophet.” Barek drew a painful breath. “Didn’t give that zealous soldier boy the slip until I reached the docks. Had to spend the afternoon holed up in the skiff I’ve borrowed a few times from the groom in Titus’s stable.”
“And a worthy vessel it is,” Eggie added with a smile.
Maggie coul
d feel her pulse beating against Barek’s hold. “Do you think he’s still looking for us?”
“He and every other soldier stationed on African soil. Not only did four condemned prisoners fail to arrive for their executions, someone burned down the theater.”
“The theater?” Eggie’s smile slid from his face. “I set some trash on fire at the back of the stage. You don’t think it could have—”
Barek dropped Maggie’s arm. “You burned down the theater?”
Eggie gave a confused half shrug. “I would never destroy such a thing of beauty on purpose. I promise.”
“A fire?” Barek exploded. “During a drought? Have you lost your mind? It’s a wonder the whole city didn’t go up in flames.”
“Why are you so upset? It’s not like I burned down the theater on purpose.” Eggie waved his hand over the bedraggled group gathered around the lamp’s weak flame. “My diversion worked. All accounted for. Safe and sound.”
“Fool!” Barek stood so quickly the stool toppled behind him. “That theater was the property of Rome, and Rome will make certain someone pays for its destruction.”
“So the proconsul raises taxes.” Eggie gave another unconcerned half shrug. “What’s that to you? You and all those living off Titus Cicero pay nothing to Rome.”
Barek grabbed him by the collar. “You have no idea what I’ve paid to Rome.”
Eggie held up his palms in surrender. “It was an empty theater.”
Barek shook his head and twisted Eggie’s collar tighter. “I heard the soldiers saying a freedman and a slave died.”
“Died?” Eggie’s face went slack and his arms fell to his sides.
“Oh, no,” Maggie said. “I didn’t mean for anyone to die because of me.”
“Me neither,” Eggie said. “Not even plebs.”
“My father was a pleb, you vappa!” Barek shouted. “Who do you think you are?”
“He’s not scum!” Maggie pulled at Barek’s arm. “Tell him, Eggie. Tell him who you really are.”
Eggie’s face had taken on the same crimson shade of his hair. “Publius Licinius Egnatius Marinianus,” he spit out. “Third in line to the throne of Rome.”
“What?” Barek let Eggie go, not because he didn’t still want to hit him, but because the strength seemed to have drained from his shoulders. He took a step back. “No you’re not.”
“Yes he is,” Maggie confirmed.
Barek’s eyes grew wide. “You knew?”
Maggie’s gaze darted to Eggie, who was rubbing his throat, and then to her grandfather. G-Pa had climbed back onto the bed with Jaddah and scooped her feverish body into his arms. She’d never seen her grandfather so worn. He couldn’t help her get out of this situation.
Maggie drew herself up. “I knew.”
“For how long?” Barek demanded.
“I made her promise not to tell.” Eggie massaged his throat.
Barek’s gaze continued to drill Maggie. “So you weren’t going to tell me this cocky jerk pretending to be your new friend is the grandson of the man who wants to see us all dead?” The hurt in his voice was a spear to Maggie’s heart.
“He can’t go home,” Maggie said.
Barek spun. “Why not?” He challenged Eggie. “Are you some kind of spy for your grandfather?”
“No.” Eggie raised his chin. “I’m my grandfather’s last choice for the throne.”
Barek took a speechless step back.
Maggie touched his arm. “I’m sorry, Barek—”
“Keep your excuses.” He pushed her away. “We’re done.”
“You promised my father you’d look out for me.” Maggie knew she sounded exactly like that spoiled five-year-old he’d always detested. She shook off her embarrassment. “You know what? Forget it. I can look out for myself.”
“Then we should all take cover.” Barek stared at her, his eyes burning coals beneath his lowered brows. “I’ll help you get to the well. And then I’m going to try to forget that I ever knew you.”
“I’m not going.”
“Yes you are.”
“You can’t make me.”
“Wait.” Eggie stepped between them. “I thought we decided it was safer to wait until morning to fetch water.”
“Not for water.” Maggie mentally grabbed for her careless words, desperate to take them back. She’d kept Eggie’s secret. But now that she’d forced him to lay his identity on the table, she wasn’t sure she could trust him to keep her true identity quiet. Best she could do was to try to cover her tracks. “I meant we don’t know how far we’ll have to go.”
“Those wells are in the northwestern corner of the city,” G-Pa said, coming to Maggie’s rescue with the last of his energy. “We are in the far southern quadrant.”
“Your grandfather is right.” Barek’s simmering eyes said he wasn’t stepping in to bail her out. He was stepping in because he didn’t trust Valerian’s grandson to know about the time portal. “Your grandmother is in no condition to make it across town.”
“Even if we were, we wouldn’t go without Maggie and her mother,” G-Pa said.
“What are you people talking about?” Eggie’s confusion creased his forehead. “Wells are wells. There’s probably water not a hundred paces from the shop door. If we need water, I’ll go get it.”
Barek and Maggie exchanged tense looks. Hopefully Barek would see that kicking the future emperor of Rome to the curb was risky. He possessed insider information. He knew the location of the new hospital, who was running it, and most important, who was financing the entire Christian movement. The twitch in Barek’s jaw told Maggie he would keep this potential enemy close.
“She’s not from here,” Barek explained, giving her a glare that said Follow my lead and don’t you dare stir any more trouble.
“I knew it.” Eggie pumped his fist in the air. “She is a goddess fallen from the heavens, right? It was the eyes that gave her away.” He was snapping his fingers, trying to nail down exactly what he knew. “No . . . no, it was the magic in her box, the pink one that captured our likenesses and my heart.” He drew her hand to his lips. “Never fear, I shall take you to your magic well, my princess.”
Barek snatched Maggie’s hand free of Eggie’s. “No you won’t.”
“If we cannot reach her magic well, then where shall we go?” Eggie’s lips had left a blaze of heat on Maggie’s hand. “For we will surely be discovered if we stay here.”
She wanted to say she wasn’t magic, but Barek’s dirty look not only shut her down, it also caused her to withdraw her hand abruptly.
“We are close to the city wall,” Barek said. “Before the sun rises I will see if a gate is unguarded or if the wall can be climbed.”
“And then what?” Maggie asked.
“Cyprian has a summer home in the mountains.” Jaddah wearily sat up to put an end to the bickering.
“Leave town?” New worries joined the wad churning in Maggie’s stomach.
“Only until things calm down,” Barek said.
Could Maggie leave her parents behind without letting them know where she’d gone? Okay, she’d be the first to admit that she’d skipped out on college and left the country without saying a word. But that was different. Deep down, she’d known all along that with a couple of clicks on the computer her mother would know exactly where Maggie’s share of the inheritance money had taken her. What Barek was suggesting—disappearing into the barbarian countryside in the middle of the night—would have the same traumatizing effect upon her mother as that night years ago when Jaddah disappeared through the time portal and left Mom without a mother. Mom would spend the rest of her life looking for all of them.
Her mother hovered way too much, but Maggie couldn’t bear the thought of causing her inconsolable heartache. “We need food, water, and medicine for Jaddah before we can even consider such a trip,” she said, hoping to stall the plan’s momentum. “Maybe we should go back to Titus’s to get a few supplies.”
“Too ri
sky,” Barek said.
“On my way here, I skirted the soldiers billeted at the harbor. They eat well,” Eggie said. “They had barrels of salted ham, venison, chicken, oysters. Crates of apples, honey, Celtic beer, and wine. We could get our supplies there.”
“How?” Maggie asked.
“I could steal a ham. Maybe even a chicken,” Eggie offered.
Maggie’s mouth watered. “Don’t forget the garum.”
“Do either of you ever think past the end of your nose?” Barek dropped to the stool, his face pale. “Stealing a ham could very well cost one of us his life.”
“Lighten up, Barek,” Maggie said. “I was just teasing. Someone has to go.”
“I’ll go.” Barek ran a hand through his dark mane. “Eggie doesn’t know his way around.”
“No one can connect my face to the riots,” Eggie reasoned. “You, on the other hand, have made an indelible mark on the minds of far too many soldiers today.”
“He’s right, Barek.” Maggie pointed at the blood trickling from his arm. “Besides, you’re hurt.”
“Just a scratch.” His attempt to return to his feet failed and he had to clamp a hand on her shoulder to steady himself. “I just need to rest a minute.”
“You need to quit being such a stubborn jerk.” Maggie tossed him the cloth she’d been using on his head.
“He could lead Maximus right to us.”
“He could have done that a long time ago. But he didn’t. He helped me save my grandparents, Barek. I owe him.”
Barek threw up his hands. “If he brings destruction on our heads, that’s on you.”
Maggie looked at Eggie. He was leaning against the wall, arms crossed. Despite his calm exterior, she could see that the weight of people dying because of what he’d done tugged at the corner of his lip. His heart was probably beating a hole in his chest. He was wondering whether she’d bring up why he’d run away. Understanding passed between them. She wouldn’t tell of Eggie’s aversion to battle and he wouldn’t betray the whereabouts of her family. “I’ll take that bet,” she said boldly.
