(eng) Michael R. Hicks - Vulcan's Fury by The Dark Lands

Author:The Dark Lands [Lands, The Dark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“By the gods, what did you think you were doing?”

Valeria stood before her father in the praetorium, red-faced with embarrassment. She knew she should feel ashamed, as well, but that particular emotion had thus far eluded her. She looked up at him and gulped. She had never seen him so angry before. Even worse, her mother, who stood beside Tiberius, wouldn’t meet Valeria’s eyes.

Pelonius, Marcus, Septimus, and Paulus stood at attention off to one side, witnesses to her shame. Karan, fortunately, was nowhere to be seen.

Tiberius began to pace back and forth, holding his hands at his sides, tightly clenched, while shaking his head in disbelief. “You know very well that Hercules could have accidentally injured or killed someone or — worse in your own mind, I’m sure — he could have been hurt or killed himself. As it was he totally destroyed everything in the peristylium and put the entire castrum into chaos. The soldiers on duty thought we were under attack, and the entire legion was at arms and heading for The Wall by the time Pelonius was able to spread the word that it was a false alarm. That speaks well for their reaction time, but made me, Caesar, look like a weak fool who can’t even control my own daughter!”

“I’m so sorry, Father,” she said meekly. “I didn’t meant to—”

“You never mean to, Valeria!” Tiberius was all but shouting now. He clamped his mouth shut for a moment, then went on in a slightly calmer voice. “But that is the problem, isn’t it? You never mean to, but you never take even a moment to contemplate the consequences of your actions. Your pranks in the palace, your willfulness to go where you please and do what you please…these things we overlooked as youthful folly while we were in Rome.” He held his arms up, gesturing around them. “Are we in Rome now? Are we? Answer me!”

“No, Father,” she whispered.

With a look toward the men who stood stiffly at the side of the room, Tiberius went on. “We also overlooked those follies because I knew that you were protected by the best men Rome has to offer. As long as your mother and I knew you were safe, and as long as you didn’t engage in anything scandalous, we were content to let you have your way. But running around alone in the forest, anything could have happened to you. Anything!”

Risking further verbal wrath, she said, “But I wasn’t alone. I was with Karan.”

Tiberius stopped his pacing and turned to stare at her, and her mother raised her eyes, a look of terrible disappointment on her face. “What do you mean,” Tiberius said slowly, “you were with Karan?”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a dark shadow cloud over Paulus’s otherwise expressionless face, and Septimus sucked in his lower lip and began to chew on it. Pelonius and Marcus continued to stand like statues.

Paulus and Septimus must not have spoken of what they saw in the clearing.

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