Empire of Time by Daniel Godfrey

Author:Daniel Godfrey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Titan

37

Ancient Pompeii, AD 62

ACHILLIA TRIED TO rest, letting her head fall forwards. She closed her eyes. Barbatus had left and there was no one else in the room with her – this time she was certain – and she likely had at least a little time before they returned. Whether they would have Trigemina with them was another matter. In all likelihood, they’d find her mistress still sitting in that rancid apartment, too scared to leave. Then she’d discover if Barbatus was true to his word; whether she’d be let go or simply executed to tie off a loose end.

Achillia let out a frustrated scream, and stared again at the fresco of Artemis and Actaeon. Her breathing had just returned to its normal rhythm when she felt a deep, low vibration within her skull.

“Shit,” Achillia whispered. “Shit. Shit. Shit.”

A dark shape forced itself deep into her vision, pushing down hard as a vibration began to build in her ears. Filling her head with noise, before finally a voice emerged.

Manius Calpurnius Barbatus, it said.

“I’ve found him!” she shouted.

You will go to Pompeii, and you will find Manius Calpurnius Barbatus! You will seek his daughter, and you will save her husband Marcus Villius Denter by taking him to meet Balbus in Herculaneum.

The voice kept repeating the instructions. All of it so close, and yet not quite right. Because as Barbatus had told her, there was no husband to save.

“I’ve fucking found him!”

The room was now swaying, just as had happened in the Sibyl’s cave. Achillia leant forward against her bindings and heaved, vomit dripping down her front and pooling in her lap. Just as suddenly as it started though, the voice stopped. But the room continued to move.

The fresco cracked, scattering plaster and paint across the floor. The vibration in Achillia’s ears had been replaced by a loud roar that filled the room as the floor shook. She heard distant screams from within the house and the sound of breaking furniture.

Achillia rocked frantically in the chair until it tumbled, assisted by the rolling of the floor. But still she couldn’t get out of the damn thing. “Cocksucking bastard!”

The screams had gone quiet. No doubt the occupants of the house had all run out into the street.

But was that a baby crying?

Finally the back of the chair broke. Her bindings loosened and Achillia scrabbled free. She found a bit of fallen masonry under the wreckage of the chair. Some small offering of luck from the gods, she thought. Maybe even from the Sibyl.

Achillia didn’t pause to think about it too much. She just ran through the empty house and reached the door to the street. Then she stopped. The Sibyl. That tiny bit of luck. The voice in the cave. Manius Calpurnius Barbatus. The daughter. The husband.

How could the daughter ever get married if she died here today?

Achillia hesitated. She could see the street outside. But there was a baby crying. It had been left behind. And somehow, through the terror, Achillia knew it was a girl.

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