Mark of the Thief by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Author:Jennifer A. Nielsen
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2015-03-21T16:00:00+00:00

This time, Aurelia actually had a good excuse to be angry with me. I had tarried so long with Felix that the Roman soldiers were on our heels now. As far as I was concerned, my reasons were good. Aurelia disagreed.

“Why didn’t you listen?” she scolded.

“You could’ve left, you know. It’s only money.” I spoke as irritably as she had, though I hoped she wasn’t angry enough to actually leave.

“You’re worth more than just money,” she said, then shifted directions slightly. The soldiers had taken a high road, hoping to cut us off. This bought us a few extra paces. “This way! We’ll hide in the forum.”

It didn’t seem like the best suggestion, and in any other situation, I’d have stopped to make an argument of it. I’d only seen the forum from a distance, but enough to know it was always full of people, going to and from the many temples, markets, and other public buildings. Most of them had probably been in the amphitheater. I figured it was a safe guess that they’d remember the boy who had nearly destroyed it.

We crossed in front of a building with enormous marble columns. My mind filled with the possibilities of what would happen if I accidentally released any magic here. If I toppled one column, or even cracked it, the entire building could collapse.

“I have an idea!” Aurelia grabbed my arm and yanked me midstep toward one of the temples, built up on a ridge of earth higher than many others in the forum. We ran around a speaker’s platform to a wide flight of stairs, where, for a moment, we got ahead of the soldiers when they tripped over each other in their race to snatch me. At the top was a second set of stairs, divided by wide marble columns. Behind them, the great doors of a temple were already open. Aurelia ran in, but I stopped at the entrance, my breath caught in my throat.

An imposing statue of Julius Caesar stood inside the entrance, and it stared down at me as if he were alive, warning me I had no right to enter this building. Carved into the statue’s forehead was the Divine Star. My hand was around the bulla and I released it at once, ashamed of having stolen it from Caesar’s own cave. Although it was still hidden beneath my tunic, I had no doubt that Caesar knew exactly where it was.

“Do you want to stand there and be cut down?” Aurelia scowled and grabbed my hand again, this time dragging me inside the temple with her. Inside Caesar’s temple.

As soon as we crossed the doorway, my shoulder started to prickle. I took it as a sign that Caesar was displeased with me, but he would have to get angrier than that before I’d leave. At least so far, no one in here was trying to kill me. The same could not be said if I stayed outside.

The temple was filled with altars for sacrifices,

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