The Gates of Hell (The Shards of Heaven) by Michael Livingston

The Gates of Hell (The Shards of Heaven) by Michael Livingston

Author:Michael Livingston [Livingston, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2016-11-15T06:00:00+00:00


15

THE PEACE OF ROME

CANTABRIA, 26 BCE

Standing at the main gate of the Roman encampment, staring out over the night-shadowed valley to the distant glimmer of torchlights that marked the battlements of Vellica, Selene thought of many things. There was the hopelessness of knowing that Juba had been taken behind those distant walls and there was nothing she could do for him. There was the despair of knowing that although she had managed to protect the Palladium when her body had fallen upon it, it was useless in the face of what she had seen of the powers of the Lance and the Trident. There was the horrible awareness of the unburied dead that littered the darkness below.

But above all in this moment, she thought of a growing discomfort in her mind, the possibility that Octavian was right: that he and Cleopatra had wanted the same thing.

Just the thought of it made Selene feel ill.

But was it true?

And if it was true, what did it mean?

She had been ten years old when Octavian had taken Alexandria. Ten years old when she had seen her father’s bloody body cradled in her mother’s arms. Ten years old when she’d run from that horror, intending to somehow find Octavian and kill him. Ten years old when she’d sworn to him that she would marry Juba the Numidian to preserve the life of Lucius Vorenus. Ten years old when she’d smuggled the asp to her imprisoned mother, pushing the basket forward with its offering of death.

She had sworn to her mother that she would avenge her. It was the last time she’d seen her alive. They were her final words to her. And not a day had gone by in the years since that she hadn’t dreamed of that vengeance, plotted it. She’d fallen in love with Juba, and that, too, had become part of the plan.

All to destroy Octavian. All to destroy Rome.

And yet … was Octavian right?

The Peace of Rome. That’s what he’d called it. And Rome was safe, after all. No bandits in the woods. No fighting upon the streets. She’d enjoyed that security every time she’d snuck out with Tiberius to wander the streets at night. She’d known it even on the night she’d used him to steal the Palladium.

What was it that Tiberius had said on the morning of the battle? Make the world Rome, and there’d be no one left to fight.

Impossible, of course. No one could conquer the world. Even Alexander had failed.

But it was true that within Rome’s borders there could be peace. Had that been what her mother had sought from first Caesar and then Mark Antony? Forge an alliance with Rome, become one with that eternal city, and there could be peace from one side of the sea to the other. Security and prosperity.

The Peace of Rome.

Selene shook her head. Even beyond her love for him, she felt she needed Juba at times like this. A few years older, a few years more experienced in knowing the ways of the world, he often saw to the heart of a problem.



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