The Golden Dice - A Tale of Ancient Rome Read Online Free PDF Page A

for this, Mastarna. It will be you who will cause our people to suffer if you plunge us into internal conflict. Do you think anyone would be prepared to follow you if you incite clansmen to fight one another as well as the Romans?”
    Mastarna hesitated, and Caecilia knew the zilath’s words stirred memories of a promise made to his murdered friend. Arnth Ulthes had also warned her husband never to risk civil war. She touched Vel’s arm, making him glance down at her. For the second time that night she counseled caution. “It’s no use. Remember Ulthes’ advice. He would not want Rasenna to fight Rasenna.”
    He scanned her face, weighing her words, then sighed. “Very well. For the sake of concord I will lead my army in the name of a sovereign. But without the League of the Twelve’s support I won’t help Veii attack Rome.”
    Kurvenas snorted and once again eyed Caecilia up and down as if ogling a whore. “So speaks a man who keeps a Roman in his bed.”
    Mastarna took a step towards him again, but before he could seize his opponent she moved between the men, her heart thumping, restraint forgotten.
    Facing the aristocrats, she once again took a deep breath to quell her nerves. Even so, she was surprised to find her voice was calm. “All know here that there is no going back for me. And I risk death as surely as you do should the enemy breach our walls. So if anyone here doubts my allegiance I will return to Rome tomorrow and meet a traitor’s death.”
    All avoided her gaze. No one spoke.
    Trying not to show she was trembling, Caecilia held out her hand for Mastarna to escort her from the square. Thefarie and Ramutha followed. After a few steps Mastarna bent and growled: “That was foolish! What if someone had challenged you?”
    Her own temper flared, not needing a reminder she’d been rash. “I don’t know, but you’re the one who taught me to gamble.”
    Mastarna halted briefly as though to rebuke her again. Then he grunted acknowledgment and placed his arm around her shoulders.
    Caecilia glanced back at the gathering as they walked away. Kurvenas, rather than Vipinas, was calling to the others to resume their feasting. At such cajoling, Lusinies slapped the future monarch on the back. The assembled principes drifted after them, their sober mood growing lighter.
    The flames of the ring of fires around the city seared the darkness. The song of the Veientanes caressed the air.
    Glossary
    Cast

FOUR
     
    In the dark chill before daybreak she woke before she heard the baby crying, her breasts tight, the sheet crusted from leaking milk.
    Mastarna reached for her in the cocoon of their bed but Aricia was already calling for permission to enter, holding a squawking Arnth. A slave boy followed wheeling a freshly stoked brazier.
    The infant settled quickly at the teat, noisy in his guzzling. Caecilia loosened the clean swaddling so that she could feel the baby’s skin next to hers. Mastarna lay on his side, propping his head against one hand as he studied his wife and son. “He is greedy, Bellatrix.”
    “ Just like his father.”
    He smiled, offering his fingers to the child. Arnth ignored him until, hunger easing, he clasped the calloused thumb with a tiny fist, smiling around his mother’s breast.
    “ You should retain a wet nurse.” He broke from the boy’s grasp to run his hand along his wife’s arm. “Then you might quicken before I leave again.”
    Caecilia frowned, drawing her woolen shawl about her, knowing that a woman who holds a babe to her breast rarely falls with child. Her chances of conceiving were always limited to those winters when she was not suckling. Yet she did not want another woman to feed her son. It was unbearable to think of surrendering the tenderness, the gentle tug at her nipple, the drowsy warmth nestled against her. A nearness that her own mother had denied her. And Arnth was not yet one season old. Her body needed respite. “Aren’t three healthy sons