Vulcan's Fury: The Dark Lands Read Online Free PDF Page A

but he was still wearing his armor and all she got for her trouble was stinging fingers. “You’re terribly undignified,” she scolded him. Turning back to her father, she said, “So we can go? Really?”
    “Yes,” Tiberius said with a look at his wife, who nodded, a smile painted across her face. “You can go.”
    “Wait a minute,” Paulus said, turning to Valeria. “What do you mean we? ”
    “You have to come with me,” Valeria told him. “You’re not going to let me go alone, are you?”
    “ I’m not going to let you go alone,” Tiberius told her, “and Paulus will be part of your escort, just as he is now. Perhaps during this adventure the two of you will finally come to terms with the issue of marriage.”
    Valeria rolled her eyes. “We already have. We’re not.”  
    Paulus looked away and shrugged, the expression largely lost within the bulk of his armor.
    “Your father and I have been discussing something like this for a while, actually,” Octavia said after taking a sip of wine. “A trip, that is, in addition to marriage. Most of what you’ve seen of the Empire has been through the eyes of a little girl when we traveled earlier in your father’s career. It’s time that you — both of you — saw with more mature eyes what lies beyond the walls of Rome. You, Paulus, are just taking the first steps along the cursus honorum , and a tour of the provinces will give you some of the perspective you’ll need for responsibilities yet to come.”  
    Paulus responded with a thoughtful nod. The cursus honorum was the sequence of offices that any young man who wanted to rise to a position of political influence had to navigate, beginning with ten years of mandatory service in the cavalry or on the staff of a general, typically a friend of the family. While some had privately grumbled about unfair influence, no one had publicly complained about him serving on the Emperor’s personal guard to fulfill this first requirement.
    “And you, young lady,” Tiberius said to Valeria, “could benefit from a bit of travel, and for much the same reasons. As a woman, you might not have any opportunity to hold high office, but you know as well as I do that while a man may sit upon the throne or occupy a seat in the Senate, more than likely a woman played a key role in putting him there.” Women were still largely relegated to the duties of wife and mother, although the influence women could have over the actions of their husbands and lovers could not be underestimated.  
    Octavia gave her daughter a sly smile. “The woman puts him on the throne and keeps him there.”  
    Valeria began to shake her head, horrified by what she was hearing. “Oh, no. I will not be paraded around the provinces like some gilded statue! I would rather be locked in my chambers and die a maid!”
    “Stop being so melodramatic,” Tiberius chided. “We have no intention of ‘parading’ you anywhere. You may find this difficult to believe, but your tyrannical parents do want you to enjoy yourself. But,” and he wagged a finger at her, “you will have an obligation to meet with the governors and senior functionaries in the provincial capitals through which you may pass. Like it or not, you are the daughter of Caesar, and doing these sorts of things is part of the price you must pay for the privileges you enjoy. You can’t simply go gallivanting around like that Greek merchant you spoke of earlier.”
    She was about to argue when she remembered what Pelonius had said to her earlier about what it meant to live in a gilded cage, and the fight went out of her. “Yes, Father. I’ll be good.”
    Beside her, Paulus snorted, and he and Tiberius exchanged a knowing look while Octavia simply gave her daughter a wicked grin.
    “I’ll have Marcus make the arrangements,” Tiberius said. “All the men of your personal guard will be going, of course, and I leave it up to Marcus to decide if he wants to take more. I’m also going to