The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 5

Ky shut the door behind quietly as he left, taking one last look at Lucilla sitting on a small stool next to her father’s bed, looking equally hopeful and worried as he continued to lie, unmoving. As the door shut and blocked the two figures from sight, he turned to find Clovis next to several of the men who’d questioned his presence before seeing her father. They had been listening to Clovis whispering to them, gesticulating wildly when Ky’s eyes fell on them. The group hushed instantly, returning his questioning gaze with much less friendly expressions.

“So after standing next to the old man for a few minutes and setting a few strips of cloth on him, you just declare you’ve figured out what’s wrong with him and you somehow miraculously fixed him?” The man Lucilla had called Caesius said, separating himself from the small group.

“If I am inventing my diagnosis for some reason, as you’re implying, wouldn’t I be disproved quickly? Your own physician here said he would die at any moment. If I am the fraud you seem to suggest, wouldn’t I be exposed as soon as he died?”

“You are an unknown who just happened to stumble across my sister and her party and come back with her in time to save Father. Maybe you have friends here who poisoned him and gave you the antidote.”

“My Lord,” Ursinus said, still standing close to the door, waiting on Lucilla, “I was there when he fell out of the sky. He saved us from Carthaginian soldiers not once, but twice.”

Caesius’ eyes tracked to the soldier, his gaze filled with poison, “And how did the Carthaginians overcome all of your soldiers, Optio? You travelled on one of the smaller roads, how did they find you?”

“My lord, are you suggesting …”

“I,” the younger aristocrat said, interrupting the weathered soldier, “am saying this situation is suspicious. From your initial report, it seems my sister was intercepted by Carthaginian troops who just happened to come across your trail. A man shows up to ‘save’ her, convinces her to bring him home to see Father, where he declares he has found a cure in a handful of minutes simply by standing next to him when our best physicians were able to do nothing. I would say that is suspicious.”

“If it had been a natural sickness, our treatments would have worked,” Clovis called out from the small group that now stood at Caesius’ back. “Even he had to admit it was poison.”

“My lords, you don’t understand,” Ursinus said, stepping away from the wall to stand next to Ky, “he fell out of the sky with wings of flame. He threw fire that melted a much larger force of Carthaginians. He threw a sword at a man, picking him off the ground and pinning him to a tree as if he were a flesh and blood Scorpio. My lady and I believe …”

“Ursinus …” Ky warned, seeing where he was going and wanting to stop the well-meaning soldier.

Ursinus was on a roll and waved off Ky’s objection, only pausing for the briefest of moments, “We believe he is the Sword of Jupiter.”

The low-level hum of whispering that had been passing between the small groups of men in the room outside of the confrontation stopped at the declaration. One person, Ky wasn’t sure which, his attention on the group in front of him, sucked in air in surprise. Caesius seemed more angry than shocked, however.

“Now you’re claiming to be some kind of god?”

“I didn’t claim anything!”

“Your lapdog did. I won’t stand for this blasphemy. I’m not sure how you managed to bribe an officer of the legion or my sister, but I must protect the people of Rome, and I will do my duty. I will not let you bring your lies and abominations into the palace nor bring any more honest citizens under your sway. Guards,” he shouted, “Arrest this man.”

Ursinus stepped forward, putting himself between Ky and the two guards who had been a few paces behind Caesius’ group, putting his hand on the hilt of his sword even as the two men began moving forward, hands going to their own weapons.

Ky grabbed the back of Ursinus’s cuirass and pulled the older soldier back a few steps, behind Ky. From his peripheral vision, Ky could see the surprise on the soldier’s face, but to his credit, the man didn't flinch or fall. He just reset himself after Ky pulled him out of immediate danger, clearly annoyed but accepting of the move.

“Stop,” a voice called out from behind the group.

Shaky and raspy, the voice somehow retained a tone of command that cut through the sounds of the soldiers and murmurs of the crowd. All eyes turned to the bedroom doorway, to an old man leaning heavily on his daughter, unsteady but with a face as serious as any other man in the room.

“This man is here as a guest of your sister,” he said, taking a few shuffling steps forward with the help of Lucilla. “I will not have him accosted while he is under my roof.”

“Father, you should be in bed. Let me …”

“I’ll be fine. I want you to go summon the commanders. Your sister has brought back information from Glevum. Optio, would you take our new friend to the guest quarters.”

“Father, this man …”

“No,” the Emperor said, not willing to let the younger man get a single sentence finished. “You will follow my orders. Now.”

Caesius glared at Ky and Ursinus once more, turned, storming out, several of his friends following on his heels.

“Princeps, you should be resting,” Clovis said, moving to help hold up the older man.

“Yes, I think that would be for the best. Optio, please take our friend to his quarters for now, and then return. Lucilla has told me some, but I’d like to hear more about what happened since you leftDevnum.”

Ursinus slapped a fist to his chest in salute and turned to Ky, “Come with me, please.”

Ky gave a smile to Lucilla, nodded at her father, and turned to follow the soldier out of the room.

Londinium

Maharbaal sat on a large chair that rested on a slightly raised platform at the end of the audience chamber. This had been The Senate when the Romans had built it, years before. Maharbaal had not been in charge during the invasion five years ago, nor the capturing of Londinium two years after that. But once the Great One had decreed that the island would be a new province, he had assigned Maharbaal to see to the pacification of the island and final destruction of the Romans.

Maharbaal had been an active officer in the army with enough field experience to be acceptable to the commanders and high enough in the nobility to be acceptable to the council of lords. He also had the required experience since this was not his first experience in running a province. During the time Londinium was conquered he’d been a vice governor in charge of the southern region of Gaul where he’d just successfully put down a revolt. While he had all the qualifications to satisfy the upper levels of Carthaginian society that he was suitable for command in Britannia, Maharbaal did not consider the island suitable for him and had tried his best to steer the command to someone else. 

The idea of leaving the mild weather in the southern parts of the province, its adequate supply of slaves and the proximity to Mediterranean ports had not appealed to him. He had been comfortable, and soldiers who returned from the invasion told stories of how miserable the island could be, with its harsher winters and frequent rain. Add that with the limited port traffic, due to the wilder nature of the seas around Britannia, and corresponding reduced taxes he’d be allowed to manage and personally profit off of made the entire notion taste foul to him.

However, the pacification of the southern third of the island had gone much faster and easier than Maharbaal had thought it would. In just two years, he had a secure base from which to launch the final invasion of the last remaining Roman cities. If he could manage to crush the Romans and the painted barbarians further to the north quickly, the Great One couldn’t help but notice his contributions. The rewards that come with favor from the Emperor were immense and would make up for all the hardships he’d been forced to deal with during his tenure as Governor.

“My lord,” A man said, standing just on the threshold of the audience chamber floor.

The Romans believed in an open seat of government, without doors or barriers to keep ‘the people’ separated from the body that made their laws. That, of course, had always been a farce. He’s seen the double-dealing and treachery from Roman nobles many times over his career, finding them particularly easy to corrupt. The men who governed the once-mighty republic weren’t any more eager to let the people in on the process of government than any other nation’s ruling class. They liked the traditions of democracy, but in truth, those traditions were usually more symbol than fact.

Still, it ended up forcing Maharbaal to govern from a building without doors, which annoyed his sense of propriety.

“Come,” he commanded.

The man strode forward, carrying a pouch in one hand, his clothes covered in a layer of dust and smelling of horse. Normally, Maharbaal would not have suffered a soldier coming to him in such a state, and the penalty would have been severe for the man who offended his sensibilities. He had, however, ordered his men to report instantly any news from the front, and had been specific that any delay would be met harshly.

“How goes the campaign,” he asked the soldier, as the man handed over the pouch.

As nobly born as he was, Maharbaal had led enough armies to appreciate the perspective of the average soldier. Commanders had a bad habit of glossing over problems and hiding defeats.

“Very well, my lord. Glevum has fallen and our losses were light. Lord Zaracas already marches towards Devnum. Even riding my hardest, I will probably return to the army only a short time before the attack on the Roman capital begins.”

“Excellent. And Germanicus’ daughter? Was our spy's information correct?”

“Yes, my lord,” the man said, a lot more warily than Maharbaal would have expected, his eyes darting, refusing to make contact.

Sitting up in his seat, his gaze burning into the man, Maharbaal asked, “We got her though, right? She is dead or in our hands?”

“No, my lord. We destroyed her escort, but she escaped with a handful of soldiers. Lord Zaracas sent men out to stop them, but there was a … umm … wizard.”

“Wizard?”

“That is what the men who ran from the battle, after they had caught up with the escaped Romans, said. I didn’t witness it myself, but I saw the bodies afterward. The wounds were … extreme.”

“What do you mean extreme?”

“Men cut in half. Holes melted through a line of five men in a single blast.”

“And you believe one man did that?”

“No, my lord,” the man replied, sensing rightly the answer Maharbaal was looking for.

“I do not want some Roman trickery, or the desecration the bodies of our soldiers, to scare Zaracas from the attack. Ride back to him and tell him he is to push the attack faster. In two days I will either have the head of their Emperor in my hands or the head of the man who failed to deliver it. Do you understand?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“You,” he said to one of the black-robed figures who’d been standing silently against one section of the tiered senate seating. “Take some men and return with him to the army. Make it clear to the General what will happen to those who fail me.”

The man didn’t speak, the face mask painted like a featureless skull dipping as he half bowed to the governor. The man’s neck was wrapped in black cloth, and the skin around his eyes rubbed black with charcoal, enhancing the skull-like appearance of him and the men with him. The messenger’s face turned ashen at the order but bowed as well and backed out of the chamber, casting side glances at the death cult members who drove fear into every Carthaginian.

Devnum

Ky sat in the room Ursinus had led him to while the Emperor recuperated. It was so different from what he had known in what he was already thinking of as ‘his old life.' He couldn’t tell if the room was nice or plain. A bed sat in the center of the room, its mattress thin and hard. A few chairs and a small table were in an open area on one side, away from the bed, and a short, backless couch was close to the door, also against the wall.

Ky was sitting in one of the chairs going over the data the AI had sorted, trying to get a handle on what he was dealing with. The structure of who was in charge and how it worked was alien to him and he wanted a chance to understand what he was going to have to deal with, at least until he figured out what he was going to do.

The AI had reminded him of the importance of seeing records but considering how close things had come to blows outside of Lucilla’s father's room, not to mention the two guards currently stationed on the other side of the room he was currently in, suggested this was not the time to go exploring. Ky was starting to accept he wouldn’t be going back home, intellectually if not emotionally, but he hadn’t figured out a plan for what to do now.

The AI had offered some options but they had all been generic to the point of being worthless. To be fair, they didn’t have enough information about the world they now found themselves in to get much beyond the generic theory stage. As someone whose entire life had been planned out since birth, assigned to a batch to be raised as a pilot and soldier, always given commands of where to be and what to do, the uncertainty was causing Ky a lot of trouble.

The idea of just finding a quiet place to live in obscurity didn’t appeal to him, but neither did getting involved in some war that he didn’t have a stake in either.

A knock on the door drew Ky out of his thoughts. Clearing the data currently overlaid across his vision, Ky stood and said, “Yes?”

The door opened and Ursinus came into the room.

“The Imperator would like to see you.”

“Okay,” Ky said.

He wasn’t familiar with the protocol in civilizations like this, but he was pretty certain an ‘invitation’ from the absolute ruler wasn’t something people turned down. Ursinus took Ky’s response as acceptance at any rate, and went back out the door, leaving it open for to Ky to follow. Ky had expected they would retrace their earlier path back to the Emperor’s rooms. Instead, however, they turned a different direction out of the guest room and down a winding set of corridors passing scores of unmarked doors.

Ursinus lead them through an external door and down one of the covered walkways Ky had noted earlier and into one of the external buildings adjacent to the larger one he’d entered originally. After a fairly short walk, Ky was led into a small room that contained a small table, currently covered in what Ky would have described as scrolls. There was another door in the adjacent wall and a large map on a third wall showing Britannia with a surprising degree of accuracy.

The most surprising thing in the room wasn’t what was in it, but what was missing. Specifically, any people other than the Emperor. Ursinus didn’t even come in, just gesturing Ky through the door, and then shutting it behind him. There were guards on the outside of the door, but it struck Ky as notable that someone this important for the Romans would meet alone with someone who was, essentially, a stranger.

“Sir,” Ky said, unsure of how he was supposed to address the man.

This also gave Ky his first indication of who the man was. The non-standard address did not go unnoticed, answered with a slight twitch of his eyebrow but otherwise left unaddressed.

“From Optio Ursinus and my daughter's tales, I understand I owe you not only my own life but theirs as well. Before anything else, I wanted to thank you. Especially for saving my daughter.”

“You’re welcome,” Ky said, feeling awkward unsure of how to react in a situation like this.

The Emperor’s skin was still on the ashen side but considering the ordeal he’d been under that wasn’t surprising. Even with the medical nanobots repairing all the damage they could before their lifespan ran out, it would still take some time for him to get his strength back.

“That being said, I have many questions for you. I have been told of your unusual arrival and abilities, as well as the army currently marching towards us. Ursinus said he did not see that van of the army, just the detachment that was sent after him and my daughter, but that you were able to see them clearly and estimate their size.”

“That is essentially correct.”

“I know you are not one of my subjects, but I’d like for you to brief my legates on what we face. If Ursinus or I guess your estimate is really correct, we don’t have much time to come up with a plan of defense. Of course, if we could add a fantastic new weapon to our arsenal …”

“Sir, I was happy to help you and your daughter but I think I need to explain my situation. This is not my home and I do not want to get caught up in your war. I sympathize with your situation but I just want to get back to my own home. As for the abilities and tools that were described to you, I made it clear to your daughter and her guards that they had a limited amount of uses. I couldn't defeat an army by myself, even if I had to.”

“While I’m sad to hear that, I can understand why you wouldn’t want to get involved in our war. Could I impose on you for one more request and ask that you give my legates your first-hand account of what we are up against. You would still have plenty of time to get out before the assault begins and it would help my people immensely.”

The look in the man’s eyes suggested he wasn't exactly forthcoming but Ky wasn’t a good enough reader of people to be able to pick out his true motives. On its own, the request didn’t seem to be asking too much. It wouldn’t hurt to tell them about what he’d seen and his conscience made it hard for him to just leave these people to their fate without at least letting them know what they faced.

“I can do that.”

“Excellent,” the man said, his face breaking into a grin. “We should get to it, then. If I could trouble you for your arm? I’m still feeling quite weak.”

To punctuate the request, the man put out a hand. Ky stepped forward and helped the older man to his feet. Older was actually probably not accurate. While the Emperor was older than many of the people he’d seen in this time period so far, he was certainly not as old as Ky himself, at least in the strict chronological sense. Visibly the man seemed significantly older than Ky, and he doubted anyone from this society's technological level would understand the age extending abilities of the society Ky grew up in. If he had to guess though, Ky would put the man’s age in the high fifties.

In a more modern era, that might not seem so old, especially in his time when life spans could last hundreds of years. In the time he currently found himself, however, with the lack of any real medical knowledge and much harder lifestyle, the body started breaking down significantly earlier and much more rapidly. For this time, when people had children in their teens, fifty was well past middle age and heading toward being elderly.

What the man didn’t know, at least not yet, was that thanks to the large number of repairs the medical nanobots would perform before they deactivated, he would live far longer than anyone in his current society would have been capable of, baring unnatural causes of course. As he pulled the man up Ky couldn’t help but notice how light he was. A lot of that would be caused by not eating for so long, combined with the purges the doctors kept foisting on him. The idiotic practice would have made him weaker, and his system more exposed to wearing down. While it hadn’t killed him, the combination had reduced the man to skin and bone.

“Sir, after a good night’s rest, you will feel much better. It’s important that starting tomorrow, you eat very well for the next several days. It will help you regain your strength.”

“My daughter said you claimed to be a warrior, and yet here you are giving advice like a physician,” the Emperor said with a chuckle as Ky helped him towards the unopened door.

“I am a soldier; but my people, or at least those of us trained as soldiers, receive basic field medical training. I understand the equipment I used to treat you and the need for basic things like making sure you get enough to eat to heal properly, but I don’t know how the equipment I used was created nor every specific of how it actively fixed your injuries.”

“I’d be very interested in hearing more about your people.”

“I … I’m not sure it would make a lot of sense, at least not now. I come from a place that is so different that it would be difficult for you to understand most of what I would tell you.”

“Yet you claim to not be a god.”

“I’m not. It’s … I’m not sure how to explain this. Say you found an ancient tribe of your early ancestors, from before you formed any kind of civilization. If they had not harnessed fire, how would you explain a lamp to them? If they had not tempered metal, how alien would your sword seem? Yet to you, these are simple tools everyone around you understands.”

“That is an interesting point that brings to mind many more questions which, unfortunately, must wait for now.”

The Emperor opened the door they had been walking towards which in turn lead into a much larger room with a giant table in the center. On the table was another of the detailed maps of the island, although a larger version of it. Surrounding the table were a half dozen men that Ky didn’t recognize. Although he wasn’t sure why, he found himself disappointed that Lucilla wasn’t present. Considering for a moment this era of civilization’s views on women he guessed that shouldn’t have been so surprising. He was happy to see Ursinus was present, although near the back of one of the groups of men.

Ky helped the Emperor into a chair at the head of the table that looked to have been placed there especially for the Emperor, since there were no other chairs in the room at all.

“Gentlemen, I trust you have all received the optio’s report on what he witnessed outside Glevum and of the Army currently headed in our direction.”

“Yes,” a man wearing what, to Ky’s untrained eye, seemed to be extremely ornate armor said. “I want to again say I find it unlikely that they were able to get any significant army this deep into our territory without our getting reports other than the one the optio brought us. None of our outposts have reported anything suspicious, and our spies have not reported any significant build-up in the territory controlled by the Carthaginians.”

“I am not one who normally would disagree with the venerable Globulus …” a younger man started to say.

“Then don’t,” the older legate shot back.

“Continue,” the Emperor said, waving him off.

“We have received very little from our spies in Carthaginian territory, and what we have received has been, at best, innocuous. Since shortly before the time their Army would have had to start marching, we’ve received nothing from our outposts.”

“Only one of those is overdue with their regular report. We have at least a day before we expect to hear from any of our other southern outposts,” the older legate countered.

“True. However, if we wait until they are also late to react and the Carthaginian army is headed here they will be upon us before we’ve had any time to prepare. If I were their general I would have moved my army up fast and sent cavalry to cut off any messages they might get out to keep us in the dark.”

“That’s assuming they knew where our outposts were ahead of time.”

The younger man made a palms-up gesture of agreement but continued, “Also true, but we can’t assume everything is fine. They didn’t manage to conquer so much of the known worlds by doing what was expedited or easy. If we prepare our legions now and nothing happens, we will be fine. If we don’t, and they are on their way, however …” 

“The money it takes to put a legion in the field is not a light consideration, Velius. We have to load them with food, get the baggage trains ready. Many of my men are working their farms. I can’t pull them from their livelihood on a whim.”

“You mean you can’t pull them off your farms they work in servitude, you …”

“Velius,” the Emperor said curtly, cutting off the younger legate.

The shot had hit its mark in spite of warning as Globulus’ face turned bright red and his lips pursed. He, however, managed to keep from responding to the younger man as his Emperor’s eyes bore down on him. There seemed to be something more to their argument but Ky didn’t have enough experience in this timeline to work out the specifics. It would have been something for him to look into if he had decided to stay, since it hinted at a very concerning military structure, or at least problems without the chain of command. Since he wasn’t planning on staying and getting involved in their battle he instead pushed it aside and waited until he was called upon.

“For the moment, I agree with Velius. We have to proceed on the basis of the Carthaginian armies being in the field and headed towards us. Besides Ursinus here who has, I think you’ll agree, always proven himself reliable, we have additional information as well. I’m sure you’ve all heard of our interesting visitor by now. Apparently, he was able to see more of their army and I asked him to share that information. Ky?”

“Yes, sir,” Ky said and saw a few brows furrow at his choice of address. Ky made a note to find out what leaders were supposed to be called in this time since falling back on military tradition was clearly not working. “I saw a single large army, composed of just under twenty thousand men, and two distinct groups of cavalry. One group was at about two hundred and the other about five hundred men. The men were lightly armored, at least compared to the equipment I’ve seen on your soldiers so far, mostly carrying long spears and swords somewhat shorter than the ones I’ve seen your men wielding. When we saw them, they were marching towards the forests south of you heading in a straight path here.”

Ky’s finger pointed to a spot on the map that the AI helpfully tagged for him.

“At the pace they seemed to be keeping they should arrive here in the next two or three days, assuming they haven’t stopped along the way. With that mass of men, I don’t think they should be expected much earlier unless they separated their cavalry and baggage train into three groups moving independently of one another.”

“Preposterous,” Globulus said. “The Carthaginians couldn’t get that many men in the field without us knowing. Hell, I doubt they could field that many men at all. They don’t have the logistical base and they don’t have the manpower, at least not on Britannia. Our agents would have noticed that many men being brought ashore.”

“We’ve had some word that their pacification of the Iberian uprising has ended, which would free up some troops,” a man that had yet to be identified said.

“Bah, reports sold by men more interested in coin that giving accurate intelligence.”

“Legate, I wouldn’t report rumor as fact, I hope you know that. I have independent confirmation from one of my agents in the provincial government. He hasn’t been able to report on any troop movements, but he did report the pacification is complete and the provincial governor sent correspondence to Londinium.”

“You have no way of knowing what was in that correspondence Ramirus,” Globulus said.

“True, but we can’t dismiss it out of hand.”

“Imperator, you have said I need to mobilize my forces. There is much I need to do to carry that order out.”

The Emperor frowned but nodded, saying, “Fine. Get your men ready to move and arrange for the supply of them. We will meet tomorrow where I want options on what we can do to stop the Carthaginians.”

The man slapped fist to chest and headed out the other doors trailed by four men who hadn’t spoken, at least not while Ky had been in the room.

“My lord, we will need to coordinate our forces if we stand a chance. If the numbers are accurate, and I don’t see why we have reason to believe they aren’t, they will have double the forces we will be able to field.”

“I know Velius. Work with him as best you can. Bring me a plan that gives us a chance of stopping this army. Now go, you need to prepare your men to march as well.”

“Yes Imperator,” the younger man said, making the same salute as his older colleague and left, flanked by the other men in the room leaving only Ky, the Emperor, Ursinus, and the man identified as Ramirus remaining.

“Ramirus, this is the man who came back with my daughter and the optio,” he said, waving in Ky’s direction. “Ky, this is Arruns Lucilius Ramirus, my spymaster.”

“Ahh, the man who fell out of the sky,” Ramirus said, stepping back and cupping his hand around his chin in a thoughtful manner. “I’m interested in how you were able to get such a clear look at the Carthaginians when the Optio, Lucilla, and the Legionnaire could not see them at all.”

“I have the ability to see significantly further than the average Roman.”

“How much further is significantly further?”

“Ramirus, let us focus on the problem at hand,” the Emperor said, seeing the uncomfortable expression on Ky’s face, and interrupting.

“Yes, Princeps. Was there anything to your observations that you didn’t share with the optio?”

“No, I told him everything I saw. It was a fairly large grouping of men. I’m not familiar with the various units used by the Carthaginians, so I’m not sure what specifics beyond a general description of their armaments, numbers, and speed I can offer.”

“According to Ursinus’s report, it sounded as if the force was mostly infantry with a small component of cavalry?”

“Yes. At least from what I could see. Although, the army was moving past a wooded area at the time, so it’s hard to say how much more could have been present but obscured to me.”

“Was the cavalry heavily armored?”

“No. The horses were just horses, and the men looked to be wearing similar clothing to the marching men.”

“Light cavalry then. Reports from our agents in Londinium indicate that’s the only mounted force Maharbaal had stationed on Britannia itself. I’d find it much more believable that he managed to sneak imported infantry without us knowing than I would that he managed to do the same with heavy cavalry; although I still haven’t heard from the man I have in their docks, or my contact inside their military. Both have gone silent, forcing us to rely on reports from agents further out.”

“Considering the army heading towards us, I find the timing of your missing spies suspicious,” Ursinus said.

“That’s because you’ve always been a clever man," Ramirus replied. He looked at the Emperor as he added, "I would also say that the timing of your poisoning is of concern, my lord.”

“What concerns me is how thoroughly this suggests your operations here have been infiltrated. Not only did the Carthaginians apparently learn enough about what you’ve been doing to silence, if not kill, any agents you had that would see their invasion coming, but they also managed to get close enough to poison me.”

“My lord, I don’t think my operations have been infiltrated, at least, not inside my organization.”

“Why not?”

“Because, if they got close enough to have that information, they would have been able to shut down the rest of my agents as well; which they haven’t done.”

“They could have left them in place on purpose,” Ursinus offered.

“Maybe, but I don’t think so. The Carthaginians in general, and Maharbaal in particular, have never been much for subtlety. Had they infiltrated my organization enough to get the names of those agents, they would have eliminated all of them.”

“Then what is your explanation?”

“I think someone inside your council has been turned.”

“What?” the Emperor said, sitting up suddenly and then slouching back, as the action took its toll on his still weakened body.

“I know you don’t want to hear it, my lord, but it is the only explanation. Someone who got inside my organization would not have been close enough to poison you. Your food tasters didn’t get poisoned, so it’s unlikely it came from someone inside the kitchen. This means it had to be someone from inside your circle, or a servant that had direct access to you. None of those servants, and most of the politicians in your circle, were privy to my reports. The only people that would be able to both poison you, and read or heard my reports, are on your council.”

“I don’t think …”

“My lord, I know I am not one of your personal guards, but everything Ramirus said, fits.”

The Emperor started to reply angrily again but paused looking thoughtful.

With a sigh, he slouched all the way back into his chair, “Ursinus, you’ve been in charge of my daughter's guard since she was a little girl. Take the fact that I trust your judgment with the person I treasure the most in the world, as proof of my confidence in you. Despite how sour the idea tastes I can’t fault either of your reasoning.”

“You of all people should know that what you want and what is true are rarely twined … at least, when it comes to ruling a country, my lord.”

“That is the truth. Ursinus, I think my daughter would want you back soon. Thank you for your detailed reports and for keeping her safe.”

“That wasn’t all my doing my lord.”

“I know, and I will make sure this legionnaire of yours is properly rewarded.”

“I meant …”

“I know,” the older man said, waving off the soldier’s objection. “Go for now and accept my thanks.”

The soldier gave what Ky now recognized as the Roman salute and turned and headed out of the room.

“My lord, if I can, I’d like to ask Ky more questions about …”

“I have no doubt you would. There is a lot we would all like to know about our new friend here but I still need to speak with him before I turn him over to the wolves. For now, do what you have to do to find out who in my council has betrayed us.”

“Yes, my lord,” the man said with a bow.

Giving one last look at Ky, he turned and headed out of the room, leaving the two alone in the room, if you didn’t count the guard standing by the door, who had kept his eyes steady upon Ky since he’d entered with the Emperor.

“Ky, would you take a walk with me? I am still unsteady on my feet, but I think some fresh air would do me good.”

Ky frowned. He’d hoped he would have been able to leave by now and gotten permission to look through the library for the information the AI had missed and figure out his next move, but the Emperor was right. Some fresh air might be good for him and Ky felt somehow responsible for the older man’s health now that he helped him.

“I’d be happy to.”