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Hope's Reward (Light in the Empire)

By Carol Ashby

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Chapter 1: Old Name, New Life

Port of Narona, Dalmatia, Day 1

“Matti.”
Ursus leaned on the ship’s rail, watching the dock slaves carrying crates. From the wagon on the road above the wharf, down the ramp, up the gangplank, and down the steps into the hold―a line of men toiled like ants, and they were of no more importance in their owners’ eyes.
The corbita whose crew he’d joined was small for a merchant ship, but it was at least six times the length of the fishing boat he’d worked with his father off the coast of Syria when he was ten. Still, sails were sails, and the wind that filled them as a ship cut through the waves hadn’t changed. He was eager to be on the sea again.
“Matti.” Irritation colored the voice of Anthus, the first mate, and Ursus startled.
It had been almost twenty years since anyone called him by that name. Almost twenty years since Ursus had replaced Matti, son of Zabdi, on the tongues of those who told him what to do.
He spun to face the man who was overseeing the loading of cargo. “Yes?”
“You’re big as an ox. They’re having trouble moving the crated statue up there. Go help them.”
With a nod, he joined the line of men trudging back for their next load. He welcomed anything he could do to hasten their departure. By now, the others might have read his message and be hunting for him. The sooner the ship shoved off to take the river to the open sea, the better.
Years of striking wooden stakes with double-weight swords and lifting heavy yokes hung with large buckets of sand had bulked up the muscles of his chest, legs, and arms. By comparison, he made many of the dock slaves who hadn’t been fed well look like scrawny youths and old men.
When he reached the wagon, the problem was obvious. Two sturdy poles lay by the wall, ready to slip into the loops in several ropes that had been wrapped around the crate. A few hand gestures from him, and the men had the poles inserted in the ropes and the poles balanced on their shoulders, four men on each side. As they started down the ramp, he hoisted the one small crate that remained to his shoulder and followed.
With his left arm wrapped around the middle and his right hand steadying the front corner, he reached the pier and stood waiting for the men ahead of him to negotiate the gangplank.
The click of hobnails on the ramp made him glance over his shoulder. An optio led two legionaries toward him, and Matti’s jaw clamped. He turned his face away.
“You.” The optio’s angry Latin stabbed his back like a prick with a blade. His right hand dropped toward his dagger, but he made himself move it back to the crate.
He could easily slit the optio’s throat, take his sword, and kill the others before they could stop him. But that wasn’t what Jesus would want him to do. He’d run because he didn’t want to kill in the arena again. Killing the soldiers to stay free would be just as wrong.
God, help me. I won’t kill again, but I don’t want to die.
“Step aside.”
He moved to the edge of the pier and turned his face away from the soldiers as they marched past him. Facing the ship across from his, they stopped and stood at attention.
His heart rate, which had ramped up to battle-ready, slowed. No one would come after him. Donatus would think it his duty to report him, whether he wanted to or not, but Ariana would try to persuade Donatus not to.
One corner of his mouth lifted. That sweet Dacian woman could get the Roman to do almost anything, and what man could blame him?
Two young tribunes stepped out of the cabin, their brass cuirasses creating flashes of light as the sunlight reflected off the unscratched surfaces. They strode down the gangplank, each with a personal slave carrying a small trunk behind him.
The optio’s fist hit his chest. “Welcome to Narona. I’ll escort you to your quarters. My garrison commander also invites you to dine with him this evening.”
The tribunes exchanged glances, and the tall one tilted his head to look down his nose. “Who is your commander and from which legion?”
“Centurion Publius Flavolius Cordus. This garrison includes a detachment from the IV Flavia Felix. He’ll provide your escort to the legion fortress in Singidunum.”
The shorter tribune stepped forward. “Tell your commander we would be pleased to join him. If he’s at the garrison now, you may take us there to meet him.”
One more fist to his chest, and the optio turned on his heel. With the tribunes behind him, he marched up the ramp. His two men fell in behind the slaves.
The arrogance of the young. Matti shook his head. They act like they’re in control and can bend life to their will. Some even believe it.
The war for Dacia was over. The two young tribunes would find life easy in the legion fortress town. But most of life wasn’t easy, and it was never under a man’s control. One corner of his mouth lifted.
Ariana would tell him it was always under God’s control. It wasn’t the legion commander who’d made him bodyguard for her trip to Narona from Sarmizegetusa. It was God himself, and only God knew where his new life as a follower of Jesus would lead. But first he needed to reach Thessalonica and find the house church of Aristarchus. There he could learn more of what it meant to be a child of God.


Chapter 2: Too Dangerous to Stay

Brundisium, Italia, Day 1

When Helvidia Felicia reached her uncle’s townhouse, the last traces of pink had faded from the evening sky. Not a safe time for a decent woman to be on the streets of any Roman city without an armed escort, but it was safer than spending one more night under her husband’s roof.
Her soon-to-be ex-husband. She would ask her uncle to start the divorce process tomorrow, while she was still alive to do it.
The door was closed, and there was no sign of the door slave who usually stood by the mosaic of the snarling dog to welcome or challenge anyone trying to enter. Talpina, her lady’s maid who’d been with her since Felicia was a baby, rapped on the door. No answer after three tries, so she switched to a closed fist and pounded.
The small shutter opened and framed an eye.
Talpina lowered her arm. “It’s me and Mistress Felicia.”
The eye blinked faster as it stared at them, but the door remained closed.
“Canis.” Felicia put an edge on her voice. “Open the door.” The eye didn’t move. “Right now, if you know what’s good for you.”
A soft gasp, and the clicks and scrapes of two bolts sliding back were followed by the creak of the hinges as the door swung inward.
Felicia and Talpina stepped through, and Canis bolted the door behind them.
“I beg pardon, mistress. Master Felix said no one was to be admitted tonight.”
“He didn’t mean those of us who live here.”
“I beg pardon, mistress, but you don’t live here anymore.”
“That’s changing. But it’s good you were following Uncle Gaius’s directions so carefully.” Her smile wiped the worry from his eyes. “I won’t mention you kept us out as well. Where is my uncle?”
“In the tablinum.”
Felicia’s brow furrowed. Why would Uncle Gaius still be working in his office? He usually spent evenings in his library or with friends. “Is anyone with him?”
“No, mistress.”
The wave of her hand sent Canis back to his stool by the door.
Talpina glanced toward the half-circle of light outside the tablinum doorway. “Shall I take your palla, mistress?”
“I’ll wear it. I don’t want to look like an impulsive girl for this conversation.”
Talpina’s basket held Felicia’s jewelry box and the silver hand mirror that had been her mother’s. Felicia’s finger traced the neck and rested on the spread wings of the swan engraved on the back. Like the hunters who stood in the rushes and watched it fly away, Falco would not be getting another chance to kill her.
“But you can take what little we brought up to my room. I’ll send for the things we left tomorrow.”
As Talpina climbed the stairs to the bedchambers off the balcony, Felicia fingered the undyed woolen stola she wore over her red linen tunic. It declared her a married woman, but she wished she’d never slipped it over her head.
Only two weeks ago, she’d watched Talpina struggle to tie the Knot of Hercules in the woolen girdle. They’d laughed over how hard it would be for her new husband to untie. She’d slipped the orange shoes on her feet and donned the orange veil for the procession from her uncle’s modest townhouse to the elegant home of her new husband. Before many of Falco’s wealthy friends and most important clients, the augur hired by Falco had sacrificed the pig and pronounced the auspices favorable.
She wiped the corner of her eye. Favorable for Falco, certainly not for her.
Where you are Gaius, I will be Gaia. When she spoke the customary formula that declared them married, she was eager for all that being Falco’s wife should mean. The affection of a handsome man, children to love, and a new life away from the uncle who’d considered her a nuisance and a burden from her father’s death two years earlier until the day he arranged that marriage.
A marriage and a new business partnership with an ambitious equestrian whose star was rising among the elite of the city.
She squared her shoulders before stepping into the tablinum doorway. Uncle Gaius sat at his desk with several wax tablets strewn across it. One lay open before him. With his elbows resting on either side of it, he cradled his head in his hands, eyes closed, lips tight.
Should she wait until morning to tell him? But Falco might contact him before then, and her uncle must hear the truth from her first. If he wasn’t already on her side before Falco or his messenger came, he’d never listen to her over the claims of a business partner who’d just rescued him from financial ruin.
Two taps on the open door popped his eyes open. The tightened lips curved into an angry frown. “What are you doing here?” He looked past her into the atrium. “Is Falco with you?”
“No, and I don’t expect he will be again.”
Her uncle’s back straightened as his head drew back. “What are you talking about?”
“He’s not the man you thought he was.” She stepped into the room and closed the door. “He tried to kill me yesterday. I’m going to divorce him.”
Her uncle leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “Kill you? I find that beyond belief. No one questions his honor.”
Not the response she’d hoped for, but not beyond what she thought possible. She drew a deep breath. “In business, maybe. But you know I’m no liar, uncle. Our wedding night…” Her cheeks heated. “No one told me how that would be. I thought, maybe, being the first time…” The heat spread to her ears.
Uncle Gaius’s lips tightened again. “You’re almost twenty. You have married friends. How could you not know what to expect?”
“My sister told me some things, but that was six years ago.”
“Six years, sixteen years...that’s not something that changes. You’ll get used to it.” He shrugged. “All women do.”
“But it wasn’t like Helvidia said, and when he came to me last night, he…” She’d promised herself she’d tell him without tears, but her eyes betrayed her. The first tear slipped down her cheek. “He wanted me to do things even a slave shouldn’t be told to do. When I said no, he…” She flicked the second tear away. “I can’t show you what he did. And then he pinned me and squeezed my neck so I couldn’t breathe. He told me he’d kill me if I fought him again.” The next tear made it to her chin before she swept it aside. “I couldn’t pull his hands off. Everything turned black, and the next I knew, only Talpina was there.”
Uncle Gaius’s frown had become a scowl. “Was he drunk? What did he say this morning?”
“He left before I got up. He was going out of town on business. He didn’t tell me how long.” She leaned on the desk. “But I believe every word he said about killing me. You should have seen his eyes.” She closed her eyelids as a shudder coursed through her. “I saw hatred there. Crazy hatred and…hunger.” She squared her shoulders. “I need to divorce him before I end up dead.”
Motionless, her uncle stared at her until he made her squirm. He ran his fingers through his thinning hair. “You can’t stay in this city if you do that. He’s too important. No one will believe you, anyway.”
“Do you believe me?”
He rubbed his mouth. “I…I don’t know.”
“You don’t want to admit you believe me even though you know it’s true. You want to protect your precious partnership with him.” The truth was in his eyes, but should she have called him on it?
“I do. I’m ruined without it.” He scrunched his eyes shut as he rubbed the back of his neck. When they opened, his mouth set to a grim line. “I can’t support you divorcing him.”
Her jaw clenched. “I can divorce him without your support. You’re only my guardian, not my paterfamilias, and I can go to the court to request another. Maybe Helvidia’s husband or one of Father’s old friends.” She bit her lip. “But if he finds out before I can…”
He raised his hand. “Let me finish. I can’t look like I’m helping you get free of him.”
“Please, uncle. I don’t know how long he’ll be gone. Two days, two weeks…I’m afraid of what will happen if I’m there when he returns. I’m afraid to go back to his house. What if he tells his steward I’m not allowed to leave without guards to make sure I return?”
The pitch of her voice rose. “I can’t be there. If you won’t help me, I’m a dead woman.”
“Don’t be so dramatic. Be quiet and let me think.” He picked up a stylus and drummed on the desktop. “I can’t help you divorce him, but I can send you to visit your sister while I consider what to do. Maybe he’ll decide to divorce you for leaving him, and that will solve it to everyone’s satisfaction.”
He took a blank tablet from his desk drawer and pushed it toward her. “Write a letter from Helvidia to you.” He rubbed his jaw. “And to me. It should say she needs you to come right away. Make up some reason that sounds like what a woman would think a dire emergency.”
Felicia took the tablet. “But how will I get there? I’ve never traveled, even with Father.”
“Your father’s old manservant traveled everywhere with him for more than forty years. From here to Thessalonica is all by sea, except for the short land stretch between Corinthus and Isthmia. Philetus will know what to do to get passage from one port to the next. You’ll take Talpina and…Galeos. I was going to get rid of him, anyway.”
“But with his foot―”
“You’ll be on ships except for a few miles between Corinthus and Isthmia, and he can walk that as fast as the old man. Did you leave anything at Falco’s house you need?”
“All my clothes.”
“Talpina can fetch those tomorrow. We’ll have you on a ship for Dyrrachium the day after.”
She reached across the desk to touch his hand.
“Thank you, uncle.”
He pulled his hand away. “I don’t need your thanks. Your problem with Falco…there are limits to what I can do about it without endangering myself. But he shouldn’t be angry over me helping you visit your sister for an emergency while he’s gone. For now, I’ll let him believe you’re planning to come back.”
“And the divorce?”
He stabbed the air with the finger he pointed at her. “Don’t you dare tell anyone that you’re contemplating that. Once you get to Thessalonica and Helvidia’s husband has become your guardian―that’s the soonest you should say anything about it. It’s more than enough that I help you get there.”
“Yes, uncle.”
He flicked his hand toward the door. “Go. I have enough other things to worry about tonight.”
“Good night, uncle.” She turned and left the room, but not before his snort sounded behind her.
As she climbed the stairs to tell Talpina, her lips curved into a smile. Two days, and she’d have escaped the monster she’d married. Two weeks, and she’d be with her sister. Less than a month, and her divorce would be official. She’d be free of Falco forever.
Fortuna had done nothing but frown since Father died. Perhaps Fortuna was ready to smile on her again.

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