Atlantis: Devil's Sea by Robert Doherty Read Free Book Online Page B

to change,” Marcus noted.
    “She has promised to tell me where my children are after the games,” Falco said.
    “Why?”
    “She says because of her love for me.”
    Marcus laughed. “She loves only herself. She is playing a game with your mind, with your heart.”
    “Does that make her worse than you?” Falco asked. “You only play with my life.”
    “I do it as a job,” Marcus said. He looked at the woman. “She does it for sport.”
    “You are the one who sent me to her in the first place,” Falco said.
    “You know I had no choice. Servicing women like her is part of your life. You know that also. Everyone knows it.”
    “But she is different than the other women,” Falco said.
    “She wanted you,” Marcus said simple. “Be careful.”
    “I will take care of myself. “ Falco walked around the edge of a table, greeting various noble men and women nodding at their praises for the day’s fight.
    “Ah, Centurion Falco,” General Cassius raised a hand as Falco reached the head table. “Come here and join us.”
    Falco settled down on a cushioned couch. A slave ran up and poured him some wine and setting a plate of food. He was rarely called centurion now, the rank he had held in the army, but he had served with Cassius in Palestine, where they had been members of the famous X Legion and present for the fall of Jerusalem. Cassius was a tall, thin man with a large nose, sunken, sad eyes and thinning white hair. His right arm was crooked at an unnatural angle at the elbow, where a javelin had pierced it many years ago in battle and the surgeon’s efforts at repair had not taken well.
    “Greeting, General,” Falco said as soon as the slave had moved away. He knew Cassius had retired from the army, disgusted after what had happened at Jerusalem, and gone to live on his country estate. He had not had much of a future in Rome given that he had brought a Jewish woman back with him to live on his estate. Even among the debauchery of Rome such a union was considered ill advice. “How is Lupina?”
    A shadow crossed the old man’s face. “She passed away last winter.”
    “I am most sorry, General.” Falco had been with the general on the return trip from Palestine and gotten to know Lupina quite well. A slight woman, not pretty, but full of humor and intelligence. He had seen the love between Cassius and Lupina, even with the strain of what had happened to her people in Jerusalem casting a shadow over it.
    “Thank you,” Cassius said.
    Falco could tell that Cassius did not want to talk about Lupina, that the wound of her death was still too strong. He understood that feeling. “I did not know you were in Rome,” he said.
    Cassius grimaced. “The new emperor is, how shall I say, counting heads. Deciding which ones he can count on and which ones it might be best to lop off.”
    “General—” Falco was surprised. He had always appreciated Cassius’s forthright attitude in the field, but here, in the emperor’s own palace, even Falco knew the words were inappropriate.
    Cassius smiled. “Still guarding my sword side, Falco?” The reference was to the man who stood to the right in a shield wall, where one’s shield actually only covered half of one’s own body and half of the man to his left. It required all in the line to stand fast in order to be protected and to rely on each other. If one man broke, he exposed the man to his side, and the entire line could collapse.
    “You can always count on me,” Falco said as he glanced down the table at the woman who had just taken the couch to the general’s other side.
    The general caught the look. “Let me introduce the Lady Epione, wife of Senator Domidicus, nephew of the emperor,” Cassius indicated the woman on his left.
    “Lady,” Falco bowed his head. In this matter at last, Cassius was being diplomatic, as he knew well the situation between Falco and the lady. The General had even tried intervening a year ago, another reason for his exile to