Blood of a Gladiator - Ashley Gardner Page 0,70

her hands folded, her neat appearance a stark contrast to Lucia’s mud-splashed dress and wild hair.

“She gave Floriana the salad that poisoned her,” Cassia went on as I gaped. “As I have suspected. What Marcianus told me this afternoon confirmed it.”

Chapter 20

“You fed Floriana the poison?” I roared as Lucia cringed in my grip. “Why?”

Lucia’s panic dissolved as her face crumpled, and she went slack. I released her. No more fight in her, she buried her head in her hands and sobbed.

I looked across her to Cassia. “Marcianus came here?”

“Not long after you departed. He told me what Lucia had gone to see Marcia about—to order her to change her story that the only food served had been lentils and bread. Marcia was to tell everyone she remembers now that they all had salad and that only Floriana was sick, eating rhubarb leaves by mistake.”

I bent my glare on Lucia again. “I could be fitted up for her murder, Lucia. Why by all the gods would you poison her? What had she done to you? You could have come to me if she’d threatened you—I’d have protected you.”

Lucia raised a face streaked with tears and mucus. “She did nothing to me. Floriana was planning to kill you.”

Both Cassia and I went mute with shock, Cassia as amazed as I.

“Kill Leonidas?” Cassia asked. “Are you certain?”

“Oh, yes.” Lucia nodded fervently. “She told me. I was to keep him sated, make certain he slept soundly that night. Then Floriana would come in and …” Her face screwed up and more tears wet her face. “But I couldn’t. Leonidas has always been kind to me. I didn’t want him to die.” She collapsed against the wall, her body wracked with sobs.

I moved my jaw until the words in my head emerged. “Then, after Marcianus saved her, you stabbed her to death?”

Lucia’s head jerked up. “What? No! I didn’t wish to kill Floriana, only make her sick so you could get away. No, he killed her.”

“He who?” Cassia demanded.

“I don’t know.” Lucia turned to Cassia in appeal. “You must believe me—I don’t know. Floriana met with a man, but I don’t know who he was. He wanted her to kill Leonidas, and after he’d gone, Floriana told me I had to help her.”

Marcia too had mentioned a man meeting with Floriana. My heart sped. I needed to put my hands on him.

“What did this man look like?” Cassia moved swiftly to the table, opening a tablet and snatching up her stylus.

“I never saw him. Only a shadow. He’d visited her a few times, but when I asked about him, Floriana shut me up quickly. Once she even struck me. I asked why she wanted you of all people dead, Leonidas, and she said because you had agreed to guard a patrician on the road to Ostia. She only told me that because I would not cease my questions until I had an answer.”

Cassia paused in her quick writing to meet my gaze. “Because he’d be escorting Priscus?” She frowned. “No, that can’t be true. I met with Kephalos about the job the evening before Floriana took sick. Priscus hadn’t hired Leonidas officially yet.”

“I only know that Floriana told me of it that night, after Leonidas arrived and was asleep.” Lucia wiped her face. “Perhaps the man heard that you and whoever this Kephalos is had met, and was certain Leonidas would be hired—everyone wants him as a guard.”

“Hmm.” Cassia made more notes. “Are you certain you have no idea who the man was? What he looked like? Anything can help.”

Cassia’s no-nonsense demeanor calmed Lucia somewhat. Lucia, I was growing to realize, was ever a woman who needed someone to guide her.

“He wasn’t a highborn man, as far as I know. He didn’t wear a toga. A tunic. And boots.”

Cassia stilled, her focus sharp. “What sort of boots?”

Lucia went blank. “Boots. The ordinary kind. With hobnails—he clicked when he walked.”

“Caligae?” Cassia asked.

“I suppose. I don’t think he was a soldier, though—the legionnaires don’t come to us.” Lucia drew shaky breaths. “He might have been an urban cohort, or—”

“A vigile?” I asked abruptly.

“Possibly. I’m sorry, Leonidas. This is why I am so afraid. He knows I knew Floriana’s plan, that I know he killed her, but I won’t recognize who to run from.”

This stranger also knew about Priscus and had wanted to prevent me protecting him. Nero himself had admonished me to make certain Priscus was unharmed.

“Why?” I directed the question at Cassia. “What great power