and poured a draught of something from one of his flasks into a cup. He tried to feed the draught to Cassia, but she had gone motionless, her lips slack.
Marcianus brought out a long metal tube, which he inserted into Cassia’s mouth, much farther than I thought possible, and decanted the liquid into it.
Cassia came to life then, gagging and trying to cough. Marcianus held the tube inside her for a few moments before he carefully slid it out. He supported Cassia upright while she coughed, but she mercifully soon subsided.
I didn’t like Marcianus’s worried look as he handed the apparatus to Marcia and lowered Cassia to the couch. “Is she dying?” I asked bluntly.
“No need for her to.” Marcianus was his usual optimistic self. “I’ve emptied her stomach and given her something to counteract the poison. Now we must wait.”
Cassia’s breathing was ragged. Soon her eyes closed and she sank into sleep, her chest barely rising.
The night drifted past, moon setting into blackness. Cassia was so very still that I had to lean to her to feel her breath on my cheek. Marcia bathed her face with scented water and straightened the covers, which were the finest linen.
I barely noticed who came and went in the room besides Marcianus and Marcia. Where Nero had gone, I didn’t know, nor did I know what they’d done with Tullius’s body. Gallus remained, obviously still not braving the streets to go home, and hovered worriedly at the edge of my vision.
The lamps sputtered out and were relit by silent servants. They were flickering still when the stars outside the high window faded, and dawn touched the sky.
Cassia lay motionless, her face as gray as the light that seeped into the room.
My heart burned as it had done the night I’d learned Xerxes had been slain and carried off before I could bid him farewell. I’d held that pain inside for a long time afterward, and even now, thinking of him brought a dull ache.
I did not want to experience that pain again. Cassia had to live. I didn’t understand how to function in ordinary life—she did.
I liked waking to hear her returning from her morning errands, her sandals swishing on the floor, water sloshing into basins and jars, as the scent of the fresh-baked bread she set out for our breakfast wafted to me. I enjoyed watching her hunch over her tablets, one lock of hair trickling down her cheek as she wrote. She loved letters and numbers, not only writing them but reading them. She was so different from any person I’d ever encountered, and I did not want her to go from my life.
I lifted a scalpel from Marcianus’s bag, a thin blade of Noricum iron, and cut a crease across my palm before he could stop me. Blood welled up on my skin.
I gently dipped my fingers in it then wiped the blood across Cassia’s bared shoulders and her cold face.
“The blood of a gladiator,” I told Marcianus and his quizzical gaze. “It can heal.”
Marcianus drew a breath to say, You know that’s nonsense, as he had many times before, but subsided.
I folded my fingers over my palm, and waited.
When sunlight at last trickled through the window and touched Cassia’s cheek, she stirred. She murmured in her sleep and turned her head, a frown brushing her face.
I let out a breath, hopeful, but Marcianus continued to look worried.
“She’s better, isn’t she?” I asked.
“That remains to be seen.”
“What did he poison her with?”
“Arsenicum,” Marcianus said. “I think.”
My fears rose. “You aren’t certain?”
“Such a poisoning can resemble other things. But I’m fairly sure. There was a large dose in the cup, but she didn’t drink all of it, and much of the poison would have settled into the bottom. Thank the gods you didn’t down a cup in one go, or it would have killed you.”
My heart gave a stricken beat. “Cassia took only a few sips.”
“As I said, that is good. It gives her a chance.”
I flexed my hand, which stung from the cut I’d made. I seemed to feel the wooden rudis I’d clutched as I’d walked out of the ring for the last time, until my hand had frozen around it. Cassia had gently pried it free, letting me begin my new life.
The beam of sunlight moved to touch her eyes. Cassia made a soft noise and again frowned.
“Must fetch the water,” she whispered and started to push at the covers.
“Cassia.”
She turned toward my voice and blinked open