one of New Rome’s many winding cobblestone streets into the residential neighborhoods.
“Hard to say,” he told me. “From the legion itself, at least twenty-five. That’s how many are missing from the roster. Our maximum strength is…was two hundred and fifty. Not that we actually have that many in camp at any given time, but still. The battle literally decimated us.”
I felt as if a Lar had passed through me. Decimation, the ancient punishment for bad legions, was a grim business: every tenth soldier was killed whether they were guilty or innocent.
“I’m so sorry, Frank. I should have…”
I didn’t know how to finish that sentence. I should have what? I was no longer a god. I could no longer snap my fingers and cause zombies to explode from a thousand miles away. I had never adequately appreciated such simple pleasures.
Frank pulled his cloak tighter around his shoulders. “It was hardest on the civilians. A lot of retired legionnaires from New Rome came out to help. They’ve always acted as our reserves. Anyway, that line of prophecy you mentioned: Bodies fill the Tiber beyond count? That didn’t mean there were many bodies after the battle. It meant we couldn’t count our dead, because they disappeared.”
My gut wound began to seethe. “Disappeared how?”
“Some were dragged away when the undead retreated. We tried to get them all, but…” He turned up his palms. “A few got swallowed by the ground. Even Hazel couldn’t explain it. Most went underwater during the fight in the Little Tiber. The naiads tried to search and recover for us. No luck.”
He didn’t vocalize the truly horrible thing about this news, but I imagined he was thinking it. Their dead had not simply disappeared. They would be back—as enemies.
Frank kept his gaze on the cobblestones. “I try not to dwell on it. I’m supposed to lead, stay confident, you know? But like today, when we saw Terminus…There’s usually a little girl, Julia, who helps him out. She’s about seven. Adorable kid.”
“She wasn’t there today.”
“No,” Frank agreed. “She’s with a foster family. Her father and mother both died in the fight.”
It was too much. I put my hand against the nearest wall. Another innocent little girl made to suffer, like Meg McCaffrey, when Nero killed her father…Like Georgina, when she was taken from her mothers in Indianapolis. These three monstrous Roman emperors had shattered so many lives. I had to put a stop to it.
Frank took my arm gently. “One foot in front of the other. That’s the only way to do it.”
I had come here to support the Romans. Instead this Roman was supporting me.
We made our way past cafés and storefronts. I tried to focus on anything positive. The grape vines were budding. The fountains still had running water. The buildings in this neighborhood were all intact.
“At least—at least the city didn’t burn,” I ventured.
Frank frowned like he didn’t see the cause for optimism. “What do you mean?”
“That other line of prophecy: The words that memory wrought are set to fire. That refers to Ella and Tyson’s work on the Sibylline Books, doesn’t it? The Books must be safe, since you prevented the city from burning.”
“Oh.” Frank made a sound somewhere between a cough and a laugh. “Yeah, funny thing about that…”
He stopped in front of a quaint-looking bookstore. Painted on the green awning was the simple word LIBRI. Racks of used hardcovers were set out on the sidewalk for browsing. Inside the window, a large orange cat sunned itself atop a stack of dictionaries.
“Prophecy lines don’t always mean what you think they do.” Frank rapped on the door: three sharp taps, two slow ones, then two fast ones.
Immediately, the door flew inward. Standing in the entrance was a bare-chested, grinning Cyclops.
“Come in!” said Tyson. “I am getting a tattoo!”
Tattoos! Get yours now!
Free, wherever books are sold
Also, a large cat
MY ADVICE: NEVER ENTER a place where a Cyclops gets his tattoos. The odor is memorable, like a boiling vat of ink and leather purses. Cyclops skin is much tougher than human skin, requiring superheated needles to inject the ink, hence the odious burning smell.
How did I know this? I had a long, bad history with Cyclopes.
Millennia ago, I’d killed four of my father’s favorites because they had made the lightning bolt that killed my son Asclepius. (And because I couldn’t kill the actual murderer who was, ahem, Zeus.) That’s how I got banished to earth as a mortal the first time. The stench of burning Cyclops brought back the