Page 24 of Trial of Bronze and Blood
“Then you’ve chosen well. I’m one of the few outside Anziano who knows about the Valorem Blood Trials.”
Cato shares a long look with Marcus, and suspicion prickles along her neck.
The king nods. “Good.”
“I expect some sort of stipend if I’m to stay here,” she adds.
Cato watches her for a moment, amusement pulling at the corner of his lips.
“And so you shall have it, Drusilla Valerius.”
Then he turns his back on her in dismissal.
He knows my last name… What else has Marcus told him about me? And why? What part am I truly meant to play here?
After that interaction, she can’t help questioning both their truemotives for bringing her here. Though not every order must be passed down from the Three, and someone in Marcus’s position would be well within his rights to request the help of an underling like Dru, the logic of it is lost on her. Marcus is more than capable of training Cato for the physical trials, and the rest the king would’ve already learned from his tutors.
But if they believe she can do something they can’t, it gives her reason enough to stay.At least for one night, to clean up and to rest. She shakes her head; that’s a poor excuse. The truth is, whatever reason she’s been summoned here, she wants to know what it is and why. Even if doing so puts her in danger.
Sabina clears her throat and bids Dru to follow her. “This way,ospite d’onore.”
“Can’t say I’ve been called an honored guest before,” Dru mutters.
Though she refuses to look at Marcus before following Sabina to her room, she feels his gaze on her as she crosses the courtyard and out of sight.
CHAPTER SEVEN
MARCUS
Cato regards Marcus once Dru moves out of earshot. “How did it go?”
Marcus tears his gaze from her disappearing figure and glances at the bard, wishing he’d find somewhere else to be. “Well enough, but not so well that we didn’t run into trouble.”
He recounts for Cato what happened in Nusquam, leaving out only a few details. Like how close he had to get to Dru to hide her from the soldiers, how they recognized each other but can’t yet trust one another given how much time has passed. Instead, he tells him about how she bested him and held her dagger to his throat before he revealed who he was, about Ovi, who he might have mentioned once or twice, and what Dru did to the archers who murdered her.
“That’s quite a story,” Cato offers at the end of it, sorrow pinching his brow. “But at least you and Dru are here. Especially now that some of the Phaedrans have decided to grace us with their presence a day early.”
Marcus scoffs. “I’m not surprised they couldn’t wait another day to set foot in the country they most desperately seek.”
“Evidently.” Cato sits back on his throne. “I invited our gamemaster here before I knew you were coming, if you don’t mind.”
“No, I’d prefer it.” Marcus looks over at the bard until he notices.
Eyes widening, the bard grasps the strap of his lute. “I’ll find my own chambers.” And he stalks off.
“Are you going to allow him to stay?” Marcus wonders once the bard is far enough away not to overhear.
Cato watches him. “We’ll see how it goes. I can tell you don’t like him.”
“I don’t, but I also don’t trust him.”
Cato nods. “Yes, the circumstances in which he came with you are suspicious. But we could use a wanton musician around here. And, besides, better to keep your enemies close.”
“I’ve never liked that saying,” Marcus admits.
“King Cato,” a voice calls from behind them.
Ettore, the newly appointed gamemaster for the Valorem Blood Trials, enters through the palace’s front doors. Dressed in bright blue robes, he stands shorter than both Marcus and Cato. Bald in his older age, he more than makes up for the loss in his thick, gray-spackled beard. His rounded belly leads the way as he saunters in their direction, squinting in the waning sunlight.
