I’d had enough of her. I threw off the blanket and swung my feet to the floor, but the effort was too much and made me dizzy again, so I had to stop. My arm was wrapped in a tight bandage from my shoulder down to my elbow and was wet with a peculiar smell.

I touched it, then sniffed my fingers. “What’d you put on there?”

“Olive oil and oregano, for the infection.” She smiled. “It stings at first but it works. You were worse off than you might’ve realized.”

Seeing her smile softened my own anger. I reached for the bowl and finished the rest of the porridge, then she said, “Let that sit for a while. If you can handle more, then we’ll get you some bread.”

I would’ve liked the bread now, but I wanted the bulla even more. Once again, my hand slid to my side where it should have been, and wasn’t. I felt its absence as intensely as I would’ve felt a missing arm or leg, and wished I had enough energy to fight Aurelia for it. “Give me the bulla and directions to get out of here,” I said tiredly. “Then I’ll go.”

Aurelia cocked her head at a couple of young children in the room with us, ordering them to leave. When only she and I were left, she said, “While you were asleep, I went back to the surface and asked around about you. There’s nowhere to go, Nic. Nowhere. Everyone is looking for you. The emperor ordered his soldiers to kill you on sight, and they’ve blocked every gate to this city. The Senate wants you brought before them for questioning. Then yesterday, General Radulf gave a speech in the forum. He promised to drag you back to the amphitheater to answer for your crimes. He said he will overturn the city to find you. A million people live in Rome, and by now, every single one of them knows there’s a reward for turning you in.”

I looked down and kicked my foot against the ground. By now I should’ve been used to bad news, but this was even worse than expected.

Aurelia moved from her chair to sit beside me on the bed then placed a hand on my forearm. “In the forum, Radulf said you stole something from him — the bulla, obviously — and that you want to use it to overthrow the empire.”

“That’s not true!” I said, and then clicked my tongue. “Well, it’s not true about overthrowing the empire. And I didn’t plan to steal the bulla — it’s just that once I had it, I knew I couldn’t give it to him.”

“So you admit to being a thief,” Aurelia said. “Radulf was telling the truth about that?”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. “I guess I am.”

I hated the sound of it spoken aloud. One of the last things my mother ever said to me was that no matter what else was lost, I must always keep my honor. That was gone now too.

Aurelia nodded, and then I felt the cold blade of her knife at the back of my neck. Her hand that had brushed across my forearm was now locked around it, and she called for the other children to come back in with a chain. I cursed under my breath. And then cursed a second time, louder, in case she hadn’t heard me before.

“This isn’t personal,” she said as two girls hurried in. They started by locking manacles around my wrists and next moved to my feet. “I’ve stolen things too — every one of us down here has done it when there’s no other choice to live. But you did have a choice with the bulla, and so the crime is different.”

“This isn’t about what I stole,” I said angrily. “You want that reward money.”

“I need it,” she said. “That money is my way back to my family.”

But I shook my head, trying to make her understand the stakes that were involved. “If you take me to Radulf, he’ll kill me.”

“Senator Horatio is offering the biggest reward right now. I’ll take you to him.”

“What? No!” He was the pompous senator who had wanted to see my teeth. Aside from my personal objections to having to breathe the same air as him, he was no better than Radulf.

“It’s for the best,” Aurelia said. “The Senate wants to question you.”

“And then execute me!”

“They might listen to your explanations.”

“What explanation?” I spat back at her. “It isn’t my bulla, Aurelia, or it isn’t supposed to be. How can I explain that?”

“I don’t know!” she said. “But that’s not my problem.”

No, she was my problem. For at least the twentieth time in the last week, I regretted ever having met this girl. Of all the curses in my life, she was proving to be the worst.

Once my legs were manacled, Aurelia removed her knife and replaced it in the sheath. I immediately tried to summon any feeling of strength inside me, but I was still weak from lack of food and my injury, and besides, without the bulla, I was nothing more than I’d ever been before. The mark on my shoulder prickled as if it was trying to respond to my call for help, but that too faded. I pulled against the chains, hoping to find a rusted link that might break or maybe the lock hadn’t been securely fastened, but they held fast. Then I kicked at one of the girls who had put them on, just because I could. Aurelia swatted my leg and told the two girls to return to the outer room with the others.

“You said you wouldn’t hurt anyone,” she said.

“I missed. Anyway, you said you would help me,” I countered.

“That was before I knew you were a thief.”

“You’re a liar,” I argued. “That’s worse.”

Well, it wasn’t, but I needed something to say back to her, and she only clamped her mouth closed at that, which was all I wanted anyway.

She stood and pulled me up beside her, keeping a firm grip around my chain.

“You’re making a huge mistake,” I said. “Radulf cannot get that bulla.”

“Radulf is a great man. If Horatio turns you over to him, then it’ll be the right thing to do.”

“What world do you live in to believe all that?” I said.

Aurelia’s mouth moved like she was responding, but I didn’t hear the sound. Instead, my ears filled with echoes of footsteps splashing through water. Heavy, marching footsteps, and many of them. It was so clear, I looked around for the source of the noise, but saw nothing to explain it. Aurelia didn’t seem to notice the sounds and had simply continued talking. Why could I hear it, and not her?

Something was terribly wrong.

The sound of footsteps in my head was growing, and the splashing was so distinct I couldn’t understand why water didn’t leak from my ears. Was I going mad?

Aurelia jabbed my arm, drawing my attention to her while quieting the noises in my head. “Aren’t you listening? I asked if —”

“Where are we?” I shuffled forward, pulling on the chains as much as they’d allow. “Is this part of the sewers?”

“It’s an old cistern, but we cut the pipes connecting it to the sewers and use the flow for washing. We still come and go through the sewers, though. Why?”

“We’ve got to get out of here. Soldiers are coming.” I started to move, but Aurelia pulled me back.

“Impossible. They never come down here.” Her brows pressed together. “How would you know that anyway?”

“I just know!”

She made a face. “I’m not releasing you. If you think I’d fall for such an obvious trick —”

I didn’t hear the rest of what she said, because now a voice thundered in my head, so loud that I tried to raise my hands to cover my ears, except the chains were attached to my leg irons and wouldn’t reach that far.

“Nicolas Calva!” That was Radulf speaking directly into my head. I didn’t know how that was possible, but I couldn’t hear anything else, not even my own thoughts.

Aurelia didn’t seem to hear it. “What is the matter with you now?”

“Can’t you —” I started, but then Radulf’s voice continued.