Each shop we passed in the basilica had different wares. I assumed the signs over each one identified their products, and vowed again to one day teach myself to read. But for now, I couldn’t take my eyes off the items being sold. There was so much more than I could believe existed in the entire world, much less in this great city. One of the final shops was putting out warm baked bread. Without even thinking of what I was doing, I stopped in front of the loaves, just to take in the glorious scent and hope it filled my stomach enough to dull the ache of hunger.

Crispus walked back and stopped beside me. When he spoke, his voice was kind. “When did you last eat?”

It had been the half bowl of sour porridge from yesterday morning, and I’d had nothing in four days before that. But I couldn’t bring myself to say the words. I only lowered my eyes and hoped he’d just walk on so we could go.

“Head up,” Crispus reminded me. He reached into a bag he carried and withdrew some coins for the shop owner. “A large loaf,” he said, pointing. “That one.”

I took a step back, unsure of what to do. I was almost delirious with hunger, and whatever strength I might have had was constantly drained by trying to control the magic of the bulla. Yet I couldn’t accept this from him.

Crispus took the loaf and broke it in half, then gave one portion to Aurelia, who immediately dug into it. He held out the other half to me. “Take it,” he said. “You’re so thin, a feather could knock you over.”

My eyes moistened and I shook my head. “No, I can’t.”

“Just like the apple,” he said, smiling. “You can pay me for it later.”

“I have nothing.”

“Take it.” Crispus pressed the loaf into my hands. “Please, Nic.”

I immediately ripped pieces from it, as large as I could fit in my mouth without choking. The bread we got at the mines was little more than a baked paste of coarsely ground flour and dirty water. This was soft and fragrant and slightly sweet. It filled my stomach and warmed my body, and for the first time since I had eaten all those strawberries, I didn’t feel completely hollow inside.

Once I was finished, we left the basilica. “Don’t look around at the sights,” Crispus corrected me. “The wealthy have been here a thousand times. There’s nothing they haven’t already seen.”

I turned away, but it wasn’t easy. As impressive as my first glimpses of Rome had been, nothing equaled the beauty of the forum. It seemed to have been made for the gods themselves, and yet even the lowest Roman was freely given this place for work, play, or worship. The sun was setting, and from our direction, Caesar’s temple left us in shadow. That seemed an apt description for my life at the moment. Wearing Caesar’s bulla, a bulla I had stolen, I was now seeking a way to survive beneath his shadow.

Aurelia fell in step beside me. “Where is he taking us?”

“To my home,” Crispus said. “My father will meet us there.”

“And my sister is there too?” I had so much to tell her.

Crispus stopped and his brows pressed together when he looked at me. “Nic, I’m sorry. My father did send someone to the mines to get her, but she had already been taken away. We don’t know who took her, or where she is.”

My heart thudded like a cold stone against my chest. I could barely comprehend his words. From the moment Sal had told me Livia was taken from the mines, it had seemed obvious that Valerius would’ve had her, safe and well cared for. But if it wasn’t him, then who?

Radulf.

It was his way of getting to me.

Maybe I had whispered his name, because at my side, Aurelia shook her head and leaned in to me. “That doesn’t make sense. You told me that Radulf thought you died in the cave. Livia was taken from the mines before he saw you alive in the arena. So Radulf wouldn’t have had any reason to take her.”

I threw out a hand in frustration. “Who else would it be?” Heads turned our way and I lowered my voice. “All I can tell you is she’s innocent in this. And he certainly knows I’m alive now, so if that wasn’t his plan before, it will be now.”

Crispus stepped toward me, with his tall shoulders hunched. “We’ll find her. I can’t imagine Radulf would’ve had any use for her, but she must be somewhere.”

“I agree,” Aurelia said. “If she’s still alive —”

“Don’t say that like it’s a question.”

“Ignoring reality doesn’t change it. Listen, she probably is alive. I’m only saying that Radulf is a military man. He doesn’t need girl slaves. He might’ve sold her off ten minutes after taking her from the mines. She could be anywhere by now.”

That didn’t make me feel better, and if I was angry with Aurelia for saying it, that was only because she was right.

Crispus cleared his throat. “I know this is a bad time to be getting such news, but we need to keep moving. People are watching us.”

Aurelia looked around. “Who?”

Crispus nudged his head to where we had just been in the shops. My heart sank. Only one man was watching me, but his mouth was curled in disgust. It was Sal, lurking in the corners like a Shade escaped from the underworld. Despite Crispus and Aurelia surrounding me, and the toga over my head, he clearly knew exactly who I was. All he needed to do was say my name, and we’d be surrounded. But for reasons I couldn’t explain, he didn’t.

I lowered my eyes, lifted the toga higher on my head, and followed behind Crispus, hoping that was the last I’d see of Sal for the evening. Or better yet, for the rest of my life.

Aurelia remained at my side. She grabbed my arm to weigh down my pace, and once Crispus was a little farther ahead of us, she said, “Are you sure we should go with him? If he doesn’t have Livia —”

“I’m not going to Horatio. Not yet!”

“That’s our bargain!”

“What bargain? Crispus is taking me to Valerius, not you.” My irritation wasn’t entirely her fault. I was terrified for my sister, nervous about what Valerius might want from me, and, delicious as it was, the bread had only barely filled the deep well of my hunger. But on top of all of that, I didn’t need to hear her constant pleadings for me to turn myself in to a pompous senator who would most likely pass me straight on to the executioner. “If you’re so eager, go run and tell Horatio where he can find me. Maybe he’ll still give you that precious reward money.”

“Do you think money is all I care about?”

“That’s exactly what I think! Why can’t you see there is more going on than who will have the pleasure of hauling me in chains before the emperor?”

Her mouth opened in protest, then closed, and she said, “Since we met, I’ve been shot at, threatened, chased, and nearly drowned. If all I cared about was the money, I’d have disappeared long ago.”

“Then what do you care about?” I asked. “It’s not finding my sister. You don’t even know her.”

“But I know you, and … and I don’t hate you, Nic, no matter what you believe. Maybe we disagree about Horatio, but that doesn’t mean I’m trying to hurt you.”

I glanced sideways at her. “I don’t hate you either. But until I find my sister, we’ll continue to disagree.”

Her mouth opened again, but this time she said nothing and only mumbled that we should catch up to Crispus before he got away from us.

I adjusted the toga over my head again before joining them. When I did, I noticed her hand at her neck, as attached to that crepundia as I always was to the bulla. With enough reward money, she could make herself into a respectable young woman of Rome, and that might give her access to her family again.

And therein was the problem.

It was becoming increasingly obvious how flawed our bargain was. The only way she succeeded with her goals was to get the reward money from Horatio. But even if I defeated Radulf, there was no guarantee Horatio would persuade the emperor to let me go free. In fact, Horatio might not even deliver me to the emperor. For all I knew, he wanted the bulla for himself, and would kill me to keep it.