Pompeii was no stranger to the earth’s angry fits, but as Loren staggered outside, today’s energy struck him as wrong as the stench of sour eggs flooding the streets – the smell Felix noted in the tunnels. Now it had intensified in the city. That couldn’t mean anything good.
Rubble from crumbling buildings littered the roads. Smoke and dust swirled in the air, and Loren drew his sleeve across his face toshield his lungs. People scrambled with urgency, all stomping feet and panicked voices. Some were already at work on repairs, plastering cracks, sweeping debris, hauling aside bricks – Pompeii pressing on – but Loren noticed a few families frantically filling bags and loading carts. They were leaving. Quitting the city before it quit them. He should be glad they were finally heeding his warning from the Forum, but he was supposed to havestoppedthis.
Loren didn’t slow until he spotted the familiar paintwork of Livia’s shop. Only when he saw Aurelia upright and unharmed did he breathe. He swooped her in a frantic embrace.
‘Get off, get off,’ she chanted, wriggling free, but Loren kept a tight grip on her wrists. ‘You lunatic, let go.’
If Aurelia had the head to act like a menace, the shop must have fared well. ‘Where’s . . .’
His words fell away like roof tiles when he glanced up and found a horse staring back. Two horses, each with bulging saddlebags and still skittish from the quake. Dazed, Loren straightened, and Aurelia took advantage of his shock, twisting free. ‘Aurelia, how—’
‘Celsi owed me,’ she said in a rush. ‘I beat him at marbles, but his pappa doesn’t give him pocket money. He paid with these instead.’
‘Celsi has horses?’
She flashed a dark look. ‘Not anymore.’
One of the horses, a dappled mare, snorted. Stroking her muzzle did little to ease the knot in his gut. ‘You’re leaving.’
Aurelia twisted the toe of her sandal. ‘Mamma wants us on the road by noon. There’s nothing good left here. No future worth staying for. Only fire.’
Yesterday, giddy and lovesick on hope, Loren might have argued with her. He’d thought he’d found proof that the future could be changed – that he could be the one who changed it. Maybe he’d managed to stop the city’s destruction by Felix’s hand. But the otherfuture he wanted to build, the one where he and Felix walked together, was out of reach. If Loren chose to stay in Pompeii with Julia, it wasn’t because of hope.
Rather, it was because he had to be right that Pompeii was safe, if nothing else.
‘Aurelia,’ Loren said, bile souring his tongue, ‘there is no fire. I solved it. The stolen helmet—’
The shop’s door opened.
‘Don’t call me a fool, Nonna,’ Livia said, exiting with Nonna hobbling at her heels. She clutched a fabric bundle. ‘This place is due to sink into the sea any day now. So many quakes in a week isn’t right, on top of all this chatter about thieves and omens, and now Umbrius – Loren! Where have you been?’
Her cloth hit the cobblestones, and she wrapped Loren in an embrace.
As much as he ached to sink into it, a shade slipped over him, distance no hold could cross. The sensation startled him. For the first time since he was twelve and new to the city, he felt like a stranger in Livia’s arms. Over her shoulder, Loren caught Nonna’s suspicious glare. She leaned heavier on her cane than usual. He had so much to tell her, but he didn’t know where to start.
Time for that later, Loren supposed. He wriggled free to collect the fabric Livia had dropped, taking his time straightening the folds before handing it over. She took it but didn’t bustle off as he hoped.
‘You’re terribly quiet,’ Livia said. She made to touch his face, but he turned his cheek.
‘I’m giving silence a try. For once.’
She didn’t laugh. Her gaze roved over him, all of him, then softened. ‘Felix left?’
Loren’s lungs seized. He tripped in his haste to back away, ducking around the mare. ‘You know how men are. Fickle. Never settle.’
Nonna scoffed. ‘Too true.’
‘Loren, love—’
‘Where are you headed?’ Loren asked.
Pity still twisted her mouth, but she resumed stuffing the saddlebag of the other horse. ‘South. I have an uncle in Alexandria if we can catch a ferry across to Egypt. It will be an adjustment, but I’ll find work, and Isis has a temple there. They’ll take you on as an attendant. Nothing much will change. New scenery, same life.’
‘I’m not going.’
Aurelia let out a sharp cry. ‘But—’
‘This is not up for debate.’ Livia clapped Loren with a look that pinned him in place. ‘I will not raise my children in a city of shaking earth and assassinating snakes.’
