Chapter 4 - THE SECRET BENEATH THE FLOOR
They reached an abandoned temple before midnight.
Rain began falling through the broken roof.
Umbra lay near the entrance while Mara built a tiny fire.
Lucan couldn't sleep.
“Why does Cassian want me alive?”
Mara stared into the flames.
“I hoped you wouldn't have to know.”
“Know what?”
She reached inside her cloak.
The bronze medallion the soldiers had taken was gone.
But Mara produced something else.
A small golden ring.
An eagle had been carved into it.
Lucan recognized the symbol.
The royal seal.
He looked at her.
“Why do you have that?”
“It belonged to your grandfather.”
“My grandfather was a farmer too?”
Despite everything, Mara almost smiled.
“No.”
She placed the ring in his hand.
“Your grandfather was Emperor Tiberius.”
Lucan stared at her.
“That isn't possible.”
“It is.”
Mara explained.
Marcus had not merely been Rome's greatest general.
He had been Tiberius's firstborn son.
The rightful heir.
Cassian was his younger brother.
When Tiberius became ill, Cassian began gathering powerful senators and military commanders around him.
Marcus wanted nothing to do with politics.
He preferred the army.
But the emperor's will named Marcus as successor.
Cassian couldn't allow that.
“So he killed Grandfather?”
Mara nodded.
“Poison.”
“And blamed Father?”
“Yes.”
Cassian claimed Marcus had murdered the emperor and planned a military coup.
Varro produced false witnesses.
Marcus was declared a traitor.
By the time the truth began spreading, Cassian already controlled the capital.
Lucan looked at the ring.
“So if my father was the heir…”
Mara looked directly at him.
“You are his son.”
Lucan suddenly understood the king's fear.
Cassian didn't see a nine-year-old boy.
He saw a threat to his throne.
“Then why keep me alive?”
“Because Cassian needs something.”
“What?”
Mara hesitated.
“Your father's seal.”
Lucan frowned.
“The ring?”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“Something much more important.”
Before Marcus disappeared, he had gathered proof of Cassian's crimes.
Letters.
Witness statements.
Military orders.
The original imperial will.
He hid everything somewhere only he knew.
“But Cassian believes your father told me where.”
“Did he?”
Mara looked at Lucan.
“No.”
Umbra suddenly stood.
A low growl filled the temple.
Lucan turned.
Someone was outside.
Mara grabbed a knife.
A figure stepped through the rain.
Lucan recognized him.
The teenage spectator from the arena.
The boy who had shouted about the scar.
“Don't move,” Mara warned.
He raised both hands.
“My name is Elias.”
“You followed us?”
“I helped you escape.”
Lucan stared at him.
“Why?”
Elias slowly pulled something from beneath his tunic.
A silver military badge.
He placed it on the floor.
Mara gasped.
The badge carried the symbol of the Seventh Legion.
Marcus's legion.
“My father served General Aurelius,” Elias said.
“Who is your father?”
Elias looked toward the doorway.
“Someone King Cassian believes has been dead for nine years.”
A second figure stepped into the temple.
A tall man with gray in his beard.
Mara dropped the knife.
“Darius?”
The man smiled sadly.
“Hello, Mara.”
Lucan looked between them.
Darius knelt.
May you like
Then he spoke the words Lucan had waited his entire life to hear.
“I know what happened to your father.”
