by L. M. Roth
Decimus despised the power seekers who sought only their own advance, but he respected strength and courage. And it was soon clear to him that the man from Eirinia had both in abundance. Although their paths did not cross during the course of duty from day to day, Decimus found himself looking for Dag at banquets to which they were both invited and requested that Dag be seated at his table. His excuse to the hostess who arranged place settings was that the man was a barbarian who would be uncomfortable at other tables and might offend the more refined Valerian citizens, particularly the ladies; whereas Decimus’ own wife was from the provinces and would be more forgiving of any lapse of good manners.
But if anything it was Dag who possessed better manners than Paulina. Decimus paid close attention when Dag spoke, noting the slow careful speech and the patient search for the right word. He suspected that Dag’s background was more primitive even than Eirinia, and out of curiosity asked him about it once. Dag did not hesitate to speak of Trekur Lende and the Lights of Rainbow Hue and the Long Day when the sun never set. He spoke of the trees that stretched for hundreds of miles in every direction without a break, and of the wind chimes that called wanderers in the wild to a place of safety from the elements and wild animals.
Paulina confessed herself enthralled, and Decimus noted that others at their table appeared similarly transported by the man’s account. Although he preferred the city to any backwater, the place did sound intriguing as described by the man from Trekur Lende.
It was at a banquet just last month that his own daughter-in-law Felicia saw Dag and recognized him. To the astonishment of Decimus, she announced that he was a very old and close friend of her father’s, and that she was a friend of Dag’s daughter. This information did not square with what Decimus knew of Marcus Maximus, who was known in his youth as a great snob who lorded his father’s position over those around him, and the knowledge of his friendship with the barbarian surprised him greatly.
He suddenly snapped back to the present when he became aware that Dag stood before him expectantly, a pleasant smile softening his rugged face that looked carved from some exotic specimen of hard wood.
“Ah, Dag! How are you today? Do you enjoy the fine weather, or have you been confined indoors?” Decimus asked, more for the sake of the Palace Guard who had not yet withdrawn from their presence than because he was truly interested in such banalities.
Dag knew that Decimus was not greatly interested but went along with the ruse and answered his questions briefly.
Then Decimus signaled for the Guard to depart until called for again, and invited Dag to take a seat opposite his table where a stack of scrolls lay waiting for his attention.
Decimus did not waste further time on trivialities but came directly to the point.
“I am to send an edict out to the provinces,” he said in a voice so low that Dag had to strain to hear it, “informing them that they must all worship Dominio or be burned as heretics.”
He paused for a moment and watched Dag closely to see his response to this statement. The great man turned pale but did not speak. He closed his eyes and muttered under his breath words that Decimus could not hear.
“And I ask you, Dag; what kind of God do you serve that requires worship or death?” Decimus asked in a rough voice that masked his growing fear.
Although he was loath to admit it to anyone, Decimus Hadrianus feared that his old friend Iacomus had gone mad. But to speak such a thing would be paramount to treason, and he knew it.
Dag’s response was immediate and in defense of his God.
“No, Dominio does not require worship or death! That is a lie, and a vile one at that!”
“But what of this that my son Antonius speaks of, that if you do not worship Dominio you do not go to Heaven? What is this about? How can you say Dominio does not require worship, yet He will not permit you into Heaven unless you worship Him? It is confusing to me; please explain it.”
And Dag smiled gently at Decimus, who did indeed appear genuinely confused. There was also a tension about him that he did not understand: for some reason unknown to him, Dag’s answer would matter greatly.
“Dominio is the All Supreme,” Dag said. “He gave free will to men, whether we would worship Him or not. Because of our rebellion and insistence on going our own way, He will not let us into Heaven, His holy abode when we die unless we are first reconciled to Him as His children. But He does not put to death any who reject Him while living, unless as a judgment on an individual who has done great evil to others and whose heart is so hard that they will not turn. In such a case, it might be better to take the life of that one before they do greater damage to more lives.”
Decimus stared hard at Dag, so hard that he seemed to be looking right through him. He made no comment on Dag’s statement, but to the Trekur Lender it was clear that he pondered on it heavily.
Decimus opened his mouth to say something, but just at that moment the Palace Guard returned. Decimus was about to reprimand him for returning before being sent for but the Guard bowed low before him and forestalled him with his next words.
“Forgive me, Your Excellency for intruding, but I have come to bring a message for your guest.”
He turned to Dag and bowed again.
“I have just been informed that your wife and sons have arrived from Eirinia, and are waiting for you in your chambers.”
When Dag saw Judoc he hurried across the room and swept her up in his arms and kissed her long and passionately, to the surprise of Cort and Brand, who discreetly looked the other way. Cort took his younger brother by the elbow and they sauntered over to the window and looked down on the streets of Potentus. A fine rain had begun to fall, a typical spring rain that appeared without warning and dropped gently on the stone pavement of the streets below, sending the citizens scurrying for the nearest shelter. Cort looked across to the small stone inn where he had deposited Siv and Brit, who insisted they did not wish to be present at the family reunion that should be private.
When the sound of endearments at last died away, he turned to venture a look at his adopted parents. They stood with their arms wrapped tightly around one another, and he realized suddenly that it might be prudent to remove himself and his brother so their parents could be alone following their separation of nine months.
With that thought in mind he excused himself and Brand and closed the door of the room behind them.
Chapter XII
Into the Caves
When the official edict arrived from Valerium, Marcus could honestly say that he was not greatly surprised. In his heart he had expected such a decree, and had spent many sleepless nights wondering what course of action to take should it arrive.
It had been sent from the office of the Minister of State, and so had come from Decimus. This was in the usual manner of affairs, as it was the Minister’s office that was responsible for carrying out the Imperial orders. Marcus discovered, however, that Decimus had included a personal note with the scroll and hastened to break the seal and read it. He could not have been more astonished by what it contained.
“I am under Imperial orders to send this edict as part of my official duties,” Decimus wrote. “But I must tell you that a friend of yours is the ‘guest’ of the Emperor, and according to what he has told me in our private conversations, this edict is not the will of your God. My advice to you is to go into hiding, because there will be more of the Emperor’s decrees to be handed down shortly, with certain citizens called to Valerium for questioning in an attempt to appear to uphold his ruling by agreeing with him. What would you do if you had to bow down to the god of the Emperor, which according to Dag Adalbart, is not the same Dominio that you worship?
“There is a place in the Mountains of Moldiva not far from Lycenium that I knew as a youth. It is extensive and runs deep into the mountains. It is dry and contains no dampness that will impair one’s health. Iacomus does not know of its existence, as I discovered it after he left to live in Seneca.
Here the message ended and Marcus had to read it again to assure himself that he had read it correctly.
Decimus had actually warned him: his old foe had broken trust with his office to inform him of the Emperor’s plans. And although it was not for his own sake but rather to spare grief for his daughter-in-law, the warning stunned Marcus. He would have suspected it to be a trap of some kind was it not for Decimus’ assurance of his own continued rancor against Marcus. And that convinced him of the truth of the message.
He summoned Tullia and Drusilla to the library where he informed them of the edict and its possible outcome. He did not tell them of the personal message from Decimus, knowing that Drusilla could not keep a secret, but said that in view of the fact that the Emperor appeared to bow down to a god of his own making that was not truly Dominio, he felt it best for he and Tullia to leave Lycenium for a while.
He did not tell Drusilla of the hiding place, nor indicate any feeling of fear that the edict induced. He knew the garrulous old woman simply could not hide what she knew, so he did not burden her with information that must remain private. He told her that he and Tullia had both been captivated by Lucerna, and he would like to return there and visit for a while now that their children had left home and were living their own lives.
It did not take long to locate the place if one knew how to find it. Decimus had given detailed instructions, albeit in code, that Marcus followed closely and was able to decipher:
“Five miles from the city where East meets West,
Is a hall of stone where you may find rest.
At the north gate knock and enter, stranger,
Ten steps down and turn left to flee danger.
Down into its stony depths you must go,
To escape the harm of those who bring woe.
Two miles down before you reach journey’s end,
Then straight on ahead where two boulders rend.”
A cave, Marcus thought. It must be a cave of some sort. He wondered at the wisdom of seeking living quarters in such a place: not only was it injurious to one’s health, but should Iacomus learn of his hiding place he would be trapped inside. And yet Decimus had said they were extensive. It was possible that they were large enough that capture would be impossible if he explored the cave thoroughly…
He decided to take Tullia with him for a drive as an excuse and then tell her of Decimus’ plan.
“Are you certain about this, Marcus?” she asked doubtfully as she stared at him.
They had just alit from the carriage drawn by Cyriacus who had been instructed to take them out of the city limits of Lycenium. Marcus had sat on the box next to him and motioned for him to stop when he judged that they had reached the five mile mark. It was a beautiful forested spot where the carriage came to a halt and he looked around him in appreciation.
He helped Tullia alight from the carriage, and she handed him the basket of food that she carried. Marcus informed Cyriacus that this looked a good spot for a picnic, and he should return for them in two hour’s time. The picnic was the most reasonable excuse he could think of for a day’s excursion in the country. He did not wish the loyal servant to know of their plan, lest it be forced out of him under interrogation.
Cyriacus saluted them and drove off, the sound of the horses’ hooves clopping through the empty woods, the only sound of civilization to be heard.
It was a quiet spot, where tall trees that grew to a tremendous height rose in a straight line as if they would touch the sky itself. The sound of leaves swaying in a gentle spring breeze murmured in their ears, accompanied by the twitter of wrens busily erecting their new nests. From somewhere near the scent of wildflowers that Marcus could not put a name to drifted to their nostrils, mingling with the pungent aroma of the pines and fir trees.
How ironic, Marcus thought, that a place of such peaceful beauty was where he and Tullia would hide to escape danger from a madman who was relentless in his quest for power and control. As if divining his thoughts, Tullia smiled at him through tear-filled eyes, and he was struck suddenly at how hard life with him must have been for her through the years. By his own count, this was the third ruler that he had incurred the royal disfavor of, and it must surely be a strain on her not to know from one day to the next whether she would have a roof over her head or be condemned to wander in the wilderness with the man she had wed.
The cave was not easy to find, and were it not for the detailed directions that Decimus had written it was doubtful that they would have found it at all.
Marcus looked up at the sun to determine its position, and then walked in a northern direction, carefully studying the landscape around him. They were high up in the mountains that ringed Lycenium, enclosing it from the world around it. He advised Tullia to look for a crack of some kind that might be the gate that was referred to in the instructions.
It was not a crack, but a bush that grew closely to the ground that at last drew their attention. The bush finally succeeded in drawing their notice because it was one of only a few in the mountainside. Marcus stooped down to examine it, and when he pulled at it, he discovered a small opening just behind it, only large enough for one person at a time to enter, and doubled over at that.
“Ah, here is the gate!” he exclaimed in triumph.
Tullia hastened to where he stood, and she followed him into the narrow opening. When they entered the cave, they were surprised that they could stand up to full height, for the ceiling itself was high. The floor ahead of them slanted downward, so they proceeded to walk ahead, counting as they did so. When they had counted ten steps they came to a fork, with one path running left and one running right. They chose the path that turned to the left and descended down into the depths of the cave.
Marcus was a good judge of gauging distances, having trekked in the wild so often, and he had no difficulty determining when they had reached the two mile mark that Decimus had mentioned. There it was, and the two boulders split down the middle from the one they had originated from. The path ran between them and they proceeded straight ahead.
What they found beyond that point amazed them both. Marcus had explored caves before, but this was a labyrinth that ran for miles. There was a stream of clear water that ran through one section, but the rest of the cavern was dry although cold. That the cold could not be helped he knew very well, but a fire would warm them once they had settled in.
Even Tullia was astounded and awed by the depth and spaciousness before them, and it was she who noticed the way the rooms interconnected with passages just as a fine villa would. She looked around her in wonder, but Marcus thought that once the novelty of living here even temporarily wore off, that she would grow bored with the isolation of it. And he felt in that instance that he needed to offer his wife a choice.
“Tullia, I know that living here even for just a while shall not be easy. We would be isolated from all that you love, and it would be cold and possibly strange, hearing sounds that are only heard in a cave and that might be alarming. I do not wish you to suffer, so I am offering you a choice: you may come here with me, or remain in Lycenium with your mother where you will be comfortable. We can simply put the story around that I am away visiting friends in foreign places and you do not know when I shall return.
“I leave it to you.”
He was aware that his heart had begun to pound loudly with a throbbing beat that felt centered in his throat, and he wondered that he had been able to speak at all. He waited anxiously for her to speak, as anxiously as he had once waited in her mother’s garde
n to answer another question long ago…
She smiled at him with such a glow in her eyes and tenderness to her lips that he caught his breath at the beauty of it.
“Marcus,” she said softly, “how can you think that I would be anywhere except with you? I learned the hard way long ago, that my place is by your side and nowhere else.”
And she came to him and cupped his face between her hands and kissed him with lips that seemed to fit his as surely as if they had been part of a mold that made them two halves of a whole.
A few days later they took leave of Drusilla and departed for Lucerna, or so they said. But when their carriage had taken them two miles from Lycenium, Marcus bade Cyriacus to stop.
He and Tullia would journey on alone from here. He told the coachman. They had some friends who would be joining them and they would journey on together in the carriage of their friends. It was not necessary, therefore, to deprive Drusilla of his services, and he could return to her villa at once.
As soon as he was gone from their sight, Marcus and Tullia picked up the few bundles they had brought with them, which contained an adequate supply of clean clothes and a more than adequate supply of dried fruits, cheese, and bread, and journeyed on foot the rest of the way. They did not pause for rest, fearing they might be spotted and people might wonder at the odd sight of a pair of aristocrats on foot in such an out of the way place.
They soon reached the secret cave and walked down into the depths where they quickly settled in, for how long they did not know. It was impossible to tell night from day in that place, and so time passed, but whether quickly or as if time hung on their hands they could not say.
Before they left Drusilla’s villa Marcus had sent a note to Decimus, encrypted in code to inform him that the Maximus family would be relocating soon for a much needed rest to an isolated location recommended by a member of the family. Marcus knew that Decimus would be able to decipher it and would know that the ‘member of the family’ was none other than himself, a phrase which Marcus used only so that Decimus would know whom he referred to and that his warning had been heeded.