Chapter 16: Playing the Game of Blame
Cicero had been unable to make it to the palace. By the time he had run a few feet into the city, he had collapsed from tremendous exhaustion. What was wrong with him? Lucilla had gone back to their home to try and locate him and discover the reason for Ursa's 'escape', but found only the two empty cups beside the wall they had been laying against. She breathed heavily in desperation and then ran to Senator Gaius's home to plead for help. In the meantime, morning broke softly over the skyline of Rome. Citizens were greeted with a tender kiss of warmth as the sky turned blood red with the few rays of the sun that would appear today. Cicero awoke in a bed. He groaned and grasped his head as it burned with sharp pain. He looked around. This was not his home. This was made more obvious when an older woman came into the room and gave a cheerful greeting to him. He shouted in surprise and tumbled off the bed. The woman raced to help him.
"Are you alright?", she asked worriedly. Cicero said nothing, but groaned. Why did this woman have to bellow like an oxen? Her voice was loud enough to wake the dead! In fact, her voice was quite soft to most people, but the draught that Cicero had consumed by mistake had given him the ultimate hangover. He felt his stomach twist and his head spin. The woman forced a cup of something to his mouth and gave him a small drink. He noted the flavour of peppermint and a few other things. The fluid felt so cold going down his throat and into him, it froze everything on the way down. He shuddered for a moment. When the shuddering ceased, he felt no pain in his head or stomach and he felt truly alert. He opened his eyes fully and looked up at the old woman. "That's more like it, my boy."
"Who are you? Where am I?", he asked looking around nervously.
"I am Selena. Woman of this house. You are in Rome, my boy. The capital itself.", she explained. He still looked here and there in total confusion. She smiled. "I found you in the street. It didn't look like you'd been accosted, but you were most definitely unconscious. Are you ill?"
"No. I need to get to the palace. My sister is in danger!", he exclaimed as he got to his feet. He found that his legs were still quite unstable. He shouted as he toppled over. The woman helped him stand and steadied him. Once he was sure he could try and walk, he turned to her. "Thank you for your kindness. I must go quickly."
She nodded and watched him leave hurriedly. Cicero started at a brisk walk, testing his limbs. He found that he could walk a little faster every moment. Finally, he found that he was able to run. He began panting and forcing his body to reach speeds it had never dared before. The wind raced past him as he darted into the palace gates. Cicero had long been a servant of the royal family and was not stopped as he entered. He headed straight for the window he had recently used to speak with Ursa. Surely she would be in the women's quarters. If Commodus treasured his life at all, she would be there.
Ursa awoke with a start when she felt someone kiss her softly. Unlike her brother, this person was kissing her jawline. She gasped and jumped, moving slightly away. She focused and gathered her memory. Commodus lay beside her, waiting for her to wake patiently. He smiled at her. She looked at him and smiled back for a moment. It suddenly dawned on the young girl that she had given herself to someone last night. The thought thrilled her for a moment, then she began to frown. Commodus was not her husband. She was simply a slave in the palace now. Cicero had told her that concubines became slaves after they were taken to the emperor. She had lost her freedom and her innocence in one move. Her voice caught in her throat as he reached for her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her to him. As he reached down to kiss her fully, she moved away and began to shake slightly. He looked down at her.
"Ursa, what is wrong?", he asked sweetly. She looked at him in horror. He stared back in disbelief. "Did I hurt you?"
She burst into tears and began wailing madly. Commodus sat bolt upright and tried to embrace her comfortingly. Ursa forced him away. He watched in confusion as she crawled from the bed, wrapped a linen around her, and hurried out of the room. He tried to call after her. Ursa did not stop or turn around to face him. She simply continued weeping as she fled from his presence. He sat back and stared at the door completely bewildered. As he got out of bed slowly, the door burst open. Quintus entered in a near frenzy. Commodus grabbed his robes and covered himself quickly. Quintus stared at him for a moment, then cleared his throat and bowed.
"I apologize for the intrusion, sire, but a plot against your life has been uncovered. You must come with me as soon as you are decent.", Quintus stated. "We have caught the accused."
Commodus nodded and motioned for Quintus to leave. He dressed within a few mere minutes complete with crown and armour. He wanted desperately to go and see about Ursa, but the matter at hand with the assassin or assassins was far more pressing. He hurried from the room and began to follow Quintus immediately. Waiting in the throne room, in shackles, was senator Gracchus. Commodus gasped at seeing the relatively harmless old man being subdued like this. Near him stood Lucilla, Gaius, and Falco. Falco seemed pleased, but confused. Lucilla seemed to be hiding something, her eyes darting everywhere but still in a glare. Gaius looked very smug and pleased. Commodus approached all of them. He looked at his sister enraged.
"What is the meaning of this?", he demanded. Lucilla looked at her brother firmly.
"He was caught with documents to two other people detailing a plot to have you kidnapped, Caesar.", Gaius explained. Commodus glared at him. He turned back to Lucilla. He couldn't understand this. Wasn't Gracchus one of Lucilla's role models? He motioned for her to speak up. Lucilla coughed and looked down.
"It is as senator Gaius said.", she muttered. "Gracchus planned to have you abducted and then killed."
Commodus turned to Gracchus angrily. The young ruler had no reason to be suspicious of his older sister. After all, she had always looked out for him. He walked over to the old man and glared down at him. Gracchus looked back up at the young man in sheer terror. He knew how much Commodus took the word of his sister. He wasn't sure why Lucilla and Gaius were accusing him of this, he had hoped that they would see reason by the time he had enacted this plan. Commodus snarled and vented all of his confused frustration in one swift hit to Gracchus's head. Gracchus flew a few feet away from the angry young royal. Commodus stood perfectly still for a moment, seething uncontrollably. He breathed heavily. He turned to Quintus and held out his hand. Quintus nodded and withdrew the documents that Lucilla and Gaius had used to blame poor Gracchus. Quintus found it hard to believe that the old fool would do such a thing, but the documents said differently. Commodus cried out in frustration and wadded up the scrolls in his fists. He looked back down at the senator half laying on the floor in front of him.
"Cicero and Maximus is it? That's who you were going to use?", he asked spitefully. He stopped for a moment. "That's why you sent Ursa, you wanted a good look at the inside of the palace!" He threw the scrolls at the old man and shouted again in anger. Gracchus looked away, ashamed. "You used her! She weeps because she gave her innocence to a man that was supposed to die!"
"Actually, sire, I think the little inbreed was sent to distract you.", Gaius added cruelly. Commodus turned to him in pain. The pain turned immediately to anger.
"Silence, Gaius!", he shouted. "You have documentation about the evils of these men, but Ursa Luna remains innocent.", he said loudly. He looked down for a moment. "At least in deed she is innocent.", he whispered. He looked over at Gracchus hatefully. Every ounce of anger he had tried to assuage for politics sake and had only allowed out in small bursts, was welling beyond his control. He walked over to Gracchus.
"Commodus, I never...", Gracchus began. He was cut off by a violent blow to the head from the seething emperor.
"How dare you speak to me with familiarity, treacherous old serpent!", he shouted in tears. He turned to Quintus and composed himself slightly. "It would be a shame for the day to be ruined for Maximus since it will be his last. Leave him unharmed until this evening. As for Cicero, bring him to me alive and relatively unscathed. NOW!"
Quintus bowed and turned to leave. Gaius smiled and left quickly. Falco stood confused for a moment and then walked over to the young ruler.
"Sire, perhaps you should simply be done with the girl as well. If she feels betrayed by you then...", Falco said, but was also cut off. This time, the angry young man had clasped one hand around the senator's throat commandingly. Falco gasped for a moment as Commodus pulled his face to his own.
"Senator, now is not the time for council, am I clear?", he said calmly. Falco nodded as best he could. "Good, then." He threw the old man several feet away from him. Falco stood indignantly and raced out of the room. Lucilla was the only person left in the room with her little brother. Commodus sat down on the throne and leaned to one side. He breathed deeply once before a torrent of sorrow hit him. He began weeping as bitterly as Ursa had done that morning. He looked up at Lucilla for a moment through his tears. Lucilla moved like she had wanted to say something or embrace him, but instead hurried from the room in the same direction as Gaius. Commodus collapsed onto the arm of the throne in sadness. He wished terribly that Ursa were here to comfort him. He had harmed her without knowing as badly as these people had harmed him. Everyone he loved was either turned against him or dead, whether physically or emotionally. He allowed the sorrow and hatred to consume him, their warmth becomming the only comfort that he would allow from now on.
Cicero stood under the window of the women's quarters. He had called to Ursa several times, but had recieved no reply. Finally, a lovely young blonde that looked to be about twice Ursa's age came to the window and looked down at him. She blushed and looked away a little. He cleared his throat and spoke loudly.
"I am looking for my sister, Ursa Luna. Is she there?", he shouted. The girl smiled.
"My name is Callistas.", she replied smiling. He frowned and sighed heavily.
"That's beautiful, is my sister there right now?", he asked a little more frantically.
"I'm older than the emperor, too old for him to enjoy he says.", she replied with a wink. He growled a little and climbed up the side wall a little.
"I'm very impressed, really. Is my sister in here?", he said more vehemetly.
"I like your scars, they're darling.", she said with a wink. Cicero growled and grabbed the girl by the shoulders.
"I don't care about anything else but finding my sister right now!", he shouted. She giggled and gasped playfully.
"Oh my! You're so noble! And so forceful! That's so masculine.", she purred getting closer to his face. He backed away a little, still holding onto her shoulders. "I feel so vulnerable!"
"Gods on high!", he shouted and threw her to the floor. She gave a small playful shout as he hurried past her and began calling for Ursa. As he went further into the women's chambers, ignoring the screams and crying of the women he passed, he began to hear a most familiar sound. It broke his heart into several pieces and set them ablaze with anger. He followed it quickly. It was coming from behind a door near the entrance to the room, and it was definitely Ursa. He tried the handle several times, but the door had been barracaded. He grunted in frustration and pounded on the door. "Ursa? Ursa, it's me, your brother. I've come to take you home. Open the door, we have to leave now!"
As he was able to say the word 'now' two sets of hands siezed him at the arms and began dragging him away. He shouted madly and fought just as violently as his mind was spinning. The guards held onto him as tightly as they could without tearing off a limb. They bound his hands behind his back and dragged him to the prisons. Cicero growled and shouted every insult he had ever heard, been taught, or concocted himself at the emperor. The guards said nothing as they tossed him into a cell and slammed the door shut. Cicero tried to climb up to stand, but only was able after several attempts, to make it to his knees. In every corner of the palace; from the throne room, to the bedchambers, to the outer quarters, to the prisons, there was inhuman weeping.
Night began to fall on the city. Lucilla was sent to tell Maximus that Cicero would be awaiting him at the city gates with horses to help him escape. She had revealed to her brother that she had been forced to be the message carrier between Maximus and Gracchus. Commodus ignored the fact that this was obviously a lie since she claimed earlier in the day to have no part in the plot and simply sent her to inform the gladiator. In the meantime, Cicero was brought from his cell into the emperor's personal quarters. Commodus had tried for the better part of the day to get Ursa to come out of the room and mourn with him for their betrayals. The pleading, shouting, crying, and eventual threatening did him no good whatsoever. All he managed, specifically when the threats began, was to make her weep all the more. He gave up as evening had begun to fall. He left the women's quarters and went back to his own to face her brother. Cicero had been beaten twice by the guards. Once in taking him to the prisons and once in bringing him here. He looked up at the emperor through a few minor wounds. Commodus looked down at him expressionless for a moment. His face suddenly twisted in anger and he threw a harsh blow to the side of Cicero's head. Cicero fell overm, groaning. His vision was completely knocked out of place for a second.
"So no life is so sacred that you would leave it at peace; not your friend!", he struck the young man in the face again after lifting him up; "Not your emperor!", he said punching him in the abdomen. He glared down at Cicero, who stared back in disbelief. Commodus snarled at him. "Not even your sister!", he shouted and kicked him in the side. Cicero lay gasping and coughing in pain. "Any fate is too good for what you've done, traitorous wretch! I don't think even the gods could come up with a punishment to suit you!"
"What are you talking about?", Cicero groaned through gritted teeth. Commodus hit him furiously in the shoulder, sending him back several feet.
"You know very well what I'm talking about! Did you think that I was too young and naive to find out? Did you think it wasn't even the tiniest bit within my comprehension? Ursa's weeping said enough, but then Gracchus gave a full account of the whole thing!", Commodus shouted. Cicero looked up at him in amazement.
"But you've all but stopped the persecutions against them, she didn't think her faith would matter to you.", Cicero groaned. In his mind, it was the little known fact that Ursa was the only Christian member of their cause that was causing the emperor's wrath. There was no other ready explanation. But Commodus had recently ordered their senseless slaughter to stop and that the insubordinate ones be sent to Sardinia in slavery. Why on earth would this upset him? He felt his mind centre itself and common sense return. Of course that didn't matter to him. He had discovered the plot. Lucilla had been right, Ursa revealed it to him in the tenderness they shared and was now weeping for what was about to happen to everyone she had loved. He looked up at the enraged youth before him and began to tremble slightly. "Ursa was innocent, I swear!"
"All the greater the hurt it brings!", he shouted back angrily, backhanding the ex-servant in front of him once more. He stood over the heap of regret that was once Cicero with his fists clenched tightly and called for one of the guards. "Take him to where his master expects him. Set him on the horse with a rope about his neck and keep archers at the ready. He betrayed his family, now let betrayal be his end.", Commodus stated in a low growl. Cicero looked up at him in shock and began to beg, not for his life, but for Ursa's. With every pleading shout the young man gave, Commodus felt the point of a knife burn cruelly into his heart. He sat down on the edge of his bed and began to cry once more, stopping every few moments to throw something and shout at the darkness that was now enveloping him. The guards began to lead Cicero out to the gates of the city. This night would be incredibly dark and stained with the brightest crimson without a miracle.