Kushiel's Scion - Jacqueline Carey [295]
Eamonn grinned. "I am, aren't I?"
For the remainder of the time, Orfeo and I hacked and battered at one another. I felt awkward and unbalanced, which made us a better match. By the time the next batch of conscripts arrived, my left arm felt like a lead weight, and I was glad to stop.
So began the new pattern of our days in Lucca.
It was a miserable time. I hated a great deal of it. I hated the broken nights of riding patrol and the broken days of drilling. I hated the buckler, and being constrained to a style that made no use of my hard-won skills. Everything I'd been taught was to preserve my life. Everything Gallus Tadius taught us emphasized the need to stand together, to defend one's brother in arms. As much as I understood it—and I did, even Joscelin would be the first to admit that Cassiline Brothers aren't trained to the battlefield—I still chafed at it.
Gallus did honor his wager, though.
I found out that night, when Eamonn and I returned from patrol. Despite the lateness of the hour, the Lady Beatrice met us in the atrium. It gave me a start, reminding me of her daughter. Her dark red hair was loose around her shoulders, her round, pleasant face alight with gladness as she hushed us.
"He's sleeping!" she whispered.
Eamonn glanced at me. "I'll be damned."
I liked to think it helped, at least a little. When I saw him next, Gallus Tadius wore Lucius' face a little easier. It didn't last, though. He was up day and night; tracking the progress of Valpetra's labor, tracking the progress of the Red Scourge, tracking the progress of the masons' efforts to shore up the wall. He rode through the city, scouring every inch for defensible positions and vantage points.
He spent long hours conferring with priests.
Since he didn't seem overly concerned with the Tadeii villa, which wasn't situated in a strategic location, I kept my promise to Claudia Fulvia and concerned myself. With Lady Beatrice's blessing, I confronted Publius Tadius.
I came straight from the training-field and strode into his study uninvited. He had issued a standing order to be left undisturbed, but his wife countermanded it. I found him seated by a window, immersed in reading, for all the world as though Lucca weren't under siege. He looked up when I entered, his gaze vacant. Yes?
I stood in front of him, dripping on his carpet. It was raining. The long dry spell had broken with a vengeance, and it had been a miserable day of drilling. We were staging mock skirmishes now, squadron against squadron, and I'd spent the better part of two hours ankle-deep in cold mire, locking shields, thrusting and grunting.
"My lord," I said. "Do you know who I am?"
His expression changed slowly, a measure of clarity surfacing. It was cold and disapproving. He marked his place in his book and set it down. "If you're speaking of your relationship with my son, I don't particularly care to hear it."
"Your son." My hair was dripping into my eyes. I swiped it out of the way with one vambraced forearm. "My lord, your son is a good man, and I pray to Blessed Elua you have a chance to learn that one day."
His mouth pursed. "You have no right to pass judgment on me."
I gazed at him, through the bitterness and disappointment and self-righteousness, and beheld the shadows on his soul. Fear and longing and deep-seated self-loathing. "You were afraid of him, weren't you? Your grandfather?"
He looked away. "Please leave."
"My lord." I opened my arms. "I fear, too. But I'm here and I'm fighting for Lucca at the behest of your wraith-ridden son and your mad, dead, awful genius of a grandfather. And if a prince of Terre d'Ange can do this much for a foreign city, surely the grandson of Gallus Tadius can bestir himself in the defense of his own household."
Publius' jaw trembled. "You don't understand."
"Yes," I said. "I do. You've not gone mad, my lord, you've only taken refuge there. It's time to return. Lucca needs you. Your family needs you."
He looked at me, his glance flinching away, then steeled himself. "What must I do?"
I led him through the villa, explaining about