Jara had barely set her goblet down when the strangest sensations began to flood her chest.  This sensation of warmth only intensified until her blood felt as if it was on fire and her throat clamped shut.  She clawed at her neck, trying desperately to breath but her lungs refused to pull in air.  As she began to panic, so did her baby within her womb begin to kick and struggle.  What was happening to her?

 

“Jara?”  Cadmus asked, fear flooding his own chest in a hot wave as his wife clawed at her throat so hard she drew blood. He pulled her hands away as she began to convulse.

 

“What’s happening?  What’s happening to my wife?”

 

Livia watched as Jara’s normally rosy lips turned an ugly purple and the light that filled her eyes began to fade. “She’s been poisoned!” Livia exclaimed. Though she couldn’t explain it she felt a sense of urgency to save the child. “We have to get the baby out, now!”

 

The other members of the Senate looked at their own goblets in suspicion and put them down, as if the wine within them had turned to poisonous snakes.  Cadmus pulled his wife from the chair and lay her on the floor. If he could just get her some air…

 

By the time she was evenly laid out on the floor she was gone.  She was completely limp and her eyes looked up not at the ceiling, but into eternity.  Her husband stared down at her in shock, unable to fully grasp that his worst nightmare had come true.

 

“Jara?  Our baby!  What about-“

 

“Move!” Livia shouted, shoving him out of the way.

 

Livia pulled her dagger and wasted no time in splitting Jara open to find the child inside, squirming uselessly to breathe.  She pulled the baby free, cut the umbilical cord and cleared its breathing passages as best she could. With a slap to his rear the child began screaming, much to her own surprising relief.

 

Cadmus collapsed on his knees beside Livia and took in the site of his prematurely delivered baby in Livia’s arm’s as his beloved wife lay on the floor, dead. In seconds he’d lost the only woman he’d ever really loved, and gained a child in the whole tragic process. 

 

“It’s a boy,” Livia said, pulling her cloak off and wrapping the screaming infant.  “The poison didn’t get to him.”

 

“My wife.”

 

Livia had believed her heart was too dead and cold to feel anything but hate and anger anymore, but now she found herself feeling pity for Cadmus.  She’d seen him with Jara, and she had an idea that he’d loved the woman every bit as much as she hated the world that had robbed her of the only family she’d ever known.

 

She quickly put the matter aside and stood to find Ghita clinging to Augustus’ arm.  “You.”

 

Ghita feigned ignorance and this only served to increase Livia’s anger.  “What?” Ghita asked, clenching her lover’s arm even more tightly.

“Don’t you play innocent!”  Livia said coldly.  She could feel her grip tighten on the dagger in her right hand and the memory of killing Odessa in Ares temple so many years before flashed before her mind now.  How she would love to cut this conniving bitches throat this second.

 

“Livia?” Augustus asked, stepping between Livia and Ghita.  “What’s the matter?”

 

“Don’t you get it?”  Livia said, bewildered by her emperor’s dull mind. “This dinner was planned by Ghita.  She chose the goblets that would be placed on the table but mine was the only one different. Didn’t you notice that?  I was supposed to drink from the golden goblet, only Jara-“

 

Cadmus stood next to her, holding his child.  His face was oddly pale, most likely from the shock of losing the woman he loved.  “-Liked Livia’s goblet because she loved lions.  They traded.”

 

Now everyone in the room had their eyes glued to Ghita. “I don’t know what you’re insinuating-“ the older woman began to stutter, but Livia would have none of it.

 

“I’m not insinuating anything,” Livia said, talking over Ghita. “I’m saying it out right.  That goblet was meant for me. You either had someone poison it or you laced it yourself.  Chances are you did it yourself.”

 

“I did no such thing!”

 

Cadmus shoved his son into Livia’s arms and before anyone could stop him he was on Ghita in a second, his massive hands wrapped around her throat and squeezing the life out of her.

 

“Cadmus!” Livia shouted.  “I order you to stop!”

 

Livia wasn’t surprised when Cadmus ignored her. She placed the child in Augustus’ arms and used a pressure point Ares had taught her on each of his wrists to force him to loosen his grip.  She intervened not because she wanted Ghita to live, but because she wanted her to die a long and horrible death…on a cross as revenge for trying to kill her in the arena.  It wouldn’t hurt if she tricked Cadmus into believing she was thinking only of his vengeance.

 

“Lycus, find Cadmus a room here in the palace while I tend to Ghita.”

 

Lycus nodded his understanding and moved to carry out his orders.  Livia knelt beside Ghita and whispered so only she could hear.  “You’ve tried to kill me twice now. I’m going to make you regret that for the rest of your life.  Believe me.  That won’t be for very long.”

 

As the guards led Ghita away her eyes implored Augustus for help.  “Caesar.  Surely you’re not going to allow her to…”

 

This was Augustus’ one chance to be rid of Ghita forever.  With both parents dead he felt obligated to continue helping her sons because he genuinely liked them, but if she were out of the picture forever then he would no longer have to worry about revenge tactics from her when he finally moved in on Livia.

 

If he moved in on her.   He remembered the way she’d broken down into tears in an unusual display of emotion and his natural response had been paternal, not sexual. It was at that moment that she had melted into him to receive that fatherly love. Perhaps that was what she needed.  As he looked over to Livia’s hard smile he wondered if perhaps it was too late for her to accept a father figure in her life.  A General she could handle (without ruling out assassination), but a father? 

 

“I will look after your sons Ghita.”

 

“Augustus, no! No!”

 

He gave a nod to the guards and they hauled her away, kicking and screaming to the dungeon.  With Ghita out of the way, Augustus found himself at a loss as to which direction he would take with Livia now that he had choices.

 

Friends or lovers?

 

 

The End of Chapter 3