THE PRISONERS IN THE PALACE

Part Three:

 
She was astonished.  In Gladiator there had been that brief, soundless chuckle over lunch...a chuckle that had instantly faded into utmost seriousness when Juba said, "You have a great name. He must kill your name before he kills you."  That was it.  That was all she knew of the General's laughter. Now here she was, lying across his torso, bounced up and down by his chest's jiggling as he giggled.

Her emotions were too fragile. She'd been swept from hope to anguish to anxiety to tears to formality.  And now this. She felt out of control.  Inebriated, even, by the sounds he was making...such unexpected sounds.  She wanted to laugh in return.  She wanted to cry.  She thought, because she was still dizzy, she might pass out instead and roll off him like a sack of potatoes.

In the midst of his laughter, he lifted his head, straining his neck muscles to peer at her face.  Seeing the emotion in her eyes, the rapid change of it like clouds scudding before some wind, he stopped abruptly.  Briefly he touched the side of her cheek with the back of his fingers, then rested his head back on the floor.

"Forgive me, my lady.  I fear I am not yet quite myself."

She felt a quick piercing that she had caused his laughter to cease.  She hadn't wanted it to.  She loved the sound of it. Brianna wanted to say, "There is nothing to forgive."  But she didn't.  She just quietly turned her face to the side and lay her cheek on his chest.  She didn't know why she did that other than that she'd felt some wordless pull to do it.  He was lying flat on his back and it filled her mind with the final scene of Gladiator.  Every time she had watched that, she had wanted to reach her hand out as Lucilla did, had wanted the feel of him under her palm.  But here he was, alive, and there was no way she could not rest her cheek upon him.

 
Her long blonde hair had come completely loose and now tendrils of it fell upwards around his neck.  He caught the scent of it...evening jasmine.  He knew it well. It grew around his doorway in Spain and up several pillars in the patio garden.  Closing his eyes, he breathed it in.  It was the scent of home. Tears stung his eyes and he blinked them away.  By the gods, how weak he was.

She showed no signs of moving.  Slowly, carefully, he moved his legs, untangling them from hers.  It was all too surreal, as though he were in some strange dream. Again he had no idea of what to do.  So he folded his arms across her back and just lay there.

Sid, watching, still standing, shook his head.  He was not sure what he had expected of the two of them, but it was not quite...this.  He contemplated interrupting them, but decided against it, and sat back in his lounge chair, his fingers steepled in front of him, the edge of his chiseled chin resting atop them.

The powerful drug not completely out of his system, Maximus drifted off, his chest rising and falling now with the regular breathing of sleep. She rode it like a raft on the gentle swells of a calm sea.  Gradually her breathing fell into rhythm with his and she, too, slept, still lying atop him.

Sid could not resist.  Leaving his room, he walked soundlessly into Brianna's, circling around the two on the floor several times, bending low to look at their faces. Each countenance was in full repose.  A muscle in his jaw worked as he studied them.  They were...beautiful...together like that.  He wanted to lie beside them, to become a part of it.  His hand reached out, almost but not quite brushing Brianna's hair.  Then he straightened and snorted slightly.  Wouldn't  Bud and Terry find that amusing.  He glanced toward the doorway.  Even nanotechs held secrets in their hearts. As quietly as he had entered, he left.

Brianna awoke first, blinking, not remembering where she was.  Then under her left ear she heard the beating of his heart.  How many times had she watched him die?  But Commodus would never stab him again.  They had saved him.  Sid...had saved him.  But why?  Why did he want the General?  As for herself, she had become aware she was Sid's pawn in some game he was playing with Maximus.  He would do with her, to her, through her, whatever he felt he needed to do in order to gain whatever ends he planned.  He had drugged her wine for the single purpose of having Maximus find her on the floor.  A small shudder went through her. What else might he do?

Maximus slept like a soldier. As small as her shudder had been, he woke instantly, his muscles gathered for battle. Opening his eyes, he found hers looking at him again, an unreadable expression in their blue depths.  He relaxed his muscles, attempting a small, awkward smile.

  "You are uninjured by the fall, my lady?"  He seemed unable to think of things he should probably be saying.

She knew she should get up.  Really she should.  But she did not want to.  What reason could she give, though, for continuing to lie where she was?  Thinking of nothing that she could put in actual words to say to him, she sighed and rolled off to his left side.  Managing a sitting position, she pushed her hair back over her shoulders.  She had said almost nothing to him.  Her silence, in fact, was becoming quite loud.  It was then she determined that she would tell him as much of the truth of things as possible without crossing the line Sid had set.  Her mound of lies would remain as low as she could manage.  She drew in a long, slow breath, her eyes on his. 

"Thank you," she said softly, "for being my cushion."  She smiled, trying to keep her lips from trembling.  "You have probably saved me from many bruises."

He propped himself on his left elbow, ducking his head in a slight bow.  "It was a not unpleasant duty."  The corner of his mouth twitched in a tiny grin.

He continued studying her, then asked almost off-handedly, though she knew it wasn't, "Do you know where we are?"

 

The truth.  What could she say that would not be a lie?  "To all appearances, it would seem to be the interior of some large complex of buildings."  There.  Yes.

"Are you familiar with it?" he continued.  "Have you been here before?"

"I have not," she replied.  She turned her head, looking around.  "I have never seen these chambers before this day."  So far, so good.

"Do you think it is Commodus' palace?"

It was getting more difficult.  "It has the look of it, but it is possible it might be someplace else."

 

"Do you know why I have been brought to this place?"

He wasn't going to stop.  She could tell that plainly.  "I do not," she answered. That was the truth.  She had no idea what Sid's plans for Maximus might be.

"Why are...you...here?"

"I am a slave.  I go where I am taken.  I have no say in the matter."  Her eyes met his levelly, without deceit.

"What of your master?" he pursued.  "Is he aware you are here?"

"I do not think he is."  She looked briefly at her hands in her lap.  "I believe someone, with far more power than he, has made...arrangements."

Sid smiled at this. He had been on edge as Brianna surfed between the rocks of possible disaster. If she forced his hand, if she made him abort all his careful arrangements, no matter how lovely she was, he would personally squeeze the life out of her. But he discerned what she was doing, was at least trying to do.  If she could maintain it...good. If not, well, much was at stake.  Much.

Maximus licked his lips thoughtfully.  "Why were you on the floor when I came upon you?"

"I...I...was drugged. I think. In the wine."

"Who would have done such a thing?" His questions were relentless, though asked quietly
and calmly, she knew he was deadly serious in his attempt to glean information from her.

"I would think it was the person who...who...is, um, in charge of this place."

"Why would he do that?"

"I have my suspicions, but I am sure of nothing."

He rose to a full sitting position, then turned, getting his legs under himself and gaining his feet. She remained seated, looking up the tower of him standing only two steps from her.  He appeared lost in thought for a long moment, then seemed to make some decision. Extending his hand to her he said, "We shall puzzle this out together, shall we?"

She took his proffered hand, letting him pull her to her feet, then stepped back several paces.  She could not think while standing in that circle of intense masculinity he radiated. 

"Yes," she replied. "I, too, would like to know the truth of why we find ourselves in this place."

He moved his hand, unconsciously shifting his cuirass from where it pressed against his collarbone. She noticed. "May I unbuckle that for you?" she asked.  "It may be that for the time being it will be all right for you to remove it."

Until then, he hadn't really paid much attention to the weight and discomfort of it.  He turned slightly, lifting his arm, presenting his side to her.  "I thank you," he said, as he stood quietly while her fingers undid the series of buckles.

 
He set it to one side when she was done, taking in a deep breath of air.  "Much better."  Sitting on a low bench, he removed his greaves, laying them near the cuirass. Now he was attired only in his simple blue tunic, its edges torn, unhemmed, and his wide brown leather belt.  "Much better," he repeated, standing.

She looked at the cuirass, lying on the marble quite like a tortoise shell.  "It must be hot," she mused aloud, then turned her eyes back to him.  "In the arena, I mean.  When you are fighting...it must be hot wearing that."

He smiled, his lips pressed together.  "You have no idea," he replied, recalling well the rivulets of sweat that ran down his back, his chest the entire time.

His stomach betrayed him with a loud, rumbling growl. He looked embarrassed.  "I fear I have lost all sense of time," he said, "and have no memory of when last I ate."

Just then Sid appeared in the doorway between the two chambers, dressed in the short, brown tunic. He cleared his throat to  attract their attention.  Maximus started almost violently at the sight of him. 

"YOU!" he cried, thinking at first it was the Arizonian named Cort.  But no, it was not. However, like the Arizonian and also the centurion who had come and taken the man out of the gladiator quarters in Zucchabar, this one, too, resembled him remarkably, only somehow... sleeker.

Brianna watched, fascinated to hear what sort of explanation Sid would come up with.

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