Secrets of New Pompeii Read Online Free

mystic to
reveal the details of those bittersweet hours. Every touch, every
sensation was still clear within her memory.
    “You’re fighting me again.” Bertrom sighed.
“This will never work if you resist my guidance.”
    “I don’t want to relive that night.”
    “Why are you afraid? Was it unpleasant?”
    “No.” She rested her forearms on the tabletop
and bowed her head. “Just the opposite.”
    “Show me.”
    His tone took on a commanding edge that
increased the mystic pull. Naloni released her hold on the present
and surrendered to the past.
    They were back on Fedoros. After weeks of
continual pressure from his sons, the emperor had agreed to a
four-week trial of Gladiator Games. Max had signed on to the
project as doctore , a trainer. Unlike the other gladiators,
Max had earned his freedom in Rome, so his circumstances were
unique.
    Though her father had abandoned his
self-imposed seclusion, he was still irritable and argumentative.
One evening, he summoned her and announced that he had decided who
she would marry. She had expected the announcement since her
eighteenth birthday a year and a half before. Still, nothing
prepared her for her father’s choice in grooms. The man she was to
marry was older than her father and already had four sons. Her
tearful pleading fell on deaf ears and her hurt quickly turned to
anger.
    She had always been an obedient daughter,
bowing to her father’s wishes regardless of her own feelings. So
she decided to foil his plan in the most outrageous way possible.
She would give herself to a man completely unacceptable to the
superior aristocracy.
    Using her own royal seal, she composed a note
and signed Tarhee’s name. The note explained that Max was being
rewarded for his exemplary service. He was to be left alone with
his female visitor and all surveillance was to be turned off until
the woman departed. She ended the note by stressing that Vito was
opposed to the reward, so Tarhee was counting on their
discretion.
    She changed into a thin satin slip that
barely reached her knees then cocooned herself in a utilitarian
cloak with a deep hood. She’d claimed a headache during the evening
meal and retired for the night, so her guards were engrossed in a
highly competitive game of cards.
    Sneaking out of her bedchamber had been easy.
Her guards were always relaxed when they were inside the palace
defenses. Leaving the palace itself had been more complicated, but
Naloni knew of a weakness in the security grid.
    Once she reached the gladiator compound, the
perimeter guard had taken her to his commander. The commander read
the note twice then inspected the seal. Her seal was slightly
smaller than her brother’s, but without having the two side by
side, it was almost impossible to tell the difference. Finally, the
commander decided “discretion” prevented him from further
verification, so he unlocked Max’s cell.
    Naloni hadn’t trusted the guards to follow
her instructions, so she had a signal jammer in the pocket of her
cloak. She activated the small device before she spoke or lowered
the hood. Max sat on his cot, one of the few pieces of furniture in
the dreary room. He watched her with obvious curiosity but didn’t
question her presence.
    She took off the cloak and hung it on a peg
by the door. Max stood beside the cot by the time she turned
around. “I am for you,” she said simply. She’d undergone a Latin
infusion before accompanying her brothers to Italy, but she had
spoken very little during their journey and that had been seven
months ago.
    Max approached her slowly, his pale blue gaze
piercing yet cautious. “Who are you?”
    He was isolated from the rest of Fedoros, but
there was a slim possibility he would recognize her name. “Vanda.”
She used one of her middle names.
    “Who sent you to me? Do you know why you were
sent?”
    “Prince Tarhee is pleased with you, and he
thought you would enjoy… Do you not want me?”
    “By the gods, you are stunning, but