Offerings

By Julia Talbot

Aulus wants nothing more than to retire from the Roman army and come home to find his very sad sister happily with child. He wants it so bad that he'll risk angering his patron Mars to make an offering to Venus, the goddess of love, asking her to intervene for his sister.

Mars is a jealous god, and he demands a favor from Aulus to retain his good will. Aulus is willing, but is not sure what he can do for Justus, Mars' current favorite. Can he regain his god's favor and keep his honor intact, or is he doomed to failure when Justus asks more than he might be able to give?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Turtlehat Creatives
• Release date: Jul 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9780991558964

Book preview

1

The temple echoed with his footsteps, the building eerily empty at this early time of day. The sun had not yet broken above the hills of Rome, and Aulus felt like a thief, even though he left offerings instead of taking them. Well, one offering. He hoped it would be enough.

Lighting a bowl of incense, Aulus knelt at the foot of the stairs leading to the altar, his cloth-wrapped gift in his hands. He was a soldier, full of rough words and rougher actions, and making an offering to the Goddess of Love rested uneasily on him. Still, for Laelia he would do anything. His sister, bless her head, needed all the help she could get.

I...I bring an offering, great lady, he said, his voice hushed in the pre-dawn gloom, only the flickering of a torch on the wall showing him any kindness in lighting his way. I hope that it will...no. I pray. I pray it will help you grant my sister the child she so desperately needs.

Needed, wanted, it was all the same. Laelia wanted a baby with her husband of two years, but she also needed it. Theirs was a love match, but Anataus would be forced to set Laelia aside soon, if she did not swell with child. His father, Anataus', that was, demanded an heir. A wealthy merchant family, Anataus', and one that disapproved of a winemaker's daughter for their fair-haired son.

Sighing, Aulus bent, his recently injured back screaming at him as he touched his forehead to the floor. Give me a sign, lady, that I might bring my gift forth.

He waited. Unlike most of his fellow soldiers, indeed, most of his fellow citizens, Aulus believed that the gods heard him. Indeed, he believed they had been with him, guiding his sword or his thoughts. He had felt them, he thought, with him. As he felt the presence of the divine now, in the soft breeze that blew across his back, lifting his hair, the bottom of his tunic, pushing them toward the altar. Aulus smiled. Someone was curious enough to want to see his gift, at least.

Standing, his knees popping, he went up the steps, peering into the dark beyond to make sure no one observed him. The package he held, well, it was simply too precious to have even the priestesses see it. Carefully laying it down on the altar, Aulus unwrapped the soft leather, letting the stone roll out and land in an offering bowl, the sharp clink of it almost making him jump.

The torch seemed to flare, the light shining right down upon the fist-sized opal that lay there now, the roughly polished stone glowing from within, perfect enough even for a goddess.

Please, lady. I beg you, for my sister's sake. Please favor her with good luck in her endeavor. Bowing his head, Aulus prayed as he never had before, even in battle. Laelia was all he had left in the world.

Her happiness meant everything to him.

Surely that would be enough.

Dawn had come and gone when Aulus felt a soft hand on his shoulder, the touch light, tentative. The voice he heard was just as soft. Miles? the girl said, indicating she knew he