“You should have never been here, my dear. I am afraid you are just some pawn to discredit your grandfather,” he says, looking at the scroll in my hand. “It says it all on the scroll. Proof of your lineage,
I nod while looking at the scroll. Lines and names. Some faded, even though I know there is much more to why I am here in this cell in these lines. I hear the click of metal on metal, and the door is unlocked. Emperor Maximian helps me with the door, its weight a bit much for one person to push.
“Wait here, I will make sure no one is coming up the stairs. Follow the stairs down, and leave by the door if I don’t come back up. I’ve some of my men at the gate ready to assist you out of here,” he says, before turning to go back down the stairs.…show more content… Valerius. I notice that name before I finally step through the cell door. I count his steps and am up to twelve when they suddenly stop. A moan comes from stairs, and there are sounds of fighting down below. I run to the door leading to the stairway, but it is already too late.
A shadowy figure stands over Emperor Maximian, his hand on the hilt of a dagger now residing in the Emperor’s heart. Even as he collapses, the hood remains undisturbed, and I have no idea if the killer knows whom he just stabbed. I try to scream, but all I can manage is a gasp for air. Emperor Maximian collapses as his lifeblood leaves him. The figure bends down and grabs back the…show more content… I dash inside and turn to find some way to lock myself in. The keys are with Emperor Maximian at the bottom of the stairs. I close the door behind me, and quickly grab the rope, trying the bars on the door with the bars on the wall. I swing the rope around the bars and wrap it once around before he pushes the door open.
“Practicing your braiding skills? Maybe you should practice recognizing your brother’s handwriting,” he says. Maxentius stands at the doorway, his hand dripping with fresh blood.
“I was thinking it might be better to hang than be crucified,” I say, my lip making it hard to speak clearly. I raise my eyes and look straight up at him. Does he know my cell is unlocked?
He stands there, silent.
“Are you going to stop me?” I say, wrapping the rope another time. Maybe he won’t try to come in if he thinks I’m going to kill myself.
Maxentius steps out from the shadow.
“Now, now, why would I care?” He says. “Unless…unless your death could help me? But how? That scroll in your hand, proof of what you are?”
I look down at it. Valerius. But my name is Canyar?
Maxentius laughs, putting his hand over his mouth in surprise. “You don’t know, do