After the world of Britannia, Rome’s walls appeared larger and more menacing than ever, stretching out to either side of their view. It appeared impregnable and dangerous, yet majestic and inviting.
Lucius pulled the wagon onto the side of the road beneath one of the towering cypress trees on a knoll where the city was more visible. He looked at the mausoleum of Hadrian along the river, spotted the dome of the Pantheon, the mass of the Colosseum, and the hills of the city of his birth with the Palatine in their midst.
“It’s all right,” Adara whispered to Phoebus and Calliope in the back of the wagon while Lucius stared ahead. “We’re just stopping for a moment.”
Lucius gazed at the city, the way the evening light highlighted it from the West, the flights of birds soaring over it, how poc
