The Tower of Nero (The Trials of Apollo #5)(59)

Energy…and information.

I looked at Lu. “You mentioned microphones.”

Her sandwich slipped from between her stumps and landed in her lap. With the slightest of frowns, she began the slow process of corralling it again. “Surveillance mikes, you mean. What about them?”

“Are there any in this cell?”

Lu looked confused. “You want to know if the guards are listening to us? I don’t think so. Unless they’ve installed mikes in the last twenty-four hours. Nero doesn’t care what prisoners chat about. He doesn’t like it when people whine and complain. He’s the only one allowed to do that.”

That made perfect Nero-ish sense.

I wanted to discuss plans with Lu—if for no other reason than to raise her spirits, to let her know that my terrific troglodyte tunneling team might be on their way to scuttle Nero’s Greek-fire Sewer Super Soakers, which would mean that Lu’s sacrifice had not been completely in vain. Still, I would have to be careful what I said. I didn’t want to assume we had privacy. We’d underestimated Nero too many times already.

“The emperor didn’t seem to know about…the other thing,” I said.

Lu’s sandwich toppled into her lap again. “You mean the other thing is happening? You were able to arrange it?”

I could only hope we were talking about the same other thing. Lu had instructed us to arrange an underground sabotage of some sort, but for obvious reasons, I hadn’t had a chance to tell her specifics about Nico, Will, Rachel, and the troglodytes. (Which, by the way, would make the worst band name of all time.)

“I hope so,” I said. “Assuming everything went according to plan.” I did not add And the troglodytes didn’t eat my friends because we brought evil red cattle into their encampment. “But let’s be honest, so far things have not gone according to plan.”

Lu picked up her sandwich again—this time with more dexterity. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve got Nero exactly where I want him.”

I had to smile. My gods, this Gaul…I had gone from disliking and distrusting her to being ready to take a bullet for her. I wanted her at my side, hands or no, as we took down the emperor and saved Meg. And we would do it, if I could muster even a little bit of Lu’s toughness.

“Nero should fear you,” I agreed. “Let’s assume the other thing is happening. Let’s also assume we can get out of here and take care of the…um, other other thing.”

Lu rolled her eyes. “You mean the emperor’s fasces.”

I winced. “Yes, fine. That. It would be helpful if I had more information about its protector. Jason called it a guardian of the stars, a creature of Mithras, but—”

“Wait. Who is Jason?”

I didn’t want to revisit that painful subject, but I gave her the basics, then explained what I had discussed with the son of Jupiter in my dream.

Lu tried to sit up. Her face turned the color of putty, making her tattoos darken to purple.

“Oof.” She reclined again. “Mithras, eh? Haven’t heard that name in a while. Lots of Roman officers worshipped him, back in the day, but I never took to those Persian gods. You had to join his cult to find out all the secret handshakes and whatnot. Elite, members-only society, blah, blah. The emperor was an automatic member, of course, which makes sense.…”

“Because?”

She chewed her cucumber sandwich. “Explains how Nero would have found this guardian. I—I don’t know what it is. I saw it only once, when Nero…installed it, I guess you’d say. Years ago.” She shuddered. “Never want to see it again. That lion’s face, those eyes…like it could see everything about me, like it was challenging me to…” She shook her head. “You’re right. We need more information if we’re going to beat it. And we need to know how Meg is doing.”

Why was she looking at me so expectantly?

“That would be great,” I agreed. “But since we’re stuck in a cell—”

“You just told me you had a dream vision. Do you have those often?”

“Well, yes. But I don’t control them. At least, not well.”

Lu snorted. “Typical Roman.”

“Greek.”

“Whatever. Dreams are a vehicle, like a chariot. You have to drive them. You can’t let them drive you.”

“You want me to, what…go back to sleep? Gather more information in my dreams?”

Her eyelids started to droop. Perhaps the word sleep had reminded her body that this was a great idea. In her condition, just being awake a few hours and eating a sandwich would have been equivalent to running a marathon.

“Sounds like a plan,” Lu agreed. “If it’s lunchtime now, that gives us what—seven, eight hours before sunset? Nero will have his party at sunset, I’m sure. Best time of day to watch a city burn. Wake me up when you know more.”

“But what if I can’t get to sleep? And if I do, who’s going to wake me up?”

Lu started to snore.

A tiny piece of cucumber was stuck to her chin, but I decided to leave it there. She might want it later.

I sat back on my sofa and stared at the chandelier twinkling cheerfully above.

A party tonight for the burning of Manhattan. Nero would torture us. Then, I imagined, he would sacrifice me in one way or another to appease Python and seal their alliance.