Free Praetorian Series [4] All Roads Lead to Rome by Edward Crichton Page A

return home, abandoning everything you so heedlessly set into motion.”
    “You’re no different,” I said as I restarted my walk back toward our camp.
    Agrippina followed.
    “Except we now know nothing can affect your home,” Agrippina argued soundly, “but everything you do here affects mine.”
    “Then why are we here, Agrippina?” I asked, my eyes forward.  “Why didn’t you just kill all of us back in Britain?  You know you had the opportunity.”
    “I have already explained on numerous occasions that I wish to change my persona,” she reminded me for the thousandth time since our reunion a few months ago.  “I wish us to work together so that we can more efficiently find the means to send you home, as well as restore my empire to its proper path.”
    “I had a good team doing just that a month ago.”
    “And it was your idea to leave them behind, Jacob.  Not mine.”
    I paused in my tracks, again reminded that she was right, but then picked up my step again.  “That’s beside the point.  I’m doing this for them.  Galba will keep them safe while he conquers Britain, giving us the time we need to do what we need to do.  Once we have the red orb, we can all go home and leave you alone.”
    Considering how easily I’d just smacked her, the last thing I expected her to do was run up beside me and grab my arm in response, digging her fingers into my biceps and causing me to pull up short.  I stopped, but instead of being angry, I turned on her curiously, wondering what could cause such a reaction from her when we’d had this conversation a dozen of times already.
    “What?”  I asked.
    She looked up at me sympathetically.  “Why go home at all, Jacob?  Why?  You have often spoken of how desperate and morbid it has become.  Why do you desire to return to such a place?”
    “Because I have a responsi…”
    But she didn’t give me a chance to finish.  “Why not stay here?  With the knowledge you have recently gained, you know your world will always be there, as intact as the day you left it.  It will always persist, and with the power of the orbs, remain a simple trip away.  But why not stay here?  Together, you and I could affect great change, bring about resounding prosperity to Rome, and lead it toward a brighter future.”
    I didn’t even consider walking away again, suddenly interested.  I’d never really considered the notion of staying and directly taking control of this place because I’d never before known if doing so would lead my home toward an even more certain and earlier doom.  Nor had I ever thought someone with any actual power would ever offer such a thing to me… let alone Agrippina the Younger.
    I turned to her.  “What are you offering?”
    “I am not offering you anything, Jacob,” she said, her voice steady.  “Not yet.  I simply wish for you to think on it.  You and I, together, could do great things.  Your home will always be there, but I am quickly losing my own.”
    I couldn’t help but think about it. 
    But then Agrippina let go of my arm and wrapped her arms around herself, her demeanor shifting completely, as though everything that had happened in the last five minutes had never happened at all.
    “What is it?”  I asked, already accepting her sudden change.
    “It is growing quite cold, Jacob,” she said, looking off in the direction of our earlier sniper hide.  “What are we to do for accommodations tonight?  Finding dry firewood has not been easy in recent days, and ever since we lost the wind shield in that storm, your tent has grown quite cold at night.”
    I nodded, remembering the cold nights the two of us had shared all too well, and looked off into the distance.  I scanned the low hills and wooded forests that surrounded us in all directions.  It was almost unbelievable how monotonous gorgeous scenery could become when there were barely any discernable landmarks to distinguish one endless field of grass or forest of trees