Free Getting Wilde by Jenn Stark Page B

 
    Armaeus looked as if he was going to say something else, then he nodded. “I suspect the cards will be helpful, particularly in this search. And you will also be needing this.”  
    I frowned as he reached into his jacket, which still appeared perfectly pressed, and drew out the slender gold disk. “The seal of Ceres? So it does actually has a purpose?”    
    “It provides a potentially easier path to our goal, yes, which might also explain SANCTUS’s current interest in taking it out of circulation.” He shrugged. “The relic is not a necessary tool. Nevertheless, as it has graciously made itself available to us, we may as well take advantage of it.” Armaeus’s gave me the disk. “Beneath all of Rome lies the Mundus Cereris , or world of Ceres. It was a shallow vault of passageways that extends beneath the city, used by the goddess to search the uppermost levels of the underworld. For our purposes, it leads equally well to the Vatican necropolis.”  
    “Catacombs.” I stared at him. “Great. And this seal is supposed to do what for me?”  
    “The entry to the Mundus Cereris has been hidden since the times of antiquity. Although most historians agree it was housed somewhere in the Roman Forum, the opening, a stone lid known as the manalis lapis , has never been located.”  
    “And this matters…”  
    But Armaeus was not to be denied his history lesson. “Ceres was the sister of Vesta, the two of them committed to the feminine concerns of hearth, home, family, fertility, and the harvesting of grain. It is not surprising that when Ceres began her search for her daughter, Proserpina, who had been taken into the underworld by Pluto, she turned to her sister, Vesta, for help. But to protect this passageway, which opened up an entire world beneath the city, she needed an entrance that no man would find and use for his own purposes.”  
    “So she stuck it in her sister’s temple, dedicated to womanhood, home of the Vestal Virgins, guardians of the eternal flame. Got it,” I said. Did he think I’d been working in the arcane artifact trade for the past five years for nothing? “And you’re telling me this…”  
    “Because Ceres made several keys to her underground realm, one of which we happen to now have, thanks to you—and, of course, to me.” As he broke his arm patting himself on the back, I turned the seal over in my hands. I noted the raised ridges again on the back again, but frowned at him.  
    “If this is the lid to some secret passageway, we’re in trouble, Armaeus. That’ll be a pretty small opening.”  
    “There is no lid, unfortunately. Not anymore.” He shook his head. “But Ceres prepared for that contingency as well. Beneath the manalis lapis rested another entrance point, said to be etched into solid rock.” He nodded at the gold seal. “I can give you the point at which it is located, but what lies beneath the temple is a world I have not seen for a very long time. Still, it begins with the seal—though I would caution you to be careful. When placed upon the bedrock of Rome itself, I am told it is a single-use key. And another thing, Miss Wilde.” He smiled at me, amusement lacing his words. “Though your passage will be underground, you should not encounter any of the dead for the majority of your trip. Roman law forbade the burial of citizens within the city walls.”  
    He had to remind me about the dead bodies. “Yeah, well, Rome started out kind of small,” I grumbled. “That doesn’t account for much terrain.”  
    Nodding his acknowledgment of this point, Armaeus gestured to my chair and took his own seat. “You’ll need to leave soon, and I must give you the rest of the instructions,” he said. “You’ll need to memorize them.”  
    “Uh-huh. And where will you be while I’m off playing capture the flag?”     
    “I regret that business requires me to immediately return to Las Vegas. Where I look forward to you rejoining me late