She whipped them up, taking them out the broad entrance gate rather than the gate to the arena, but it was too late. She saw torches there, and soldiers pressing in a relentless armored mass toward the palace, and another crush of soldiers spreading toward the fine houses on the Palatine Hill, and all she could do was whip the Anemoi into a gallop. It was too late to do anything but run.

“WHAT are you DOING?” Lollia shrieked.

“Climb in.” Diana had steered the Anemoi off the circular drive to the house, over a bed of winter lilies and into the entrance hall. The axles grated on the door frame, but the chariot just fit through the doors. “It isn’t safe here anymore. The fighting’s getting closer. I barely outran a mob getting here.”

Lollia didn’t need to be told twice. She slung a bundle under one arm and hopped up into the chariot. “You’re utterly mad. You went to fetch your horses?”

“Good thing I did, because we’re going to need them. They’re the only things that can get us to Cornelia and Marcella in time.” Diana leaned back on the reins, clicking her tongue at the horses. Tiles crunched as a priceless mosaic was destroyed underfoot.

“You’ll never get them turned around in this space—”

“Yes, I will.” Diana leaned back, tendons cording all down her arms, and somehow she got the horses wrenched around and wedged back through the entrance gate. “Hold on.”

Lollia whimpered as she saw the lights at the foot of the slope, and suddenly there were men whooping everywhere, flashes of bright breastplates and torches brandished overhead. “Hey, my pretties, slow down—!” But they scattered as the Reds barreled through the gates, and Diana lashed the chariot straight down the street.

“Oh gods, they’re coming to loot.” Lollia jerked, looking back at the torches weaving giddily through her grandfather’s front gates. “Why don’t their commanders stop them? This is Rome, not some barbarian citadel! They can’t just tear it to pieces!”

“Maybe their commanders can’t stop them. Or maybe they just don’t care it’s Rome.” Diana slowed the Reds to a trot again, and their hooves clashed resoundingly loud along the empty street. Only it didn’t feel empty now. The shadows were lengthening with the onset of night, and Diana didn’t need to see the eyes to know they were there. Lollia clutched the rail of the chariot, teeth crashing together at every bump, but she didn’t complain.

“You’re marvelous,” she said through her shivering. “You’re mad, and you’re marvelous, and you’ve likely saved my life—” Diana barely listened, all her attention spinning down through the reins in her hands. The horses were close to panic, and as they drove past the Forum Romanum she saw why.