Текст книги "Mark of the Thief"

Автор книги: Jennifer A. Nielsen

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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 18 страниц)

The sound of footsteps in my head was growing, and the splashing was so distinct I couldn’t understand why water didn’t leak from my ears. Was I going mad?

Aurelia jabbed my arm, drawing my attention to her while quieting the noises in my head. “Aren’t you listening? I asked if —”

“Where are we?” I shuffled forward, pulling on the chains as much as they’d allow. “Is this part of the sewers?”

“It’s an old cistern, but we cut the pipes connecting it to the sewers and use the flow for washing. We still come and go through the sewers, though. Why?”

“We’ve got to get out of here. Soldiers are coming.” I started to move, but Aurelia pulled me back.

“Impossible. They never come down here.” Her brows pressed together. “How would you know that anyway?”

“I just know!”

She made a face. “I’m not releasing you. If you think I’d fall for such an obvious trick —”

I didn’t hear the rest of what she said, because now a voice thundered in my head, so loud that I tried to raise my hands to cover my ears, except the chains were attached to my leg irons and wouldn’t reach that far.

“Nicolas Calva!” That was Radulf speaking directly into my head. I didn’t know how that was possible, but I couldn’t hear anything else, not even my own thoughts.

Aurelia didn’t seem to hear it. “What is the matter with you now?”

“Can’t you —” I started, but then Radulf’s voice continued.

“I found you, Nic. By joining those children, you have chosen them to die with you.”

“No!” I fell to my knees, and lowered my head enough to get my hands over my ears. But covering them only made the sound louder.

“If you give yourself up now, I promise to let them live. If you don’t, there is no escape for any of you.”

I looked up at Aurelia, who was staring back at me as if a horn had sprouted from my head. I pointed to the doorway. “How many exits out of here, into the main sewer line?”

“Only one,” she said. “But nobody else —”

The same girl who had manacled me rushed into the room. “Aurelia, I hear sounds in the tunnels. Men’s voices. Lots of them.”

Her eyes darted back to me, full of alarm. “How far away?”

The girl shrugged.

“They’re here for you, right?” Aurelia didn’t say it as a question, and didn’t need my nod for an answer. She pressed her lips together for only a moment before saying, “I’m sorry, Nic. I have to give you up to them.”

“They’ll kill me if you do!”

“They’ll kill all of us if I don’t. Including you!” She tugged on my chains.

But I wasn’t going to budge. “I can get us out of here.”

She turned around the room. “I told you, there’s only one exit, from the outer room. And that will take us directly into the sewers with those men!”

“What’s above us?”

She rolled her eyes. “Dirt.”

Well, obviously. “No, above that!”

Aurelia shrugged. “An olive orchard, I think.” Then her eyes narrowed. “Don’t even think about it!”

“Give me the bulla.”

“Is that how you did what you did in the amphitheater?”

“Yes. I think so.” Somehow.

She shook her head. “I tried using it and nothing happened.”

“And when I use it, big things happen, so do you want to debate why or let me have it?”

Then her eyes widened further. “I only think it’s an open field. What if I’m wrong?”

“What if we do nothing? Do you really believe Radulf will take me and leave the rest of you alone?”

Aurelia reached for a familiar strap that had been hidden beneath her tunic and lifted out the bulla, which she shoved into my hand. It was heavier than before, which meant either I was weaker, or the magic in it was growing. I immediately began to feel its strength flow into me, moving through my chest, down my legs and arms, up my back and into my mind. The magic dug deeper, burning its way through my blood with a power I had never noticed before.

The children who had been in the outer room came running in, far more of them than I had expected. I counted at least a dozen heads, some of them quite young, and all of them looking to Aurelia for answers. “They’re here!” one of the younger boys cried.

“Get behind me,” I said, only because it seemed safer there. Maybe it wasn’t.

I turned until I had a direct view of the doorway into the sewer. Radulf entered the outer room flanked by six large soldiers. I saw the amusement on his face grow as he scanned my shackled arms and legs.

“They got you ready for me,” he said, smiling. “How kind of them.”

“You saw what I did in the amphitheater,” I warned. “Stay back.”

“That was an accident.” Radulf stepped forward, daring me to act. “You have no idea how you did that.”

The bulla was becoming hot in my hands, but with the manacles, I couldn’t get it around my neck. “I do know. And I’ll do the same thing here if you don’t leave.”

It was a badly told lie. I didn’t know how I’d used the magic before, or whether I could use it again. I didn’t even know if I should use it again. Collapsing wooden beams and a fabric canopy was one thing. Several feet of earth and rocks lay above our heads now.

“Right now, you’re an untrained boy with a sword, swinging wildly in any direction you want and calling it success if you happen to hit something.”

“That’s right,” I countered. “So get back, or I might happen to hit you.”

“Give me that bulla.” Radulf’s face darkened. “Now.”

“No.” I kept my body square to him and hoped he couldn’t see the way my legs were shaking. “Leave. Before I use the magic.”

A wicked smile stretched across Radulf’s face. “You’re not the only one who can use magic, you know.”

Then he raised a hand, and punched it forward. It sent an invisible wave of air toward me. Even if I couldn’t see it, I definitely felt it, like he’d thrown a boulder at my chest. I took the hit directly, but it traveled to my shoulder, igniting the Divine Star with pain.

I yelled, but flung out my chained hands as if to empty the pain somewhere else. There was no reaction from him, so for a moment, I thought perhaps I hadn’t done anything. He started forward, but then a large cracking sound came from above the doorway between us. Heavy chunks of bricks fell, along with the dirt and rocks they had held back. It was similar to what had happened in Caesar’s cave, shortly after I’d first put the bulla around my neck. But that magic hadn’t come through me then, or if it did, I was feeling it far more powerfully now. The falling rocks forced Radulf back, but once everything settled, he and his men would be able to climb over the debris to get to me. Radulf ordered the soldiers forward, but then other loosened bricks started falling as well. No one obeyed his order.

“Where’s my archer?” Radulf yelled through the dusty air. “Fire into that room!”

“I’m as good as any of them!” Aurelia yanked the bow off her back and fit it with an arrow, which she immediately released. It hit the hand of a man who had been reaching for his own bow, and he yelped with pain.

More rocks continued to fall, until the doorway between the two chambers was completely barricaded. So much brick had come down that the entire cistern looked in danger of collapsing, and escape was impossible now.

With the children huddled around her, Aurelia glared over at me. “That was a great move, Nic! Solve a big problem by creating a bigger one. I should have given you up!”

“You should have listened to my warning!”

“Aurelia!” One of the girls pointed above her head where the end of a large pipe stuck out from the rocks and mortar. The rushing sound of water was easily heard, and growing.

“We disconnected that pipe!” Even as Aurelia cried out the words, water gushed from the pipe. “How is this happening?”

“What a mystery!” I yelled back. “Do you think maybe they reconnected it?”

“Why would he do that?”

“That great man of yours, General Radulf, intends to drown us in here.”

“In a room you just sealed off!” she yelled. “I should’ve turned you in after you FAINTED!”

“Open this doorway,” Radulf said, directly into my head. “The water will empty out. You can still save them.”

I had no intention of opening that doorway to him. But I would do everything I could to save the others in here with me. All of them were innocent, even Aurelia, I supposed. The water was rising fast. If we were to have any chance of getting out, I needed magic.

Water poured down on all of us, and seemed to be filling the room faster than it should have. The children were holding one another and scrambling away from the falling water, and I knew from their cries that I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t swim.

“Everyone stand back!” I yelled above the noise. I had little strength, but plenty of anger at what Aurelia had just said. Out of spite alone, I raised my hands again, imagining my fingers were grabbing the dirt itself, and pulled downward. Large clumps of earth, roots, and rock came with it. They fell into the water, which was already up to my knees, splashing mud all over us. I didn’t figure the mud was a problem. Dirt was nothing, especially compared to drowning.

Aurelia pushed the children onto the rocks that had collapsed and out of the direct path of the falling dirt. Over their heads, I noticed a rusty ladder, partially attached to the wall. If they could reach it, and assuming I could create a hole above us, that would be their escape.

I started forward to join them, but another large chunk of earth fell, landing on my back and bringing me down with it. The water level wasn’t so deep yet, except that my legs, still chained together, slipped out from beneath me and my head went completely under. I struggled to set my legs upright, but my manacled arms were little help. I tried rolling to my back long enough to take a breath but the weight of the chains fought me.

I finally got one foot braced against a sunken rock, allowing me to come up long enough to look for sky above. Had I broken through? I hoped so, because I didn’t know how I’d find the strength to try again. But to my dismay, I saw nothing but more falling dirt before I was thrown back underwater. I hadn’t caught a breath this time, so when I breathed in, water came with it, flooding my lungs.

Then a hand grabbed my arm and dragged me to the surface. I began choking for air as I came up again. Aurelia had waded back in and gotten me balanced on my feet. Still holding my arms, she yelled, “I don’t have the key. You’ll have to break your chains.”

The water was past my waist now, creating a swirling current that threatened to pull me under again. But Aurelia kept hold of me while I closed my eyes and focused on the manacles. Because of the magic I’d just emptied into the room and the injury to my arm, it was so much harder than the ropes had been, but I braced my right hand on the wall, and with my left arm, split the chains around my wrists.

“There’s a hole above us!” one of the children said. “But we can’t get there.”

I looked up. The children had climbed as high as the ladder allowed them, but the water would soon reach those on the lower rungs. Nothing other than some dangling roots were there to get them over to the hole in the ground, and we had no way of knowing if they would hold the weight of the children. If they tried to cross and fell, they’d land back down here in the water.

“Help them,” I said to Aurelia.

“What about those chains on your legs? They might be harder to break.”

She said it as if she didn’t have everything to do with that fact. But I bypassed the argument and told her again to help the younger ones get out. Once she left, as carefully as I could, I waded through the water, at my chest now. But I only got a short ways before I gave up. I needed my legs free, but it also took all my concentration to hold my balance. I didn’t want to go under again.

“This isn’t worth it, Nic.” Radulf’s voice in my head was so calm that it seemed out of place with the rest of the chaos literally spilling into this room. “The water’s pressure will open the doorway anyway, so there’s no point in making things harder on all of us.”

“There are children in here!” I yelled. “Stop this!”

“He can’t hear you out there,” Aurelia called down to me. And maybe he couldn’t, but I had to say something. She didn’t know how his words thundered between my ears, whether I wanted them there or not.

Anger began filling me, crowding out every other sense of fear, guilt, and despair. I was consumed with fury at what Radulf was doing, and a desire to prove Aurelia wrong in every possible way. It was enough that even without concentrating on it, my next step forward broke apart the chains. The pull threw off my balance and I fell sideways into the water.

Or I thought I was sideways. I thrashed my hands through the water, but that sent out more magic, which pulled chunks of dirt and rock down from above. I vaguely heard the children yelling at me to stop what I was doing, but I didn’t know how. One large rock fell from above, landing on the dangling chain of my left hand and locking me to the bottom of the room, far below the water.

I struggled to break loose, which cost me the last of my air. My lungs burst apart and I flailed around for my life. Finally, I broke enough of the chain to push up off the ground and spear my way to the top.

I came up long enough to choke out some of the water, and to see the hole had widened, making it easier for the children to climb onto dry earth.

When Aurelia saw me surface, she called my name and started to say something else, but I went under again. So much dirt and rock had fallen that the water was now a thick, blinding soup. At least the ones who were innocent would get out. Unfortunately, the list of innocents did not include me, which was something I would have to accept. Maybe this was what I deserved for my crimes. As I sank to the floor again, I put both hands on the bulla, letting it warm me.

“Why aren’t you fighting?” Radulf said to me. “Foolish boy, it is not in you to give up so easily!”

I ignored him. This wasn’t giving up. I just needed a rest.

“You will fight!” Radulf said. “Put your feet on the bottom and push yourself up to the air!”

In my years as a slave, I had received thousands of orders, directing my every move. It wasn’t up to us to think, only to obey. And though I always bristled against those orders, this time my fight had to be for obedience. I righted my body in the water, then found the cistern floor and pushed hard against it. I shot upward and quickly found air. But this time, as I began sinking again, something went around my neck and one arm. I grabbed hold of it and realized I was caught inside the bow Aurelia had been carrying. I rolled in the water and saw her in the water with me, one arm locked around the ladder, and the other dragging me toward her.

When she was closer, she grabbed my arm and then pulled me with her onto the ladder. She lifted the weapon off my head and then cursed. “That figures. You broke it!”

Still trying to catch my breath, I noticed her bow, which was cracked where I had held it. I should’ve felt sorry, but I didn’t. With a good bow, and her temper, chances were she’d shoot me once we reached the surface. If she handed me her knife, I might try breaking that too.

She dumped the bow back into the water, and then told me to start climbing. It seemed so far to the surface that I couldn’t understand how any of the others had already made it. My lungs ached, and my entire body was drained, but she yelled, “I can’t get out until you do. So move!”

Forcing myself to climb was a test of willpower rather than strength. But with every rung, I came closer to the hole I’d opened up. At the top, I found some exposed roots poking through the dirt, which slid through my wet hand. I grabbed them again, wrapping the thinner tendrils around my fingers. Useless as my injured arm was, it served me no worse than my other arm, drained by the magic.

Radulf seemed to sense it too. In a warmer voice than I’d heard before, he said, “Magic is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger you’ll be. You’re already stronger than you were. Come with me, Nic. I can teach you everything.”

Was this how he had lured others into his web? “Never,” I whispered. I had no idea whether he could hear me too, but for that one word, I hoped so.

Finally, I was topside and reached back to help Aurelia climb safely to the top as well. The twelve other children who had been underground now sat around me in the field. It seemed to be very early in the morning, long before even the farming slaves would be awake, so we all lay out to rest.

Aurelia was beside me in the dirt. I caught her sideways glance when she said, “Maybe you were right about Radulf. He’s going to be a problem for us.”

I heard her sigh, but I was already thinking about the other thing she said, that he was a problem for us. My eyes slowly closed, but I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Aurelia’s fate had suddenly become intertwined with my own. The only question was if that would make things better, or worse.

When I next opened my eyes, Aurelia was no longer beside me. As waterlogged as my brain still was, I knew she had lain here and spoken of our problem. I couldn’t explain that, because although my entire world had turned upside down, one thing I had never doubted was that Aurelia hated me. Stranger still was acknowledging the presence of just the opposite emotion inside me. I disliked Aurelia, of course. But maybe my dislike for her wasn’t as intense as I had thought.

More damp now than wet, I rolled to my side, and took in the fresh smell of dirt and the olive trees overhead. Their fruit was still too hard for eating, which was disappointing. I might’ve braved their bitterness just to have some food to gnaw on once I got up. If I could’ve gotten up.

My entire body felt like a rag that had been wrung dry. Back at the mines, Sal had once punished me by requiring me to dig through rock for twenty-four hours without sleep or meals. Once I was finally allowed to rest, it had taken an hour for my muscles to stop shaking from pain. It was awful then, but that was nothing to how I felt now. Worst of all was my injured arm, which lay on the ground in front of me like an empty tube that was attached to my shoulder. With the broken manacle cuffed around my wrist, I couldn’t lift it, and the limb didn’t even seem to be part of me anymore. The bandage over my injury was still knotted at the end, but the rest had come undone and lay in a heap on the dirt. And though I felt its burn, I couldn’t see where the infection was. That would require me to rotate the arm, which simply wasn’t going to happen. I didn’t even care to look.

I flicked my eyes upward at the sound of voices some ways off from me. Aurelia was gathered in a tight circle with the other children, who occasionally leaned back to look at me, but I couldn’t hear any of what they said.

Finally, one of the children got up, the African girl with the wide eyes. She walked over to me and said, “Thank you and I’m sorry.”

I smiled – even that hurt – and asked, “Why and why?”

“You saved our lives down there.”

“What happened was my fault. You don’t have to thank me for that.” Then I added, “Why are you sorry?”

“For the chains.”

“You were only following orders. Maybe you can help me get these manacles off, though.”

“That’s why I’m sorry. The key got lost when all that water came in.”

I rolled my eyes. That was a problem. If I was going to be on the surface with the entire population of Rome after me, I needed a way to blend in. With a little luck, I had some chance of passing as a free person, as Aurelia did, but not with manacles on my wrists and ankles, and lengths of chain dangling from every limb. They were almost as bad as a brand on my forehead.

“Don’t worry,” I told the girl. “That’s not your fault either.” Then I smiled up at her. “What’s your name?”

She started to answer, until Aurelia appeared behind her. “Don’t say your name,” she said. “It’s time to leave. I’ll find you again when I can.”

The girl thanked me once more, and then wandered back to the others. I looked past Aurelia to watch the children form into a tight group, check around for anyone else in the area, and walk away.

I squinted at Aurelia. “Why can’t she tell me her name?”

“Because I still don’t trust you.”

“No, of course not. I only saved all of your lives.”

“And why do you think they needed saving?”

“When you said the pipe was disconnected, I assumed you’d destroyed it. Not taken two pieces apart.”

“Nobody would’ve cared to fix it unless they were after you!”

“You brought me there!”

“You asked for help. I gave it to you!”

“Right. If your idea of help was to put me in chains that nearly got me drowned!” I changed my mind about her. Again. At the moment, I had every confidence in my dislike for Aurelia.

“Sit up,” she said. “It feels ridiculous to argue while you’re lying there like a half-dead fish.”

“I feel like a half-dead fish.” But I gritted my teeth and got to a sitting position. When I did, I found Aurelia’s knife at my neck again.

“Tell me how you do the magic,” she said. “Also, I want that bulla back. It’s safer with me.”

This time, her knife was more of an annoyance than a threat, and I pushed the blade aside. “Is that how you make new friends, with a knife at their throats?”

She knew I had called her bluff, and put the knife back in its sheath. “I don’t make new friends,” she mumbled. “Or keep any.”

Hardly a surprise. “What about those children?”

“They’re trying to stay out of slavery, and I help them. That’s all.”

“Where are they going?”

“To other safe havens. But don’t ask where because I don’t think you should know.”

I didn’t think so either. Radulf could speak inside my mind, and I worried that he might also have the power to read it. I hoped not, but until I was sure, I wouldn’t ask for information I shouldn’t have.

“Why do you stay in Rome?” I asked. “If you’re as strong as everyone says, then leave.”

Aurelia bowed her head and her fingers traveled to the crepundia around her neck. Nothing more needed to be said. I understood now. Her family was here, somewhere. Just as my sister must be here too. Somewhere.

“Listen, I’m sorry that happened below,” I said. “I had no idea Radulf knew where I was, or that he could do something like that.”

“And I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. When I take you to Horatio, we’ll convince him of how dangerous Radulf is.”

My mouth literally fell open. Either she was evil or completely insane because I was pretty sure I had just proven how difficult it would be to force me to do anything. That said, when I stood, my legs were wobbly and Aurelia came closer to assist me. Before she could, I locked my knees and turned away. Every time she helped me, my situation got worse, which was no small accomplishment since it had started out pretty close to the bottom.

“You walk like you have two broken legs,” Aurelia said. “How are you going to run from me if you can’t walk?”

“I’m not going to run,” I said. “But I won’t obey you either. I’ll never have a master again.”

Aurelia hesitated and then smiled sideways at me. “Finally, you’re beginning to make sense.”

Well, it wouldn’t last long. Because the idea I was about to propose defied any logic. Hopefully, it was worth the risk. “If you’re going to find your family, then you need money, right?”

“I need a lot more than what you could pay me.”

“How much is Senator Horatio offering for me?”

“It’s not about the money, Nic. I really think he will help you.”

I snorted. Maybe he wouldn’t try to drown me in a cistern like Radulf had, but … actually, maybe Horatio would. According to him, I was only a filthy slave boy.

Aurelia rolled her eyes. “It’s five hundred denarii. But even if there were no reward, I’d still take you to him, for everyone’s safety, including yours. Who knows what damage you’ll cause next?”

Certainly, I didn’t know, and for that reason, I had a hard time arguing with her. But that didn’t mean I would cooperate. Not the way she wanted anyway.

“Maybe we can help each other,” I said.

Her brows pressed together. “How?”

“I think Senator Valerius took my sister from the mines, at my request. I don’t know my way around Rome, especially with everyone looking for me. I don’t know the customs here, and I don’t know how to control the magic. I need your help to find Valerius.” I drew in a shallow breath, one that chilled my lungs and sent shudders through me. “If you can take me to him, then afterward I will go with you to Horatio. He’ll give you your reward money.”

She frowned, obviously skeptical. “Just like that?”

“No, not just like that. I have to be sure my sister is safe, and I hope that Valerius will help me get my freedom from the emperor. Then Horatio won’t be able to touch me.”

“Horatio is the presiding magistrate of the Senate. If anyone can convince the emperor to spare your life, it’s him. I’m sure he can help you.”

My eyes narrowed. “Don’t pretend to care about what happens to me. All you want is the money. Well, you’ll get it. But you have to help me first.”

Her eyes shifted to the bulla folded in my palm. “What happens to that?”

“I don’t know.” Radulf would kill me for it, the emperor too, and probably Horatio. Which meant Aurelia might do the same, especially if we ran into any problems on our way to finding Valerius. I shrugged and said, “I’ll keep it until I find my sister. I might need it, especially if Radulf tries anything else. But when this is all over, I’ll be glad to get rid of it. It’s brought me nothing but trouble.”

Aurelia bit her lip while she thought about my proposal. “Valerius is a senator, so I can find him. But once we do, getting close to him will be your problem. Runaway slaves can’t just walk up to senators. For that matter, neither can plebian girls.”

“He’ll see me.” That part of the plan didn’t concern me at all.

“And once your sister is safe, you’ll come with me to see Horatio? You promise me that?”

“You’ll get your money, Aurelia.”

Then her head tilted. “What about Radulf? This could be dangerous.”

I barely held back a mischievous smile. “Yeah, I figured you wouldn’t have the courage.”

She lightly punched my arm – my injured arm, but I probably deserved that much. “I’m in.”