Wolf’s Empire: Gladiator (59 page)

“That one was for my mother,” I said.

I threw Orbis and split the stalactite right down the middle, weakening it and helping Licinus so that he could struggle out from under it. He managed to break it off by twisting from side to side—gods, that must have hurt—and then pressed into the ground with his arms, arching his back and head to look at me.

“Did it feel good?” I asked. “To play at being a god when you unleashed your fire on this world?”

Licinus remained silent and started lumbering toward me on his knees. He was determined, I'd give him that.

“Come on, another five feet and you'll have your war chain,” I said. “You can do it.”

As his right hand stretched forward toward the weapon, I sent Orbis out and knocked it away. I'd inflicted some serious damage, but he hadn't screamed once. Suddenly, it was very important to me that he scream, that he acknowledge the power I exerted over him.

“Feeling a little lopsided?” I asked. “This isn't a fight. This is an operating table and I'm the surgeon. How many pieces do you think I could cut you into before I eventually take your head? I'm guessing that I can make at least twenty-four, one for each month that's passed since you took my mother and brother from me.”

“You've put a lot of thought into this,” he said.

I severed his left knee, and he fell forward. His fingers stretched out, just inches from his weapon now.

“Scream for me and I'll let you have the chain,” I said.

“You'll be the one doing the screaming, trust me,” he said, looking up at me, blood dripping from his wounds, a feral grin on his face. Licinus seemed intent on denying me my satisfaction but I wasn't in a rush. Like a fine meal, this had to be taken slowly; I had to savor each course. I'd break him and when he was at my feet, weeping and begging for mercy, only then would I take his head.

“You're boring me, Mock Hawk.”

I stepped forward, kicked him onto his back, and mounted him astride his waist. Orbis rained down cuts, slicing his face, his shoulder, splitting open his armor, slicing his chest. Someone was screaming. It was me.

“You bastard! How big will you talk when you don't have any balls?”

Licinus started to laugh. “Cut! Cut! That's the way to do it!”

I'd reduced him to a torso with stumps above the knee where legs should have been. In my mind I'd supposed that if Licinus took more ambrosia than the others, then he would feel the withdrawal come on more quickly, but based on how quickly his body was trying to heal itself, there must have been a saturation point where you were so full of ambrosia that the withdrawals were delayed or maybe even overcome for good. I took his advice and cut and cut, but no matter how much damage I did, Licinus wouldn't stop smiling.

Why wouldn't he break? He had nothing left. How could he possibly hope to recover from the mess I'd made of him?

“Now look at this. I knew you had it in you!”

I jumped off Licinus and spun about, ready to cast Orbis. It was Crassus. I hadn't even heard him coming.

“Well done. This is the Sertorian way,” Crassus said, beaming. “Look at you, you are magnificent.”

“There's no nobility in her,” Licinus said through broken teeth. “She still looks like a rabid dog. All teeth and foaming at the mouth. No cool precision, no surgical detachment.”

“She detached you well enough,” Crassus said to him.

I didn't know what to say. I had betrayed him, stolen the ambrosia and left him to fight Licinus on his own, but things weren't all bad. I could lull him along until Licinus was finished. I didn't trust Mania's coordinates, which meant I'd still need Gaius Crassus.

“Darling, I tried to find you but ran into the others instead,” I said. “They tried to stop me, but I defeated them and then rushed here to take Licinus. Let's finish him together.”

“That sounds plausible,” Crassus said. “But you go ahead, finish what you've started. I know you've savored this moment.”

“He's lying,” Licinus barked. “The moment you turn your back on him, he'll take you down. Just wait and see!”

Crassus scowled and responded by spearing his javelin down through his team leader's eye with enough force that I heard the crunch of the tip piercing the skull as it passed through the other side. Licinus fell limp as the javelin retracted.

“He's not dead,” I said.

“No. We'll have to separate body and head and keep them apart, but in the meantime we won't have to tolerate his incessant prattling.”

Was he telling the truth? This could still work. I'd finish Licinus here and now, and then let Crassus lead me to my brother. The best of both worlds.

“What I want is my brother,” I said. “Take me to him.”

“But he is here,” Crassus said with a puzzled expression. “Right here in this cavern. Look.”

I checked the location on my armilla and sure enough, I was right near the point Mania had indicated. But it had to be a trick. My brother wasn't here. And yet Crassus seemed so certain. I turned hesitantly, following the line he indicated with his javelin.

There was a glow coming from an alcove in the cavern wall, near all the rubble I'd created when I brought the stalactites down on Licinus.

Cautiously, I walked over to it, skirting my way around the basin, keeping an eye on Crassus and the ruin that was Licinus until I could get a better look. I maneuvered into a position where, if I turned to look, I could still catch any unexpected attack out of the corner of my eye.

Then I quickly turned and what I saw took my breath away. Perfectly preserved like a fly in amber, five feet into a wall of solid ice, wires running into his body through narrowly drilled holes into the crystalline rock face, transmitting data out to dozens of monitors on a central console, was my brother, Aulus Viridius Camillus.

*   *   *

A
ULUS WAS SURROUNDED BY
a half dozen Hyperborean bodies, his own body huddled like a curled-up fetus. The monitors beeped and jumped faintly; his heart and brain were active, if only dimly so. He was alive. He truly was alive. It was a faint signal, but there was hope.

Gods, I was so certain I'd felt Aulus, that he was at the other end of the signal generated by the pin, but I'd been dead wrong. The pin must lead to deposits of ichor after all. Even now there was heat coming from the pin, an intense radiation that led me to reach back and pluck it out. I had no fear of it. It burned my fingers, but they instantly healed.

“We call it diamond ichor,” Crassus said as he walked toward me. “It took them two years just to drill a hole to extract the pin from his hand. We can't get him out of there. It's up to you, Accala. Hurry now. Try to take him out. My armilla shows Barbata and the Dioscurii moving in on our location. We have only a few minutes.”

“You said they'd follow you once Licinus was dead.”

“Licinus isn't dead and it might take us some time to accomplish that. In the meantime he's still leader and, besides, I think Barbata might not be so well disposed toward you. I suggest we load up Licinus and your brother onto a transport and keep moving until we can solidify our position.”

With my brother before me, all other demands faded away. His safety was all-important. Crassus' idea was solid, keep moving. I couldn't risk the Hawks getting their hands on Aulus and with time I'd have more of a chance to find the Golden Wolves, or have them find us. Carbo and Marcus would protect my little brother. Besides, I still had the ambrosia. I was strong and even though my brother's life signs were weak, I had fifty phials that I was certain could revive him. Addiction was a small price to pay if the ambrosia could save Aulus' life.

First things first, though. Pin in hand, I thought about the dream that had plagued me for so long. Stuck behind a wall of dirty ice, my mother hacking at the ice with her pin, and then the roles reversed, me scratching at it, her inside. Now Aulus was trapped and I had the pin and only one idea of how to free him.

I held the pin like an ice pick and slowly struck down at the surface of what Crassus called diamond ichor. The crystal rippled beneath the pin's touch. The Hyperboreans could warp the ice, and now the pin allowed me to do the same. I took a deep breath and moved forward slowly, extending the pin before me. There was no resistance as I tentatively reached into the diamond ichor. It parted before me like water. I stretched out as far as I could, keeping a foot on the cavern floor, ensuring I could get back out, but it wasn't far enough. I'd have to venture even farther into the crystal. I prayed for the Furies to protect me. This couldn't end with me trapped like a fly in amber. My fingertips touched Aulus' forearm and then I grasped his wrist and pulled. It was like pulling him through water and I kept at it until I was embracing him, slowly pushing through the substance until we were both clear of it, back in the cavern.

I held his limp form across my body, carrying him to the center of the cavern. Then I lowered my little brother to the ground, cradling his body. I felt for his pulse. Gods, thank you. Aulus alive in my arms. I had never dared hope. I could see his eyes moving beneath the closed lids. He was dreaming.

“We need to go,” I said to Crassus.

“She ended up pulling your strings, didn't she?” It was Licinus. He must have partly healed back up. He sounded scornful. “It's classic. It's just too much. You can't even see that you've already lost our little contest with the proconsul.”

I glanced up to see Crassus standing over him, javelin leveled at his throat. I couldn't be distracted. I had to get some ambrosia into Aulus to make certain he lived without the sustenance he'd been receiving from the ambrosia grotto. Then I'd take Licinus' head so I didn't have to hear one more damned word pass his lips.

“She's accepted the precepts,” Crassus replied. “She's chosen to become one of the elect. She is the future and I love her. You, you're very soon to become the past, so I honestly can't see how you think you've beaten me.”

“Love? Don't be ridiculous. You felt what you were permitted to feel in order to carry out your role. That role has now reached its logical conclusion. You've wandered too far from the precepts, Gaius. You need to come home.”

“You're hardly in a position to lecture me on the precepts,” Crassus said. “The strongest shall prevail. The weak deserve their own fate.”

“Precisely. Now l think would be a good time for you to do your part. Look at her over there. So uppity and full of herself. She thinks she's got you dazzled, doesn't she? All kinds of plans for wrapping you around her finger, but I've told you a million times to watch out—wolf pussies have sharp teeth, they'll bite your cock right off just when you least expect it!”

I was just about to head over to where I'd stored the ambrosia when Aulus' eyes flickered open for a split second and he whispered, so quietly I could only just make out the words, “Look for me.”

“You're the fool, Gaius. And I can't bear to see her waste one more drop of ambrosia. I think it's time you stick that wolf bitch in the knee with your javelin and make sure to twist it about a bit so she feels it.”

I looked up to see Crassus standing over me, his face twisted with anger, purple with rage. It was too late, I couldn't defend myself. The steel spike plunged into the back of my left knee joint, driving me forward to the ground. With his boot, he crushed my wrist and then kicked Orbis out of my hand, sending my discus scuttling across the floor.

“Crassus?” I asked.

“How do you like that, you shit-eating whore?”

It was Crassus' voice, but there was nothing left of him in the face. The same face he had shown me in the camp when he rejected my advances, and that I'd seen in Mania and Barbata. I didn't know what was going on, only that I had to protect Aulus, get him out of there somehow. I couldn't stand up. My knee buckled, so I threw myself over Aulus' body. Crassus pulled me off and kicked me so that I found myself opposite Licinus, who was sitting himself up, reaching for his severed body parts. “And the other one, Crassus, get it in there,” Licinus suggested, and the javelin drove home again. Despite the ambrosia, I felt it; the point grinding against bone was agonizing.

“How do you like that, you tease?” Crassus asked. “Nothing else seemed to satisfy you. A big fat lance, does that do the trick?”

“The good thing about your weapon is that it's easy to stick back pieces that it slices off,” Licinus said casually, pushing his right ankle back in place. “Got to make sure to put the right foot back on the right leg.

“Crassus, would you please put the point of your javelin through the back of her neck? Right through the voice box. I'm so tired of listening to her bark on and on.”

My mind was flailing to understand what had gone wrong. As I struggled to rise, the javelin withdrew and then reentered my body. The pain was like a white light, intense and blinding, and then there was only darkness.

XXXII

W
HEN CONSCIOUSNESS RETURNED,
I was pinned to the ground. For a second I couldn't see a thing. It was Crassus' javelin; he never removed it. I couldn't turn my head, was locked down with a quarter of my face pressed against the cold floor. Then my vision cleared. I could see Licinus with my left eye. I didn't understand what was happening. I'd had it all under control.

“She's awake,” Licinus said. “Are you enjoying finally giving that wolf bitch what she deserves?”

“She's had it coming so long,” Crassus spat. “Had it fucking coming.”

This wasn't Crassus, not the man I knew. It was like he'd devolved to something little better than an animal, worse than an animal.

“What do you have to say about this relationship you've had going with Accala, Crassus?”

“Love. Gods, what a lot of rot,” Crassus barked. “It would be laughable if it weren't so tragic.”