Wolf’s Empire: Gladiator (68 page)

“I'm no underworld shade,” I said. “It's me.”

She took a hesitant step forward and craned her neck to get a better look at mine. “The ambrosia?” she asked.

“Yes. The Hyperboreans put me back together.”

“There's not even a mark,” she said in amazement.

Now I saw that she wasn't the same as the person I last saw, either. Her severed hand had been replaced. Not reattached like my head, but replaced entirely. But by what?

“The Hyperborean kid did it,” she said, holding it up. “It's all solid ichor.”

Words weren't enough to convey the thanks I owed Lumen for giving Julia back her hand, but he could see my heart—he knew how I felt. Lumen told me that he didn't have ichor to spare, and yet he did this. My own life meant nothing, but this … this gesture was beyond value to me. It went a small way to repairing the damage I'd caused when I was half mad with rage.

“It's a strange sensation,” Julia continued. “I can feel with it just as I did before.” She touched the tips of her ice hand with her left hand. “It's not even cold.” Her crystal fingers moved quickly back and forth. Intrigued, I reached out and she let me touch it. The surface was translucent and contained the same swirling light present in Hyperborean bodies, but at the same time it felt like it was made of skin, muscle, and bone. It really was just like her hand had been before. There were even lines on the palm and fingernails. It was a perfect replica in ichor.

“What do you think?” she asked.

Before I could answer, Julia stepped forward and delivered a right cross to my chin with her icy fist that sent me reeling back. The pain was explosive, no ambrosia to muffle its impact.

“You're right,” she said. “The barbarians put you back together good. Now I'm going to take you apart again.”

Concretus stepped in suddenly and grabbed Julia's arm, holding her in place.

“I guess I deserved that,” I said. I could taste blood in my mouth and my lip began to swell.

“And more,” Julia said angrily before kicking uselessly at Concretus' leg. “Let go of me, you overgrown icicle!”

“Please, let her go,” I said to the giant. He looked to Lumen and then his grip loosened, allowing Julia to pull her hand free.

For the first time I felt like I could sense something resembling a personality in the ice monster Lumen had named Concretus. He had a song that was almost tangible. It was uniquely his, but it also connected him to the greater song. He listened only to Lumen, and only because his queen had given him the role of guardian. He didn't like humans, or much of anything else, for that matter. He was driven to complete the Hyperborean goal of reunion with the source from which they came. Nothing else was of any concern. If Lumen was their Spartacus, this being was the Hyperborean Hercules, or Theseus. Focused, aloof, proud.

“I get the sense that you're not a prisoner here,” Julia said.

“None of us are. The Hyperboreans are allies. They're on our side.”

“You've opened up a dialogue with them? You can communicate?”

“I can, with Lumen here,” I said. “We share … a bond.”

I looked at Crassus quickly. Not a word, not a flutter from him as I pulled Julia aside and quietly filled her in on my mother's message so Crassus couldn't hear. She listened carefully, nodding from time to time. I found I couldn't bring myself to tell her about the Hyperboreans being messengers of the gods, and I couldn't talk about Aulus. It was a simple idea to grasp when you were connected to a being's heart and mind, but somehow trying to explain it in words, especially when I wasn't sure how I felt about the situation, seemed too hard. So I told the short version of the truth—that the Hyperboreans were using Lumen to gather up all the ichor, that my mother was helping them, that they needed our help to leave, and that the tunnels around us were being scoured by arachnoraptors. I even told her about Aquilinus' ability to possess the Blood Hawks from a distance.

“Gods, that's a lot to take in,” Julia said when I finished. “When you're involved, Accala, everything's like some insane opera. Nothing's simple, and yet I feel sorry for these beings. I saw the city. It was the most perfect thing I've ever seen. It was hard for me to see it fall.”

“That's why I must help them,” I said. “To make up for that, but also because the Hyperborean mission and ours are virtually the same.”

“If we can get this little walking ambrosia mine off this world, off the table altogether, then we can still foil the Sertorians,” Julia agreed.

“Lumen. His name is Lumen,” I said. “And it's not ambrosia, it's ichor. He's filled with the blood of the gods.”

“Lumen.” She turned to him. “Is that how you're called?”

Lumen stared back at her. Without the mind-to-mind bond I shared with him, he couldn't communicate. Most Romans would consider him a dumb animal, but Julia could sense his intelligence.

“What about your bodyguard?” Julia asked Lumen. “If we have to risk our lives to save you, will he step up and fight for us?”

Ah. Concretus will, more than likely,
Lumen said.

“Yes, he will,” I translated.

“Did the ice monster say anything at all, or was it the midget?” Julia asked. “I can't understand them, but I can see who you're looking at. I'm not stupid. Tell me what they really say, Accala, you owe me that much.”

And more, I thought.

“Lumen says it's more than likely that he will.”

“What do you mean more than likely?”

He is a servant of the gods, one of the most senior of his people, a guard to the queen. He considers humans …

I translated and then waited for Lumen to finish the rest.

“What?” Julia demanded.

Treacherous, deceitful, untrustworthy, two-faced. I'm not sure how many more synonyms I can think of to capture the feeling he's transmitting.

I hesitated but translated, and Julia simply shrugged.

“At least he's honest, and he's not too far wrong. What matters is that we have him. Lumen here is the thing Aquilinus needs. Fate has dealt us that card, put him right in our lap. From what you've told me, you don't have any idea what's going on up there. A lot has changed in the last two days.”

“Tell me,” I said.

“Accala?” Crassus looked at me from the far side of the cell like he was waking up from a long sleep. His eyes suddenly went as wide as saucers, and he jumped up and rushed toward me. “Accala! Darling! Thank the gods!” he yelled at the top of his voice.

Before I could think, I punched him in the face, sending him sailing across the cell and into the wall behind him. A solid punch to a frail body. He slid down the crystal surface right back into the spot where he sat before. I was glad to see that I was getting some of my coordination back.

“Accala…” he called in a pathetic tone. He looked wounded, like a child who just had his favorite toy smashed.

“And he deserved that,” Julia said to me. And then to Crassus: “You'll shut up and keep the volume down, or I'll kill you myself. I tried, you know, to kill him, but they stopped me. I tried to explain to them that it was in everyone's best interests that he die, but they don't understand.”

Perhaps he was mad, perhaps he was faking it. Either way, Gaius Sertorius Crassus was always dangerous.

I didn't know why Lumen rescued Crassus, but looking at him, barely able to stand, I couldn't think what use he would serve, except to slow us down or turn on us when our guard was dropped.

He will be of use,
Lumen said, once again in an older and wiser voice than Aulus'.
Mother asked that he be saved.

“The queen?”

Yes.

“What's wrong with him?” I asked Julia.

“Crassus the mighty beast master tried to take on the Hyperborean chieftain over there when he dragged us away. The chieftain broke his arms and legs and put him into the ice. They tortured him. I didn't think I could ever feel sorry for Crassus, but after what he went through…”

“Ice needles?” I asked.

“Ice needles,” she replied. “When he came out, his arms and legs were healed, but he looked like this.”

“They did the same thing to me,” I said. “Believe it or not, they were trying to help. They flushed the polluted ambrosia out of his system.”

“I worked that out just fine,” she said, “but it drove Crassus mad. He's not just a cracked egg, he's been thrown in a bowl and scrambled.”

“Don't listen to her,” Crassus said quickly. “I'm no threat to you. I've never seen things more clearly. At first I thought it was impossible, but he showed me.” He pointed at Lumen. “He showed me!”

“Showed you what?” I asked.

He was talking excitedly, his eyes were wide like a child opening presents at Saturnalia.

“They serve the gods,” he whispered loudly.

“You can understand Lumen?” I asked Crassus. “You hear him speak?” I wondered how he managed that trick without my pin.

All three of you have the smallest amounts of my energy in you. Julia to heal her hand, and you and Crassus so that you could survive your wounds and be purged of the ambrosia. He has received the least, but he has a natural sensitivity and is able to sense some fragments of our song now,
Lumen transmitted to me.

That was great, the last bloody thing we needed. It was bad enough that Crassus lived, but now this?

“Lumen,” Crassus said slowly, pronouncing the name like he was swilling a fine wine between his teeth. “No, they do not speak to me with words, but I can catch glimpses of images and feelings. It's breaking me up to try and understand it; it's too much for me to see all at once. But the higher I climb, the farther away they seem. We are so very small, Accala. Our wings were borrowed. Like Icarus, we've flown too close to the sun. We are not…” He paused, as if trying to swallow something that had caught in his throat. “We are not the best and greatest form of life in the universe. These beings are greater than us.”

“Speak for yourself,” Julia said to Crassus. “He's been ranting like that for days,” she said to me. “It's been driving me crazy.”

Crassus knew the truth, but it unhinged him. He'd swung from being a total believer of Aquilinus to becoming obsessed with the Hyperboreans. There was no room in Crassus' universe for individual responsibility; he'd always looked for a bigger power to permit him an avenue for his own excesses. He glanced quickly at Lumen, his eyes filled with adoration like the small alien was Hermes himself come down from the clouds, and then he rushed forward again, coming low this time, throwing himself at my feet. I tried to step back, but the Sertorian gripped my left leg and held on for dear life like I was a ballast in a shipwreck. He looked up at me with manic, desperate eyes.

“You know what this means?” he demanded. “We were wrong. There
are
gods! And they're not like us. It's all blown to pieces, everything we believed. The proconsul's entire plan needs to be rewritten!”

“Let go of me,” I said, kicking him. “What's happening on the surface?” I asked Julia. “And how do you know about it?”

She pointed to something in the corner that I'd missed when I'd entered. It was Julia's armilla and a small tool kit.

“The Hyperboreans threw some of my equipment in here after they fixed my hand,” Julia said. “I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I've been able to pick up small bursts of coverage.”

“Coverage? You mean the tournament's still running? The last I saw was
Incitatus
firing on the stadium.”

I had hoped that the emperor would bring things under control. Discipline Aquilinus and the Sertorians for overstepping the mark.

“Listen for yourself. I've been picking up bits and pieces. I've put together a compilation of the important information,” Julia said, crouching down and passing me the armilla. She'd rigged up a small booster pack, and a long aerial protruded from its side. “Lean in close. I'll keep the power output and volume down so we don't attract the arachnoraptors.”

I could hear the voice of Julius Gemminus excitedly running off at the mouth with the commentary. The signal was fuzzy, interspersed with static. I listened for a name, for a familiar audible string that would help give me context.

“Behold the mighty Viridians! Savage wolves. Be honest, haven't you, as I have, grown weary of their moral posturing?”

It was Aquilinus' voice.

“Their tiresome and arrogant lectures on virtue? Only a few years ago, at the height of their influence, it seemed that barely a day went past without some prominent Viridian strutting about the floor of the Forum like a peacock, making a nauseating Catonian speech that we all had to endure. Placing themselves above the rest of us. Now look where arrogance and pride gets you.”

It sounded like the Wolves had survived, at least some of them, but what was Aquilinus up to? How was it that he had any say over the games?

Julius Gemminus' voice came in over the top as Aquilinus' speech came to an end. “All hail Emperor Aquilinus. Glory and honor to the divine House Sertorian.”

“Emperor Aquilinus?” I dropped the armilla like a red-hot coal.

“Hey, be careful with that,” Julia said, scooping it back up.

“Emperor Aquilinus? Why didn't you tell me at once?”

“Well there's not much you can do about it right now, is there? Besides, I'm not exactly well disposed toward you.”

“
Emperor
Aquilinus?”

“Emperor Aquilinus,” Julia confirmed. “He's revealed his seventh precept and expects everyone to worship him as a god now.”

“I can't believe it.”

“It's true,” Julia said. She picked up the armilla, tapped at it, and Aquilinus' voice started up again.