Wolf’s Empire: Gladiator (75 page)

He doesn't respond well to threats,
Lumen said.

“Please,” I begged Lumen. “Tell him to trust me. We'd never be able to make it all the way to Olympus without being spotted from the stadium. I'm a gladiator. This is the game I know how to play. It's the game I know how to win.”

I had a sense of Concretus' indignation as he dug his feet into the ice to slow the sled enough to allow him to jump back on. He saw us, all Romans, as small, irritating insects—lesser beings that he must suffer in order to carry out his duty. Then we were picking up speed again, heading right into the heart of the conflict, but would we have enough momentum to drive through?

“Into position,” I ordered. “I'm going to put the sled on autopilot the moment we arrive.”

“Arrive where?” Julia yelled.

In the valley ahead of us, the Flavians had climbed aboard the Viridians' chariot, but it was too late for them to get through the yoke to the ice bridge. The shuttle from the station came in low, a ramp descending from its belly. Out of it came a new enemy chariot, shining gold and purple, Aquilinus' imperial killers in gold-and-purple armor stationed aboard it. They hit the ice three hundred yards out from Marcus' position, a landing that also cut off the Caninine chariot from the only path of escape.

Three hundred feet to go. The Talonites were all nicely clustered together. Once we made contact with the Ovidian, Arrian, and Tullian chariots we'd lose speed. We needed just enough momentum to cut through them. The moment they worked out what was going on and turned to counter our assault, we ran the risk of being caught dead in the space between the Caninines and the enemy—exposed on the ice for the Talonites to pick us off, or Aquilinus to steal our lives with his mock lightning, if he wasn't quick to recognize Lumen. Our best chance of saving the Caninines and imposing my own agenda on the games was a surprise attack—to even the odds. We'd clear a path for the Caninines to escape across the ice bridge and in the process take as many enemy lives as possible. We were almost on them and we had good speed, at least eighty miles per hour. I just hoped it was enough to break through.

“We're going to crash!” Julia yelled as we headed straight for the Talonite chariots. The Amber Boars were the closest and the lightest with both skirmishers out, the bulky Tullian chariot was fully manned, and the White Rams had only one skirmisher free.

“Like a ball hitting skittles,” I said. “Wait for my order to attack.”

I cast Orbis on a narrow trajectory first without activating my armor's arms, an ellipse with the shortest return arc, just as our sled smashed into the right rear of the black-and-amber Ovidian craft, the runt of the litter, tipping them right over as we barreled past. The Ovidians slid sideways as they went, colliding with the Tullians.

“Now!” I ordered, and we burst into action, attacking the enemy from behind.

Crassus stabbed with his javelin, and Julia struck with her arachnoraptor staff. As we sailed past, a pig-faced, pike-wielding Ovidian called Quadratus on a desultore skirmisher turned and looked at me, puzzled, unable to make out what I was doing there, what house I belonged to. As it dawned on him, he thrust his pike just as Orbis returned to me, passing through the back of the man's neck, killing him at once.

The dead body fell to the ground, and suddenly Crassus jumped off the transport and appropriated the Ovidian's skirmisher. He shot off on the vehicle in a wide arc behind us.

“Stop! Come back here!” I barked, but he wasn't listening. Was Julia right? Had he betrayed us already?

The Arrian chariot and its desultore skirmisher were closest now, the Tullians knocked twenty feet away by the last collision. I needed to give us a chance, to keep the Tullians out of this melee. I cast Orbis again, this time on a short and fast orbit. As he left my hand, the telescoping arm from the lapis armor reached out with a long, hooked curve and caught my discus, borrowing his momentum to swing him about like a great sling, throwing him fast and wide.

I drew my black-bladed gladius just as a lancer aboard the Arrian chariot, one of Aquilinus' replacement team members, used the reach of his weapon to attack me. As we clashed, lance against blade, I spied Julia at starboard keeping the Arrian skirmisher at bay. Concretus wasn't fighting. He was standing over Lumen in the center of the tray, shielding him from potential harm. Damn! With Crassus gone, I needed him to engage if we were going to make this work. His strength would mean the difference between survival and defeat.

As the Tullian chariot tried to move in, its driver took a cut to the neck, and his teammates discovered the perimeter I'd created with my discus. Anyone trying to flee or pull away, or anyone trying to get inside the circling discus' path, would be wounded. Orbis had three orbits in him before he lost speed and I had to recall him, but for now he was keeping the strong Tullians at bay and the weaker competitors close where I wanted them.

“Body count,” I yelled as I slipped the Arrian's guard and cut off his lead hand.

“I've taken two,” Julia replied.

Four to us, and from the sound of it at least two to Orbis. We were making progress, thinning the herd as we passed, but we were also running out of time. Orbis returned as the tray slowed. We were nearing the yoke. Hah! The Arrians were turning tail; they fled from us. Aquilinus on high was casting bolts at them to drive them back toward me, furious at their cowardice. We'd laid low at least six out of twenty-four with our surprise attack.

The transport tray came to a full stop right under the giant spears of the yoke. Not in front, not behind, but right below the crossbeam. This was where we would make our stand.

The Caninines were still hanging back, reluctant to drive forward from their cover. I was close enough now that I could make them all out. My eyes flashed back to one man who didn't belong in the arena—my uncle Proconsul Quintus Viridius Severus. Aquilinus must have thrown him down here for his amusement. He was an expert strategist, able to analyze any situation. So come on. Work out what was happening. Get moving. Marcus had worked it out. The emperor's death squad had driven him out from his cover, and he was sprinting toward the Caninines.

Aquilinus was bellowing now. Lightning flashed, registering his displeasure. But none struck us. It was all show, at least for the moment.

Now the Viridians broke from their cover and headed for the bridge. Yes! That's it. Only they hadn't seen Marcus. They were off, and Marcus didn't have a hope of catching them. He was caught out in the open, five hundred yards from our position. I waved to him, indicating that he should head to us, but he retreated toward cover. The chariot with Aquilinus' death squad was heading toward him from the southeast, so he could make cover in time and give himself a chance at survival. He was smart. He was betting that Aquilinus would order them to come to the aid of the Talonites once he realized that I was in the field. And he was right. The gleaming purple-and-gold chariot diverted course, heading right at us. We had to get clear and across that bridge, but not before the Caninines made it.

Four Ovidians, the ones who managed to get out from under their upturned chariot, came at us on foot. The first to reach me was an Ovidian hoplite, Brocchus. He thrust at me with his spear, and I blocked while drawing backward and then cast Orbis along the shaft of his spear and into his jugular. Orbis returned just as the Caninines crossed the bridge in the Viridian chariot. They made it! They were safe for now. At least one part of my plan had worked.

“I need your giant in this fight. Now!”

But Concretus just stood there defiantly. He was not abandoning Lumen for one second.

Betrayed by Crassus, unable to get the barbarian on side, now it was down to just Julia and me.

The Talonite gladiators suddenly pulled back. Why? Had Aquilinus seen Lumen? The death squad was almost upon us. We were three hundred yards to the bridge and then another quarter mile to cross it. We'd never make it in time, not with these on our tail. The rest of my plan to rejoin the Caninines and let every Roman in the empire know I was back in the tournament was not working. I would have to take on these assassins first. Perhaps they were not that good. After all, I took down the Blood Hawks. Just maybe Aquilinus had bitten off more than they could chew.

I cast Orbis right at the chariot, and a steel whip snaked out to knock him off course. My new armor responded at once, a black arm shooting out to recover the discus. If I didn't have the armor, I'd have lost him for certain. Who could block Orbis like that? Knock him clean out of the air with supernatural accuracy? Now that they were close enough, I could make out their faces through the gaps in their helmets. The man with the steel whip snapped it in the air above him. He looked right at me, gave me a feral grin. It was Licinus. And driving the chariot, the Dioscurii. All of them. They were all there. Back from the dead. The static-filled transmission squawked in my helmet's speaker.

“Salve, Mock Hawk. So glad to see you're alive. Did you miss me?”

XL

“T
HE
N
EW
G
ODS,”
A
QUILINUS
boomed above us. “No longer Blood Hawks, they are now Blood Eagles, the proof of my imperial power, descending from on high to punish those who oppose the natural ascendancy of the Roman people.”

How could this be? Pale, strong little Mania stood beside the dark Barbata—a vision of lethal beauty, preparing to cast her trident. No wounds, no injuries. They were fresh and well armed, ready to kill.

“I buried them,” I said to myself as much as to Julia. “They were dead.”

“It doesn't matter,” Julia said. “They're here now and we've got to deal with them. Keep it together, Accala.”

How could they have survived? Did the arachnoraptors dig them out?

They fell into the waters below the city-hive,
Lumen said to me.
All the ambrosia cast off in the process of gathering the ichor pooled there. Their bodies were saturated with it. It has given them a new lease on life.

“They're stronger than before,” I said. I could see it. They were radiant with ambrosia, and although I was cured of my addiction, thanks to Lumen, I was also weak, not as strong as these, not by a long shot.

Now what should I do? I had thought I was past this, that my fear of them died in Lumen's city-hive, that I was focused on the greater mission, but the sight of them sapped my strength and set my body to trembling. My knees felt weak, and I sank to the transport's floor.

“Get up, Accala,” Julia hissed. “You wanted to take the lead, now get up and fight.”

“Look at you,” Barbata called out to me in a disappointed tone. “You're all plain again. Come over here. Give us the little barbarian, and I'll make you beautiful again. We'll be sisters,” she said seductively.

I was still weak at the knees as Julia hauled me to my feet. “You can do this,” she said to me.

Even with the new armor, we were overmatched. The three Talonite chariots I set out against, I could handle. Hades, I could handle any other gladiators in the empire, but not these. I had to think of something, or it was all going to end right here. We couldn't match them head-to-head.

“Julia, get this tub moving.” We needed to get as close to the bridge as possible and the abyss on either side. The Sertorians could not be permitted to take Lumen.

“The engine's stalled,” Julia yelled. “I need a push start to fire the dynamo.”

“I need Concretus' strength,” I said to Lumen. “Without him now, all is lost.”

He nodded and turned to the giant, who despite his expressionless face seemed extremely irritated to have to leave Lumen's side, but he leaped down behind the transport and started pushing it toward the ice bridge. He pushed us like an old mine cart, and we were moving, gathering speed, only a hundred yards away, but now the Sertorians were closing. Twenty feet. I could hear the engine sputtering, but we didn't have any forward power yet. We couldn't escape, even if Julia got the engine running. Mania's darts flew about the air around us. Ten feet now. I couldn't take the Sertorians, but maybe I could buy us more time. Saving Lumen was the key, and if Concretus was as dangerous as I remembered from the caves, I needed him in this fight now, not playing workhorse or hovering over Lumen like an overanxious nanny.

“Faster!” Julia yelled as she desperately worked on the engine. “We need more speed!”

I went to lift Lumen up, but he seemed to be immovable, like a little mountain.

“Trust me,” I said to him. All of a sudden he was light as a feather and I could pick him up easily. As Licinus' chariot pulled up alongside, Mania and Licinus ready to strike, I threw Lumen right onto their chariot. The side of his crystal body collided with Mania, sending her sprawling backward ungracefully onto the deck. Licinus looked surprised that I had just handed over the prize without a fight.

“Are you begging for mercy?” he sneered. “You've just given away your only bargaining chip.”

“He's just on loan,” I replied. “He'll be coming back in a minute.”

One mighty leap, and Concretus was flying through the air, crashing onto the deck of the Sertorian chariot. The resulting impact sent Barbata stumbling backward as Concretus attacked Licinus, fighting his way to Lumen.

“The engine?” I yelled at Julia.

“I'm trying!”

Concretus had reached Lumen, but Licinus managed to bind the crystal giant's arms to his side, encircling the icy body with his steel whip. I threw Orbis at Licinus' chain and, with a power assist from the arms, hit it square in the middle. The impact ripped the end of the chain from the Sertorian leader's hands, creating just enough slack for Concretus to push the links of the whip up and over his head. Barbata and Mania had gotten to their feet, but I had one more trick. They were not used to the lapis arms of my new armor. As soon as Orbis returned, I cast him straight up, and then, as he came back down, the armored lapis band of my breastplate snaked out, caught up the discus, and swung him around before bringing him down like a hammer onto the starboard side deck of the Blood Eagles' chariot. The chariot tilted violently, sending Concretus and Lumen over the edge and onto the ice. Concretus jumped back aboard our sled, Lumen in his arms. The Hyperborean giant shoved me aside with one of his arms as he moved past to the front of the transport, clearly unimpressed.