Mark of the Thief (12 page)

I couldn’t let Sal see me again — he’d talk until the soldiers eventually cornered me and it wouldn’t be hard for Sal to prove I was the boy Radulf wanted to find. Sal was a roach, and had abused every slave in the mines simply because he could. How many times had I wished to the gods he would get what he deserved?

But not today. Sal could have killed me for trying to escape the mines, but he didn’t. I’d certainly given him plenty of reasons to do it before then as well. I had to help him now.

The criminals were unshackled, then quickly sent up into the arena. I heard the hisses from the audience when they appeared, and I knew that one man was almost immediately attacked by an animal because I heard his screams for help right above my head and the cheering that followed. It was horrible, but at least it wasn’t Sal’s voice.

If Caela and I did not leave in the next few minutes, she’d be taken to the arena and hunted down. Then Felix would come for the bulla, and for me. If we left now, we both had a chance to live, and yet I could not leave knowing I had let Sal go to his death.

Caela would have to help save him. I didn’t know how to convince her to help, but I had to try. I started running to Caela’s cage, but was blocked by two soldiers on my way. Felix was with them.

“I’m sorry,” Felix said. “Please know that I didn’t want this.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“This!” One soldier grabbed my arms while another knocked the flat end of his sword behind my knees and sent me to the ground. I cursed at him and even threw out a punch until he swatted my mouth and got me in the servile position they wanted.

While they bound my hands in front of me, Felix said, “If it makes you feel better, I’m getting no reward for the bulla. The emperor wants the people to see the bestiarius take it from you after your death and present it to him. He thinks that if Rome has any enemies in the audience, it’s the best way for them to know he has the power now.”

“I’ve committed no crime,” I said, struggling against the ropes. A soldier behind me took exception to that and hit me in the back, forcing the breath from my chest.

“You committed several crimes,” Felix said. “You stole that bulla and tried to escape your master at the mine. And only yesterday, someone spotted you eating a stolen apple.”

I was still fighting, though I was quickly losing against the soldiers. “Those are all lies, Felix. You know they are!”

“Not all of them,” he said. “A slave who steals from an emperor’s treasure has committed treason. If that emperor is also a demigod, then it’s heresy. There is nothing I can do to save you.”

“What about Caela? She won’t cooperate for anyone but me.”

“We’re counting on that,” Felix said.

A fine brown horse was brought in by another slave, and even from her cage quite far from us, I heard Caela already squawking. One of the men at the lifts had explained why griffins hated both horses and men. The men, because they always tried to steal the griffin’s gold. And the horses, because they carried the men to their crimes.

Despite my protests, the soldiers lifted me onto the back of the horse and then tied my feet to each foothold of the saddle.

“If you try to slide off, this horse will drag you to your death,” Felix said.

The soldier beside me laughed. “And if you don’t, that griffin will take care of it for you. She’s already angry.”

They led me to a larger ramp normally used for raising sets into the arena, and immediately ordered the other slaves to raise me up. When it was halfway there, someone opened Caela’s cage.

Caela thundered out of her cage toward the closest open entrance. The noise she made spooked the horse beneath me, and as soon as he was able to run, he rode us into the arena and took off into the jungle setting.

I heard the deafening noise of the audience before I saw them, and once I did, I was amazed to see such a vast crowd all in one place. It was impossible to believe there were so many people in the world, and yet I knew this represented only a fraction of Rome’s total numbers. They filled every bend of the arena, row after row of them crowded together, like I had entered a hive of bees. Between us was a wall made of polished marble bordered by ivory rollers that even the best climber could not get over, and elsewhere was a tall metal net. Attendants roamed behind the net to threaten the animals and drive them to the center of the arena, and to kill them if necessary. There were other things happening in the arena too, hidden from my view by the dense jungle foliage, so I didn’t know what was causing all the onlookers’ cheers and screams and boos. I probably didn’t want to know because whether the audience was happy or angry, nothing happening in here was good news for me. Sunlight poured into the arena, filtered through a vast canopy over most of the amphitheater. The red wool cloth kept out some of the heat, but gave the arena a slight reddish tint. So the empire would give the people comfort in their barbarism. If I could’ve done it, I would’ve pulled the canopy down and let the people feel the same heat and sweat they had inflicted upon me.

The horse turned again, and I tried to get my bearings from what we had put in place last night, but it had been quiet, and dark, and empty then, like a mine. It was nearly impossible to concentrate in here now.

The brush moved past us in a blur and it took all my strength to hold on to the horse, especially since my hands were still tied. I didn’t want to be on this ride, subject to the horse’s fears and instincts, but with my feet fastened to the saddle, there was no smart way to leave it.

Or maybe it was foolish to consider leaving. We came to a clearing where a tiger darted out from the underbrush. On my own, it would’ve gotten me. But instead it nipped at the horse’s heels, encouraging him to go faster. The audience reacted to that with a roar that sounded like disappointment. I hoped they’d get used to it, because I wasn’t finished with disappointing them. Not even close.

Once we got more into the open, I caught my first glimpse of Caela. She fluttered off the ground like she was trying to fly, but whenever she did, the attendants behind the nets threw rocks that forced her back down. She had the nugget of gold in one of her talons, and sacrificed her body to protect the gold from those stones. Her screeches came out almost like a lion’s roars, and further terrified the horse beneath me.

“Bestiarius, bestiarius,” the audience chanted. He was the hunter, and I assumed he must’ve just entered the arena. A knot formed in my throat. My life had been in danger many times before, from the risks I was forced to take at the mines, and from Sal’s punishments, but nothing like this. For the first time ever, I was prey.

Along with the attendants, in one area just outside the arena podium, I saw archers crouched with their bows at the ready. I didn’t understand that at first — after all, the bestiarius was somewhere in this arena, and I trusted that he was deadly enough. But then I saw the people right behind the archers: senators and Praetors and their wives and children. The archers were there to make sure nothing left the arena alive. Not the animals or criminals, or Caela. Or me. The only one who would walk out of here was the bestiarius, after he removed my bulla and presented it to the emperor.

This was exactly what Aurelia had tried to warn me about. She said I needed to think like a Roman.

That was what I needed to do now. I had to think. Concentrate. Escape.

The bulla had given me strength in raising the pulleys. If I was strong enough for that, maybe I could break the ropes around my wrists. I tried it and they snapped like brittle twigs. That was almost too easy, and I wondered if all magic was like that, as simple as having the thought.

I shook off the rope from my arms, and just in time too, for the horse reared up when a wild boar charged out from the underbrush.

“Turn right!” I yelled. “Now!”

And it did, as if it had understood me.

I rubbed a hand across his neck and leaned into his ear. “I will help you, if I can. But you must be calm.”

Not far from us, a horrible scream erupted. The audience roared with delight — another criminal had been attacked. I didn’t know who or what had gotten him, but I needed to keep riding as far as possible from that sound. The sweat that had creased my brow dripped into my eyes, stinging them. But I wiped it with the back of my hand and kept riding. I could not stop now.

Caela was still somewhere behind me, hidden within the thick jungle leaves, but her feline instincts seemed to have taken over those of the eagle. I didn’t see her trying to fly anymore. She would be somewhere, silently crouching, and waiting for the moment to pounce.

The horse took us into a clearing near the edge of the arena floor. When we emerged, a man in the lower seats stood and his glare bored right through me.

Radulf
.

Radulf knew I was alive, and likely guessed that I had the bulla. From the expression on his face, he wasn’t particularly happy about either of those facts.

F
rom his seat, Radulf pointed at me and shouted orders at some soldiers in the aisles. They pulled out their swords and began running out the doors. It would only take them a few minutes to get in here. Every passing second threatened any hope I still had to escape. I redirected the horse into denser jungle and glanced back only long enough for a quick look at Radulf. His face was nearly as red as his uniform.

The next face I saw was even more familiar. Sal leapt out from behind a tree — one I had put in place myself only the night before — and tried to jump on the horse, but he missed and fell to the ground instead. If he had caught me, with my feet still attached, he’d have sent me to my death.

So I concentrated again, just as I had before, and as I thought about the strength I needed, it wasn’t hard to snap my legs free from the ropes.

I immediately led the horse to where Sal was standing on the ground. He was limping from his failed attempt at taking my horse, and, I noticed, also bleeding from a wound in his shoulder. “The bestiarius has a good spear,” he said. “But terrible aim.”

I slid off the horse. “Get on, but avoid the griffin. She hates horses, and probably hates you too. So get out into the open — she won’t be there. When you have the emperor’s attention, tell him I’m alive, right now while he can see me. It’s your only chance to prove your innocence.”

Sal climbed onto the horse and started to ride away, then said, “Why are you helping me?”

Instead of answering such an impossible question, I asked, “How’s my sister?”

“I don’t know.” Sal’s eyes flickered with something that almost passed for regret. “When they arrested me, they took her.”

Spurred by a mix of panic and anger, I lunged forward and grabbed the horse’s reins. “Who took her? How could you let that happen?”

Sal kicked me away with his foot and I landed on the ground. “
Let
it happen? Do you think I wanted any of this?” He prodded his horse away. “Wherever your sister is, it’s your fault, Nic. You started all of this!”

I yelled at him to give me a better answer, but he was already gone. My mind raced to fill in its own explanation. When had she been taken? Because only yesterday morning, Crispus said he would ask his father to get Livia from the mines. The timing was tight, but that had to be where she was, because nobody else would’ve had any reason to take her. I made myself believe Senator Valerius had her, and she was safe here in Rome, because if he didn’t, then she could be anywhere … or not. I felt a swell in my emotions, terrified at the possibilities that ran through my mind. Wherever she was, Sal was right about one thing. This was my fault.

Above the jungle leaves, I saw the tip of a spear. The bestiarius had probably heard me yelling at Sal and was following the sound. I immediately ducked behind a tree, causing an audience uproar as they tried to point me out to the hunter. So I sprinted back in the direction I had come, calling Caela’s name. The arena seemed so much larger than it had been the night before, and with the heat and the yelling crowds, I could barely hold two thoughts together.

So I let there be only one thought.
Livia
. I had to find my sister. And for that, I needed Caela’s help.

I passed the remains of one of the criminals who had been killed and several of the animals that had been sacrificed to the games earlier that morning. It was repulsive to think that this day was only half over. The biggest event still remained for the gladiator battles that afternoon. And the audience cheered on, with an appetite for blood that might never be filled.

On my entry into Rome, I had been able to reach for Caela with my thoughts. Maybe that was the way to find her now.

Where are you?
I thought.

I heard nothing in response, and wondered if she was still angry because of the horse. It was a stupid grudge, compared to our much bigger problem. So I called her name, which was even more stupid, considering the bestiarius wasn’t far away. Seconds later, his spear missed my head by less than an inch. Above the crowd’s noise, I heard its whoosh in the air and I was pretty sure it grazed my cheek because I felt a sting that hadn’t been there before.