Mark of the Thief (31 page)

I
might not have had anything more to say to Radulf, but someone did. From the imperial box ahead of us, Senator Valerius’s voice rang out loudly. “My Roman friends, do not think this is the end of the fight. Senator Horatio would never make it so quick or so easy that you don’t get your proper entertainment. In fact, he has given the advantage to Nicolas Calva.”

He had the audience’s attention, and Radulf’s too, for that matter. I thought about what Felix had said, that this was theater. Valerius clearly understood that too.

He continued, “To help Nicolas win the fight, Senator Horatio has given him access to a second magical amulet. It is a key that Nicolas now holds, and it is the reason the slave will defeat a general today!”

Radulf threw me onto my back. “You have the key?”

I had expected a trap from Valerius, and this must be it. If Radulf believed Horatio had already given me the key, he would be angry. Angry enough to kill him.

“I don’t have it,” I said.

Radulf pressed on my chest with something that seemed to punch a hole through my heart. I yelled with the crushing pain of it and he said, “Where is the key?”

Still gasping for air, I choked out, “I would sooner go to my grave than let you get it.”

“That can be arranged,” Radulf said.

Valerius called down again. “Or does Senator Horatio play his own games with us? Maybe he wishes to keep the key for himself?”

Radulf instantly forgot about me and swung his attention to Horatio, who throughout our entire fight had somehow managed to seem invisible in the far corner of the platform.

Horatio raised his arms in innocence. “Valerius lies, Dominus.”

Radulf stopped. “You are the presiding magistrate of the Senate, and yet you address
me
with the superior title?”

“Because you are superior, Dominus. I still have the key. But if you want it, you must accept me as your second in command.”

“I do not bargain with fools.” Radulf shook his head. “Give me the key, or they will carry your body from this arena.”

I got to my feet and yelled, “Fight me, Radulf! Not him.”

Radulf turned to me, slowly. “Why do you want this fight? Do you believe you cannot lose? Is that because you have the key hidden, just as you tried to hide the bulla?”

“Valerius is using the key against all of us. Don’t fall for his trap!”

“One of you has it.” Radulf turned to Horatio. “Is it you?”

And he raised a hand to throw a punch at Horatio, but I used my magic to place a shield between them, much as I had shielded the people near the baths on the Appian Way. It immediately cost the bulk of my magic, and the strain of keeping it in place was quickly wearing me thin.

In his attempts to push through my shield, Radulf was becoming tired as well, and when he paused to rest, I took my chance to change the course of this fight. With one hand keeping the shield on Horatio, I raised another hand to the skies and commanded the clouds to gather. They formed out of nowhere and darkened so quickly that it felt like the daylight had been extinguished.

“What are you doing?” Radulf seemed as surprised as I had been when he first appeared on the platform. He stepped forward, forgetting our fight. “Nic, how are you doing this?”

“I need that arena floor.” With that, I directed the clouds to pour down their rain, and they obeyed. It was more than I wanted, as usual, but the onslaught of water quickly put out the fires in the arena, leaving great clouds of steam to mix with the rain and suffocate the air around us. Once the last fire went out, I tried to part the clouds and end it, but the storm was still worsening. Thunder rolled above us, echoing in the skies. That frightened me, more than I wanted to admit. I had never wanted the thunder to come.

I ducked as the storm cracked overhead, and my shield protecting Horatio fell with it. Radulf crouched as well, then cried, “Nic, stop this!”

If only I knew the way to stop it. Where there is thunder, lightning follows. Every storm I’d experienced in my life brought with it the thoughts of my father standing on a tall ridge in defiance of Jupiter’s power. But now, Sal’s words filled my head — my father had had magic too. He had faced the lightning, hoping to create a Jupiter Stone, and with it, end the war in Gaul. But he had failed, and died.

Radulf grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to look at him. “Nic, we cannot be out here with the lightning! Send this storm away, now!”

I closed my eyes and willed the clouds to part. Another roll of thunder crossed the sky, and so at first I was sure I had failed, but slowly it faded and I saw sun again. The audience cheered at that, which surprised me. I had forgotten they were here.

Radulf sat back, clearly as relieved as I was. I knew why lightning storms frightened me, but I hadn’t expected him to be afraid as well.

Before he recovered, I stood and called out to his men, who were still standing on their raised blocks, although they were now dripping wet and significantly less godlike than they had been before. “Drop your weapons,” I yelled. “Or they will be eaten out of your hands.”

And I raised both arms, then spread my fingers apart. Obeying my will, the thirty-six lifts from the hypogeum below opened into the arena. Felix had said the animals were still in place from what had originally been planned as a hunt this morning. If the mob had expected a hunt, I would give them one. But the animals would not hunt one another.

Out from the lifts came lions and bears and wild boars. There were also tigers and large black cats, and even an elephant. And because I had the bulla, they would hear me and obey.

“Do not harm any unarmed man in this arena!” I told them.

The animals charged, knocking the blocks out from beneath Radulf’s men and baring teeth in ways that even made me nervous. Weapon after weapon was thrown aside, followed by the men breaking through the north gate of the arena to escape. The animals went with them, every last one. The audience exploded with cheers.

I figured Rome would probably not have another venatio for some time. Mostly because they had just lost every single one of their animals.

And if nothing else went well for the rest of this battle, that alone made me smile.

I
kept four animals back, to stay with me in the arena, specially chosen for Radulf, who Valerius had told me was terrified of lions.

Indeed he was, for when he saw them coming, Radulf jumped off the platform and went running for a lift that still had its doors open. Except a familiar face was coming up on that lift, with a long knife at her waist and a bow in her hands. I’d never been so happy to see anyone in my life.

Aurelia jumped onto the arena floor and nocked an arrow aimed directly at Radulf. “Another step closer and you’ll get poked.”

He threw some sort of magic at her, but I had already put up a shield to block it.

“I stand with you, Nic, as an equal!” she said. “This is what friends do!”

“Not here!” I yelled.

“You asked me to stand with you!”

“Symbolically!”

“Can we fight about this later?” she asked.

I smiled over at her. If I won this fight, I would gladly engage in more arguments with her. Radulf was backing away from the lions, but when they began chasing him, he tripped over one of the hidden pipes and fell hard to the ground, unconscious. This was my chance, but I didn’t have long.

I crouched on Radulf’s left side while Aurelia knelt on his right. She used her knife to cut through his tunic, revealing his Divine Star.

“Exactly like yours,” she said.

“Not for long.” I started to lift the bulla off my head. When I pressed it to the mark on his back, the bulla would absorb Radulf’s magic. In minutes, he would be nothing more than a corrupt general fit for the emperor’s dungeon.

“Aurelia, get away from those lions!” Horatio reached down and grabbed Aurelia’s arm, then yanked her back with him.

“They won’t hurt me,” she protested. “Nic would never —”

“He will command those lions to leave,” Horatio said darkly. “Won’t you, Nic?”

I looked up. When he had grabbed his daughter, Horatio had also gotten Aurelia’s knife, which he held to her throat. Despite the fact that Radulf was already stirring, I let the bulla fall back to my chest and then stood with my hands held low, a sign that I would not release any magic. As warm as the bulla was, whatever I tried doing to him might hit Aurelia. Under my breath, I whispered to the lions to go, that the gates were open for their escape.

The audience didn’t like that. They had wanted blood, but I didn’t much care. This was only a game to them. From my perspective, things were far more serious.

Having regained consciousness, Radulf slowly got to his feet and glared at Horatio, still with Aurelia in his grip. With a snarl, he said, “If you could do this to your own daughter, why would I ever trust your loyalty?”

“I can be of use to you, Dominus!”

Radulf yelled, “You lied to me! You did give Nic the key! There’s no other way he could’ve called in that storm!”

“I don’t have it!” I yelled. “Horatio still has the key, and if you harm him, it’s lost forever.”

Horatio shrugged. “You tried to warn me, Nic. The key is not what you think. We both have it now.”

Radulf frowned at him. “That’s all I needed to hear.”

And he threw out something at Horatio. Calling up what little magic I had left, I put up a shield for Aurelia, still in his grip, but couldn’t make it reach Horatio in time. With a brief cry of pain, he crumpled to the ground, instantly dead. Aurelia ran from his clutches into my arms.

“He didn’t even have a chance to fight.” Aurelia was trembling and struggling to breathe. “Just like that …”

She started to turn back to her father’s body, but I put my hands on her shoulders and pushed her toward the open gate of the arena. “Get out of here, where you’ll be safe.”

“What about you?”

“This is my fight. Now run!” And she did.

The audience received Horatio’s death with a mixture of jeers and applause, which was horrifying enough. But at least they had seen Radulf kill one of their own leaders. Now they would have to know that he was no great hero, no one worthy of their praise and affection. If nothing else, that was some victory for me. Nobody would follow Radulf now.

Indeed, I saw Valerius stand again in the imperial box and wave his hands for their silence. When he had everyone’s attention, he called out, “With the death of Senator Horatio, I am now your presiding magistrate, leader of the Senate and of all Praetors of Rome. And as a representative of Emperor Tacitus, I am ordering all Praetors to surround and arrest Senator Horatio’s two murderers: General Flavius Radulf Avitus and the escaped slave, Nicolas Calva.”

I turned to him, stunned. He knew I had not thrown the magic that killed Horatio. He knew I wouldn’t commit such a crime, not even to save my own life. Everyone would’ve seen the burst of light from Radulf’s hands, different from the shield I had created.

If
they had seen it. On the night Radulf and I fought at the baths, nobody had seen the magic but us. They saw the effects of our fight, but not the magic itself. So as far as Rome was concerned, I was part of Horatio’s murder. If there were any doubts, then Valerius had just confirmed it for them.

Aurelia had stopped running to hear Valerius’s announcement, and looked back at me in total disbelief.

“Shoot me,” I yelled at her. “Aurelia, shoot me!”

Even from here, I could see Aurelia’s hands were still shaking as she pulled her bow off her shoulder and nocked it with an arrow. I didn’t know if the shaking was caused by nervousness from the crowd or horror at her father’s sudden death. But as she pulled the string back, her aim seemed true. Once the arrow had flown, she turned to keep running.

Just as it had in Crispus’s vineyards, the arrow came directly toward me. Trying to catch it before had thrown off my balance, but not this time. I watched it spin in the air, fluttering slightly in the wind, and aimed at my heart. When the moment was right, I spun around and then caught the arrow in my fist. The audience burst into applause, but I wasn’t doing this for them.