I waited in my room for an hour, until the household quieted down for the night and to be sure Crispus and Valerius were asleep. Then I crept outside, much as I had done when sneaking out of the villa before, except this time I headed back down to the fields.
The Malice was hidden somewhere on Valerius's property. That was obvious, not only in his weak denials of knowing where it was, but also in the fact that I could hear the Mistress -- buried with the Malice -- whenever I was there.
It took a while to make my way down to the fields in the darkness. The skies were darker than usual tonight, probably threatening rain, and that alone made me nervous. In addition to the lightning that killed my father, I had created a lightning storm when I fought Radulf in the amphitheater -- Radulf said that was proof that I had the key to the Malice, in fact. Lightning was no friend to me, and I didn't want to be out here if a storm arose.
My plan was to get the bulla from Callistus, assuming he was still where I had left him at the far edge of the fields. Then I would use its power to talk to the wolf I had seen earlier. If the Malice was hidden here, then the wolf probably belonged to the god Mars. He would show me the door. Although I had no key, I did have the bulla, which was capable of great magic. If I focused it on a single lock, using the full force of my powers, I should be able to get it open. Of course, any explosion large enough to destroy something sealed off by the gods was likely to awaken half of Rome, as well as every Praetor in the city, and that would be bad enough. It also might awaken the Mistress, which Valerius had begged me not to do.
So admittedly, my plan wasn't perfect. But I had no choice. Morning was coming fast, and I had nothing to offer the Praetors in trade for my mother.
Once I got to the end of the path from Valerius's villa, I hesitated in the shadows. Valerius had warned that the Praetors watched this property. So they also suspected the Malice was hidden here.
I stepped into the fields with every sense on high alert. Something rustled in the reeds behind me. It was the wind, perhaps, or a small animal? Dark shadows lay nestled within even darker shadows. Was it Praetors, lying in wait for me?
To get to Callistus, I would have to cross the open field and then sneak into the vines, where I could hide better. My instinct told me to run, that I should be out in plain view for the shortest time possible. But it was already hard to think straight. The Mistress was crying in my head again, and pounding on a door or on the wall of whatever tomb they had put her in. Despite what Valerius had said, it seemed impossible that I was only listening to an echo of the past. Because if this was real, if it was happening now, then no matter what he had warned, I wanted to get her out as quickly as possible.
The instant my foot touched down on the netting hidden beneath the grasses of the field, I knew I was in trouble. It released a spring that closed a claw trap over my leg. I cried out and summoned magic to open it again. But before I could act, a rope pulled tight, yanking me off my feet where I fell hard on the ground. I sent out magic intended to cut the rope, but it either missed or there was more than one rope.
I was dragged across half the field before I finally severed the rope, but getting the claw trap off my leg wasn't as easy. I sat up and used magic to separate the two pieces of metal. The spikes on them were short, so although they'd broken the skin, it wasn't a terrible injury.
And then I sent out a ball of magic into the weeds ahead of me. Someone over there had pulled on my rope. I heard the yelps of at least three or four men and smiled. If I had hit them hard, then it still wasn't half of what I had intended.
I gathered more magic, but then a voice behind me said, "We've got you, Nicolas."
And immediately, Brutus had a hand on my shoulder. Every feeling of magic within me went to dust.
I had no magic, but that didn't mean the fight within me was gone. On the contrary, I lashed out like I never had before. I kicked, and threw punches, and even used a few choice curse words, in case that helped. But each time I got one hand off me, another hand took its place, and more Praetors were coming.
Finally, there were enough of them to force me down flat, facing the ground. I squirmed and rolled, trying to make it impossible for them to get hold of both my hands and feet together, but even then, I was failing.
"Put a hand directly on his shoulder," Brutus ordered. "That's where he's marked."
Someone ripped my tunic at the neck, and a hand came down on the Divine Star like a boulder landing there. It sent a wave of pain through me, enough to make me nauseous, and instantly, I lost all fight. I barely could move.
Brutus knelt on the ground and carefully the Praetors rolled me to my side so I could face him. Still, the hand never left the Divine Star. The pain from it brought tears to my eyes, but I blinked them away. I refused to let them think it hurt as bad as it did.
"This was easier than I thought it'd be," Brutus said.
"This isn't over," I said. "I'm letting you get comfortable before I end this."
"Oh, you already tried ending this, and failed." Brutus clucked his tongue. "I expected more from you, to be honest. After you dropped my men in the sewers, there were many injuries."
"Only injuries?" I muttered. "Then I should've dropped them harder."
"It did have some effect," Brutus answered. "I had trouble convincing everyone to come here tonight. Having seen for themselves what you can do, several of my men are reluctant to face you."
"So you brought the stupid ones," I said. "Because they haven't seen half of what I can do."
"What you could do," Brutus said. "Until we took it away just now, and if you don't tell me what I want to hear, I'll take everything else. Where's the key?"
"Where's my mother?" I asked. "You promised to trade her for the key, so she must be nearby."
"Oh, she is." He brushed the sweat-dampened hair from my face. "The key, Nicolas. We've waited almost three hundred years for someone with magic to hold the key -- do you think I can't feel it with you now?"
"Before I give it to you, I have to see my mother. I demand to talk to her alone."
"Impossible," Brutus said. "Once I remove my hand, your magic will return, and you can understand why that puts me at a slight disadvantage." With that, the hand pressed deeper on the Star, reminding me that for all the power I had, it could disappear so quickly.
Disappear. If I could get to my mother, we could disappear.
"Do what you want to me," I said through gritted teeth. "Nothing will get you the key until I see my mother, alone!"
"It's not what I'll do to you." There was growing tension in his voice. "Remember what happens to your mother if you refuse to cooperate!"
"You will not touch her!" I yelled. "Take me to my mother!"
"Never!" Brutus shouted back.
"I'll stay with you." That was Aurelia. I looked up and saw her standing on a mound of dirt with a nocked arrow in her bow. Praetors were looking her way, hungry to grab her, but not wanting a poke from that arrow.
"Ah, the sewer girl," Brutus said. "I'm delighted to see you again, my dear."
In contrast, I wasn't at all delighted. Why had she come here? Why now?
"Keep me with you while Nic sees his mother," Aurelia said. "Then when he's had a chance to talk to her, he'll turn himself back over to you in exchange for my release."
I rolled my eyes. The whole idea of this plan was not to turn myself back over to Brutus. Maybe it was too dark for her to see the strain on my face each time Brutus pressed against the Divine Star, but surely she had heard the pinch in my voice.
"All right." Brutus removed his hand from the Star, and then at least I could breathe again. But he still held my arm and used it to pull me to my feet, where I nearly blacked out from dizziness.
The Praetors grabbed Aurelia and took both her bow and knife. She protested but that didn't get much sympathy from me. What did she expect they would do?
Brutus started walking me away from the villa but also farther from the vines and into the wooded area of
land I hadn't visited before. The cypress trees here were tall and dense and filled with thick underbrush around our narrow trail. Once inside this grove, I saw at least a hundred Praetors staring back at me from a small clearing, all of them armed and every one happy to do whatever it took to get the key. And those were only the Praetors I could see. I had no doubt there were many more in the darker shadows of these woods.
Aurelia was allowed to catch up to me, and when she did, I barely looked at her.
"You're angry," she said.
"I didn't need you to sacrifice yourself," I muttered. "Did you think this would help?"
"It wouldn't make things worse, based on how you were managing on your own. Why did you go down there alone?"
"To get the --" I paused, unwilling to say more.
But Brutus, still holding me, already knew. "You wanted the bulla that had been tied onto that unicorn. I'd heard Radulf had one, but never was sure. We saw it when we surveyed the property."
I turned to him, my eyes wide with alarm.
Brutus only laughed. "We saw the bulla, but the unicorn wouldn't let us anywhere near it and dodged our arrows. He disappeared for a while, but when we saw him again, the bulla was gone. It must've fallen off when he ran. My men are searching for it now. It's only a matter of time before they find it."
My heart sank. So it had fallen from where I had laid it beneath his saddle, and obviously my knot hadn't worked either, at least not well enough for Callistus to be chased through thickets and vines. This was why Radulf had warned me not to bring the bulla anywhere near the Praetors.
Beside me, Aurelia squirmed against the man escorting her. "Can you relax your grip just a little? I'm cooperating; you don't need to hurt me."
I wasn't sure if the Praetor loosened his grip or not but she stopped protesting, so I hoped he had. There wasn't much I could do anyway. I wasn't angry with her, not really. After all, she was trying to assist me. But I hated the feeling of being so helpless.
Up ahead, I saw a wagon with bars and nearly fifty Praetors around it. That's where we were going. My heart leapt into my throat. I was nervous, and terrified. And certain that if I wasn't careful, everything could go horribly wrong.
"We'll honor our agreement, that Nicolas can have some privacy," Brutus said to the men around him. "But keep the sewer girl where he can see her."
Aurelia was dragged off in one direction while Brutus turned me to face him. "Here are my terms. If you touch your mother or allow her to touch you, the sewer girl dies. If you raise a hand to any of my men, even just for a friendly wave hello, then the sewer girl dies. And when I call for you to return to me, you obey immediately, even if it means you walk away midsentence. If you do not --"
"Then we all join in a game of small ball? I understand the terms, Brutus."
He smirked back at me, then released my arm, cautiously, as if he intended to grab it again if I made that necessary. And though I felt magic start to flow again from the Divine Star, I wouldn't be using it. Not now. Aurelia was behind me and somewhere up ahead ...
A woman had her face pressed to the bars and one arm outstretched through them. She was chained in there too; I could hear the metal when she shifted to get even closer to me. Despite all that -- the dirt on her face, the shabbiness of her thin tunic, and the metal bars, caging her as if she were no better than the animals of the venatio, she was beautiful. More elegant than the finest woman any of these Praetors returned home to at night.
Everything else melted in my vision as I came up to the cage and smiled back at her. "Hello, Mother."
My mother was crying. I hadn't noticed that until I came close enough to see the tears running in lines down her face. They washed through the dirt in streaks, yet they did nothing to diminish her beauty. Livia would grow up to become just as lovely, no doubt.
"You're alive," she whispered.
I nodded. Tears were welling in my own eyes, though I didn't want her to see them. I needed her to believe I was strong enough to finish the fight still ahead for me. Or more likely, I needed to believe that.
"And Livia?"
"She's better than ever." At least, I hoped that was true. I'd had no chance to ask Aurelia about her in private. I wouldn't risk asking while Brutus could hear us.
My mother smiled and more tears fell. "I knew you'd take care of her. I never worried about that." Then her smile faded. "I'm told you have magic, the Divine Star on your shoulder, just as your father once had. I've heard stories of what you've done, in the amphitheater, on the streets, at the baths outside the city. The stories are impossible, I know."
I took a deep breath. But it didn't make me feel any better, and what I had to say wouldn't help her either. "No, Mother, they're true."
She shook her head. "How can they be? Your father was capable of some great things, but nothing close to what I've heard about you."
"I have one of the amulets." Had one. The bulla was lost now and possibly already in the hands of the Praetors.
Mother's eyes widened. "No, those are curses."
"I know that. I'm trying --" I swallowed in a painful gulp. "I'm trying to make everything right again. But I can't just give up. If the Praetors win, they will do worse than bring down the empire. They will bring war back to the gods. Everything will be destroyed!"
"But what if it's you who is destroyed instead?" More tears streamed down her face. "Leaving you and Livia was the hardest thing I ever had to do. Don't let that be for nothing."
"I'm trying to fix this," I said. "But I don't know how. The harder I try, the worse things become."
She nodded. "You are so like your father. He loved us with all his heart. He loved you, Nic, so much that he thought nothing of risking his life in the hope of saving ours."
"He tried to create a Jupiter Stone," I said. "Why would he do that? Without the amulets, he must've known he would fail."
"He had no amulets, but he understood that a person can only create a Jupiter Stone for the good of others, not for himself." She wiped a stray tear from her eye. "That was all he wanted, to save his family." With her fingers, my mother motioned for me to come closer. "Has it really been five years? You've grown so much. Let me see you better."
I kept my feet where they were. "I can't come closer, Mother."
Though I wanted to. It tore at my heart to be so close, after so long, and to do nothing but stare at her. When I was younger, sometimes it would begin storming at night, and inevitably, I'd feel her hand on my back as I curled up in the corner on the floor, shaking with fear that what had happened to my father might one day happen to me. She always knew how to make me feel better, always. Then when Livia and I had been on our own, we comforted ourselves by imagining what our mother would have done if she had been with us. Even that helped.
If I had known how hard this would be now, I might not have demanded to see her. Seeing my mother right in front of me, yet still out of my reach, was horrible. But I wouldn't have traded this moment away either.
I lowered my voice. "Listen to me, carefully. The Praetors want something from me in exchange for your release."
"The key to the Malice, I know."
My eyes widened, but it was a relief not to have to explain it. "I don't have the key, or if I do, then I can't find it. I'm going to find a way to get you free, though."
She shook her head. "Listen, you must not give them the key." She pushed closer to the bars. "Yes, I know their terms for my life, but I also know how the Praetors work. Brutus is more than my captor; he is my master now. I know his plans for Rome."
"I'll get you free, Mother."
"No, you won't. The Praetors never give; they only take. If you turn over the key, they will find a new way to threaten you for the Malice, and then find a new threat until you create a Jupiter Stone. If you don't leave Rome now, before they are finished, you will share the same fate as your father."
My heart pounded as magic swelled in my veins. It would only take a little to break her free from this cage. T
hen the Praetors would attack, all of them who were here. I turned to look back at Aurelia. In the darkness, it was hard to see her clearly, though I knew she'd be watching me.
"I'll get you free," I repeated again.
"Do not," she said. "As soon as you can, get your sister and run. Leave the empire while there is still a world beyond. Run to freedom -- that's all I've ever wanted for you."
"Nicolas Calva!" Brutus called. "Return to me, now."
"I love you," I said as I began to back up. "Do not give up."
"Do not give in," she replied. "If you do, then all that I've sacrificed is for nothing."
When I was steps away from Brutus, I raised my hand to him. Aurelia was in the distance, held now by three Praetors.
"Let my friend go," I said. "Then I'll surrender."
Brutus grinned wickedly. "Let's settle this now. Give me what I want, and I'll let all of you go free."
He was lying. My mother was right about the Praetors only taking. He had no intention of letting all of us go.
"Honor our agreement," I said. "When you do, I'll honor my part of the bargain and return to your control."
After a moment of consideration, Brutus ordered, "Release the girl! Nobody touches her!"
"Nic?" Aurelia called to me.
"Give a shout when you're free of the woods," I said. "I'll hear you."
"You're supposed to come with me."
"Will you just run?"
And she did. While I waited, with my hand still held up to Brutus, I let the magic build inside me. Praetors were surrounding me, but I was ready for them. All I needed was to hear Aurelia's voice, that she was safe.
She ran fast, because it wasn't long before I heard her cry, "I'm out, Nic!"
And I lowered my hand. "There's no shield?" Brutus asked. "I can touch you."
"Yes." I kept my expression steady. "If you want to."
He did, but immediately yanked his hand away with a cry.
"What's the matter?" I smiled as I stretched out my arm. "If you don't accept my surrender, that's fine. I won't offer twice."