by Annie Dalton
“At this time of night?” I said.
“Couldn’t sleep apparently,” Festus said in disgust. “His advisers thought a private performance from Rome’s most famous gladiatrix would while away the night. I did try to stop them, lad, but I’m not the man I was.” I could tell the old gladiator felt ashamed that he had failed to protect her.
“You’ve been a good friend to Star,” Orlando said quickly. “You mustn’t reproach yourself.”
Aurelia was sobbing with her hands over her face. She’d got to that stage of crying where you can hardly breathe.
Softly, hesitantly, Lucilla went to kneel beside her. She gazed at this unknown sister in awe, as if she was afraid she would vanish. With a trembling hand, she reached out to stroke her hair. “My sister,” she said softly, as if she was trying out this new and strange idea. “The goddess showed you to me in visions, but I never thought we would meet in this world.”
Aurelia peered at Lucilla through eyes that were red and swollen with crying. “You’re the temple girl!” she said incredulously. “Mella found you!”
“Not just me,” I said awkwardly.
Aurelia gave a slightly hysterical laugh.“Oh, this is so strange! I just found and lost one sister. And now you - ” Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. “I can’t take it in. I feel deranged. I don’t know if I should tremble, weep, or jump about with happiness!”
Lucilla sat beside Aurelia and took her hand. Her eyes sparkled with tears. “We should be happy,” she said softly. “A Dark power forced us to travel this life alone. Now the gods have brought us back together and we can fulfil our destiny.”
Reuben and I exchanged amazed glances. This triplet obviously knew exactly what was going on!! It was like she had a personal hotline to the gods.
Unfortunately we still only had two triplets in our possession.
“The PODS really shoved a spanner in the works this time.” I sighed to Orlando.
But now they’d taken Star he was like an unstoppable force. “They’ve slowed us down a bit, that’s all,” he said. “We know Star is at Nero’s palace. We’ll just reunite them there instead.”
I would not personally have chosen an imperial palace full of PODS, plus their human sympathisers, for the triplets’ big reunion, but I suspected there was some crucial element of cosmic timing that Orlando was keeping to himself; so for once I decided not to argue.
Nero’s palace was high on a leafy hill, well away from the noise and smells of the common people. It wasn’t too hard to sneak into the palace grounds. No CCTV cameras or electric gates in those days.
The trouble started when we tried to get in through the kitchens. We’d forgotten that all Nero’s slaves were dressed in identical livery, to show they belonged to the imperial household.
A slave sussed us the instant we put our noses inside. “What’s this? The cabaret?” he said sarcastically.
The cheeky answer just jumped out of my mouth. “Yeah, we’re the dancing girls, and these are our body guards.”
I heard Orlando making choking sounds.
The slave grinned. “Then you won’t mind letting me see you dance.”
“No problem,” I said confidently and showed him a few sexy dance moves. (Well, raunchy dancing is universal, right?)
He shook his head. “All young girls can dance. So if you’re the emperor’s cabaret, where are your costumes?”
I did my airhead giggle. “If we’d walked through the streets in those we’d have seriously been arrested! So we sent our costumes over earlier, with, um, the musicians,” I improvised hastily.
The slave laughed. “Nice try, darling. Now get out before someone from Security sees you and things get nasty.”
But I had no intention of leaving. This was the only way I knew to reach Star. “Look, ask the Emperor, if you don’t believe me!” I said desperately.
The slave shook his head in mock despair. “There’s no helping some people.” He bellowed into the distance. “Guards!”
Reuben didn’t blink. He totally trusted my instincts, whereas Orlando was looking at me as if I’d completely lost my mind.
“You want to get the sisters back together don’t you?” I hissed. “What does it matter if we’re taken before Nero as prisoners or, like, his saucy hoochy-coochy dancers or whatever?”
A look of grudging respect came into Orlando’s eyes. “Melanie Beeby,” he murmured, “you are something else.”
Nero’s household guards marched us down gleaming corridors, through a pair of gigantic doors, and into a marble dining hall filled with loud drunken voices and the busy clattering of cutlery. The smell of complicated Roman sauces floated through the air. The Emperor had insomnia, so naturally he was giving a nocturnal feast for all his pervy friends and relations. A group of musicians played valiantly at one end of the hall. You could hardly hear the instruments through the gales of talk and laughter.
Nero himself reclined on a golden couch, among gold tasselled cushions, wearing a white silk toga, with a gold striped border. The Emperor’s laurel wreath had slipped down over one eye, and he was smacking his lips over a plate of little roasted birds. I tried not to look too closely, but judging from their size they were blackbirds or thrushes.
On the other side of a low table, Titus Lucretius was tossing raw oysters into that wet-looking red mouth of his. Beside him Quintus steadily knocked back the booze.
The guard cleared his throat. “Your Majesty, these children were discovered sneaking into the palace. They claim to be a troupe of barbarian dancers, majesty.”
Nero’s midnight party had put him in a mellow mood. “But these are the lion children,” he said in a mild voice. I saw his eyelids droop as he registered the extraordinary resemblance between Aurelia and her sister. “My, my,” he crooned. “One Christian and one Vestal virgin. How enchanting. You came at the right moment,” he told them confidingly. “Just in time for the evening’s main attraction.”
“With respect,” Titus interrupted smoothly, “your Majesty does remember that these are intruders, not invited guests?”
Nero’s face darkened. “Which one of us is the Emperor?” he demanded.
“You, of course, your Majesty, but—”
Then I think I can decide who to invite into my own palace, Titus Lucretius,” said the Emperor haughtily. He jumped up and his plate of little dead birds fell to the floor with a crash. Broken pottery and gravy went everywhere.
“Let me show you my surprise!” he told Aurelia and Lucilla in a conspiratorial voice. Seizing their hands he pulled them over to another set of doors. A slave hastily flung them open.
“Behold!” said Nero proudly.
There’s something about madness that makes you feel like you are also going crazy. And when I saw what was on the other side of the doors, I literally felt as if normal reality was turning inside out.
Nero had built an amphitheatre inside his palace. It was on a smaller scale, but apart from that everything was identical; the tiers of seats, the sand-filled arena. As it was night-time, the arena was lit by burning torches.
The Emperor’s guests obediently filed in to take their seats. Some brought their plates of food and wine goblets with them, and carried on gorging themselves and gossiping loudly. The Emperor made us all sit with him in the front row. As his new special best friends, Aurelia and Lucilla had to sit on either side of him.
“They brought a little gladiatrix here for my amusement,” Nero drawled. “But ordinary armed combat is SO boring. So I decided to introduce an element of surprise.” He clapped his hands. “Bring her in!”
When I saw Star led into the arena by the guards, I had to bite my lip to stop myself from crying out.
She’d come to fight, yet they’d taken away her sword, her shield and all her protective armour. In her white linen tunic she looked small and vulnerable.
But when Nero set eyes on her, he seemed stunned. His eyes swivelled nervously to Lucilla and Aurelia then returned to the gladiatrix.<
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It’s the first time he’s seen Star without her mask! I realised.
Beads of perspiration appeared on the Emperor’s forehead and he began to breathe in panicky gasps. I felt almost sorry for him. Hanging out with PODS was doing absolutely nothing to improve Nero’s mental health.
“It’s OK, your Majesty,” I said in my most gentle voice. “You’re not imagining things. The girls are identical triplets. This is the first time they’ve been together since they were ba—”
“Silence, foolish girl!” barked Nero. He hastily blotted his sweaty face with the silken hem of his toga. “Obviously I realised they’re triplets!” he hissed at me. “Do you think I’m insane?”
Oops, I thought.
The PODS in the audience were visibly disturbed when they saw Star separated from her sisters by just a flimsy wooden barrier and a few metres of sand. This was something they definitely hadn’t bargained for. And then two concealed gates burst open, and ten fully-armed gladiators stormed in.
This was the Emperor’s surprise element. Nero wanted to see the gladiatrix fight for her life against impossible odds, and finally expire in a pool of blood. So did all his sick cronies. The amphitheatre erupted into hyena-type whoops of excitement.
When Star saw what entertainment Nero had laid on for his guests, she did something extraordinary. The girl who’d had to fight to survive for practically her whole life, silently knelt down in front of the Emperor, bowed her head, and totally refused to fight.
Nero was beside himself. “Get up, get up!” he screamed.
Star didn’t move.
The gladiators came to a stumbling halt. They were the kind of guys you’d hate to meet in a dark alley: scary professional killers, skilled in every fighting style going, and proud of it. But murdering a kneeling girl requires no skill whatsoever. They stared at Star like puzzled bulldogs.
The sweethearts, I thought deliriously. They totally can’t do it!
But the mad Emperor wasn’t going to be cheated now. A creepy smile spread over his face. “Guards!” he bellowed. “I’m introducing one last challenge for the gladiatrix.”
He jerked Lucilla and Aurelia to their feet. “Take them into the arena to join their sister!” he announced.
Chapter Twelve
Aurelia gave me a beseeching look as she and Lucilla were led away.
I could feel the air seething with confused vibes. The PODS were seriously alarmed. No way did they want these sisters in Nero’s arena. But the Emperor had spoken and he had to be obeyed, unless they wanted to blow their cosmic cover.
Orlando had gone white, and Reuben looked as if he might be sick. This was so not how any of us had pictured this reunion.
In his madness Nero was also deeply cunning. Determined to force Star to perform, he’d come up with the perfect scenario. The gladiatrix could never stand by and watch as her sisters were slaughtered. She’d rather die defending them.
For the first time since they were babies, the triplets were only metres apart. For a moment no one moved, and then in one supple movement Star rose to her feet and she did this touching thing. She walked right up to her long lost sisters and looked wonderingly into their eyes, the way a trusting small child would do, and her sisters gazed wonderingly back at her.
I thought my heart was going to burst.
“They’re remembering each other’s vibes,” Reuben said softly.
Star briefly closed her eyes. I saw tears spill down her face. Aurelia and Lucilla spontaneously reached for their sister’s hands and as the three girls touched, a gigantic whoosh of cosmic electricity went through me.
We all sighed with relief. We’d done it.
The amphitheatre was in total confusion. Some gladiators charged at the triplets, then thought better of it. Others just gave helpless shrugs and let their swords fall to the ground.
The audience was outraged. They started stamping and chanting, “Kill! Kill Kill!”
The girls were oblivious to all of this. Their rapture at finding each other had enclosed them in a kind of joyous force-field. To them, nothing else existed. The mad Emperor, this toy arena and the audience of baying upper-class Romans, was a meaningless illusion. Only their love was real.
When human love is that pure, it can move mountains. It can stop the murderous onslaught of trained gladiators. It can send such beautiful, electrifying shock waves through the air that an evil dynasty finally begins to crumble.
I became aware of disturbing grinding sounds far beneath the earth, as if the tectonic plates or whatever, were shifting. Hairline cracks appeared in the palace walls and a marble statue of the Emperor wobbled briefly on its plinth. None of this cosmic upheaval registered with the humans obviously. Not yet. It was more like an angelic trailer of things to come.
Is this what happened when you finally reversed a hideous Ancient Roman curse?
I glanced at Orlando for reassurance, but he was watching the sisters’ reunion with a dreamy expression. His mission had worked out just like it was supposed to. Against all the odds, we’d succeeded in getting these three extraordinary sisters into the same space, and their combined energy was awesome. I could literally feel it pulsing through me like light from a star.
Aah,I thought blissfully. This is just the best job in the universe.
That’s one major difference between us and the Dark agents. PODS operatives are never ever moved by human emotions. And by this stage in his career, Titus Lucretius was three-quarters of the way to being a POD. I vaguely registered him edging stealthily towards the barrier, but I didn’t see him reach inside his toga.
Reuben did. Frantic thoughts zoomed from his mind to mine. He’s got a dagger! He’s going to kill Aurelia!
Vaulting over anyone in his way, Reuben launched himself wildly at Titus. In my desperation to reach Aurelia, I hurled myself over the barrier into the arena and landed heavily on my knees, taking off a layer of skin.
Star was faster than any of us. She saw the dagger flash towards her sister and simply stepped in front of her to block the blow.
I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, but somehow all the pain and shock stayed trapped inside. My mouth opened but no sound would come out.
Titus’s dagger looked all wrong sticking out of Star’s body. Stupid, grotesque and wrong. A crimson flower of blood came welling up around the hilt of the dagger, soaking through the white linen of her tunic.
The gladiatrix quickly pressed her hand to the wound and tried to smile. “I thought it would be today,” she managed to say. “I told Juno I would die today. Don’t look so sad,” she told her horrified sisters softly. “I’ll be waiting for you in the Elysian fields.” Then she crumpled in sickening slow motion.
Lucilla and Aurelia tried to catch her, but Star sagged emptily in their arms and all three of them ended up sprawling on the ground.
There was a silence so total, that it was more shattering than any sound. I felt as if I’d been murdered too. I couldn’t believe this vibrant girl was dead.
Just as I thought my head would explode with the horror, the scene became oddly fixed.
It was like in Sleeping Beauty,when all the inhabitants of the castle get frozen in really dumb positions. Romans wearing laurel wreaths and clutching lumps of roast chicken, craned forward to get a good view of the dead gladiatrix. Titus was exchanging a frozen grin of triumph with Aurelia’s brother. A horrified gladiator continued to stare down helplessly at the stricken girls cradling their dead sister.
Was this some bizarre side-effect of the curse? I wondered. And if so, why weren’t we frozen too? I could hear Reuben breathing unevenly. Plus I could feel my own heart hammering behind my ribs.
Someone else was moving too, making his way shakily past these bizarre human waxworks and into the arena.
Orlando looked like he was trapped inside a bad dream and couldn’t wake up. He knelt beside Star and his face was grey with shock. “Why couldn’t I save you? I should have saved you,” he whispered.
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My throat ached for him. “You couldn’t know,” I told him painfully. “They were so happy. It didn’t seem possible anything bad could happen.”
Reuben was nervously looking around him. His sharper senses had picked something up.
I felt a powerful disturbance in the air, like the beating of invisible wings. A shaft of light came down.
Wouldn’t you know it, I thought bitterly, now it’s too late, the Agency’s stepped in.
Next minute Michael appeared beside us
I wanted to throw myself into his arms and beg him to take me home. I wanted to kick and scream like a bratty little kid. “Why did you let it happen? Why did you let Star die?” But my inner angel just quietly watched and waited to see what would happen next.
In his despair, Orlando didn’t seem to register Michael’s arrival. When he didn’t look up, Michael touched him very lightly between the shoulder blades. The whoosh of cosmic energy seemed to jolt Orlando out of his trance. “They were together for less than three minutes.” Orlando’s voice was flat with misery. “I didn’t even see it coming.”
“I know how it seems,” Michael said softly. “But everything is completely as it should be. Now we must get these two girls to safety.”
Michael bent over Lucilla and Aurelia and I saw a flicker of celestial light go through them. If I’d been them I’d have wanted to stay frozen forever.
When the two remaining sisters saw Star still lying dead in their arms, their faces were pitiful.
“I have to take her now,” Michael told them.
I heard them gasp and their eyes filled with a mixture of terror and awe. I wondered what they were seeing. Could they see Michael’s crumpled suit and his beautiful archangel eyes? Or did they see some anonymous figure with shining wings?
Michael effortlessly lifted Star’s lifeless body in his arms. A pearly haze of white light began to form, softly enfolding the sisters, growing more and more intense until they were completely hidden from view. Once again I felt that odd thrumming disturbance as Time switched back on. But by this time Michael and the girls were nowhere to be seen.