by Nhys Glover
Asterius took up the story, moving around so we were all sitting in a circle facing each other. “Judaea. We had to dock for repairs. But we couldn’t wait, so we took a slow vessel north to Seleukeia Pieria. It probably put us a week or more behind you.
“In Antiochia we heard about Parthians with a Roman woman, and we hired a guide and headed south to Emisa and then started out for Palmyra with a caravan. We passed a caravan going the other way and we spotted the Parthians amongst them. They were just finishing up their search for you, Accalia, and were turning back. So we followed them to Palmyra where some drunken bastard told them he’d seen a woman being hidden away in a wagon heading east. When they headed for Dura and then turned north, following your trail, we let them do all the hard work. They moved fast. And today they finally caught up with you. Though it was quite a shock to find out you weren’t alone. We didn’t realise Orion had helped you escape.”
Accalia smiled properly for the first time. “You thought I escaped on my own?”
Pride shone in her eyes. She had told me how desperately she’d wanted to escape and had been waiting for the opportunity. It’d made her feel helpless and weak that she couldn’t find a way to do it. So having my pack think her capable of such a feat buoyed her flagging spirits.
“Of course. You’re the girl who single-handedly stood up to the great fire of Rome, aren’t you? What are a few Parthians in comparison?” Asterius joked, his gaze soft.
Accalia huffed out a breath. “And nearly got both Talos and myself killed. That was hardly my finest hour.”
Typhon kissed the side of her head. “You don’t know how incredible you are. None of us doubted you’d find a way to escape. We also thought you might end up paying for it. That was where we planned to come in.”
Accalia gifted him a grateful smile. “I’m glad you did. It was a good plan following the Parthians.”
“Our plan was simple,” Talos said, reaching over to stroke her knee. “Either they’d lead us to you or they wouldn’t. If they didn’t, then we knew you’d get yourself home or to safety. As long as you were free of them we thought you’d do well enough. You’re nothing if not resilient. You could’ve undertaken your father’s trial and got yourself home. We never doubted it for a moment.”
“Finding you with Orion was like finding you with Talos after the fire,” Typhon interrupted, shaking his head. “We were sure he had to have died in that storm, just as we were sure Talos had died in the fire. Yet they both popped up eventually with you.”
Accalia turned to me and frowned. “They thought you dead. I thought we agreed we’d feel it if any of us broke the connection.”
I shrugged a little guiltily. I’d partly said that to alleviate her fears. It hadn’t alleviated mine.
“And we would,” I covered as well as I could. “They logically thought I was dead, just as we logically thought Talos had to be dead. We didn’t feel it. Or I didn’t.”
The others looked bemused, and I explained how we had decided that our connection was such that if any one of us died we’d feel it. They nodded, considering the possibility.
Accalia yawned.
“Lie down and sleep, Love,” I told her, moving out of the way so she could do just that. “There’s nothing to worry about any longer. You’re safe and we’re all together again. Everything else can wait until tomorrow. Are you hungry?”
She shook her head as I expected. Getting her to eat was a constant battle. But for now I’d let her win. She needed sleep more than she needed food.
We sat watching as her eyes closed gratefully and she dropped into a deep, exhausted sleep.
Once I was sure she was out, I turned to my brothers and asked the question that had been on my mind from the moment the battle ended. Something wasn’t right. The tension in their bodies was too great for men who had completed a challenge successfully.
“What’s wrong?” I asked softly.
My pack-mates exchanged glances. I wondered if they somehow knew I’d taken Accalia’s virginity and were planning to challenge me on it. Of all of us, I expected to be the one who’d be strong enough to resist. But I’d proven the weakest.
Oddly enough, I didn’t care what they thought. This was our fate. This was our path. Neither Accalia nor I had been willing to fight it any longer.
“Her father,” Asterius said reluctantly. “He’s dead. He went to Natalinus’ villa outside Rome after he left us. That’s where he collapsed.”
“After coming to Puteoli, you mean?” My mind was in chaos. This was the worst possible news. Her father was everything to Accalia.
“Yes. His heart. It’d been a problem for some time. He knew, but he thought he had more time. He wanted to safeguard Accalia’s interests, so he went to Natalinus before it was too late. He and Natalinus agreed that a marriage between Accalia and Marcus would safeguard his legacy. Otherwise that uncle, Etruscus, would inherit not only the paterfamilias but Accalia and his gladiators with it. He has been keen to take over the gladiators for some time, Natalinus said.”
“Wait... how do you know this?” I demanded, still reeling at the news. I was having a hard time keeping my voice low.
“When we reached the port at Seleukeia Pieria there was a missive waiting for us. I imagine others were waiting at every port along the coast. For us or Accalia.”
“And the missive was from Natalinus?” I questioned further.
“Yes, and another inside for Accalia from her father before he died.”
“Gods!” I could think of nothing else to say. This would gut her. Worry for her father had been uppermost in her mind, every step of the way. Getting home to him had been her most important concern.
“I don’t understand,” I muttered, still not fully getting the series of events that led to the missives.
Talos took over the telling, more patient than Asterius. “The Master had been concerned that if he should die before Accalia married that her uncle would take control of all that was rightfully hers. Legally, she is not old enough to hold property. Had she been older or a widow, it would be another matter, but she is too young.
“So he went to Natalinus to arrange a speedy marriage with Marcus, as he could think of no one else she would prefer. And Marcus is intimately familiar with the barracks and his father is a powerful Equestrian. Etruscus might have tried to arrange a divorce or wrest control of the assets from the young couple, as the new head of the paterfamilias, if the marriage had been to someone less influential. But marrying into the Natalinus paterfamilias? No. He doesn’t have a hope. But everything hinges on the marriage occurring before Etruscus can stop it. Marcus is in Britannia now.”
“So if she marries Marcus she retains control of her estate and the gladiators?” I asked tentatively. The idea of her marrying anyone but us made my gut curdle. But at least Marcus was a friend. We knew he would treat her well.
“The Master signed everything over to Natalinus in the marriage contract, which he has sent on to Marcus in Camulodunum. I gather it was the provincial capital of Britannia before the revolt a few years back. Now Marcus is involved in the building of the city walls.” Talos petered out on this final irrelevancy. Who the fuck cared what he was doing on the other side of the empire?
My mind, still foggy after the battle, couldn’t come to terms with the sudden shift of events. I had been focused for so long on saving Accalia from the Parthians. Now that was finished with, unless the prince sent more men after her. But instead of safe, Accalia’s fate was once more being taken out of her hands.
And the worst part of it was that we were still slaves. We had given up our chance at freedom to safeguard our interests in the arena. If Etruscus gained control of us, we would become helpless puppets in his ignorant hands. Gods only knew what he would do to the barracks and the breeding program. From everything Accalia had said about her uncle, he was an arrogant fool of a man. He’d tried to wrest power from her when she was negotiating our last contest for no other reason than she was a wo
man. Had he been given his way, we’d be dead. None of us was arrogant enough to believe we could go up against twenty medium-class gladiators as had initially been put forward.
My mind flashed to the conversation Accalia and I had had about finding a way for us all to be together. I’d said we could find the rest of our pack and leave the empire. But Accalia had refused because of her father. Now the Master was dead. What stood in our way of doing just as I suggested?
But even as I entertained the thought, I looked down at the exhausted, filthy girl lying on a vermin-infested pallet. This was no life for someone like her. She deserved better than this. And if we left the empire, how could we replace what she would be giving up?
We had notes to gain more money from the temple at Antiochia. Might that not be enough to give us a fresh start somewhere beyond the reach of the empire? Where would that be? I had little knowledge of the rest of the world. We had been taught that, for all intents and purposes, there was not much world beyond the empire. Rome provided civilization.
Yet surely there was some corner of the world where people like us could live freely and well?
My heart dipped as I realised the unlikelihood of finding such a place. Maybe if it was just the four members of the Wolf Pack, we might carve out a place for ourselves, although it would be dangerous and take time. But with Accalia at our side it would be twice as hard because we couldn’t take the risks we might otherwise need to take. We’d have to be constantly watching and protecting our vulnerable heel.
Accalia deserved better. She deserved her legacy, the one her father had built up for her, and trained her to take over. Our girl deserved to be wealthy and respected, surrounded by people who loved her. Other than us, of course.
How would she handle knowing her people were in the hands of Etruscus? Not only would everything her father and grandfather had worked for be destroyed, but the people in the program, the barracks and the ludi around the empire would be put in jeopardy. I might walk away from them without too much guilt, but I doubted Accalia could.
How long we’d been sitting there silently considering our options I didn’t know. But finally I looked up and met each man’s gaze.
“We have to get her to Marcus, don’t we?” I asked, though I knew the answer.
“It might be different if we were free. But we gave up that chance. What can four slaves do to protect her from the might of Rome?” Asterius answered, as if it physically pained him to say it.
“She’d choose us over her position,” Typhon snarled. “You know she would.”
I turned to stare at our most volatile pack-member. “She would. But is that what is in her best interest? Yes, she would have us, but what do you think the guilt would do to her?”
“Her father’s dead. She wouldn’t leave before because of him,” Talos pointed out.
“How does she feel about the people on her estate? Are they just slaves to her?” I demanded in frustration, feeling tears pricking at my eyelids. We were so close, so very close to having what we all desperately wanted. But we couldn’t do it to her.
Talos shook his head silently. “No, she has healed most of them at one time or another. They are like family to her. Her responsibility.”
I nodded. “And how would she feel if Etruscus took control of their lives? What would happen to the boys in the barracks? To our mothers?” I shook my head sadly. “It would destroy her. Especially if she knew it was within her power to keep them all safe, and yet she chose her own happiness over theirs. She’s a dutiful woman. Not in the way other noblewomen of the empire are, but in her own way. In the way that matters. What would happen to Minerva and Ariaratus, or that old guard she’s so fond of? Would Etruscus let him keep his place on the estate? You know what usually happens to old slaves who can’t work anymore.”
We fell back into silence again. Tortured silence.
There was only one path open to us.
Chapter Thirteen
ACCALIA
I prepared to leave the room I had not been able to bring myself to step outside of for two days. During that time it had felt like all the world had gone mad beyond these mud-brick walls. Men lay dead in alleys. Men who had stolen me from my home and cost me the life of my beloved father. I was alone beyond these walls. Not physically or even emotionally, because I still had my pack. But legally. Because everything that made up my life was either gone or given over into my uncle’s greedy hands. Even my beloved pack would belong to him unless I did something to stop him.
But travelling to the other end of the known world to Marcus had seemed an impossible task. I had been exhausted in every way that was possible. And hopelessness and grief had laid me low for two full days. Days I could not afford to waste. But I had.
Because Pater was dead! Gods, what I had feared would happen had indeed come to pass. And I had cried until there were no tears left inside me. All the while, one or other of my pack held me tight, keeping silent vigil as I grieved.
I could not even imagine a world without Pater in it. The only thing that kept me from sinking beneath the weight of my grief was the sure knowledge that he was now with Mater in Elysium. Maybe my little brother was with them too. I knew Pater had wanted to be with her from the moment she passed. He had only kept living for me and for his legacy.
During those two harrowing days I wallowed. All my confidence and belief in myself had evaporated somewhere along the Silk Road, I realised. Though my pack-mates had believed me capable of escaping my captors, I had not been able to do it. And if the rest hadn’t arrived in the nick of time, Orion and I would be dead. The close brush with death, even closer than when Talos and I fell beneath a burning building, had left me feeling small and helpless in a frighteningly large and cruel world.
My naiveté had been profound, I knew that now. I had lived my whole life on our estate, thinking I was in control of my destiny. I had blithely told my pack I let nothing stand in my way. So much false bravado. Gods, I had been such an innocent, ignorant child.
Back then there had been moments when calamity hit, and I had felt helplessly tossed on turbulent seas, but I had always found a way forward. A way to deny the power of those turbulent seas. My fierce determination had developed as a way to protect myself from the harsh realities of a world that could take a mother from her daughter and could bring a strong father to his knees. But it had never been more than a flimsy, false wall I had built in my mind against the world.
As my grief began to abate a little, I saw myself and my life in a different light. I realised that I had never been alone, once I found my pack. A child can never truly take control of her life, but because of my pack I had felt strong enough to do far more than most children might. My pack-mates did that for me.
And over the years, one or other of them had saved me from the worst life threw at me. My pack said I had done the same for them. In my darkest moments I ignored those sentiments. But now, as the light began to replace the dark, I realised it was true. I had done my part to keep the world from destroying us. I had done my part to control our lives. Not perfectly, but well enough.
I was no longer an ignorant child. I knew no one had perfect control over their lives. Not even Pater, who was the strongest man I have ever known. He had built on the legacy his father had given him and created something unique in all the empire. Something successful and worthwhile. Yet there had been no son to whom he could bequeath his legacy. And he had lost the only woman he ever loved. A woman who had made his life complete. No, no one had perfect control over their lives.
In those dark days, I had seen the bigger world as dangerous and bloody. There was nowhere where I felt safe anymore. I might have survived and escaped the Parthians this time, but what if they came after me again? How could I expect my pack-mates to keep saving me?
In my grief-stricken madness I had half-hoped, half-expected them to suggest we run away together now Pater was not a concern. But they had not. And rightly so. The risks to them would have been too gr
eat as escaped slaves. The only real safety they had was in the world they had carved out for themselves in the arena. And even there they would not be safe unless I kept my uncle from taking over Pater’s legacy.
Now the pendulum of my emotions had swung back to somewhere in between the extremes. I no longer saw the world as mine for the taking, yet I no longer felt laid low by the enormity of what I faced. I was no longer a giant in my own mind, nor an ant. I was a woman who still had options, who still had the love and support of four magnificent men.
I no longer wanted to hide in this little room on the edge of the empire forever, forgetting everything else. The idea that I had to cross the world to reach Marcus, and marry him to save my people and my pack, no longer seemed impossible to contemplate.
I had travelled two long months away from home. I could travel two more months to secure my father’s legacy and my freedom. Though I still wanted my own bed at home and to have everything back the way it had been before Pater married Camellia—back when life was good and I was happy—I knew it could not happen. And the mature part of me did not want it to. Because not all the changes had been bad since then. My pack had shown me happiness and pleasure the child had never even known existed. They had shown me what it was to be a woman. I could never regret that.
“Ready to go?” Orion asked me as he came into the room.
The others were arranging for our transport to Antiochia. There we would get enough money to take us to Marcus. Orion estimated it would cost at least two thousand denarii each. Then there was food and incidentals on the way. So much money. And yet it was a mere pittance compared to what my legacy was worth. If I didn’t stop my uncle, I would lose everything. Including the four men who were now more than my lifeline. They were my life.