Muses of Terra (Codex Antonius Book 2)

by Rob Steiner

  “Where are we?” he asked Kaeso.

  “Remember the tower we passed when we entered Nascio?”

  Cordus nodded. “What do they want with us?”

  “I just woke up myself. Don’t even know how long we’ve been out.”

  “You’ve been here a day,” the woman next to Cordus said. “No idea how long you were out before that. The fulgurators can keep you down for up to four days.”

  Cordus eyed the woman. “Fulgura…?” He assumed she was referring to whatever the golems had used to knock him out. “What is your name, my lady?”

  The woman gave him a tired laugh. “Such manners, for a simple merchant. I am Aquilina.”

  Cordus turned to Kaeso, and he shrugged. “Tarpeius has bigger things to worry about now than paying us for our the insect repellant we delivered.”

  Implicit in the shrug was, We’re cargo haulers, kid…and no more.

  Taking up the act, Cordus sighed. “So much for a quick payday. Where is Tarpeius?”

  “Not here,” Kaeso said.

  Cordus turned back to the woman. “How did you end up here?”

  “Those scraps of vat flesh think I’m a Roman patrician,” Aquilina said, then gave Cordus an amused glance. “But I’m also a simple merchant.”

  “She’s a godsdamned spy, is what she is,” a legionary growled. He was around Kaeso’s age with graying hair in the stubble on his head and face. His left forearm had a long cut that was sewn shut hastily with haphazard stitches. “She’s one of them Liberti numina everyone whispers about. Merchant, ha! Mound of pig cac, if you ask me. We was arresting her when the golems rebelled.”

  Aquilina shook her head wearily. “I don’t know what else to tell these men, but I am no spy. Yes, I’m from Libertus, but I was delivering fertilizer. Just because I do well and dress well, the golems—and our esteemed fellow prisoners—think I’m something I’m not. They’re just upset and taking it out on me.”

  The legionary started to rise. “You’re godsdamned right I’m upset! I lost good men—”

  “Easy, friend,” Cordus said in a soothing tone as he rose to his feet. “The golems are the enemy. What is your name?”

  The legionary glared at Aquilina, then shifted his eyes to Cordus. He exhaled sharply through his nose, then sat back down and leaned his head against the wall.

  “Paulus Ulpius,” he said. “Centurion, 2nd Cohort Equitata Machina, 24th Legion.”

  “I’m sorry for your losses, Centurion,” Cordus said, easing back down. “Are you and your men all that’s left of the 24th?”

  “Aye,” Ulpius said, glancing at the six others nearby. They all looked defeated, demoralized, and ready to die. “Been six days since we was captured. Three more came in here with us. Golems crucified them, one every other day. If the pattern holds, they’ll take another one of us today.”

  Dariya groaned next to Kaeso. Her eyes fluttered open, and she sucked in a ragged breath when the pain hit her. Kaeso put a reassuring hand on her shoulder as she awoke.

  Cordus turned to Aquilina. “So we were hit with a…fulgurator…?”

  “A gun that shoots lightning, but doesn’t kill,” she said. “Hurts like a bolt from Jupiter, though.”

  Ulpius said, “The flamens gave it a fancy code name I don’t remember, but the men came up with fulgurator, a lightning gun. Shuts down your body, puts you into some kind of hibernation.”

  Kaeso gave Cordus a meaningful look. “Seems the Romans have a new toy,” he murmured.

  In the past, before Cordus fled Roma, any “new toy” came as a revelation from the Muses. Most often it came to the consul, but they also came to the Collegia Pontificis. The Muses would give their hosts the plans for some technology, and then the hosts would publicly proclaim they received a Missive of the Gods. The Missive would have the plans for the technology, and the host would pass the plans on to Roman flamens to build or develop.

  But the Terran Muses—which only infected the consul, his family, and the Collegia Pontificis—were supposedly destroyed in Roma six years ago, an event that sparked the current civil war. Had Roman flamens used their own ingenuity to develop this gun…or do the Terran Muses still live?

  Cordus doubted the Terran Muses lived. He queried his Muses constantly for over a year after the consul’s death, but they could not find the presence of their strain.

  “Apollo’s cock,” Blaesus moaned as he woke to the fulgurator’s awful pain.

  Dariya had already sat up and was whispering to Daryush as he also woke. Daryush grunted something that Dariya seemed to understand.

  Ulpius stared at Daryush. “Is he dim or what?”

  Dariya tried to stand but she couldn’t get her muscles to work. Instead, she snarled, “He has more brains than you, you Roman pi—!”

  “No offense, lass,” Ulpius said, holding up his hands. “Just asking.”

  Once Dariya calmed down, Kaeso explained to her, Daryush, and Blaesus what they knew so far.

  “That treacherous bastard Tarpeius can rot in Bacchus’s soggy ass,” Blaesus grumbled, holding his head in both hands.

  Ulpius grunted. “Spoken like a Roman. What’s your name, old man?”

  Once Blaesus knew he had an audience, his pain seemed to ease. He drew his head up and sat straight.

  “Gaius Octavius Blaesus.”

  Cordus winced. So much for keeping a low profile…

  Ulpius’s eyes narrowed. “Octavius Blaesus. You were exiled from Roman territory if I remember right. I believe it’s the duty of every Roman soldier to arrest you if you set foot in the Republic again.”

  Cordus tensed and felt Kaeso do the same.

  “You know me?” Blaesus exclaimed. “How wonderful! Well I can assure you, Centurion, it was all a misunderstanding. Some Senators do not appreciate…”

  Blaesus trailed off as the elevator rumbled behind the closed doors on the other side of the octagonal room. The Romans who’d been sleeping sat up, their eyes fearful.

  Aquilina leaned next to Cordus and said, “Try not to look so defiant…and Roman.”

  Before he could ask her what she meant, the elevator doors opened. Four golems dressed in tattered black flamen robes, each holding a metal rod in both hands, exited the elevator and stood to one side. Behind them, a fifth golem stepped into the room. This one wore a torn and bloody toga arranged around its shoulders as if a child had put it on. The right side of its face was painted dark red, and Cordus had the chilling suspicion it was somebody’s blood.

  The golem moved to the left, studied each Roman a few seconds, and then moved on to the next. It gave no indication what it was thinking. When its eyes finally rested on Cordus, he tried to sink his shoulders and look as beaten as his body felt. The golem’s stare moved on to Kaeso—who simply closed his eyes and pretended to sleep—then Blaesus, Dariya, and Daryush.

  After it stared at Daryush, the golem pointed at Cordus. His heart skipped a beat.

  “You may go,” the golem said.

  It pointed at Kaeso, Dariya, and Daryush and said the same thing.

  Then it pointed at Blaesus. “You will come with us. You will stand trial for your crimes against the Reantium Liberation Collegium.”

  “What?” Blaesus exclaimed. “I haven’t done anything to your Collegium, how can you—?”

  “You are Roman. You are guilty. You will stand trial for your crimes.”

  Three golems with the metal rods strode toward Cordus, Kaeso, Dariya, and Daryush and motioned them to their feet. The fourth golem prodded Blaesus, who stood on shaky legs. The golem put metal cuffs on Blaesus’s wrists.

  Kaeso said to the lead golem, “He’s not a Roman citizen. He had no part in any crimes against you.”

  The golem stared at Kaeso. “He is Roman. We have knowledge given to us by Aulus Tarpeius.”

  “He lies!” Blaesus yelled.

  “He does not. We ensured his truthfulness by torturing his wife and daughter in front of him. We stopped in exchange for his knowledge. He
will not risk their continued torture by lying. We learned this tactic from Romans.”

  Cordus tried to swallow, but his throat and mouth were suddenly dry. If Tarpeius gave up Blaesus, why didn’t he give up Cordus, the last Antonius? Could he have suddenly remembered his Saturnist vows? Maybe he had to give the golems something and chose Blaesus over Cordus?

  The golems prodded Cordus and the others toward the elevator. As the doors closed, he caught a final look from Aquilina—

  The Muses in his mind cried out in shock.

  Marcus Antonius blinked into existence next to the golem to Cordus’s right. He turned to Cordus, surprise on his bearded face. “That woman has a Muse implant. She just sent you a message—help me and I will help you.” Marcus laughed. “That sodding centurion was right about her! She’s an Umbra Ancile!”

  12

  Cordus was not in a laughing mood. The elevator was cramped. A golem kept the metal rod fulgurator pressed into his side. Blaesus breathed heavy, still weary from the fulgurator blast he took at Tarpeius’s villa. Behind Cordus, Daryush whimpered quietly every few breaths. Kaeso was silent and still.

  What is an Ancile doing on Reantium? Cordus asked Marcus Antonius.

  Antonius snorted. “How in all the hells should we know? The Liberti strain has confounded us for millennia.”

  Cordus had to tell Kaeso. He was no longer an Ancile, but he might have some insight into getting Umbra’s help to escape Reantium. Cordus would not stand by and let these golems crucify the Romans wasting away in that awful prison, and he certainly would not let them crucify Blaesus.

  Cordus tried turning to Kaeso, but the golem shoved the rod deeper into his side. Cordus kept his head forward.

  Antonius chuckled. “The flesh machines learn fast.”

  You mean they were programmed well.

  “And there lies the answer you seek,” Antonius said, folding hairy forearms over his bronze-plated chest. “Who programmed them to do this, and why? Who has the most to gain by sowing chaos in the Republic’s largest granary? And yes, the pun was intended.”

  We need to escape to find that out.

  The elevator stopped with a jolt and the doors opened to the outside.

  Tarpeius’s crucified corpse greeted them not ten paces away. He hung naked from a hastily built cross made of plastic and aluminum beams. His legs looked broken, so his death by suffocation had been relatively quick compared to what the Romans on the road had endured. His mouth hung open, and Cordus noticed the golems had nailed Tarpeius’s tongue to his left breast.

  Antonius leaned close to Cordus’s ear. “Then I suggest you escape sooner rather than later.”

  The red-faced golem marched toward an armored car parked twenty paces from the elevator doors. The golem beside Cordus jabbed him with the rod again, so Cordus followed the lead golem. His heart raced. He calmed his breathing, relaxed his muscles.

  Within four paces of the armored car, Cordus jammed his elbow into the throat of the golem next to him. Golems breathed like humans, so a crushed mechanical trachea made the golem loosen its grip on the fulgurator.

  Cordus grabbed the rod from the golem’s hand, turned it on the golem…and could not find the trigger.

  A golem behind the one Cordus had wounded pointed its fulgurator at Cordus. In one smooth motion, Kaeso kicked the golem’s leg and grabbed its fulgurator as it landed with a grunt on its back. Instead of firing, Kaeso smashed one end into the golem’s head, cracking its skull. The golem’s legs twitched in its death throes.

  Cordus felt movement behind him. He swung his fulgurator low, like an ax-wielding gladiator in the arena. The metal rod hit the red-faced golem’s right knee with a loud crack. The golem went down, but it produced a pulse pistol from its dirty toga and aimed at Cordus. He lunged forward and kicked the pistol from the golem’s hand just as a blast zipped over his shoulder. He brought the fulgurator down on the golem’s head. Yellow blood spurted from its cracked skull, covering the red blood paint on its face. Cordus grabbed the pulse pistol from the golem’s twitching hand.

  He whirled around to see Kaeso and Dariya putting down the last two golems, using the fulgurators as clubs.

  Blaesus stared at the dead golems, a snarl spreading across his lips. He walked over to the lead golem and kicked it in the chest as hard as he could. “It’s a crime to be a Roman, eh?”

  Cordus stooped down and searched the golem’s tattered toga for keys to the shackles on Blaesus’s wrists. He found none. He glanced back at Kaeso and Dariya, who were also searching the downed golems. They couldn’t find keys either.

  Pulse blasts at their feet sprayed dirt in their faces. One hit Blaesus in the abdomen with a sickening slap, and he crumpled to the ground.

  “The car!” Kaeso screamed as he pushed Dariya and Daryush forward.

  Cordus tried dragging Blaesus toward the armored car. Kaeso helped pull Blaesus as pulse pellets struck the car and the ground around them. Blaesus clenched his teeth as they moved him, then screamed when they shoved him into the back of the armored car.

  Cordus spared a glance up. At least a dozen golems in dark robes spilled from out of a building near the tower fifty paces away. Each aimed pulse rifles at them and fired.

  Thank the gods they weren’t programmed for shooting, Cordus thought as he dove into the driver’s seat of the armored car. More blasts bounced off the armored door.

  Kaeso shut the back door and yelled, “Drive, kid!”

  Cordus’s fingers flew across the controls on the armored car. When the engine hummed to life, he punched the accelerator buttons on the steering column and sped toward the approaching golems. He found the controls for the car’s top pulse guns and sent streams of pellets into the golems. The blasts ripped the golems apart, spraying yellow pieces across the garrison field.

  Seeing no other golem targets, Cordus turned the car toward the garrison’s chain fence gate ahead. More golems at the gate fired at the armored car with their pulse rifles, but the pellets bounced off the armored wind shield. Cordus smashed through the gate and onto the streets of Nascio.

  The car lurched, and a terrible grinding came from the rear wheels. Cordus glanced at the side mirror on his left. Part of the gate was caught in the left rear wheel well. He tried swerving and speeding up, but nothing would dislodge the gate.

  “What’s wrong?” Kaeso asked from behind.

  “Gate’s caught in the wheels. It’ll destroy the axles.”

  Dariya swore. “Find a quiet alley. Me and ‘Ush can get it out.”

  Cordus scanned the street in front, then the sides, and then the rear camera displays on the car’s tabulari. He saw no signs of pursuit, but that didn’t mean they weren’t coming.

  Kaeso said, “We won’t get far with a gate in our wheels.”

  Cordus nodded. He found an alley and pulled into it. He drove down another street on the other side of the alley before turning into a second alley. He was struck by how deserted the whole town was; no golems, much less humans, roamed the debris-filled streets. He tried not to dwell on what happened to all the humans.

  Cordus stopped the car, grabbed his pistol, and exited. He held the pistol in a firing position as he scanned the areas behind the car, the tops of the buildings around them, and the ends of the alley. Dariya and Daryush jumped out of the car and hurried to the gate.

  “Whoreson,” Dariya breathed as she inspected the damage. “You did a real cac job on these wheels, Roman.”

  “Next time I’ll let you climb the fence, Persian,” Cordus growled, still scanning the street behind them.

  Dariya chuckled as she kicked downward at the gate to dislodge it. “We might make you a trierarch yet, Trierarch.”

  Cordus grinned, despite the dire situation. It was the first time this entire mission he heard respect in her voice when she said “Trierarch”.

  Kaeso stepped out of the car and stood next to Cordus. “Status?”

  “Clear for now. The gate is another matter.”

 
; Dariya cursed, and Daryush grunted, as they both pulled and kicked at the lodged gate.

  Cordus looked at Kaeso. “The woman Aquilina. I think she’s Umbra.”

  Kaeso’s head jerked to Cordus. “How do you know?”

  “She has a Muse implant. She sent me a message via the Muses just as we got on the elevator. Said she could help us if we help her.”

  Kaeso frowned. “If that’s true, then this revolution is starting to make sense.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Kaeso shook his head. “Later. You did well back there.”

  Cordus tried not to let the compliment swell his heart. “We’re not out of this yet. How’s Blaesus?”

  “I patched him up best I can with the car’s medicus kit, but he won’t survive the hour unless we close that wound.”

  Cordus exhaled, then handed Kaeso the pulse pistol. Kaeso raised an eyebrow, so Cordus said, “You’re a better shot than me.”

  Cordus helped Dariya and Daryush pull on the fence. It took them a few more minutes, but between the three of them, they yanked the mangled fence free and threw it into a corner of the alley. They hurried back into the armored car. Kaeso stayed in back with Blaesus, who seemed even more pale and weak than a few minutes ago. Cordus knew it was bad because Blaesus was silent.

  In the back seat, Kaeso said, “They’ll have Vacuna under guard. Options?”

  Cordus reached for the car’s tabulari. “I’ll look for a hospital.”

  Dariya said grimly, “The old man is bad.”

  Cordus located the hospital on a town map. It was nine blocks away. He backed the armored car out of the alley and then followed the directions on the map.

  As he drove to the hospital, slowing before every street to ensure no ambush awaited them, Marcus Antonius appeared in the seat next to him. “This would go so much faster if you switched on the unit locator,” Marcus said in a bored tone. “Every armored car has them. That option is centuries old.”

  Cordus sighed. He was getting used to Antonius popping in and out of existence, and he didn’t know if that was good or bad.

  How do I do that?

  Antonius gave him instructions, and when Cordus performed them, four icons displayed on the tabulari’s map. Two armored cars raced toward Nascio from the landing port, a third came from the discipuli checkpoint they passed on the road to Tarpeius’s villa, and the fourth, their car, moved toward the hospital.