Mark of the Thief

by Jennifer A. Nielsen

  "You're a liar," I argued. "That's worse."

  Well, it wasn't, but I needed something to say back to her, and she only clamped her mouth closed at that, which was all I wanted anyway.

  She stood and pulled me up beside her, keeping a firm grip around my chain.

  "You're making a huge mistake," I said. "Radulf cannot get that bulla."

  "Radulf is a great man. If Horatio turns you over to him, then it'll be the right thing to do."

  "What world do you live in to believe all that?" I said.

  Aurelia's mouth moved like she was responding, but I didn't hear the sound. Instead, my ears filled with echoes of footsteps splashing through water. Heavy, marching footsteps, and many of them. It was so clear, I looked around for the source of the noise, but saw nothing to explain it. Aurelia didn't seem to notice the sounds and had simply continued talking. Why could I hear it, and not her?

  Something was terribly wrong.

  The sound of footsteps in my head was growing, and the splashing was so distinct I couldn't understand why water didn't leak from my ears. Was I going mad?

  Aurelia jabbed my arm, drawing my attention to her while quieting the noises in my head. "Aren't you listening? I asked if --"

  "Where are we?" I shuffled forward, pulling on the chains as much as they'd allow. "Is this part of the sewers?"

  "It's an old cistern, but we cut the pipes connecting it to the sewers and use the flow for washing. We still come and go through the sewers, though. Why?"

  "We've got to get out of here. Soldiers are coming." I started to move, but Aurelia pulled me back.

  "Impossible. They never come down here." Her brows pressed together. "How would you know that anyway?"

  "I just know!"

  She made a face. "I'm not releasing you. If you think I'd fall for such an obvious trick --"

  I didn't hear the rest of what she said, because now a voice thundered in my head, so loud that I tried to raise my hands to cover my ears, except the chains were attached to my leg irons and wouldn't reach that far.

  "Nicolas Calva!" That was Radulf speaking directly into my head. I didn't know how that was possible, but I couldn't hear anything else, not even my own thoughts.

  Aurelia didn't seem to hear it. "What is the matter with you now?"

  "Can't you --" I started, but then Radulf's voice continued.

  "I found you, Nic. By joining those children, you have chosen them to die with you."

  "No!" I fell to my knees, and lowered my head enough to get my hands over my ears. But covering them only made the sound louder.

  "If you give yourself up now, I promise to let them live. If you don't, there is no escape for any of you."

  I looked up at Aurelia, who was staring back at me as if a horn had sprouted from my head. I pointed to the doorway. "How many exits out of here, into the main sewer line?"

  "Only one," she said. "But nobody else --"

  The same girl who had manacled me rushed into the room. "Aurelia, I hear sounds in the tunnels. Men's voices. Lots of them."

  Her eyes darted back to me, full of alarm. "How far away?"

  The girl shrugged.

  "They're here for you, right?" Aurelia didn't say it as a question, and didn't need my nod for an answer. She pressed her lips together for only a moment before saying, "I'm sorry, Nic. I have to give you up to them."

  "They'll kill me if you do!"

  "They'll kill all of us if I don't. Including you!" She tugged on my chains.

  But I wasn't going to budge. "I can get us out of here."

  She turned around the room. "I told you, there's only one exit, from the outer room. And that will take us directly into the sewers with those men!"

  "What's above us?"

  She rolled her eyes. "Dirt."

  Well, obviously. "No, above that!"

  Aurelia shrugged. "An olive orchard, I think." Then her eyes narrowed. "Don't even think about it!"

  "Give me the bulla."

  "Is that how you did what you did in the amphitheater?"

  "Yes. I think so." Somehow.

  She shook her head. "I tried using it and nothing happened."

  "And when I use it, big things happen, so do you want to debate why or let me have it?"

  Then her eyes widened further. "I only think it's an open field. What if I'm wrong?"

  "What if we do nothing? Do you really believe Radulf will take me and leave the rest of you alone?"

  Aurelia reached for a familiar strap that had been hidden beneath her tunic and lifted out the bulla, which she shoved into my hand. It was heavier than before, which meant either I was weaker, or the magic in it was growing. I immediately began to feel its strength flow into me, moving through my chest, down my legs and arms, up my back and into my mind. The magic dug deeper, burning its way through my blood with a power I had never noticed before.

  The children who had been in the outer room came running in, far more of them than I had expected. I counted at least a dozen heads, some of them quite young, and all of them looking to Aurelia for answers. "They're here!" one of the younger boys cried.

  "Get behind me," I said, only because it seemed safer there. Maybe it wasn't.

  I turned until I had a direct view of the doorway into the sewer. Radulf entered the outer room flanked by six large soldiers. I saw the amusement on his face grow as he scanned my shackled arms and legs.

  "They got you ready for me," he said, smiling. "How kind of them."

  "You saw what I did in the amphitheater," I warned. "Stay back."

  "That was an accident." Radulf stepped forward, daring me to act. "You have no idea how you did that."

  The bulla was becoming hot in my hands, but with the manacles, I couldn't get it around my neck. "I do know. And I'll do the same thing here if you don't leave."

  It was a badly told lie. I didn't know how I'd used the magic before, or whether I could use it again. I didn't even know if I should use it again. Collapsing wooden beams and a fabric canopy was one thing. Several feet of earth and rocks lay above our heads now.

  "Right now, you're an untrained boy with a sword, swinging wildly in any direction you want and calling it success if you happen to hit something."

  "That's right," I countered. "So get back, or I might happen to hit you."

  "Give me that bulla." Radulf's face darkened. "Now."

  "No." I kept my body square to him and hoped he couldn't see the way my legs were shaking. "Leave. Before I use the magic."

  A wicked smile stretched across Radulf's face. "You're not the only one who can use magic, you know."

  Then he raised a hand, and punched it forward. It sent an invisible wave of air toward me. Even if I couldn't see it, I definitely felt it, like he'd thrown a boulder at my chest. I took the hit directly, but it traveled to my shoulder, igniting the Divine Star with pain.

  I yelled, but flung out my chained hands as if to empty the pain somewhere else. There was no reaction from him, so for a moment, I thought perhaps I hadn't done anything. He started forward, but then a large cracking sound came from above the doorway between us. Heavy chunks of bricks fell, along with the dirt and rocks they had held back. It was similar to what had happened in Caesar's cave, shortly after I'd first put the bulla around my neck. But that magic hadn't come through me then, or if it did, I was feeling it far more powerfully now. The falling rocks forced Radulf back, but once everything settled, he and his men would be able to climb over the debris to get to me. Radulf ordered the soldiers forward, but then other loosened bricks started falling as well. No one obeyed his order.

  "Where's my archer?" Radulf yelled through the dusty air. "Fire into that room!"

  "I'm as good as any of them!" Aurelia yanked the bow off her back and fit it with an arrow, which she immediately released. It hit the hand of a man who had been reaching for his own bow, and he yelped with pain.

  More rocks continued to fall, until the doorway between the two chambers was completely barricaded. So mu
ch brick had come down that the entire cistern looked in danger of collapsing, and escape was impossible now.

  With the children huddled around her, Aurelia glared over at me. "That was a great move, Nic! Solve a big problem by creating a bigger one. I should have given you up!"

  "You should have listened to my warning!"

  "Aurelia!" One of the girls pointed above her head where the end of a large pipe stuck out from the rocks and mortar. The rushing sound of water was easily heard, and growing.

  "We disconnected that pipe!" Even as Aurelia cried out the words, water gushed from the pipe. "How is this happening?"

  "What a mystery!" I yelled back. "Do you think maybe they reconnected it?"

  "Why would he do that?"

  "That great man of yours, General Radulf, intends to drown us in here."

  "In a room you just sealed off!" she yelled. "I should've turned you in after you FAINTED!"

  "Open this doorway," Radulf said, directly into my head. "The water will empty out. You can still save them."

  I had no intention of opening that doorway to him. But I would do everything I could to save the others in here with me. All of them were innocent, even Aurelia, I supposed. The water was rising fast. If we were to have any chance of getting out, I needed magic.

  Water poured down on all of us, and seemed to be filling the room faster than it should have. The children were holding one another and scrambling away from the falling water, and I knew from their cries that I wasn't the only one who couldn't swim.

  "Everyone stand back!" I yelled above the noise. I had little strength, but plenty of anger at what Aurelia had just said. Out of spite alone, I raised my hands again, imagining my fingers were grabbing the dirt itself, and pulled downward. Large clumps of earth, roots, and rock came with it. They fell into the water, which was already up to my knees, splashing mud all over us. I didn't figure the mud was a problem. Dirt was nothing, especially compared to drowning.

  Aurelia pushed the children onto the rocks that had collapsed and out of the direct path of the falling dirt. Over their heads, I noticed a rusty ladder, partially attached to the wall. If they could reach it, and assuming I could create a hole above us, that would be their escape.

  I started forward to join them, but another large chunk of earth fell, landing on my back and bringing me down with it. The water level wasn't so deep yet, except that my legs, still chained together, slipped out from beneath me and my head went completely under. I struggled to set my legs upright, but my manacled arms were little help. I tried rolling to my back long enough to take a breath but the weight of the chains fought me.

  I finally got one foot braced against a sunken rock, allowing me to come up long enough to look for sky above. Had I broken through? I hoped so, because I didn't know how I'd find the strength to try again. But to my dismay, I saw nothing but more falling dirt before I was thrown back underwater. I hadn't caught a breath this time, so when I breathed in, water came with it, flooding my lungs.

  Then a hand grabbed my arm and dragged me to the surface. I began choking for air as I came up again. Aurelia had waded back in and gotten me balanced on my feet. Still holding my arms, she yelled, "I don't have the key. You'll have to break your chains."

  The water was past my waist now, creating a swirling current that threatened to pull me under again. But Aurelia kept hold of me while I closed my eyes and focused on the manacles. Because of the magic I'd just emptied into the room and the injury to my arm, it was so much harder than the ropes had been, but I braced my right hand on the wall, and with my left arm, split the chains around my wrists.

  "There's a hole above us!" one of the children said. "But we can't get there."

  I looked up. The children had climbed as high as the ladder allowed them, but the water would soon reach those on the lower rungs. Nothing other than some dangling roots were there to get them over to the hole in the ground, and we had no way of knowing if they would hold the weight of the children. If they tried to cross and fell, they'd land back down here in the water.

  "Help them," I said to Aurelia.

  "What about those chains on your legs? They might be harder to break."

  She said it as if she didn't have everything to do with that fact. But I bypassed the argument and told her again to help the younger ones get out. Once she left, as carefully as I could, I waded through the water, at my chest now. But I only got a short ways before I gave up. I needed my legs free, but it also took all my concentration to hold my balance. I didn't want to go under again.

  "This isn't worth it, Nic." Radulf's voice in my head was so calm that it seemed out of place with the rest of the chaos literally spilling into this room. "The water's pressure will open the doorway anyway, so there's no point in making things harder on all of us."

  "There are children in here!" I yelled. "Stop this!"

  "He can't hear you out there," Aurelia called down to me. And maybe he couldn't, but I had to say something. She didn't know how his words thundered between my ears, whether I wanted them there or not.

  Anger began filling me, crowding out every other sense of fear, guilt, and despair. I was consumed with fury at what Radulf was doing, and a desire to prove Aurelia wrong in every possible way. It was enough that even without concentrating on it, my next step forward broke apart the chains. The pull threw off my balance and I fell sideways into the water.

  Or I thought I was sideways. I thrashed my hands through the water, but that sent out more magic, which pulled chunks of dirt and rock down from above. I vaguely heard the children yelling at me to stop what I was doing, but I didn't know how. One large rock fell from above, landing on the dangling chain of my left hand and locking me to the bottom of the room, far below the water.

  I struggled to break loose, which cost me the last of my air. My lungs burst apart and I flailed around for my life. Finally, I broke enough of the chain to push up off the ground and spear my way to the top.

  I came up long enough to choke out some of the water, and to see the hole had widened, making it easier for the children to climb onto dry earth.

  When Aurelia saw me surface, she called my name and started to say something else, but I went under again. So much dirt and rock had fallen that the water was now a thick, blinding soup. At least the ones who were innocent would get out. Unfortunately, the list of innocents did not include me, which was something I would have to accept. Maybe this was what I deserved for my crimes. As I sank to the floor again, I put both hands on the bulla, letting it warm me.

  "Why aren't you fighting?" Radulf said to me. "Foolish boy, it is not in you to give up so easily!"

  I ignored him. This wasn't giving up. I just needed a rest.

  "You will fight!" Radulf said. "Put your feet on the bottom and push yourself up to the air!"

  In my years as a slave, I had received thousands of orders, directing my every move. It wasn't up to us to think, only to obey. And though I always bristled against those orders, this time my fight had to be for obedience. I righted my body in the water, then found the cistern floor and pushed hard against it. I shot upward and quickly found air. But this time, as I began sinking again, something went around my neck and one arm. I grabbed hold of it and realized I was caught inside the bow Aurelia had been carrying. I rolled in the water and saw her in the water with me, one arm locked around the ladder, and the other dragging me toward her.

  When she was closer, she grabbed my arm and then pulled me with her onto the ladder. She lifted the weapon off my head and then cursed. "That figures. You broke it!"

  Still trying to catch my breath, I noticed her bow, which was cracked where I had held it. I should've felt sorry, but I didn't. With a good bow, and her temper, chances were she'd shoot me once we reached the surface. If she handed me her knife, I might try breaking that too.

  She dumped the bow back into the water, and then told me to start climbing. It seemed so far to the surface that I couldn't understand how any of the others had already
made it. My lungs ached, and my entire body was drained, but she yelled, "I can't get out until you do. So move!"

  Forcing myself to climb was a test of willpower rather than strength. But with every rung, I came closer to the hole I'd opened up. At the top, I found some exposed roots poking through the dirt, which slid through my wet hand. I grabbed them again, wrapping the thinner tendrils around my fingers. Useless as my injured arm was, it served me no worse than my other arm, drained by the magic.

  Radulf seemed to sense it too. In a warmer voice than I'd heard before, he said, "Magic is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger you'll be. You're already stronger than you were. Come with me, Nic. I can teach you everything."

  Was this how he had lured others into his web? "Never," I whispered. I had no idea whether he could hear me too, but for that one word, I hoped so.

  Finally, I was topside and reached back to help Aurelia climb safely to the top as well. The twelve other children who had been underground now sat around me in the field. It seemed to be very early in the morning, long before even the farming slaves would be awake, so we all lay out to rest.

  Aurelia was beside me in the dirt. I caught her sideways glance when she said, "Maybe you were right about Radulf. He's going to be a problem for us."

  I heard her sigh, but I was already thinking about the other thing she said, that he was a problem for us. My eyes slowly closed, but I couldn't stop thinking about her. Aurelia's fate had suddenly become intertwined with my own. The only question was if that would make things better, or worse.

  When I next opened my eyes, Aurelia was no longer beside me. As waterlogged as my brain still was, I knew she had lain here and spoken of our problem. I couldn't explain that, because although my entire world had turned upside down, one thing I had never doubted was that Aurelia hated me. Stranger still was acknowledging the presence of just the opposite emotion inside me. I disliked Aurelia, of course. But maybe my dislike for her wasn't as intense as I had thought.

  More damp now than wet, I rolled to my side, and took in the fresh smell of dirt and the olive trees overhead. Their fruit was still too hard for eating, which was disappointing. I might've braved their bitterness just to have some food to gnaw on once I got up. If I could've gotten up.