NOT LONG AFTER LUCA and I came into view of the congregation, an unfamiliar woman approached us. She was tall, wearing a flowing beige dress that flattered her light brown complexion. Her interest shouldn’t have surprised me—we were curiosities here—but I felt my insides clenching anyway. Maybe her attention was innocent. Or maybe it wasn’t.
Luca tensed as she neared, and I sympathized. Any one of them could want us dead. We were surrounded by potential enemies, knowing they’d recognize us even while we wouldn’t recognize them.
“You are Simonetta’s students, then?” the woman asked. “I am Julia, of the House of Aeneas.” Her name harkened back to Julius Caesar’s line, which also supposedly traced back to Aeneas. Cute. “And you are?”
I glanced at Luca, who was frowning at the woman. She only deepened her sweet smile in response.
“I’m Jordan,” I said, since Luca obviously wasn’t going to. “This is Luca.”
“Luca,” she said, testing the name. “Very lovely name. Very Italian.”
Okay, that was weird. I’d have expected local legends like this woman to be used to Italian names. But hey, they apparently had ancient Roman names like Julia, so what did I know? Maybe this woman hadn’t even spoken to a human before.
“Is there anything you’d like?” Luca asked, in a tone of voice that attempted diplomacy more than it succeeded at it.
Maybe it’d been premature of Carter to assume Luca would make for the better talker. I knew Luca wasn’t happy to be here, but it wasn’t like the legends were going to be intimidated by us. He might as well have played the friendly card, even if that wasn’t how he felt.
Julia looked at me, a spark of amusement in her eyes. At least someone was enjoying this. “Your friend is in a bad mood today.”
Yeah, no kidding. “You’ll have to forgive us, we aren’t the diplomatic portion of Dr. Berti’s entourage.”
“That’s all right.” She waved her hand dismissively. “I get tired of diplomats and politicians anyway. Besides which, I have Simonetta’s permission to ask her people questions.”
“She gave you her permission?” Luca asked, dubious. I couldn’t help but hesitate at that revelation, too. Why would Dr. Berti send random legends to question us?
“Yes,” came Tony’s voice from behind us, as he moved to join in the conversation. “It’s why we’re here. A free exchange of information.” He threw us a pointed look, and suddenly pieces started falling into place. Was this the official explanation for what we were doing at the Aventine?
Tony introduced himself, and I was surprised that I couldn’t detect any hint of nerves in him, not like me and Luca. He’d been flabbergasted when Carter and I had supposedly gone out for coffee, but here he was, acting like nothing had happened. Around the very people who were suspects. This was actually a good thing, though, because at least one of us had to seem normal.
On the heels of that realization, it hit me that Tony acting normal meant that Tony was acting normal. As in, fiendish in his pursuit of cultural information. The last thing I wanted was to listen to Tony interrogate the local legends. I suddenly regarded the smile on his face with trepidation instead of relief.
“Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?” he said, and I racked my brain for an escape strategy.
“I’ll make you a deal,” Julia said, with a slyness that I didn’t like at all. There was no way she didn’t know who she was dealing with. Everyone probably recognized Tony as the nosy human by now. “In the interest of this free exchange of information, I’ll answer your questions. If your friends will first answer mine. I believe Jordan and Luca are both involved in collecting information on legendary animals? I’m interested in hearing more.”
There would be no evading Tony’s wrath if we didn’t do this. I glanced at Luca. His eyes had widened, probably in either disbelief or horror. I couldn’t be sure, but either reaction was appropriate. Tony gave me a threatening look, then turned it onto Luca for good measure.
“They’ll answer anything you like,” he said with a fake pleasantry that made it clear we’d better.
“Excellent,” Julia replied. “I’ll be happy to come find you after your colleagues have satisfied my curiosity.” She turned to me and Luca, indicated a pair of benches nearby. “Please.”
As we settled in for a questioning session that would last for however long, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d been maneuvered exactly where she wanted me. Of course, she’d also agreed to let Tony question her. Which meant either that she had a high tolerance for nonsense, or she really wanted to talk to us. Given that the House of Aeneas was one of our biggest suspects, the latter possibility raised my hackles.
“So,” she began. “What sort of work does Simonetta have you doing?”
Since I was skeptical of Luca’s capacity for subtlety, I thought it was best for me to take over the conversation. Diplomacy. I could do that, right? “I mostly work in the lab or the field. Luca’s part of my field team, for whenever we need to collect data outside the safety zone.”
“What do you do out in the field?”
Okay, details. Had to sell this ‘free exchange of information’ idea. The science was already freely available, of course, but that was online and intended for a scientific audience. Plenty of legends probably didn’t even know how to look it up, let alone understand it.
“We drive out to locations where we’re likely to see legimals, collect behavioral data, track their habitats. That sort of thing.”
“You spent the day watching and taking notes, then.”
It struck me as a bit odd that she was asking about our day to day work, instead of the results we were getting overall. That’s not the first direction these kinds of conversations tended to go, with non-scientists. It wasn’t unusual enough to prove anything, but part of me wondered if maybe this is the sort of thing the bad guys would ask us about—our habits, so they could use them against us.
Still, I couldn’t justify hiding any of this information. “Among other things,” I clarified. “Luca manages the video camera. Carter takes photos, and Tony, uh, makes sure the vehicle is ready at all times just in case.” That was a nice way of saying he hid in the car.
Julia nodded. “Ah, good. You take your protection seriously.”
I froze for just a moment, before deliberately loosening up my muscles, so I didn’t give anything away. The word ‘protection’ out of her mouth shook me, making my suspicious feel a lot more reasonable and a lot less paranoid. The sorts of questions she was asking didn’t point to a casual interest, and I seriously didn’t like her focusing on us being in danger. I risked a glance at Luca, noticing that he’d narrowed his eyes but otherwise failed to react.
“Of course,” I replied.
“How dangerous would you say your job is?”
“It isn’t,” Luca cut in. “We’re careful and it’s completely safe.” Well, that was one way of avoiding the question.
“Is that true, Jordan?” she asked me. “Do you agree with your colleague?”
Okay, now I was seriously creeped out, on top of already being suspicious. Singling me out for an answer Luca already gave? That felt like probing for something specific.
“Yeah, that about covers it.” When in doubt, back up your teammates. “We never get close enough to be in any real danger.” It wasn’t necessarily a lie, depending on the day.
“Good. What else? Do you take a midday break from being out in the field?”
What in the world was going on, here? The conversation didn’t make any sense no matter what context I tried to put it in. Was I just being paranoid? Or was there something I wasn’t getting?
“Yes?” I answered hesitantly.
Luca glanced at me with concern for a second, before sending a glare towards the legend asking us the weird questions. It was the most overt sign of hostility he’d given during the whole conversation—he really wasn’t that good at this—but she ignored him completely.
And so it w
ent. She asked us about our meals, whether Dr. Berti was nice to us, if we all got along or not. She asked about how comfortable the car was. I just went with it, but I couldn’t figure out the logic behind any of this. For all I knew, maybe there wasn’t any.
Maybe that was the point. Maybe she was trying to cover up the important questions with inane ones. Or maybe she was just incompetent, which fit in nicely with the profile I was putting together for whoever was targeting us. They’d left behind too many clues, with the chimera. And the flood reeked of bad planning. An incompetent interrogation is something I wouldn’t put past them.
Luca grew increasingly unhappy as the conversation continued, until I wondered if he’d ever be able to unclench his jaw again. In turn, I grew increasingly nervous and suspicious, trying to figure out what information she wanted from me. Trying to make sure I didn’t give her that critical piece that she could use against us, while answering honestly enough not to arouse suspicion.
The line of questioning was already strangely personal. So it shouldn’t have surprised me, when she leaned forward in a conspiratory manner and asked, “Are any of you dating?”
It shouldn’t have, but it did.
The twitch in Luca’s shoulders told me he was just as taken aback as I was. Out of pure shock, we glanced at each other, our eyes meeting with equal amounts of incredulity.
But apparently Julia decided that was telling. “Are you two going out with each other?” she asked, suddenly sitting up straighter.
“No,” Luca said, some of his annoyance coming through. “We aren’t.”
“Are you sure? Because that look you just gave—”
“Okay,” he interrupted, standing up. “This is enough information for you, yes? I’m sure Tony’s very excited to ask you his questions.” He reached down and pulled on my arm until I stood up with. Then he left, having to drag me along since my brain hadn’t caught up with everything that’d happened yet.
After a few minutes, I’d managed to shake off the astonishment left behind by the inappropriate question. Luca had moved us to a secluded end of the park, and I took an additional moment to gather my thoughts. “Okay,” I said. “That was weird.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Luca said. “We’ve got more important things to think about than strange legends.”
“Yeah. Strange legends who are trying to kill us.” I glanced back at Julia, who’d already approached an overjoyed Tony. Well, I supposed he’d earned this, and it wasn’t like I could muster any sympathy for his latest victim.
“So we should focus on that,” Luca said, eyeing the crowd around us.
“Did she seem suspicious to you?”
He paused, before turning to me. “What?”
“She asked us about our daily routines. About what precautions we take for safety. And she wanted to know about our personal attachments.”
“You’re suspecting her of what, exactly?” He asked, skeptical. I could have sworn he was suspicious, too. But he didn’t seem to have reached the conclusions I’d jumped to immediately.
Maybe the stress was getting to him, after all. Since he was fine with the fire-breathing chimera, I assumed he’d continue being okay. I assumed everyone would continue being okay, if they hadn’t broken down by that point. But I shouldn’t take it for granted that this was a lot to take in for most people.
“Hey,” I said, softening my voice. “I know this is a lot, but we have to stay focused. We know someone’s already gone after us. The House of Aeneas and its residents are among our primary suspects. That woman, and her questioning? That was pretty suspicious.”
He shook his head, his usual surety snapping back in place. “It was too conspicuous. If she knew anything about the assassination attempts, she wouldn’t have been so obvious.”
“I’m honestly starting to get the impression that they don’t really care what we think. Not like we could prove anything, anyway. And what could we possibly do to them?” I was surprised at the bitterness in my own voice, and tried to tone it down. “Why else would she have asked even half of those questions?”
“I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem to fit.” He paused. “I’ve heard of the House of Aeneas before. They’re more subtle than this. I think—honestly, I’m thinking that she was just some gossip, looking to get a fix out of cross-examining someone else’s life.”
Part of what he’d said stood out in my mind, hitting me as unexpected. “You’ve heard of the House of Aeneas? What does that mean?”
“I’ve met people who’ve come across them. People whose judgment I trust, that’s all.”
I knew evasion when I heard it, and that was evasion. It was hard to ignore in that moment how much I barely knew him. Hanging with us was a part-time job for him. He had a psych degree—that much I knew—but I didn’t know what he did with it. Did he do any clinical practice? Were there things he couldn’t say because of patient confidentiality? I honestly didn’t know any of these things about him.
But for whatever reason, he didn’t like the House of Aeneas for this. Fine. I could keep my suspicions to myself, for now. And I could make him think I’d let it go. “I suppose I don’t know how they’d be related to Pluto’s helmet. Or Hades’ helmet in the Greek legends. And a flood doesn’t sound like something related to Aeneas, either.”
I might have been imagining it—my paranoia had been in overdrive for hours—but I thought he relaxed. “Yeah, there are definitely other legends that fit better.”
I must have been imagining it. What was up with me? Why was I suddenly doubting someone who’d been in as much danger as any of us? Someone who’d been instrumental in getting us out of there alive, at that. If he had any secrets, they weren’t relevant. And therefore, they weren’t any of my business.
Meanwhile, I had a whole hill full of legends to interrogate without making them suspicious. Luca could sort himself out, because I didn’t have time to worry about him today.
NOW THAT I WASN’T BEING accosted by suspicious legends, I was finally free to take stock of this meeting thing the Remus had going. The number of people in the park had tripled, and suddenly the population was wearing a lot fewer jeans and a lot more classical-style clothing. The entire wall that overlooked the panorama of Rome was filled with legends leaning over it, or even climbing on top of it. The rest of garden was a little more spread out, but still brimming with these visitors.
Any of them could have vital information. I just needed to decide who would be most likely to let it slip—and there my sense of purpose faltered, as I realized that I didn’t know how to do that. But it didn’t matter, because even if I wasn’t an investigator, I was the best we were going to get. I had to try.
After another scan of the area, my attention fell on a tall, built figure out in the open, juggling bowling balls. Yes, really.
At first, I’d assumed he was an adult, with his stout figure. But now that I looked more closely, his face was boyish enough for a teenager or young adult. And since he was young, hopefully he’d be less guarded than someone older.
Juggling bowling balls signaled super strength to me. And super strength, if I wasn’t mistaken, characterized the House of Hercules, one of the stronger Houses in the area. Coincidentally, I had a pressing reason to take an interest in the House of Hercules. This was as good a place to start as any. I moved to join the growing group that surrounded the youth. Luca shot me a questioning look, but came along.
The size and weight of the balls didn’t seem to faze the young man. His eyes tracked their movement while his lips curled up into an easy smile. I realized there was some finesse involved, here. The balls had to sail past and over each other without colliding. He couldn’t have picked up this skill easily—he’d have to have trained for it.
He began throwing the balls up into higher arcs, putting a little more distance between them. Then one of his hands caught the first one, shifting to keep it balanced, his fingers straining to keep it from rolling out. The next second his other
hand caught the second ball. Then the last was falling towards him, and I wondered what he’d do with no available hands.
With an impact that made me wince, the third ball hit him in the chest. But he let it roll down his body, raising his leg and managing to catch it on his foot. The crowd applauded. Balancing on the one leg, he gave a shallow bow.
As the audience started to drift off, the boy dropped his bowling balls. It was as good an opening as any. “That was pretty cool,” I said. “It takes a lot of coordination to juggle.” Let alone bowling balls, but hey, I was talking to a legend.
The guy’s eyes lit up at the compliment. “Yeah, it took some figuring out. My sister thought it couldn’t be done at all, and someone had to prove her wrong. I’m Alcides, by the way.” Didn’t sound like an ancient Roman or modern name. That left Etruscan or Greek.
“I’m Jordan,” I told him. I glanced back and saw Luca near enough to us that he was clearly listening to the conversation. It’d be rude not to introduce him too. “That’s Luca.”
“Alcides is another name for Hercules, isn’t it?” Luca asked.
Alcides flashed an abashed smile. “My parents aren’t subtle. Your names are modern, though. House of Remus?”
Luca snorted. I suppressed a smile myself, having never imagined that I’d be mistaken for a legend. “No, we’re guests at the Aventine, for the moment.” Alcides blinked in confusion. His expressions were even more telling than I’d hoped for, actually. “We’re from Trastevere, working under Dr. Simonetta Berti.”
Alcides’ smile froze on his face, in a caricature of his previous welcoming demeanor. “Oh,” he said. “That’s, uh—interesting.” His eyes darted around, looking for an escape. “I should find my dad,” he said, picking up his bowling balls and pulling a retreat.
Leaving me to change gears from thinking up the next response in a perfectly civil conversation, to processing that someone strong enough to juggle bowling balls had just run away from us. Like, physically ran away. That hadn’t at all gone the way I’d expected. But the fact that his attitude changed so abruptly told me something.
Terrestrial Magic (Jordan Sanders, #1) Page 12