Praetorian Series [4] All Roads Lead to Rome

by Edward Crichton

  He yelled something in whatever language it was these people spoke around here, but the quick, single word statement suggested he’d simply said, “Stop.” My deduction seemed accurate when the frantic stomping of feet and clanking of armor behind me lessened, and then Merlin continued to speak. There was no point in trying to follow what he was saying, so I simply sat on the heels of my feet and ignored the world around me.

  But then Merlin went quiet and the sounds of moving feet returned, and I watched as a dozen men who had probably just been fighting Agrippina’s Praetorians seconds ago – from their perspective – maneuvered around Romulus so that they could lift him up and carry him away. They spoke to each other in hushed whispers and frightful voices, but they did as they were told and ushered him away.

  Merlin rose to his feet, but placed his hand on my shoulder before he left. “Hand me the orbs, Jacob. Please.”

  I looked at them in my hands. “Why?”

  “There is something I must do. I promise I shall return them.”

  Without thinking or questioning, I simply lifted them so that he could take them.

  “Wait here, Jacob,” he said as he plucked them from my grasp. “I will return as quickly as I can.”

  My head bobbed in silent but distant agreement, barely cognizant of Merlin’s departure seconds later. In fact, I was barely aware of the passage of time at all. A part of me didn’t even care if Merlin returned, with or without the orbs. It was the same part of me who had always given into despair and weakness, the Jacob who had died when the blue orb had killed him. The rest of me, the majority of me now, kept vigilant as I waited for him. There was still too much to do, and even with everything I’d lost today, most of my friends still needed me.

  And so too did Helena.

  I wasn’t sure how long I sat in the wet, swampy grass, feeling my legs and butt go cold, wet, and numb as time ticked by, as it always did, my damaged leg throbbing in near constant discomfort. Maybe an hour passed before rain started to fall in sheets, soaking me through and through, but I couldn’t complain. It was a nourishing experience, a cleansing one, one ripe with rebirth metaphors, but the experience hadn’t last long. The rain had dried up only minutes after it had begun, and I had to wait at least another thirty minutes before Merlin finally returned with a pair of men carrying a body wrapped in linen cloth atop a primitive stretcher.

  I looked at the body and identified it immediately. Even with all the cloth that bound her like a mummy, I knew the tall, strong, graceful body belonged to Boudicca. There was only one individual in all antiquity, as far as I knew, that had achieved such a physique. The pair of men set her down, the stretcher equipped with legs to keep her freshly wrapped linens off the swampy ground. They took great care with her, but once she was secure, they immediately turned to leave.

  I looked up and nodded appreciatively. “Thank you for this, Merlin. She didn’t deserve any of this.”

  “No she did not,” Merlin agreed. “She deserves far more. But all I could do was ensure that her body was preserved. She should survive her return trip to Britain where she can be properly buried.”

  I breathed deeply through my nose. I was sure a few months ago I would have cried just now, but not anymore. Now I was just angry. “Was she just a pawn to you, Merlin? Nothing more than a piece on your cosmic chessboard to be sacrificed so that you saw your little plan preserved?”

  I could tell Merlin wanted to scorn me, but even he couldn’t bring himself to get angry at me, not after everything I’d just gone through for him. “It was no plan of mine, Jacob. When I first set into motion the sequence of events that led us here to today when I imprisoned Remus, I had no way of knowing any of this would happen. I’d intended to imprison Remus and take back the orbs, but Romulus’ devotion to his brother was just another underestimation among so many. Without the orbs, Remus’ prison would have been fool proof, but because Romulus allowed them to remain where others could find them, it was only a matter of time before someone did just that.

  “Yeah, that fool was me.”

  “You are no fool, Jacob. Simply… unlucky, as I told you before. If not for Varus activating the orb first, this may have never happened to you. But it was not his fault either. It was mine.”

  “Lucky me…” I muttered, and Merlin didn’t answer, probably as tired with my whining as I was in general right now. I looked back up at him and shrugged. “Sorry. I’m just… ready for all this to be over.”

  “It already is over, Jacob,” Merlin said as he lowered his hands and offered me the orbs, just as he’d promised. “There is nothing left for you to do but return to your friends and send everyone home.”

  I looked away in annoyance. “Easy for you to say. I’m the one who takes personal responsibility for everything that happens around me, remember? I’ve still got a few loose ends to tie up.”

  He nodded. “Those deeds are of your own choosing; don’t lose sight of your end goal, Jacob. Go home. Return to your life. Marry Helena and have a family. Write a book. Try to forget this unfortunate episode and be happy. Live your life now that you have been given the chance to finally live it.”

  I had to chuckle. “Write a book, he says… What do think the chances are of a story like this being even remotely popular?”

  He smiled. “Negligible, but there are always a few weirdoes out there.”

  “Certainly are,” I said, my small smirk lingering, feeling slightly better as I rose to my feet carefully. Lifting my hands, I took possession of the orbs, feeling their presence almost as clearly as I could see or hold them. It was an interesting turn of events that I now felt comforted by their presence instead of the other way around, a change I was happy to live with. I turned back to Merlin and lifted them slightly in a questioning gesture. “Now’s the time to come clean with more information, Merlin. I could definitely use more material for those books. How about some more information on your precursor society? Did you guys colonize other planets? Are you even from Earth? What was your technology really like? What about the Old God? What’s his deal, anyway? Was he actually a she?”

  “Sorry, Jacob.”

  I scowled. “You know – and I know you do – I could just use these things right now and travel a million years into the past and check out your precious little advanced civilization for myself.”

  He nodded. “You could.”

  “Don’t tempt me,” I warned, hefting the orbs again.

  He laughed. “Jacob, those orbs are yours now. I made the mistake of giving them to individuals who didn’t deserve them before… but I do not believe I will make that mistake twice. I’m placing a lot of faith in you, but only because you’ve earned it, whereas they’d only, by in large, inherited it.”

  “Gosh, Merlin, I don’t know what to say.” And I really didn’t, but then something he’d said triggered another thought. “Oh, jeez… I just realized that if I’m related to Remus, and you really were his father, then that means I’m related to you too.”

  Merlin’s smile remained in place as he opened his arms. “Want to hug it out again?”

  “No!” I yelled, backing away from him. “I’ll settle for never seeing you again.” I hesitated, and then looked at him hopefully. “Will I ever see you again?”

  He shrugged. “Time will tell.”

  “God I hate you,” I muttered as I maneuvered around Boudicca’s body so that I could more easily make contact with her for our journey back to Imperial Rome. Hand on her shoulder, I glanced down at her wrapped face one more time, but then lifted my eyes to look at Merlin one last time. “At least give me a little more advice on how to use these things. I think I’m getting the hang of it, but I’ll never turn away a trick or tip.”

  He placed his fingers against his temples as he spoke. “Your mind will develop tricks of its own, Jacob. You’ll instinctually discover methods and procedures that will help you sift through the timelines and points along them. You’ll soon discover that a logical or emotional connection may w
hat you need at first, but in time, it’ll be as easy as stepping through an open door.”

  I nodded. “I’ll do my best to keep them safe.”

  “I know you will, Jacob. Goodbye. And thank you.”

  I set my jaw, wanting to say more, but nothing seemed nearly appropriate at the moment. If Merlin was right about one thing, it was that it was time to start living my life. It was time to get back to Helena, and I took a certain amount of comfort just now in the thought that even though I’d been gone for nearly two hours, I could return to Rome only a moment after I’d left. To Helena’s eyes, I’ll only be gone a second, not enough of time for her to worry.

  And it was with this thought of Helena that I learned just how easy traveling through time could really be. Her essence shone brightly through the veils of the universe that kept normal individuals from penetrating its depths and seeing the very fabric of time and reality – what I was sure I now saw. Maybe Merlin had been on to something when he said my mind would develop tricks and cheats to manipulate the orbs more easily, as I seemed to already have found one. Returning to Helena was easier and far quicker than clicking my heels together three times and speaking those enchanting five words enmeshed in the minds of children everywhere.

  Because as the wisest of those among us would say, home really is where the heart is, and my heart, now and forever, would be with Helena.

  And there certainly was no place like home.

  ***

  I still couldn’t keep my eyes open during one of my transitions. I kept thinking that actually seeing the fabric of reality shift around me would be akin to staring into the depths of hell or the void that had encased Remus’ prison. Something about that idea didn’t appeal to me in the slightest, but at least I was beginning to realize when I’d successfully transported myself, because I found myself opening my eyes only a second after I’d closed them, and found myself back in Rome, surrounded by debris from the fallen platform.

  I glanced down and confirmed that Boudicca had made the trip with me successfully, and I squeezed her shoulder before I let go, stood, and turned to the only person nearby.

  “How long was I gone?” I asked Agrippina as she cowered in a corner.

  She stared at me coldly as she answered. “I blinked after you disappeared but when my eyes opened again, there you were.”

  “Not bad,” I remarked as I limped over to her. “I want answers, Agrippina. Real ones. No more of your games. Your life depends on it, believe me. So tell me, did you orchestrate any of this or were you just his crony? His little errand girl who did all his dirty work for him?”

  Her face contorted into rage, and she swiped an arm at me, but I managed to lean back and avoid it. “I was more than just that!” She yelled. “I was his equal! Destined for divinity in a way Julius Caesar or Augustus could have never dreamed to achieve. Remus vowed to elevate Nero and me to positions unheard of since he and Romulus founded Rome!”

  “And you believed him?”

  “Of course I did!” She spat, clenching her mouth and grinding her teeth. “He was Remus, brother of Romulus, direct descendent of Mars, a god sent to man to lead us into prosperity. Romulus may have founded the city, but Remus had been spared to lead it to true greatness. And he was to do it by my side.”

  “So that’s what he told you…” I muttered to myself before I lifted my chin and stared at her. “So why poison him? Try to kill him?”

  “Because I later learned that he was nothing more than another treacherous man!” She yelled again, unable to contain her fury, a loss of control I’d never seen in the woman before. “I had no idea he intended to capture sacred Romulus and use him so. What’s more, he promised to teach my son and to advise him in all things. Prepare him for leadership, instruct him in governance, and tutor him in military doctrine. To ready him for godhood! He promised me, his mother, all of this! But once we had retrieved Romulus, he no longer promised anything. His only vow was to allow Nero to live as long as I sired heirs for him; to use me as a… a breeding farm for little bastard gods!”

  I would have smiled if the implication behind her words weren’t so haunting. The fact that she had echoed the exact sentiment Santino had joked about the other day wasn’t even remotely humorous. The idea that Remus was prepared to force her – and force her he easily could – into making babies for him to supplant over Nero, was monstrous. Even Agrippina, who deserved to be punished for a great many things, didn’t deserve that. Nor did Nero, who was still only a child. If what Agrippina had said was true, and Remus had already broken his promise to her once, it wouldn’t have been farfetched to surmise that he would simply kill Nero as soon as he had a few heirs of his own.

  Agrippina would have suspected this. She understood duplicity as well as anyone – probably better than anyone – and it was of no surprise to me that she’d taken matters into her own hands by using her old standby assassination method: poisoning. And it wasn’t even that naïve of a concept, as numerous gods throughout mythology had been affected by poison. Perhaps she’d thought Remus in mortal form was more vulnerable, and therefore easily dispatched. For that, I could forgive her. For that, I could almost sympathize with her.

  But that didn’t forgive everything else she’d done.

  It couldn’t possibly erase the fact that she’d personally tried to have Helena killed on a number of occasions or that she’d been manipulating me ever since Britain. I didn’t care if she’d been “under orders” from Remus. The Nazis had tried that argument at Nuremburg and it hadn’t worked out well for them then, and it certainly wouldn’t for her now.

  “So you will kill me now, Jacob Hunter?” She demanded, her voice bordering the frenzied, almost insane, spectrum. “Is that what you will do? Murder me in the streets in front of my people?! Leave my son motherless?! After everything I’ve told you and everything we’ve been through together?!” Her voice and disposition grew even wilder now as she seemed to lose even more control, flailing her arms as she made her points. “It doesn’t have to be this way! With Remus gone, you can finally take your rightful place at my side! We can rule together as we were always meant to! With the orbs, you can do anything… we can do anything!”

  I felt my hand move toward the pistol securely sheathed at my thigh, but I pulled it back. I wouldn’t let her goading drive me to murder her, and I knew that the moment I yanked my pistol free was the moment I lost all ability to restrain myself. The blue orb had done its part to tear apart my soul and sanity well enough, and its scars still lingered, but I wouldn’t let her own misplaced mind be the thing to destroy my humanity completely.

  “You know I can’t do that,” I said, punctuating each word carefully. “There’s too much at risk. I have a responsibility now to safeguard the inherent danger these orbs possess. I can’t use them for my own purposes any more than I can use them for your own.”

  “That’s not the reason,” she said quietly, almost as though she were explaining it to herself. “It’s that Amazon bitch. You still will not leave her for me. Why? How many times must I offer to share my bed with her? How many times must I try to have her killed? How is that she has survived this long at all?!” Her voice rose again, and her eyebrows were furrowed in hatred and anger. “She has survived everything! Blades cannot cut her! Flames will not touch her! Poison cannot destroy her! She has…”

  “Wait,” I ordered, holding up a hand. “When did you ever poison her?”

  She didn’t answer as she coiled her body into a submissive position, pulling her knees to her chin and wrapping her arms around them. She rested her head against her knees and started to rock, smiling at me, fitting the image of someone who belonged in an insane asylum.

  “When, Agrippina?” I asked again, surprised by my own calmness.

  Her smile grew and her eyes opened wide, and then she lunged at me again, uncoiling like a snake from her seated position. I jumped back this time, startled at her aggression, and had to fight through another burst of pain in my leg as I
looked into her eyes that shifted back into crazy again.

  “I would do it again!” She yelled, her mouth wide and flinging spittle in my direction. “I’d have her stabbed and burned and poisoned and torn apart again and again if I could! And I would crave every instance of it.”

  I couldn’t help but feel sad at how pathetic she seemed, at a complete loss as to why she really hated Helena so much. I felt my hand lowering itself to rest atop the grip of my pistol as I continued. “Why, Agrippina? Why?”

  “Because she has what I never will,” she said, her voice almost returning to normal.

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “Me?”

  She started to laugh, a low one that slowly turned maniacal before she found moments to speak in between outbursts. “You foolish man. Not you, but your ability to wield the orbs! Such power you possess! But it’s hers… not mine.”

  She was insane. Completely and utterly insane. But still one question remained.

  “When, Agrippina?” I asked in a hushed tone. “When did you poison her?”

  Agrippina smiled again, the kind that could ensnare the heart of a man who did too much thinking with body parts other than his brain.

  “In Britain,” she said with a girlishly innocent and completely insane giggle. “After you’d returned from Merlin’s domain. I couldn’t very well have you rejecting the orb and giving up your own quest for power so that you could raise a family and fuck your ever-fattening wife for decades to come, now could I? I wanted you. I needed you.”

  I was silent. Not because I couldn’t find words but because I couldn’t physically bring myself to utter them. I now understood what had nearly killed Helena as that battle had raged against Galba’s legions back in Britain. And I now understood what had killed my baby boy, and what had driven me back to the orb.

  Agrippina.