Rise of the Wolf

by Jennifer A. Nielsen

  Radulf's baths were at the far end of his home. His tepidarium wasn't nearly as nice as the one Valerius had, but I had practiced in it whenever possible to get better at swimming. For all those efforts, I was still a miserable swimmer, but at least I knew enough to keep myself from drowning.

  Livia was waiting for me at the far end of the pool with two sacks in her hands. I knew how heavy they must be, so it had been no small thing for her to quietly drag them all the way in here. Her eyes were wide as she saw Radulf's guards on my heels.

  "Jump in!" I yelled at her. "Livia, jump!"

  She immediately dove in with one sack while I raced around the pool for the second one.

  "Stop!" a guard yelled at me. "Or you will die."

  I did stop, but only long enough to say, "I have no plans to die today."

  Then I grabbed the second sack and dove with it into the water. The sacks were filled with the lead curse tablets that I had gathered from the circus, and with their combined weight, I sank like a rock to the bottom of the deep pool. Livia was already there, and I was sure she needed air soon.

  I aimed the last of the magic in my shoulder toward the plug for the pool. Radulf had the water changed out every month, and I knew from watching it drain that Livia and I could fit through the pipe, if we had enough weight to carry us out.

  Once the plug exploded from its place, the water began flowing. Livia was carried first through the pipe, and then I followed behind her. It was a tighter squeeze than I had expected, but I held the lead-filled sack ahead of me, which kept pulling me lower.

  My lungs finally burst apart, and I had no choice but to swallow in water, which hurt like I was exploding from within. The pipe was longer than I had anticipated, or else we were moving slower. No, we really were moving slower. Maybe the pipe was narrowing, or the pressure of the water above was lessening, even with the leaden sacks. Or maybe there was a grate below that would trap us in the pipe. The water would eventually empty, but if we survived this, we'd be forced to climb back up through the pipe and into Radulf's home. I could only imagine what he would do to us then.

  It was a grate. Livia landed on it first, and I landed on her. She was thrashing around below me, and my heart fell with a sense of my carelessness. Because even as my own life was fading, I knew hers must be fading also, and I felt terrible. I had done worse than fail to save her. I would be the cause of her death.

  I wanted to send magic to open the grate, but for whatever it mattered now, I worried it might hit Livia. Besides that, I had exhausted my magic and all my energy on getting us this far. There was nothing left now.

  Livia continued moving, up and down, almost angrily. Then as if there had been another explosion below us, the grate opened and we fell from it into the sewer water below.

  I coughed on water as it emptied from my lungs, not caring about the sewage around me or the total darkness that we had entered.

  Beside me, Livia put a hand on my back. "Not everything is done by magic."

  So she had kicked the grate away. She had saved us, in a way my magic could never have done, and I nodded to thank her.

  Ahead of us came a voice, and it brought a wide smile to my face.

  "I should've expected that," Aurelia said, lighting a small torch in her hands. "Now I know why you wanted to meet here."

  It took several minutes before I was strong enough to say more than a few words of welcome to Aurelia. She returned my gratitude by saying, "You both are going to smell horrid, and now I'll smell too. Honestly, Nic, I'm beginning to wonder what your attraction is to sewage."

  "It's not what attracts me down here as much as what repels me up there," I said. Despite being covered in filth I didn't even want to think about, I felt only happiness for being here now. This was the second time the Cloaca Maxima had saved my life. And much more than the second time that Aurelia had come to save me.

  I stood and helped Livia to her feet. She was obviously disgusted by the smells around us, but hid her revulsion as well as anyone could. When she faced Aurelia, I made the introductions.

  "Your brother has told me so much about you," Aurelia said with a polite bow to Livia.

  Livia bowed back. "And the same for you. From Nic's descriptions, I feel as if I already know you."

  "He described me?" Aurelia glanced my way with a broad grin. I felt myself blushing and hoped it wasn't visible in the torchlight.

  "This is a terrible place for such silly talk," I said. "Let's go."

  Aurelia and Livia began walking, with me trailing them. "What did Nic say about me?" Aurelia asked.

  "That you're loud and you ask too many questions," I replied before Livia could speak.

  Livia giggled. "No, that wasn't it."

  Then Aurelia giggled too, which left me thoroughly confused. What did giggling mean anyway? It sounded happy, but it certainly wasn't making me feel any better. Considering they had just met, what unspoken joke could they already have in common?

  Oh. It was me.

  Aurelia led us through the sewers as easily as if she were strolling a garden path. She knew the turns and the dangers and even the places where freshwater poured in, giving us a clean shower. Somehow, when I had been lost in here before, I had missed all of that.

  After another mile, she pointed out a freshwater basin ahead that had gathered in last night's rainstorm. Livia went there and began cleaning herself again. While she did, I caught up to Aurelia. She had snuffed out her torch to conserve it for the night, but the moonlight still came in through the grate overhead. With that light, I could see her plenty well. She was in a shorter, plainer tunic than she'd worn in the circus and her brown hair fell loosely over her shoulders. This was the Aurelia I remembered. Over the last two months, I had thought about her constantly, though I'd never admit that. More important, I saw the crepundia around her neck, and I couldn't help but stare at it.

  "Thank you for being here," I said. "We wouldn't have made it out otherwise."

  "You're welcome." Her eyes darted to Livia and then back to me, more serious than usual. If there were things she wanted to say, I wondered if she wanted to do it privately and so I took Aurelia's arm and we went a little farther away.

  Livia took the hint. "I'm tired, Nic. Is it all right if I rest for a while?"

  Aurelia answered for me. "No one will search for us down here, so this is where we should sleep. We can get an early start in the morning and be out before anyone else is awake."

  Then she and I sat together on a wide ledge above the water with our backs to Livia. In a hushed voice, Aurelia said, "Crispus wanted to come and help. He's worried about you."

  "You told Crispus I'd be here?" I scowled. "Why?"

  "I couldn't just disappear and leave him wondering where I was."

  "Now Crispus will tell his father about me, and then his father will tell the Praetors. Are they planning to meet me here too?"

  "I told Crispus, nobody else! You forget that he's done nothing to you. Your quarrel is with his father."

  "My quarrel is with half the Roman Empire." I glared at her. "Maybe you too."

  "You are so busy with building your list of enemies that you've forgotten you also need friends!"

  "Friends like Crispus, and his father?"

  "Yes, actually, you do need them. But not only them. I'm trying to help you, Nic. I owe you that much, but you're not making it easy."

  My glare darkened. "You owe me nothing. And if you're doing this for Crispus and Valerius, I don't want their help."

  "But you need it!" Then more quietly, she added, "They aren't the reason I'm here."

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Livia roll away from us. Even if she had wanted to sleep, she'd hardly be able to. I knew she could hear us fighting.

  I looked back at Aurelia and lowered my voice too. "Why did you come?"

  She only sighed, as if the answer should have been obvious. Unfortunately, the only obvious thing to me was that I hadn't finished saying things I was sure to regret.r />
  "Will Crispus approve of our friendship after you marry him?"

  Her eyes widened. "Who said I was going to marry him?"

  "It's the only way you can inherit your father's wealth. Clearly, you need Crispus's friendship too."

  "We are friends, yes. But that's all."

  Was that true? Maybe I had misread the situation between them, in which case I owed her an apology. "So you're not planning to marry him?" I asked.

  She hesitated, not a good sign. "Things are ... complicated. You're right about one thing: My father's will only grants me his inheritance if I am married."

  "You'd marry someone just to keep your money?"

  "It's not about the money, not directly anyway. Remember those children who were hiding here in the sewers with me? I used my father's money to buy their freedom, every one of them. And I'll use my last denarius to buy freedom for anyone else I can find. But if I lose the inheritance, then I'll have no way to help them anymore, or to even help myself."

  The muscles in my face were tightening again. "Then marry Crispus. Use his last coin too."

  "I don't want to marry Crispus! Not if I can marry someone else, someone I really care about." She shifted closer and touched my arm. "Give me another option. Please, Nic."

  "Like what?"

  Her eyes fell, unable to look at me. "Don't make me say it. Surely you must know what I want, why I came here to meet you."

  My heart was pounding, but I had nothing to say. As confused as I was about her feelings, I certainly understood my own. I knew what I wanted to ask.

  But who was I to offer her anything? I was nobody, with no future but running from half the Roman Empire, and with nothing in my possession but an empty bulla. She deserved better.

  "Fine," she said to my silence. "Thanks for nothing." Then she removed the crepundia from her neck and held it out to me. "Why do you want this anyway?"

  She was already angry, so I dreaded having to tell her now. I took the crepundia and opened the pouch in its center. I had worried that if Aurelia had opened it already, she would have recognized the real gems and sold them. But as soon as I saw them, I knew they were the ones I had put inside it before my fight in the arena. They glowed for me, while the mark on my shoulder caught the scent of magic nearby and sparked to life.

  I opened the bulla as well and switched the gems with the crepundia. Immediately, power flowed into the bulla, with the same strength as I remembered from before. This was Diana's power, her magic, as she stood in rebellion against the gods. Understanding why she had powered this bulla made me more nervous than ever to hold it.

  When I looked back at Aurelia, her mouth was pinched into a thin line. Anger was an inadequate description for the heat I felt coming from her.

  "Tell me you didn't --"

  "I couldn't let Radulf get the bulla's magic."

  "So you left me with it? If the Praetors had sensed it -- they've been there when I wore the crepundia!"

  "They don't have magic, so they couldn't sense it. It was safer with you than if I'd kept it."

  "Why didn't you warn me?"

  I snorted. "When would I have done that? While I was battling Radulf with one hand and your father with my other -- maybe I could've yelled out a warning that you were holding the real power of the gods?"

  Her eyes narrowed. "You, and that magic in your hands. It's all you care about."

  "That's not true!" Livia shouted. We turned, and she was standing behind us, hands on her hips. She stepped forward and addressed Aurelia. "If you knew how terrible Radulf is, what he'd do to Rome if he got hold of that bulla, then you would understand why Nic had to switch the gems. And Nic cares for me, and even for Crispus, though he won't admit that. He cares a lot for you too, Aurelia, so deeply that he doesn't even know the right words when he talks about you. Even if he won't say how he feels, I know he cares, and so do you."

  There was silence for a moment, then Aurelia asked, "Is this true, Nic?"

  I wanted to answer, to tell her that I had thought about her every single day while at Radulf's. That whenever I had practiced writing, or swimming, or racing in the circus, it was always in the hopes of making her think better of me. I wished she understood that I had waited to escape from Radulf's home until I'd had a chance to talk to her first and ask her to come with me.

  But now that Aurelia was here, I didn't know how to say all that. The words that trickled through my mind sounded weak and ignorant. If I had Crispus's gift for speaking, then I could make her understand me better. As it was, I could only stand here, looking ridiculous and feeling even worse.

  I kicked my sandal against the ground, but felt Aurelia take the bulla from my hands and place it over my neck. "You're a difficult friend," she whispered. "But always my friend."

  The bulla's warmth immediately began to fill me, and only then did I realize how cold I had been since losing it. It would take a while to absorb the full effects of its magic, I supposed, though I was already stronger than before.

  Now that she had moved closer to me, Aurelia touched my neck. "What are these bruises?"

  I felt their tenderness with my fingers and shrugged. "Radulf wasn't happy about us leaving."

  She smiled softly. "You do have a gift for making people angry. What will you do about the Praetors?"

  I shook my head. "Nothing, for tonight. Maybe we should get some sleep and figure that out in the morning."

  She lay down near me, using her arm for a cushion. I would've offered her mine, but so much magic was flowing through it already, I didn't think it was wise.

  "Thank you for coming," I whispered.

  At first, she didn't answer, and I was sure she must have already fallen asleep. Then she whispered back, "I will always come, Nic."

  If I slept at all over the next few hours, then it was only for minutes at a time. The bulla's growing magic kept me restless, the smell of the sewers was nearly unbearable, and worst of all, I could not get Aurelia out of my mind. It was true that I had endured some difficult things in my life, but thinking about her while she was so close by was an entirely different kind of problem.

  The earliest hints of light were in the air when Aurelia awoke. Not far away, Livia was still asleep, but she looked cold and I worried that she might not have slept well either. Before lying down, I should've checked to be sure she was all right -- Livia rarely complained. I wanted to help her now. With the Divine Star, I could send a little warmth to her, but then Radulf would know and could find us. With the bulla, I'd do too much, probably send a fire through the tunnels and up through every toilet opening in the city. Hardly the way any Roman wants to start his day.

  Aurelia rolled toward me and said, "I can see why you love her so much. Livia seems like a wonderful sister."

  "She's better than I deserve."

  Aurelia's smile was gentle and kind. "I can't argue with that."

  "Forgive me for not warning you about the crepundia ... about my trick with the gems." I hardly dared to continue looking at her, but I did anyway. She was only nodding and seemed to be in a good mood, so I added, "You were right last night, about almost everything."

  "Not almost everything." Aurelia giggled a little when she said it, and I smiled too. There was quiet between us for a moment, and then Aurelia added, "I'm also right that you should trust Crispus. And his father too."

  "They would've let me die in the amphitheater. How can I trust them again?"

  She pressed her lips together, then said, "Two days ago, I was having dinner with Crispus when Decimas Brutus came to the home, asking for Valerius. They went into a private room, but Crispus and I crept to the door to listen. Brutus demanded to know where you were."

  "And Valerius told him I'd be at the circus."

  "Valerius told him nothing." Now Aurelia sat up on her arm. "You have no idea how furious Brutus was. He threatened Valerius in every possible way. He wanted to know where the Malice of Mars was hidden, telling him that as soon as they got control of you, they were
going to make you open the door. Valerius tried to convince him that my father died with the key and that it was lost forever, but Brutus insisted Horatio would not have been so careless."

  "Maybe he was," I said.

  Aurelia shrugged. "Maybe." But she obviously didn't believe it. "When Brutus left, he said that if the key wasn't found soon, he would place the blame with Valerius. The very next day, Valerius went to the circus to see Radulf and warn him. He's risking a lot to protect you."

  I nodded wordlessly. It felt like Aurelia wanted me to say something, but I wasn't sure what.

  Finally, she said, "Valerius is right, Nic. You should leave Rome, as soon as possible."

  "Livia and I might need help in leaving." I licked my lips. "Someone good with a bow and arrow, perhaps?"

  Aurelia's smile fell. "That's what you want from me? A hunter? Or a guard?"

  "A friend." My eyes met hers. "Livia and I don't have many friends at the moment."

  "You're leaving today?"

  "No, not yet." I looked over at Livia, making sure she was still asleep. "First, I have to find my mother."

  Aurelia sat up all the way, so I did too. "Nic ..."

  "She's not far away. I saw her yesterday in the circus." Behind us, Livia gasped. I should have looked more carefully. This wasn't the way I had intended for her to find out.

  "Why didn't you tell me?" Livia asked. "You speak about trust and wouldn't even trust me with that?"

  "I'm sorry," I whispered. My second apology of the day, and no doubt, several more were coming.

  "You need to forget about finding your mother," Aurelia said. "Please, believe me, and leave Rome."

  Impossible. That was like asking me to forget my own name, which I'd sooner do than abandon my mother. "Why?"

  She sighed. "There's something I need to tell you."

  "About my mother?"

  Aurelia only frowned. Yes, it was about my mother. And I already knew that it was bad.

  Before talking any further, we agreed to go to the surface. If we waited too much longer, people would be on the streets and would surely notice us coming above ground. Besides, I didn't like the stuffiness down here, or the smell.