Except I knew better, because I had spent too much time in the mines of Rome to believe this was sealed up forever. She might have Diana's powers, but she did not have Diana's lungs to breathe. The Mistress needed air.
And if air had found a way in for the past three hundred years, then I had a way out. For that, I didn't need the strength of the bulla. I needed the quiet magic of the Divine Star.
Using it meant I would not have its powers to continue healing my wrist. But I braced my arm against my chest and then used magic from my shoulder to feel for the flow of air.
Ahead of me, Brutus was groveling to the Mistress about the Malice, about all he had done to protect it, and promising to find it again for her. It was pathetic, but I supposed this had been the entire purpose of his life thus far, to hope to grovel at her feet.
He did that while I detected gaps between the stone walls. There hadn't been any before. Indeed, the workmanship of this temple was perfect, or it had been until Atroxia collapsed her own floor. That destruction had created gaps that I could use to escape.
Using my good hand, I sent the Divine Star's magic through the gaps, wearing away at the mortar and worming out even larger holes.
"What are you doing?" Atroxia snarled.
Invisible hands clutched at my shoulders and threw me high into the air and against the temple wall, above even where the main floor had once been. I expected to fall and tried to brace myself for the impact, but instead she held me there.
"You stole the Malice," she said. "If you want to live, then tell me where it is."
I shook my head. "If I want to live, the last thing I can do is give you the Malice. I know your plans."
At this height, and with my own magic, I was feeling air begin to move between the marble blocks. Enough air that I could get a grip on the real world outside. And I used it.
"Give me the Malice!" The angrier she became, the deeper Atroxia's voice rumbled.
I created a rumbling of my own, in the vibrations between the blocks. All I needed was a good burst of magic and they would tumble like stacked dice.
Atroxia's eyes widened -- even from as high as I was, and pressed far against the temple wall -- I saw them redden with anger.
"Not to my temple, you won't!"
"This is not your temple!" I yelled. "This is your tomb, you traitor!"
She threw a ball of magic at me, but I used my own magic to push it away. There was so much power in the combination that I was forced harder against the temple wall, which shuddered at first, and then blocks began to fall.
I landed on some stone blocks that fell outside the temple, not far from the Praetors who had obeyed Brutus's orders and were still on their knees. But upon seeing me, they leapt to their feet, startled, and unsure of what to do.
I wasn't much more clear on what should happen next. The temple's collapse was massive, stones falling upon one another and sending up a storm of dust.
Choking on it, I backed away, still keeping my injured wrist against my chest. Once again, it had started to heal. Until I careened through several feet of marble. Surely there would come a point when the Divine Star would refuse to heal me anymore.
There was silence amongst the Praetors until the last brick fell. Then all eyes turned to me, realizing I had entombed their leader, trapped the Mistress, and destroyed any chance they might have had to get the Malice.
From far in the back, someone yelled, "Get him!"
I was in no condition to fight, or at least, no condition to fight well. But I'd come this far, and I would not let the Praetors win now. Rather than send out any attack, I did as I had done before and collapsed the ground in a circle around me, creating an impassable ditch so no one could get close to me. It wasn't useful for my escape, but it prevented them from laying a finger on my magic.
From there, I worked to heal my wrist while I used my right hand to throw magic wherever I could. Outside of the suffocating bounds of the temple walls, my magic was stronger and easier to access, and I took full advantage of that. Without their leader, or really, even a purpose left to them, the remaining Praetors didn't put up much of a fight.
Livia was no longer hiding beneath the bushes, so I hoped either Radulf or Crispus had gotten her away somehow. I wanted to search for her, but arrows had started flying from the vineyard. Aurelia was still here too, obviously.
I should've been angry with Crispus for failing to get Aurelia away, but I wasn't. We both knew how impossible it was to make Aurelia do anything against her will. Aurelia would never willingly leave me behind.
So I closed my eyes and pictured the vineyards, and Aurelia standing in them, and then prayed I would not have the bad luck to reappear in front of her just as she was firing an arrow.
I actually entered the vineyards far behind her. She was on a rock that gave her a better view into the field, and was taking advantage of that position with every arrow she released. I started forward, then Crispus ran up beside her with a handful of arrows. Neither of them knew I was here.
He leapt onto the rock beside her and stuffed the arrows inside the quiver on her back. I noticed his hand lingered on her shoulder when he had finished, longer than was necessary. And when she looked over at him, I had hoped she would smack him with the wooden edge of her bow, but she didn't. She just smiled and thanked him for the arrows.
"Nic isn't there anymore," Aurelia said when she looked back into the field. "He was just there a moment ago."
As if they sensed the answer to their confusion, both Aurelia and Crispus turned back in unison to see me behind them.
"Nic!" Aurelia jumped off the rock and caught me in an embrace. "You terrified us, going inside that temple! We thought you would never come out!"
I grimaced as my wrist bent between us, but let her hold me anyway.
"Are you all right?" Crispus asked.
"Is my sister all right?" I countered, pressing back from Aurelia. "Where is she?"
Crispus looked from Aurelia over to me. "I don't know. We can't find her, not without the Praetors seeing us search for her. Maybe Radulf found her."
"Where is he now?"
Crispus and Aurelia shared a look, and then Aurelia said, "When the temple collapsed, he vanished. He muttered that he needed something from home, but he hasn't come back."
"He probably won't come back because Radulf's afraid of the Mistress." I didn't blame him for that. I understood his fears now in a way I hadn't before -- her magic had overwhelmed anything I could do. Fortunately, she was trapped inside the temple.
"So she's awake?" Aurelia asked.
"She was." I nodded to the temple ruins. "But it's all destroyed. Even if she survived the collapse, I doubt she can get out from beneath so much rubble."
"The Praetors won't continue to fight. Why would they?" Crispus smiled broadly. "You did it!"
He clapped me on the back and Aurelia gave my arm a squeeze, but I couldn't feel the same relief. Despite what I had just said, Atroxia's magic was much stronger than mine. I had not been able to use the full strength of my magic within the temple walls -- what if hers was the same way? What if her punishment wasn't being buried alive? What if it was burial without the full use of her magic?
Radulf's voice returned to my head again, icy cold but not from anger. He was still afraid, but this time, it was for my life. "Nic, this is not over. Leave right now, please."
"Where's Livia?"
There was silence, and I felt his fears intensify. He was her grandfather too. "I can't pull her away from there," he said. "I know she has the Malice. It's stronger than my magic, and it wants to stay with the Mistress."
"I won't leave without her," I said. "It's my fault she's here at all."
"What are you talking about?" Crispus asked, then Aurelia shot him a knowing look.
"Get out of there." Radulf was pleading with me now. "I will come find Livia."
That wasn't good enough, and he knew it.
Aurelia put her hand on my shoulder. "What is R
adulf saying?" she asked.
I shook my head at her and tried to keep my thoughts straight. Since destroying the temple, I was stronger. If she survived, then maybe the Mistress had grown in strength too.
I stood and started walking back to the field, calling to Crispus and Aurelia, "You both need to leave right now."
To my dismay, they followed. "Why?" Aurelia called. "Just tell us why!"
I used magic to raise another shield, only this one prevented both Crispus and Aurelia from crossing into the field.
"Nic, don't go back there alone!" she cried.
I turned. "I can't save your lives and mine. Run from here, please!"
Aurelia started to follow me, but Crispus put his arms around her and held her back, then they ducked into the vines. He wouldn't get her to leave; I knew that already, just as I knew Crispus would not leave without her. I hoped they would at least find a good place to hide.
Once I got to the field, the Praetors had grouped together, probably deciding whether they still had any strategy to defeat me and if it was worth it to continue the fight.
It wasn't.
"Surrender now!" I called to them. "It is your only chance to walk out of here alive."
"You cannot kill us all!" one man shouted.
"I don't intend to kill any of you," I replied. "But that does not mean you are safe. For the sake of your own lives, leave while you still can."
Another discussion started amongst them, with some obvious disagreements. But it didn't take long before a few men backed out of the group and hurried away, and then others followed, and more followed after that.
"Now you leave," Radulf said into my head.
"Only two days ago, you scolded me for refusing to fight," I said. "Now you'd have me leave?"
He drew in a breath, one I could hear in my head. "Nicolas, you are not entering a fight. This will be a slaughter. Listen to what is happening around you!"
And I did. The field was emptying of Praetors, and Crispus and Aurelia were out of sight, hopefully out of reach, so I took a moment and listened.
At first I had expected the sounds to be coming from the temple, or from the Praetors who'd refused to leave. But it wasn't -- these sounds were in my head, the same way as when Radulf spoke to me, or when I heard the crying of the Mistress.
But this time, it was laughter. Atroxia's harsh, wicked laughter, though the voice was deeper than before. She had growled at me then, in an almost inhuman way. Her laughter was even less human.
The fallen marble blocks were shifting from their place, from movement deep below the surface. Movement in the catacombs.
Atroxia was only a vestalis, one buried alive as punishment for supporting Caesar's assassination. That was who had cried, who had begged me to help her. But it was not who I heard now.
Diana's curse changed the vestalis into the Mistress. This was who Radulf feared, and who wielded the angry magic of a vengeful goddess. The Mistress was about to reveal herself to me once more.
The marble blocks burst from their resting place in a fierce explosion that rattled the skies themselves. I shielded myself to prevent any blocks from landing on me, and felt grateful for the shield already protecting Crispus and Aurelia. And it was a good thing, for I felt an impact over that way and knew the shield had been tested, and had held strong.
"Livia, run!" I cried. I didn't want to expose her presence here, but I couldn't find her anywhere and I needed to warn her away. My warning had come too late.
Emerging from the rubble, I first saw the end of a massive tail, as red as blood. It beat through the rocks to separate them, and as they did, the tail continued to stretch forth from the ground. Next a claw emerged from the rubble, each tip like a sword. It pressed against the ground to allow the head to rise up with a savage growl. I knew this creature. A draco. The dragons of Rome. Little different from the images engraved on the columns of Radulf's home.
The serpent's front teeth were as long as daggers and doubtless twice as sharp, and when she spat at me, saliva dripped from her fangs and smoke flared from her nostrils. Her eyes were yellow with slits of black that seemed as deep as the mine pits. Nothing about her seemed to ever have been human.
As she pulled herself to freedom, her second claw unfolded with Brutus in her clutches. She dumped him on the ground, where he immediately fell to his knees and praised her for rescuing him.
She turned to me and spoke as clearly and plainly as she had before, with the voice of the vestalis from the catacombs, but deeper and more commanding.
"There is Decimas Brutus, my servant. Do you see that I saved him from the fate that was nearly mine, that of being buried alive?"
"You should have left him there," I said. "He earned his fate by his betrayal of Rome. Just as you betrayed it."
"The Praetors have always served me, and in turn, I will always protect them. Join us, Nicolas."
I shook my head. "Not today, Atroxia." Not ever.
Fire spat from the serpent's mouth, setting everything around me aflame, including the vines. Crispus and Aurelia ran from the vineyard but were stopped by the shield I had created. Though it wouldn't make them much safer, I lowered the shield now to allow them a way out. Rather than run, Aurelia immediately fired off each of her arrows, searching for any weakness in the dragon's hide, but they were as useless as if she'd tossed feathers at the creature.
Crispus took Aurelia's hand and they ran safely away from the fire, but only to a worse problem. They were closer to Atroxia now.
"Where is the Malice?" Brutus said, on his feet again and coming closer to me. "The time for games is over."
"I don't have it," I said.
"Just as you denied having the key," he said.
"Yes, well, I was wrong about that," I said. "But I am not wrong about the Malice. It's out of your reach now."
Another lie, though I never flinched while telling it.
"Are you sure about that?" the Mistress asked.
I readied myself for whatever she might bring. If she as much as coughed up another ember, I would call in enough rain to put out her flame forever. For my own safety, I didn't want to, but I would. The clouds were already gathering, in fact.
The Mistress paid no attention to the skies overhead. Instead, her golden eye went from me to Aurelia and Crispus, who were trying to get up the hill to Crispus's home.
Faster than I could react, she snatched them each into a claw and raised them high into the air.
I sent everything I had at her chest, hoping it would force her to release them. Yet like Aurelia's arrows, nothing registered even a scratch.
She squeezed them tighter, enough that both Aurelia and Crispus reacted with cries of pain. "Now will you deny having the Malice?" she said to me. "Because if you do not give it to me, I will crush your friends!"
I used magic to launch all of Aurelia's fallen arrows back into the air. Had Atroxia been anything other than a dragon, they'd have been driven through her. But the arrows and my magic combined failed to even get her attention.
"I'm telling you that I do not have the Malice!" I yelled. "Search me for it if you must."
"You lie!" she said. "I can sense it nearby. I can feel its power."
She tightened her grip on Crispus, and he cried out again. I understood his pain as if it were my own. It had been my own less than an hour ago, when she had crushed my wrist in her hand. No matter how that had felt, I knew it must be so much worse for him now.
"Wait!" I said. "You cannot harm him. Those are your own words."
She loosened her hold a little, or at least, Crispus seemed able to breathe again. "Why not?" she asked.
"He's a Praetor now," I said. "And you just told us that the Praetors serve you, so you are bound to protect them."
Atroxia turned to Brutus, who until now had seemed relieved to be forgotten in this conversation. "Well?" she asked.
His irritation was obvious, and he clearly was pained at having to answer her. But he did. "It's true, Mistre
ss. Only days ago, this boy was made a judge in Rome. He is a Praetor, though he's not really one of us. His father served the empire, not you."
I stepped closer. "But you cannot punish him for his father's loyalties. Crispus is a Praetor and must be granted your protection."
"Yes," the Mistress said. "I suppose he must."
And she dropped him to the ground. I released enough magic to cushion his fall, but there was still the problem of Aurelia. She had no similar claim of protection from Atroxia. Nothing she could offer for her life.
But there was my life.
I got to my knees and lowered my head. Not in humility to the Mistress but because I knew how Aurelia would react and I didn't want to see it. "Take me instead," I said. "Take me and not her."
"No!" Aurelia struggled to break free, and Atroxia squeezed her again.
I heard her cry and looked up, yelling, "You want me!"
"Let her go!" Crispus stumbled to his feet and crossed between us. "The Praetors of Rome have the protection of the Mistress."
"That privilege does not extend to the friends of Praetors," Brutus said.
"I know that." Crispus looked back at me for a moment, offering a silent apology. Then he turned to the dragon. "But the wife of a Praetor would be protected just as he is."
He was right, of course. Marrying Crispus would save Aurelia's life. But it still came at me like a knife.
"Is this true?" Atroxia said to Aurelia. "You will marry this boy?"
Crispus stepped forward again. "I have already made her the offer. All she must do is accept."
If I had offered when Aurelia first wanted me to, or at any moment since then, she would have agreed to marry me. But I never said a word. And instead of hating myself for my silence, I should've been happy now, because this was her only chance to live.
Yes, that's how I should have felt.
Aurelia cried out from the crushing pain of the dragon's grip, then said, "Yes, yes, I agree to his offer. I will be his wife."
Atroxia let her fall to the ground. Though a new and different sort of ache had flared within me, I summoned enough magic to give her a cushion as well and immediately ran to her side.
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