by A. B. Bloom
I wouldn’t believe it.
My magic was my own. If I buried it, then I did it for my own reasons. If I bought it to life, like in the bubble of happiness Tristram had produced in either of my lives, then it was me who allowed it.
Me.
“What’s she doing?” I heard someone whisper, although I’d never know what language they were actually speaking in.
Come on. If I could understand multiple languages without even realising it, then I could sure as hell find some gold energy running within my veins.
Shutting out the whispering voices I tried again.
Deeper, harder, pushing until it actually hurt.
There! A glimmer of gold. I snagged it and pulled it tight. It lurked down within the depths of my chest. I could almost visualise it curling unsatisfied, locked up by my anger when I’d realised I’d been tricked.
Yep, gold buddy. Now it’s your time to take to the floor.
I relished the sensation of it unravelling and travelling through me, filling me with a power that I didn’t yet understand. Maybe down here in this prison would be my best chance at learning what others wanted from me. The gold pulsed at my half-conscious thought. I let it free, let it fill me up. Then when I was full to the maximum capacity I could hold, I instinctively held my hand over the bowl. I didn’t need to open my eyes to find it, the water sparked a little pulse of its own, my palm tingling.
I just waited. I knew my magic created a response in nature. That much had been evident.
A splash landed in my palm and then another, so I lifted my hand higher. Go higher it said.
“Sure,” I mumbled.
There was a muted gasp as I scrambled to my knees and held my hand above my head. Finally, summoning up some serious courage I opened my eyes to see what I was actually doing.
The water bounced between my hand and the bowl in an endless cycle, it reminded me almost of a water feature where the same water was recycled in a loop. It lifted upwards in a gravity defying stream and then hit my palm before cycling back down to the bowl and the starting the process all over again. It seemed extra sparkly and I decided it must be showing off.
All the girls, regardless of where they were sat had their necks craned to watch. Zafina came to my side falling to her knees. “How do you do that? You said you had no power?”
“I…” I hesitated. “It’s the gold in my veins. Don’t you feel it, too?”
They all looked at me, all of them understanding me, yet I could tell from their blank faces they didn’t understand what I meant. My stomach and heart plummeted to the ground as one by one they all shook their head.
“You must have. It’s gold, I can sense it inside me. The Emperor, he has red, it courses through him, I can feel it in him, it’s opposite to mine.”
All I received were blank stares. Zafina put her hand on my arm and the water splashed to the floor; droplets landed everywhere.
“I knew as soon as you walked through the door.”
“Knew what?” I asked, but I already knew her answer.
Already could feel a dense weight of helplessness landing on my shoulders.
“Knew you were the one to save us.”
“How?” I muttered, my voice cracking. “How, when I can’t even save myself?”
If ever there was a chance to try to find out who I was or what my whole role in this random dual life, I seemed to be living was—this was it.
Zafina’s face was alive with emotion, her hand clutching my arm when the door down the far end of the corridor swung open and a guttural cry shouted, “Druid” into the large space.
My instant response wavered between trying to hide and puking, but with one hundred and ten other girls all focused on me there was no way in hell I’d let it show. They were waiting for someone to come and set them free of this hell, not to run quivering and hide under a deer skin.
“Guess I’m the only Druid in the room?” I cast a quick glance about, although there was little chance of Druid cloaks making it into the jail. We were all dressed the same, simple cotton chitons and not much else.
One hundred and ten heads shook in my direction.
“Well, ain’t that a bitch.”
“Druid!” The call cried louder, and heavy footsteps rang through the silence.
Zafina grasped my hand and pulled me close. “Don’t let him have it, Mae. You need to hide it. You’re our only hope, but if he finds it, he will never let you out of his sight.”
“And if he doesn’t find it, what happens to me then?” My voice quivered like a string on a bow.
“Then eventually he will get bored and you’ll get sent back to us.”
“But you said—”
“Druid!” The voice was closer, more impatient, closer down the passageways.
“But you said the ones who didn’t please never came back.”
Zafina nodded. “You’re a pretty girl, I think you’ll keep him entertained.”
Dear Lord. I had no idea what the girls from this age were used to, but just about every sense of self-preservation I’d ever maintained on the streets of Queens raised its furious head.
Now where was that can of mace when I needed it? Oh yes, at Fire Stone, two thousand years away.
A burly soldier found where we were all gathered, his skin perspiring from the heat. He didn’t look the kind of man who wanted to stomp through a sauna looking for a not quite trained Druid.
Desperate to know what awaited me, I nearly closed my eyes and sensed outside of myself trying to snatch a vision of the immediate future, but Zafina pinched me hard on the arm. “No. Don’t.”
The guard reached his arm for me, grasping me tight and leering at my squirm. “The Emperor waits, and he doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
He pulled me, half dragging me back towards the exit. I let him pull me away, staring at Zafina until she was out of view.
What in the hell was I going to do now? The gold in my veins bubbled and popped. Let us help, it cried, but I shut it down, locking it back into that place behind my heart where no one would be able to find it.
Augustus had been wrong. This was mine to control and even now, while being dragged down an endless hallway at the hands of a brutish man, I knew that this magic inside me was mine. Mine alone, to control. By some slip of fate, I had the magic everyone wanted.
Now, scared as I was, I was finally in the place where I could find out more.
“Ah, my Druid priestess.” The Emperor purred as I was flung in front of him. I caught my balance managing not to crash at his feet. I wasn’t in the mood for dirt diving. I wanted to get back down to the humid jail and discover what the other girls could do, but Zafina’s warning had been clear. I needed to play the game. Cat and mouse with the Emperor. But who was the cat and who was the mouse? Well, I guess that remained to be seen.
“I didn’t finish my training.” I met his eyes but reigned in my aggression. “I am not a true Druid.”
He flashed a smile, he really was absurdly handsome if you liked that well-oiled, highly groomed kind of thing. His skin, broad muscled and olive rich, shone with scented oils. His hair was curled, and it looked like it had been artfully pulled around the golden leaves of his laurel crown.
“I heard your capture was traumatic and bloody.” The light in his eyes told me exactly what he thought of this news.
“It was unnecessary considering I had already offered to come with no fight.”
He laced his hands together thoughtfully. “I believe my witch was concerned that while your words had meaning, your heart was not heeding them. Nor the heart of the woodsman.”
“He was not a woodsman; he was my liege and king.”
A vein ticked in his neck and I took a minute step back. “I believe, Druid, you will find I am the liege of everyone.”
“Indeed.” I kept my answer precise although I knew for a fact that the Roman Empire never quite managed to invade and conquer everywhere. So unless he was hoping to rewrite the histor
y books… oh.
I schooled my features into what I hoped was a pleasant smile while I ran through the situation in my head.
Zafina had said she’d been here for over six months. He’d been looking for me the whole time Mae had been coming into her powers. He had girls here who could do things, although possibly not as much as me, but that remained to be seen.
Was the advance of the Roman Empire about witchcraft? Had magic been used to further their cause? Imagine that in the history books! Hadn’t the Empire receded once they failed to breech the outer areas of the British Isles… wasn’t that Scotland? Had the Roman Empire failed because Mae died on those stones and the magic he was seeking so brutally died with her?
Bloody hell, did I have all the magic?
Why?
“You look, Priestess, like you are working out a problem that is too large for your pretty head.”
“No, My Liege.” I dropped him a low curtsey. Did people curtsey in Druid times? I had no idea.
His face lit with amusement. “I believe we are going to have fun.”
“You don’t know I’m the girl you are looking for yet.”
His gaze fell across my lips. “I’ve been looking for you a long time.”
“As long as you’ve been Emperor?”
Those grey eyes swirled with hidden depths. “Longer.”
“But the other girls didn’t have what you wanted?” What did he mean longer? I wanted to keep him talking though, I needed all the information I could get.
“Mae, do you believe in the old ways?”
I held in a groan. Father had talked about the old ways. The red and the gold, but I couldn’t see where the old ways was getting us. “My father taught me,” I admitted, allowing him some honesty, hoping it would stand me in good stead.
“So you know about the need of men.” His eyes trained steadily on my face and I held in a shiver. He was predatory. I could sense it off every inch of him. I just had to stay on the right side of him. One wrong move and I could end up dead, or worse at his mercy as he continued to take over the world.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“But men and women they aren’t supposed to be separated.”
“What do you mean?” I batted my eyelashes a few times for good measure.
“The one I seek, she is more than power. More than any limit this baleful earth has to provide. She is the very earth herself.”
Well, honestly that’s a relief.
“Okay. My father didn’t tell me that.”
“He probably wanted it for himself.”
“Or maybe he knew it wasn’t me, that I don’t have what the men want.” That sentence came out utterly messed up, but he didn’t blink—and actually now I remember seeing Gladiator and I’m not surprised.
“What do you have? The Mage was sure, she said your blood ran with that of the gods of old.”
She said what?
“It doesn’t. I’m sorry, but it doesn’t. Is that what you are looking for, a God? A Goddess? They don’t live on earth, they are just beings that humans worship.”
The Emperor slid off his gilt chair and stepped close. The air filled with the pungent scent of amber and some other rich spice I couldn’t name. His finger touched my bare shoulder, a light passing caress which skimmed up my neck to my cheek. He turned me so we were face to face, his lips a centimetre or two from mine. “I’d make a Goddess an Empress of all the earth if I could find her.”
“I hope you do.” I tried hard not to breathe, not wanting our breath to mingle as it would before a kiss. “But I’m afraid I won’t be her.”
The stormy greys locked on my gaze. “We shall see. I heard that when your woodsman was killed, a hedge grew in front of the scene to protect you from the view.”
“You heard true, but it wasn’t me. The trees and plants of my homeland have a funny ability to do as they will.”
His lips quirked at the edges.
“And they say here that the temple walls choose who should be Emperor, but how can that be believed?”
“The red veins don’t coexist with the magic of the old ways, do they? They want it for themselves. That’s why the old ways have ended?” I asked.
His face flitted instantly into a frown of annoyance and I waited for his rebuttal. He leaned closer which was even more unnerving.
“I will own the power, my druid, and the whole world will beg at my feet.”
I nodded, because I believed his intent. I just knew I’d do anything to stop it.
Chapter Twelve
He snapped his fingers and my two guards stepped up. “Come, let us go to the garden and see what you can do.”
“I’m not a performing monkey,” I retorted.
His face fell in surprise, before his lips tilted up at the corners and his stormy eyes brightened into an attractive shine. “Perhaps, Druid, but you shall perform for me.”
The guards stepped closer, but I held my hand up to stop their approach, catching a flicker of fear in their eyes. I almost giggled—almost—but I managed to restrain myself. Did they think I was going to smote them down with a wave of my hand? I wasn’t God. I couldn’t rain fire and brimstone down on us all or release a plague of locusts. Although, I would if I could; anything to get me and the other girls out of here. I wanted to get back down to them, a desperate urge to get back into those training circles to see what I could do burned deep in the pit of my stomach. Instead, I was up here playing a game of words with the Emperor of Rome.
Yay for me.
Still, I could be dead on those stones with Tristram’s arms wrapped around me. Or I could be in Queens with no clue of who I was.
Instead, I was here finding out the exceptional power I owned. Admittedly, I was captive, but you know, always look for the silver lining.
“I don’t need to be dragged anywhere.” I held the Emperor’s eye. “I can walk. I’m not running away.”
He bowed low, his lips curving into a handsome smile. Holding out an arm, he waited for me to take it. I slid my hand around his olive skin repressing the deep shudder in my soul. The strength of red in him was almost repellent. I’d never felt it even remotely that strong from Tristram. In fact, I’d never even got a glimmer of it, despite the fact my father had told me it was there. At the thought of Tristram, my heart pinched tight in my chest, but I forced it away. I’d be dead myself if I wasn’t careful. I allowed the Emperor to guide me into a sun-drenched garden. The air was sweet with fragrant plants, jasmine curved around iron arches.
“I must say, it’s nice to meet someone who isn’t ready to fight me,” he murmured, his hand landing gently over mine.
I would not be so sure, buddy.
“I’d imagine as the Emperor of Rome you have many enemies.”
He cast his eyes towards me. “More than you can imagine.” He sighed a little and it sounded incredibly human, which was the first time since I’d arrived I’d considered him so. He did have a hundred and ten girls captive in his basement; I wasn’t making rash judgement calls. “Nobody wanted me as Emperor, but I knew it would always be me. When Caligula, that disgusting swine, was murdered, I knew they would come for me.”
“Was it your destiny?” I asked, with genuine interest.
He nodded, his gaze far away. “Since I was born, I’ve known about the power of the old ways. It was just within me, a desire to capture the power. Even as a child it ruled my heart and mind.”
“You aren’t that old, are you?”
He inclined his head a little but didn’t answer. “Sometimes I feel older than I am, as though all of this I’ve done before.”
I swallowed hard. I knew what he meant. I had done this before, but we were in the first century, how far back did he go?
“I come from a small isle,” I kept my tone neutral, pleasing almost, “We don’t know much of your ways. I don’t even know your name; despite the fact I am here at your… request.”
“Claudius.” He paused our walk down the stone pathways an
d turned to face me, dipping me another courteous bow. “But you can call me Tiberius.”
Had any of the other girls received this treatment? If not, why me? I hadn’t shown him anything yet.
“Tiberius?” I nodded. “I can do that.”
His hand slid down my arm, his fingers knotting with mine. “You don’t mind, do you?” He nodded to our hands as he started our walk again.
“No.” I forced the word out. Instead of running and screaming, I turned my attention back to the garden. Beautiful and fragrant, it seemed perfect, but when I peered a little closer the blooms were slightly dull, the leaves dry. “Don’t you have an irrigation system within the garden?” I asked. Some things it seemed I had remembered in history classes, including the Roman plumbing system; that and the fact that by the middle ages people were back to wells and pissing in pots.
“We do.” His eyes sparked with curiosity. “How did you know?”
Oh shit. He’s going to think my knowledge was some sign of my power. How would a Druid from Caledonia know such things?
“I asked a lot of questions on my journey here.”
He nodded, seemingly satisfied. “Augustus was very charmed with you. Your trip must have been more enjoyable than a lot of the other women I have drawn here hoping they have the power I need.”
“But they don’t.” It wasn’t a question. “Why don’t you let them go?”
He smiled, just small, but it spoke volumes. “I have a theory.”
“A theory? Surely the Emperor of the Roman Empire has more on his mind than simple theories?”
“It a feeling I have, have had since my childhood. If I can draw those with the power I want towards me, then my own power will be immense.”
“But they don’t have any.”
He shrugged his shoulders, his tanned skin catching the sunlight. “But what if they all have elements of power, no matter how weak and when I introduce them to the one who holds it all, maybe it will become stronger?” He was thoughtful now, talking almost to himself. “She is the key.”