Eagle of Seneca

by Corrina Lawson

  May the storm gods encase you in darkness forever, Ahala.

  She screamed, a battle cry mixed with the near-intolerable pain in on her wrist.

  The flat head of the hammer connected with Ahala’s shoulder. A loud snap echoed through the room. Ahala stumbled sideways with a muffled scream and let go of Sky’s wrist.

  I wanted his head. She hadn’t had enough control of the hammer. She raised it to try again.

  Ceti swung the Roman short sword at Ahala in a sweeping overhand motion, clearly hoping to split open Ahala’s head and finish what she’d started. But even with his arm limp at his side and his face twisted in pain, Ahala avoided the blow as easily as he’d avoided her knife thrusts.

  This time, though, instead of pressing the attack, Ahala turned and fled for the door near the bedroom entrance, the one they’d used to enter Ceti’s home.

  She and Ceti rushed after Ahala, but when they reached the doorway, she saw no sign of him or his passage in the grounds outside.

  Beside her, Ceti swore.

  A squad of Roman soldiers rushed in from the main workshop entrance.

  Ceti brandished his sword and pointed to where Ahala had gone, shouting in Latin at the soldiers. The men scrambled to obey his commands. Half the group ran in the direction that Ahala had gone.

  She should do the same, catch Ahala, but…

  Tabor.

  She turned and saw the medicus who had been treating Laughing Dog was already kneeling next to Tabor. A folded cloth, quickly turning red, had been pushed over the gut wound to staunch the bleeding.

  Sky forced herself to breathe normally. Her wrist ached and the weight of the hammer in her hand pulled at her shoulder. She dropped to her knees beside the medicus, praying Tabor was not already dead.

  Ahala had stumbled when first attacking her. She realized why now, as a movement she’d seen only out of the corner of her eye became clear.

  Tabor had reached out and grabbed Ahala’s feet, causing the stumble. The Roman commander had saved her life.

  His eyes fluttered.

  He lives.

  She should speak, say something, but her throat was swollen shut. She’d lied to this man. He knew it. Still, he’d used his last bit of strength to help her.

  The medicus called out and one of the soldiers dropped to the floor on the other side of Tabor.

  “Move.” Ceti put his hand on her shoulder. “The medicus needs room to work, Sky.”

  She nodded, and tried to stand, but had to accept Ceti’s help to get to her feet. Her body felt heavy, as if weighed down by a heavy stone. She grabbed the center workbench for balance. Her limp fingers finally dropped the hammer and it fell to the wood floor with a thunk.

  “Sky!” Ceti put his hands on her shoulders and peered at her intently. “Did he cut you? Are you hurt?”

  “He didn’t cut me, thanks to you and Tabor.” Tears started to run down her cheeks. Her wrist hurt, but the pain was already dulling.

  She was uninjured physically.

  But she hurt, deep inside, nonetheless.

  This is my responsibility. I set into motion the events that led to this.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Tabor. Goddess Minerva, not Tabor.

  Suddenly, the world felt far less sure, far less stable to Ceti. The commander was the bonding agent that held them all together. Manhatos would never survive a siege without Tabor’s leadership.

  Ceti tightened the arm he had around Sky’s shoulders.

  Dinah swept into the room, Gerhard and Mykle at her heels. Likely all three had been headed here already, in response to his earlier message.

  If only they had arrived with Tabor. If only he had responded to Sky’s scream sooner. If only he had spitted Ahala on his gladius.

  How in the name of Hades’s realm did Ahala get into my workshop?

  All three new arrivals knelt quietly near the medicus and the soldier helping tend Tabor. Mykle carefully set his lover’s head in his lap.

  Blood had soaked into the floorboards. The commander’s face was pale and his eyes were closed. His blue tunic looked as if it had been dipped in blood. But his chest rose and fell. Mykle stroked Tabor’s cheekbones and Ceti heard him quietly mutter prayers in the Norse tongue.

  “I need to sew him up right now,” the medicus said. “Where’s a bed?”

  “My bedroom,” Ceti pointed. “Just there. But—”

  He stopped speaking as Mykle picked up Tabor as easily as if he were a small child.

  Ceti was going to say that there was already a patient in the bed, but then he saw Laughing Dog standing next to the doorway of the bedroom. The former slave stared at the fallen commander as he was carried into the room.

  “What happened?” Dinah asked Ceti.

  Her eyes seemed very dark, her mouth was set in a grim expression and there was blood on the knees of her leggings. He looked down and realized Sky had matching bloodstains on her clothes.

  “Ahala somehow got in here past the commander’s personal guard and attacked Tabor and Sky. Ahala took out Tabor first. Sky and I fought him, but he slipped away from us. I sent half of Tabor’s guard after him,” Ceti said. “He can’t have gotten far.”

  Dinah scowled. “If Ahala’s out of sight, they’ll not catch him. Tell me exactly what happened.”

  Sky stepped out of Ceti’s hold and related the entire attack. Likely it took longer to tell that it had taken to happen. Ceti fought the urge to be sick. He’d almost been too late.

  “Can he—can your medicus heal Tabor?” Sky asked.

  “Tabor’s alive.” Dinah grimaced. “So far. More, I cannot say. Gut wounds are bad. I wish you’d gotten Ahala.”

  “Sky did smash my hammer into his neck. I think a bone snapped. It also knocked him to the floor. Maybe that will slow him down.”

  Dinah sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. “Perhaps we got lucky. Ahala doesn’t usually miss a killing stroke. He did always like to taunt his prey, as he did to Sky. I told him long ago that would catch up to him.”

  Dinah turned to what remained of Tabor’s guard detail. The soldiers had been milling around the workshop, impotent. At Dinah’s scrutiny, they snapped to attention.

  “Seal this place,” she said. “No one in or out save with my permission. You failed your commander once. Don’t do it again.”

  “Yes, Domina.” The lead soldier saluted her and ordered his men outside.

  “I thought women didn’t lead Romans,” Sky said.

  That had never stopped Dinah before, Ceti thought. Besides, Tabor’s guards knew her. The rest of the Legion did not, however.

  “I lead when need calls for it,” Dinah said. “But Breda will have to take command of the Legion.”

  Gerhard glanced at the bedroom, sighed, and shook his head. He put his arm around Dinah. “Gaius should be here with his father.”

  “You’ll get both of them, husband?” Dinah asked. “I can’t risk sending one of the soldiers as messenger and having him spread further word of Tabor’s injury. There would be panic.”

  “I will get them,” Gerhard said. “Dinah, Mykle, and I discussed fighting here, at Manhatos, last night instead of waiting in Seneca. Mykle will insist on it now.”

  “He won’t fight alone,” Dinah said.

  Gerhard nodded. “I agree. I will check with the longboat and see how swiftly messages can be sent to Seneca. Warriors were gathering already, but we need them right now.”

  Dinah nodded. “Tell them hurry. And to make sure enough warriors are left to defend Seneca if we fall.”

  Gerhard gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and left.

  “Dinah.” Ceti cleared his throat. “I do not wish to say this, but are you sure you trust the guards outside? One of them let Ahala get past them.”

  “The attack wasn’t the fault of the guards,” Dinah said. “Ahala likely saw you rescue his former slave and guessed you would take him here. It would have been no difficulty at all for Ahala to arrive at here ahead of y
ou, given your burden, and hide until the right moment.” She pointed to the cloth draped over the far worktable.

  There was plenty of room for a man to conceal himself underneath it.

  Sky nodded. “Yes, that’s where Ahala came from.” She clutched her hands together in front of her. “Your commander was hurt because of me, because I demanded Laughing Dog’s rescue.”

  “Yes,” Dinah agreed.

  “Dinah,” Ceti said. “She’s not responsible for what Ahala did.”

  “But I am responsible for not telling you everything,” Sky said. She dropped her hands to her side. “Ahala came to me last night.”

  She recounted the story of how Ahala had come to her last night and threatened the death of her mother, her village, and Ceti.

  Ceti could feel the anger in him rise again, as it had when he learned she’d kept news of Makki’s fleet from them. Now, she’d lied to him again.

  “You should have told me!” Ceti burst out.

  “Yes,” Sky said.

  “He scared you,” Dinah said.

  Sky raised her head, looking at Ceti, not Dinah. “Yes, Ahala scared me. If he could get into Tabor’s villa like that, then he had the skills to do what he claimed.”

  “And yet…” Dinah frowned, thinking. “He tried to kill you today. Why didn’t he just kill you last night?”

  “I don’t know,” Sky said.

  “A better question is, why didn’t you tell me this morning?” Ceti said. “If I’d known he’d put a knife to your throat last night, we would have traveled with an armed guard today.” He ground his teeth.

  Sky shook her head. “It does not matter, not anymore.” She pointed to the map. “I told Tabor all I know about Makki’s fleet. He wrote it down on this map of his.”

  Ceti ignored the map. “You didn’t trust me,” Ceti said.

  If she had shredded his workshop and his aquila, Sky would have done less damage than she did by lying to him.

  “Ceti, pull your head into the present,” Dinah snapped. “I don’t care why she didn’t tell us sooner. We have to deal with what may happen next.”

  “It matters,” Ceti said. “If we’re going to be allies, we need to trust her.”

  “Trust was not the problem,” Sky said, not flinching from his temper.

  “You have no right to be angry with me,” he said.

  “I told you that I trust you. You don’t believe me.”

  “You lied to me,” he said.

  “Enough.” Dinah waved this away. “Do you trust me, Sky?”

  Sky nodded. “I owe you and Ceti and the other Romans a debt for saving my life and for rescuing Laughing Dog. And Tabor’s sacrifice seals that.”

  “I also owe a lifetime’s debt for what you did for me,” Laughing Dog said, speaking for the first time.

  “I don’t need a lifetime, Lenape. I need help right now,” Dinah said.

  “What do you need?” Sky asked.

  “Him.” Dinah stabbed a finger in the air at Laughing Dog. “I need all he knows about Ahala and Makki and their plans. I definitely need to know more of Ahala’s motives and if he’s ultimately working for the emperor or for Makki.”

  “How long will it take to obtain this knowledge from Laughing Dog?” Sky asked.

  “As long as it takes,” Dinah said.

  “But we must leave quickly,” Sky said, her voice rising. “Makki will hear of what’s happened and he’ll move to attack my village. They must be warned.”

  “You just said you wanted to help,” Ceti said. “Now you run off.”

  “I have an obligation,” Sky said flatly.

  “Stop.” Laughing Dog held up a hand. “Dinah is right. As much as I want to be home again…” He took a deep breath and his eyes filled with tears. “I must tell what I know before we go. It must be done. I owe these people.”

  “I understand,” Sky said. “You stay, Laughing Dog. I will go warn our people and then come back for you.”

  “No!” Laughing Dog dropped to his knees at Sky’s feet. “I won’t be left alone again.” He clutched Sky’s hands. “Please. Please don’t go, please wait for me. I can’t bear to be alone among Romans again.”

  Sky dropped her knees to face Laughing Dog and stared at him. Ceti held his breath.

  “I won’t leave you, my friend.” Sky hugged Laughing Dog tight.

  Ceti let out a deep breath, letting much of his anger go. How could he be angry with Sky for wanting to protect her people from what Laughing Dog had suffered?

  The boy was so broken. And he was not, by any means, the only Lenape taken by Roman slavers in the years since Manhatos had been founded.

  It was no wonder that Sky’s people wanted to let Romans kill each other.

  “It is afternoon now,” Dinah said in the silence. “It will likely take until nightfall to find out all I need.”

  Sky nodded. “Nightfall it is, then.” Laughing Dog continued to cling to her. “Perhaps it is just as well. It will provide better cover for our journey.”

  Mykle came out of the bedroom.

  “Tabor?” Dinah whispered.

  “Alive as yet,” Mykle said, his voice a raspy whisper, “but the wound is very grave. He’s asking for you, Gaius, and Breda. You must speak to him quickly. The medicus says he must give him some drug to put him to sleep before he repairs the injury.”

  “Gerhard left to get Gaius and Breda,” Dinah said to Mykle. She turned. “Laughing Dog, come with me. I will speak to Tabor and then we’ll talk in there while the medicus works.”

  The boy nodded and followed Dinah and Mykle back into the bedroom.

  It left Ceti alone with Sky for the first time since the attack.

  He took a deep breath. “Sky?”

  Chapter Twenty

  “I understand your anger,” Sky said. “I deceived you.”

  “And you would do it again,” Ceti answered.

  He did not know what else to say. He was torn between wanting to drop to his knees at her feet and plead with her to stay as Laughing Dog had done, and raging at her for not telling him the truth from the start.

  “Would you have done differently, if our situation had been reversed?” Sky asked. “Would you have disobeyed Tabor’s orders and endangered your people for me?”

  “I. Don’t. Know,” he said.

  They stared at each other for a long moment. Ceti broke first. “With Tabor...with Tabor the way he is, I must take more responsibility with the Legion. I have to go check on the watch commanders as they get ready for the night and I must check in with Godwin and the progress made on the trap.”

  The trap suggested by Sky.

  “I understand,” she said.

  “I will be back as night falls,” he said. “Will you wait for me?”

  She nodded. “If it was my choice, Ceti, I would wait as long as it takes for you to come to me. I will be here when you come back.”

  “Thank you,” he whispered. “The aquila is outside, set on the catapult. While I’m gone, you could see what it looks like intact. I repaired the frame.” He’d done so last night, when he couldn’t sleep. He doubted he’d sleep tonight either.

  “I will.”

  ****

  Her mother had often said leadership was like a curse. Sky had not understood at the time. To her, leadership seemed to be mainly doing what one wanted and getting others to do what you wanted as well.

  Now, she understood.

  Because what she most wanted right now was to spend the night collapsed in Ceti’s arms, comforted and soothed by him.

  After she made love to him.

  She opened the sliding door and stepped outside. It was early afternoon, the sun just beginning to dip in the sky. She hadn’t appreciated the view from Ceti’s hill on the way up with Laughing Dog, but now she could see it was the highest point in Manhatos.

  She turned, looking across the river in the direction of her village. Was her family being attacked, even now?

  Worthless speculation.


  She concentrated on the aquila. It was set on the catapult, which turned out to be a wooden device that looked very much like a monstrous bow, with ropes as replacement to the sinews of a man’s arms.

  She grinned at the image of Ceti strapped himself to the frame and being flung into the air like an arrow.

  She set her hand on the hollow wood of the frame, now whole, remembering how it had almost impaled her. Instead, it was the aquila’s builder that had impaled her, striking her through the heart.

  Her home was in danger. Ceti was in danger. And she had set this final confrontation in motion that would either see them dead or victorious.

  She touched the ripped portion of the wing. Ceti had apparently been sewing the edges back together for there was a needle and thread sitting still attached to the cloth.

  Sky picked up the needle. It was steel rather than the bone but otherwise it seemed the same. She ran her hands along the rip.

  It wouldn’t take at long at all to put the wing back together. She might be finished by nightfall. It was something useful to do while waiting.

  She set to work, hoping to preserve the lovely painting of the eagle’s wing on the cloth.

  As the sun began to set, she finished the work and tied off the string. She should go back inside and check on Tabor and Laughing Dog. In a moment.

  First, she sat down under the wings of the aquila and closed her eyes, letting the tiredness seep in. Perhaps it was an illusion but it felt safe and protected here, as if the aquila’s wings were an extension of Ceti himself.

  She might have dozed. Footsteps forced her to open her eyes just as Ceti knelt down next in front of her.

  “You do fine work, Sky,” he said.

  “It needed doing,” she said. “Tabor?”

  “Alive,” Ceti said with the ghost of a smile. “He’s always been hard to kill. The medicus is cautious, but pleased his patient survived so far.”

  He sat down next to her.

  “Do we have to go?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “Not yet. Dinah is still busy with Laughing Dog. She also said the dark of night would be the best time to ferry you and Laughing Dog across the river.”