Praetorian Rising

by J. McSpadden

  "I deserve to know what's going on," she said, her voice strong yet gentle as her hand slipped down his spine to rest on the lower curve of his back. Her touch was soft yet burned him to the core, sending his body into overdrive, and the emotion bubbled out of him in a fit of rage.

  "It's not fair to push me like this, Cam! There are some things I just can't tell you!"

  She did, of course, deserve to know. Theo wanted to tell her everything. Unfortunately, a web of lies surrounded her reasons for being at Romeo Village and Theo had no idea what he could say and what he shouldn't. Vesyon had warned him, she could break at any moment, just a single word could send her back into the manic craze of blood rage.

  "You think it was fair to keep me in Sierra Village for a full year without knowing who I was? What I was? I was abandoned there after seven years of being a prisoner to the High King. Not just by Vesyon but also by you."

  He whirled on her then, his frustration bursting past the limits of his restraints. The heat of black flooded his eyes and ran down the lengths of his cheeks. "I had no idea you were alive!"

  She snorted in response, not acknowledging his Praetorian reaction. "I don't believe that for a second. Talk, or I walk out of here, and you can handle this traitor on your own."

  Neeko hissed softly from the bed, his yellow gaze fixed on Camille's back. The sound caused both to jump, but not out of fear: it was as if Neeko were warning Theo to keep quiet. Theo didn't believe her, she wouldn't walk away from the compound and leave hundreds of Rogues and Asperians behind to suffer, nor would she allow Acher to run free of his traitorous actions. However, he wasn't so sure he knew her mindset now. It went without saying that she had surprised him with her efforts on more than one occasion.

  Theo grasped the wayward hair fanning over his brow and yanked it out of his face with a bloodstained hand as he turned to face her, avoiding the cat's stare. "Obviously, you aren't the reason they're here," he responded.

  "That's a start," she replied coolly, turning to pick up her discarded shoes from the corner of the room.

  She glanced up at him as she righted her leather coat with a flattened expression he had never seen directed at him before. It was unnerving. She stared at him as though he weren't just a stranger, but a man who had betrayed her. It sent an unwelcome chill down his spine, pooling in the pit of his stomach like a bucket of ice.

  Would Vesyon know if he told her everything he knew? Of course he would—Camille would be sure to make that fact known. Would he be able to live with himself if he kept the truth from her? That, he couldn't be confident of.

  "Do you know what your amulet's for?" he finally blurted out as she was tightening the laces of her shoes. He became increasingly aware of the time they were wasting, his foot tapping out a cadence of impatience against the wood floor.

  "What?" she said, standing to face him.

  "Praetorians aren't natural, Cam. You understand that, right? We were created by LeMarc's physician."

  She flinched at Theo's use of the High King's first name; he'd never said it so brazenly before in her presence. He silently wondered why it bothered her to hear it now.

  "Praetorians are created with an injection of Ephidra Lily serum that's been bonded with the Praetorian virus. Ephidra Lily is a carrier of whatever it's been infused with—it contains the virus, and then deposits and controls it within our systems. Once we go through the change from Asperian to Praetorian, our bodies are transformed inside: we're stronger, faster, and able to withstand almost all destructive forces. We can run longer, see and hear on a level perhaps only dogs and cats can, and can fight off the weakness Asperians are restrained by in basic everyday life. We heal in days, we can withstand hunger for months at a time if we must, and we no longer age. The key to our enhanced performance is the Praetorian virus, but we wouldn't be able to maintain cordial functionality without the restraints of Ephidra Lily."

  She screwed her face up as she listened, her brow creasing across her forehead and her eyes narrowing into tiny green slits of color. It was cute, and Theo wanted to touch the furrowed lines of her brow with his thumb to soften the skin back out. He felt desperate to give her a moment of ease and tenderness before the storm of chaos they were about to walk into, but he knew it wouldn't be well received. She was a ticking time bomb; ready to explode at any moment.

  He hated what she was going through and wasn't even sure he wanted to know what she had been through in the last eight years of her absence. Would he ever be able to smooth out the broad lines of worry, terror, and hopelessness he was sure had grooved heavy lines into her soul?

  "This," Theo said, picking up the silver amulet around his own neck, "is called a Blood Bond. It keeps the virus from fully taking over our bodies. The necklace is infused with Ephidra Lily, and we are unable to remove it, despite how hard we've tried when curiosity struck." A whisper of a smile moved across his lips, but he quickly stamped it down. He saw a flicker of understanding dance across her features; she must have tried to remove it recently without knowing the consequences. Why hadn't Vesyon told her what she was? Why hadn't Peter?

  "If we're separated from the Ephidra Lily," Theo continued, starting to pace the confined area of the room. "The virus will take control of our emotions. The black you've seen spreading just under our skin is the virus, pumping through our veins in moments of intense emotion. We're unable to stop its appearance, but the Ephidra Lily keeps us sane and allows us to maintain control when the virus enhances our physical abilities."

  "The black eyes—the ink beneath our skin? That's the virus?"

  "A visible aspect of it."

  "Okay," she said, exhaling. "I still don't see what this has to do with tonight."

  "I'm getting there," Theo said anxiously as well as with a sense of excitement. He was relieved to get something off his chest but also in a slight panic over the time they were wasting. "LeMarc is after Ephidra Lily. He hungers for it and is willing to do anything to get it—clearly since he's sent the royal fleet our way."

  He grabbed Camille by the shoulders then, intent on making his point clear without guiding her down a path of endless questions. "He can't get his hands on it, Camille. You must understand that above everything. Our freedom from his grasp, from his control, goes hand-in-hand with Ephidra Lily. We can't let him have it."

  Camille was starting to understand, as she nodded slowly in response her eyes never leaving his. "Where exactly is it?"

  "Vesyon orchestrated a leak about three months ago that we were storing some here in our underground vault. It took a while for the information to take hold, but several weeks ago we heard the King Regent was on his way to collect what we had with a handful of Equestrians. We assumed this invasion would be small and quietly contained."

  "Obviously you were misinformed."

  "Yeah," Theo snorted.

  Camille scrunched her eyes in thought as she watched Theo pace the length of the room. "What happens when he finds the Ephidra Lily?"

  "Oh, he won't," Theo said, stopping his march to regard her.

  "He won't? How can you be so sure?"

  "Well, to be honest, he can't," he replied with a wry grin. "We don't actually have any Ephidra Lily here; that was the whole point. We only needed to know when he was searching for it, and, now that we know, we will make our move to combat his efforts. The rebellion begins again tonight. The King Regent will arrive with an army, most of which will immediately infiltrate the compound. When he sends his troops down into the depths of the vault looking for the product, we're going to set off the fuses we've placed throughout the underground and blow the entire place to smithereens."

  Her mouth fell open in complete shock. "You're going to blow it up?! The entire compound? But...but you can't do that!"

  "Of course we can. And we will. Vesyon said we have two hours once the bell horn of the evacuation rang, and then we'll need to get out of here."

  Neeko appeared to nod in agreement, and Camille hurried to gather her belonging
s with shaky hands. "Then we need to go! Why didn't you tell me?!"

  Theo smiled with his hands out in front of him in a shrugging gesture. "I have been trying to tell you, Cam!"

  Her traveling bag was packed in minutes, bulging with the few personal items she owned. The three of them headed for the door, but just as Theo moved to open it her chilled fingers grasped his forearm with intensity. "Theo, what happens if there's no Ephidra Lily in our bodies? What happens if someone removes our Blood Bond?"

  "Well," he said, twisting the doorknob open, "we'd lose our ability to reason. The virus would take over our system, and there'd be no stopping us from whatever our goal might be. I've heard that our humanity would switch off—or, rather, we would have no way to control our ability to feel emotion."

  She nodded in understanding, a question bouncing around within the confined space of her mind. Her hand slipped over the silver metal piece hanging around her neck, but she remained silent as she stood next to Theo.

  "You tried removing it?" Theo asked, nodding to her amulet. She nodded, averting her emerald gaze. "There's only one person that can remove that necklace, Camille, and I assure you, he never would."

  "Who?"

  "Langhorn, your um, well he's the physician at White Wall," he said, stumbling through a response. She didn't remember Langhorn, by the confused expression on her face. Vesyon had been clear about what to say to Camille: don't mention a single detail about her past, her previous life, her family, or her friends. She needs to find out who we are as she meets us. Find out where she lived and where she has been as she arrives there.

  It didn't make much sense to Theo. The secrecy and denial of information drove him wholly nuts, but he didn't want to be responsible for a severe mental breakdown on Camille's part. What if he told her one detail too much and she couldn't handle it? Would Charlie Town happen all over again?

  The last thing he wanted was to be the one responsible for her breaking, no matter the cost. She'd lost hold of herself before. He'd rather die than lose her to the darkness again.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The Vault

  Not for the first time in the last moon cycle, Camille's head hurt from the amount of information she was trying to shove into it. Metus had warned her about Vesyon's lies, and there were many—why she'd had to leave Sierra Village and come to Romeo Village had both been cloaked in half-truths and omissions. But had Vesyon also known her breakdown in Charlie Town had stemmed from the Blood Bond's removal? There was no doubt in her mind that it had been the cause; she felt the truth of it straight down to her bones. She couldn't have been the only one to think this though. If Vesyon knew the truth, why hadn't he told her that instead of calling it an episode of blood rage?

  Unfortunately, her memories from that day in Charlie Town came in short, clipped images, and there was no way to remember whether she'd been wearing her medallion or not. Despite everything, Camille clung to two simple truths burrowed deep within her consciousness: Metus and the High King had spent seven years after the massacre in Charlie Town torturing her, while Vesyon had come to her rescue. That's what mattered when it came to where her loyalties would lie.

  Then there was Theo: where did her loyalties lie when it came to him? It was apparent he was still hiding information, but she couldn't be sure what. Did she trust him to tell her what she needed to know? Yes, she thought, glancing up at him as they walked down the deserted hallway. His gait was quick, purposeful, and confident, and yet she could see the gentleness as clearly as she could see his strength. There was a stern determination set in the hard lines of his shoulders; he wouldn't abandon her and yet he wouldn't give up on what he and Vesyon had started.

  When it came to honesty, however, she could read the lies bubbling up on his face. He hadn't told her the whole truth yet, but he would. She just needed to push him a little harder, like coaxing a nut out of its shell; she just needed to find the best way to crack him without breaking apart the goods hiding within.

  "Are you okay?" Theo prodded gently as they descended an emergency stairwell, Neeko keeping paced beside her. Their boots thudded softly against the cement steps as they moved around a floor platform before descending farther still.

  "I'm fine," Camille responded mechanically.

  "No need to hold back your thoughts, Cam," Theo said, pulling her from a stair landing into a narrow hall. "I did just tell you our surroundings will be on fire in a few hours."

  The narrow hall was lit by stand-alone swinging bulbs, their shadows a mirage of dancing figures bouncing along the stone walls as they moved. It was becoming more difficult to breathe as the walls closed in around them, the air pressing down on her lungs the further they burrowed into the depths of the compound.

  "You can start by telling me what the point of us being down here is when the entirety of your defense is topside fighting the incoming attack."

  He missed a step trying to process her request. His right foot forgot to move, causing him to shuffle before regaining his composure.

  "I think you know very well why we're down here," he said in a muffled reply.

  "Of course I do," Camille snapped back without restraint. "Vesyon asked you to take me down here, and you listened to him. We should be up there fighting alongside the Rogues, not down here hiding from everyone."

  The moment the words flew from her mouth, she slammed into Theo's back, his entire body having jerked to a complete stop.

  "Ouch," Camille said, reflexively reaching up to her stinging nose to feel for any oozing drip of blood.

  "Sorry," Theo said in a hushed whisper.

  "It's ok, I know you didn't mean to..." Camille said, but stopped speaking as Theo's fingertip brushed the end of her nose.

  "Are you bleeding?"

  "No," Camille replied, her voice sounding small even to herself. Blood rushed thickly in her ears, pounding out a cadence of Praetorian adrenaline. "But even if I were, I doubt it will be the last of it tonight." She tried for a laugh, but the sound came in out a strangled croak.

  "He wasn't supposed to collect you until after the invasion, when we were on our way to White Wall. That had been the order," he said softly. "For some reason, Vesyon brought you here after the Chimera attack instead of sending you to White Wall as planned."

  He seemed almost as surprised as she was at his sudden explanation. "We should uh…keep moving," Theo said quickly before he grabbed for her hand in the looming dark and continued down the stone hall. They turned left and then right at forks in their path, an unending trail of stone, dim light, and a musty stench of stale air.

  "Since I am here," Camille chirped up in the silence of their dizzying walk, "perhaps you can enlighten me on a few things."

  Theo sighed and shrugged as though resigned to the realization that keeping her in the dark of what was to come was utterly ludicrous. "Sure, what do you want to know?" Neeko meowed somewhere around their feet, his tone one of warning, but Theo ignored it and continued to move.

  "What's the Royal Air Fleet?" Camille asked. It would be easier to get answers out of him if she kept it to their present situation and surroundings.

  "The High King built a fleet of ships to fly from one village to the next. They're exactly what you'd imagine: huge ships with billowing white sails and wooden decks, but instead of floating on water—they fly."

  "I'm sorry—they fly? Like a bird?" Camille said, her jaw dropping wide open. It wasn't what she had been expecting, having never seen anyone from the High Court outside of Grenswald and his decrepit wagon of appropriated goods.

  Theo glanced back at her, his brows raised. "You've been in one before, an Asperian Transport Ship. Yes, they fly, but less like a bird and more like a swiftly moving cloud."

  "I've been in one before?" She scrunched her nose in thought but couldn't bring a single memory to the surface.

  "Yeah," Theo said, his voice tight with a hint of exasperation. "An A.T.S. They are cargo ships that move from one village to the next. They aren't for ever
yday Asperians though. At one point before the exile, only Praetorians and those of the High Court could use them."

  Neeko kept pace behind them, a silent lookout for any danger they might walk into. The cat seemed complacent with her questions, making her want to push for more information. Despite the air of undisturbed surroundings, Camille kept her voice intentionally low, only loud enough for Theo to hear. "How many soldiers can they hold?"

  "No idea, I've never seen his Royal Air Fleet, only a few passenger ships the high court sent out to collect goods or make a trade. These ships are built for war and complete destruction from what Vesyon told me—it'll be a feat if the compound survives long enough to allow us the honor of blowing it up. They may just get to it first."

  Theo descended a narrow staircase straight down into a dark stone tunnel where they stood almost shoulder-to-shoulder in the pitch black. It was eerily quiet as they crept through the narrow passage, their feet a whisper of sound against the stone walkway. Camille gripped her dagger loosely in one hand, resting her other on the hilt of her sword. Theo seemed to be in the same frame of mind, as he was wielding a menacing curved dagger. They would smell Acher, possibly even hear him before they saw him, but they could never be too careful in the heavy press of darkness surrounding them.

  Pushing their way through a sagging wooden door, they were entrenched in the past. "You think Acher's down here?" Camille asked incredulously, closing in behind Theo as they stood at the neck of a high-ceilinged hall.

  "Not here, no. This back entrance to the vault moves through the old sanctuary quarters. I think Acher is in the greenhouse. He would've come through the front entrance."