Talos_An Ancient Roman Reverse Harem Romance

by Nhys Glover

  “Rest? Where?” I demanded urgently.

  The gruff priest pointed over to a quiet corner of the temple alcove. There was no one there who looked like my she-wolf. Nevertheless, I made my way over to the spot and looked around more closely.

  “You see where the boy who was resting here went?” I asked a woman with a bandaged arm that looked like it might have been Accalia’s work.

  “The healer you mean? He was sleeping there for a while, but then his man got him to leave not long ago. Said they had to get out before the Forum was sealed off.”

  I let out a frustrated sigh. Had we passed her on the way in? I wouldn’t have thought so. Our eyes had been focused on picking her out of any crowd.

  Where then? I trotted back toward the road in from Campus Martius. On the way I caught up with Typhon and told him what I’d learned.

  “Will you tell the others? I’m going to backtrack and see where she might have taken a side street. We didn’t pass her, that’s for sure.”

  “I’ll come with you...” Typhon said, impatient to be on her trail.

  “I’ve got this. The others need to know. Follow me. I’ll come back to tell you what I find out,” I told him firmly.

  I didn’t want a pissing contest with the volatile Typhon. Hr tended to see Accalia as his more than ours at times.

  He grunted his agreement before jogging off to find the others. I headed back down the street that was now the only way in or out of the Forum.

  There were several lanes off the main thoroughfare, but I couldn’t believe Accalia would have taken one of these. Not unless she saw someone in trouble. I slowed at each intersection and looked down the lanes, searching for the first signs of fire or some other calamity our little she-wolf would have felt drawn to.

  At the far end of one lane I saw smoke billowing from an insula. Only a few people were heading this way, so I was able to speed up to reach it. By the time I got there I saw a fallen man, and several more people standing staring up at the burning building, which looked ready to collapse.

  “You should have stopped him,” a woman was crying. “He’s dead like her now!”

  “Who’re you talking about? What happened?” I demanded urgently, already sensing that the ‘him’ was my she-wolf.

  “We got out just in time but then this woman realised her daughter wasn’t with her,” an old man said sadly. “She started screaming and trying to go back in. But it was too dangerous, so we held her back. A boy took off in there, though. That man tried to stop him,” he pointed at the unconscious figure who looked like a retired gladiator to me. My heart ached in my chest. “But a beam caught him as it fell. We dragged him out, but the boy’s still in there. He’s dead. He can’t survive in there now.”

  The idea that Accalia was dead was more than I could stand. I was running before I even realised what I was about. Half the doorway had collapsed. This must have been what took out Accalia’s guard. I ducked under the fallen beam and headed into the house.

  “Accalia!” I yelled. A coughing fit hit me as smoke invaded my lungs. My eyes were watering and stinging so badly I could barely see. Yet I found the air to call out again.

  “Accalia!”

  A loud crash came from the back of the dwelling. The upper floors were coming down. The place was already a burning mess of fallen beams and plaster, but it was going to get worse fast. Nevertheless, I kept moving deeper into the ruin, determined to find her. She couldn’t be dead! I wouldn’t let her be dead!

  A sound like a human cry lifted my heart. I turned in the direction I thought it came from. The billowing, black smoke was so thick it made seeing far impossible, even if my watering eyes would have allowed it.

  The sound came again.

  I climbed and scrambled over the fallen wood and rubble in my path until I made out a human-shaped shadow, not six feet away, bent over something on the floor.

  I moved faster, not caring about the risks. This place wouldn’t stay standing much longer. Already the floorboards under my feet were warping and cracking. It surprised me a little that the lowest storey would have wood rather than stone flooring.

  Coughing and calling out, I scrambled toward the shadow that began to morph into familiar lines. My heart was in my throat when I finally reached Accalia’s side. Filthy, bedraggled and rail thin, she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

  “Accalia, thank the gods! We have to get out of here!” I cried.

  She looked up at me, tears pouring down her filthy cheeks. “I was trying to get her out. But... But I think it’s too late. I think she’s dead.”

  I leaned over what I now saw was a child of about eight or nine. I pressed fingers to her throat and found no pulse. Eyes stared glassily up at me.

  “Yes, she’s gone. We have to go...”

  I drew her to her feet just as I felt the floor beneath me quake.

  At the same moment the roof above came crashing down towards us, the floorboards gave way under us. I wrapped my arms around the woman I loved for the first and maybe the last time as we began to fall. My last thought as all went dark, and I knew no more, was that I had found her. I could die happy.

  Chapter Eight

  ACCALIA

  Why had I been so stubborn? Ramus had tried to convince me to stay on the main thoroughfare that would lead us into Campus Martius, but when I collided with a woman screaming that a house was coming down, I had to turn in that direction to see if I could help. Gods, I could barely keep my feet under me, but I had been so determined to help!

  I blamed it on my exhaustion. I was not thinking straight anymore. I could tell that was what Ramus thought but, as always, he followed me. We had to fight our way against the oncoming crowd escaping the building. When we got to the end of the lane a woman was screaming that her daughter was still inside. A man was trying to stop her running back in after her.

  No one was stopping me, though, so I took off for the burning building. Stupid, stupid girl!

  Ramus came after me, and just as I passed through the front doorway it collapsed, hitting Ramus on the head. He went down! I turned to go back to him, but several men had come forward to drag him away, so I turned back to look for the child.

  It was hopeless. The smoke was so thick I could barely see a few feet in front of me. It filled my lungs and stung my eyes. My stomach roiled. Putting one foot in front of another became harder and harder.

  Just as I was about to turn back and admit defeat, I thought I heard a weeping child. I followed the sound and found her lying on the ground. I must have been mistaken, because she was already still as death. How could a dead child weep? I felt for her pulse and found none.

  Defeat and weariness overcame me. I had no energy left to find my way out. This was the end for me. I would never see my beloved pack again. If I had one real regret in my life it was not being able to remain at their side. Being apart from them for all these long months had been impossibly hard. I missed them every day. I ached for them every night. Maybe my foolish attempt to save people from the fire had really been a way to end the misery. I did not know. But in that moment my exhausted brain told me that all was well. I did not need to struggle anymore.

  I heard it then. A call. It sounded like a man calling my name. But I had been wrong about the weeping child, I was likely wrong about the man. Especially as it was not Ennia he called for but Accalia.

  Wishful thinking. It was just wishful thinking! I wanted to see my pack so much I was imagining hearing one of them calling to me. But, regardless, I yelled back, hoping that if someone was coming for me, they would hear my cry.

  The call came again. I was almost positive the man called for Accalia. My spirits rose. I called out again. Turning back to the girl, I checked once more for a pulse. Nothing. She was gone. I had raced to my death to save a dead girl.

  “Accalia, thank the gods! We have to get out of here!” cried a big, dark-skinned man I recognised immediately through my blurry vision as Talos.

  Gods
, could it be real? Could he be real? What was he doing here? How had he found me? Maybe he was simply a figment of my imagination. I wanted so desperately to see my pack one more time before I died that I had conjured him out of smoke.

  Tears poured down my cheeks. My throat felt raw and painful as I croaked, “I was trying to get her out. But... But I think it’s too late. I think she’s dead.”

  Talos leaned over and pressed fingers to the child’s throat “Yes, she’s gone. We have to go...”

  I wanted to obey him. I wanted to get out of there. But my legs wouldn’t hold me up. Talos drew me to my feet just as the floor shifted beneath us. I thought I might have been losing consciousness but, in the next moment, I felt the floor collapse under us.

  Gods, I’d killed us both! That was my last tortured thought as Talos’ big arms enclosed me and we fell into darkness.

  When I awoke it was to find Talos’ big body pressing me down into the surprisingly damp ground. It took only moments to realise what had happened, to remember what I had done to bring this about.

  Was Talos dead? I feverishly reached up to press my fingers to the pulse point on his muscular neck. I was relieved to feel it strumming steadily beneath my fingertips. Alive! He was alive! And so was I.

  But not for long, if I could not get him off me. His dead weight was pressing down on my chest and making drawing air into my lungs next to impossible.

  I shifted so I could use my elbows to lever him off me. Nothing happened. At the very moment I gave in, Talos groaned his return to consciousness and refuelled my resolve.

  “Can you move?” I gasped out.

  He mumbled something and began to shift his weight a little. Just enough so I could draw air into my lungs. Surprisingly fresh, cool air. How was that possible?

  With a loud groan, Talos began to move again, this time taking wood and debris with him as he fell to my side. That debris must have fallen on him. Had his broad, strong back not been there to protect me, it would likely have killed me.

  For a few more minutes we lay panting, trying to recover our strength. I needed to see if we were injured. I needed to see if either of us had broken any bones during the fall.

  I knew well enough that shock could make a person unaware of even the most deadly injuries in the heat of the moment. Talos or I might have a shaft of wood sticking out of our body right now and not know about it.

  I turned on my side to try to see him in the shadowy darkness. At least my vision had cleared and my eyes no longer stung. The only light came from above where the fire blazed brightly. The noise of it was terrifying.

  But I kept my panic under control by beginning to work my way over every inch of Talos’ big body with my palms and finger tips.

  The sheer size of him was intimidating, but feeling huge muscles bunching as I touched them sent my pulse racing for reasons that had nothing to do with intimidation. His skin was remarkably smooth and soft over the rock-hard flesh beneath. And he was hot, not just from the fire and the day, but from his own inner furnace.

  I had explored Asterius’ body many times, and the memory sent my senses reeling. Talos was bigger that Asterius in every way and unfamiliar. But just as beloved, I realised with a start.

  “Do you know how often I’ve dreamed of you doing just what you’re doing now? They say you should be careful what you wish for...” His voice was croaky, but his tone was light. He could not be too badly hurt if he was making jokes.

  “I’m checking you over for injuries. How far did we fall?” I said with mock sternness.

  He chuckled and turned to squint up into the firelit darkness above. “Ten feet maybe. It’ll be amazing if we didn’t break anything.”

  Finishing my check-up, I sat back to begin checking myself over. Although the fact that I had been able to lean and twist to reach the farthest parts of his big body was enough indication that I had suffered nothing more than a few bruises.

  As I started feeling my arms, Talos gently knocked my hand away. “Fair’s fair, it’s my turn.”

  Holding my breath, I let him feel his way over my body. If I had felt excitement building when I touched him, it was nothing to what I felt as his fingers slid over my skin. Every inch of me came alive as all pain evaporated. Breathless need flooded me, threatened to burn me up as effectively as the fire above devoured the building.

  By the time he was finished his slow exploration we were both panting. Talos’ touch had become shaky towards the end and I knew its source. He wanted me, and he was trying hard to tamp down his desire.

  “You seem... uninjured. How do you feel?” he choked out as he reluctantly removed his hand from my calf.

  “Fine. Surprisingly fine. The smoke is starting to get down here though,” I said on a cough, to distract us both.

  He sniffed and tipped his head to the side. Or that’s what he seemed to do. I could only see the suggestion of his movements in the darkness.

  “There’s fresh air down here. A cool breeze.”

  Scrambling to his hands and knees, he began crawling around our small, crowded domain. I heard him crunch and scrape his way around the perimeter before he settled back down at my side again.

  “There’s a broken pipe over there with cool air and water trickling out of it. I remember from my studies that Romans have always built over their old dwellings rather than clearing the debris away. I think this must be what was left from a much older house. There’s an earthen floor under us, and stone walls around us.”

  “Is the water drinkable?” I was so thirsty I wasn’t sure I cared if it was or wasn’t. I would drink it anyway.

  “Come and see,” he said, beginning his journey back to the other side of the small room. “I’m going to try to fill in the holes above us to stop the smoke getting down here. We might just survive this if the fire moves on fast enough. But the smoke’ll kill us if I don’t seal us in.”

  I scrambled to my feet, unwilling to risk my bare knees on the sharp surfaces, and made my way gingerly over to where Talos waited at the far wall. Splintered planks and sharp rubble had fallen in with us and this was what made moving around so hazardous.

  The room was a ten foot cube, I decided, although the floorboards that collapsed under us had intruded on the height, making an inverted V-shaped ceiling. The open point of the V, where we had been standing when the floor gave way, seemed no more than six feet above us now.

  Beyond the floorboard roof, it appeared as if the whole building had collapsed on top of our hole. Yet, by some miracle, remarkably little had fallen into the underground room with us.

  The closer to the clay pipe I came, the cooler and fresher the air felt. I drew in a deep lungful of the sweet stuff, holding back my tears of relief. We were not going to suffocate. At least we would not die that way.

  This close, I could hear the soft trickling sound of water. Reaching out, I felt for the pipe and then for the water. It was blissfully cool against my skin. I washed my hands in it first and then brought some to my nose to smell. There was no foul odour. No odour at all but an earthy scent I associated with the woods near home. Tentatively, I licked at the liquid, afraid of what I might be ingesting. This water could come from anywhere: a midden heap, a cesspool, or the Tiber itself, which was anything but clean.

  But it was tasteless, even sweet, and I felt my heart lift a little in hope. Maybe it came from an underground spring. Maybe in the past it had been above ground, or filled a well. Whatever its source, as far as I could tell the water was drinkable. And I drank.

  But I soon realised I needed a more useful receptacle than my cupped hands. I had the empty flask in my bag.

  My bag! Where was my bag?! I crept back over to the place we had landed and began feeling around for my leather bag. Relieved, my fingers closed around it fairly quickly. It had fallen off my shoulder but then fallen with me into our safe haven.

  “Well?” Talos said, from somewhere above me. I could just make out the small cracks of light being filled in one at a time. />
  “The water seems good. Only time will tell, of course. But it’s worth the risk. We finished the last of my flask late afternoon and I was very thirsty. You?”

  “I’m good. We ate and drank before we came looking for you.”

  That surprised me. “You all came? Where are the others? How did you get away from the ludus?”

  Talos laughed and then coughed. When he recovered he answered my excited questions. “Yes, we all came. The others were searching for you in the Forum, but I was told you’d left and were heading for the Campus Martius. But, as we hadn’t passed you on the way in, I knew you had to be down some side lane trying to get yourself killed. Seems I was right.” He coughed again. One more pinprick of light disappeared.

  “When word reached us of the fire I wanted to come check on you, but the lanista wouldn’t let me. Although he did send a messenger up to your uncles’ place. We only got word of what you were doing about sunset. That’s when we forced the little bastard to let us come look for you.”

  I did not like the sound of that. What kind of force? Had they made trouble for themselves because of me? I already had Ramus on my conscience. How was he? Did he survive the blow to his head?

  “How?” I managed to get out through a suddenly constricted throat.

  “How did we force him? Not by violence, if that’s what you’re worried about. We just reminded him that if anything happened to you, and the Master found out he’d stopped us from going to your rescue, your father would pull all his gladiators out of the ludus. That was a convincing argument. We have until dawn to return.”

  My heart sank. Dawn? Would this building be free of fire by then? How long had we been unconscious? It was impossible to tell whether it was night or day from where we were.

  “Will the others go back, do you think? When they cannot find us, will they go back?” I asked in a small voice.

  “They won’t stop looking for you... and me... until they find us. If that makes us all runaways, then so be it.” His voice was hard, like the muscles in his arms and chest. It said far more than his words could. They would die before they gave up. They would all die for me.