by Nhys Glover
It was Asterius who gently tipped Talos on his side so I could look at the entry point. Typhon’s bloodstained tunic fell away revealing a similarly healed wound.
“You are getting very good at this,” Typhon commented dryly.
I gave him a tired smile. Relief washed over me at last. It was done. Talos would survive. I could sense his Life Force strong and vital inside him now.
With a deep sigh, I let go. Strong arms caught me as I knew they would. The bliss of oblivion claimed me.
When I awoke it was to find myself being carried in strong arms. I glanced up to see who it was, although I thought I knew. Asterius.
“Welcome back, little she-wolf. Good thing you are half-starved. Makes you easier to carry. The other two are not fairing so well with Talos, the big lump.” His jovial tone was forced and, as I stared at him, his smile faded.
“He’s all right, sweet girl. You saved him. Everything will be all right now, I promise.”
“I nearly killed him,” I croaked out. “It was my fault he nearly died. And Ramus... What of Ramus?”
“He’s fine too. Stop worrying. All is well. I’m taking you to Marcus’ villa. They will take care of you there.”
“Marcus? But he has gone...”
“His father will take you in. You know he will. Just rest. Here’s Ramus now! And Janus!” Asterius said before addressing the men I could not as yet see. “You have food?”
“Yes! Plenty! Mistress, you frightened us! Are you all right?” Ramus demanded.
I looked into his haggard face and saw the angry gash on his forehead. My fault. But at least he seemed no worse for it.
He handed me a chunk of fresh bread and I ate it hungrily. Had anything ever tasted so good? I doubted it.
“Is Talos conscious? Can he have some bread?” I asked.
“Not yet. Once we get him to Natalinus’ Villa we’ll get him something liquid and easy to digest. His gut won’t take anything solid,” Asterius said companionably.
“Of course, of course. I know that. I should have known that. I am the healer, after all,” I muttered under my breath.
“You are indeed. That was miraculous. I was sure he was going to die. The amount of blood that was pumping out of him... A miracle. I have seen you do some amazing things, my love, but that... that was beyond it all.”
I wondered at his loving words. Was he not worried that someone might hear him. Ramus and Janus at the very least.
“What concerns you now, love?” he asked gently.
“The way you are talking to me. Will people not notice?”
“Me calling a slave boy love? I imagine very few eyebrows will rise at that. Especially after everything that’s happened.”
“Ramus and...”
“They know. Do you think they wouldn’t guess, when we were tearing up the city searching for you? Of course they know. But they won’t say anything. They respect you too much.”
I grunted. “Respect me? I doubt it! They probably think I am a thoughtless, spoiled child who nearly got them killed.”
“No, they don’t. Now stop talking and rest, or I’ll put you down and make you walk.”
I grunted and closed my eyes, letting my head rest on his hard shoulder once more. He was the only pack-mate still wearing his tunic. I wished he was not and then chided myself for such thoughts when Talos was being carried behind me and I was as weak as a kitten.
I was incorrigible!
Chapter Twelve
ACCALIA
The next time I opened my eyes it was to find myself in a luxuriously appointed room. Candles glowed warmly from every corner, though I had no idea if it was day or night because there were no windows.
Looking around, I immediately noted Talos sprawled on a pallet on the floor. I scrambled off my bed and went to his side. With worried eyes, I took him in. His expression was calm and free of pain. His breathing was deep and slow. Sleeping. He was sleeping. This was not unconsciousness.
The door opened and Minerva bustled in. Her shocked gasp was as welcome as it was familiar.
“What are you doing down there, Little Mistress? Get back up in that bed. I only let those boys put this one in here to keep you in your bed. So, up you go. You can see well enough how he is faring from up there.”
I grudgingly did her bidding, to show my gratitude for having Talos placed close-by. Everyone knew me so well. The Wolf Pack knew I would need to keep an eye on my patient, and so did Minerva. Therefore, they brought him here. Wherever here was.
“Where are we?” I asked, once I was back in bed.
“The villa of Natalinus. He is not in residence, but the slaves here remembered you and Asterius and so were happy enough to give us beds.”
She plopped a tray down in front of me. I grabbed up the red grapes, desperate for their flesh as well as their cool juice. My stomach felt hollow.
“Has Talos been fed soup? He needs food to regain his strength,” I said as I chewed.
“He came around a little while ago. One of his brothers managed to get some Oxblood soup into him then. You always said that was good for blood loss.” Minerva looked red-faced and sweaty as usual, but she beamed with happiness and relief.
“Good. That’s good. Thank you. How are you? How are my uncle and his family?”
“I am quite well. When Janus came back up to the domus to tell us we needed to move, I packed up immediately. It took a little more convincing before your aunt did the same. But we came down the other side of Palatine into Campus Martius, and when that started to fill up they left the city.
“Ramus found us before they left and told us what happened. Janus and I came back to help look for you with the boys. Well, Ramus, Janus and that pack looked while I provided food and water for their search. I’m not sure where your uncle’s family went after that.”
At that moment, the door opened and three large bodies fought for control of the doorway. I beamed at my men and beckoned them in.
“You found fresh tunics and you took baths. Good to see,” I said with a laugh as I popped soft cheese into my mouth and then followed it down with a swallow of watered wine.
“You’re the one who needs a bath. You and Talos,” Typhon said with an answering grin.
“Well, all we had was a trickle of water, so cleanliness was not our principal concern, oddly enough” I answered sarcastically. “That happens when you’re buried alive.”
Typhon’s face became stark. Contrite for my insensitivity, I held out my hand to him. He rushed to my side and buried his head in my neck. The tray rocked unsteadily on my lap.
“Gods, I had given up. Five days. You were under there five days. We didn’t believe you could have survived. Only bloody-minded stubbornness kept us looking. Every time we found a burned body we lost a small part of our souls. Some corpses were so badly burned they were unrecognisable. We had to pray they weren’t you or Talos. That was all we could do, pray and keep looking.”
I kissed his blue black hair. “I am glad you did. Talos said you would.”
“I did,” came a deep, gravelled voice from the floor.
I flew out of bed and onto the floor, ignoring Minerva’s tutting and the overturned tray.
“Talos!” I cried, tears pouring down my face as I threw my arms around his neck.
He gave a pained little laugh and patted my back. “It’s all right, sweetling. I’m all right.”
“Now. You were as close to death as I ever want to see you when we pulled you out of there,” Orion said, crouching down on his other side to give his shoulder a friendly pat.
“How? How did we get out? How did we get here?” Talos asked, bemused.
After giving him a kiss on the cheek, I returned to my bed ready to share our experiences.
“I heard you cry out and climbed up to find you skewered by a large splinter of wood. I pushed my way through to the surface, poked out my hand and called for help. Luckily, the rest of the pack were there searching for us. How they knew to look there I do not know. But they
pulled us both out, and I healed your wound.”
Talos looked at me with wide eyes and then nodded. “You never cease to amaze me, little she-wolf. Never!”
“You boys need to remember where you are and who you’re speaking to,” Minerva interrupted brusquely. “No sweetlings or she-wolves. She is Mistress. Only Mistress.”
I groaned and looked to the open door. “Close that so we can have some privacy.”
“No, you will not do any such thing. Your endearments are bad enough, but these slaves being in their mistress’ bedchamber with the door closed. Absolutely not!” Minerva insisted, bobbing her head to highlight every word like a chicken pecking food.
“You’re here, Minerva. No one would ever think we’d step out of line with you here,” Asterius said with a charming grin on his too-handsome face.
Minerva softened a little before remembering she was guarding my reputation and scowled at him. “None of that, boy. You can’t get around me with that charm of yours. Men like you can’t be trusted. Too pretty for your own good.”
Orion gave Asterius a playful shove. “Got you pegged, pretty-boy.”
Asterius scowled and shoved back. Before an all-out brawl could start in the cramped space, I called Orion to me for a hug and then gave one to Asterius. I wanted to do more, but even those small signs of affection were too much to share with slaves. But Minerva looked the other way, probably knowing just how worried they had all been for me and Talos.
While Asterius continued to sit on my bed pinching grapes off my righted plate, the others sat on the floor near Talos. Minerva stood at the door supervising.
“So who goes first?” Orion asked. We all must have had the same idea. Catching up. We had questions that needed answers.
“I’ll go first,” I said around another grape. I saw Talos looking at me with hungry dark eyes and I tore off the largest section of the bunch and threw it down to him. He grinned and began following my lead, stuffing grapes into his mouth as if he had not eaten in days. Which was true enough.
“Ramus and I were making our way toward Campus Martius when I saw an insula burning, down one of the lanes. I stupidly insisted we go to see if we could help. I blame my lack of judgement on exhaustion. My brain was not working.
“Anyway, a child was still in the building, so I rushed in to save her. Ramus followed me, but got hit on the head at the front door. I went in alone and found the girl. She was already dead. I was sure I would be next, as I did not have the energy or the will to find my way out again. Then Talos appeared out of the smoke like an apparition. He had just grabbed me when the floor and ceiling collapsed.
“We fell into what must have been an old dwelling that had been covered over. There was a clay pipe sticking out of the wall and through it a trickle of water still ran, as well as plenty of cool, fresh air. Talos filled in the holes above us to keep out the smoke and we sat back to wait it out. There was no way to tell time. It was pitch black. But Talos had a little bread and we had plenty of water to drink, if not to bathe properly.” I threw a mock scowl Typhon’s way and he grinned back. “And so we did well enough until the food ran out. That is when we decided we had to try to find a way out.
“Talos had to stabilise every piece of wood he moved, which took a long time. We were both pretty weak by then. But then he must have lost his balance and fallen back onto that shaft of wood?”
I looked at Talos for confirmation. He simply nodded and gestured for me to go on.
“And as I knew I could do nothing for him where he was, I had to go for help. So I did. Your turn!” I finished in a rush.
“Why didn’t you try to get out earlier? The fire had burned through that spot days before,” Orion asked, more curious than suspicious or condemning.
I shrugged. “We did not know that. For us the world outside was an unknown. As I said, we had no sense of time passing. So how was it that you were there, just when we needed you?”
Asterius settled in to do the talking, as he was the best storyteller. “We were searching the Forum when Typhon came to tell us that you had been seen leaving for the field of Mars not long before our arrival and that Talos had already gone looking for you. We couldn’t find any sign of either of you.
“We kept looking until the fire drove us back to the field of Mars where we again started looking for anyone who had seen you two. No sign of you. We’d missed our dawn curfew, but we barely noticed. And as the fire started blowing our way, we knew the ludus was going to have to be evacuated anyway so we may as well keep looking.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered if it was or not, we weren’t stopping,” Typhon interrupted gruffly.
I smiled sadly at him. He’d lost weight, as had the others. But somehow he looked the worst for it, as if he’d aged decades in those few days. I was responsible for this too. Worry and lack of food had made a young man into an old one. I only hoped he’d recover.
“No, we weren’t,” Orion agreed. “We weren’t going to admit you two were dead, even to ourselves.”
Asterius resumed his story. “We came upon Minerva with your uncle’s family. Ramus had found his way back to them too. He’d been carried to safety, unconscious, by the same men who had pulled him away from the building when he hit his head. That’s when we found out what you’d done and approximately where you’d done it.” He scowled at me furiously, and I knew his sudden anger was to cover his fear.
“Once the fire had passed through that part of the city we went back, along with others who had lost their homes. Looters came too, looking for valuables. Ramus got us close, but his mind was fuzzy from the blow. It had become like a dream to him, with parts of what happened forgotten completely. Anyway, he, Janus and Minerva came with us as we tried to find you.
“We had no idea you were together. We thought Talos had somehow got caught in the fire somewhere else. And nothing looked the same, so we were working in the wrong places for most of the time. But then today, which is five days after the fire started, I heard you call and saw your hand. I thought.” He stopped speaking for a moment as he choked back tears. When he went on they still glistened in his brown eyes. “I thought I was imagining it at first. I thought I’d conjured you out of my own desperate need. Then I worried that it was someone else. We had found a few people still alive by that time.”
I wrapped an arm around his shoulder and drew him in close. “I am so sorry. We should have tried to get out sooner. We did not mean to worry you. We had no idea it was so long.”
Asterius shook his head. “No... No, it’s understandable. And who knows if you would have been able to get out without us there to lift the debris off you. The timing was perfect. And you’re both safe. That’s what’s important. It felt like every holy day wrapped into one when I realised it was really you and that Talos was with you.”
I kissed his cheek, ignoring Minerva’s fearsome scowls. After all we had been through, I was not about to maintain the line between my men and me for propriety’s sake. In all honesty, I did not care what people thought anymore. When you face death as we had done, and seen so much of it, the artificial walls we erected between people seemed insignificant. No, not insignificant, unacceptable.
As people worked to help each other, did any of them stop to enquire if their helper was a slave or if the person they were helping was a citizen? No! People became people, only people, when disasters struck, and the heroes and the cowards belonged to no particular caste.
“Where do we go from here?” I asked after the silence had lasted too long.
“We have no ludus to return to. There isn’t even an amphitheatre. Nero’s pride and joy was burned to the ground along with everything else. Someone will have to build a stone one next time,” Orion said companionably.
I nodded. “Then I suppose we should all go home. That will be where Pater will come looking for me. I imagine he will return as soon as word reaches him of this disaster. I wish I could get a missive to him to let him know I am safe. But his itinerary was
left behind. I assume it was left behind?” I looked at Minerva, who nodded.
“Home sounds very good,” Talos said, eyeing the slice of bread still on my tray. I passed it over with a grin. “You should not be eating solid food yet.”
“I’m fine. Don’t fuss, woman.”
Minerva gasped and began tutting at him. If he was not an injured man she would have slapped him for his insolence.
I laughed loud and hard until tears ran down my still-dirty cheeks. All was right in my world.
EPILOGUE
TALOS
“And then what happened?” a lad of about twelve demanded, his eyes wide and starry.
We had just been finishing up our private training session in the barracks yard when we discovered lads lining the walkway watching us. We’d called them in, knowing that our reputations had preceded us, and their curiosity needed to be quenched.
So while the group of lads surrounded us, we began answering their questions about what it was like to be the most famous gladiators in Rome to come out of the Master’s school. And in less than a year, too. We were every lad’s idols.
“Then Talos and I rolled our shields over the top of the men still standing, so we could get the advantage and finish them off. Those we didn’t mow down with that move were rattled and easily picked off. It was a glorious victory the emperor and the crowds appreciated.” Asterius finished with a dramatic wave of his hand.
The boys gasped. “And then the emperor called you by name as he threw you your gold? Is that right?” One dark-skinned lad asked shyly.
“That’s right. He said our names as he threw us each our gold. And the crowd went wild.”
The look of awe and amazement I saw on the faces around me discomforted me. I was no one’s hero. I could barely fight, even though it had been three weeks since my injury. My recovery was far slower than I wanted it to be, although my pack-mates insisted that the fact I could train at all, given how close to death I’d come, was quite amazing.
