Rune Warrior

by Frank Morin

  “You cannot conceal yourself from me, daughter of the gorgons.”

  “Concealing was never my intention.”

  And thus I bequeath my promised gift.

  Eirene unfastened her crimson robe and let it fall. Beneath it, she wore only a leather halter-top and skirt. The outfit left her midriff, arms and legs bare. The silvery runes inscribed on her flesh glowed bright in the dim light.

  The sight of his beloved always drove Spartacus to impetuous fury. “You have dishonored her too long!”

  He charged, spear raised to deliver the killing blow.

  Eirene removed her mask and loosened her hold on Iltea’s soulmask.

  “Spartacus, my love!”

  His assault faltered and he stumbled to a halt just out of reach. His spear fell to his side and he gazed with incredulous joy at the face of his beloved.

  “Can it be?”

  He took a faltering step forward.

  “I’ve missed you!” Iltea cried. Eirene allowed Iltea to rush them forward and embrace her long-separated husband. He wrapped them in his arms and kissed her fiercely.

  That was the worst part.

  Although his lips didn’t really touch hers, Eirene still felt the pressure of them on Iltea’s, felt the woman’s rising passion burning against her soul.

  I told you I’d reunite you. She sent the thought to Iltea, then seized control again.

  Their body convulsed and Spartacus drew back just enough for Eirene to grab his face while embracing her nevra core.

  She ejected Iltea’s soulmask. Since they shared the same body, ejecting it took only a fraction of her focus. The flesh of her face flowed back, allowing it to slip free. Spartacus gaped and grabbed for it as it began to fall. The rainbow mist of her soulmask caressed his powerful hands.

  Eirene dug into the skin under his jaw with hands burning with the purple fire of her nevron. She had realized in the final years leading up to the fall of Rome this one way to defeat Spartacus. It had taken a long time to orchestrate the perfect moment.

  Some things were worth the wait.

  “Together you will greet the eternities.”

  She drove her nevron into his soul. His eyes widened in terror, but she owned him now.

  Then for the first time, she didn’t.

  Instead of extracting his soulmask as she had hundreds of times before, something blocked the soul strength of Eirene’s nevron. The invisible force formed a protective barrier around his soul.

  Spartacus snarled and lifted Eirene off the ground with one hand. His enhanced strength was terrifying. With his other hand, he held aloft his wife’s soulmask. It was glowing like quicksilver.

  Eirene gasped. He was using the life force of his beloved to fuel a new rune, one with the power to hold Eirene at bay.

  “Thus do we, united, take our revenge!”

  He dropped Iltea’s soulmask and, even as the protective barrier around his soul began to fade, he drove a dagger up through Eirene’s jaw. Pain exploded through her as Spartacus sawed with the dagger, severing her face from Iltea’s body.

  She couldn’t stop him.

  He thrust his face close to hers. “Your world is about to end.”

  Eirene snapped awake as she tumbled out of bed, hands burning with purple fire. The cool night air of her own room in modern-day Rome caressed her sweat-soaked skin. It took several gasping breaths to calm her racing heart.

  She sagged back onto the bed and fingered her jaw where the dream knife had driven into her skull. Nothing like that had ever happened before.

  On the other side of the bed, Gregorios was sitting up and wiping sleep-rimmed eyes. “You all right, love?”

  “I’m not sure. I had a new nightmare.”

  That woke him up. “What happened?”

  “Spartacus.”

  He grimaced. “I hate that man.”

  She spread her hands and shrugged. “Nightmare, remember?”

  “Thinking about him is going to ruin my day.”

  She flopped onto her face to allow him to massage her back. Her knotted muscles slowly released under his practiced touch. Then he slid his hands further and her lingering worry from the nightmare faded to new emotion.

  She rolled over and pulled him down for a passionate kiss.

  She gave him that special smile a minute later. “Let’s think about something else, shall we?”

  Gregorios grinned, and she decided to forget about the strange dream.

  After all, it was just a nightmare.

  Chapter Four

  The soul is the captain and ruler of the life of mortals.

  ~Sallust, Roman historian, 40 BC

  This is great,” Sarah gushed as she exited a cramped taxi and joined Tomas on the curb.

  On the far side of a wide plaza filled with picture-snapping tourists reared the Colosseum. The ancient ruin still awed with its sheer size and lingering hints of former glory.

  Tomas chuckled as he paid the driver then took her hand. “You never get tired of it, do you?”

  “Are you kidding? I’d visit every day if I could.”

  She had taken the Colosseum tour three times, and every time she learned something new. The sense of history hung over the ancient structure so thick she could taste it.

  She decided it would taste like gelato.

  “Well I’m glad we could combine work and pleasure,” Tomas said.

  That was a nice way to remind her to focus. She kept her smile on her lips and a little bounce in her step, but began to scan the plaza like he had taught her. Before they crossed half the huge expanse, she had already picked out most of Tomas’ team, and their mark.

  The suspected heka was a woman of average height who blended in with her Mediterranean good looks. She wore cotton slacks, and a light jacket that hid any telltale runes and concealed any potential weapons.

  The enforcers were surprisingly easy to spot. None of them had been clever enough to bring along girlfriends, and they really should have. Not that they were overt in any major way, but she was learning what to look for. They were dressed like rather conservative tourists, with closed camera cases that did not hold cameras. They moved independently through the crowds, converging on the Colosseum. The problem was that a bunch of young, buff, good-looking guys wandering the square alone drew the eye.

  She worried the mark would spot them as easily as she had. Sarah had to admit Tomas looked like a captain. Simple tourist clothes failed to conceal his broad shoulders and well-muscled torso, and the two of them drew more than a few admiring stares. She had dressed simply in Capri slacks and a blue cotton blouse, but she had not been a top-ten model for nothing.

  The mark didn’t change pace or direction, but joined the crowd pouring into the Colosseum’s many entrances. The intel on her was supposed to be pretty solid. Tomas and his team had been trailing her for the past couple of days, and had planned to capture her at a more remote location. When she’d headed for the Colosseum instead, Tomas had decided to close in, despite the risk of a confrontation.

  “She doesn’t look like she’s running,” Sarah commented.

  “We can’t lose her,” Tomas replied.

  Three weeks ago, they had defeated Mai Luan in a terrifying memory battle in the secret lower levels of Hitler’s World War Two Berlin bunker. Since then, they had not apprehended any of the Cui Dashi’s escaped team. The bomb that had destroyed part of the secret facetaker headquarters building and killed several of the aged council members had facilitated the heka team’s escape.

  Pressure was growing to run the heka to ground. There were unanswered questions about Mai Luan’s activities, and worry that surviving members of her team might possess dangerous information. Tomas wouldn’t normally risk a run-in with police, but they needed this capture. They didn’t have any other good leads.

  Sarah didn’t like referring to the nameless woman as ‘the mark’. It was too impersonal. She decided to think of her as Rosetta, after an infamous female mob boss.

>   Sarah and Tomas entered the Colosseum about a hundred feet behind Rosetta, with the rest of the team trailing, spread throughout the crowd. Most of the eight-man team would remain positioned near the various entrances in case Rosetta lost them and tried to escape. One of the two enforcers flanking Tomas and Sarah was Anaru, the hulking Maori who served as Tomas’ scowling second.

  Sarah patted the small can of mace in one of her pockets. It was more a feel-good weapon than anything. All of the enforcers carried dart pistols powered by quiet compressed air that delivered fast-acting sleep drugs. Undoubtedly they all carried traditional firearms too, but if Rosetta was as enhanced as they suspected, normal bullets would not easily stop her. The plan was to drug her and whisk her away before the effects wore off. A second team of enforcers, dressed like paramedics, was standing by.

  For a tense minute, they lost sight of Rosetta in the press. The Colosseum was one of the most famous landmarks in Rome and eager tourists packed the plaza and crowded the entrances. The chorus of voices was a constant din, a melody of many tongues, making a counterpoint to the sing-song speech of the many Italian tour guides. The air in the packed passages smelled of clashing colognes and perfumes, overlaid upon the scent of old stone and sweat.

  Tomas was just starting to issue orders to his dispersed team through their tiny, radio ear pieces when Sarah grabbed his arm. Rosetta had slipped through the crowd and stood at the rail of the observation platform on the western side of the inner arena, overlooking the ruins of the lower levels. That was Sarah’s favorite place to stand and imagine what the amphitheater must have looked like all those centuries ago.

  She had not yet visited the Colosseum in its heyday, but it was on her to-do list.

  “We have her cornered,” Tomas said softly as he and Sarah closed on Rosetta, who was staring out at the ruin like any other tourist. “Moving in for first contact.”

  Sarah’s pulse increased as they drew near. The few times she had faced Mai Luan or one of the heka with their enhancement runes had all been terrifying. The last few weeks of heavy training with Tomas and Alter had given her a solid foundation of close combat skills, while her own unique enhancement rune provided another edge. It increased her strength, speed, and reflexes, among other things, to the point where she could nearly hold her own against her far stronger and more experienced sparring partners. It didn’t help as much as she had hoped.

  As her tension mounted, Sarah slipped a hand into her pocket and fingered the ancient Spanish silver piece of eight that Eirene had gifted to her. The pirate silver, a relic of the swashbuckling life Eirene spent sailing the Caribbean, had become a good luck charm for Sarah and helped center her mind for the upcoming action.

  Tomas eased a hand into his camera case and moved into position just a few feet behind Rosetta. He would fire the dart through the specially designed outer shell of the case once he got around one final fat French lady. When Rosetta collapsed, they would call the paramedics and be gone before anyone realized the truth.

  Everything was falling perfectly into place.

  That should have tipped her off.

  Rosetta turned and looked Tomas right in the eye.

  Sarah’s heart nearly stopped. Rosetta had known they were there. Had she been planning a trap of her own? Sarah had seen enhanced heka charge through a hail of bullets and still attack with terrifying strength. Rosetta could turn the quiet platform full of unsuspecting tourists into a deadly battleground.

  She did not.

  She leaped over the rail.

  Tomas lunged to catch her, but missed by a fraction of an inch. Tourists around them cried out in alarm, and everyone rushed to the rail to see the woman fall.

  Rosetta was already running. She headed left, between a pair of ancient, crumbling walls that curved away and provided cover if Tomas or his team decided to fire down on her.

  “We’re blown,” Tomas said calmly. “Engaging in pursuit.”

  He vaulted the rail.

  Even as more tourists gasped, Sarah leaped after him. One helpful fellow tried to grab her arm and pull her back. She avoided his grasping hand and pushed off against his arm.

  The look of shock on his face was priceless.

  Sarah exulted in the weightless free-fall. It was like bungee jumping, but without the hassle of the safety rope. They were committed now. They had to take Rosetta, and fast. The polizia would swarm the area in minutes and haul them all off to prison if they didn’t escape.

  Sarah landed hard but caught herself on enhanced legs. Having even temporary enhancement runes was simply awesome. Plus, she had wanted an excuse to explore the lower levels of the Colosseum since the first time she visited.

  Ignoring the tumult of alarmed tourists and enraged tour guides on the platform above, Sarah ran after Tomas who was already sprinting after Rosetta. They raced down the curved lane, but Rosetta had disappeared. Tomas slowed and Sarah caught up to him.

  “I need a visual,” he said into his earpiece.

  The ancient stone wall to their right creaked ominously and an eight foot section broke free and fell toward them.

  Sarah dove into a forward roll, bounced to her feet, and turned back.

  Tomas had caught the wall.

  His muscles stood out in sharp relief as he strained to keep the heavy wall from crushing him. Sarah had known he was inhumanly strong, but she hadn’t realized just how much strength he could bring to bear.

  “Don’t you realize how old this place is?” Tomas grunted as he heaved the loose section of wall back up into place.

  Sarah had been so surprised by the unexpected attack she hadn’t thought through the ramifications of fighting down here. They had to get Rosetta before she wrecked the priceless historic landmark.

  Rosetta barked a laugh from the far side of the wall and a dull thud echoed through. Again the wall began to fall and Tomas braced it.

  “I’m really starting to hate her,” he muttered.

  Sarah ran for the first rough doorway in the wall. She jumped through and sprinted back up the far side. It was time to teach Rosetta a lesson on civic responsibility.

  Rosetta was gone.

  Sarah ran past the section of broken wall, back toward the observation platform where tourists madly snapped photos of Tomas’ heroic efforts to save the ancient wall.

  A chorus of startled cries from the platform gave Sarah her only warning. She dove forward again and just barely avoided Rosetta, who dropped from above. Rosetta slammed her leading knee into the ground so hard it sunk three inches into the packed soil. She must have leaped right over the wall.

  Up close, Rosetta looked more intimidating. Although she stood several inches shorter than Sarah, she wore an expression of such hatred it twisted her features into an ugly scowl.

  Rosetta stalked forward, speaking in a heavy Italian accent. “I kill you now and leave present for your boyfriend.”

  Sarah punched her in the throat.

  She caught Rosetta by surprise and the blow staggered the woman back, gagging. Sarah pressed her advantage and tackled Rosetta to the ground. The two grappled and jabbed at each other with fists, elbows, and knees. Rosetta struggled like an insane cat to free herself, while Sarah tried to hold her down until Tomas could arrive. The woman was wearing a surprisingly gentle fragrance that clashed with her enhanced strength and the steady stream of Italian profanities she shrieked as she fought.

  Sarah raked Rosetta’s back, feeling for the concealed pack many heka wore containing the dispossessed soulmask they consumed to fuel their enhancements. She was surprised to feel nothing.

  “I’m coming!” Anaru, the giant Maori enforcer landed nearby with a thud that shook the arena. He charged and filled the entire passage. He’d be able to collar Rosetta like an unruly kitten.

  Rosetta gouged a nail into Sarah’s eye. She jerked away, cupping her face to protect it from the excruciating pain. Rosetta kicked her so hard she launched into the air right into Anaru’s path, tripping him. The two fell i
n a heap, with her on the bottom. His weight nearly crushed her.

  “Sorry.” He hoisted her up, but it took a few seconds for her vision to clear. Despite the strength of her enhancement, her body ached from the abuse.

  “Where’s Rosetta?”

  “Who?”

  “The mark.”

  Anaru pushed Sarah east, toward the far side. “She ran. Captain’s in pursuit.”

  As they sped across the bottom of the Colosseum, sirens wailed outside, announcing the imminent arrival of the polizia. The sound motivated Sarah to run faster between the ruined walls of the lower level to the far side. She arrived just as Rosetta vaulted onto the top of one ruined wall and leaped from there up to the wooden decking that covered the eastern edge of the arena.

  Tomas followed several seconds later, but she was already sprinting with unnatural speed toward the wide-open gate in the outer wall. It was known as the Death Gate in ancient days because funeral processions for fallen gladiators always exited there.

  Tomas drew his dart pistol and fired several times.

  Sarah had never seen him miss when they practiced together, but Rosetta never slowed. She did stagger a little just before rounding the outer wall and disappearing from sight. The sleep darts were extremely fast-acting and could drop even men with basic enhancements in a couple seconds.

  When Sarah and Anaru reached the eastern side below that platform he asked, “May I?”

  “Please.”

  He grabbed her by the waist and threw her. She soared in a graceful arc all the way up onto the wooden decking and landed running. Four seconds after she landed, the platform shook under Anaru’s weight. She didn’t bother to look back.

  Sarah sprinted out the Death Gate, expecting to be met by a crowd of angry polizia, but the way was clear. She caught sight of at least a dozen uniformed officers pushing through the crowd at a distant gate. They must be still responding to the initial report of someone jumping off the far platform. Hopefully the delay would grant Sarah and the team enough time to bag Rosetta and get away.

  Tomas was easy to spot as he sprinted through the crowd, heading west around the southern curve of the building. The bulk of the Colosseum blocked Rosetta from view.