Rune Warrior

by Frank Morin

  The image roughly resembled a chariot, but she added extra wheels and a curved line over the top that suggested the roof line of a modern sports car.

  “What are you doing?” Alter asked, crouching beside her.

  As soon as Sarah completed the mark, she focused, willing her rounon strength awake and directing it toward the little symbol. Fear that it would fail and Paul would complete his new rune threatened to distract her, but she cast aside the fear and focused on her inner strength.

  It blossomed like the coming of the sun, filling her with calm confidence. Energy poured out of her rounon well and connected with the chariot symbol. With a surge of heat and a temporary sapping of strength, the rune flared blue-white against the sand, then vanished.

  A two-seater dune buggy appeared on the sands right in front of them, engine already running with a throaty growl.

  Sarah laughed and raised her hand to high-five Alter, but his eyes were glued to the sleek dune buggy. She punched him in the shoulder.

  “Let’s go castrate that demon.”

  Chapter Seventy-Three

  Of course I blamed the Christians for the Great Fire. They are an easy target, and Rome is rife with hatred against them. The true culprit is being hunted by Gregorios, but how can I trust that cursed Spartacus will be brought to justice now when he has escaped it for so long?

  ~Emperor Nero, the second life of Claudius, 64 A.D.

  The dune buggy was wide and low, a sleek profile of black steel.

  Sarah pushed the still-gaping Alter toward the driver seat. “You know how to drive one of these right?”

  “Yes.” As Sarah jumped into the passenger seat, he slipped behind the wheel, threw the transmission into first, and floored it. The four studded tires ripped into the sandy ground as he slung them in a tight turn, then raced back toward the starting gate.

  Sarah was about to protest, but understood his logic as he drifted around the inner wall in a fantastic turn, already going twenty. The lead chariot, with Paul still clinging to the tiny deck, was just rounding the far end. It took the corner tight against the post, forcing him to hold on and lean into the turn along with the charioteer. For a moment he had to stop working on the new rune.

  The two vehicles closed with terrifying speed, and it didn’t look like Paul had noticed them yet. As they charged down the length of the long arena, going the wrong way, the crowds took notice and screamed their displeasure. The noise drowned out the roar of the buggy, and Paul glanced up from working on his rune. The expression of shock on his face was priceless.

  Less than a hundred feet separated them and Alter looked like he planned to ram the horses. Paul frowned, and an invisible force struck Sarah’s mind, triggering an instant headache. She groaned and clutched her head. The buggy’s engine sputtered and it began to flicker around them, as if on the verge of disappearing.

  “He’s trying to banish it,” Alter shouted as the buggy lost power, decelerating rapidly. The onrushing chariot moved to their left and would thunder past in seconds.

  Sarah gritted her teeth in concentration, her mind centered on the image of the symbol she had marked to summon the buggy.

  “This is my car,” she growled, refusing to surrender to the pressure of his will. She held that image like a shield, and the headache began to fade. The buggy became more solid, but the change came too late.

  Alter revved the engine and began to cut the wheel to ram them. Sarah shouted. “No. Let him pass.”

  Paul was again working on the rune, as if discounting their presence. Sarah caught a glimpse of the mark on his side, and it looked like he was nearly finished.

  As the chariot charged past, Sarah jumped to the steel frame roof, the sickle-shaped blade again popping into her hand.

  She jumped.

  Easily vaulting the space, Sarah matched the chariot speed, planning to land on the tiny deck beside Paul. Hand raised to strike, she bit back the battle cry that bubbled in her throat.

  Paul anticipated her move and caught her in midair, his fingers closing around her throat with relentless force. Her body snapped against the restraint of his hand, wrenching her neck, but not even causing his arm to twitch. Paul held her easily, like a kitten. Although she had faced him before, she was still not prepared for the magnitude of his strength.

  “Sarah!” Alter shouted, whipping the buggy in a tight turn to give chase, but he’d never catch them in time.

  Paul twisted, holding Sarah out over the sands that blurred just below her feet, but didn’t drop her.

  His eyes began to burn with purple fire.

  “Sarah, you chose foolishly,” he said, his expression sad. “I expected more from you, and everyone you’ve ever loved is going to suffer the consequences.”

  “You disgust me,” Sarah croaked, barely able to sip any air through his tight grip.

  She could just see the nearly-completed new rune on his side. The central images that made up the complex rune were similar to the one she had witnessed in the sky, but the outer layers were wrong, somehow twisted. She frowned, trying to understand what changes he had made, but his fingers began to sear her skin with the fire of his Cui Dashi power.

  “You will beg me to take you,” Paul assured her, his tone calm, as if explaining something to an unruly child. “But you will feel my wrath before you enjoy the glory of my forgiveness.”

  Sarah struggled in his grasp, concentrating on the rune. It felt twisted and foreign, and yet at a fundamental level she understood it.

  “I’ll make you a deal,” she whispered, not sure if he could hear her over the thunder of hooves and the rattling of the chariot. He pulled her a little closer, cocking his head to listen, and slackening his hold just a bit.

  Sarah slashed twice with her blade, but couldn’t reach low enough to castrate. So she aimed for his side, barely parting the skin with the razor-sharp knife.

  “You can’t hurt me, Sarah,” Paul mocked, not seeming to realize that the new marks closed the pattern of the new rune and changed its meaning.

  He didn’t know she possessed any rounon gift.

  He should have paid better attention.

  Strength rushed out of Sarah in a flood as her little blade completed the second mark. The unexpected drain left her sagging in Paul’s hand.

  Paul smiled, just a curving of the lips that did not touch the coldness of his eyes. “Ah, you begin to see the futility of resistance.”

  His hand tightened again, severing the tiny air flow she’d been managing.

  Maybe it was time to panic. She beat weakly at his arm and tried to shout to Alter, but only made gagging sounds.

  “Truth hurts, Sarah.”

  She tried to say, “So does the rune you’re wearing.” No words came out, but he was about to get the message.

  The rune Sarah had just corrupted blazed with crimson light, and Paul convulsed, crying out in pain. His fingers slackened and she slipped out of his grasp.

  Alter, who had been closing fast behind them, slammed on the brakes, twisting the wheel over so hard the buggy spun and careened up onto two wheels, nearly flipping. Sarah hit the sand and tumbled a dozen times across the hard-packed surface before stopping. Alter’s wild maneuver with the buggy disrupted the other chariots, forcing them to skid to a halt, so at least she wasn’t trampled.

  The crowds packing the stands howled with anger. Sarah ignored the imminent danger of being trampled by a mob. It was hard to focus through the searing pain of her sand-blasted skin, but she turned to Paul in his retreating chariot. She had made those marks out of pure instinct, trusting her rune sense. Those marks felt wrong, dangerous.

  Just what she needed.

  Paul was screaming, clutching at his side as the charioteer slowed the team. The rune blazed angry red, like living fire against his skin. If flared once, then winked out.

  Paul’s chest exploded.

  Blood and flesh and bone erupted across the sands, and he toppled off the chariot. Then the chariot disappeared, along
with the horses and all the other chariot teams. The roaring of the crowd faded away after a final wave of shouting, as if every person’s throat had been cut at the same time.

  Paul lay prostrate on the sands in a spreading pool of blood a hundred feet from Sarah. Alter had brought the buggy to a stop halfway between them. For a second silence reigned but for the growl of the buggy’s idling engine.

  Then Paul twitched and the gaping wound in his torso began to close.

  Alter ran him over.

  He gunned the engine and the sleek little vehicle leaped forward, closing the distance in seconds. It bounced high as two of the wheels ground Paul into the sand. Alter lost control and rammed into the barrier wall. He left the engine running and leaped out of the driver’s seat.

  Sarah was already on her feet, sprinting toward the fallen Cui Dashi. No doubt he was cheating again, restoring his health with dispossessed souls, but those grievous wounds would slow even him for a moment. This was their chance.

  Paul rolled over, still bleeding badly, and a heavy machine gun appeared in his hands.

  “You said no modern weapons!” Sarah shouted.

  He opened fire.

  Tracer rounds stitched across the sands toward her. Paul’s angle was poor, but he made up for it with lots of lead. Sarah dove and rolled, slashing a hand through the air, leaving a glowing line that flared, forming a reinforced steel shield. It settled into her hands just before bullets ricocheted off it like angry metal bees.

  The bullets would have torn through a normal shield, but if he could cheat, so could she. Sarah maintained the image of a solid shield, and felt her rounon strength pouring out to buttress it and maintain its shape despite the brutal onslaught. There were no other souls nearby for her to draw upon to fuel her cipher, and she had no idea how long she could maintain the shield, but to falter meant to die.

  Then the barrage stopped and she risked a peek. Paul had turned his weapon on Alter, forcing the hunter to dive back into the buggy, which Paul was ripping apart with the heavy bullets.

  Sarah considered using another cipher to summon her shotgun, but that wasn’t going to stop Paul. She needed another angle, a way to block Paul’s weapon before he could recover.

  She needed a new cipher.

  Sarah considered using the new master rune, but discarded the idea. Alter had made it clear that it was far too dangerous to try tapping the full force of a pivotal historical moment. She’d spent hours planning the use of those tiny parts of the original master rune, and those pieces fueled her new enhancement with exceptional power.

  Maybe she could do that again? A customization to her latest enhancement popped into her mind, and she twisted on the ground behind her shield. She pulled down her waistline and called a scalpel to her hand. She made two cuts, embedding into her enhancement a small part of the new master rune.

  As soon as she completed the marks, the entire rune burned with blue-white light. Icy chills rippled out from her rune warrior mark at the small of her back and linked to the rune. It chilled her to the bone and drained her strength.

  “Look out!” Alter cried.

  Sarah lacked the strength to roll over and see what was going on. She could only wonder if she’d made a mistake, her shield sagging in her weak grip, before it was wrenched out of her hands. Paul stood above her, panting and livid with rage. His chest still looked like it had been run through a meat grinder, but somehow he was on his feet. Fury boiled off him in waves and he snarled at her, showing several missing teeth.

  He tipped the muzzle of the machine gun forward until it pointed at her chest, barely six inches away.

  “Feel my wrath, Sarah,” he snarled.

  Sarah reached for that ethereal feeling she’d drawn upon in the past, but her rune did not respond. She looked up at the barrel, filled with horror, knowing she was dead.

  Paul pulled the trigger.

  The gun roared and flames spurted from the muzzle to char her skin. Bullets ripped through Sarah, pummeling her, shaking her body like a water balloon in a hurricane. Blood sprayed everywhere and pain so severe she could barely comprehend it crashed through her mind.

  She screamed but could do nothing as her body shuddered and shook under the brutal onslaught. She was dead and it hurt worse than she’d ever imagined.

  Then all of a sudden it didn’t.

  Sarah gasped at the abrupt absence of agony. The machine gun still belched flame and lead, still roared loud enough to deafen her, but she felt only a distant pinching across her torso. Paul’s face was set in an expression of exultant glee as he machine-gunned her to death.

  Only, she wasn’t dead.

  Her skin rippled like quicksilver, returning to its proper form. Her newly-altered rune was blazing against her thigh, filling her with energy and somehow transforming the very composition of her cells. She could feel bullets pounding her, but they no longer penetrated.

  Twenty-eight bullets were embedded in her chest, but with a thought she expelled them. They rose through her flesh like bubbles in a pond and dropped to the ground.

  The sound changed. Instead of the sickening notes of lead ripping through meat, bullets ricocheted away with angry buzzing as if her skin had turned to living steel.

  Paul released the trigger, a stunned expression on his face.

  “How is it possible?”

  With a thought, Sarah rose. She didn’t stand, but instead flowed from a prone position into an upright one.

  “You think machine-gunning a girl makes her want you?”

  She swung at him with every ounce of terror and confusion, but mostly with rage. Her arm morphed into that sickle-shaped blade, and she slashed it right through both of his thighs to ensure she got her target.

  Paul staggered back with a scream, his legs gushing blood, staring at his severed testicles. He dropped the machine gun, one hand reaching toward his fallen flesh.

  “Father a nation now, eunuch,” Sarah said as her hand returned to normal.

  Before he could respond, Alter tackled him from behind.

  The two went down in a heap even as Alter rained blow after blow upon the Cui Dashi. The young hunter attacked with a fury even greater than he had when fighting Tomas. He screamed a long howl of rage and beat on Paul with bone crushing force.

  Paul’s hands began to burn with purple fire and he caught Alter’s wrists. For a second he held the raging hunter and his expression began to change to that smug look of superiority. He glanced again at what Sarah had done to him, and his expression fell.

  Then Alter’s hands began to burn.

  For the first time, Paul looked worried.

  “You and I are one,” Paul panted.

  “You are abomination and I will terminate you,” Alter growled, driving his hands against Paul’s, reaching for his throat.

  Paul resisted and their hands quivered in the air. The two strove against each other with all their strength. Then, ever so slightly, Paul began to inch Alter’s hands back.

  “You are weak, young one,” Paul said. “And you’re going to die on the verge of greatness.”

  “Keep your greatness,” Sarah said.

  She had scooped up the machine gun and now pressed the barrel against Paul’s head. She pulled the trigger.

  The entire memoryscape buckled, and the earth exploded. The eruption tossed Sarah into the air. She caught a glimpse of Alter and then nothing. The circus disintegrated, as did the skyline of Rome, then the sky altogether.

  Nothing took their place. The world became a formless gray expanse with no sense of direction, no gravity, no point of orientation.

  Alter was gone.

  Sarah hung in the blank nothingness, too tired to even freak out at the lack of memoryscape. Alter would pull them free in a moment, and she was just happy they’d survived.

  Without warning Paul appeared beside her, grabbed her shoulder with burning hands, and drove a gladius into her stomach.

  Sarah screamed, although the pain was far less than it shoul
d have been. Her body began to morph around the blade, but more slowly than it had a moment ago. She could feel the strength of his nevron driving into her, trying to block the power of her new enhancement, delaying the shifting ability she had just unlocked and didn’t know how to control. She again tried to call upon the ethereal effect her rune had produced before, but again she felt nothing but the burning heat of her new quicksilver ability. The two seemed mutually exclusive.

  Sarah tried to fight him, but couldn’t move. He might not yet be able to block her enhancement entirely, but he had severed her command over her muscles.

  “You are more worthy than I dreamed,” Paul whispered, speaking into her ear, lips brushing her skin. He wrapped his left arm around her waist and pulled her hard against him in a disgustingly intimate embrace. “Within twenty-four hours, I will have everything I need to rise to claim my destiny.”

  She tried to speak, but couldn’t.

  Paul leaned his forehead against hers, his burning eyes filling her vision. “Pledge yourself to me, Sarah, and the pain can end. Give yourself both body and soul as a willing sacrifice, and spare yourself the agony that justice demands I inflict upon your disobedience.”

  He granted her power over her voice. “You’re dead, freak.”

  He kissed her cheek slowly, lingering over the contact, and began twisting the sword in her stomach. She couldn’t even scream as fresh waves of pain ripped through her.

  “Know your destiny, beloved. Embrace it and I will pleasure you beyond your imagining.” He gave the sword another twist. “Deny me and, well, I think you get the point.”

  “How do you like being a eunuch?” Sarah whispered before he robbed her ability to speak.

  Paul kissed her lips and denied her the ability to fight him. His lips were thin and cold, and a shiver of revulsion left her screaming inside.

  “Until tomorrow, my most chosen vessel,” Paul said. “Stay strong for me.”

  Then he disappeared.