After a moment he stopped and stepped sideways behind a cluster of Axumite merchants. Their tall feather headdresses made suitable cover and he took another drink from the cup, eyes narrowed over the rim. A woman he recognized entered the gallery and he felt a certain trepidation in being seen by her. They had never exchanged more than a few words; in his guise of a hardworking patrician bureaucrat there was little reason for him to engage in lengthy discourse with an Empress. Helena might not recognize him, but approaching her now was reckless.
Unfortunately, he found her particularly attractive. He knew from palace gossip she was strong-willed, sharp-minded and carried on a voluminous correspondence. Once or twice, he managed to overhear her conversations and she wielded a dagger wit with aplomb. Gaius Julius checked the drape of his toga, then mentally ground down on his ambition.
This is not the time for seduction! He wanted her though, and vivid imagination yielded up delightful, tempting vignettes. He started to step forward, desire convincing his limbs it would be perfectly reasonable for him to go up and speak with her, breathe in the air around her, look into sparkling dark eyes, bandy wit and wordplay with her. Gaius Julius caught himself and turned away, forcing himself to look down onto the Senate floor again.
The senators had gotten themselves into a furious argument. From the raised voices reaching the gallery, Gaius saw the awareness of the possible patronage and graft attendant upon an important new Imperial post was spreading through the white-haired old men like blood on the sea. Gaius suppressed a grin, unconsciously flicking his robes into an even straighter line and checking his hair. The smell of fear and power in the air was heady and he felt his pulse quicken.
Stop this. You're getting jittery. Gaius paused by one of the pillars and took a moment to calm down. He craved this-the lunge and parry and brutal verbal combat of the Curia and the Senate. He wanted to step down on the floor-as was his right! — and set his mind to the influence and control of others. There was a physical pain in his gut, like a rat was squirming among his organs. Against this desire, thoughts of Helena disappeared. Impossible, you old fool! You must be patient. Quiet. Like a mouse.
Gaius breathed out, slowly, and looked around, avoiding the flushed, sweaty faces of the men talking and exclaiming on all sides. He was not sure he approved of the renovations to the Curia-he had taken pains, in his breathing days, to see the building was just small enough. This gallery was new and there were more seats than he remembered below. Gaius frowned, counting rows of benches. There must be room for almost fifteen hundred senators. That, he thought, was too many. Even in his day-so long ago now! — he had ordered the architects and builders to make the Senate house just a little smaller than it needed to be.
The old Roman grinned, forgetting his own advice to remain impassive. With a constant shortage of seats, the junior senators stood in the back of the hall, or even outside. That kept them helpfully out of the debate, and gave them incentive to compromise so they could move inside. Now this expansion had made a muddle of everything, and this too-convenient gallery allowed anyone to watch the Senate at work. How… republican…
"Master Gaius?"
The old Roman turned, smiling genially. Three men approached him out of the crowd and the middle one-a stocky, balding white-haired "twenty-year man," if ever Gaius Julius had seen a Legion veteran trying to be inconspicuous in civilian clothes-was also carrying a krater of wine. The man's pockmarked face seemed habitually grim and his attention was in constant motion, watching the crowd for enemies. Gaius guessed the man was forty or fifty years old.
"I am Gaius Julius. Welcome to Rome. You must be Sergius."
The soldier nodded, flashing a bit of a wintry smile. "You're welcome sir. It was good to hear from you."
Gaius nodded, turning his attention to the other two men. Both of them were young and alert, with the air of those used to violent action. "This would be Nicholas and Vladimir?"
Sergius nodded, motioning the other two forward. "They are. A pair of right rascals, but I was never gladder than to find them alive after our disaster." The old soldier shook his head in dismay.
Gaius clasped wrists with the thinner one, a whipcord-lean man with dark brown hair and peculiar mauve eyes. The lad had powerful wrists, well-used and corded with muscle. Like his companion, he was wearing a nondescript military cloak over a tunic and some kind of armored shirt. The hilts of a heavy, spatha-style longsword rode at his trim waist. Nicholas grinned, matching Gaius' gaze, and made a little bow. The young man's mustaches were very sharp, twisted to points beside a thin nose. Gaius nodded in welcome. "Nicholas. Where are you from?"
"I don't know, sir. I was raised a slave in the Dannmark."
"But you are surely a Latin-taken in a raid by the Scandians?"
The young man shrugged. "I don't remember any of that, Master Gaius. My first memory is of a gray sky, and ravens crying, and then entering the fortress of Roskilde." His expression changed, growing feral. "Everything after that is rather cruel. At least, until I entered the service of Rome."
Sergius nodded, seemingly pleased with himself. "True enough, Master Gaius, and we've had good service of young Nicholas. He and Vladimir have gone into and come out of some tight places in the name of the Empire."
"So I have heard." Gaius maintained a lengthy correspondence with Sergius. The old centurion was a field officer for the Eastern Empire's Office of Barbarians. Over the years, Sergius had decided a close relationship was needed between-specifically-himself and the Western Office. Some small-minded men might have termed the stoutly built centurion a traitor, but Gaius thought of him as a man who could tell which side the loaf was going to fall on.
Before Gaius Julius involved himself in such matters, a woman-a beautiful, powerful woman named Anastasia De'Orelio-had been the secret master of the Western Office. Over a year ago, however, she abandoned her post and Gaius Julius-at something of loose ends at the time-took the opportunity to gather up some of the responsibilities she let fall. In fact, the small-minded might also accuse Gaius of theft and outright falsehood. Some privy letters, he allowed, might have gone astray, but if they did-well, the world was filled with troubles-and one of those letters led him to Sergius and then, in the full course of time, to these two admirable young men.
"You are Vladimir, then, the Walach." The corners of Gaius Julius' eyes crinkled up and he clasped wrists with the young barbarian. The Walach-a riot of dark curly hair, a creamy white complexion over rippling muscle, brilliant dark eyes-took his hand tentatively and Gaius could see the boy's nostrils flare. "We are all friends here, Vladimir, do not worry."
Ah, but I must smell strange to him, Gaius thought. I should not have met them here, in this public place… in private, I might allay their fears with honest words.
"Master… Gaius." Vladimir looked down, unwilling to meet Gaius' direct gaze. "Thank you for your patronage and support."
"My assistance," Gaius said, "is only what you deserve, for such loyal service."
All three men nodded and Gaius saw honest appreciation in their faces. With the collapse of the Eastern Empire, a huge flood of refugees hurried west. Rome was crowded with out-of-work ministers, logothetes, clerks and their families. The soldiers were immediately incorporated into the Western Legions, but everyone else was having a difficult time just finding food to eat and a place to sleep. As it happened, Gaius Julius had recently invested in blocks of apartments, warehouses, taverns, smithies, brick factories and all manner of other businesses. He could easily find lodgings for a few dozen Easterners at loose ends. Better, he had plenty of work for men like these three.
Gaius clapped a hand on Sergius' shoulder and looked down into the main hall of the Curia. "As it happens, my friends, I have great need for men who are swift and alert. Do you see that young man-the dark-haired fellow in the first row-sitting by the graybeard?"
Both Nicholas and Vladimir peered down through the screen.
"Yes," Nicholas said, squinting between the m
arble legs of a titan wrestling a giant serpent. "Thin-faced, long hair tied back, looks like he hasn't sleep in a week?"
"The very fellow." Gaius said. "His name is Maxian Atreus, the youngest brother of the Emperor Galen. He is a… powerful… young man, but not in the way most people think. He is also my patron, even my friend." Gaius Julius stopped, thinking about what he had just said. Is that true? Sometimes it seems that the boy is barely aware of me, as if I were a chair or a table. Does it matter? I am alive!
"As you might imagine, he has enemies." Gaius chuckled suddenly. "Some of them are very beautiful. He needs bodyguards and I think the two of you will do well in such a post."
"Bodyguards?" Vladimir's nose wrinkled up and he ran long sharp nails through his beard. The Walach seemed displeased by the prospect. "Don't the Praetorians handle such things? As the Faithful Guard did in the East? This sounds like a lot of standing around inside…"
"Sometimes." Gaius spread his hands, indicating things were different in the West. "I will surely sleep sounder at night if I know he has guardian spirits to watch over him. He has been attacked at least once before, and came close to death. Things would turn poorly for everyone if he were to die now."
Nicholas looked intrigued, thumbs hooked in his belt. "What kind of beautiful enemies does he have?"
Down on the floor of the Curia, Gregorius rose and spoke to the crowd. The other senators took the cue to sit and listen. Gaius Julius felt the pang of regret again-why couldn't he be the one to speak? The one to stand at the center of all attention, the world turning on the lever of his actions? He stifled the feeling, contenting himself with being the playwright, not the pantomime.
"Watch," Gaius Julius said, his expression changing subtly. All life seemed to leach out of him. "You will see more than you desire. Not all our enemies are fair to look upon."
Maxian felt his gut twist at the realization he would have to stand and speak. He didn't expect to be so nervous, but this was the Senate! The faces in the hall blurred into a mass of indistinguishable white ovals. Why can't Galen do this? He's the Emperor…
Suddenly a memory swam up out of the past and into waking thought. He was in the great teaching hall of the Asklepion, below the hill of old Pergamum, and a stocky, brown-bearded priest was speaking. Tarsus-his old friend, his teacher-was explaining a simple process all his students were to learn, a mnemonic pattern to induce a settled, focused mind. Maxian felt calm flow over him, just remembering the voice like a soft murmur in his ears. The words and the mental pattern became clear in his thoughts and the prince felt his anxiety fall away.
"Fellow senators," Gregorius said, looking about with a stiff, grim expression. "We must agree, and swiftly, to give a man the power of the custos magus imperium. This man must be a powerful wizard and we, the Senate, as guardians of the people, must trust him to defend Rome." The old man's voice rose sharply and some of the younger men in the back rows, who had been falling asleep in the heat, jerked awake in surprise.
"In a simpler time, we would summon the magister magorum of the Thaumaturgic Legion before us and anoint him with this post. But these times are not simple. I have already spoken with old Gordius and he has declined this duty. A new man must be elevated to the custos."
Gregorius paused, leaning on his cane, drawing a breath. He was tiring rapidly with the effort of trying to convince so many, all at once. "Is there a man we can trust with this task? A man strong enough in the hidden arts to pit himself-with hope of victory! — against the darkness Persia has summoned up?"
One of the older senators stood up abruptly, disgusted. "Get on with it, Gregorius! We've listened and listened, while you wend and weave-get to the point! If you've a candidate, set him before us!"
Gregorius smiled genially and waved for the senator to sit down. "There is something you must see first, my friends." The old man turned, his white beard bristling out. He made a sharp motion to the Praetorians loitering at the back of the hall. "Close the doors! Clear the gallery! What now transpires is for the Senate alone."
There was a commotion in the vestibule where a huge crowd of clerks and aides lolled about, eating sausage rolls heavy with garlic and oil, chatting in low tones while the senators declaimed in the main hall. The Praetorians herded everyone out with the butts of their spears and the main doors were closed with a dull thud. More soldiers cleared the gallery; the complaints and cries of protest were muted by the marble screen. When, at last, silence had fallen and the centurion in charge of the guard detail signed to Gregorius that everyone had been herded out, the old senator turned to Maxian.
"Fellow senators, I have brought a young man before you. He has seen our true enemy and he has, by his own skill and power, lived to bring us warning. This-for those of you who have not gotten out of your wine cups enough to know-is the Caesar Maxian Atreus. My lord, would you tell us what you faced in the ruins of Constantinople?"
Maxian stood up and the unsteady roiling sensation in his stomach was gone. He felt rather light-headed and perfectly calm. At the edge of his vision was a storm of color, like blowing snowflakes in every imaginable hue and shade. With an effort, he focused on the physical reality around him, allowing the faces of the senators to become solid again.
"I will do better than tell, good Gregorius, I will show you." The prince raised his hand and at the center of the hall a mote of light sprang up over the mosaic plains and mountains of Anatolia. For a moment the little ball spun and hissed, lighting the dark corners of the Curia and throwing long shadows behind the senators. A mutter of fear and surprise rose from the assembly.
"I entered Constantinople, Senators, even as the great gates fell, broken by a power far beyond anything I have ever felt before. Something rose up out of the earth, under a baleful sky, and tore down the gates and sundered the walls. I raced across the city, hoping to forestall the doom rushing over the city, but I was too late."
The glow swelled and then passed away, leaving the hall dark. Even the light of the late afternoon sun, which should have fallen in long, slanting beams through the high windows, was absent. Only a faint spark remained, drifting over the map on the floor, illuminating-by turns-mermaids and ships and cities and mountains. The slow movement ceased, spinning slowly over the coast of Morea, and then the light unfolded, growing huge, and in its depths; fire and smoke and the distant, muted screams of the dying and the dead.
"I came into the forum of Constantine, from which the Easterners count the miles, and there, clad in night, I saw…"
…a deserted street under a black and starless sky.
Maxian steeled himself, his face settling into a tight mask as visions of defeat welled up in the light and his shadow image struggled in the broken city against an unimaginable enemy.
"…this was how I left Constantinople, in ruins, a broken wasteland." Maxian dropped his hand and the phantasm passed, light streaming in once more from the windows. A thousand throats gasped for air, for every man had been holding his breath in horror, and a complete, stunned silence filled the hall.
Maxian sat down, sweating again, his pulse racing. Even the simulacrum of his battle against the Persian was far too real. Again, he summoned up the calming meditation and settled his mind. When he was aware again, Gregorius was standing in the open space, leaning on his cane, watching the assembly slowly regain its color. A few servants were moving along the benches with wine. Not a single senator refused the offered cup, or failed to drain the thick, unwatered contents.
"That is our enemy," Gregorius said at last, when he judged his words would be understood. "This young man, our own prince Maxian, is the only wizard within the reunited Empire strong enough to confront him. I say we invest Caesar Maxian with the powers and duties of the custos magus imperium, so he might be our shield against this Persian monster."
There was no immediate response and many of the senators stared at Maxian with new interest and naked calculation. The prince sat up straight, meeting their gaze. Gregorius was silent as well
, waiting. He seemed content to wait forever, frail old body leaning on the cane, eyes in shadow, neatly trimmed beard covering his hands. Maxian forced himself to sit patiently.
"Can we defeat this enemy?" The senator who had spoken before rose to his feet. He seemed haggard, drained, but his eyes were sharp with an indomitable will. "The prince failed to destroy it in the vision…"
"I was unprepared, Senator." Maxian stood and-again-all fear and concern faded away. "Before that instant, I had never seen our great foe, or felt his power. I was lucky to escape alive. But their advantage is lost. When next we meet, I will be ready."
"Will you?" The senator's tone was pure curiosity, but he waved the question away even as it crossed his lips. "Senator Gregorius, in truth, do we have any other choice? Ours is not a nation of sorcerers, we are not the Chaldees of old, or even Egypt in its time of power. Is this young man our best chance of victory?"
"He is, Livius," Gregorius said, nodding, though his hand was trembling and he barely squeaked out the words. Maxian moved to catch his elbow, but the old man steadied himself.
"Then," Livius said, spreading his hands in acceptance, "we must seize this reed, though it seems terribly frail… shall there be a vote?"
A rumbling chorus of "aye" answered him.
Maxian helped Gregorius sit down, filled with great relief, though a sense of inevitability seemed to surround the event. The old senator was trembling. The prince thought of his work in the hidden world, and of the grim king on the throne of stone, and an unassailable feeling of rightness came over him. This is what is supposed to be.
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