Rise of the Wolf

by Jennifer A. Nielsen

  After a final washing, we climbed a ladder that took us into an area not far from the Pantheon. This temple was different from the others since its interior was rounded with an oculus on the top. When he took me there last month, Radulf had described the overhead opening as the eye of the gods. If that was true, then I refused to go inside now -- I didn't want to guess at which of the gods was watching me.

  So Aurelia, Livia, and I sat on some grasses nearby to dry off in the sunlight and watch the city awaken. The merchants arrived first with their wares. If I'd thought about it last night, I should've stolen some money when I stole back the bulla. Since I was committing one crime, a second wouldn't be so bad, or at least that's what I told myself when I stared at the merchants' food. But it was too late for that, so I let go of the thought and instead turned to Livia and Aurelia.

  "Tell me about our mother," Livia said. "She can't be far from here."

  "Why do you think she was in the circus?" Aurelia asked. "Of all places in Rome, and at the very time Nic was practicing?"

  "Lots of patricians come to watch the chariots practice," Livia said. "It's how they plan their bets for the races."

  "A million people live in Rome, but your mother was taken there for Nic's practice. Can you really believe that was only a coincidence?"

  "Why else --" Then I understood, with a reality that felt like a hard blow to my chest. "The Praetors have her."

  "Decimas Brutus began looking for your mother shortly after your battle in the arena. He found her a few days ago. You can guess why."

  My mouth went dry. "To lure me to him. Brutus wanted me to see her in the circus."

  "Once you ended the race so abruptly, they knew you had seen her and took her away," Aurelia said.

  "Crispus knew about this yesterday," I said. "This was what he didn't want to tell me."

  "He's worried that you'll decide to rescue her."

  "He was right -- that's exactly what I'll do." I glanced over at Livia, who nodded in agreement.

  "Then I shouldn't have told you now." Aurelia sighed. "Listen to me, the Praetors want you, not her. If you leave Rome, there's no reason for them to keep your mother. Maybe they'll let her go."

  "Or maybe they won't," I countered. "Brutus has no interest in mercy. Not for me, and not for her."

  Aurelia leaned forward. "You can walk away this minute and never have to deal with the Praetors or Radulf or anyone ever again. I know what you went through to make Livia safe, and all you risked to get here now."

  "Then you also know he would never leave our mother in the hands of the Praetors," Livia said.

  "Your mother would agree with me!" Aurelia said. "Nic, if you stay here, think of how they want to use you. And what happens to Livia if they succeed?"

  "What happens to Mother if we leave?" Livia turned to me. "I won't go without her. And I'm stronger than you think."

  She said something else, but I didn't hear it. Instead, a familiar cold swept over me, one I had dreaded since stealing the bulla back.

  "You can never run from me, Nic."

  Radulf's voice entered my head, as unwelcome as leprosy. It had never been a question of whether he would find me, only how long until his icy presence returned.

  I stood and looked around. With morning here, the street was filling with people, many of them women and children. "Everyone leave this area!" I shouted. "Now!" In case they hadn't heard me, I sent out darts of magic, hoping to frighten them enough to run. And for the most part, it worked. The panicked looks they threw back at me were familiar from when I'd caused all the destruction in the amphitheater.

  Aurelia stood too, clearly alarmed. "Nic, what are you doing?"

  I took Livia by the hand, and walked her closer to Aurelia. "Take care of each other, please. Get out of here, now."

  Aurelia shook her head. "What's going on?"

  "Radulf."

  He appeared directly behind Livia, and immediately put an arm across her shoulders, holding her in place. I raised my hand toward him, already filled with so much magic that if I wasn't careful, I'd explode half of this street. I had forgotten how strong the bulla could be. Beside me, Aurelia had raised her bow at Radulf, but his attention was entirely upon me.

  "Give me that bulla," Radulf ordered.

  My eyes darted sideways at Aurelia. If she fired that arrow, he'd have to move to block it. Could I shoot something at him without hitting Livia?

  "Let my sister go and we'll talk," I said.

  "Go now," Livia said. "Pater won't hurt me."

  "Do you believe that too, Nic?" Radulf swung his spare hand toward Aurelia, who was thrown backward on the street. Her bow and its arrows scattered around her. "I want the bulla."

  I backed up and tried to make myself disappear, the way Radulf had done with me yesterday. Then I could reappear directly behind him and give myself the advantage. But I couldn't picture the street in my head when I was seeing it even more plainly with my eyes.

  Radulf seemed to sense what I was doing. "You're relying too much on the bulla's magic," he said. "There's more power in the Divine Star, if you'll trust it."

  It had taken me a long time to understand my grandfather. Why he would encourage me to develop the magic he had once stolen from me. Why he would advise me in my attempt to trick him. I still couldn't answer those questions, not really, but I did know this: The only thing Radulf cared about was getting the three amulets so that he could bring Rome to its knees and rule over its ashes. With the amulets, Radulf would make himself a god, and he needed me to do it.

  I closed my eyes this time, focusing on the Divine Star and what I wanted to do. And perhaps I did start to fade, a little, but then Aurelia yelled my name, and at the same time, Livia screamed.

  I looked, and men in Praetor robes had Radulf on the ground, one with a sword at his chest. They had come up so quietly, that from here I hadn't heard them. Apparently, neither had he.

  "Livia, run!" I yelled.

  And she did, toward Aurelia, who cried, "Nic, they're behind you too!"

  I twisted around and shot magic toward a group of five men who had been sneaking toward me as slyly as they had overtaken Radulf. Where my magic hit, the ground beneath them collapsed, creating a wide gulf between us.

  Still, there were others, surrounding us as they had done in the circus. I shot magic toward the men closest to Aurelia and Livia, throwing the Praetors back almost as far as the Pantheon. Despite the danger here, it felt good to use magic again, like I had been crippled and finally could walk again.

  I ran to Aurelia and Livia, and said, "You two must go together. I'll find you when it's safe."

  Livia shook her head. "Let's all leave together."

  "I can't let them take Radulf." Even now, he was shouting curses at them as they bound his hands and feet in chains. "I can't let them win."

  "After all he's done to you?" Aurelia asked. "He'd leave you behind if they got you first."

  "No, he wouldn't." I was firm on that point.

  "You are playing into their hands," Aurelia yelled. "With your mother, with Radulf. You are doing everything they want you to do!"

  Which was probably true. But no other choice was acceptable.

  Aurelia grabbed my hands and looked down at them as if she could feel the sizzle of magic inside me. When she met my eyes again, she asked, "Let's do what you want, Nic. Let's leave Rome, you and Livia." She swallowed hard. "And me."

  I felt her words like a press on my heart, but only because I had to refuse her the very thing I most wanted. "Get Livia to safety," I mumbled. "I'll find you as soon as I can."

  Then I lit a line of flame away from us, forcing everyone nearby to back away from it. The fire immediately burned out, leaving Livia and Aurelia a clear path to run from the area. Though where they would go next, I did not know.

  I would find them soon. But first, I had a job to do.

  More Praetors were arriving now, some of them on horses and one with a wagon of iron bars. That's where they'd p
ut Radulf, and perhaps where they planned to put me. Well, they'd never get me in there. Never.

  I whispered to the horses carrying the Praetors and sent it through the morning breeze. Responding to my words, they bucked hard, throwing every man off his horse. The men landed on the stone road, confused at what had caused their animals' disloyalty.

  "You all smell very bad!" I shouted to the Praetors. "Perhaps your horses couldn't take it anymore."

  Next, I created a shield around me. It was effective, but exhausting, more tiring than I had remembered, and with my next step, I stumbled to my knees. In my short time without the bulla, I had lost most of my strength to use magic.

  "Nicolas Calva, we don't wish to fight you."

  I looked up and saw Decimas Brutus coming toward me. My hands curled into fists. Maybe he didn't want to fight, but I certainly did.

  "Run, you fool!" Radulf yelled, then took a kick to his side for it.

  I was nothing if not a fool. He was right about that.

  "That girl who just left," Brutus said. "We know who she was before she got her father's fortune. She was a sewer rat, and if you don't cooperate, we'll make her one again."

  "You know about sewer rats, then?" I grinned, and used magic to create a hole where the gulf in the road had been. The stench from the exposed sewer rose in the air like a fog.

  Brutus stepped backward. "Don't you dare."

  Not only did I dare, I was looking forward to it. One by one, I used magic to sweep the Praetors into the sewer, all except for Brutus. Though it was quickly sapping my strength, I held him at the edge of the hole, where he dangled in an uneasy balance. "Where's my mother?" I asked.

  Now it was his turn to smile. "What we want is simple. Give us the key to the Malice of Mars and we'll set your mother free. Then you can both walk away and live as free citizens."

  That was a lie. They needed me to unlock the Malice, and to use it and the bulla to create a Jupiter Stone. Then they would give it to Diana to succeed in her rebellion against the other gods. That was hardly a simple matter.

  Brutus reached his hand toward me. "Give me the key, Nicolas. Give it to me now and be finished with us."

  I did not have that cursed key, and my disgust at having to explain that for the hundredth time was punctuated with a blow I sent in a wave of magic. His arms rolled in circles to keep from falling into the sewer gulf.

  When he looked up, his eyes had darkened and his anger was so thick that it came at me like a punch to my gut. Still, I held my place and refused to flinch before him.

  "You have no right to hold magic!" he screamed. "How dare a slave boy wield the power of the gods!"

  "I wield it against the enemies of Rome," I yelled. "Against you!"

  He chuckled. "Listen carefully. You have exactly one day to turn over the key to the Malice or you will never see your mother again. And once I'm finished with her, I'll go after your sister, and then that sewer girl, and then anyone else I must destroy until you cooperate with me. In the end, I will win."

  "Impossible," I said. "Because I intend to win this war, and I do not share my victories with cowards."

  He smiled. "I will have you on your knees before the week is out. You will beg me to spare the lives of those you love."

  Then he widened his arms and took a step backward, willingly letting himself fall into the sewer water. Which should have meant he had lost our fight, but somehow, I felt as if I was the one who had lost.

  A hand gripped my shoulder, and I swung around, raising my hands to confront the next Praetor. Magic flew to the tips of my fingers, and once I recognized who had grabbed me, it was all I could do to keep the magic inside.

  "It's over!" Radulf released me and backed up to show he was posing no threat. The chains that had bound him lay on the ground where he had been, but they were split apart like they'd been made of dried reeds. His magic had returned.

  He started to approach me again, but I backed away from him too. "Lower your hands," he said. "I'm not your enemy."

  "Aren't you?" Still angry with Brutus and anxious for my mother, I needed to empty the magic inside me and wanted nothing more than to use him for target practice.

  "The problems you face are of your own creation," he said. "Not mine!"

  "I never wanted this!" I yelled. "None of it!"

  "Maybe you did." His tone was as sharp as the edge of a knife and felt like cuts across my chest. "I warned you not to wear the bulla in Caesar's cave, but you stole it and called it yours. You stood between me and Horatio to take a key that I would've gotten from him on my own. Every time I tried to keep you out of this war, you put yourself at the center of it."

  "You want me at the center of this war!" Magic swirled inside my head. It was hard to think straight.

  "I could've killed you in that arena, but I didn't. I could've let the emperor's guards arrest you afterward, but I refused to let him have you. I've kept you alive, Nic!"

  "Only until you force me to make a Jupiter Stone, which will probably kill me!"

  Surprisingly, his anger cooled. With a chuckle, he said, "Yes, I suppose that's true. It is risky to make a Jupiter Stone, but doing so is no more dangerous than facing the Praetors. So let's agree that if I'm an enemy to you, the Praetors are worse. You need me."

  I swerved on my heel to march away from him. "I need you like I need to break out in boils."

  He crossed in front of me. "Boils? Is that the worst thing you can think of? Then you don't understand the Praetors, or what they will do to your mother if you fail to bring them the key tomorrow."

  "I don't have --"

  "I know what you think about the key." He sighed and folded his arms. "Why didn't you run when the Praetors came? You didn't stay here to save me."

  "Of course not," I said, though maybe I did. Nothing made sense anymore.

  Radulf stared back at me, his eyes blinking far too fast. I scratched my cheek and finally looked away.

  Radulf said, "I will help you save your mother. I owe you that, in gratitude for saving me just now. Are you all right?"

  I was so tired that I barely understood his question. The swell of magic within me was calming, but I knew it would take a while until I could fight again. I only hoped he couldn't figure that out.

  "Why did you need me to save you back there?" My brows creased together. "Why didn't you use magic to stop them yourself?"

  Suddenly, I realized that we had begun walking back to his home. Still, I wanted his answer, so I continued to follow him.

  "The Praetors have no magic of their own," Radulf said. "But they do have a way to stop us. Did you ever wonder why Marcus Brutus was able to kill Julius Caesar so easily? Shouldn't Caesar have had enough magic to defend himself?"

  I shrugged. It had never occurred to me to wonder that, but it was a good question.

  Radulf answered for me. "It's because the Praetors can disable magic just through their touch. The armbands they wear endow them with that power. Three hundred years ago, when Brutus killed Caesar, he grabbed him first, rendering the emperor unable to use any magic. After that, it was a simple thing to kill him. The Praetors would've killed me just now if you had not stopped them. By the time I realized they were behind me, it was too late."

  "I felt the same thing yesterday," I said. "When they grabbed me in the circus, all the magic within me vanished." A quick glance at Radulf's smirk reminded me that he had known all along I still had some magic. Quickly, I continued, "It took a few seconds after they let go before I could feel it again."

  "We are stronger than the Praetors," Radulf said. "But they have far greater numbers. If they get hands on both of us at the same time, we are finished."

  Two dracos were carved into the doorway of Radulf's house, intertwined as if in battle with each other. I took it as a warning against reentering.

  Only yesterday, this home had been my prison, and just because I held the bulla didn't mean anything had changed between my grandfather and me. He'd stolen the bulla from me o
nce, and I wouldn't be able to trick him a second time.

  He knew all this, so he shouldn't have looked so surprised when I stopped on the road in front of his house, refusing to go any farther.

  "Don't be a fool," he said. "Do you really believe you're safer out here?"

  "I'm safer from you. And your house won't protect me from the Praetors."

  "My home is well guarded -- you know that as well as anyone. My guards will kill any Praetor who tries to enter, but here on the streets" -- Radulf grinned -- "much as I might want to, a hero of the Roman Empire can hardly go about shooting arrows at people just for walking past his home. It's unfriendly."

  He missed the idea that once I was inside, he could more easily order his guards to shoot arrows at me. The bulla was mine again, and I knew that infuriated Radulf. If he saw even the smallest opportunity to steal it back, he'd take it. I knew that, because I'd fight just as hard to keep it.

  I stepped back a few paces and shook my head at his invitation to enter. Valerius and Crispus had already betrayed me once, and obviously I could not trust the Praetors. But that didn't mean I had to trust Radulf.

  My hand was on the bulla with my forefinger brushing over the griffin's image molded into the gold. If Caela were here, so many things would be easier. We could fly over Rome and search for my mother that way. I wouldn't have to worry about the Praetors getting too close. With Caela, it would be an easy thing to escape them. I thought about calling for her, just to see if she would answer.

  "The griffin won't come," Radulf said, as if he had heard my thoughts. "Her task was to guard the bulla, but now that it's over, she's returned to the gods."

  "My griffin would come if I called." Actually, I had no idea whether that was true, but I liked to say it.

  "She was never yours," Radulf said. "It's arrogant to believe that an animal of the gods could ever belong to a human."

  "Then I was hers!" I shouted. Radulf had never loved anyone or anything. He'd never understand. "If she were here, I wouldn't be within a mile of you right now!"

  "But she's not here! No one is here to help you, except for me." Radulf reached for my shoulder, though I shook my head and pulled away when he did. "You must stop wishing that things were different than they are. Like it or not, you are a part of the Praetor War. The Praetors will never stop hunting you until they wring the key to the Malice from your fist. Or until you're dead." He drew in a slow breath. "And whether you like it or not, the truth is that I am your only chance of stopping them. Come inside, Nic, please."