Wolf’s Empire: Gladiator (90 page)

I didn't take the bait and kept moving in, circling toward her while she talked, expecting Barbata to go right on the assault, but she just stood there babbling insults. I'd close the gap and finish her quickly. But as I started forward, she was suddenly gone, and standing in her place was Bulla.

It was not a projection; it really was her. There was even the smell of matted fur, the sour smell of Taurii blood that ran from the wound in the neck I gave her aboard
Incitatus
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“You killed me,” she said. “You led me to my death. You knew your father would do this, and you didn't care. I'm just chattel to you.”

But it couldn't be Bulla. This was the effect of Barbata's portable hypnogogic machine, and I must defend myself and more.

I drove forward and struck, but Bulla was holding her ancestral weapon, a war hammer. She used it to block my weapon and then hit me with a back sweep, the hammerhead impacting my side. I flew across the sand and landed on my back. How could this be? An illusion didn't change physics. Barbata had a trident, no blunt-force weapon. Looking down, I saw no wound but it was painful to take a deep breath, and I was short on oxygen.

Lumen. Where was he? Huddled up in the corner of the wedge. Shining brightly, light seeping through the cracks of his body. I glanced down at my body again quickly and now I saw blood. No dent in my armor from a hammer blow but instead puncture wounds. It was all in my mind. Whatever Barbata was doing, it affected my perceptions. I quickly struggled to my feet as Bulla charged again, desperately circling out of the corner before she caught me with the sharp tips of her broad curved horns.

I cast Orbis and went to use the lapis arms in my suit, but they seemed to have vanished as a result of Barbata's illusion. I wore my old armor from the arena back in Rome—the outfit of Lupa She-Wolf. Bulla blocked my discus easily and knocked him aside, on an angle that sent him hurtling into the energy field, where he sparked and fell to the sand below. I was without arms.

Bulla took up position between me and the fallen discus, her damp nostrils flaring and steaming in the cold, preventing me from recovering my weapon. As I backed away from Bulla and closer to Lumen, I noticed a change. The Taurii's form began to dissolve, revealing Barbata. Lumen was the key. His light affected me, fought off the effect Barbata's ray had on my mind, and revealed the truth. Barbata hesitated, but only for a second, before slowly advancing. Lumen's radiance was powerful. If he couldn't keep it together, I wondered if we all would die here, everyone on and around this world, incinerated in a cataclysmic explosion. Now the illusion fell away, Lumen's light did the trick, and here was Barbata coming at me. But she didn't know I could see her as she truly was—her long hair writhing and hissing, her dark eyes scornful, and one shapely arm raised holding her weapon. I couldn't give myself away, so I carefully kept my eyes aimed toward where I expected to see Bulla. There was Barbata's trident with the hypnogogic device in it. The trident came lancing in, and I sidestepped it and grasped the shaft, pushing it aside and head-butting Barbata right between the eyes. That'd teach her to wear armor that was more for form than function. Trusting that she'd leave Lumen be, I kept moving past her, rolling at the last moment to recover Orbis, feeling the wind rush past as her trident missed me by a hair's breadth.

Barbata was on to me now, knew I could see through her tricks. I turned to throw, and my opponent was right there. She'd closed the gap to keep me boxed in.

The Sertorian thrust at me with her trident, and I stepped backward, avoiding certain death, then screamed and jumped forward as the field shocked and burned me from behind.

“I'm going to cook you alive,” she said, thrusting again. I couldn't go back. My arms were numb, I could smell the foul stench of my burned hair, and I had only a few seconds before the pain from any nerve damage hit home. There was only one way available. I stepped into the thrust, angling myself to take it on the side. I gasped in pain but managed to lash out with Orbis, cutting her exposed thigh. She retreated. I'd slowed her down, and speed and maneuverability were everything in the arena.

Barbata couldn't get the grin off her face. She thought it was going to end there for me. I was surprised. She was not attacking. There was a flash and she was going to try her trick again. Now it was Marcus, smiling at me, admiration in his eyes, that made my chest tighten. Marcus, whom she just slaughtered. And then he warped and Crassus stood before me, in his prime once more, oozing charm. Depending on what angle I was looking at her, she appeared as Crassus one moment, Marcus the next.

And then the feelings hit me, as Barbata brought out the full strength of her secret weapon. The powerful feelings I had for Crassus, as manipulated as they were, and then the love for Marcus—they hit me like a truck. I couldn't find my fighting spirit; I felt only a tide of emotion. It made me want to drop to my knees and cry. I felt elated, excited, my heart palpitating, my hands shaking. But all those weeks in Crassus' hypnogogic machine had prepared me for this, and my mind responded automatically, by holding on to one fixed truth: Lumen.

I ducked underneath Barbata's thrust, came up on her right side, under her arm, and used both my arms to push her backward. The Sertorian screamed even before she hit the electrified wall. Before she could escape I rammed her with my shoulder, locking her up against the deadly field. Within seconds she caught on fire and I quickly stepped aside, leaving her staggering about before me, dead on her feet. Burning Venus. Another half-a-dozen steps with her snake headdress writhing wildly about, and then she fell to the floor, her body twitching, still on fire.

Hot tears streamed down my cheeks, stinging my eyes. My own blood was now visible, flowing from the wound Barbata had delivered to my side with her trident.

It was all I could do not to sink Orbis into Barbata's body, to cut her face up in revenge as I had before. But I held myself still. I had made an oath to myself as much as to any higher power. This was for the empire. This was for justice. It couldn't be personal. Not like before. This had to be different, or I'd be a lost soul, regardless of whether I won or lost, and maybe, with the entire empire watching my every move, they would too. I had to be the nobility of an empire that had thrown its own dignity aside like an old washcloth, sold it cheap for bread and circuses and the promise of a poisoned chalice of immortality.

Gods! What of Julia? I turned at once, the second my fingers closed about Orbis. Licinus was choking her slowly. Waiting for me to watch. Grinning maliciously when he saw me looking. How could I get to her? I remembered that spinning weakened the field. Marcus had paid with his life to send me that knowledge. The generator for the field was atop the pillar. It was the pivot point that made the fields turn. Would spinning it take the charge off the walls too? I ran to the far end of the cell and threw Orbis as hard as I could, using the arms of the breastplate to help accelerate him on his journey. Orbis hit the far wall, which erupted in a massive shower of sparks and then rebounded, back to my hand. I threw again, and again. Slowly it started to move.

Gradual turning, nothing major. Like a swing, I had to gather momentum, but although I had got it started, I couldn't build up enough momentum all on my own.

“Julia! The central field generator, it's got an engine. Make it turn. Help me!”

I threw again, and all the while Licinus was laughing as he extinguished Julia's life. Her hand was raised, though. She was giving me every last ounce of focus that she could muster. That magic hand that could control machines. Was this what Lumen meant? Was this how she would save the day? And then we were spinning, picking up speed, faster and faster. There was a color shift in the field. Licinus was scowling, and then I threw myself at the wall. It burned and for a moment I thought I was going to be stuck, dead like Barbata, but then I was through, falling to the sand on the other side.

Licinus freed Julia at once, sending her spinning off onto the sand, her face purple and sweating, her hands at her throat as she struggled to breathe in great gulps.

All of the shield barriers faded like morning mist carried away by a breeze, including the one barring entry to the podium.

“Well! The rules say that if it's down to two viable fighters, then the third and final round has commenced,” Julius Gemminus announced. “The first to ascend the pillar of champions is the winner of the arena! Go to!”

But what of Julia? The Sertorians weren't big on odd numbers in their final fights. There. The black-robed figure appeared, moving toward Julia's writhing body with his scythe in hand. Death was coming to finish her off and even things up.

I had two fights on my hands now. I didn't want to engage the black-robed figure if I didn't have to, but he could not be allowed to take my friend.

Julia had more problems than her breathing. The knife wounds the Dioscurii had given her were still open, blood pumping out of the triangular punctures, an aberration of hope and nature, giving the body no chance to heal and close.

I cast Orbis at the reaper, and he vanished suddenly. Gone. No time to worry about where, or if he'd reappear. For the moment Julia was out of harm's way, and I had to focus all my efforts on surviving Licinus. I had underestimated him in the Hyperborean cavern, but I would be more careful this time.

His whip cracked sharply. Face red, his black-and-red armor shredded by Marcus' gladius, he was frightening to behold. Fast, strong, as good an impersonator of Mars as you could hope to find. The spikes that protruded from his armor gleamed in the floodlights.

The whip snaked out fast, aiming for my wounded side. I knocked it away with Orbis, but as we made contact, the whip folded and licked my shoulder, delivering a lancing pain. He grinned maliciously in anticipation of victory. I had nothing left but adrenaline. I cast Orbis, and Licinus knocked him aside quickly with his spear, but on an orbit that returned to me. He was fast, but not like the Dioscurii. The whip lashed out again, the length extending past me. As my weapon returned to my hand, Licinus' whip snaked back, wrapping around my waist. It was an unexpected move. Slowly now, like a boa constrictor, the coils of the whip squeezed me, and with each squeeze, they crushed and pulled, drawing me toward Licinus. He planned to entangle me, draw me in, and then skewer me with his spear. My enemy hadn't factored my armor into the equation, though. I had managed to activate the black bands moments before the whip could close tight, leaving me just enough wiggle room. I let him reel me in. He was playing it up for the crowd, raising his spear in victory, savoring the moment. His eyes locked with mine as the weapon's point came flashing down. Instantly my armor's lapis arms stretched open the whip's coils and pushed them up over my head, blocking the thrust. For that split second, until he could pull his spear back to either attack again or block, he was exposed. I cut at his throat, but he managed to pull away. Changing angle, I succeeded in scoring a long cut up the side of his face, knocking his helmet from his head. He was blinded for an instant, and before he could strike back, I attacked again, a diagonal cut across his right eye. Licinus staggered back, blood weeping from his wounds. One more shot to the throat and he'd be done.

A thundering boom echoed through the arena. Aquilinus had cast an ion bolt! The ground exploded behind me, the force of the impact sending me flying forward and onto Licinus. We both fell to the ground. He rolled me off and tried to mount me. I bucked and threw him over, rolling off to the side and springing up, at the ready.

But he was not fighting. He was already running to the exit. He was fleeing.

“Come back here! Fight, you bastard!” I screamed. “You coward!”

He fled to the sound of the crowd's boos and hisses, and I was left standing in the arena alone. I couldn't believe it, and I couldn't pursue him; I needed to look after Julia.

Kneeling by her side, I could see she was dying. Her breaths were short and ragged, her skin pale but sweaty. She looked up at me with resignation in her eyes. There was some first aid powder in pods on her utility belt. I broke them open and poured the contents over her wounds. She had taken a lot of damage, but the powder did its work and stopped the hemorrhaging.

A shadow fell over her body. The black-robed figure was shuffling toward us.

“You will stand away or I will kill you,” I said to it. “She lives. You'll not take her.”

He hesitated and then moved away. It seemed his orders were to claim only the dead. I took Julia in my arms. We had to keep moving, beyond the bounds of this arena, into the mountains beyond.

“No. The podium,” Julia whispered. “Seize the golden wreath and win it properly, or the people won't follow. It must be done properly.”

I laid her gently back down.

As I walked toward it, Aquilinus' holographic hand stretched above us. Another bolt struck the ground, sending me flying back from the force of impact. No direct hit, but he was making it clear what would happen if I tried to take the victory crown from the podium.

“You have no right to interfere!” I yelled at him.

The arena floor beneath Julia's cell suddenly fell away, forming a ramp that she tumbled down, rolling into whatever lay in the darkness below. It locked into place before I could get back to her. I had saved Julia, but for what? Once again they had her.

I moved toward the center ring, but the shield around the podium, the last shield remaining, had been reactivated. He was denying me victory, like a spoiled child who'd lost at a game and insisted the other children announce him the winner. He wouldn't let me ascend the champion's podium. In response, the ghostly audience were screaming their outrage, the voice of the empire ringing out in chaotic gongs of disapproval.

“Is this how the god-emperor Aquilinus plays?” I yelled to the crowd and the cameras above me. Now that Julia was out of the arena, they could bring their recording toys in close again without fear of them being hijacked. “I'm the only one left! I'm the winner. Your champion has fled the field like the coward he is. I demand you acknowledge me the victor and be done with it.”