Mark of the Thief (24 page)

It was a terrible plan. But better than what I had now, which was no plan at all, so I scooted aside to make room for her arrow. She shot it, but instead of hitting the tree, it arced to the right, heading straight for me.

I ducked as it flew past me, grazing my hair. “I forgot how not helpful you can be!”

She glared at Crispus. “He shoved me!”

Crispus only shrugged. “You’re up there to learn magic, not to be rescued by a girl.”

“You’re right.” Then I leaned down as far as I dared. “Aurelia, do that again.”

“Are you insane? No!”

“A day ago, I wouldn’t have had to ask you to shoot me.”

“A day ago, you deserved it.”

I shook my head. “Listen, I felt something when the arrow went by. If you want to help, then shoot me.”

Aurelia began muttering under her breath. I couldn’t hear the words, but Crispus was chuckling, so I was pretty sure it was a string of insults about me. She drew another arrow, aimed directly at me, and let it fly. The arrow whooshed past me. I heard it move through the air and even watched its spin. Every feather on the shaft was as clear as if I were studying it up close. The arrow wasn’t moving any slower than usual, but I saw it that way as it flew past me. As soon as that one passed, she sent another one. This time when the arrow approached, I reached out for it. I felt it brush through my fingers, but then it was gone.

In the attempt, I lost my balance and my hold on the rope and began falling. Air rushed through my hair and I was pretty sure Aurelia and Crispus were yelling at each other to help me, though there would be nothing they could do. I crashed through some lower branches as the ground came ever closer, ripping away the remnants of the bandage on my arm. I sent out all the magic in me, with no thought in my mind except to slow my fall. But when the magic hit the tree above me, all I heard was a terrible cracking sound.

I landed hard on my back, and directly on my wounded arm, which exploded with pain. But there wasn’t a moment to waste, for the tree was already beginning to tip.

“Run!” Aurelia yelled.

“Nic!” Crispus sounded panicked, but kept running. I got to my feet just in time to see the trunk of the tree and its load of tangled bricks coming directly at me.

N
ic! Nic!” Aurelia was screaming my name. She and Crispus were pushing at the tree, trying to move it off me, but it was as large as a ship and they were having no luck. Then she shushed Crispus. “What is that sound? Nic, are you laughing?”

I couldn’t help it. Nor could I remember a time in years when I’d laughed so hard. This entire situation was so completely ridiculous, what else was there to do? Of course I was laughing.

Finally, I squirmed around until I was in a better position, then with my back braced against the ground, I pushed up on the trunk with my legs. The bulla was doing the work, I knew that, but it was still amazing to feel the weight shift. I rotated my hips to get the thickest branches off me, and then pushed at them with my arms.

Once he saw me, Crispus twisted his body between the smaller branches until he could offer a hand to help me up.

“How did you survive that?” His eyes were wide with amazement. “You should’ve been crushed.”

“I just stopped it.” Which was all the explanation I could offer. “When the trunk fell, I grabbed hold and pushed back.”

Crispus grinned. “It’s exactly what we thought last night. You have the powers of the goddess Diana, her strength, her ability to communicate with animals. She can heal people.” His eye traveled to my injured arm. “Nic, she can heal herself.”

By now, the wound felt hotter than the bulla ever did, and I held out my arm to show him. “Does this look like I can heal myself?”

“Maybe you haven’t tried.” Aurelia’s eyes brightened.

“I don’t know how!”

“Then I’ll have to treat it tonight. I’ll be scrubbing that arm for hours, and hours” — her grin turned wicked — “and hours.”

That was motivation enough. I closed my eyes and thought about the wound, the way it constantly burned and ached. For a moment, nothing happened, but I focused my thoughts even further, and connected them to the warmth of the bulla. Once I did, the feeling of magic rushed through me, wrapping itself around the entire arm like a stiff wool blanket.

“You’re doing it!” Aurelia whispered.

I cheated enough to peek at the wound with one eye. A glow no brighter than the bulla’s had surrounded the wound and was carrying the infectious heat away. But it wasn’t only the bulla’s magic. I felt the mark on my shoulder at work and knew Radulf could sense it too. He said nothing, but I felt he was pleased. That bothered me, and I had to break from those thoughts to keep focused on my arm. When I looked again, I saw the skin closing back together, leaving only a thin red scar.

Beside me, both Crispus and Aurelia gasped. For my part, I couldn’t believe what had happened. I shook my arm, expecting the wound to somehow reveal itself again, but not only was the limb as good as ever before, I was certain that it felt stronger.

Aurelia grabbed my arm to examine it for herself. When she looked up at me again, her smile was wide. “You didn’t need the emotion this time. You just did the magic!”

“You have more power than you think,” Crispus said proudly. “That’s why you’ll defeat Radulf, when the time comes.”

“He knows the magic in the Divine Star much better than I do.”

“But you have that same mark,” Aurelia said. “You can learn the same magic.”

“Let’s test it,” Crispus said. “Take off the bulla. We’ll concentrate on only using that mark.”

“I won’t do that.” Radulf’s presence in my mind had vanished the moment my arm had healed, and I wasn’t about to invite him back again. “Radulf knows when I use the mark, but not when I use the bulla. I’ll practice using the bulla, but I won’t do anything with the Divine Star unless I have to.”

Aurelia and Crispus shrugged at each other, then Crispus said, “All right, but I don’t want to risk being crushed by any more trees. Let’s work on a smaller scale.”

So for the rest of the afternoon, we did. They had me try to start a fire, which after two hours of concentration only produced a whiff of smoke. I mentioned that it was better than me exploding something, and although Crispus agreed, I did wonder if he’d rather have seen the explosion. Aurelia suggested a different tactic, and had me try to move the fallen tree without touching it. I tried, pouring every ounce of strength I had into making it move the slightest inch, but nothing happened. Nor could I throw a rock when they asked me to, or even raise it into the air.

“It seems that we can have either total destruction or nothing.” Crispus sounded as discouraged as I felt.

Or rather, I was having trouble feeling much of anything at all. I was exhausted. Through slurred words, I said, “Releasing the whole of my magic is like sending a boulder down a hill. But controlling it is like keeping the boulder from rolling. Much harder.”

“We can’t keep pushing him like this,” Aurelia said.

“The magic makes him stronger,” Crispus argued.

“Yes, but it also pulls strength from me!” I said. “You might not see me working, but I am.”

“Then let’s rest,” Crispus said. “We won’t make progress otherwise.”

Rustling sounds startled all of us to attention. Aurelia pulled out her knife, but quickly put it away when Valerius appeared in the field, accompanied by a host of servants with food and drink.

“I thought you might want some refreshment,” he said.

Aurelia walked forward before it occurred to me that he had intended the food for all of us. So after a short hesitation I joined her, but noticed the senator motion for Crispus to stand aside with him for a private conversation. His servants offered us trays of hard-boiled eggs, figs, and some dried fish. I was eager to eat all of it, but my attention was distracted by Crispus and his father. The lines in Valerius’s face seemed deeper than usual and I didn’t like the way Crispus was nodding. The conversation obviously involved me, and I hated being kept out of it.

“What do you suppose Crispus is saying?” Aurelia whispered.

“That at best, my magic is uncontrollable, and at worst it’s completely useless. They’re having doubts about me, and rightly so.”

Aurelia smiled grimly. “I know you’re trying.”

“Trying isn’t good enough,” I said. “Not for what’s coming. That’s what Crispus is telling his father.”

Valerius put a hand on Crispus’s shoulder, told him one more thing at which Crispus only shrugged, then Valerius turned to me. “Let’s take a short walk. Crispus and Aurelia can rest here.”

I wanted to point out that if anyone deserved a rest, it was me. But maybe that wasn’t fair. Crispus and Aurelia were doing their best to help me produce magic, and running from it whenever I succeeded. They had to be exhausted too.

I walked with Valerius into the main part of his vineyard. The vines were thick with ripening grapes, creating a sweet perfume in the air that I loved to inhale and hold inside until I drew my next breath.

Valerius obviously had more serious matters on his mind. Once we were far from any listening ears, he said, “I’m sorry I was called away this morning. I had hoped to be here to help in your training.”

“I just need more time. It might take years for me to learn this.”

“Nonsense. Crispus tells me you healed that wound in your arm. I can see for myself that it’s even better than I would have thought possible.”

“Healing a wound isn’t the same as fighting with magic! When I try to fight, the bulla does nothing. And when I simply react out of fear or anger, then it does far more than I intend. Either way is dangerous.”

“Doing nothing is equally dangerous. Have you considered that? The Roman Empire is at stake. Either we get the key, or Horatio will hand it over to Radulf. We need your magic. Whether you have too much, or not enough, you are the only chance the empire has.”

If that speech was supposed to make me feel better, it failed in every possible way. Even if I was the only chance, that still didn’t mean I had any chance at all. If today had proved anything, it’s that I wasn’t strong enough to stop Radulf, or save an empire. No, I was the person who, only hours earlier, had toppled a tree on himself.

Valerius sighed. “The reason I was called away this morning was for a Senate meeting, and I’m sure you can guess at the conversation. Senator Horatio is very eager to find you. He’s doubled the reward for anyone who brings you in, and made his intentions for you clear. My spies tell me Horatio wants to announce his loyalties in public, so that all of Rome hears of it. We believe he’ll do it at the games in two days.”

I caught a worried glance from Aurelia and turned away from her and asked, “Two days! No, I need more time!”

“We’ll have to go to the games and stop him there. If you can defeat Radulf on the arena floor, Horatio won’t have the chance to make his announcement.”

“Which would be a wonderful idea,
if
I could control the magic!”

“You will learn to master it.” The frown on Valerius’s face deepened. “But remember, even if you don’t succeed against Radulf, you must stop Horatio. At any price.”

I stepped back and shook my head. No, my freedom would not come at
any
price. Even saving Rome would not happen if it meant I had to blur the shades of right and wrong. And it bothered me that Valerius saw things differently.

Either Valerius didn’t notice my objection, or he didn’t care. “I can feel success coming closer,” he said. “Nic, once you do this, you will stand at my side as a hero of Rome.”

“No, sir. Once I do this, I will find my sister and leave Rome. But to do what I must, I need the griffin. I wouldn’t have escaped last time without her, and I need her again now.”

Valerius lowered his eyes. “That’s not possible.”

“I can talk to her. I’ll convince her to come and help me. All I have to do is figure out where she is now.”

“We know where she is.” Valerius hesitated a moment — far too long — before he continued. “She’s taken over the baths near the Appian Way. Nobody will go in there because she’s still dangerous, but they say it doesn’t matter anyway because of the wound in her wing. She can’t fly, and she can’t hunt. Your griffin is dying.”