Mark of the Thief (6 page)

“No!” Livia screamed. “Let him live, Sal, please. He’s the only family I have left!”

“Slaves don’t get to have families!” Sal said. “Because of your foul brother, that general almost ordered
my
death yesterday. He’s not worth the trouble, not even for you. He’s a curse.”

“I’m not!” I yelled it with more fire than I’d ever felt before, but even then, I knew it was another lie. Maybe Caesar’s ghost wasn’t telling me that the bulla was a curse. Maybe he had said that by wearing the bulla,
I
would become the curse.

By then, the second wagon came rolling into camp, with Caela’s limbs and wings tied up tighter than could possibly be necessary. Tears filled my eyes when I saw her, such a magnificent animal reduced to bondage. Whatever would become of me, I feared that her fate might be no better.

At least it provided a temporary distraction for Sal and the guards, who wandered over to the wagon to get a closer look. I took advantage of the moment to jump from the wagon and run the other way. With my arms still tied, it wasn’t the best way to escape, but it was all I had.

I yelled at Livia to follow me, and at least for a little while, she stayed close. Then her footsteps trailed behind and when I turned to look for her, someone grabbed me around the waist and tackled me to the ground.

Sal.

He wrestled me to my back and knelt on one forearm to hold my arms down, then pulled out his own knife. I saw Livia a few feet away, also on the ground.

“Take this as a warning,” I said with as much anger as I felt. “Once you kill me, I’m going to come back as a Shade. I will haunt you every day of your miserable life. And I’ll enjoy it too.”

Sal’s eyes widened at my threat, then he said, “I’ll have them toss you into the lake and drown your spirit. I will kill everything that is even a memory of you.” He raised the knife and I closed my eyes.

“Sal, I will give you what you want!” Livia yelled. “I will marry you.”

My eyes flew open and I struggled again beneath Sal’s weight. “No!” I cried. As far as I was concerned, Sal was a roach that had crawled from the underworld and taken on human form. He hadn’t done a good job of it either — the resemblance was far too close. If she married him, Livia’s life would only grow worse than it already was, and I would never,
never
accept him as part of our family.

But she had Sal’s attention now and he lowered the knife. Livia walked to Sal and fell to her knees beside him. “Let my brother live,” she said, folding her hand around his arm holding the knife. “And when I come of age next year, I will be yours.”

Sal put his hand over hers and my stomach lurched. When they both got to their feet, I could finally breathe again, though the air smelled like Sal, fetid enough to make me retch. The guards who had been with Caela returned and dragged me to my feet, waiting for their orders.

“No!” I said again to Livia. “You must not marry him.”

“It’ll save your life.” Tears filled her eyes. “This is the only way.”

Something about Sal’s widening smile made me nervous. With a quick glance to Livia, he said, “That bird in the wagon will go to Rome, as my gift to the emperor. Nic will go with it, as part of the games in a few days.” Now his eyes fixed on mine. “
I
will not kill you, Nic, but I will come to the games and see what sort of fun the empire has with your life there. I doubt you will last ten minutes in that arena.”

Livia cried out and pled for Sal to change his mind, but he had kept his promise by allowing me to live, and would not be persuaded to do anything more. I yelled out in protest and fought with everything I had, but the guards threw me into the wagon and bound me to it with chains.

“Let me talk to him one last time!” Livia was sobbing now. “Mother wanted him to know —”

But by then, the guards had already begun driving me away, and her words were drowned out in the noise. I didn’t fight anymore after that. My shoulder throbbed, I was numb with worry for Livia, and I was terrified of what lay ahead for me.

As we rode away in the waning light, I saw a wagon approach the mines, bearing a flag marked with the house of Valerius. Even from here, Crispus’s curly blond hair was visible. They had come, just as the senator had promised. But they were too late.

W
e rode throughout a warm night, and were greeted in the early morning hours by dark skies that threatened rain. I didn’t mind rain, especially in these hot summer months, but I dreaded the idea of the storm growing worse. Perhaps the only thing I ever preferred about living in the mines was it allowed me to stay deep underground during thunderstorms. During the lightning.

Our wagon finally stopped just outside the walls of Rome. The guards had sent a rider ahead to arrange my sale and a meeting place, but I couldn’t see who had just bought me until he came around the back of the wagon and ordered me out.

My new owner was a handsome man who had the dark hair and eyes of an Arabian, and he had an intelligence about him that made me wary. I watched him carefully, hoping to get an idea for what kind of a master he would be. I didn’t need much. In fact at this point, I’d have been satisfied with anyone who kept me alive, based on Valerius’s warning. Once my new owner shook hands with the guard who had arranged my sale, he walked up and looked me over, the way he might examine a newly purchased horse. It was part of the process of acquiring a slave, I knew that, and yet I felt like little more than an animal beneath such coarse treatment. At least he untied the ropes around my wrists. That showed some sign of honor in him.

“My name is Felix,” he said. “I will be your master, but I am also a servant to Emperor Tacitus, ruler of the Roman Empire. So anything you do for me will also be a kindness to him.”

I didn’t care. I had no loyalty to Emperor Tacitus. Nor to Felix, for that matter. But I did understand that my only hope of avoiding the lion’s jaws in the arena was to make myself useful to him.

“And you’re Nic?”

“Nicolas Calva.”

He chuckled. “How did a slave get such a fine name? Will you add a
cognomen
to your title once you’re in Rome? Nicolas Calva Magnus perhaps? Are you grand enough for a title like that?”

“No, sir.” I glanced up at him with a grin. “Not yet.”

“Well, Nicolas Calva, you look hungry.”

I was always hungry, but for now, I said, “I’m thirsty.” I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had something to drink, and my mouth tasted like sand.

“We’ll get on the road soon, and I’ll have water for you then, all right?”

I nodded. My respect for Felix was growing.

Sal’s guards began helping a girl transfer Caela into a caravan wagon. Even though her ropes weren’t yet untied, Caela was already squawking with irritation. That concerned me, but for the moment, my attention was more on the girl.

Strange as it may sound, except for Livia, I had rarely seen any girls my own age. Girls who were born into the mines were quickly sold away, and the few women who were kept there to cook and tend to our wounds were usually widows of other miners. Livia only stayed because of Sal’s fondness for her. So although I tried not to stare at the girl, I wasn’t doing a very good job.

Her light brown hair was worn long and pulled away from her face. Her tunic was simple like mine, though a bit longer and in much better condition. Around her neck was a small
crepundia
, decorated with small wood carvings and trinkets that would have been made for her when she was a baby. I found it odd that she still wore it. She was working for Felix, so she wasn’t a patrician, but she had a knife at her belt, so I doubted she was a slave either. She must be a plebian, then. I liked the idea of having her life one day, not bound to any master, but no master of others either.

“Her name’s Aurelia and she’s as cuddly as a rabid bear,” Felix said, following my gaze. “She’ll be guarding you on the way into Rome, and you won’t want to cross with her.”

I’d already crossed with a griffin, and based on the sting in my shoulder, I’d lost that fight. I didn’t need to take on anyone who was compared to a bear. As if she had overheard us, Aurelia paused from her work to glare at me. I pretended not to notice, mostly because it would probably annoy her.

Felix continued, “I work in the
venatio
. Do you know what that is?”

It was the animal show that took place in the arena before the gladiator battles. Several of the miners had attended those games before and often described them to me while we worked. Some animals were put on display or taught to do tricks — since Caela was so rare, that’s what I figured she’d be asked to do. But most of the animals were made to fight one another, just as the gladiators did. The more brutal the show, and the more blood that was spilled, the louder Rome cheered.

When I nodded, Felix said, “Our next games are in two days, but I’m wondering if I’ll be able to keep the griffin for even the next two minutes.”

The guards were trying to pull Caela from the wagon, while Aurelia held the caravan door open. Caela was resisting the tugs on her ropes, then suddenly screeched and flared out her wings, breaking her bonds. Aurelia pulled out a knife and ran forward, but Caela swatted her to the ground and leapt from the wagon. Sal’s pathetic guards ran in fear and in seconds Caela had already driven them away, but Aurelia was trapped.

I ran forward and waved my arms while moving closer to Caela to calm her. Caela squawked at Aurelia, whose knife was still tight in her grip.

“Put that away!” I said. “You’re making her angry!”

“I’m making
her
angry?” Aurelia said. “She attacked me!”

I turned on my heel and yelled, “Then stop looking like someone who expects a fight. Put that knife away! I’ll manage the griffin!”

Aurelia opened her mouth to object, then shoved her knife into its sheath and backed away. More gently now, I turned to Caela and pointed to Felix’s caravan. “That’s for both of us. I’ll go in with you.”

Caela pawed at the ground, then walked with me up the short ramp and into the caravan. Once we were in, Felix said, “Nic, come back out.”

“I’d better stay with the griffin.”

“No. Come out
now
.”

He was eyeing me suspiciously, which made me nervous. But he had also promised me water, and I wouldn’t do anything that interfered with getting some. So I went down the ramp again and stood in front of him.

“I saw a tear in your tunic.”

My hand brushed against my side where the bulla was hidden. “There are several tears in it, sir. Perhaps you can get me a new tunic.”

“I might have to, because I thought I saw …” He put a hand on my shoulder, exactly where the strap of the bulla lay. I lowered my eyes, hoping he wouldn’t think anything of it, but knowing full well he would be curious. He reached beneath the tunic, pinched the strap between his thumb and forefinger, frowned at me, and then said, “Turn around.”

I didn’t want to. Valerius’s warning still rang in my ears, of the danger of showing anyone the scratch … or the mark. I wasn’t sure exactly what was there now.

But refusing a master would only earn me a bare-backed whipping, which would reveal the bulla faster. So I turned, expecting the worst. He widened the tear in the tunic until he could better see what he was looking for and even ran a finger over the scratch. I flinched when he did. Not because it hurt, exactly, but his touch sent a spark into my chest that forced me to move.

“Did the griffin do that?” he asked.

I didn’t answer. I didn’t want him to think Caela was dangerous, or else she might not be given to the emperor. I knew her fate if the emperor refused her.

He grunted and turned me to face him again. “Your master said I’d have no problem with you, but I’m beginning to doubt that.”

“I won’t cause any trouble.” I meant the words, but they still sounded untrue. Especially with the problem already hanging from a strap around my shoulder, which bore a scratch that people would kill for.

Felix frowned, and then grabbed my arm as a passing merchant jokingly called over to him, “Your new slave is young, Felix. Let’s hope this one isn’t also eaten by tigers.”

Though the man who had spoken laughed loudly, it was hardly a joke. My head shot up. “Also?”

“The tigers are not your biggest problem right now.” Felix pushed me back up the ramp and into a corner of the caravan where he clamped a manacle down on one leg. “Stay quiet, if you know what’s good for you.”

“You said I’d get water!” I called. “Please!”

Felix called for Aurelia to come over. “Don’t get close to that boy, but keep an eye on him.”

Once she was inside, he closed and locked the door behind us.

“You promised me water!” I yelled. And when he didn’t respond, I drove my elbow into the side of the caravan, wanting him to know how angry I was. How desperate my thirst.

Across from me, Aurelia gasped, and then I saw why. My elbow had left a deep dent in the metal wall. I couldn’t explain how. I only knew that I had done it.

She pulled out her knife and faced me as the caravan began to drive. “Stay away from me,” she muttered. “You’re cursed.”