Praetorian Series [3] A Hunter and His Legion (68 page)

I forced myself not to drop my head at his comment.

But it was difficult.

“You don’t have to do this, General,” Vincent said from beside me.  “We’ve gathered new information.  A new strategy can be formulated.  We can help you set your world straight again.”

Galba looked at him not unkindly.  “I always found you a sound thinker, Vincent, and Caligula was most fond of your council when he was still alive, as I was as well, but you cannot possibly understand the pressure I am under to regain control of our situation.  Rome’s power over its empire hangs by little more than a thread.  It is fractured, disjointed, and I need Agrippina to bring it ba
ck under control.  Vespasian as well.”  He settled back in his horse, almost uncomfortably.  “And I no longer desire your interference.  You need not die here in this uncivilized wilderness, but you can no longer be allowed to meddle.  I refuse to allow it.”

I took a breath, unable to foresee a desirable end to this conversation
.

Galba no lo
nger cared about the orbs and wouldn’t see our ability to harness them as an advantage he could use.  All he wanted was for us to become a non-factor in his world, so that he could retake control of its direction.  He no longer wanted to use us, or harness us.  All he wanted was to push us into a corner where we couldn’t affect anything.

And I couldn’t blame him.

But we could go home now.  All I needed was a little more time and the freedom to go back to Rome.  But here was Galba, standing in our way, having just declared war on us.  We’d probably beat him in a fight, even with his overwhelming numerical superiority, but there’d be a lot of dead bodies when the dust settled, and some of those bodies could be Santino’s or Vincent’s.

One of
those bodies could be Helena’s.

Or my own.

And Galba wasn’t wrong in all this.  That truth only made our situation worse.  And even more horrible was that I couldn’t think of anything I could say or do to change his mind or keep this from ending in death.  Even with my mind as clear as it’s been in months, I couldn’t think of a way out of this.  I couldn’t think of a single thing to do.

Except one thing.

I looked at Galba, whose eyes were drilling into my own, and raised my arms.  “We surrender, Galba.  Give me your word that we won’t be harmed and we’ll step aside.  We’ll let you take us back to Rome under guard.”

“What?!”  Agrippina exclaimed,
clearly surprised.

Galba, however, looked at me evenly but he didn’t seem
convinced.  “You have rarely offered me a reason to trust you, Hunter.  Why should I now?”

I shot an arm out to point at our camp again.  “I’ve got a guy over there that could kill you right now if I wanted him to.  You know that’s true.”

He sneered at me.  “All too well.”

“And
yet you’re still alive,” I said.  “Just trust me, Galba.  You say I can’t imagine the pressure you’re under?  Well, you can’t even begin to imagine what I just experienced no more than a few hours ago.  Everything is different now.  I’m comfortable stepping aside and letting you do what you need to do.  Just promise me we won’t be harmed and that when the dust settles, you’ll let us go.”

“
What are you…” Agrippina started to say, but I cut her off with an upraised hand.

Galba noticed the gesture and after a moment’s thought, nodded.

“I cannot guarantee your release at a later date, but I can ensure your protection if you come willingly.”

“We will.  You have my word.”

“You had best keep it this time, Hunter,” Galba said as he wheeled his horse around.  “You have until daybreak to prepare.”

“Yes, sir,” I said to his r
etreating back as he led his officers back to their lines, but only Fabius offered me a respectful nod before turning to leave.

“He’ll be back…”
Santino said in an excessively deep voice.

I smacked him on the ar
m, and he jumped at the contact as I turned and walked back to camp.  Agrippina maneuvered her horse in my direction to fall in step.

“
Have you completely lost control of your mind?”  She demanded.

“Not this time actually,” I said with a smirk as I
strutted back toward the camp, pleased with my cool head and immediate acceptance of my own decision.

“You have sentenced me to death, Hunter!”  She exclaimed.  “Galba will no doubt try me for treason and have me
crucified.”

“Maybe,” I replied
, “maybe not.”

“Explain.”

“In a bit,” I said.  “Let’s get the band back together again and have a little talk first.”

***

Everyone but Helena was present as I explained everything.

Everything
.

Some
of them made connections to things they’d known before, while others failed to associate their prior knowledge with anything I’d said at all, and some figured things out for the very first time, while even others came away more confused than before.  Some were interested.  Some were not.  But by the time I was done, everyone wanted to know more.

“How are you going to find the red orb?”  Cuyler asked first.

“Why would he give such power to children?”  Bordeaux asked.

“Who or what is a Merlin?”  Agrippina demanded with crossed arms, clearly the one to understand the least.

“The Multiverse!  I knew it!”  Artie exclaimed.  “I just knew it!”

“It is difficult to believe
how accurate Romulus and Remus’ origin story is to the mythology,” Vincent muttered.

“You can barely control the blue orb.  How are you going to work both?”  A good point from Stryker.

Gaius and Marcus shared knowing nods, both saying, “I told you gods were real.”

“After all of that and you still can’t help us??”  Archer asked, shaking his fist at me.

“Describe the bikini part again,” Santino demanded, and Artie smacked him.

“How could your vision have been so
vivid?”  Boudicca asked, almost as confused as Agrippina.

“You met Merlin? 
King Arthur’s Merlin?  Mum is never going to believer this…” Wang said, his head shaking side to side.

“How could a pair of balls have that kind of power?”
  Brewster wondered, a hand cupping her chin.

I barely heard
any of these questions as they came at me all at once, followed by a string of more, coming fast and without pause.  Everyone spoke over one another and certain people started picking fights with those closest to them who had differing opinions. 

Agrippina was arguing with Vincent about what was known to the general public about Romulus and Remus’ origin. 

Archer continued to threaten me while Artie tried to placate him with her own explanations, derived from a sharp mind that naturally knew more than I about time travel and alternate realities than mine did.

Wang tried to convince
Boudicca that western Britain was superior to eastern Britain, and that it alone had contributed to the mysticism I’d just experienced.  Boudicca argued it had only aggravated our problem and was the home of superstitious pansies.

Stryker tried to convince Santino that Agrippina would look far better in a bikini than Artie – right in front of them
both, not to mention me – but Santino wasn’t hearing any of it.

Brewster
tried to argue with anyone around her, but no one seemed to be listening.

Only Cuyler and Bordeaux kept to themselves, maybe understanding that they couldn’t accomplish anything by speaking over each other.  Cuyler seemed a pretty pensive guy anyway, but Bordeaux was perhaps less than enthused about the idea of our apparent newfound ability to
go home.  He, along with Vincent, had made a home here in antiquity, and was perhaps nervous about what the orbs meant for his ability to remain here with Madrina when this was all over.

I listened to them all, hearing their points, their counter points, their arguments and opinions, hearing their voic
es rise and grow angrier or more scared.

It was all becoming too much, and I rubbed my temples to try and soothe the pain that was growing in my mind.  It had nothing to do wi
th the orb, just simple fatigue and the stress and annoyance of a bunch of bickering friends too wrapped up in their own thoughts to tackle the real problem.

“
Enough!
”  I yelled, literally at the top of my lungs.

Conversations died down all around me and faces turned to regard me.  I looked at each
and every one of them, taking my time before moving on to the next, trying to instill in them the idea that there was only one person who had actually met Merlin, and only one person who had seen and understood everything.

That person was me.

“Enough,” I repeated, calmly this time.  “Every one of your discussions is moot.  Galba is going to take us in and we’re just going to relax for a while.”

“Unacceptable!”  Agrippina snapped.

“We won’t let him take you away from us,” I assured.  “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you’re with us now.  You’re more than welcome to sit on the sidelines too.”

She tightened her arms around her chest and nodded, but she did not look happy.

“I’m surprised at your decision, Jacob,” Vincent said.  “I didn’t think you’d be so willing to surrender.  Especially when we’re so close now.”

I grinned triumphantly
, raising a hand in Cuyler’s direction.  “Gunny there asked a pretty good question.  How do we find the red orb?  Well, I’m not exactly sure, but I know where to start.  Any guesses?”

There were none.

“Rome,” I said.

Vincent smiled.  “Ah.”

I dipped my head, but Agrippina looked even more frustrated.  “Were you baiting him from the beginning then?”

I shook my head.  “Not at all, but it was a good assumption that he’d simply take us back to Rome
since he needs to go there anyway if he’s going to bring us to trial.  Galba’s a lot of things, but unpredictable he is not.”

“It seems you weigh the risk placed on my life quite lightly in your decisions,” she accused.

“After everything you’ve done to us, do you blame him?”  Vincent asked steadily, a surprising rebuke from the normally understanding man.

Agrippina stared icily at him, but her gaze didn’t linger long.  With a twirl of her cloak she retreated from our small circle and back to her tent.

“Why do dramatic exits always make me nervous?”  Wang asked.

It was a good question.  One I should take
to heart.  Agrippina’s done a lot in recent time to gain some trust in us, but it was risky to assume she was completely without ulterior motivations.

I heard Vincent take in a deep breath, and I turned to him.

“What is it?”  I asked.

“I’m not sure,
” he said.  “All this just seems a bit convenient, does it not?”

I smiled.  “I said the same thing to Merlin. 
Deus ex machina,
right?”

He nodded.

“Deus ex what?”  Santino asked.

“It means ‘god from the machine,’” Vincent explained.  “An old Greek term, but also a lite
rary plot device that describes something exceedingly convenient that happens to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem, usually in a contrived or vague way.”

Santino smiled too.  “Ah, well that sounds about right then.”

“Yeah, but there are no writers here to back us into the proverbial corner,” I mentioned.  “All this Merlin stuff may seem convenient, but I’m willing to bet there’s more to his story than he let on, and that it would be best to expect anything.  Even now. 
Especially
now.”

“Sound thinking, Jacob,” Bordeaux said, his first words since returning to camp.

I nodded to him, but my thoughts strayed back to Agrippina.  I sympathized with her reticence over our newfound peace with Galba, but I felt appeasing her could wait for now.  I was too exhausted to think about it anyway.  I hadn’t had a moment to myself since returning from my time with Merlin, and I was exhausted.  I may have been immobile and unconscious for the last month, but that didn’t mean I’d spent that time in a restive state.  Anything but, it seemed, and as Agrippina finally disappeared behind a row of tents, I found myself about ready to collapse.  My head grew light and empty, entering a preparatory state for sleep’s swift arrival.

As though accepting this fa
te, my knees grew weak and my eyes closed on their own, and I knew I’d be asleep well before I hit the ground.  In most moments when I felt as I did now, I was often scared or angry, aware that in the instances when consciousness was forcibly taken from me, it was because of some outside and often belligerent source.  But not this time.  This time I was simply collapsing from sheer exhaustion brought on by the most intense, revealing, and interesting episode of my entire life.