Praetorian Series [4] All Roads Lead to Rome (37 page)

“You are such a fool, Jacob Hunter,” Remus said from behind me.

I was about to reply when I was yanked to my feet by the collar of my MOLLE vest again and thrown against the wall of a nearby building.  The back of my head slammed against it and stars flashed before my eyes.  I fell to the ground in a daze and hadn’t the foresight to protect my head again.  I fell to my side and it slammed against the ground, but before the pain could truly settle in, Remus had me up again and propped against the wall.

My head swam, my body ached, and my eyes stung from tears and sweat, but still I managed to find Agrippina peaking over Boudicca’s shoulder.

“And… you, Agrippina?”  I croaked, my throat barely able to form words around Remus’ clenched hand at my throat.

“Be silent, Jacob,” she said, cowering behind Boudicca, her eyes tense.  “Do as he commands and he will stop hurting you.

It was difficult to believe her, but there had been an odd shift in her eyes as she spoke, another suggestion that she was trying to say more than her words alone.  It seemed possible that she had been duped by Remus as well, used for no other reason than to bring me here, but I didn’t think Agrippina would fall so easily into such a trap.  She was always looking for new avenues to obtain power, and Remus was certainly a broad inroad. She’d have a way out, an exit strategy. 

I turned away from her and looked back at Remus, my vision blurrier than before, perhaps because my eyes were beginning to swell shut, but I wasn’t surprised to see that his rage certainly hadn’t diminished.  His endgame was clear, his next move obvious, but I wouldn’t be a part of it.

“I won’t help you,” I said.  “You can have Agrippina threaten Boudicca all you want, but I won’t do a thing to help you.  You’ll kill her no matter what I do, help or not.  So you’ll just have to go ahead and kill us both.  Just get it over with.”

Remus leaned in close, only inches from my face.  “Threatening you with her death is not my intention.  She has proven resourceful and merely needs to be contained.  Threatening you requires a focus on someone else.”

I knew who he meant.  “You’ll never find her.  She’s trained to hide from shitheads like you.  I don’t care how advanced you are; you’ll never find her.”

He pulled back an inch or two.  “You misunderstand me, Jacob Hunter.  I have no need to waste time searching for your beloved sniper.  She is irrelevant.  There’s only one individual I need threaten to break your will.”

“Who?”  I asked.

Remus smiled toothily, the first real sign of amusement I’d seen from him.  “You.”

He released me and I watched dizzily as Remus stepped away, bent over to retrieve the fallen orbs, and held them up like trophies for me to see, holding them both in just one of his massive hands.

“You really are quite lucky you found the blue orb, Jacob,” Remus said as he gazed at them.  “The red may have left you as little more than a smoldering puddle of flesh, blood, and bone by now, or turned you into something monstrous.  It is a vile device on its own, and I am glad it was Romulus’.”

His eyes flicked up at mine, but he wasted no time before hurling the red orb off into the distance, far beyond my ability to see where it had landed.  It had been an impressive feat, effortless, like watching a teenage Clark Kent kick a football into orbit.  In one instant it had been in his hand, the next, it was out of sight.

What was more, the red orb’s disappearance left me alone with the blue orb.  My orb.  My lovely, beautiful blue orb.  The orb that filled me with such invigorating and rejuvenating energy.  Basking in its glow, I felt strength return and pain recede.  I breathed in deeply and loudly, feeling my body straighten, my posture improve, and my mind clear.

I opened my eyes and smiled at Remus.

“Amazing, is it not?”  He asked.  “The energy emanating from this object is quite mystifying.  Is it purposeful or a flaw in its design?  Are we being bathed in the actual radiation of a star or, perhaps, one of the infinite black holes it is connected with?  Is it even possible for such a thing to control a man’s mind?  Extraordinary…”

I breathed deeply through my nose as though sampling a bouquet of flowers.  “Certainly is.”

Remus nodded.  “But unlike me, you have no resistance to its power and have grown addicted to it.  It consumes you.  The red orb acted as a counterbalance… for a time, but now it is gone, leaving you connected with the blue.  Have you any idea what will happen to you should you lose the blue orb now as well?”

I shrugged, not caring.  “Not a clue.”

Remus sighed.  “It would be so easy to control you in this state, but the desire to torment you remains appealing.  So tell me, Jacob Hunter, are you aware of the term: cold turkey?”

Of course I was aware of the term, but before I could answer, I watched as Remus flicked his arm again, sending the blue orb far and away from us.  I watched it go, curious as to why Remus would throw away something so beautiful.

And then, without warning, my world was engulfed in an inferno of pain.

The ground flew up and smashed me in the face again, and I laid there writhing and wrenching in agony, convulsing, screaming, wailing, and shrieking, those very acts making the pain even worse.  Every single action had a painful and equally violent reaction.  When I screamed, my lungs burned.  When I clenched my eyes shut, my eyelids felt like they were being sliced off.  When I opened them, it felt as though my eyes themselves were being gauged out.  When I clenched my fist, it was crushed.  When I opened my hand, my fingers were torn off one by one.

All this happened at once, and over and over.  All this and more.  Every pain was felt alone and stacked atop another.  It was worse than a nightmare, it was pure evil designed to kill me through pain and pain alone.

Somewhere in my brain I had the ability to rationalize all of this, yet, none of it made sense to me or seemed possible.  I was barely cognizant of that fact, the pain working its way directly into my bones and every synapse in my brain.  The very act of thinking seemed to bring on fresh and more creative ways to torment me.

I barely had enough in me to realize Remus was kneeling over me.  “The pain won’t kill you, Jacob.  You will have ample time to think on your decision while we retrieve the orbs.”

***

Time passed, pain consumed.  Up was down, down was up, both were hellish phenomena I wanted nothing more to do with.  The ground moved beneath me.  It felt like I was flying, but I was too weak to even scream anymore let alone levitate.  All I could do was shudder, jerk, and convulse instinctively as something propelled me forward.  Faces passed through my vision, the ground came up and smacked me in the face again, and…

And then the pain was gone.

At least, new attempts to generate unique forms of torture were gone. 

The remnants of the beating from before lingered.

I flopped onto my back, growing more comfortable with every passing moment, sucking in huge gulps of air as I struggled to regain my senses.  The earth beneath me was soft and felt of freshly cut grass, but I had little time for rest before a number of hands clawed at me, picking me up, and dragging me behind them.  A moment later, I was thrown onto my back again and I took another long moment to drink in the aroma of the morning dew beginning to collect on each individual blade of grass.  I turned onto my belly and opened my eyes, immediately spying the twin orbs resting benignly in front of me.

Then a thought occurred to me.

They were
right
there.

I could take them and go home in the blink of an eye.  I’d done it once before already, and I knew I could do it again.  I could just go home and forget everything that’s happened, or try to find a way back to an earlier point along the timeline where I could avert this whole disaster.  I…

An immense, bare foot stomped suddenly on the ground between me and the orbs, and I looked up to see Remus’ face staring down at me.

“I will crush your hands well before you reach them,” he warned.  “Do not attempt any heroics, Jacob Hunter.  We are both well aware of how that generally turns out for you.”

I pulled my hand away and rolled onto my back again, glaring at him through puffy eyes and a body that ached and ached.  “Fuck you.”

He sniffed out a quick laugh.  “Resistant to the end.  How commendable.  Now, rise.”

I did as I was told, but slowly, forcing myself to my knees first and then my feet.  I swayed in place for a moment as I regained my balance, a difficult task since I felt about as bad as someone who had just been struck by lightning.

Worse, probably.

Glancing to my left, I found Agrippina still with Boudicca but they were no longer intertwined together.  Instead, a pair of burly Praetorians held Boudicca down on her knees while Agrippina stood behind her, neither woman looking particularly pleased.  It was then that I also noticed our Praetorian contingent had also increased considerably since I’d lost contact with the orbs, and I had a sneaking suspicion of why.

I turned back to Remus.  “I can’t let you go back and murder your brother.”

He stepped beside me, reached down, and picked up the orbs.  He placed them in my hands but never removed his own, maintaining constant skin contact atop them.

“I don’t intend to kill him,” Remus said as he flicked his head at the nearest Praetorian, who nodded back and placed a hand on Remus’ forearm.  Like a leashed class of kindergartners crossing a road, each and every Praetorian present took hold of another – as did Agrippina who held onto Boudicca.  Once linked together, Remus looked back at me and clinked the orbs together in my hands.  “I merely wish to see him again.  Now, focus on Faustulus’ vision.  Remember what he showed you.  Take us to the moment after I disappeared, not before.  Do it.  Understand that the consequences of your failure will be severe.”

There was no need in reminding me.  Remus had me cornered.  He could torture me, murder Boudicca, hunt down my friends, or he could do all three – which he probably would eventually anyway.  I had nothing to use against him, and I couldn’t escape with his hands upon the orbs.  There was nothing I could do.  I could stand here and ponder possible scenarios for years, squandering each and every one because there was simply nothing I could do.  There was no point.  I had to ride this out and be patient.

Eventually, I’d think of something.

Closing my eyes, I thought back to my time with Merlin, trying to remember everything I could about the scene just following Remus’ disappearance, preparing to travel back in time to the actual founding of Rome.

What a story…

***

I was back in Rome, circa 700 B.C.

Or about.

It had been easier than last time, and I wondered if it had something to do with Remus’ presence and influence or if I was simply getting better at it.  He knew exactly where he wanted me to take him, and might have helped in some way.  I didn’t know, but understanding that we were no longer in imperial Rome was obvious.  The land was vacant, bare, without civilization, save for the small town currently being erected atop a hill, a partially completed wall surrounding it.  The whole scene looked familiar to what I’d seen in Merlin’s vision, but not nearly so grand and majestic.  There were other differences as well.  In Merlin’s vision, it had been a bright and sunny day, but currently it was night time and the sky was full of thick clouds.  Such deviations made me once again question everything Merlin had showed me, and I was beginning to wonder if Merlin was behind more of this than originally thought.  One thing was for certain, he wasn’t going to just show up and save me from all this.

“Forward, Jacob,” Remus said from behind me, offering me a nudge that nearly threw me to the ground.

With no other option, I started to walk, following behind the first few lines of Praetorians who approached the settlement atop the Palatine Hill with all the subtlety of an invading army.  We reached the foot of the Palatine in short order, completely unopposed and, as far as I could tell, unnoticed.  The Praetorian force moved to double-quick speed, rushing up the hill and storming the settlement, acting on unspoken orders as though they’d planned this operation weeks ago.  Remus, Boudicca, Agrippina, and I were left behind to cough up the dirt kicked up by their trampling feet.

Everything next happened very quickly.

The Praetorian force crested the hill and swarmed around the corner of the exposed wall fortification.  Remus and I trailed them, followed by Agrippina and Boudicca.  Seconds later, we rounded the wall and entered the city.  Taking a hard left, we found our Praetorians only a short distance away, having formed a tight circle, three Praetorians deep, shields lock and spears directed inward.

Remus went straight for the circle, taking hold of me by the shoulder and throwing me forward through a gap in the Praetorian formation.  I hit the ground, tumbled, and rolled for quite a while before coming to a stop in a heap.  Somewhere along the way I’d lost my grip on the orbs and they rolled away, but instead of going after them, I simply allowed myself the respite of just lying on the ground again, no longer caring what Remus would do.

Thankfully, nothing seemed to happen for quite some time.  I heard a commotion and a scuffle but nothing seemed directed at me, so I allowed myself a quick fantasy that all of it had just been a dream and that I was about to wake up in bed back home, freshly cooked bacon ready and waiting for me in the kitchen.  It was a nice dream, one that lingered for quite some time, but then a hand touched my arm and I knew my moment of relief was over.