The History Keepers Circus Maximus (36 page)

Ignoring the intense heat, Leopardo reached again for the egg, but was now jostled backwards by the surge of senators. He hissed with rage as he pushed his way through them. He gritted his teeth and stretched out his hand. ‘I do this for history!’ he cried, and this time he swung the egg decisively on its axis.

‘No!’ Agata gasped, her eyes wide.

But there was no explosion. Leopardo had not turned the egg fully round. For a moment he stared at it in bafflement. All around him men were fleeing in panic as the bear went to collect its prize. Leopardo was oblivious, his mind fixed on one thing only. Once again he thrust up his hand and turned the egg.

This time the mechanism clicked into place.

Agata stopped breathing, her gaping mouth frozen.

Jake noticed a strange silence, as if everything was suddenly muffled. Then his ears popped, he heard the boom and felt the wave of intense heat. There was a flash, and Jake saw Leopardo take off into the air. He looked graceful, almost balletic, even as his head came away from his body.

‘Noooooooo!’ his mother wailed, her face lit up by the explosion.

There was a great
crack!
Then the end of the
spina
collapsed in on itself, the three black marble cones falling like skittles. Animals began to pour out of the wreckage: tigers, lions and leopards. The bear that had charged onto the platform had stopped in its tracks, the meat hanging from his mouth. It too
leaped off the
spina
, crashing down into a cloud of dust. The whole auditorium stood frozen in bewilderment.

More explosions followed, one by one, across the central island, hurling volleys of rock into the air. The giant obelisk teetered back and forth, there was a grinding sound, and it too tumbled onto its side. The inferno was extraordinary, spectacular, the flames even brighter than the sun overhead. Wave after wave of heat rolled over Jake and his companions.

Screams rang out around the stadium as people rushed for the exits, the weak and old pushed aside and trampled in the frenzy. Thick smoke covered the track. The animals, some injured and howling with pain, emerged from it, along with choking, shell-shocked senators. One had lost his arm and was searching around for it, and several lay on the sand, lifeless. But most of them had survived the explosion and were climbing up into the auditorium.

‘They’re going,’ Caspar mumbled to Agata, a piece of cake hanging out of his mouth. ‘Should they be going?’

Agata wrung her hands, snarling like a wildcat as she glared down at the History Keepers.

Coughing in the smoke, Topaz was collecting the swords of the vanquished soldiers as Nathan and Charlie helped Jake to his feet.

‘How many times do I have to ask?’ Agata screeched at the last of her retinue. ‘Kill them! Kill them all. Kill my daughter!’

The soldiers edged away from her: they were reluctant to go down onto the track and face the wild beasts. A lion was eating a severed hand, while a tiger was standing, roaring, over a still white bundle, the body of a senator.

Then Agata noticed Austerio, his face flushed with panic, mumbling to himself as he made to escape. She intercepted him and slapped his face.

‘You belong to me, you toad,’ she hissed, dragging him back to the throne by his ear. ‘You do what I tell you!’

The poor actor cowered away from her, tears streaming down his cheeks. ‘I can’t work like this,’ he blubbed. ‘I have a very low tolerance to danger. I switch off at the merest hint of it.’

Agata set about him, venting the full force of her rage. He covered his head with his hands, begging for mercy, as she pummelled and punched him.

Seeing what was happening, Charlie immediately
spotted an opportunity. He jumped up onto the balustrade and, motioning towards the stricken Austerio, shouted at the top of his voice that the emperor was in danger: ‘
Imperator in periculo est! Imperator in periculo est
.’

The noise in the auditorium was such that only a handful of people heard him to begin with. But when they grasped what was taking place on the imperial terrace, they turned to their neighbours, pointing. First astonishment, then anger swept through the crowd. Already convinced that some deadly uprising was afoot, the mob surged towards their emperor.

Caspar gulped when he saw them, and tugged at Agata’s gown. She stopped hitting Austerio, and turned to see a mass of people approaching, shaking their fists. She held up her hand and, in a thunderous voice, commanded them to stop, but they ignored her.

Agata realized that she had run out of time. She let go of Austerio, dropping him like a sack of rubbish; then turned and threw open the double doors of the
pulvinar
. For a second she looked back at the seething ocean of people; at the smoking ruin of the
spina
; at the broken, bloody pieces on the far
side of the arena that had once been her son. Three tigers were circling them, licking their lips.

Agata snarled defiantly. ‘Let ignorance kill you,’ she shouted at the people, and disappeared into the building. Caspar and the remainder of the guards followed, slamming the doors behind them.

Nathan was the first to jump up onto the terrace. Charlie and Topaz helped Jake up after him.

Still trembling, Austerio peeked through his fingers. On recognizing the agents, he sat up, shaking his head in wonder. ‘My fans,’ he sobbed. ‘Come to save Austerio!’

‘That’s right,’ Nathan deadpanned, heading straight past him and throwing his weight against the doors. ‘Just in time for the finale.’

Charlie went to help him, and eventually they broke through.

‘Shall we?’ Nathan asked, turning to the others.

Topaz looked at Jake. ‘You stay here – it’s safer.’

‘You think I’m going to leave you now?’ he cried.

The four young agents stepped through the doorway.

‘Wait for me!’ Austerio called, rushing after them. ‘Don’t leave me with this rabble.’

Inside was a square white chamber lined with
statues and lit by smoky braziers attached to the wall. At the back stood five soldiers, guarding the entrance to the long tunnel into the Palatine. As they spotted the intruders, they raised their weapons – but there was uncertainty in their eyes.

‘Really, boys’ – Nathan smirked – ‘you have to know that the game’s up now!’

One of the guards reached for his silver bracelet, but Nathan was ahead of him. He sent his dagger flying through the air towards a brazier. It sliced through the tether attaching it to the ceiling, and burning embers tipped out onto the man’s head. The remaining soldiers rushed forward to help him, but tripped on the hot coals. In a breathtaking series of moves, Nathan disarmed the first man with a clean cut, paralysed the second with a crack of his elbow and flattened the third by toppling a marble bust of Augustus onto his head.

‘Are
we
allowed to play?’ Charlie asked wryly as all four agents closed in on the remaining soldier, who pointed his sword at each of them in turn, and cursed.

‘Hot potato.’ Charlie winked, scooping a coal up with the point of his sword and flicking it neatly into the folds of the guard’s tunic.

As the man hopped around in panic, Austerio
stepped forward. ‘What a drama,’ he commented drily, shooting out his belly and sending the soldier crashing into the wall. ‘You see?’ he said, pouting. ‘Not just a pretty face.’

‘Let’s go!’ Nathan ordered, and the five of them rushed along the passage in pursuit of Agata, their footsteps echoing loudly. At the end, far in the distance, they saw a rectangle of light that blinked as two figures cut across it. The four agents quickened their pace, Austerio wheezing as he tried to keep up.

It seemed an age before they reached the light, but suddenly they saw a staircase lit by brilliant sunshine. Nathan peered up and signalled for the others to follow quietly. Weapons held at the ready, they cautiously ascended.

They emerged into a tropical garden filled with brightly coloured flowers. Jake recognized it from early that morning – he had seen it from the room where he had learned of Agata’s diabolical plans. It was deserted, and Nathan led the way through the trees towards an archway.

They headed through into the arena where the party had taken place. It looked different in the daylight, empty and quiet but for the trickling of the fountains. Suddenly, from above, they heard a
curious
whoomph
, and a huge shape rose high over the garden. Jake stared up in puzzlement, but Charlie recognized it immediately.

‘The balloon!’ he exclaimed. ‘Agata must be escaping in it.’

He was right – it was swaying to and fro, nearly inflated.

They tore over to the door next to the statue of Saturn. Nathan still had the key, and he hurriedly unlocked it. They all dived through and charged up the spiralling steps – one flight, two, three . . . At the top, Nathan headed through another door.

At that very moment the balloon took off, Agata and Caspar ensconced in the basket, the former clutching a veneered wooden box, her pet falcon clinging to her shoulder. As the canopy filled to capacity, lifting them into the sky, all four History Keepers launched themselves towards it, each grabbing one of the ropes that hung down.

Under their weight, the balloon dropped back to earth. Agata reacted instantly: with a flick of her sword, she sliced through Charlie’s rope, then Nathan’s. The balloon took off again, Jake still hanging from one side, Topaz from the other.

Agata looked down at her daughter and their eyes
locked. There was so much history between them. Agata’s sword hovered, its point an inch from Topaz’s eye: she could run her through and never hear from her again. But she stopped herself. Just one word came from her lips: ‘Ungrateful . . .’ Then she hacked the rope in two. Topaz plunged down, her dress billowing in the wind. Nathan and Charlie rushed forward and managed to catch her.

‘Jake!’ Topaz called as the balloon suddenly surged up again.

Jake’s stomach lurched as he saw the whole of Rome spread out at his feet. With grim determination, while Agata was distracted watching Topaz, he pulled himself up to the edge of the basket and grabbed hold of Caspar’s toga. Jake felt his sweaty belly wobbling as he gave a high-pitched giggle.

‘I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again,’ Caspar jeered. ‘You and your family are the stupidest people in history.’

Jake clung on, his eyes fixed on the wooden box in Agata’s hands.

‘I’m going to enjoy your death . . .’ Caspar produced a dagger with one hand and grabbed Jake by the neck with the other. Agata’s falcon fluttered agitatedly about the basket.

Jake looked down again. He was so high above the terrace that Topaz and the others were now nothing more than moving dots.

‘Goodbye, Jake,’ said Caspar and brought the weapon down.

The blade flashed, but it never reached its target.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The malicious glint in Caspar’s eye froze, replaced by a look of confusion. He cried out as Agata leaned forward and, with one hand, tipped him over the edge of the basket, intending to rid herself of both boys at once. Caspar’s dagger dropped from his grasp; but for a second he clung on, staring up at her in amazed horror.

‘You’re weighing me down,’ she said, peeling his fat fingers off, one by one.

Suddenly there came a piercing squawk as the falcon accidentally singed its wing on the burner. It flapped crazily in Agata’s face. As she swiped it away, she dropped the box onto the floor. Jake saw his chance, lunged over the edge and snatched it. At the same moment Caspar lost his grip on the basket. He fell, but grabbed onto Jake’s clothes first, his weight pulling them both down. They plummeted, clothes flapping, locked in a tangle of limbs. The ground
shot up to meet them. Caspar hit the terrace first, cracking the marble. Jake landed on top of him, his fall cushioned by the other boy’s big belly.

For a moment Caspar stared up stupidly, watching the balloon soar away across the city, realizing that he had been abandoned.

Jake rolled off onto his knees and held out the box. Nathan grabbed it, opened it and smiled. Inside were two full vials of atomium – the same bottles that had been stolen in Stockholm.

They turned to look at Caspar. ‘I can’t feel anything,’ he murmured, suddenly frightened. He tried to lift his hand. ‘Why can’t I feel anything?’ A pool of blood was spreading out from beneath him across the white marble. He looked at them all in turn. Even in this state, his crafty mind was still working. ‘Maybe I went a little too far . . .’ He tried to smile. ‘Agata Zeldt brainwashes you, you must realize . . .’ He stopped. ‘Why’s it going dark?’ he panted.

‘Caspar,’ said Jake, ‘you have to tell me – have you seen my brother?’

‘I don’t have to do anything for you . . . It’s as black as pitch!’ he cried, his body shaking, his face pale.

‘Answer me!’ Jake persisted. ‘Philip – did you see him? Tell me!’

‘Yes, I’ve seen him,’ Caspar sneered. ‘I even tortured him. But I expect he’s dead by now.’ He tried to laugh. ‘He thought you’d forgotten all about him . . .
The History Keepers
.’ He spat out the words. ‘You’re all amateurs.’

Jake shook him. ‘Where have you seen him?’ he demanded desperately.

‘Such terrible darkness,’ Caspar sighed. Then his eyes froze and he was still.

‘Where have you seen him?’ Jake wailed again. But Caspar was gone – along with everything he knew. ‘Where? Where?’ Jake sobbed. Topaz threw her arms around him and held him tight. Nathan and Charlie looked at each other sombrely.

Agata’s balloon floated off into the distance, climbing higher into the hot afternoon sky. In every street, the traffic stopped and the people looked up, struck dumb by the apparition floating noiselessly overhead. It drifted northwestwards over the Circus Maximus; over the Field of Mars, the Tiber Island and the watermills of Trastevere. It crested the great Gianicolo hill and vanished from sight.

24 A P
LACE IN
H
ISTORY

NATHAN AND CHARLIE
solemnly covered up Caspar’s body. He may have been a traitor but everyone was filled with remorse. He had, after all, once been one of them, a History Keeper, and from one of the noblest families of all.