Wolf’s Empire: Gladiator (57 page)

She was up in a heartbeat, a thrust aimed at my throat. I dropped her arm and put my left hand up and let the thin weapon pierce my palm. I pushed down, until I could close my hand about her small fist, the spike of her weapon sticking up obscenely from the back of my hand. She abandoned the knife and started to claw at me with her nails like a feral animal.

So much for sweet little Mania. She was strong, surprisingly so. Her nails tore across my face, tried to gouge out my eyes. I gripped Orbis and punched Mania in the side of the face with the weapon, cutting open her cheek. The impact was enough to dislodge her, and I quickly got my feet under me and delivered a kick to face, sending her flat on her back. As she tried to stand, I grabbed a fistful of her white hair, using her ponytail as a handhold. Digging my knuckles into her scalp to make sure she felt it, I walked toward the basin at the center of the cavern, dragging her screaming and flailing along behind me, and then, with one almighty heave, I tossed her small body over the edge. The beastiarii slid all the way down the incline, coming to rest at the bottom. She was up at once, trying to climb out, but with only one arm, she didn't have much success.

Mania hadn't had any time to hide the casket, and I found it tucked behind some rocks by the archway we'd passed through. It was still open, she'd no doubt grabbed some for herself and hadn't had time to close it up again. I picked up the ambrosia store and returned just in time to find that she had almost made it out of the basin on pure strength of will, and with no small amount of enjoyment, I landed a kick into her shoulder, sending her sprawling all the way back to the bottom.

“Now we can talk,” I said.

“You're going to get what's coming to you, Accala, believe it,” Mania screamed.

In reply, I sent Orbis sailing down into the basin, his hum echoing in the emptiness. He ricocheted off the walls of the bowl, eliciting howls of outrage from the small woman as she ducked and jumped, trying to avoid the razor edge.

“Do you know what these caverns and tunnels are?” I asked. “I've finally worked it out. It's a system for reclaiming ichor from the surrounding earth and channeling it deep into the mountains. The basins are like flowers—the ichor accumulates here and then the workers come to collect it. I think the Hyperboreans might be a tad smarter than we give them credit for.”

“Mindless barbarians,” Mania spat.

I threw Orbis again, cutting through Mania's right leg just below the knee. She crashed to the ground, screaming in pain as my discus arced back, returning to my hand.

“Well, I for one would be interested to see how all this works,” I said. “We know there are Hyperboreans about. Your big batch drew the warriors, but I wonder if we could draw out some workers with a smaller dose?”

I took two phials from the casket and threw them at Mania. The glass tubes smashed, their precious fluid spilling over her.

“Are you mad?” she yelled. She started rubbing at her clothing, sucking at her fingers, trying to absorb as much of the thick black liquid as she could. She thought that the more she had, the longer she'd be able to survive me, but she hadn't cottoned on to what I was up to.

“If I am, then it is you who have made me so,” I replied. “Now I'm going to ask you a question, and if you don't give an answer that satisfies me, I'm going to cut your head from your body and set it up here beside me, and then we're going to watch as the Hyperboreans come and feed on what's left of you.”

“You wouldn't dare.”

“Do you know where my brother is being held?” It was my intention that Crassus would lead me to Aulus, that I'd kill him at Aulus' feet, but it occurred to me that if he and Licinus had already clashed, then Crassus might be dead, and if that was the case it didn't hurt a bit to conduct an impromptu interrogation.

“You think you can frighten me?” she shrieked. “Look at you. You're exactly where we want you to be. A slave, a dog. You think you can go back now? You're blooded. Your body and mind know the pleasure of stealing life, of exercising power over others. You're the newest of the New Gods.”

“I'm not a god, I'm the scourge of gods. I'm fury, jealousy, and revenge—all three Dirae wrapped up in one neat package. I'm your worst nightmare, you horrible little bitch.”

Orbis was about to fly from my hand again, but I stopped, suddenly aware of movement in the cavern.

Mania followed my gaze to see a dozen or so worker Hyperboreans emerging from the tunnels about us, drawn by the scent of the ambrosia that covered Mania.

“Wait! Wait!” she cried as I raised my hand to cast Orbis. “I'll tell you where he is. I'll even give you the coordinates. Just let me out of here. Let me put my body back together.”

“Why don't you give me the coordinates first. I swear to my gods that I'll take you with me.”

“How can I trust you?”

“What choice do you have? Look, here come our worker bees to collect their pollen. I don't think you'll have much of a body left by the time they're done with you.”

She disconnected her armilla with a flick of her wrist and with her one hand tapped desperately on it.

“Here's the location on my armilla, take it, see for yourself.”

Mania awkwardly threw the device up over the lip of the bowl. It showed a sublevel, less than an hour's walk from my current location. I transferred the information to my own device. It was a lie, of course. I'd resisted taking any ambrosia from the casket, letting the damage Mania inflicted run me down, and sure enough, I felt Aulus. The directional pull was strong and accurate. He was far from here, many, many miles away to the northwest.

“You're lying,” I said.

“I'm not! I swear it. You promised to take me out of here.” She sounded very convincing. Maybe she didn't know where Aulus was.

“You're right,” I said. “First, though, I'm going to have to cut you down to size, little sister.”

Now I had no need to hold off on consuming ambrosia and I hungrily delved into the chest and downed two phials in quick succession.

“But we had a deal.”

“I said I'd take you out of there and I will. In pieces. We'll go together and see if you're telling the truth, and then we'll pay a visit to the rest of the Blood Hawks.”

I saw the terror in her eyes then, the realization that I was much more than the killer she participated in creating. I had given myself up to the dark fire that I'd nursed in my heart for so long, a fire that could not be resisted.

Orbis sailed down into the bowl on a leisurely, aesthetically pleasing path. A sailboat cutting through water. Mania started a desperate crawl, but I'd anticipated her movement. Her head rolled from her shoulders, cut right below the larynx, and hit the floor of the icy basin with a muffled thud.

Her body fell back and ended up sitting upright, legs splayed, like a rag doll. When the head came to rest, looking up at me, the mouth was still moving, still hurling abuse, still filled with outrage, though there were no lungs attached to lend breath to them. All that came was an amusing rasping whisper.

I slid down into the bowl. As with the bull chief, the workers observed, but directed no violence toward me. Grabbing Mania by the ponytail again, I dragged her head behind me as I climbed out.

Hoisting her head up before me, I considered her pained, angry expression. “Finally, we're seeing eye to eye,” I said.

As promised, I set her down next to me on the lip of the bowl and watched the Hyperboreans go to work. They coordinated their efforts—three raised her body up out of the bowl to waiting hands and then carefully cleaned the floor, delicately touching any droplets that remained, their fingers glowing as they absorbed the substance into their bodies. The others took the headless body and pressed it into the far wall of the cavern. The cavern wall softened, as it had for Labeo, as Mania's small frame was accepted into it.

The horror on Mania's face as the ambrosia extraction began was palpable. Here was one final nightmare for her to savor, though I guessed it was much less pleasurable to be the victim instead of the observer. I wondered if the ambrosia allowed her to feel the sensation of her disconnected body, or if it was just the sight of it that was causing her pain.

As we watched, I was surprised that I felt only a slight spark of satisfaction, not the elation I was expecting. This small portion of Sertorian suffering was not nearly enough to satisfy my craving.

The Hyperboreans seemed occupied with their role. There were about four or five sucking up the remains in the basin, and as before they paid no attention to me.

She screamed and screamed, and surprisingly, whether it was just vibration or the last vestige of air in her severed windpipe, I could hear her. I was expecting curses, but she was talking about something else. I held her head up to my ear and tried to make out the words.

“Dead. Your brother's dead! We played you for a fool!”

I dropped the head, her words stealing my fire. The soundless harrassment continued from the ground, but her words echoed on in memory. But she was wrong. I had to trust in the pin and its directions, not Sertorian lies.

I delved into the casket once more. There they were. So sweet. I downed another phial at once, transforming the underworld into paradise. I quickly closed the box back up. I didn't want the scent to attract any Hyperboreans to me. I was all dark fire and confidence. One was plenty for now, and I had work to do.

I put the casket in Mania's pack and shouldered it, picking up the small woman's head as I passed by. She was still alive, lapsing in and out of consciousness.

“I don't believe you,” I said to her as I strolled along. “Not for a minute. Let's go and see who else we can find. I'll ask the same question to the next Hawk we meet. Sooner or later we'll get to the bottom of this.”

I walked out of the cavern until I found a branching corridor and then started down it, heading toward the same tunnel I saw Crassus vanish into. Less than ten feet along, I ran right into Barbata as she came around a corner. She stumbled back, and I threw her Mania's head. She automatically caught it, and in the second her expression registered surprise, I stepped forward and cut her face from lower right jaw to upper left temple, a long deep cut. She screamed, more in outrage than pain, and dropped Mania's head on the floor. I delivered a kick to Barbata's torso and sent her reeling backward.

“Didn't see that coming, did you?” I asked.

“What have you done?” Barbata yelled as she cradled her face, blood seeping out between her fingers.

“I've made the first stroke in a new work of art,” I explained. “I'm set to make you as disfigured on the outside as you are on the inside. Truth is the only real beauty, you know.”

She struck out with her trident, an amateurish thrust that I warded easily. I had her rattled. I was starting to feel the pulse of the dark tide now. This is what it took to make things right. To humiliate each of them in turn. To drive each one of them into the place they feared the most. They had to know the fear and humiliation I'd endured. They had to know that it was at my hand that they'd been defeated. And only then could they be permitted to die.

Barbata cast her net at me and then, to my surprise, turned and ran. I cut through the net with Orbis, the electrical field not slowing me at all, picked up Mania's head, and paced after her. The dark-haired gladiator made good speed, but I was riding on fresh ambrosia. She was heading down in the direction of the coordinates Mania had given me, which suited me perfectly. I let her wear herself out. If that was the location of their mining base, then Barbata must have figured she'd find support there. Maybe the Sertorians were leading me into a trap, and if they were, that was fine. I had the ambrosia and they had none. I was ready for anything.

When we were halfway to Mania's marker, I got bored and cast Orbis off the wall so that he cut into Barbata's leg. She stumbled and fell to one knee.

I knew I had to ask her the question about my brother, but it was hard. I didn't want to hear the answer. What if she said the same thing as Mania?

“Where are they keeping my brother?” I asked her. “I won't ask again.”

Barbata's answer was a trident thrust with better aim this time, but I was functioning at super speed. I dodged and put a neat slice right down the middle of her face. She seethed with anger and tried the trident again. I was on fire, unstoppable.

“Answer me, or I'll cut you up so badly that all the ambrosia in the world won't be able to fix your face.”

Her lip curled with disdain, but I knew I'd hit a chord.

“Answer me!” I made a new, horizontal cut that sliced her nose.

“Your brother's dead,” she spat.

“Liar,” I said softly.

“Dead. Dead. Dead.”

She relished saying the word, repeating it with each thrust she made at me with her trident. I blocked the outer fork and then ran Orbis down the long shaft of the weapon before checking him with my other hand and giving her a third cut from lower left jaw up to her nose, making a short line to match the three intersecting long ones.

“There you go,” I said. “There's one cut for each of your precious precepts. You're not going to die today, Barbata. You wanted me to be the poster girl for House Sertorian? Well, you're going to balance things out. You're going to be the most repulsive Sertorian in the empire. You're going to be the living reminder of what happens when you treat a wolf with disdain.” I hated that by embracing the ambrosia, I couldn't feel the connection to my brother that would let me know for certain whether the two Hawks really had lied to me.

She reeled back, then ran away once more down the corridor toward the crossroads. I let her go, laughing and swinging Mania's head as I went, enjoying the game. The Sertorians were more fun than I expected. I could hunt them all day. They must have contrived the lie about my brother in advance, agreed that's what they'd say to me if I broke free, to try to weaken me, to break me down. But they were wrong. I wouldn't hear any more poison.