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

“Wait!”  I called out.

He looked at me calmly, his breathing steady.

“Don’t,” I said.  “Let him go.”

Archer appeared about ready to slump unconscious when Jeanne let him go, but the sudden drop to the ground gave him the energy he needed to rush from the tent and disappear.

“What was that about?”  Jeanne asked.

“He…”  I hesitated.  “It… it’s best you didn’t know.  For now.”

“If that is your wish.”  He said with a nod.  “Are you all right?  Do you need anything else?”

I shook my head.  “No, thank you.  You should get some rest.”

He threw a hand in my direction.  “So should you.”

“I think I’ll stay,” I said, holding my head in my hand tiredly.  “I’ll be all right.”

“
Bien
,” he said. “I’ll go.”

I watched him go and returned to my spot on the ground, rattled, shaken, and disturbed.  I’ll never understand the military and their ridiculous chain of command and justification for actions because they were under orders.  Archer was a man, an individual, and should have been able to do what he thought was best, not remain tethered to a command structure two thousand years in the future, and one he may never return to.

And now Archer had admitted to being complicit in Jacob’s descent into madness.  I’d always wondered where Jacob had gotten the orb, and I felt ashamed that I’d always assumed that he’d gone looking for it, driven by his own creeping insanity.  My world was falling apart around me and there was nothing I could do.  John was wounded, James was unconscious, Vincent was dead, Archer was untrustworthy, Helena was… whatever she was, and even though Jeanne, TJ, Alex, and Georgia were alive and healthy, they were probably just as lost as I was.

I’d never been so terrified and equally depressed, even after living my entire life filled with fear.  I didn’t want to think about it right now, couldn’t think about it for my own sake, and found myself drifting off to sleep almost immediately, exhaustion acting as my best friend at the moment.

***

I hadn’t any idea how long I’d been asleep.  It could have been twenty seconds or twenty minutes, or maybe even a few hours.  The ground was cold and my butt was wet thanks to the damp soil beneath me, but I didn’t care.  There was too much to think and worry about without wondering if my butt would freeze.

I started thinking about the days after discovering Jacob’s body back home again, and all the planning that had gone into the operation to bring him home, when I was distracted by a commotion coming from outside.  I lifted my head, a painful endeavor after the awkward position I’d been asleep in, and glanced around.  John was still asleep atop his table, as was James upon the ground, but Helena was gone.

Curious, I cocked my head to the side, wondering where she could be, when the turmoil outside grew far worse just before it came crashing into my tent.  Two individuals came stumbling into the hospital tent, one dragging the other against his will.  A number of Romans entered behind them, and while none seemed eager to appease the distraught pair of individuals, none seemed very happy either.  Of the six that followed, four had their hands held on the grips of their swords, while two wielded spears.

I turned my head to the initial pair again, and took notice that one was also a Roman, although his armor was different, fancier.  I’d never seen him before, although he looked to be someone of importance even though he wasn’t a particularly pleasant looking man.  While his arms appeared quite strong and muscular, it was impossible not to notice an ugly face with fat jowls hanging from his jaw that seemed completely out of place on such a fit form.

Dragging him, however, was an even bigger surprise.

It was Helena.

No one who entered the tent even noticed me as I sat curled up in the corner – that is, until someone tripped over James, jerking him awake.  The Roman glared down at the small medic, and I found myself moving forward, wrapping James up in my arms, and doing my best to drag him out of the way as the important looking Roman started to speak.

“Unhand me, woman!”  I thought I heard him say.

I held onto James, and looked at his dazed eyes.  “Are you okay, James?”

“Aye,” he said. “Smidge woozy.  What day is it?”

“I haven’t any idea, I said.  “Now shut up and listen.  Translate for me.”

He looked at me, his face contorted in annoyance, but he did as he was told and translated.

“By the gods, you are strong!”  The man repeated thanks to James.  “Unhand me!”

I knew he was speaking to Helena, but my rational mind was still unable to process how she was even moving, let alone manhandling a Roman soldier in impressive physical shape.  He struggled again, but instead of letting him fight against her, Helena released him as she remained silent.  The Roman took a step back but didn’t attempt to exit the tent.  His soldiers moved to surround him but he held up a hand, and they stayed back.  He stared at Helena, who returned his gaze even more angrily, and it was then that the man’s posture slackened and he shook his head.  He lifted it and turned to see John sitting atop the table, and then shifted his eyes and saw James and me huddled in the corner.

“He did this?”  The Roman asked, looking back at Helena.

“I told you he did,” Helena growled.

“And Vincent?”  The Roman inquired.

Helena simply nodded.

He looked saddened for a moment but continued.  “And your blond friend?  The one that is concussed?”

“He’s not my friend,” Helena pointed out, “but, yes.  I already explained this.  Jacob is possessed and we have to go after him.  We have to help him.”

The Roman folded his arms.  “From how I understand it, he chose this path for himself.  He willingly requested your orb.  This is the report I have received from Centurion Minicius.  Do you dispute that?”

“You don’t understand, Galba,” Helena said, throwing her arms out wide in frustration.  “He’s addicted to the orb!  You can’t blame him!”

“Do not play coy with me, woman!”  Galba shouted.  “Do not think I will be swayed by your misguided love for a man who has singlehandedly done everything possible to destroy my empire.  How can you be so quick to forgive when he
chose
to escape detention with the likes of Agrippina?  Agrippina!  Whom I know you despise.  Your hatred for her is legendary among legion gossip.”

“It was out of his control,” Helena explained slowly, as though she was still trying to rationalize it to herself.  “He didn’t choose to become addicted to it, it was forced on him, and now he’s no more in control of his mind than you are of your so-called empire.”

Galba recoiled at the insult, but he wasn’t finished.  “And what of your son?”  He countered.  “Is it not because of
him
that he too has been lost to you?”

“My…” Helena started to say, confusion overtaking her, “… my… son?”

The poor girl was still in denial, and I wasn’t about to let her wallow in those thoughts much longer.  “That wasn’t Jacob’s fault either,” I finally said, finding the confidence buried deep within me as well as the translation.  But that was all I could think to say, and ordered James to translate for me.  He nodded.  “He took a risk, and we all paid dearly for it, but it wasn’t his fault.  He had nothing to do with the loss of their son.”

Helena stood there in a daze, the nature of the conversation turning far and away from her.

Galba, however, wasn’t as easily deterred as he whirled around to face me.  “And who are you?  Your Latin is even worse than the others’.”

“I’m Jacob’s sister,” I said proudly on my own.  “My name is Diana.”

Galba recoiled at this announcement, as did a number of his soldiers.

“Do not tell me that you too are a god,” he said, his voice just barely above a whisper.

“I’m not a
god
,” I said, condescension in my voice at such a stupid statement.  “And neither is Jacob.  I’m just named for one.”

Mom had always been a voracious reader, but her favorite subject had been the obscure stories found in Greco-Roman mythology… what little of it was known.  I’d only ever seen one slim book on the subject back in her library, but it was one she read often.  There were only a dozen stories in there, but an odd majority of them had revolved around a goddess of the hunt named Diana, who some theorized had also been named Artemis in a previous incarnation.

Which is where I got both my name and my nickname from.

Galba didn’t seem to understand what I’d said, but he didn’t seem quite so edgy either.  “Yes,” he said, “well… indeed.  At least you admit as much.  If you were to believe the camp stories that have spawned after recent events, you would believe Hunter to be Remus reincarnated, the son of a god returned to wrack havoc on our great empire and destroy Rome itself in vengeance for what Romulus did to him.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said.

“Do not discount my words, girl,” Galba said.  “I will freely admit that Hunter has experienced a great many negative things in recent times, but that does not excuse his actions.  Nor does it free the rest of you from his agreement to come with me to Rome under guard.”

That was enough to snap Helena out of her stupor.

“I don’t think so, Galba,” she said, taking a step forward and jabbing a finger into his chest.  His face grimaced at the gesture even though Helena had only struck his body armor.  “You’re not getting between me and Jacob.  Not now.  Not after what happened to him.  I’m going after him.  We all are.”

She spoke passionately but the rage she’d expended earlier was gone.  Her expression was hard and her eyes focused, but her voice only carried the slightest edge to it.  Galba, however, did not seem impressed, so she continued, her anger returning.

“Don’t you understand?!”  She yelled, her voice high and almost delirious.  “He doesn’t deserve any of this!  This is his life we’re talking about!  And mine!  I love that man more than you’ll ever be able to understand, Galba.  He’s everything to me!”  She paused, and I could see the turmoil on her face as she anguished over Jacob’s loss.  “He’s my husband in all but name.  I can’t just sit back and let him go insane and watch a… a creature like Agrippina sink her claws into him and manipulate him!  I just can’t!  Don’t you understand?!  This isn’t his fault!”

Galba was so impassive during her plea that at first I thought he was patronizing her, but then he spoke.

“Of course I understand,” Galba assured.  “I am not a loveless man, but I am not afraid to tell you that I simply do not care.”  Helena cocked back a hand, ready to punch the ugly Roman, but he held a hand up so suddenly that she stopped.  “However, while I care not for Hunter or your desire to help him, I
do
care about Agrippina.  I care very much about apprehending her and seeing justice done.  And since she and Hunter are together…”

He trailed off, and there was just enough suggestion in his voice that I already knew what Helena was just slowly coming to understand: that our goals were in fact mutually beneficial.

“What are you suggesting?”  Helena finally asked cautiously.

“A partnership.”  He said immediately.

Helena looked confused.  “With me?”

“Why not?  You always did seem more rational than Hunter.  Even now, with all you have been through, I sense shrewdness within you. I do not believe your partner would have been so equally understanding.”  He took a step toward John, flicking a hand in his direction and then at James.  “And with these two in the condition they are in, and the big one never appearing as though he desired a leadership position, I can think of no one else.  I do not know your new friends, so you are my only option.  I believe it will be refreshing to deal with someone else for once.”

She still looked confused.  “But I’m…”

“A woman, yes,” Galba said with a nod, “but I know such a distinction matters little from where you come from.  Perhaps it would serve us well to forget such a divide here as well.  Were you not known once as the mother of this legion?  Do you not have a relationship with them?”

“That’s not what I was going to say, but, yes, I was, but… I’m not interested in leading them…”

“By the gods…” Galba muttered, shaking his head, “…I am not as foolish as Vespasian, woman.  I am not offering you a command or a commission as legate; I am simply asking that you keep your unruly lot disciplined while we search for Agrippina and Hunter together.  Can you do that?”

“I… yes, I think so.”

“Then let’s get started.”

***

The next morning, we gathered for a funeral.

Two of them.

I knew very little of battle strategy or post-battle rituals, but the act of burying the dead was one I was extremely familiar with.  Back home, hardly a month went by when the need to lay to rest a family member or friend didn’t present itself.  Whether they were killed in action on the battle field abroad or from a domestic attack, or even natural causes, people died all the time, and we’d grown accustomed to it.

Until yesterday, our most recent casualty had been our medic, Patricia Martin, who had been killed during the sea voyage that had taken us from Alexandria to Britain.  I’d barely known her.  Archer’s team had been thrown together a month before I was even thought to be brought in, and they’d trained for what everyone had considered a one way trip.  Archer had ordered them not to get too friendly with each other for that very reason, and was probably why Georgia Brewster and TJ Stryker had been chosen to begin with.  So when Patricia had died, not a single tear had been shed, and life had continued unabated.  Our people were conditioned to deal with death and Jacob’s team had barely even known her.