Mark of the Thief (Mark of the Thief 1) - Page 72

"You asked me to stand with you!"

"Symbolically!"

"Can we fight about this later?" she asked.

I smiled over at her. If I won this fight, I would gladly engage in more arguments with her. Radulf was backing away from the lions, but when they began chasing him, he tripped over one of the hidden pipes and fell hard to the ground, unconscious. This was my chance, but I didn't have long.

I crouched on Radulf's left side while Aurelia knelt on his right. She used her knife to cut through his tunic, revealing his Divine Star.

"Exactly like yours," she said.

"Not for long." I started to lift the bulla off my head. When I pressed it to the mark on his back, the bulla would absorb Radulf's magic. In minutes, he would be nothing more than a corrupt general fit for the emperor's dungeon.

"Aurelia, get away from those lions!" Horatio reached down and grabbed Aurelia's arm, then yanked her back with him.

"They won't hurt me," she protested. "Nic would never --"

"He will command those lions to leave," Horatio said darkly. "Won't you, Nic?"

I looked up. When he had grabbed his daughter, Horatio had also gotten Aurelia's knife, which he held to her throat. Despite the fact that Radulf was already stirring, I let the bulla fall back to my chest and then stood with my hands held low, a sign that I would not release any magic. As warm as the bulla was, whatever I tried doing to him might hit Aurelia. Under my breath, I whispered to the lions to go, that the gates were open for their escape.

The audience didn't like that. They had wanted blood, but I didn't much care. This was only a game to them. From my perspective, things were far more serious.

Having regained consciousness, Radulf slowly got to his feet and glared at Horatio, still with Aurelia in his grip. With a snarl, he said, "If you could do this to your own daughter, why would I ever trust your loyalty?"

"I can be of use to you, Dominus!"

Radulf yelled, "You lied to me! You did give Nic the key! There's no other way he could've called in that storm!"

"I don't have it!" I yelled. "Horatio still has the key, and if you harm him, it's lost forever."

Horatio shrugged. "You tried to warn me, Nic. The key is not what you think. We both have it now."

Radulf frowned at him. "That's all I needed to hear."

And he threw out something at Horatio. Calling up what little magic I had left, I put up a shield for Aurelia, still in his grip, but couldn't make it reach Horatio in time. With a brief cry of pain, he crumpled to the ground, instantly dead. Aurelia ran from his clutches into my arms.

"He didn't even have a chance to fight." Aurelia was trembling and struggling to breathe. "Just like that ..."

She started to turn back to her father's body, but I put my hands on her shoulders and pushed her toward the open gate of the arena. "Get out of here, where you'll be safe."

"What about you?"

"This is my fight. Now run!" And she did.

The audience received Horatio's death with a mixture of jeers and applause, which was horrifying enough. But at least they had seen Radulf kill one of their own leaders. Now they would have to know that he was no great hero, no one worthy of their praise and affection. If nothing else, that was some victory for me. Nobody would follow Radulf now.

Indeed, I saw Valerius stand again in the imperial box and wave his hands for their silence. When he had everyone's attention, he called out, "With the death of Senator Horatio, I am now your presiding magistrate, leader of the Senate and of all Praetors of Rome. And as a representative of Emperor Tacitus, I am ordering all Praetors to surround and arrest Senator Horatio's two murderers: General Flavius Radulf Avitus and the escaped slave, Nicolas Calva."

I turned to him, stunned. He knew I had not thrown the magic that killed Horatio. He knew I wouldn't commit such a crime, not even to save my own life. Everyone would've seen the burst of light from Radulf's hands, different from the shield I had created.

If they had seen it. On the night Radulf and I fought at the baths, nobody had seen the magic but us. They saw the effects of our fight, but not the magic itself. So as far as Rome was concerned, I was part of Horatio's murder. If there were any doubts, then Valerius had just confirmed it for them.

Aurelia had stopped running to hear Valerius's announcement, and looked back at me in total disbelief.

"Shoot me," I yelled at her. "Aurelia, shoot me!"

Even from here, I could see Aurelia's hands were still shaking as she pulled her bow off her shoulder and nocked it with an arrow. I didn't know if the shaking was caused by nervousness from the crowd or horror at her father's sudden death. But as she pulled the string back, her aim seemed true. Once the arrow had flown, she turned to keep running.

Tags: Jennifer A. Nielsen Mark of the Thief Fantasy
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